I have already reached half of my internship at IBL group and it is only now that I realise that one can truly understand the job of a PR practitioner if he/she has spent a reasonable amount of time working in the field. At first, as students, we tend to have a preconceived idea of what life as a PR resemble; organising and attending lots of events, elaborating innovative strategic plans for the company and feeling the adrenaline while handling crisis. Of course all these are part of the job but, reflecting on what I have been doing since my first posts describing my participation in a press conference and addressing multi-cultural issues, I came to realise that almost all of my work has centred on writing articles and proof-reading materials. I am not saying that the latter cannot be satisfactory however, I would like to point out that routine tasks, as far as I could observe, account for approximately 70 % of the PR job. For these reasons, I thought it would be useful to deliver some tips about what I have learnt these past few weeks.
Talking with classmates taught me that many students, even though working for consultancies which are usually less reluctant to give work to interns, had not yet been given the opportunity to write a media release. I think it is only a matter of time before they are given such task to accomplish but since I already had the chance to write, I thought it would be a good idea to share my experience so as to inform others’ first time. First, let me say that I have not been given the chance to write right away. In order to test my literary skills, I had spent two weeks proof-reading materials. I had to correct each error before materials were published and this, enabled my supervisor to assess my skills. It was only on my third week that I was asked to accompany a colleague to a meeting with a client for the purpose of writing a media release afterwards. The meeting was to be held the following day so I had time to get prepared. I went through past PR courses and noted ideas that could help me. Here are three main points which I had found the most relevant to my situation:
1. Make research on your client’s organisation prior to the meeting. Coming prepared is a sign of professionalism ( see notes on client’s brief: PR consultancy 300)
2. Review the inverted pyramid style discussed in class to refresh your mind about the key questions to answer while writing a media release. Ask these questions to your client. (How? When? Where? Why? Who? Quotes? Etc. ...)
3. Get familiarised with the format used by your organisation for media releases and try to reproduce it.
These three tips helped me a lot during the interview and for drafting the media release. My supervisor found that the latter was good content-wise despite some errors which I must admit was due to the fact that I did not carefully proof-read my work before submitting it. Therefore, my last advice for you readers will be to always proof-read your work! It is completely unacceptable for a professional in communication to submit a work with errors because this will automatically make the client doubt your competencies. Since this first experience, I have been writing five other articles for a newsletter this time and adapting the previous tips for this type of publication has proven a very successful method. So, I guess I will use them for my future works and I recommend them to you as well. Good luck!
Michaella Auguste
15842404
CTI
