Looking to enter the PR industry? These videos can help you get an idea of where to go next. As with any career, you first step should be to acquire education and training as needed for the industry you hope to enter. Your next best step would be to apply for jobs you are qualified for. Even if you lack the years of experience listed but have experience in other areas, consider applying, but be sure to include why your experience in other fields or jobs can help you in the position you are applying for. You can do this in your cover letter, where you should really sell your skills, expertise, and abilities. Be sure to use your cover letter to tie in those attributes with what the employer is looking for.

While a lot of public relations activities rely on having great a relationship and rapport with the media, there is more to the PR professional’s job duties.

When thinking of the PR pro, many people tend to think of one thing: the press release. (That is all there is to PR, right?) Moreover, traditional use of the press release was to relay and pitch a story to the media (which it is still used for) and only the media. That can be referred to as media relations. While that is an important aspect and role of the PR professional, customer relations is maybe even more important. Many stories and news coverages start from WOM (word of mouth) that a media person hears about or finds interesting. Encourage that WOM, and help it to be positive. Your customers can generate the WOM for free and help to get your company recognized by the media.

The key to remember here is that while in the past, the PR team had a goal to get as many news clippings as possible, the present calls for PR teams who can handle the media and customers. With the ability to reach both (whereas old PR tactics only allowed you to contact the media), why not do both? Unless you are employed for a company stuck using old PR tactics, you ought to be implementing ways to connect and foster relations with both parties. Even if you are employed by a company stuck in the past, make an effort to advocate the use of new PR tactics. (Advocating is, after all, another role of the PR team; your audiences can also include stakeholders in the company.)

Some ways to move your company forward with PR:

• Implement social media. First, see where your customers are participating online, and see if it would make sense for you to go there too.
• Use that social media. Don’t just implement it, but use it to its full potential to really get a good idea of its relevance.
• Connect with your customers. (That means going beyond sending them a newsletter.) Encourage them to connect by making it easy.
• Evaluate your current and future strategies. What are you doing now? What out of those strategies and tactics are working? What are you going to implement now?
• Reevaluate them with time. After implementing future ideas, evaluate them to ensure they are relevant, effective, and most importantly fostering relations with customers and the media.
• Implement new strategies. If you find that some things aren’t working, make a new plan or revamp your current one to get the most reach.

Overall, knowing who to target is one of the best ways to success in a PR campaign, whether it be the media or your customers. As I’ve mentioned before, doing your homework is the surest way to finding that target market. Moreover, know who to hire for your PR needs if you are a company looking to add another team member or even a company looking to do your own PR. Really evaluate your needs to see if an outside PR firm would do the trick or if all you need is to roll up your sleeves; with more and more emphasis online, knowing media contacts isn’t as heavily depended upon for the success of your PR plans. Just remember that it really depends on the company and the objectives; a plan that was a success for one company may be a disaster for another.

What does public relations mean to you?

Successful PR is largely dependent on creating a relevant and focused PR plan. One way to ensure your PR plan is relevant and successful is to create a focused plan. This means that your homework needs to be done. Things to look for when doing your homework:

• Your audience. Who are they? Where do they go online? What are some of the problems they are looking to solve? How can you solve them?

• Relevant publications. Which publications (online and off) reach your audience the best? What do your customers read? Will they find value in a blog, or prefer to read something in a magazine? Does your target audience read consumer or trade magazines?
• Preferred medium. Do they prefer reading to watching a video, or vice versa?

A great way to find these things out is to really reach out to your customers. Way you can do this include:

• Primary research: Surveys and focus groups are two forms of primary research, and they can be done for relatively low amounts of money. There are great online tools, such as SurveyMonkey, that creates surveys for your online needs (though this relies on the fact that your target audience is online). Focus groups can often be done for low amounts of compensation or a meal. Customers are willing and able to share their opinions (and many really enjoy sharing them), so all you have to do is simply ask!

• Secondary research: This can include things like research other companies have done (usually available to you for a price). The benefit of these studies is that other companies who specialize in research may have a more in-depth look at things, know better questions to ask respondents, and have a wider reach in terms of the customers and participants they can reach. Moreover, they may have more resources available to them to make the study very useful. More often than not, these studies can be expensive, but well worth the investment because of the insights they offer. Another secondary source of information can be census information (for demographic data). With the 2010 census underway, the new data that will be available therein will greatly benefit businesses nationwide.

