Kelly Wittenmeier: Things I wish I had known.

Hey everyone!  Here is the guest blog by Kelly Wittenmeier I promised this week.  I would like to thank Kelly for taking time out of her schedule to write for Prince of PR.  I hope you all enjoy it and take as much away from it as I did.

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Hi Ben!   

Let me first clarify that I am not interning with an agency. My internship is with IMPACT Marketing and Public Relations, it is a sole proprietorship, Mary Beth, who is my boss, is the founder and owner of IMPACT. We work with various small businesses that need help getting more business through strategic planning, marketing and public relations. One thing my internship has done for me is opened my eyes to the idea of owning my own business or PR agency. Although, since I have not yet had that agency experience, I want to work for one first!  

So, here is 1-5 what I wish I had known before my internship? And some inspiration advice for PR majors out there!

      I wish that I realized an internship during college would have been better. I had the idea in my head that finding an internship is hard…here’s an idea, it’s not hard!  Yes, finding an internship with a top 10 PR agency in Chicago can be competitive, but if that doesn’t work out find another internship to acquire experience. A great idea would be a part time internship during the semester or taking a part time internship over the summer for just three months. It is really just to put on your resume, so that first job knows you have had experience.

A HINT: Even if you don’t think you learned a lot during your internship EXPAND the truth J and say you learned a lot with some exciting reasons to back it up! There are so many opportunities out there, if you do the work to find it and meet the right people!

        I wish that I took on more projects whether it was with PRSSA or any other organization on campus to get more hands on experience. I was so concerned about graduating in December that I just wanted to get through it all as fast as I could and didn’t want to take on extra work on top of my homework. I know you seniors are anxious to move on and graduate but take your time, it will go by fast, so get as much as you can out of your University that will help you to find a job. Go to the career fairs, the career center and attend every event you can. Take on the extra articles to write, come up with one last campaign, meet more people and be friends with everyone in your major. One day your classmates could help you find a job!    

     

            I wish I talked to more professionals and got more business cards at the PRSA events and PRSSA programs I attended.

ADVICE: EVERYONE in our field is outgoing, you have to be, so, do not be scared to walk up to the top CEO of a business and wow them with your brilliance, they are only human!!!

      I wish I took more Journalism classes because it is VERY IMPORTANT to know how to write a story that can CATCH THE EYE of a reader. Take classes that can allow and inspire you to be creative in your writing or just write yourself! Having a blog is a must. If you are a PR major who doesn’t want a blog and doesn’t like talking about yourself; you’re in the wrong major.

5)     Lastly, don’t ever let anyone tell you PR is different than marketing and advertising, it’s all the same stuff!! So become an expert in it all, it just will be beneficial and make you stand out more!

THE BEST ADVICE: BE CONFIDENT, BE THE LEADER, AND DON’T BE SCARED TO SHARE YOUR IDEAS.  

NEWS FLASH: WHEN YOU LEAVE COLLEGE YOU’RE NOT DONE LEARNING OR STUDYING….YOU WILL STUDY MORE AND WORK HARDER AFTER COLLEGE BUT IT CAN BE FUN WORK, especially when you’re getting paid!!

But what do I know I’m only an intern…

If you want to be successful in life, you have to learn from the best! Here are some successful PR and marketing professionals that I have met through my internship, follow them on Twitter and Learn from them!

>Julia Kline: @Julia_Kline (social media expert)

>Sima Dahl: @simasays (wonderful speaker)

>Matt Bacak: @mattbacak

>Dustin Mathews: @dustinmathews

>Henry Alegria: Henry is a business motivational speaker, I met him at a conference called, “Marketing Makes Money,” Henry blew me away with so much inspiration about being the best in your field and getting ahead, it was mind blowing!! http://www.gigsalad.com/henryalegria, he has a twitter, but doesn’t use it. 

Building your legacy, One baby step at a time.

I have been reading through a booklet I picked up at one of the conferences I have attended entitled: Legacies from Legends in Public Relations, in which several esteemed PR professional offer up their insight and advice to those looking to make a name for themselves in the profession.  With each page, I couldn't help but notice trends beginning to emerge from these words of wisdom, which I believe can be summed up into one comment made by Rick Murray, president of Edelman, Chicago at the DePaul University PRSSA's regional activity, "Be Fearless!"

