Dresden Public Relations

Summer 2017

My internship over Summer 2017 was at Dresden Public Relations in Rochester, NY. This Public Relations firm represents multiple companies such as Monroe Muffler, Greater Rochester Area YMCAs, Kodak Alaris/Kodak Professional, Jordan Health, Pal-Mac Central School District and more. The owner of the firm, Dresden Engle also recently purchased the previously named Genesee Valley Parent Magazine and renamed it RocParent and added a new side called SheRocs. There are only a few full-time employees that work at this firm with a bunch of outside/freelance photographers, writers and consultants that she contacts when needed. Some clients have the company do the full public relations work for them such as social media, contacting the press, setting up events, creating/editing their websites, etc. Others consult the firm on some of their public relations needs as they most likely have their own small public relations/marketing section embedded in their company.

I attended this internship twice a week throughout the whole summer. I did a lot more duties and helped them out with a lot more clients than I thought I would even have time for. One of the bigger projects I did was create a list of all the Kodak Professional Printers in the entire country and researched their social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and websites). This project helped the team in a big meeting with Kodak when asked how to better their presence on social media. I then went onto Kodak Alaris’s Instagram page, searched all the printers’ pages and reposted some of their posts to get their name out there and make the connection between the “two” companies. Another project I did was create a media impressions report of all the TV news stations and radio stations that Dresden is in contact with in the Rochester area. This report is going to help the firm in the future when trying to pick the best news outlet for certain clients to highlight certain events that are going on and to reach the best and biggest audience. I also helped them with their client Palmyra Central School District and the annual magazine that they send out to students and parents. For this, I pulled Facebook posts for articles, scribed promotional videos and contacted staff members to receive more information about new projects that were happening at the school.

For the YMCA, I compiled all the newspaper and web articles that featured them in the past six months. When we realized that there weren’t a lot of media mentions about them, I then researched what topics other YMCAs in the country were mentioned for in the news. This information was presented to the media people at the Y for their quarterly report. I not only did Public Relations, but I also assisted with the RocParent and SheRocs magazine. I wrote a few articles, and mainly wrote Facebook posts for the magazine. I also focused heavily on creating a new Pinterest for the SheRocs magazine creating boards and pinning things. I then created some social media posts highlighting some of the pins on Pinterest to get people to visit the page. Among these things I did some little writing assignments, social media stuff and added input in on certain ideas or events to help the firm.

The benefits of this position are exponential, I have learned so many things that I could not have possibly learned in the classroom. Throughout the summer the employees mentored me and told me things I would have only known if I had experienced it myself. The drawbacks were that it was an unpaid position, so I had to work two other jobs to make money over the summer, and I wish I had more time to focus on the internship such as attending events. Another drawback that I saw was the firm is so small and represents so many different clients that I feel as though the employees, including me were stretched out and didn’t have enough time for each individual client. I could picture myself in a position like this as a career, however I would prefer there either be less clients, or it to have more employees that can help all the different clients. I liked the aspect of multiple clients because it makes the job unpredictable and I wouldn’t be doing the same thing working with the same people every day.

The advice that I would give a student who is considering this internship is that the office is a casual, open-office setting, so on the first day do not dress business professional. The student should dress business casual. The office is also very laid back with big personalities so I would recommend a student who is super outgoing. Also, they should be open to new ideas and doing different things. I had thought that I was just going in to work for a public relations agency, but the addition of doing things for a magazine as well added a new twist. I would also recommend that the student does not just have one internship with a small Public Relations firm, I would recommend branching out and doing a non-profit or a corporate setting to get the feel of all the different types of PR jobs that are out there.

Overall, this internship experience was a really good one. I learned things I could have never learned in the classroom. I now feel confident in my abilities that if I were to get a position with a public relations agency, or even a marketing office, I would be successful. I appreciate the opportunities I have been given and I hope they have set me up to be really successful in the future.