The goal of primary and secondary research is to really discover where your customers spend their time online, the sorts of solutions they are looking for, and the places they regularly go for information. This can help you to focus your PR efforts correctly so that you do not waste resources or time. Knowing whom to target is the first step in creating a successful PR plan. Once you know whom to target, you can establish where your efforts will be best spent. For example, it doesn’t make much sense to send in your stories or press releases to a consumer magazine if your customers are more interested in trade publications.

Do your homework to create great PR plans. What strategies have you used to reach your audience?

With more and more of your customers coming online to talk with, shop, read, and research, being easily accessible online is vital to your company’s success. Customers come online to read about you from other customers, the media, and your own website. With so many places for them to find out about you, ensure that you are monitoring the WOM (word of mouth) being generated about you. Since it’s a bit difficult to control the WOM your company receives online, you can control the content your own site or blog produces. Creating great content on your site can help to influence the other WOM media or bloggers share about you, and it can also help customers to see the whole picture despite some negative WOM they may have read about you elsewhere. This requires that you actively monitor other sources of information and that you are actively participating on your own website.

4 ways to help customers find you first:

1. Use keyword rich copy. Learn what customers are searching for by using Google Alerts and the Google Keyword tool to see what keywords customers are searching for. Though this will give you a large list of keywords customers search for regularly, remember to pay attention to the longer keyword sequences, or the long-tail keywords. These are keywords and phrases that fewer customers search for because of their length. The main thing to remember here is that searches made in an online search engine like Google are often times brand new searches that web users have never searched for before. This is important to remember so that you can avoid competing with the millions of other blogs trying to be found through some of the most searched keywords. It is hard to differentiate yourself as it is, so why not do something small that will make it a bit easier?

2. Optimize your images. Just like the title and the rest of your website’s copy, you can optimize your image titles. Since search engine spiders (who “crawl” the web, documenting the Internet’s content) cannot “see” images, having a great picture on a website might not do much to help your customers find you. It may help to make their visit more pleasant once they get to your site, but in order to increase your chances of being found in a search engine results page, save your image with the same keyword-rich title you give the webpage or blog post. This will help search engine spiders to see the importance of your image and also help to increase the search engine results that your blog post or website appear in.
3. Use multiple vehicles to share your information and content. This means creating videos, blog posts, and audio recordings to share your information. With people learning in different ways, a blog post may become more interesting for someone who prefers to hear someone talk rather than read themselves. Creating multiple methods for people to “hear” you can greatly improve your chances of reaching more people.
4. Share your content. Use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, RSS feeds, etc., to share when your blog is updated or when you add a new video resource. This can also increase your reach. Your target audiences may be on different platforms or different social media sites so use all that are applicable and relevant. Moreover, RSS feeds may be useful to readers who read all of their favorite blogs that way.

Overall, remember that your audiences are unique and may have different search methods or preferred methods of consuming content. Make as much available as possible, and incorporate SEO (search engine optimization) tactics (using keywords customers search for) into your website content to increase your chances of being found.

Public relations is a somewhat fickle craft to master, but you can certainly learn as you go. I think many PR professionals do just that, on top of having some already learned expertise. A great way to do that is to experiment with tools online and to ask others for advice. People who have done it before you usually welcome questions and will answer if they’re able to. There is a lot of trial and error, and a lot of learning. There is no magical formula that will work for all companies since each company and each situation calls for a specific and personalized plan. Some tactics will work better for some companies, so really researching what works best for you and your current needs is crucial.

Some tactics to consider when creating a PR 2.0 plan for your company:

1. Utilize social media. I may be running this idea into the ground, but it is an important idea to remember. Social media is an awesome tool, opening the doors for companies world-wide to reach niches and ignored markets that were previously inaccessible. Social media also makes it possible to reach the already tapped markets by being a personified company interested in interacting with customers. This can make the difference between a customer using your products or services or those of a competitor.

