Relevant Organizations to Become Involved with in Los Angeles

By Evan Nicholson, President

Do you love the resources and networking opportunities PRSA provides young professionals? Check out these other local organizations to get involved in that offer other great opportunities to advance your career.

International Association of Business Communicators (http://la.iabc.com/) : IABC Los Angeles serves the entire Los Angeles Metropolitan Area including Downtown, South Bay, San Fernando Valley, Westside and points in between. Members work in the public and private sectors as consultants, independent business owners, and corporate staff in such diverse fields as marketing, advertising, corporate communications, government relations, human resource communications and shareholder relations.

Entertainment Publicists Professional Society (http://www.eppsonline.org/) : EPPS is the premiere organization for entertainment publicity and marketing professionals. With chapters in both Los Angeles and New York, their membership is diverse, representing a cross platform of publicity, promotions and marketing executives from agency, broadcast, cable TV, convergence media, crisis management, digital, feature film, gaming, home entertainment, music, non-profit, performing arts, talent, theatrical, theme park, and sports public relations professionals.

Digital LA (http://digitalla.net/) : Digital LA is the largest networking organization of digital professionals in startups, movies, TV, web series, music, games, marketing, and social media. Attendees work at Disney, WB, Sony, Fox, Universal, CAA, WME, ABC, NBC, Activision, accelerators, VCs and startups.

American Marketing Association (http://www.socalama.org/) : The AMA is the largest marketing organization in North America, with members from some of the largest companies in the greater Los Angeles area. SoCal AMA offers monthly meetings and workshops with the marketing movers and shakers in the Los Angeles metro area. Frequently the organization partners with other leading marketing-related associations such as the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA.)

Sound off in the comments if you are part of another great organization in the Los Angeles area.

Getting the Most Out of Your “Plan B” Internship

By Serena Whitecotton, Program Chair

When I was in college, everyone dreamed of working for a large corporation or agency, but those companies don’t have spots for every PR major. What do you do when you get your back-up internship? After the initial disappointment, get excited! New opportunities await you. We have a few tips to make the most out of your “Plan B” internship.

Experience, experience, experience

Working for a large corporation can be fun, but internships at smaller agencies or companies can actually work to your advantage – you’ll get more experience! You’ll still create media lists and compile media coverage, but you’ll also get the opportunity to be more hands-on and proactive (which is the reason why you’re interning in the first place). With a smaller staff, you’ll do more than coffee runs or photocopies; you’ll actually learn.

Less people, more connections

You’ve probably heard this a thousand times, but networking is key in the PR industry. At larger companies, you may only work with an assistant or coordinator and never meet the bigwigs. Smaller companies give you unparalleled access to the executives or vice presidents and their knowledge. Ask an executive or vice president in your favorite field to lunch; you’d be surprised by how eager they’ll be to give advice. When you’re looking for a reference or letter of recommendation, these folks should be your first stop.

Get hired!

We all have internships for different reasons – some of us wanted work experience, and some of us needed more units to graduate. Whatever your reason, you should have one final goal: Get a full-time job. Smaller companies can get you that job, especially after a successful internship. In my smaller agency, four of my coworkers were previously interns. If you keep in touch, you have a better chance of getting that coveted first job.

I always think of internships as a perfect way to test the field you’re studying, especially if you’re unsure. I had internships in three different fields and stuck with the one I loved best: public relations.

And if you’re still on the fence about getting an internship, this infographic may convince you otherwise.

Where have you interned at?

The Importance of Maintaining your Social Persona as a PR Professional

By Liza Nedelman, Communications Co-Chair

By now, we should all be used to the gist – social media is not only at the forefront of today’s culture, its an integral part to getting our jobs done (or, alternatively – keeping us from getting our jobs done) as public relations professionals. However, its important to remember that social media is not only a way for the public to reach our clients, and our clients to reach the public. Social media, be it Twitter, Facebook, or even Tumblr, can and should be used by PR professionals on a professional level to develop and maintain relationships.

In this day and age, relationships are notoriously tough to maintain. Gone are the days where you could pick up the phone, call a journalist and discuss your product in a casual, semi off-the-record fashion. Now, journalists won’t even pick up their phones, much less check their voicemails or call you back. So how to put yourself in front of them, without harassing them via email? That’s where social media comes in.

The best PR professionals utilize social media to not only keep track of the sentiment of the public and the media as a whole, but to also monitor and stay connected to key individual journalists. This can be as simple as following them on Twitter, ‘favoriting’ or retweeting their posts, or replying to their posts with a follow-up question.

This allows you to put your name, and position, in a place where you are not actively ‘pitching,’ but allowing the journalist to see that you are paying attention and enjoying what they are writing. Another way this pays off? You’ll have a lot more background information on what they write about next time you DO have to pitch!

Take 10 minutes out of your day and follow a handful of journalists that you deem to be most important. Develop a social relationship with them. Watch and enjoy as contacts you never thought would open an email from you, DO!

Have you used social media to connect with journalists?