In addition to some tasks I’ve become accustomed to performing as part of my internship at the OBA, I got to learn some new things such as utilizing the news clipping service that the communications department is subscribed to and updating OBA awards archives. As all public relations offices do, the OBA monitors their media hits. A certain communications service e-mails one of the communications specialists on staff each time the OBA is mentioned in a news article and most of the time when a release authored by one of the OBA communications department staff members is published. I learned how to access this service and review the media hits it finds. It’s obviously a good way to measure effectiveness of public relations strategies and it’s also been a great way for me to monitor which of my releases gets picked up. The more releases I write that get published, the more confident I feel in my news writing skills.
The OBA presents annual awards to its members for various achievements such as community involvement and professional accomplishments. The honors are published in the October issue of the OBJ each year and then recorded in a database that keeps track of each award recipient and each member’s honors. I recorded this years honorees. This task was one of the many opportunities for me to learn the value of accuracy in documentation.
I also learned about writing photo cut lines last week. (It was about time!) I can see how this could be a service to reporters who receive electronic releases. This was yet another case of the need for accurate reporting and attention to detail. Names are important and so are readable captions.
A valuable tip I would like to offer fellow aspiring public relations professionals is: make news releases relevant to the public by including names, locations and public-specific references. The OBA Communications Director is kind enough to offer me useful advice when she sees an opportunity, and this tid bit is something that I’ve been able to apply to my work.
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