Being a Kidd Means Rocking Out

This week, I discovered the effects of playing music while working. I never listened to music in the past while studying or writing – I always found it distracting. Yet this week, I discovered that having some background music can be a fun way to keep my enthusiasm up and my mood lifted!

I remember my mother telling me of an old job she held that wouldn’t allow employees to play any music. As long as it’s not bothering fellow employees, I see no reason to cut this from the work day. I find that the right type of music easily lifts the mood of everyone in the office, even if it is one of Tom’s unorthodox mixes. You Kidds know what I mean.

Maintaining a spirited and enthusiastic atmosphere has added to the PR Apprentice experience as the interns and I adapt to Kidd PR culture. And I mean really, who doesn’t love a little country music in the afternoon?

Brain Coma? Listen to Music.

Based on my first few weeks at Kidd, I have some advice to offer readers. One of our recent tasks was to write a news release. Easy enough…I have done about a million of them. However, we were also recently tasked with creating a plan for an online YouTube contest. I was stumped. What’s more is that we had to create brochure copy for GovLoop. For this task, I was even more confounded on what to do. When this happens, I call it a brain coma; it simply freezes and refuses to work.

I have found in past jobs, the best way to get my brain working again and remember it does have good ideas, is to listen to some music. You never know what some artist may be singing about to give just the inspiration you need. For myself at the moment, it is Joss Stone; she has that burst of oomph in her voice to get my brain out of its stupor. However, I would also recommend John Mayer or Jack Johnson for some quiet stimulation. Whatever works for you!

They say music stimulates the soul. Well…that may be true, but for me it stimulates my brain.

The PR Apprentice crosses borders

I have to admit I wasn’t very excited about Task 6 at the beginning of the week. We had to send an article about the PR Apprentice and our participation to our hometowns along with a pitch e-mail. I just didn’t think that it would be something that Panamanian newspapers would be interested in printing.

So I e-mailed out my article and my pitch, not feeling very hopeful. But about half an hour later, I was surprised to find a reply from the editor a national Panamanian newspaper in my inbox! She congratulated me on my achievement and asked for a picture of me along with a link to the PR Apprentice website. I was on cloud 9, especially when I rang the Kidd PR bell!

This is a very big deal for me. ‘Ellas’ magazine is a weekly supplement of Panama’s biggest newspaper, La Prensa. It is geared at women, publishing articles on women’s success. It would be an honor to be featured; it would mean I am a successful woman.

It’s not just Sully anymore… it’s @sullymarie89

I have to admit that I am not a very tech-savvy kind of gal. For the past five weeks, I’ve had to become much better acquainted with the world of social media since our client, GovLoop, is a social network. However, I never thought I’d ever be very concerned by my own social media profiles. Like every college student, I have a Facebook account, but I’d never really understood the appeal of Twitter. That all changed last week.

It all started last Friday when we were visited by Justin Hancock, Kidd Group’s very own social media guru. He was determined to get all four PR Apprentices tweeting by the end of the day. He had to start our lesson on Twitter at the very beginning, explaining how to follow and unfollow people, because only Lynsey knew her way around the website. I’d created a profile earlier, but it was very lacking; I even still had the default background up (which I now know is unacceptable!). But an hour later, I was eager to send my first tweet.

I used to think that Twitter was just a tool to tell everyone what you had for lunch (which apparently is a topic you should never tweet about). But now, I realize that if it is used properly it can be a marketing tool. It has certainly raised awareness for the PR Apprentice. I’m a long way from having a big following, but at least I have my foot in the door.