Crisis Mode

The past two weeks I’ve been working on something new. One of our clients is going through a crisis. Not so good for the client, but it’s giving me the opportunity to experience a bit of crisis communications at work. We had an hour long call with the client last week to go over everything that is going on and our possible approaches to the situation. We then worked on a list of materials that we would need to produce for the client during this crisis.

Crisis communications can definitely be stressful. It means a large amount of work in a short amount of time. My manager even worked over 40 hours this past weekend on this one particular account!

So because this is a crisis and not all the information has been released yet to the public, I am not really able to talk about what is going on or what I’ve been working out exactly. It’s kind of cool to think that you know information you’re not allowed to talk to anyone about because employees of that company don’t even know yet!

I’ve been doing a lot of monitoring sentiment of social media posts and articles about this client. I did get to do a little writing yesterday too. I got to write a bio for someone that will be featured on this client’s website once the information is released. I never thought that I would like crisis communication but from what I’m seeing so far, I definitely don’t hate it either.

Asking for Stuff

The saying, 'Ask and you shall receive,' is starting to make a whole lot more sense to me. Many, many years ago (before I was born), my father used to work with a company (head-hunting or something) that assisted people with interviewing. Every time I had a job interview he would always say, "Make sure you ask for the job."

To me it always sounded so stupid because well, I'm showing up to the interview and isn't that the same thing as asking for the job. You're there, you clearly are there for a reason, the reason being...you want the job. Well with me being young and naive I never realized that in some way or another, I did indeed ask for the job towards the end of the interview. "I'm really exciting for the chance to work with this company," or, "I would love the opportunity to work here." Isn't that in some way asking for the job.

Believe it or not my father is right (as much as I hate to admit it). You won't get something unless you ask. If you need help, you ask, otherwise no one knows that you're in need of assistance. If you want your lazy brother to pick up the clothes he left lying around the house, you ask, otherwise it will never get done. So, if you want a job, ask for it!

I have been interning with The Castle Group, a public relations firm in Charlestown, for about a month and a half now. I was planning on looking for another internship for the Fall semester, my final semester at school. Since I've been learning a lot and I really like it here, I asked. I asked if I could stay and continue interning through the Fall '11 semester, and they said yes!

Not only do I enjoy it here but there is actual logic behind me decision. I could have gone and applied at either MSL Group or Schwartz Communications, both of which I am interested in and it would have given me the opportunity to explore yet another company and the way they do PR. I decided to stay here however, because I would not have to go through that period in the first few weeks where everything is new and you have no idea what you are doing. I thought, if i stay here, I already know the basics and the accounts and therefore will be able to continue growing and learning even more instead of starting from point A again.

So like my father says, "Ask for the job."
Like I am starting to understand, "You will miss out on great opportunities if you do not ask."
And like some really, really intelligent person once so simply put it, "Ask and you shall receive."

Any given Thursday at Castle...

This week unfortunately was cut a little short as my health did not want to cooperate with me on Monday. Wednesday wasn’t too busy. I went through some media lists and sent out some pitches and did some research, you know…the usual. Today so far has been busy though! First I clipped some articles for Salem Five and did a quick search for some conferences for another client. I set up some Google alerts and ran a coverage scan for TUI right before lunch.

Oh! I also worked on a very vague pitch for a guy at Salem Five. Believe it or not even if the pitch is about something you know absolutely nothing about, if it is for something specific it’s not too hard to write. This vague one I wrote today was about investments…but we didn’t know what kind of investments. Writing about something you don’t really know about while not knowing exactly what you’re writing about…totally confusing!!!

Lunch was relaxing today. I ate with one of the other interns and one of Castle’s new employees who was an intern last semester (p.s. keep your fingers crossed on that…hiring interns…a.k.a. me :] ). One of the employee’s brings her little Maltese in about once or twice a week for the day and today was one of those days. The pup just curled up on my lap while we ate and talked (can’t wait to get my own puppy!).

After lunch I sent out the earlier pitch and worked more on the coverage scan and also did some actual scanning; I scanned a clip for Burns & Levinson. The attorney was not happy due to the fact that they spelt his name wrong…I completely know how you feel with a name like Erika Davidovich Kuzmicz. And I just finished writing another pitch for Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership, here’s the rough draft below:

“New reports have been surfacing recently regarding a multifaceted degradation of the world’s oceans. If actions contributing to this degradation are not stopped this planet will be facing permanent consequences such as the destruction of coral reefs, the extinction of oysters, and the biggest dead zone in the history of the Gulf of Mexico.

While there has been a large amount of debate over what lies in our ocean’s future, there has not been much discussion on what can be done for the prevention of this expected mass extinction. There are programs, such as the Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership (CWRP), that exist right in our backyards that are helping make a difference and trying to reverse the damage every day.

The Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership has worked hard in 15 different states and supported more than 240 projects that help achieve the restoration and education goals that benefit our environment and oceans. Let me know if you are interested in learning about their past or ongoing projects and what can be done to prevent further damage to our oceans.”

And that’s all for today folks.

Not so new Internship

So… as I promised, I’m back! My last post I talked a lot about myself and a little about my past internship with The Rockport Company as their PR and Events intern. Back in March I had my eye on a PR agency called The Castle Group. I had heard awesome things about this company and how they treat their interns and I decided since I wanted a summer internship, this would be the perfect place to do it, so I applied.

After a little over a week of anxiously checking my email just about every hour, I got an email asking if I would come in for an interview. I was so nervous but the man that interviewed me was really easy going and funny so that helped a bit. A few weeks later I found out that I would be one of the agency’s public relation interns starting May 16, 2011. I thought I was going to burst with excitement!!

