Posted on: June 28, 2022
By Abbey Violette
Starting as an intern at Marshall Communications and learning about the PR industry has been an eye-opening experience. When I started my major in Marketing Management at Thomas College, I did not realize how vast the industry of marketing was, nor did I know the extent of avenues that I could pursue. When I was presented the opportunity to intern at MC, I had little knowledge of what PR was or its importance in today’s marketing, but I was intrigued to learn more and gain valuable experience.
Since everyone on the MC team works remotely, I have experienced what it is like “working from home.” Working from home has been a rewarding experience and has not hindered my learning one bit. Communication is a huge part of MC’s culture (it’s in the name after all!), whether that is through e-mail, a Teams call, or our weekly staff meetings, everyone on the team, especially my supervisor, Emma, is always willing to hop on a call to walk me through projects and tasks and see how I am doing.
I have interned at MC for about a month now, and so far I have learned how to write and send press releases and media advisories for clients, as well as how to research media contacts, the publications’ articles and social media handles, and how to pitch stories to journalists. I’ve also learned how to write podcast show notes and upload them to our website and write and design graphics for social media posts for both clients and MC. I’ve had the opportunity to see what goes into the personal branding of a client (mainly through their social media presence), and worked on copywriting, and some graphic design! Finally, I have also learned how to build and manage client relationships, and when faced with issues, how to solve them.
Besides what I have been taught and observed, I have also learned much about personal branding and PR through listening to episodes of PRMaven® and reading Nancy’s Forbes Agency Council articles while completing copywriting work for the podcast. From some of these articles and episodes, I have learned how to network on LinkedIn, how your brand’s feeling will attract and repel people, the importance of utilizing technology in PR and how content marketing is the new faucet for PR.
I also sit in on client meetings and observe how MC not only conducts their client meetings, but also learn about some of the other projects associated with those clients. Nancy in addition, has allowed me to email and work with clients directly on projects I complete for them, which has been a great learning and empowering experience.
For this past week, I learned how to format and send out our e-newsletter called The Marshall Report, how to upload a case study to our website, how to schedule and upload an episode and the show notes of Nancy’s podcast: PRMaven® to our website, and what goes into The Marshall Plan® to prepare for the creation of our next plan with a client.
Interning at MC has been a fun experience with each week throwing new projects, allowing me to find my strengths. The team at MC and the constant interactions I receive has also made this internship so great, as everyone is warm and welcoming and approachable with any questions I may have or to see how I am doing.
Stay tuned each week to read about what it is like to be an intern at Marshall Communications, and what I am learning along the way!
Date: June 28, 2022
Great job, Abbey! So excited to have you working with us!