Audrey Xiong
How Is My Internship Related to My Major?
By Audrey Xiong
Summer 2014
I’m working as a social media intern at 100Reporters, a nonprofit investigative reporting organization in Washington DC. I’ve studied Business for three years, and have just started pursuing a second degree in Public Relations in the spring semester (2014). When I was applying to different internship positions, a question often arose: What are the advantages, if any, of double-majoring in Business and PR?
Here’s something I’d put down in my cover letter:
“While I have acquired solid communication techniques, the three-year study of business enables me to develop a strategic vision and business acumen…”
Even though I am confident, to a certain extent, that I do possess such a “vision” and “acumen,” I wasn’t capable of describing how exactly I can use these strengths. The truth is, you can only tell when you actually start working.
My job is mainly to manage the company’s Twitter and Google AdWords accounts. The challenge is to build the organization’s reputation as a trustworthy, objectivity-oriented news feed through a sound public relations effort, which is often deemed in favor of the organization. The question “what should we tweet about?” leads to some reflection upon the organization’s unique identity—“What distinguishes 100Reporters from its competitors?” When I first started tweeting, I had done some research on tweeting techniques and had then laid out a “tweeting plan”, which specified things such as minimum number of tweets per day, type of content and the proportion of each type, etc.
Every day there are new “follows” and “unfollows,” and I cannot stop wondering what the reason is that people “unfollow” us. I use Twitter Analytics to check conversion and reach, attempting to figure out what types of tweets create a stronger impact. However, there are entirely too many variables—content, tone, hashtag usage, visual, even frequency and timing would play a role in determining the effect of a tweet. Public relations always places an emphasis on “two-way communications.” It’s not enough to just push content; it’s more important to collect feedback in order to make adjustments accordingly. Without a more sophisticated analytical tool, I’m still experimenting different types of tweets. But there is one thing I know for sure: consistency is a must to build an organization’s reputation.
Though focusing on communications through social media, I can’t help but notice places of operational inefficiency within the workplace. Developing some sort of business plan for 100Reporters to improve operation is not my primary responsibility, nor do I have enough time to do so. However, I was able to incorporate what I learned about employee relations (PR) and organizational behavior (Business) to propose to my boss the need for establishing an organizational culture and core values that are shared and endorsed by all the members. I suggested 100Reporters can and should motivate its members with more than monetary incentives; members should grow a sense of belonging and affiliation to the organization, share its mission and values, and believe what they do actually contributes to the organization’s success.
It’s been well over a month since I started working, and what I’ve realized is the most valuable skill we’ve acquired in school is not the knowledge in the textbooks. Rather, it’s the way of thinking… the manner in which we think. Specifically, for me, during this summer, it’s developing the way of thinking as a Public Relations practitioner, with a Business vision.
My colleagues hard at work at 100Reporters.
Audrey Xiong is a Business and PR major interning at 100Reporters.
