Reflections on an Agency Internship in PR

I want to describe my first day at C. Pharr, but after a year and a half, I really only remember smiles, quick introductions and immediately getting to work. My internship began on August 27, 2015, and over the course of four semesters, I am so fortunate to say I have seen many aspects of public relations that helped me learn far more than I would in a classroom. I was able to work hands on with different projects for real clients and further my career along the way.

From the beginning of my internship, my supervisors handed over many writing assignments. I'll be the first to say writing is far from a strong skill of mine, but I've learned being honest with your skill set can only help you improve. I put forth strong effort in many of my writing assignments and got out of my comfort zone to work on my weakness. Although I am still far from perfect, I can confidently say practice has helped me improve significantly and led to success both in school and at my internship.

At the end of my first semester with C. Pharr, I was given an assignment to pitch a story about a local teacher at Trinity Christian Academy (TCA), one of the clients I worked with often. I researched who I wanted to pitch the story to and ended up coming across Jenny Anchondo with Fox 4 news. Even though she didn't pick up the story, she had a connection to the teacher through both of them being involved in the KIPP literacy program. She sent the pitch on to her colleagues, and after our winter break in the office, I came back to the exciting news that Clarice Tinsley wanted to cover the heartwarming story on the "Hometown Heroes” segment. You can see the coverage and read more about my experience here.

In the summer of 2016, I was asked to participate in planning an event for a non-profit client, Primary Care Clinics of North Texas. Event planning is a little bit more complicated than they make it seem in the movies, and the work involved more than what was taught in the classroom. I learned event planning requires a lot of detailed planning and I was able to plan ahead by creating a checklist of everything we would need before, during and after the event. It was a great experience and I’m confident I’ll be able to plan my next event with more ease.

As my last semester is coming to an end, I'm proud of all the work I’ve accomplished thanks to my dedicated supervisors I've had over the past four semesters at C. Pharr. I was able to gain a broad range of experience and gain a greater understanding of the diverse industries our clients are in – everything from education to non-profits, commercial real estate and even corporations. Some people decide to have multiple internships, but I think I was fortunate enough to stumble upon this agency to offer the experience necessary to begin a successful career in public relations.

This post was contributed by Elizabeth LaMonte, C. Pharr Intern.

Reflections on an Agency Internship in PR

An Intern’s Perspective on Event Planning

We recently helped Primary Care Clinic of North Texas (PCCNT) plan a ribbon-cutting event to commemorate their 100,000th patient visit, 13th anniversary and move to a new location in Plano. PCCNT is a non-profit healthcare facility that provides a medical home to thousands of uninsured North Texans.

We hit the ground running planning for this event. Most people see the glitz and glam of event planning, but it sure is not all it's made out to be, especially in the world of public relations. Planning an event does not only mean the composing guest lists and party hors d'oeuvres; for public relations practitioners, planning an event also means researching media, writing and distributing media alerts and press releases, inviting public figures, planning a run-of-show and so much more. Needless to say it can be a long process. After a little more than two months of planning for the hour-long event, everything came together, and we were ready for the day to come.

As an intern, it was a great experience to not only see an event planned from beginning to end, but to be involved in the process every step of the way. I learned how hard it is to plan an event with so many moving parts and how the work continues even after the event is done. I learned so much from this experience, and working on a project for such a great organization for the community is something I will always remember!

PCCNT's priority is to give back to the community by providing affordable medical services to the uninsured. Through corporate donors like Capital One, this is possible. I really enjoyed planning this event for such a great cause. 

Check out this story from Plano Profile about the event: https://planoprofile.com/2016/08/16/primary-care-clinic-of-north-texas-moves-to-new-location/

This post was contributed by Elizabeth LaMonte, C. Pharr Intern.

An Intern’s Perspective on Event Planning

PR Produced Great Content Before “Content Was Cool”

C. Pharr's Cynthia Pharr-Lee (middle) and Krystal Morris (far right) speaking to healthcare executives about PR strategies,techniques and case studies of effective and appropriate communication
integration with social media.

In the daily scramble to learn about the new, new digital thing, marketers sometimes overlook the powerful, but NOT new communications methods that can be invaluable contributors to an overall marketing strategy.

Specifically, I’m talking about traditional, B2B public relations and the powerful “earned content” that well executed PR programs can produce.

Long before digital marketers began to trumpet “content is everything,” effective PR campaigns have created the interesting and user-focused content that helps build brands and thought leadership. Such content can also empower marketing programs.

Today’s conversations about digital marketing stress the importance of credibility and transparency in connecting with customers. For many years, PR professionals have helped clients achieve well-placed publicity, speeches at respected conferences, and events that showcase expertise. These PR activities produce believable and impactful content that can be shared throughout a digital marketing program.

One of the strongest arguments for the power of earned content (especially publicity and speaking engagements) is that it yields de facto “third party endorsement” because the coverage isn’t bought and controlled by the subject. Rather, reporters or conference planners independently filter the information before deeming it credible and timely.  As a result, audiences have a higher degree of trust for earned content than paid advertising. Digital marketers who don’t consider “earned content” in their programs are failing to harness opportunities to connect with key audiences.

Current digital marketing practices also recommend omni-channel messaging, i.e., giving customers useful content, how and where they want it. For decades, PR professionals have been doing this by promoting strategic topics and selecting which speaker platform, event, publication and broadcast opportunities to pursue for clients. These standard planks in PR platforms have long provided a means of targeting audiences to give them content that interests them in the channel they prefer.

If anything is the “holy grail” in today’s successful digital marketing, it is the belief that “customer engagement” is the basis for measuring success. Indeed, digital consultancy Rosetta writes that “engaged customers are the best customers – they purchase 90 percent more frequently, spend 60 percent more per transaction, and deliver three times the annual value each year.”

A key strategy to achieve engagement is providing compelling information or experiences without asking for a sale. These approaches have been embraced by PR for decades. Editorial coverage of PR clients never includes call-to-action sales messages. Instead, it builds engagement by providing useful information and boosting awareness of expertise.  PR events, especially those that are cause-based or showcases of expertise, build relationships with targeted audiences through subjects of mutual interest, rather than hard-selling products.

Digital marketing strategists also recommend omni-channel communications, or consistency of messaging across all channels. If the PR team is involved in marketing strategy and aware of the marketing calendar, the credible content produced by PR can easily reflect the marketing messages used on other channels. Usually, the PR team will be responsible for coordinating executive speaking engagements, working with journalists in targeted media, planning events with key communities and helping plan and execute social media while scripting blogs, webinars and podcasts. With forethought, these activities can become integral parts of digital campaigns.

The meaty content produced by traditional PR programs and extended into social media can add real substance to digital campaigns. For example, including social share buttons/plug-ins when emailing content can drive readers to a landing page that offers interesting news articles. For speaking engagements, providing hashtags for the audience can encourage content sharing and assist in measurement.  Building tweets into presentations makes it more likely the speaker’s comments will be shared on social media…the possibilities are limitless.

In summary, there are powerful arguments for blending tried and true, traditional PR into newer digital marketing plans. Marketers who ignore opportunities to harness the power of PR’s earned content risk missing fuel which could fire up their campaigns.

This post was contributed by Cynthia Pharr-Lee, APR, Fellow PRSA. Connect with Cynthia on LinkedIn.

PR Produced Great Content Before “Content Was Cool”