So I’ve been here almost a month now and I love it! It’s totally different than my past internship as this is an agency and the other was working in-house. I now know after about a month that I definitely want to pursue a career in agency life for public relations. I had always heard that it was fast-paced and stressful since you’re working on more than one account but that is the part that made me want to drew me to it. Having a type-A personality, I can get bored easily and need to keep busy and need to always have different things going on to make things more interesting (part of the reason I picked PR in the first place).

At Castle I am working three main accounts, TUI (an online university serving mainly active military members and their families), Salem Five Bank (self explanatory), and Burns & Levinson LLP (a Boston-based law firm with practices also in Canada, RI, and China). I also do little tasks when they're needed for some of the other clients including MassArt, MITX, and Grant Thorton. So far I have done a lot of research. I guess I never really thought about how much actual research goes into the opportunities and other things that we provide to our clients. If you hate reading and you hate research, PR is not for you.

The past week or so I've been sending out a lot of pitches to different media outlets for some of our clients. I even got to write a few as well! I worked on a by-liner for Grant Thorton and I wrote a hard press release for TUI about a book that one of their professors published. My favorite thing that I have gotten the opportunity to do so far was to write a content release.

I had absolutely no idea what a content release was when my manager first mentioned it but he explained that because there isn't always something going on that needs a press release we still try to just get content out for clients, hence the name of the release. So a content release is literally just content, usually in the form of a "top ten" or "tips" list. All those lists you see on the Huffington Post or yahoo about top ten places to vacation this summer, someone has written those for a purpose, for a mention. The one I wrote was again for TUI and the title was "Tips on how to make the most of your summer classes." With these you get to do a little research and be creative to make the release something that someone would actually want to read.

I'll let everyone know if anything happens with this and if it gets picked up anywhere because that is definitely something that I want out of this internship. I want to be able to say, "I had something published by_________," and fill in the blank with something like Huffington Post or Boston Business Journal. I want to be able to have something to show future employers in my portfolio.

Well, that's it for now. I'll keep updating this as time goes along and I do more fun and exciting things. Until next time friends!

So who the hell am I?

So let me give you a little background about myself. My name is Erika and I live in Arlington. I am 20 years old..almost 21 =) I am a student at Curry College and will be graduating in December of 2011. I never know if I should say I'm a senior or not..but basically I have one semester left in the fall because I am graduating a semester early. My parents are pretty happy about that because hey...college is expensive and I'm saving them half a years worth of bills.

Anyways before I get completely off track here...I am a communication major with a concentration in public relations and a double minor in english and management (boy, that's a mouth full). I have been on the executive board of Curry College Public Relations Student Association (CCPRSA) for two years now and have the position of President for my final year (or should I say semester). I have also been inducted into the Lambda Pi Eta honors society which is the communication honors society. My friends call me an "undercover nerd" but I just work hard for what I want.

Other Random tidbits about me:
I used to be a cheerleader and even made my college team but I decided to quit after a few months. I'm trying to get back into ballet but I have to admit...I got shown up by a 40 year old man with a giant beer gut in the last class I went to. I love haging out with my boyfriend and my friends; I'm also a big family person. I have a younger brother that is 18 even though everyone thinks I'm the younger one because he is 6'5" and I'm only 5'6". I have a love hate relationship with the gym.

I am really interested in Public Relations; I want to be a PR pro when I grow up ; ). I previously interned at The Rockport Company at their world headquarters in Canton, Ma as their PR and Events Intern (Fall '10). It was my first internship and it was a great experience. I loved the company, the work atmosphere and I was always busy. I was definately a lot busier than I thought I would be for doing in-house public relations. The internship was kind of last minute as it sort of fell into my lap but I learned a lot.

I managed all the press hits that Rockport got worldwide, I managed the Rockport company blog, and researched and planned for a few events. The one thing that I wish that I had gotten the chance to do during this internship was write. Writing is one of my favorite things to do and although you may not be able to tell from this blog..I'm actually kinda good at it..not to tute my own horn or anything.

Well that's a little bit about who I am, what I like, and what I want to do with my life. I'll post again next week about my latest internship which I love love love!!! Feel free to follow me on twitter @Erika_k.

How to Avoid Gaining the Freshman Fifteen

Between the bad cafeteria food and the endless flowing of drinks there is a legitimate reason to worry about weight gain in college. The late night dominos orders on the weekends don’t exactly help either.

One of the worst things that a school could do would be to build fast food restaurants on campus. For Curry College, with its small, quaint campus, a glowing red and yellow McDonalds or Burger King sign would definitely throw off the look and feel of the campus.

It would seem with the opening of the new student center that Curry is trying to make its campus more balanced, getting rid of some of their more unhealthy options that were offered in Drapkin like the deep fried chicken strips and instead offering the option of grilled chicken. To put in a fast food restaurant would ruin the efforts put forth to provide more variety and more balanced meals to students.

America is one of the fattest countries in the entire world with two thirds of Americans being overweight or obese. By walking into a fast food restaurant and making an order, you could consume more than your daily limit for fat, sodium, and even calories. Depending on what kinds of burger you order from somewhere like a Burger King or Dairy Queen you could be taking in as much as 1,500 calories in one meal, this is the same amount of calories that is recommended for many women for an entire day.

Not only are calories an issue when it comes to fast food but also most fast food contains a large amount of Trans fats per serving. Trans fats clog the arteries with plaque and build- up and with enough it can cause heart disease.

If students want fast food they should be forced to drive the distance off campus to go get it. The college should not promote an unhealthy lifestyle by hosting a fast food chain on campus. This country is fat enough; Curry College does not need to be helping to make it fatter.