First day in Weber Shandwick

Yesterday was my first day in Weber Shandwick and boy was I glad that I have started my internship already. I'm so excited to learn and gain new experiences in Weber Shandwick :)

Weber Shandwick is one of the leading global PR firms in the world. The firm has been named Public Relations Agency of the Year by the American Business Awards last June 24 and Global Agency of the Year (2010) by The Holmes Report.

I started my day in the office yesterday by monitoring newspapers to see if their press releases were published already. I had to scan tabloids and broadsheets for write-ups about their clients particularly: PR Gaz, The Medical City, Hawaiian Airlines, Smartmatic, DBP, Araneta Center and Porsche. I had to check write-ups about their clients' competitors as well.

After scanning so many newspapers, I was lucky to find an article about DBP in the Malaya Broadsheet. It was quite fun to see the exact article Weber sent (I was told that some newspaper editors sometimes change the write-ups about Weber's client/s). I then tore the sheet that contains the article, cut it properly and pasted it in a paper with Weber Shandwick letterhead. Apparently, they do such for documentation.

I also found something about Smartmatic's Cesar Flores in a tabloid along with write-ups about their clients' competitors in both newspapers and magazines this time. I had to cut the articles and paste it in a clean sheet of paper to be scanned and sent to their clients for reference.

Aside from monitoring newspapers, I spent the day doing an Excel file for Weber to document the dates they released the articles per client and the dates those articles got published in specific newspapers. Not only that, I made calls to various media organizations informing them that we have sent a new press release for them. I also checked blogs, online news sites and Youtube (teehee!) for possible mention of Weber's clients in shows like Unang Hirit, SNN and Juicy!

I learned that they have to do all kinds of monitoring and promotions through press releases and media relations for their clients to have favorable relationships with their respective publics. After all, PR is about executing a program of action for an organization to earn public understanding and acceptance ;)