My Last Day :(

Now that my internship is coming to an end, I have mixed emotions.  I’m so happy I got the experience to work with the most creative, smart people, but I am also sad that my broternship is over.  I could not be more thankful for all that Brokaw has given me.  I have learned so much more than I ever imagined and made some of the best friends.

With that being said, I would like to share with you three of the top moments from my broternship.

1. Pitching to radio stations:

This was the most challenging task I had to complete.  It was frustrating pitching to a bunch of contacts and getting few replies.  But after pitching to so many contacts, one said they were interested in my pitch and mentioned our client on the radio!!!! I call that a success!

2. Bags, BBQ, and Broterns:

This was a farewell event the Brokaw brothers threw for all of us broterns.  We had an agency corn hole tournament, ate lots of BBQ, and drank beer.  It was a fun way to get to know and have fun with everyone at the agency.  By the way, Jayme and I were semi-finalists in the tourney, if you were wondering.

3. Brotern Interviews:

This was the best project!!!  We had to interview everyone in the office as part of our broternship.  It was a great way to meet everyone.

Lastly, I would like to shout out my mentors Kelly Gentile and Angela DelBrocco for being patient with me when I didn’t know how to do something, taking the time to teach me new things, and making me feel like part of the PR/Social team.  Also thank you Brokaw brothers and everyone else at the agency for making this summer the best!  I will miss all of you!

Oh and if any of you happen to read this feel free to visit me at OU this semester—I live on Court St…….enough said.

See you later,

Erin

Media Relations 101

I was very anxious about pitching to the media during my internship, but after tons of help from Brokaw’s Public Relations Associate—Angela DelBrocco, I finally feel comfortable completing this [sometimes] daunting task.  This past week I had the opportunity to pitch to the media about an up-coming event for one of our restaurant clients.  I quickly learned writing a pitch in school is very different than writing one in real life.  When you write a pitch for a class, you do not actually send it—and you do not actually get a reply.

With a ton of help from Angela, I crafted the perfect pitch and I would like to share a few tips I learned from her and the PR team here at Brokaw!

1. Pitch in the Morning:

Most media contacts are busy throughout the day, out on assignment, on-air or in meetings. The one-time where you might be able to catch them at their desk is in the morning.

2. Do not Pitch on a Friday:

 Media contacts have tight deadlines. Most of the time, whether you’re pitching to a TV and radio stations, or newspaper and online editors, those deadlines fall in the beginning in the week.

3. Leave enough time between the Pitch and the Follow-Up:

 It’s so important to not become spam to a media contact. They are busy people, give them at least a week or two before you follow-up.

4. Customize each Pitch to fit the contact you are pitching:

 It would be a lot easier to send a generic pitch to every media contact—but that won’t get you anywhere.  It is best to research the contact’s latest stories, topics they write about, etc. to make sure they would be interested in your story. It’s then important share that relevant information with the contact, explaining why this story would be a good fit for them. Make sure to angle the story in a direction that would work for their interests if it’s not an exact fit.

5. Reply right away:

The 24 hour rule doesn’t apply here!  Like I said before media contacts are busy people so it is best to reply/answer their questions right away. Media professionals work on tight deadlines, if you don’t respond quickly to get them with what they requested, they will move on to an alternate expert/source who will.

After my experience with pitching, I realized the only way to get comfortable with something new is to start doing it a lot.  After pitching all morning long—I continued to pitch the entire week—basically on my own!  Thanks to the PR team here, I feel a million times more comfortable with pitching and even feel confident doing it on my own (can’t believe I just said that).

How did you rid the first-time-pitching jitters?

-Erin

Crucial Facebook Insights for Brands

Facebook Insights give brands the opportunity to enhance their posts based on the learnings and craft optimal social strategies. For social media professionals and content marketers, Facebook Insights is an essential tool for optimizing a brands social presence—and reporting success as a result of those efforts. Here are some of the top insights for brands to focus on and what they can tell us:

1. Engagement:

It shows who is commenting, liking, or sharing the brands content—and it’s probably the most important metric to be monitoring.

Pro Tip: Those engaging on your page—they are your fans. These are the users that matter to your brand.  Make sure to ask your fans questions and ask for their opinions to see engagement thrive—they are the ones who will reply and be talking positively about your brand .

2. Unique Impressions:

Impressions are the amount of individual users that saw your post.   This is important to view how your post is doing and if you need to adjust your posting schedule or content.

3. Reach:

Reach is the number of people who have seen your post.  Your reach counts if it is in a user’s news feed.

4. Demographic:

Facebook insights allows social pros and content marketers to view what demographic is most active on the brands page.  Thus, allowing them to adjust the posts based on what demographic is on the page most to engage their target audience.

Facebook insights are useful if you know what they mean and which insights are important for your brand—master how to apply these learnings to your social strategy and your brand will be on its way to having a killer social presence.

What other Facebook insights help develop your brands social strategy?

-Erin

The Perfect Balance of Personal and Professional on Social Media

It’s hard to figure out the perfect balance between personal and professional on Social Media.  I—along with many other people—struggle with it.  You always hear those horror stories about people losing their jobs over something they posted on social media, obviously we don’t want that.  But we also don’t want to be the boring friend who posts business articles all day.  I mean come on! We go on social media for enjoyment, not for a total snooze fest!  So what is the perfect mixture between inappropriate funny friend and stuffy oldie on social media?  Here are some of my tips for keeping a balance on social media platforms:

1. Keep it personal, BUT not too personal:

Social media is your personal platform; people follow you to see who you really are!  So show off your hobbies, interests, family and friends. With that being said, people also do not need to know extremely personal information.  We don’t want to hear about your break-up, what you eat every morning for breakfast, or how you feel about your boss (major no-no).

