I had my taste of sports promotions when I worked for the Oakland Athletics and loved it. I loved being in front of the crowd when I stood on the dug out during the “Southwest Peanut Toss” or when I had to stand on the dugout for the check promo.

I want to be able to help plan events that stars come to. I want to be able to assist entertainers on tour and assist them on set or on the field. No, I don’t want to be a personal assistant because I like to use social media and writing press releases. I like the strategic side of pr. 

I guess my whole topic of discussion is although I want this. . . .

HOW DO I GET INTO THE INDUSTRY? 

So far i am looking for positions in San Francisco, but hardly any exist. PR here in Silicon Valley include techies, which my boss says can sometimes lead you to the entertainment industry. I believe her, but I want to be in Las Vegas or Los Angeles. Not sure why, but maybe I like the idea of the adventure and yes, not having a life. I want to be young and work hard so when I decide to settle down I know I will have worked hard in the earlier part of my career and feel successful. 

I’m not looking for someone to hold my and hand say “try here and here and do this and that” because I am a hard worker and when I have a goal I know I will get there and do anything to actually succeed.

What are some good tips to stand out though in interviewing for a company like Disney or Fox or other entertainment companies?

What about sporting teams?

Any insight or suggestions would be great. I’d love to get a discussion going so if you have Twitter find me @nathletics (yes I am an A’s fan, but also a Giants fan).

(picture from: PR Next)
Let me start from the beginning. I have a B.A. in Journalism and have been a journalist myself and let me say, it’s a hard profession. I have respect for those that write the news and track down the news, not celebrity gossip.

I’m also would like to say my background is also in social media. I’m an advocate for Twitter and believe that it’s a great tool for journalists and PR for posting news in real-time as well as establishing relationships.

Twitter allows a PR practitioner to  shorten pitches to 140 characters and get the point across to a journalist.  The pitch is brief and quick and needs to capture the attention of a journalist.

According to Jeremy Porter’s blog, Journalist, he lists why Twitter is helpful to create a relationship between PR and Journalism.

1. 140 characters equal quick pitch.

2. If a PR practitioner follows a journalist it’s easy for that person to see what the journalist is interested in and what to pitch to them.

3. Don’t make the first interaction through a DM (direct message).

4. Acknowledge the journalist’s tweets and what the content when reaching out to them.

Overall Porter says, don’t go to Twitter first, but basically maintain the relationship through Twitter. It shows interest and you doing your homework.

The main points that I understood from many articles I’ve read from journalists and PR practitioners was that  journalists really want a pitch to be quick, short and to the point. Wasting someone’s time without doing research on them or about their writing, is not going to get you a relationship with them.

Twitter can be used to tell the journalist that you have read an article and maybe point out something about your client that relates to them. A good example was with my internship. We found an article by Lee Billings, who writes for Seed Magazine. We found him on Twitter and added him as well as responded to him, which we acknowledge his article.  His article was about helium and how it’s disappearing. One of our clients recycles their helium and we made the effort to reach out and tell him that. 

(photo: Vibrant Consulting Group)

What were we hoping for? In my case my thought process was to build a relationship because our clients have interest in science and that is exactly what he wrote about. Did I want to pitch him right then and there? No. There was no need to and I realized that.

I see Twitter as a tool to build relationships. I’ve personally built relationships with Glee fans, journalists, baseball fans and etc. It’s about communicating because when I need something and I have a relationship built on communication, then it might be easier to give and take if I need to pitch something to someone for a client.

E-mails can get wordy, especially if you can’t get to the point. Use Twitter as an effective communication tool, but learn not to pitch something to a journalist or a potential client.  Communicate through starting a conversation based on research you have done. A true journalist will recognize someone just trying to get them to write a story compared to,  someone who has done their research and communicates based on talking about a recent story the writer has published.

I was very upset, but realized that maybe it was time to try internships. I had been lucky enough to have a promotional internship with the Oakland A’s during Spring Training for two years in Phoenix. I had my senior year internship as an event/pr coordinator for a teen magazine in Phoenix. I also was a marketing intern for ASU’s ID card program for the Phoenix campus. I was able to have jobs with ASU where I worked on communication, promotions, marketing and even at times PR. I also was able to write for The Arizona Republic while taking my news writing course.  In other words, I have experience.

I honestly was set on coming home and working for the A’s or Giants, but it didn’t happen. I don’t know why because I do have connections, but yet at the end of the day it was a blessing in disguised.

I ended up landing a wonderful internship with a full-ad agency and working as an Account Associate under the Director of PR. I have been gaining a lot of experience and they even let me establish a social media plan, Twitter mostly for the PR department and even help the marketing department as well. I’m starting to put together a presentation via, Prezi, as well as best practices and really do research on companies that use Twitter well.

I’ve learned how to pitch stories, write follow up emails, sit in on meetings, edit and look at radio ads, take part in a Twitter conference, Chirp. I’ve been able to research companies, research media and overall I have to say I’m getting to understand how PR works.

In other words, I am an intern and although I am not getting paid, but instead getting paid for transportation, I’m learning so much, more than I learned in my education, but I’m applying what I learned. So this begs my question:

HOW LONG DO I INTERN FOR?

I’m almost coming up to ending my internship. I’m still interviewing with a tourist city for a PR coordinator job and applying for internships because I don’t feel like I am qualified. However all internships I want they want someone who is still in college, which means they aren’t paid.

I have found Help a PR Pro Out, which has been helpful once I actually can sit through and look at questions and read blog entries. However, they don’t answer these questions.

How long should a college grad intern for?

After an internship is over, what keywords or titles should someone look for when applying for a position?

If anyone knows any links or articles to help solve these questions, that would be great. I know I can go to my mentor, aka my boss and ask her, but I feel like I may be jeopardizing the opportunity to maybe work there at the end of my internship.  I hope I am not the only one in this boat.

I’m fascinated with how other businesses in the PR/marketing industry are using their Twitter. The research has lead me to believe that most of the agencies that use it correctly are in Las Vegas.  One of my personal favorites is Preferred PR. They use it with tweeting new press releases, talking about their clients, upcoming events and deals. To me, they use Twitter correctly. However, their only downfall is I’ve read that Twitter is to engage conversation. I don’t know if people @ tweet them, but if they do, I’ve never seen them respond, but I could be mistaken.

I’ve had Journalists get back to me over Twitter, which another article I read was about how journalist these days would rather communicate via Twitter than get another email about a pitch.

MGM Mirage, Phoenix Zoo and others are great at respond to people. I’ve had a conversation with them and here they are businesses.

The thing I am learning while doing my presentation (prezi), best practices sheet and over all using our Twitter account for PR, is that it’s all about conversing. Granted, right now I am just following journalists and news sources.

Mashable posted an article “5 Free Services for Pre-Scheduling Tweets,” which made me step back and ask myself. .  . what happens when breaking news comes about? Why schedule tweets because doesn’t that lose the personal aspect of Twitter?
It also made me ask the question: Does anyone really know the amount someone should devote to using Twitter for their business? Is it 10-15 minutes a day? Or when an article or something catches your eye? When you have news to announce? No one really has led me to believe they even know when and how to use Twitter for businesses.
I guess my overall questions are:

How can an agency use Twitter to start a conversation if all it is following are journalists and media outlets?

How do you get the conversation rolling via Twitter?

Any best practices that you know of for an agency to use social media?