Internship employers and colleges have a seriously broken relationship. I’ve been interning unpaid for about two years straight now. If an employer gives college credit, they technically don’t need to pay. But BU only lets you take one internship for credit. So if you want more than one internship before you graduate, you end up working for free because many employers say, “The internship is unpaid, but we’ll give you course credit if you want.” I’ve had to turn that offer down because my school won’t allow me to get credit. Free labor has become an expectation for college students. That’s a shame.

I do think there are ways of navigating around the unpaid issue. My internship at TalentCulture doesn’t pay me cash, but I’m getting career training and development services, and I’m being set up for job interviews in addition to getting college credit.
Employers need to do more to reimburse interns, even if it’s not in cash.

Other feedback (These people are not nerds…) :

The Unpaid Intern, Legal or Not by The New York Times‘ Steven Greenhouse

Unpaid Internships by Rachel Sprung

If You Bill, is it Legal? by Nick Lucido

Internships – To Pay or Not to Pay? by Patrick Wentling

What? Unpaid Internships Could Be Illegal? Ya Think? by Jim On Light

As you can see, we were very excited last week in the days leading up to what some called “the best regional activity ever:”

My favorite part of the conference was the HR panel. Our president Rachel Sprung monitored the panel and taking question from the audience via Tweetdeck. Talk about new media enhancing in-person experiences!

My phone died this week. May it rest in peace. I seriously think all of the tweeting via text finally did it in.  But there were some great conversations happening on the hashtag. I couldn’t just sit and watch.

I’ve noticed a lot of blog posts recapping the event were thrown up this week. Here are some of the ones I found:

• “PR Advanced: Brand Yourself” by Rachel Sprung – She does a nice job of summing up the event and some of the highlights.
• Laura Flanagan took the plunge into personal branding with her first blog post “Step 1: Attend BU PRSSA Brand Yourself PR Advanced Regional Conference.”
• Ginny Soskey is ready to binge on personal branding too with her post “Branding Yourself: PR Advanced Conference Wrap-Up.”
• “Branding Yourself – PRAdvanced Conference” by Emily Forrest – Emilie focuses on lessons from a breakout session by Karen Raskopf of Dunkin’ Brands.
• Emilie O’Toole gives a few major lessons for personal branding. “Branded: Takeaways from PR Advanced 2010″
• I really like the skills assessment in Ellie Botelho’s post “Branding Myself.” I’ve got to get working on a skill assessment of my own.

Thanks to all who attended. The responses have been overwhelmingly positive, and our hashtag #PRAdvanced was a trending topic in Boston!

Here’s what some other rising PR stars thought:

“I thought SPINdustry or ‘Command PR’ basically made a mockery out of PR. Like Kell on Earth, it depicts the profession to be run by unassured incompetent people. PR is all about image, it irks me to think that these people don’t see what they are depicting about themselves, and about PR. The ownersor VP’s didn’t lift a finger during that episode. They had the “connections” but that was it.” – Yanique Shaw (@YaniquePR) is the president of Salem State University’s PRSSA Chapter and a good friend of mine from #PRSSANC in San Diego. Read her fashion and PR blog “YaniquePR – Everything.”

“SPINdustry shows PR professionals as materialistic and ditsy. I know I could never trust that staff. They do not seem competent. You would think as PR professionals, they could create an image for themselves that doesn’t promote stereotypes.” – Dan Chizzoniti (@DanChiz) a driven future PR star currently doing a lot of cool social media work at his internship for Schneider Associates. He blogs about all things pop culture, PR and entertainment on DanChiz.com.

Care to share your opinion? Comment below or email your reaction to me at EricLeist@gmail.com and I’ll post it here.

Secondly, I realized that I had some branding issues. I classified myself as a “Future PR Star” on my old blog. I went to a PRSSA National Conference in San Diego in November and realized that the reputation that comes with “PR” isn’t something with which I want to brand myself. Too often people think “media relations” when they think “PR.” That’s not me. Yes, I want to establish and maintain mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics. That’s “PR” by textbook definition. But times have changed for those two letters, and the reputation hasn’t kept up. Now we call what I want to do terms like “marketing,” “social media marketing,” “corporate communication,” and dozens more.

