Five Ways PRLab Prepared Me for My PR Internship
By Chaneigh Bernard, Account Supervisor
September 24, 2019
PRLab has been, without a doubt, the most rewarding PR experience I have encountered as a student at Boston University. As an account executive in the Spring 2019 semester, I was able to develop so many skills, assets, and professional values that greatly contributed to my academic successes, and my growth throughout my summer internship. After PRLab, I found myself more confident than ever, entering interviews with my resume and stacked portfolio, eager to elaborate on the exciting projects my AE team had accomplished. At my summer internship, I was able to continue learning the ropes of a professional career in public relations, with the skills and confidence I gained from PRLab in the forefront.
Here are five ways that I feel PRLab prepared me for my summer internship:
- Traditional media pitching
Before PRLab, I had never created a media list before, or prepared to send a targeted pitch to real reporters. While I felt intimidated at first, I quickly realized how well my PR courses had prepared me. I had practiced writing pitches in CM331, and Professor Dowding was gracious enough to upload sample pitch templates to the PRLab BlackBoard page. After ample research and tedious editing, my team and I successfully compiled a media list and sent forth two different pitches to reporters. I spoke extensively about this experience during my summer internship interviews, and my interviewers admitted that they were impressed with my traditional media experience, as traditional media outreach is often overlooked among some of today’s PR students.
2. Communicating directly with clients
The amount of professionalism, flexibility, and accountability I gained from working so closely with my PRLab team’s client contact fostered so much growth in my public speaking skills, leadership skills, and my overall confidence. In PRLab, the account executives are the ones working directly with the client to achieve their goals, and this amount of responsibility is unmatched in any other course. I was able to practice speaking up for myself to voice my ideas and opinions. This skill translated into every aspect of my life, as I began finding myself more willing to ask questions in big lectures, and more comfortable speaking up in team meetings. At my team’s first client meeting this semester, my AE’s asked me how I learned to be so comfortable and professional speaking with our client. It’s incredible to think that throughout the PRLab semester, they’ll quickly learn just as I did.
3. Posting on corporate social media accounts & creating social media calendars
After creating weekly social media calendars and crafting original digital content as an AE, I gained a great deal of insight on tackling social media challenges. Social media is an unpredictable, ever-changing medium, and it is so important to continue gaining experience with it as a PR professional. My PRLab team and I were constantly tracking our post likes, followers, and engagement, to ensure that we were increasing our client’s social media presence and meeting our objectives. It can be difficult to find a balance between a professional yet interactive social media voice. After posting three to four times per week on our client’s social media accounts, I grew comfortable with the skill, and felt more freedom to become more creative with my posts. At my summer internship, my mentor admitted she was impressed with some of my playful hashtags.
4. Working with social media influencers
My AE team was lucky enough to work with five different Instagram influencers for a special challenge event we created. Through these partnerships, I learned so much about how to catch an influencer’s attention, how to set guidelines and expectations, and how to excite both the influencer and the client. From this experience, I feel that I am now able to pitch to influencers through their scope, by first asking myself, “What can I do for them?” Influencers were highly utilized for press trips at my summer internship, and because of my PRLab experience, I was familiar with how influencer partnerships work.
5. Responsibility, accountability, & professionalism in a team setting
While there are countless group projects in college, and most students have been a part of a team at some point in their lives, the team dynamic between AE’s in PRLab is like no other. This is both an academic and professional setting, and it’s important to recognize that classmates transform to teammates. AE’s have to hold each other accountable for all of the work, deadlines, and responsibilities they face through the semester. It is imperative that AE’s remain respectful of one another’s schedules, while also being flexible to tweak their own availability when necessary. The success of the group and the satisfaction of the client cannot be met through just one person’s work. I have grown up participating in athletic teams and clubs, and I’ve been apart of countless group projects. But, PRLab taught me an entire new set of team skills for maintaining a professional, productive, and cohesive unit.