Investigator

Today at work, one of my bosses called me in to her office. She said that our CEO had just gotten out of a meeting with Reuters and he wanted us to note some contacts he had made there and get their information. This is the information he gave me to figure it out... I kid you not...



Yes, all we knew was one name completely, part of one name and the last two that they worked with Bill... Who the heck is Bill?? And how should I know who he works with?? Sometimes we feel like "The Devil Wears Prada". No matter what our boss asks us to do, our response is, "Oh yeah! Sure, I'll get that for you." (If you remember off of the movie she had to get a copy of the unreleased Harry Potter book for her boss's daughters.)


30 minutes later, who had all four? Yeah! That's me!

I think I could go into some kind of investigative profession. I'm very good at finding information on people... so watch out.

Pitching

Work today was kind of quiet at first, but come noon, things started to really pick up. We're working on pitching a client right now to a variety of media outlets. The client is Life Technologies and they do biomedical research including personalized medicine and gene therapy. We are working on pitching two stories. The first offering a meeting with the VP of communications or the CEO of the company. This would feature what is happening currently with Life Technologies and the announcements they are voicing in the next couple weeks. The other is a meeting with their VP of marketing who was named businesswoman of the year in 2009. This would be a feature focusing on the VP and her accomplishments as a woman in the workplace and being involved in the expansion of Life Technologies. Anyways, they put me on using Vocus to look up potential reporters, editors and producers we could pitch to. It's harder than it looks, but apparently I have a good eye for it.

For all of you future PR professionals, media pitching isn't as easy as it seems. You frequently get hung up on and cussed at by reporters for bothering them at the most inconvenient times. Don't get down about it, someone out there will want to talk to you, trust me. Just keep trying!

In the midst of all this joy, I was asked to write a press release. Kill me. I botched it up the yin yang. I didn't know what I was saying, but I think she just appreciated the fact that I put a lot of effort into drafting it for her - in a half hour, mind you. Thank you all my professors for teaching me how to write well! Even though it wasn't that great...

There and back

Well! I made it through my first day. And honestly? It went very fast.

I woke up at 7:00 (Gosh, I love how New Yorkers are lazy and don't work until 9:00...) and got ready for work. Rode the 1 train down to 50th, walked out of the subway station, and there in front of me down the street was Time Square. I walked up 50th to 6th Avenue, Radio City Music Hall. To my left, Time Inc.

My first day working at Coltrin was a great experience. Typical first day, but I really think I'm going to like it. Today I learned how to search for media contacts with an online program called Vocus. It's a database that has contact information for news contacts at every media outlet you can think of. You can search by keyword, subject, reporter name and media outlet. I'll be spending a lot of time in this program.

I went and got lunch with a couple people in the office at this place down the street called Cosi.

Jenny and mom, we are going here! Delicious flatbread with marinara, mozarella and SPINACH. Jenny told me that the best NYC pizza has spinach on it - she was right!

After we got lunch, we took our pizza back to the office and ate with everyone else for lunch. It's great! Everyone is really friendly and I'm going to make some great friends there this summer.

This afternoon I was able to sit in on a client/reporter interview with Allison, one of the account executives. First, she called the client (the CEO of Popeye's supply chain) and prepped them for the interview. She told them kind of what the reporter would most likely be asking. Allison then called the reporter and talked to them about how the interview would play out - first Popeye's would give an overview of the announcement they had made the week previous, then he was free to ask questions. She then connected the calls and listened in on the interview and took notes. It was really cool!

At the end of the day, it was a miracle. I made it home no problem. I have officially mastered the 1 train from 50th street and back to Cathedral Parkway. :) That's honestly the only thing I was worried about for today. Getting there and back again.

That was pretty much my day. Any questions? :)