August 16, 2012 Student Evaluation of the Internship My original goals were to effectively manage our social media,

expand our Twitter and Facebook following, take photographs and videos at events, create video ideas and film them for our YouTube page and develop media contacts. Our goal to expand our Twitter and Facebook following was a lofty one; we wanted to increase our followers by 200+ per respective social outlet. We hoped to reach 1,000 Facebook likes, however we only managed to get to 941 followers, and we wanted to have 700 followers on Twitter but we only have 366. I feel as though I didnt achieve the numbers I would have liked on Twitter, which is what I spent most of my time doing. We created QR codes for all of our Twitters and our Facbeook pages and we took them everywhere we had a set up, but to no avail. I am disappointed because I attempted to Tweet clever and caustic articles from various news sites, and attempted to create a unique voice for all of our Twitters. However, it did not appear to pay off. In the future, I will create an even more distinctive personality for my companys Twitter. I will develop a specific voice and post memes and photographs alongside articles to have people Retweeting our Tweets and get people talking about the funny things and interesting things they saw at a glance on our Twitter. I realize now that people do not like reading, so linking to articles is often times futile. I was able to take photographs with my own personal camera (because the office camera is temperamental) at almost all of the events that I attended. And once they were uploaded to Facebook, we got so much traffic to the albums and I knew then the power that a photograph has to tell a story. We can try our best to educate people with

intellectual articles, we can even inform them of recent and relevant statistics, but as trite as it sounds, a picture says a thousand words. I was able to see spikes in traffic via a new tool on organization Facebook pages called insight. It showed me what posts received the most attention, likes, reposts, etc. And I now know that photographs accomplish much in ways of traffic, than links to articles about breast cancer.

I was also able to take video clips that I have been piecing together throughout the summer. Because my hard drive crashed it has taken me longer to edit the videos together, but now that both of my internships are over, I will be able to get them done and post them to the YouTube page. I know that videos get traffic to our Facebook page, so those will be posted promptly once I am able transfer the earlier video clips to my new hard drive. I wasnt able to create as many videos as I would like, and because of the amount of time we spent out of the office or focusing on other things, some of my initial ideas had to be scrapped. However, because PPMW is very close by, and because Gabbi might not have as many interns next semester, I will still be involved in many of the communications and outreach aspects involved with the health center. Therefore I do not consider it a failure, because the work will be done in plenty of time for board meetings and prior to the 2012 Presidential election in which we need all eyes on our Facebook

page and Twitter. I had some difficulty developing media contacts because of the number of radio stations owned by Clear Channel. They have a somewhat hostile attitude to people who may be soliciting (i.e. us). However, we were able to touch bases with some notable radio personalities when we were sending out invitations to our party. We were able to contact Sarah from The Kane Show, who, while she wasnt able to attend, said that she loved Planned Parenthood and used us when she first got to DC and to keep her in mind when we plan future events. We were also able to touch base with Brightest Young Things, a very popular website and event planner who said they would also help promote our events for a discounted price. I will continue to look for compatible media contacts who might want to work with us in the future, however, I feel as though my number of media contacts were somewhat disappointing as well. I had hoped to gain at least 5 notable media contacts that might After this internship, I will really have to consider whether or not working at a non-profit is for me. I love the comradery, however, the organization and communication within the office is at times, non-existent. I personally learned that I need structure to operate well and do my best work. I do love planning events so I hope to do that in my job in the future, and Id like to learn more about the power that social media truly has in an organization. The office setting at PPMW was in theory great when we only had four interns at a time. There were only four computers set up to work and they were incredibly slow, but we were in an isolated back room so the interns were able to bounce ideas off of each other without fear of judgment from anyone. Gabbi did not constantly check up on us,

although she did like to see what we were up to every few hours. At the same time, because we were isolated from a number of the other employees there was a huge rift between the interns and the other employees. We wanted to feel like a part of the team but since we were physically separated, sometimes it was hard to. Often times, because there are so many people to report to, important information got lost and we were the last to know about important events we needed to attend (we found out about the Nancy Pelosi press conference, what we were supposed to wear, and where we were supposed to go the day of). There needs to be a better system of communication at PPMW, with that being said, I wouldnt know how that could be implemented. We sent each other emails about events all the time, however, they were often sent too late and were sometimes useless by the time we got them. Overall this was a summer to learn, and I do feel as though I helped PPMW improve their social and media communications.