Marie Ebenezer, an intern at Olmstead Williams Communications, made the Los Angeles Business Journal’s “Page 3″ column (scroll to the bottom of the PDF to read) on Monday, Feb. 18, and she was interviewed by Alfred Lee a couple of weeks prior. The profile mentions Marie’s recent blogs, her cultural background and her experience working in PR.
It was a great recognition of Marie’s talents and further validates how bright the future is for one of our best interns. But how — you may ask dear reader — did our intern secure such great press?
The answer is simple: she was just being herself. If you have looked at Marie’s blog posts at The Big Mouth Blog over the last couple of weeks, then you will see that she has started writing about her experiences beyond the office. She has started to write about the experience of living in Los Angeles and how different this experience was from her home in Germany; she has started writing about what she missed most about Germany; and she has started writing about her experience with various forms of social media — Vine, Twitter, Facebook Google+ — from her unique point of view and drawing on her personal experiences. She was just writing posts that reflected who she was — posts that let our readers and our clients into our world over here at OWC.
So one day, Alfred Lee from the business journal calls our office and wants to speak to Marie. He said he had been reading her posts and wanted to know more about her story. He also interviewed our president, Tracy Williams. He wanted to know what writing about beer gardens had to do with PR. Here is what Tracy Williams, our president, had to say in the article: “She gives Olmstead Williams a personality. … Today with social media, part of what is important to do for any company or organization is to establish your personality online so people know who you are and what you stand for.”
One of the most important elements for a business today is to have a social media presence. Well, one way we are trying to create that presence is by introducing ourselves to you, showing you our personalities and presenting to you our voice. We’re trying to say: This is who we are; we are professionals; we work hard to secure media coverage for our clients and build social-media strategies; but we’re real people. This a larger part of what is being called “content public-relations.”
Lee’s questions about how beer gardens relate to PR is a part of a much larger conversation. How do lists — like Marie’s “Five Reasons I miss Germany” — impact a businesses’ bottom line? How do blog posts relate to acquiring media coverage? How does this relate to professionalism and a company’s goals? Well, the answer is quite simple — to create buzz and get you talking. And being a former journalist, I understand that in developing social media and trying to “creating buzz” the most important element is always telling good stories.
The public will always care about stories. And in the end, Marie is an excellent storyteller, and she is an extension of who we are. It’s a shame she’ll be leaving this Friday. Let us know what you think about Marie’s profile.