Graduation Nears!

As my last PR class comes to an end, I'm looking forward to what's to come. Our client the Long Island Arts Alliance was an inspiring organization to work for. Their event's goal was to mobilize public support for arts education in public school. As a student who grew up with my hands in the art throughout my education and in every school I have attended I didn't realize support for the arts was diminishing. Now today, because of LIAA's roundtable, I am looking at my career choice a little differently. My minor, Fine Arts, is the reason why. I grew up with a camera in my hand and enjoyed nothing more than to spend part of my education learning the proper way to develop and edit my photographs rather then just pointing my camera and shooting. I look back when I was in high school and I am still proud of the ceramic projects I made, then to middle school when I learned the art of sewing, finally I remember elementary school where I first learned about Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night and how I explained the picture to my parents when I saw it in a store. The Long Island Arts Alliance reminded me about arts education and the effect it has on students. Public Relations Campaigns allowed my group and me to help promote the roundtable and LIAA, which was a great success. We had parents and government officials, as well as many people who care about the arts and keeping it in schools. But now as I finish up my PR courses along with my college education I will move on to the job search. While my resume screams healthcare I plan to branch out in a new direction to see where it takes me. Maybe one day my dream of planning events will finally be my career, but until then I plan on enjoying my next PR experience.

Press Releases and Social Media

While doing some research I found that PR Newswire is now using Facebook and Twitter as places to post press releases. I found this very interesting since I knew it was only a matter of time, but I had not heard about it. There has been a lot of success with getting more views, 70% more views that is. Facebook is used most often for sharing press releases, even though Twitter drives 30% more views.
I found this extremely interesting because it is a great idea. By making things easy for people, people are more inclined to do things, so by posting a press release of a news story on Facebook and Twitter where people are already going on to find out what is going on in their friends and family's lives they now can find out when their favorite company is coming out with a new product, or hosting an event. Press releases available on social media is a great idea and is proven to work, but how will this affect journalism?

Read more on this news.

Kim Kardashian

The Kardashians have been taking over E! since 2007. The three girls Kim, Kourtney and Khloe have grown to be very successful business women with a clothing line in Sears, 3 Dash stores in major cities, and 4 very successful TV shows. But due to the most recent publicity Kim has been receiving many Kardashian haters are really coming out and making their statements be heard. On August 20, 2011 Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries said "I do" in front of 200 guests as well as a camera crew. The wedding was publicized very heavily and reported to have made millions for Kim and Kris. So when 72 days later Kim filed for divorce rumors were raising whether this was a publicity stunt. Whether or not the wedding was a a publicity stunt, Kim, who was also reported to make $10,000 off each tweet, made a statement to her fans via Twitter and didn't tweet another word until the next day which read, "God always has your back." Whether Kim and Kris got married for love or money, Kim did the right thing to write to her fans. She told those who cared about her, her side of the story rather than going on TV and telling the world. So whether or not Kim made money off her wedding, or was a publicity stunt, there will still be fans and still be haters, but all in all what do you think this 72 day marriage did for her fame?

Questions

Three years ago I declared my major as public relations, I knew basically nothing. Five classes and three internships later I am confident in my next steps. The one thing I am still unsure of is what field I want to be in. Most of my experience has been in the healthcare field, but that is not where I want to be. The one thing I have always enjoyed is planning events. From decision making, to making phone calls, and running errands every single aspect intrigues me. Not many jobs in the PR field are all about event planning. While some host events, others don't. Some hold company events, while others host events for the public. I want to plan both events for the public and for the company. So as I search for a job I'm not entirely searching for events PR, but rather just PR. I know that for now I have to get my foot in the door before I can walk through any others.

Job Search

I've been through many interviews, but when I got my first "real" job interview I felt I was extremely unprepared. I knew the salary question would come up, but how was I suppose to know the answer? The interview was a success, I was asked to come in for a second interview as graduation gets closer and the infamous salary question went smoothly between $30,000 to $40,000 is the average so I went with that. The woman who was interviewing me nodded her head as I said those numbers so I knew I was in the right ballpark.
Searching for jobs to apply for has been nothing close to fun, but rather stressful. How will I know if its a right fit? How do I know if this is what I want to do? Where do I want to live? Will I be able to afford an apartment on my own or should I stay close to home for now? I've always thought about this time and how exciting it would be, but just like my dream to graduate early its been extremely stressful.

Being an Intern

Over the past 2 years I've held 3 internships all very different, yet all very helpful. My first internship was at a small agency ran by 2 people on Long Island. I got this internship before I had any public relations (PR) experience, but looking forward to learning. By gaining experience in a small agency atmosphere I researched media markets for clients, compiled media lists and wrote articles for Today Long Island. My second internship was at a much larger company, Meridian Health. During my internship at Meridian's Corporate Communication office I also was taking my first PR course. I wrote many press releases, a few articles, and a hand full of blurbs for their newsletter. I got to take part in a ribbon cutting ceremony where I also took notes of each speaker to be included in the newsletter. During my time at Meridian I got elbows deep in stuffing envelopes, but also got to construct an event plan and examine social media websites. My most recent internship made me feel more like an Assistant Account Executive, between writing pitches, pitching, and compiling media l rarely had any downtime. Every morning I would monitor media using Google News before monitoring Facebook and Twitter while also sending out a few Tweets towards the end of my internship. All of my internships have prepared me for this semester not only by helping gain experience in the career field I am preparing to enter but also they helped me to decide where I would like to be and in what type of environment I would like working in.