Hey! My name is James M. Smith III. I go by J.M. professionally and in my own personal brand. I interned at Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporate with the public relations team for the entire system. I was responsible for generating web content for social media and the internal blog, writing releases and news advisories, pitching stories to media in various locations, preparing and accompanying clients to media visits, writing feature stories on newsworthy colleagues and helping research successful campaign strategies. I have learned a lot of different writing styles and how to write for the voice of a client.
Throughout my time with the team, I learned that pitching stories and writing for outside media isn’t a scary thing but comes naturally to me. I have a greater understanding of what working in-house for a client and I believe I got a glimpse of working for multiple clients as Baptist has hospitals and other entities across three states.
A day in the life of my internship would include me grabbing some water and a whatever soda I was craving from the closet, checking emails and following up with anything I might have missed since my last meeting, working on whatever projects I already had on my To-Do list or making myself available to picking up more tasks. Most days consisted of a meeting, phone interview, news release(s) and often times I would have to leave the office before or after lunch to take a client to do a morning, afternoon or early evening interview at one of the broadcast stations in Memphis for a promotion, service line or event we were going pushing for.
Throughout my time with the team, I learned that pitching stories and writing for outside media isn’t a scary thing but comes naturally to me. I have a greater understanding of what working in-house for a client and I believe I got a glimpse of working for multiple clients as Baptist has hospitals and other entities across three states.
A day in the life of my internship would include me grabbing some water and a whatever soda I was craving from the closet, checking emails and following up with anything I might have missed since my last meeting, working on whatever projects I already had on my To-Do list or making myself available to picking up more tasks. Most days consisted of a meeting, phone interview, news release(s) and often times I would have to leave the office before or after lunch to take a client to do a morning, afternoon or early evening interview at one of the broadcast stations in Memphis for a promotion, service line or event we were going pushing for.