So it has officially been a week since I have started at my work experience, Therapy Focus. Therapy Focus is a not-for-profit who’s primarily focus is on children with disabilities and making sure they get the most out of their life. They offer programs in speech therapy, occupational therapy and physio, just to name a few.
The main role of public relations is to be the face of the organisation in the public and gain support from the community and its sponsors/partners. This means hosting events to thank sponsors, having stalls at local events to raise awareness and donations, as well as recruiting volunteers to help with these events as well. Amongst the more serious things, like updating the website and social media channels as well as looking after competitions and prize draws, media releases, emails and newsletters.
So far I have participated in two of these events; the City of South Perth ‘fit and fun day’ as well as the Joondalup Festival. The difference between these two events was huge. Not only in terms of the numbers but also the type of preparation and volunteers and the type of people that dropped by. While the City of South Perth brought out a number of families, it was mainly focused on those that have a natural desire to be fit and fun or that were in the industry.
Where as Joondalup brought out a greater number of families and teenagers that happened to be in the area. The areas required a very different set up as well. At City of South Perth we could let children go and set up an obstacle course which they could enjoy on the lawn. However with the Joondalup festival we were on concrete and bitumen which meant that our craft activities and face painting were far more practical and popular. Although, our obstacle course became incredibly popular when volunteers took it upon themselves to start timing the children, making it a competition. If there’s one thing I have learnt it’s that kids love a competition, as it involves more people, adds to the excitement and gives the obstacle course a purpose.
So far I am really enjoying my placement, its quite hands on and I can get as involved as much as I like. One thing I am struggling with is social media. Not-for-profit and social media seems to be an interesting mix, particularly in our case and I have been forewarned that I will have to have a go at rectifying the situation. Anyone with any ideas or may be in a similar situation please let me know and maybe we can brainstorm!
2 comments:
Hi Megan,
I'm with you on the social media stalemate! My internship is with Scitech where I am actually employed planning regional tours of our Outreach programs to all areas of WA. I have been charged with the task of tweeting about our regional teams and programs on behalf of Scitech.
Being a non follower of twitter I'm not entirely sure how to make it really work. I have discussed this with some of my colleagues that also tweet for Scitech, and what I've found out is that it's probably ideal to tweet with a mix of invitations to your events as well as some short, interesting or quirky facts that are relevant to your organisation, or that work towards your organisation’s mission.
For example my initial (and only at this stage!) tweet was about our Technology program heading to the Mid West region - the first time our robots have left the Scitech building. Next I hope to glean some awesome fact from the scientists that I'm surrounded by, and pop that into a short and intriguing tweet. I’m hoping that fun facts like this will raise awareness of and interest in science in everyday life, which is part of Scitech’s mission.
Let me know what you think – if this is helpful and if a tactic like this can be employed in your situation.
Jane
Social media is a must for not-profit organisations, as it is a cheap way to communicate with your stakeholders as well as being effective when used properly.
I think the most difficult part of taking on social media is gaining the initial interest for people to join/like/subscribe to your page.
In my internship at St John of God Hospital Subiaco (also a not-profit organisation), we recently launched our own Facebook page. A good idea that we have implemented and could be useful to you is...
- Don't clutter your page (and fans) with updates for no reason. At the Hospital, we've come up with "Thoughtful Tuesdays" and "Funny Fridays" as the only days where we post status' of quotes and jokes so that fans look forward to the two status updates weekly from us.
We also do little competitions such as "Guess how many babies will be born in May at the Hospital and win...", in the hopes of people will tell their friends to join up also so that they can be in the chance to win.
Although these may not work for Therapy Focus, it's good to have a look at what other organisations are doing online, brainstorm, and go from there!
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