2. Optimize your copy. Use keywords that customers search for. Avoid using keywords that don’t make sense to use. Instead, use the long-tail keywords that will attract the Internet users you want. For example, a keyword I could use here on this blog could include something like: “how to write a press release”, “sample of a press release”, “writing for public relations materials”, etc. These longer phrases will capture the visitors I am looking for (the ones who are looking for ideas on those phrases), and I can offer them exactly what they’re looking for. These long-tail keywords will make up the bulk of your traffic, so really pay attention to them. (For more information on the long-tail keywords, click here.)
3. Engage your customers and visitors. This means making calls to action clear, meaning that your visitors’ next steps should be visible, understandable, and attractive. Should they click on a link on the side-bar? Should they leave a comment, download your eBook? If so, make it clear that that’s what they should do next! Remember, too, that attention to detail makes a world of difference. If they download your eBook, thank them! If they leave a comment, reply and share it on your social networking accounts to increase participation. Encouraging interaction is the first step.
4. Being responsive, being there. Being present in all aspects of your online participation can make or break your success online. A company who sits idly as customers ask questions or interact with one another is sure to fail in this area. Know that your customers usually ask questions or raise a concern with the hopes of being answered. If you are unable to address their concern or answer their questions, try to respond anyways. You can refer them to someone who may know, or tell them what you can answer. This is better than ignoring their inquiries.
5. Be genuine and real. This can greatly help to build your credibility. Being a transparent, open, and honest company is really best in the long-run. While you may be able to fool your customers in the short-run, your company won’t last long. The truth finds its way out, and customers aren’t usually ecstatic to hear you’ve been untruthful.

The key idea to remember here is that social media is not a part time job; it requires your attention, constant use, time, and energy. Companies can quickly lose customers or web traffic by being a part-time PR 2.0 user. Simply using the tools the Internet has available will greatly improve your expertise and will make you more comfortable in using them. Remember that everyone who began using an Internet or social media tool was inexperienced and a novice. It takes time to really understand the benefits of a tool, and the best thing to do is to just start using them.

How did you become comfortable in the online world? Click on this post’s title and leave a comment!

There are a few things public relations can do for your company, and some people may disagree. Overall, there ought to be a consensus on the benefits and roles of PR in a company, but it may be up to you as the PR professional or PR team to convey those benefits. With PR being seen as a secondary option to advertising, you need to advocate the use of PR, and you need to show some measurable proof.

To start, try sharing some of the conceptual benefits of public relations; there are many, but below are are some of the best. Public relations is the start of a relationship with a customer, and to get that ball rolling, you have to know why having that relationship is important. Customers trust someone they know, and using PR, you can be a more transparent company.

With some help from the authors of Strategic Public Relations, here are a few things PR can do for your company:

• “Build your brand.” I’ve said it before: public relations, not advertising, builds a brand. A brand cannot be built on advertising alone since PR is more credible and trustworthy than advertising. For a company with millions of dollars in excess monies to spend, advertising may work, but for realistic conditions and companies with limited resourced, creating publicity can make or break your brand’s success. Partaking in events, trade shows, or press conferences can help to raise awareness about your products or services. Advertising hopes to relay information, but a press release, newspaper article, or trade show appearance can help to share information and have a meaningful conversation and connection with a customer.

• “Create trust for your company and its products.” This adds to the first bullet point: “Because advertising is viewed as more credible than advertising, it’s a great tool for helping customers understand that they can trust your product.” While trust is not gained overnight, PR can greatly increase your chances of generating that trust from customers. Advertising comes from the company by the company in the hopes that the customers’ perceptions and beliefs will change. PR also comes from the company (with press release writings and other copy), but it takes another company to advocate you and your product to generate real PR. To get a story in a newspaper or to have a journalist write about you in their blog, your company must first get their trust by having a real product of value. More often than not, media talk about other products or companies that they’ve heard of through other media contacts, and the information continues to spread. Being a trusted company to some can turn into a trusted company to more. Credibility has to be earned from customers reading about you, testing your products, and talking about you. Advertising tries to make them trust you, whereas PR can help them to trust you on their own.

• “Shift the perception of your product.” “PR is also a useful tool for changing the way customers view your product.” Your product, depending on its stage in the life cycle, may already have a perception customers associate it with. These perceptions are sort of like stereotypes about a product that are very hard to change or shift. For example, big cars are usually thought to use more fuel (which more often than not, they do). To change this perception, a company would need to use some major PR tactics. They would need to utilize the media and customers to help that perception change. If the car in fact had lower gas consumption, having consumer reports or tests done on the vehicle could help the company product change its perception. The authors use the example of Vespa who wanted to change the perception of their scooters; they urged cities to advocate the use of less oil, took reporters on test drives, and also created podcasts. This in turn helped them to boost their sales by more than 25% after the 2005 campaign launch. (pg. 12)

PR can be the most useful tool to your company. While advertising is necessary to keep your brand alive once the possible publicity runs out, PR can greatly benefit a company. There are many other things the authors write about in the first section of the book. For a complete list and more detailed information on the benefits of PR, please check out the Strategic Public Relations book.