“PR” has expanded, so my personal brand needed a face-lift. One of my favorite PR professors asked on the first day of class, “Why are you here? You want to be hacks? Flacks? Spindoctors? Liars? That’s what people say when you tell them you’re in PR.”

No; I don’t want to be any of those things.

My goal with this newly redone blog and e-portfolio: Establish myself as a credible and experienced communicator with a passion for content creation and new media marketing. So check in on me every now and then. I just might accomplish that goal.

]]> http://ericleist.com/2010/02/01/my-blog-its-alive/feed/ 2 Eric It's Alive http://ericleist.com/2009/09/21/hello-world/ http://ericleist.com/2009/09/21/hello-world/#comments Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:06:25 +0000 Eric Leist ]]>

There have been only two experiences in my life when I literally couldn’t believe my eyes. The first incident happened when I was 3 years old and my parents took me to a 3-D nature show in Disney World. The second occurred last week when I saw the video of Kanye West stealing Taylor Swift’s spotlight moment on MTV’s website. I thought, “This can’t be real.”

The more I hear about this incident, the more I doubt it’s sincerity. Even now, I am a disbeliever, and my partially-trained PR mind is drawing the line between reality and publicity stunt.

First, understand that award shows are what one of my professors calls “pseudo-events.” They aren’t actual events. They only exist for the PR bonanza surrounding them. The Academy Awards only exist because in the 1930s, the Academy wanted to drive people to the movie theaters. Add in the hours of press coverage that go into these shows: the wardrobe designers, the red carpet parties, the advertising revenue, thousands of entertainers packed into a theater to honor each other. You have a pseudo-event.

The very fact that Kanye’s little stunt happen at a pseudo-event makes me doubt its validity.

Second, Viacom instantly shifted into profit mode as soon as Kanye gave that mic back to Miss Swift. Consumers started uploading the clips of the exchange to YouTube as quickly as Viacom ripped them off the videosharing site. Maybe Viacom is a fast-acting organization, but maybe they knew what was coming and were ready for it. The only place you can see the video is on mtv.com, surrounded by two fat advertising spaces.

Finally, look at the attention both artists have gained from their interaction. I’m sure iTunes sales for both artists shot up after the VMAs, perhaps for more reasons than this one. Attention. Attention. Attention. During the show, Kanye and Swift were both trending topics on Twitter.

Could it be that multiple parties take advantage of a highly publicized and controversial incident? Sure. But I believe it is also possible that one or more parties planned Kanye’s interruption and banked on reaping the benefits.

Michael Vick has been on a short leash since his meeting with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a few weeks ago. He was released from prison last month after serving a two-year sentence for running a dogfighting ring. Looks as if he will be “fighting” his damaged reputation for a while.

This story reminds me of a lecture from last semester’s PR class on image restoration. At the time, we were discussing how Michael Phelps’ publicist could boost his popularity back from the bong-gate scandal.

I stumbled across an article on Vick last night that struck me.

Apparently, Vick spoke to Atlanta-area youth about the devastating effects of dogfighting. However, very few members of the media were allowed inside to hear Vick speak at the community center.

The PR choice is obvious: Get Vick involved with the community, but keep him out of the limelight. Do Vick’s people think he’s had enough spotlight for the time being? Are they trying to keep him on the down-low? Vick is going to do a “60 Minutes” special interview soon, so what’s the point of keeping his community work a secret?

They’re the professionals, not me. I’m just curious to see what the next move will be. Vick’s mentor Tony Dungy said tonight that Vick will likely have a home in the NFL within the coming week so this story is far from over. I’ll be wagging my tail in excitement waiting to hear what happens next.

Disclosure has long been an issue for PR professionals. In the social media world, that issue is even more prevalent. If you’re going to speak on someone’s behalf, people want to know who you are and who’s paying your bills.

Monday, my boss had me post answers to questions on LinkedIn and Yahoo Answers claiming I “found this survey/white paper while researching” when in actuality, I was trying to drive leads to our client’s site.

Am I walking on shaky ground in misleading potential customers that way? I think coming from someone who claimed he isn’t “morally pliable enough to be a journalist,” this is an interesting conundrum. I’ll take away the moral dilemma and looking at the big picture.

