I was lucky enough to work at a well-reputed Public Relations firm this year. To make things easier for anyone and everyone that is interested in doing the same, please see below to get yourself acquainted with the job.
First things first, you will be assigned Four basic things that every Public Relations intern gets to do:
You will be asked to update Media lists. This may seem like a very trivial thing to do but its integral for every PR professional to know what journalists cover which beats from which publications. If it’s done right, this will help you get your basic PR learning in this regard.
You might also be asked to make up follow up calls to journalists to get opportunities in getting coverage for your client. For this, make sure you write down a script with every possible question and response you anticipate from this conversation. Try a few trial sessions and before you know it, you’ll get a hang of it.
You will be asked to either manually or digitally track the news for your client and competition. This will take a lot of your time but make sure you track properly. Take breaks when you can, don’t let this process get the better of you.
To get yourself ready for this task, read as many press releases as you can find online. Try to understand the language and the framing used for them.
Practice, practice, practice.
Apart from these tasks, it’s extremely important to do your research about your firm, key members of the firm, members of your team, your client and your competition. This knowledge will help you add value to the team.
Likewise be aware of what is happening not only in your industry but all industries in the country. For that, you’ll need to read newspapers and follow web pages of regulatory bodies. This will help you become a force to be reckoned with in your team.
Be enthusiastic and make the right connections and hopefully your company will ultimately integrate you into their firm.
This post originally appeared on the author’s blog site.
-Ishaan Lahiri
Ishaan is a student of the Class of 2018 of the PG Programme in Public Relations at SCoRe. He has completed his Bachelors in Psychology from Ambedkar University, Delhi. He can be reached at Ishaan Lahiri on LinkedIn and @LahiriIshaan on Twitter