What are some of the benefits of PR you’ve experienced?

Communicating properly is vital to the success of your PR efforts. Having successful two-way communication is even more important; talking with your customers instead of simply to them makes a world of difference.

Even though the Internet has made this two-way communication easier, it is still a struggle to send the right message, respond properly, and to actively listen to what you are being told. The goal of the PR professional is to ultimately change the beliefs of a customer (or to further enhance them) so that their actions reflect those of your current customers.

In order to achieve that goal, we must do the following:

• Convey information and share knowledge
• Increase understanding
• Gain acceptance
• Provide action

  (pg. 221 The Public Relations Practitioner’s Handbook by Larry Litwin)

Here are a few ways to improve your two-way communication skills:

• Establish the needs of your company and your audience. This is perhaps the most important step to follow. What do your customers come to you for? What do the media, other bloggers, or others in your industry ask of you? This can help for you to define and determine where your efforts need to be spent. Establishing your needs can also help for you to better understand what you are capable of and where your resources can be used.

• Write well. Since most of your conversing will take place through written copy, ensure that your writing skills are up-to-par. There is really no faster way (than through aesthetics) to deter a reader to finish reading than to misspell words and to misuse grammar and punctuation. Often times, a poorly written copy, pitch, or press release will not even be read due to poor writing skills. Take the time to reread what you write and to have someone else check your work.
• Listen. Not listening is another great way to alienate customers, the media, and others in your industry. Customers will often tell you what they think (and for free) if you would only listen. Moreover, they would give you that information if it were simple enough for them to do so.
• Respond. Once you make it available to them to give feedback and voice opinions, please remember to reply. This is a key part of the two-way communication process that many companies forget to do. This is a dangerous game to play if you do not intend to be responsive, and your company’s reputation and image are on the line. Don’t underestimate the power of the customer and the word of mouth (WOM) they can create.
• Encourage interaction. Make it easy for customers to communicate with you. This can include newsletters, emails, comments on a blog or website, forums, wikis, social networking site accounts (such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), and surveys. Try to monitor these tools to see if they are getting used. If they are not, try advertising them more on your blog or website, try moving links around on your blog’s homepage, or try making links and next steps more visible and apparent. Use these tools to see how the audience you’re reaching feels and what they think about you and your company. Again, be sure to respond.
• Vehicles and methods of communication. Consider where and how you are reaching your audience. This can tie back into the first step of evaluating needs; determine how your audience likes to be reached. Is it through the web, TV, or the radio? Do they prefer print? Knowing this can save you time and resources and increase your chances of having a successful campaign.

Overall, know that any communication may not be better than none at all. Your communication efforts need to be well planned and they need to be maintained. Customers come to expect a certain level of responsiveness from all companies. Remember, too, that this all takes time, trial and error, and preparation. The only way to figure out if this new plan will work is to really try it out. To better your chances of that plan working, ensure that you research properly, budget well, and exhaust any possible analysis that ought to take place before implementing a new PR plan.

What are some ways you communicate with your customers? Do you have any tips for improving the two-way conversations that need to occur to better relationships with your audiences?

As a public relations professional you are at the forefront of the communications efforts of the company. Your goal is to connect and interact with the public whether that be consumers, the media, other businesses, or the general public. There are a few ways you can do this, and the vast majority of them include writing. (Even if they don’t involve your target audiences reading something, you often write the scripts and speeches delivered to that target audience.)