Imagine two comments on a blog post or discussion board read:

1. Hey I found this in my research, what a great article! <link>

2. I’m representing a company that will fit your needs perfectly. Here’s a link to some of our content. <link>

I think I’m more likely to click on a link from a representative. Yeah, it doesn’t have that peer-to-peer sharing credibility, but I know I’m not getting spammed, and I respect the complete transparency. Also, I recognize someone who is ready, willing and able to make a meaningful contribution to my life or fulfill my needs and wants.

1) What was the most favorable surprise you had, this semester, about the field of public relations?

I was very pleased to learn about the upward mobility in large PR firms. At least the way firm-structure was presented to the class, advancement for an entry level employee in a large firm directly correlates to how much he or she works and how many billable hours he or she logs. When I am breaking into the professional field of PR in a few years, my life will be flexible. I will be able to—and I will want to—work a large number of hours for my clients. At the PRSSA Advanced Conference, Gary Sheffer, executive director of corporate communication for GE, spoke about how some large firms and large corporations will hire several young recruits with the intention of keeping only one or two after the first year and a half. That says to me if I work hard enough and produce enough, I will be appreciated and eventually promoted. I like the idea of being in control of my career to at least that degree. Learning about this aspect of PR firms excited me about my future.

2) What was the most unfavorable surprise you had, this semester, about the field of public relations?

The cultural differences in ethical expectations for media relations were unsettling to me. Studying the ethics of PR, I learned journalists in the Middle East almost never write a favorable story without payment or gifts from a public relations practitioner. In other cultures, the ethical lines are blurred. In America, Dr. Wright said at times PR professionals fear buying a journalist so much as a hotdog because they don’t want to be accused of bribery. At other times, our text book says, some advertising purchases in publications are accompanied by an understanding that a favorable article will be written about the advertised product. The biggest unfavorable surprise came to me upon realizing as the world shrinks and becomes more interconnected, inter-cultural media relations will be very confusing in terms of who owes what to whom in exchange for press coverage. This confusion is one of the main reasons why I would prefer, if possible, to work in the private sector exclusively on the domestic front. So while it was unsettling to me, it also helped me narrow down what type of PR I would like.

3) Why is public relations the art, science and business of manipulating of audiences–and is therefore unethical?

Public relations by nature is unethical because it is conducted by advocates who are paid to represent a corporation, government or organization. Regardless of how they try to persuade an audience into changing attitudes and behaviors, the sheer fact that they are being paid to do so makes the information they present unbalanced and slanted. They portray their client in a positive light because they are hired to. It does not matter whether or not that positive light is deserved, because since PR practitioners have monetary incentives to convince audiences, their words cannot be entirely honest. They are not expressing neutral unbiased opinions; therefore they are consciously manipulating audiences. They are intervening on the naturally formed attitudes that would not otherwise change. Honesty is ethical, but public relations will never be truly honest because it presents biased information to the publics.

4) Why is public relations more than the art, science and business of manipulation of audiences–and is therefore ethical?

Public relations serves a higher purpose, making it more than the art, science and business of manipulation. There may be a science to delivering messages and an art to crafting the perfect press release, and some people could say aiming to change audience behavior is manipulating. Those people would only be looking at the tactical elements of PR, failing to grasp the overarching concept. Public relations fosters communication and establishes meaningful, mutually beneficial relationships. Connecting people with those whom they can help and who can help them is an ethical act. There are a lot of regulations practitioners need to follow in order to keep their methods as ethical as their ends. Provided PR is executed in an ethical manner, its higher purpose will be fulfilled.

The video is 19 minutes long. Here is a summary of the guidelines he gives to PR folks interested in pitching to bloggers:

1) Be transparent
2) Don’t ask for links
3) Be proactive for reviews
4) Know who you’re pitching to are and why they matter
5) Keep it short and sweet
6) Treat everybody as if they were someone important

Pirillo mentions that bloggers are different from journalists because they aren’t paid. They are passionate writers covering what matters to them.
“Press releases are not aimed at people who are passionate,” Pirillo says. “They are aimed at people who are used to reprinting.”
Bottom line: Bloggers need to be approached differently and independently from journalists.