2. Avoid Negative Comments:

Social media has no room for a negative Nancy.  It’s not a smart move to be extremely negative; being negative does not give a good impression to friends, family, or possible employers.

3. Practice what you preach:

Create personal content that makes sense for your profession.  For example, if you are a social media professional it is important to be active on social media.  Participate in Twitter chats, use hashtags, and share relevant articles. (thanks for this tip Kelly).

4. Remember it’s easier than you think:

You are already living a mix of a seasoned professional and an actual human with hobbies and interests in “real life.” So, simply mimic that behavior on your social platforms, making sure you’re real-life balance in translating onto your networks. (thanks for this tip Angela).

Always remember what you post on social media reflects who you are as a professional.  Be cautious about what you post, but still show your personality!

Have any different tips for balancing professional and personal on social media?  Comment and let me know!

-Professional Brokaw PR/Social Intern and Ohio U student Erin

Agency Lingo

Before I started working at an agency, I had no idea what to expect.  I didn’t think there would be happy hour in the office, people who looked 25 but actually turn out to be 32, or two Vitamix blenders conveniently in the kitchen for smoothie making.  I also did not realize that working at an agency came with gaining a new vocabulary.

Ever since my first day at Brokaw, I’ve carried around this little brown leather journal.  I bet half the agency wonders why I carry it around, because most of the time I’m not writing anything down.  Well, one of the main reasons I carry it around is to write down all the agency lingo I hear.  I usually have no idea what these words mean, and have to later ask Kelly and Angela for an explanation, but I still write them down.  Here are the most interesting agency words I’ve heard around Brokaw:

1. Micro video– A micro video is a short video that is 15 seconds or less. Now this word is pretty self-explanatory, but I never heard anyone say it before I heard Kelly talking about the proper length for a social video.  It’s not surprising that a micro video is appropriate for social media, considering the average person’s attention span is 8 seconds.
2. Organic reach– Organic reach is the total of unique people who viewed a post through unpaid distribution.
3. Geo-Targeting– Geo-targeting is targeting posts to a specific area. It allows a brand to deliver different content to particular visitors depending on their demographic.  This tool is available on Facebook and Twitter, although utilizing this tool on Twitter requires monetary compensation.

I assume when my broternship comes to an end my little brown leather journal will be filled with tons of words, notes, and probably a few doodles.

What are some agency words-to-know you’ve learned at your internship?

Until next week,

Erin

#InstaGOOD Social Updates

Now, anyone who knows me knows my favorite form of social media is Instagram—and Instagram just happened to make some pretty cool updates that social media junkies—like myself—are very excited about.

Instagram recently updated its search and explore feature to be more user friendly and Twitter-like. Before, the search and explore feature only allowed users to search hashtags and people.  It also provided content based off of what a user recently liked or searched.  It was a pretty basic feature that was not very beneficial for brands. It made it difficult for brands to serve their content to their intended potential audiences unless they used paid supported posts.

Now, with the new updates, the first thing to pop up under the search and discover tab on Instagram is “trending tags.”  The “trending tags” section displays the hashtags that are currently trending on Instagram.  As a result, it makes it easier for people to use the platform beyond their personal feed, which is good news for brands.

The new update also displays a collection of posts from various groups on Instagram, and allows users to click on the sections to discover interesting content.  These sections will change twice a week, currently the sections include:

• Extreme Athletes
• Towering Rocks
• NBA Rising Stars
• New People
• Trending Places

So what does this new feature mean to social media pros, or in my case aspiring social media pros?  It allows them to create content focused around already trending conversations.  This in turn, allows social media specialists to better promote their brand on Instagram without paying for a promoted post.

Before the updates it was hard for brands to get other users, besides their followers, to see their content.  Now the new update makes it possible for users to discover content they will find interesting and enjoyable, but might not have ever known existed.  It is a great place for users to explore different brands, and not just the few friends they follow.

These new features do not only change the way Instagram users think about the app, but changes a social media specialists strategic strategy for a brand.

-Erin

My first week(s) at Brokaw

Hi! I’m Erin, better known as Intern Erin to everyone here at Brokaw (I happen to be the 4^th Erin to join the team). During my time here this summer, I will be the PR/Social intern and I’m so excited to be working with the Brokaw Earned Media team.

Here are a few fun facts about me:

1. I’m going to be a senior at OU (oh yeah) in the fall
2. I’m obsessed with posting/creeping on all forms of social media
3. Coffee is my favorite food group
4. I strongly believe there are few things better than looking at cute puppy pictures on Pinterest
5. Watching E! News, Keeping up with the Kardashians, & The Real Housewives of O.C. makes me happy

Things I learned / accomplished / have been doing so far at Brokaw:

1. I’m officially a fake adult, A.K.A yo pro (young professional) in Cleveland
2. Working downtown is awesome. Especially in a brand new office equipped with a bar and patio located in Cleveland’s famed Warehouse District
3. The people are just as amazing as the new space—I’ve met some of the nicest and most helpful people in such a short time
4. My mentors, the Dream Team, Kelly and Angela are awesome
5. So far, I’ve worked on social media audits, brainstorms, and composing social content

I can’t wait to see what else the rest of the summer has in store!

TTYL

Erin