From The Public Relations Practitioner’s Playbook by Larry Litwin, here is a great list summarizing the publications and other articles that one might have to write as a public relations professional or company practicing PR:

• News releases
• Media advisories (media alerts; news and photo memos; invitation to cover)
• Fact sheets
• Histories
• Backgrounders
• Feature articles
• Photo captions
• Public service announcements (PSAs)
• Letters to the editor
• Op-eds
• Pitch letters
• Position letters
• Counseling papers
• Newsletter copy (newsletters)
• Brochures
• Annual reports
• Issue ads
• Obituaries
• Visual presentations
• Speeches

While that may look like a long list, they all serve a very important purpose. Some are self-explanatory terms, but here are some definitions of the most important and sometimes difficult to define terms:

• News releases: a news release, online or offline, is a document written to share the release of a piece of news (as the name suggests). News releases are also referred to as a press release. There are many components of a press release, but the most important to remember is that it must be complete and include information for a media contact, blogger, or even a consumer reading it to know that Who, What, When, Where, and How. In the past, news releases were only seen by the media. With personal websites, press release distribution sites, and media contacts online press releases can be read by consumers and the media alike.
• Media advisories: similar to a news release, this is a document, often sent to the media, to notify them of an upcoming event. This is usually more specific and timely than a news release, which can talk about past events and occurrences. A media advisory is often used to talk about a future event, usually with the goal of inviting a media presence to come to the event to cover the story.
• Public service announcements: as the name suggests, this is an announcement aimed at the public. These often take place through radio or television vehicles, but can also be found in print. The goal of a PSA is to increase awareness of an issue at hand or a specific topic. They are used to educate and inform.
• Letters to the editor: from the PublicRelationsBlogger.com glossary, “A letter sent to an editor of a reader’s opinion congratulating, discussing, or criticizing an article the editor may have been responsible for approving or writing.” These are often used to help correct, amend, or show appreciation for a topic being covered.
  
• Op-eds: Also from the PublicRelationsBlogger.com glossary, “Stands for Opposite the Editorial. An op-ed is an article written and positioned opposite the editorial, usually written by a professional/expert.” This is meant to accompany or contrast that which was written by the editorial to offer some additional information or point-of-view on the topic.
• Pitch letters: these are letters to media, bloggers, or other business professionals, often times accompanied by a news/press release, asking for your story to be covered. The pitch is usually the first thing read and should convey the importance of your story. Like a cover letter, however, the pitches may not be read, so remember to make your press release easily readible with the most important information at the top. (See “inverted pyramid style writing“.)
• Position papers: an essay that presents an opinion about an issue, typically that of the author or another specified entity; such as a political party. Position papers are published in academia, in politics, in law and other domains. (Source)
• Issue ads: “Issue advocacy has historically been viewed as political advertising intended to influence a political issue, legislative proposal or public policy—not to advocate the election or defeat of candidates. Because of this, issues ads have fallen outside the definition of campaign advertisements and beyond the realm of most state and federal campaign regulations.” (Source) There are also sham issue ads, defined as: “Sham issue ads are paid political advertisements that target individual candidates and are designed to influence the outcome of elections, but avoid important requirements of the Federal Election Campaign Act because of a loophole in the law.” (Source)

Some important things to remember when writing:

1. Make sure you can be contacted. This means putting a contact name and contact information that will actually get a person calling or emailing to someone they can talk to. You want to be readily available for questions since they may often times come from a reporter.
2. Write well. If you have trouble writing (and even if you don’t have trouble) have someone else read your copy before you send it out. This is a great way to proofread your work and to get a second opinion. Also, try reading your copy outloud; you can often hear mistakes better that way.
3. Close the release. Be sure that you indicate the end of a release with the appropriate tag, such as ### to really signal the end of the press release.
4. Simple is key. Use clear words and avoid jargon. As noted above, customers and the public must now be taken into account when writing a press release if you plan to submit your release online. If you are submitting you press release to a trade publication media contact, still try to write in a clear manner so as to be easily understood.
5. Use the inverted pyramid style writing. This can greatly increase your chances of having your story featured or press release published.

What are some other tips you have for writing? Click on this post’s title and leave a comment!

Also, be sure to check out Larry’s Blog for useful PR tips, more on his book, and other useful information!

I’ve said it a few times before: the Internet has drastically changed the way professionals and companies alike are performing public relations. The Internet has made it easier to do PR, but it’s also increased the responsibilities that a company has. While it is easier to release information, get in touch with the public, and address crises, there is an increased responsibility because the public knows how easy it is; with that ease comes a sort of expected response. If a crisis is underway, I expect a company to be responsive, available, and accountable because it is so easy to be these things online.

A large part of public relations and a large role of the PR professional is the management and monitoring of your company online to see what’s being said, what issues may be arising, and where you may need to take action.

