Success defined. Plans made.GOALS ACHIEVED. |
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Success defined. Plans made. GOALS ACHIEVED. |
Aaron Helmbrecht
Communications Strategist
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Aaron Helmbrecht is a public relations and digital communications strategist in Washington, D.C., with over 12 years of experience leading advocacy, marketing, and media campaigns. Aaron began his career in 2011 as Public Relations Specialist at the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (American Board). He quickly rose to head of external communications and media strategy, where he gained a reputation as a communications modernization expert. He led the migration of the American Board’s website to a mobile-friendly CMS and established the American Board’s social media presence while managing a multi-state media outreach campaign. In 2013, Aaron joined the American Academy of Actuaries (the Academy) as Digital Communication Specialist and led efforts to modernize the Academy’s digital and social media presence. His ability to build consensus between department stakeholders resulted in faster and more efficient content delivery and superior digital product quality while eliminating progression blocks and infighting from the internal processes. Currently, Aaron provides communications consulting services to boost the efficacy of organizational communications operations for a host of clientele. Aaron earned his Master of Professional Studies in strategic public relations from The George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management in 2017. He interned with Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) after earning his bachelor’s degree in journalism from California State University, Northridge. |
"I'm not talented enough to be unprepared" —Monroe Stahr, The Last Tycoon
Storytelling in Public Relations
There’s a Trick to That
Mavi Jeans Case Study
Zappos Case Study
PR Pros and the Media
Social Media Comeback King
Welcome to my website. I’m Aaron Helmbrecht, and I’ve been a public relations professional in Washington, D.C., since 2011. I worked my way up from the bottom. Along the way, I’ve made countless mistakes, achieved many professional goals, and got lucky more than a few times.
This website features blog posts from my professional experience to provide career insights and continuing education for public relations practitioners of all levels. As my personal website, you can also find my professional bio, a timeline of my work history, and samples of my published work.
Experience
Education
My Work
Experience home
Communications Strategist
Independent ConsultantHow does an organization establish a successful communication network with their publics? Start with a plan. As a communications strategist, I am playing to win the game. In order to win the game, the first thing I need to know is – who is the audience, and what do we want them to do? Then I send those people a message, and then I measure to see how many of them actually did the thing we wanted them to do. Usually, the goal is to try and beat your best score. That is the game. And winning is the only thing that matters to me. I am going to leverage every available advantage to make sure that that happens for my clients.
Digital Marketing Associate III
American Association for the Advancement of ScienceAAAS
At AAAS, I learned how to lead a data-driven marketing strategy designed to retain and grow the 3.7 million subscribers of Science magazine and Science.org. Having mastered methods to organize and identify trends from massive amounts of KPI data and present results in concise visual reports, I am confident in my ability to successfully leverage analytics to its maximum potential communications benefit.
Digital Communications Specialist
American Academy of ActuariesThe Academy
As Digital Communications Specialist, I continually modernized digital operations by replacing outdated technology and practices with the latest standards initiatives designed to optimize audience engagement through the integration of digital activities and channels.
Digital Media (Freelance Agent)
The Creative GroupThe Creative Group
Working as a freelance agent is a great way to diversify your skill set. As an agent with The Creative Group, I’d be writing a feature story for Science News magazine one day and designing a recruitment ad for the CIA the next. Building a strong base of knowledge in all areas of communications has made me a better project manager because I know how to communicate the things I need and can set realistic expectations between my principals and outside contractors and vendors.
Public Relations Specialist
American BoardAmerican Board
My public relations career began at American Board. My boss, the public relations director, unexpectedly resigned a few days after hiring me and so her responsibilities fell to me. Despite the fact that I was hired as an assistant right out of college, I was given the job of managing a multi-state media campaign. I made a lot of mistakes in my first year pitching reporters, but I learned quickly from those mistakes. Once I figured out a media strategy that worked in Kansas City, Mo., I knew the same approach would work in Boise, Idaho, and and Greenville, S.C. Before long I was generating headlines, landing broadcast placements, and publishing op-ed nationwide.
Quality Assurance
Electronic ArtsElectronic Arts
As an undergraduate student, I worked the night shift at EA testing video game applications. My job was to anticipate how people might use—or misuse—an application in order to identify and report errors in story logic and reproducible bugs.
Education home
George Washington University-home vert
George Washington University
Graduate School of Political ManagementMy graduate education prepared me to be a leader in my profession. I learned how to prepare a strategic communications plan, present a communications case study, and plan a departmental budget proposal. What sets George Washington University’s GSPM program apart from state and community colleges is their unbelievable networking resources. I was able to discuss PR strategies with Jill Zuckman, managing director at SKDKnickerbocker, learn crisis management tactics from Eric Dezenhall, CEO of Dezenhall Resources, and spent a week studying media and globalization at the American University of Paris with Lee Huebner, former speech writer for Richard Nixon.
California State University, Northridge
My undergraduate studies primarily focused on vocational skills used in the media and public relations industry. I was taught the AP Stylebook, the inverted pyramid style of news writing, the active voice style used in speech writing, copyright and first amendment law, and much more. My favorite quote about speech writing came from CSUN professor Rick Marks, who said, “Write like you talk; unless you’re from the Bronx.”
Los Angeles Valley College
The incredible professors at Los Angeles Valley College taught me the core principles of critical thinking and storytelling, and how to use them to write and deliver persuasive speeches. The most valuable lesson I learned at LAVC is that effective communication begins with defining your objectives and knowing your audience. This is always the first thing I consider before drafting a message.
My Work – home
