Four things I learned from my internship at a travel PR agency

I interned at a PR agency that specialized in a niche area, travel PR. I loved reading food blogs and watching travel related shows, so I was very optimistic about this internship. I was excited at the prospect of having the opportunity to apply the knowledge I acquired in my postgraduate program in PR.

My short time working at a travel PR agency gave me a lot of knowledge about agency life. First, agencies are busy organizations, so if you love to juggle multiple projects and love to stay on top of the latest news then you will thrive at an agency. Second, some day’s agencies are slow and do not have a lot of client work on their plate, so if you get bored quickly when you do not have enough work to do than avoid agencies.

Today, I am going to share with you on this blog my experience of interning at a travel PR agency. I interned at a mid-size agency so not quite boutique. If you are interested in interning at a PR agency then you might be able to relate to this blog.

You get to manage social media

If you like creating engaging copy for social media then you will like the tasks you get to do at an agency. In my second week of internship, I was tasked with managing the agency’s Pinterest account. Turned out, Pinterest was the main channel that was driving the most traffic to the agency’s blog.

Managing Pinterest was fun because not only did I get to learn more about that platform, but I saw a lot of value in using Pinterest which I did not see before. For example, I learned if you are a food or travel blogger then you could use Pinterest to drive traffic to your food or travel blog. Also, people browsed Pinterest for inspirations so by sharing your blogs on this platform, your chances were high of finding someone who enjoyed doing what you do.

You get to pitch new blog ideas

From day one agency’s offer interns the opportunity to do the tasks they love. Whether it be writing, media relations or social media, interns get to dabble their hands in all the important areas of PR.

I really liked writing blogs, so my supervisor gave me ample opportunities to pitch her different blog ideas. I pitched her five blog ideas, but she approved two of the five blog ideas. However, I was not deterred, but rather I enjoyed the prospect of learning what ideas worked and what ideas fell flat.

You do a lot of media monitoring

When you work at a PR agency you do a lot of media monitoring. You are expected to be an avid reader who has their pulse on the latest news about the industry you are working in.

During my internship, every Mondays we had newspaper meetings. This was a mandatory meeting everyone had to attend. We would go around the table while each one of us spoke about the latest travel-related articles we read and how it was relevant to agency’s clients. Afterwards, everyone had to pass on the contact information of the journalists who wrote the articles we spoke about so it could be added to the media list. These meetings were a great way to learn about the works of different journalists and the agency’s clients.

You help with brainstorming campaign ideas

Brainstorming sessions are a great way to generate creative campaign ideas. During my internship, these meetings gave me first-hand experience as to how small ideas became big campaigns.

The brainstorming sessions were fun, in the meetings we brainstormed everything from creative campaign hashtags to pop-up shop ideas. Everyone on the team had something new to contribute. As an intern, I was able to actively contribute to the concept creation process, which made me more comfortable with the ideas I had.

Conclusion

Agencies are a great place to intern because you get to learn on the job. Whether you want to try your hand at pitching to journalists or you want to write creative copy for social, in an agency you have the opportunity to do the tasks you have a hunger for.

If you enjoyed this blog, then share it with your friends. If you want to share with me your experience of interning at a PR agency then tweet me your experience @FarihaSamiha.