Being online is vital to the success of most companies; with so many customers online, it wouldn’t make much sense to ignore such a large portion of your target market (if they consist of women, men, young, and old) who are online participating in Facebook, trying their hand at Twitter, and surfing the web for anything and everything. Your company could come up in search results if they are looking for the products or services you provide. Using social media to reach the wide array of users online can benefit your company greatly, but it takes time.

It’s easy to get lost in the sea of companies that offer the same products that you do. While competition isn’t necessarily bad (and actually encourages consumer spending), there needs to be something special about you to set you apart from the others. Here are a few ways to do just that:

Social media and public relations can work together in your favor if used properly. While getting used to these tools make time, you can improve your reach by offering content and resources that your audience can use.

Writing is an essential role of the public relations professional. In order to reach customers we write for blogs, websites, and social networking accounts. We also reach them through video, podcasts, and images, and writing well can help to make those better. We can lose the attention of readers by writing poorly or offering content that is irrelevant to our audiences’ needs. In order to capture their interest and to keep them on our sites, we must become better writers from the beginning so that our writing will better with time.

Success in PR takes a mixture of self promotion, networking, luck, and hard work. It requires that you befriend others in the industry and that they in turn take the time to share you and your brand. The best way to do this is to sincerely reach out to others in your industry, the media, and your customers.

Public Relations is a somewhat self-explanatory term: relations with the public. Though it may be easy to define the term, don’t be mislead: it is not as easy to carry out. But, with the tools available on the Internet, that public can help you and your company by creating a relationship with you. In order to foster these relationships and to encourage the public to get involved in the relationship building process, try some of these strategies:

1.) Respond. This sounds simple, but we all know that life gets in the way often time. If you put your email address, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook accounts out for people to get in touch with you, let them! Putting that information out and not responding to an email, inquiry, or compliment can be very detrimental to your image and online presence. Take the time to interact if you invite it, and make a point to set some time aside each day to do so.

2.) Get them involved. Getting your “public” involved is a great way to build relations. Asking for opinions, tips, and inputs can create a sense of community. Just be sure you turn back to the first strategy on this list and respond when they give the above. Have a contest, Q&A webinars, or create a forum.

3.) Make the first move. This is an important part of creating relationships. This can show interest, which may be all that someone needs to feel connected. Take the time to look at what’s being said about you, and respond to it personally.

4.) Try new tools. Experiment. See which vehicles work best, and drop those that don’t. It doesn’t make much sense to continue using Twitter if your audience doesn’t use it, and it doesn’t make sense to not use Facebook if your target audience is college students (who were the primary users of Facebook when it was first launched). See where your competitors are spending their social media efforts and evaluate for yourself if that would be a good tool to use yourself.

5.) Be consistent. This takes time, so schedule time to do the above. Keep it coming, otherwise your followers, audience, and customers will go elsewhere. Though the benefits of the Internet includes being able to find millions of users online, it is also a threat to your company: with so many people and companies online, your customers can easily find someone else to get your advice, services, or products from.

What are your tactics for building relationships?

Public relations goes above and beyond the use of a press release, but that is not to say that press releases aren’t important. Press releases still play an important role in PR. The way press releases reach readers has changed in the past ~10 years; press releases are being sent to customers and consumers directly instead of being sent to a PR firm or media contact who would then relay the information therein. When writing a press release, remember that your audience can change depending on where you plan to submit you press release.

Social media is a great tool that really ought to be used wisely. Though you can exploit its capabilities in a good way, there are also some not so good ways to exploit social media. Here are a few reasons not to use social media, as well as some things to be avoided when using it:

Getting people to visit your site is hard enough; getting them to stay is an even more difficult feat. It’s important to remember that the reasons people come to your site may vary from one another. Traffic to this blog is usually a result of a search keyword, more often than not a long-tail keyword. (To learn more about long-tail keywords, click here.)

Getting an internship can be an important part of any career’s beginning. It is a way to show future and prospective employers that you’re dedicated to working and dedicated to the industry you are interested in working in, and it can show that you are able to balance school, life, and work together well. An internship can be a great introduction to the business world and a great place to meet mentors. (I personally have met two wonderful mentors through internships who have in turn developed into friends that I can turn to for help on matters personal and professional.) You will also gain invaluable experience as a student where you can make mistakes and perhaps even learn from others’ mistakes.