Something about hearing him speak those words sparked excitement in me to go out and begin my career, a fearless warrior ready to take on and conquer anything that came my way.  However, while being fearless is a strong quality to possess, the kind of passion that it generates within a person is where I fear it can lead to demise.  I mean, you wouldn't fearlessly run into battle with a weapon that you have not been trained to use or more importantly practiced using, would you?

Much of the advice that I have received so far has emphasized discerning your strengths, which takes time and practice, and then perfecting them which takes an infinite amount of patience.  I constantly find myself saying in my head, "WHOA NELLY!" , because I will get so caught up in a moment and have a sudden desire to jump right in the water when I have only barely learned to keep my head above it.

It reminds me of this time I ran 10 miles without having prepared myself by building up to that level.  I may have been able to complete the task, but the next day I could barely walk and in the professional world I am guessing that, often times, you aren't given that time to recover.

I felt compelled to discuss this because of some conversations I have had with other students about already being able to do everything we need to get out there and find a "real" job without an internship.  If they are right, they can count me out of that statement because I, without a doubt, have plenty of room for growth and improvement.  I just need to learn not to let my ambitions get to best of me.

Lady Gaga: A PR Genius or attention whore?

HERE is a link one of our PRSSA chapter members, Jessie Dwiggins, left on our Facebook group wall.  What do you guys think?  I'm working on a new post that will be up tomorrow about PR legends, following in their footsteps and forging your own legacy.  When to be ballsy and when to follow the status quo.  Be looking for it. Still on the way is a guest blog by Kelly Wittenmeier whose blog is linked in a post below.
-Ciao.

P.S.  HERE is Jessie's blog if any of you are interested in checking it out!

Paid vs. Unpaid Internships from PRSA

HERE is a great post from PRSA about Paid vs. Unpaid Internships.  CHECK IT OUT!

Do you need a break?

HERE is an interesting blog post on Social Media from my friend Kelly Wittenmeier.

She graduated last semester from Eastern Illinois University and is currently interning at an agency in Chicago.  Check out her blog.  She would be a great person to contact if you are a student and have any questions about the internship experience.  She will be guest blogging for Prince of PR on some of her experiences and things she wishes she had known before going into the internship.  Be looking for it!

                                      

Twitter chats rock my socks!

I participated in what I believe was my third PR related Twitter chat last night.  All I can think is, why didn't I discover these before this year?!  Better yet, why hasn't anyone mentioned the growing importance of Twitter in PR before this year?   For a student who has virtually gone to school in the middle of a cornfield for the past four years, I feel this has been one of the most beneficial tools that I have discovered to network with other professionals as well as disseminate information.

For those of you who have no idea what the heck is going on or how to operate in a Twitter chat, don't worry because it was a little overwhelming for me as well when  I first started.  There are websites such as TweetChat that make it a lot easier to see and respond to messages, which I find helpful because you don't have to constantly look at your @mentions to see if anyone has responded to you.

 If you feel learning it the hard way, like I did, is a waste of time, I would recommend Googling how to operate within them.  Once you do, a whole network of possible connections opens up to you and as a student, I have learned there is nothing more important than the connections that you make with professionals already in the workforce.  The nice thing about asking a question you would ask on a Twitter chat, as well, is that you could very well receive multiple responses from professionals all over the world and BOOM!, just like that you have five more people in your network that you can stay in contact with.  Who knows?  They might be the connection that lands you that position or internship that you are looking for.

HERE is an article that you might find helpful in your journey into the Networking Paradise that is Twitter Chatting.

PR 2.0 Chat is a great place to start.  Believe me, just one will lead you to about twenty more.

Agencies: Boutique vs. Beehive

I spent the last couple of days in Chicago at the New Ways PR regional activity put on by DePaul University's PRSSA Chapter.  While there, I had the opportunity to visit the Ketchum agency.  Having now had the opportunity to tour both boutique and what I like to call beehive agencies (because of their size), I would like to compare and contrast them a little and try and provide a little insight into the types of benefits each might offer up to student's looking to become interns, because that is my current situation.

Right off the bat, I noticed both tend to be relaxed in terms of the general atmosphere.  Dress code, as well as the demeanor of everyone is like this which I suppose is to help foster a creative space to work in.  The decor in both was very modern and hip and the majority of the workers are young.  The biggest difference I noticed was the number of clients and as a result individual attention to detail.

At a smaller agency, I think a fewer amount of people have to pay a lot more attention to detail when doing a campaign for one of their clients, while in a beehive agency there are more people to make it happen.  Individual attention to detail versus populated attention.  I don't know which is better.  It can be seen how successful both have been though.