PR Internship Reflective Blog 2

Welcome to PR Internship - YOUR opportunity to put everything you have learned over the past years at university into practice and to get a thorough insight into what public relations is like "in the real world". This Blog allows you to reflect on your experiences, share insights with other students across campuses and to possibly give advice and support to fellow students. Please also see http://printernship-reflections.blogspot.com.au/ for more reflections

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Engaging your audience online

As has been taught not only through out my university studies but is also evident through any work experience, social media is the growing area in which businesses are connecting with their stakeholders.

The West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) has of course their own website, and like most companies also a Facebook, Twitter, and because they are a performance organisation- event listings on Perth websites such as ShowMePerth. What many people may not know however is WASO also live streams various concerts throughout the year to the Northbridge Piazza through its partnership with iiNet which is a great way to make classical music more accessible to the wider public.

This week in PR International the discussion focused on social media and the rule of 80% engaging posts to 20% informational whenever you are posting anything online to your followers.

I feel this is a valid rule and I applied it to WASO’s online media presence. For example, recently WASO performed a concert titled Symphonic ABBA and instead of just promoting the concert itself on Facebook, there was uploads of ABBA songs via YouTube, a picture was shared on Twitter and Facebook of the disco ball concertgoers could expect on the night at the Perth Concert Hall and later reviews were posted too so people had a chance to have their say on how they found the performance.

My personal contribution recently to the online communication of WASO was to put together the monthly e-newsletter which is received by around 5,000 people. According to WASO's Digital Marketing Coordinator the email involves writing a blurb for various upcoming concerts in a more casual manner, which I found surprisingly harder than writing from a sales focused point of view! Part of this task involved getting in touch with a musician from the orchestra and approaching them for the introduction of the email as well as liaising with the WA Ballet for a ticket giveaway to Pinocchio, their new performances which WASO provides music talent for.

Seeing all of what WASO displays online, triggered by this week’s conversation in PR International made me consider further the different approach that should be taken on social media as I see followers of a company page on Twitter and Facebook as generally being there because they already love the brand (particularly in the case of a music organisation). Therefore they shouldn’t be advertised at quite so much as engaged and made to feel included with the company, something I think WASO does well.

2 comments:

StephSbrocco said...: Hi Vanessa,

I really like the way you have discussed the power of social media at your PR placement. I think it is so interesting how much influence an online presence has for an organisation and is a positive way to engage with your stakeholders.

There is no doubt that the internet is becoming a huge part of our society, even though the negatives of it are widely spoken about, organisations would be at a loss without it. Imagine sending out the monthly newsletter by post - would it have the same amount of readership as it does as an e-newsletter?

Social media, if done correctly, can offer a personal connection with stakeholders and since there are millions of people who are already on Facebook and Twitter, if they already 'like' your page or 'follow' you, they are already aware of what your organisation does and offers.

At my placement for the City to Surf we send out newsletters but also engage through Facebook and Twitter posts giving a more personal, informal approach to the publics.

Enjoy the rest of your placement!

Steph; September 25, 2012 at 6:13 AM
Vanessa said...: Hi Steph,

Thanks for sharing your views on social media. I completely agree that social media is a double edged sword at times but for the most part it is now an invaluable tool to PR. The tricky bit is of course when something goes wrong putting into practice all the crisis management preparation I suppose!

Sending a hardcopy newsletter wouldn't reach as many people which is why e-news is so popular but I think at the same time companies have to keep on top of their game and make sure their content is fresh and appealing because I know I receive so many a month it has to grab me to give it a read.

I feel on the topic of social media also that companies should focus on a couple avenues (ie. Twitter and Instagram) in depth rather than try and get the public to 'like' or 'follow' them on Facebook, FourSquare, Pinterest etc. It gets too much sometimes.

City to Surf looks like a fantastic event to get experience with in promotions. I hope it all went well.

Vanessa.; October 10, 2012 at 4:37 AM