Well it is
full steam ahead, where has all of the time gone!
I am
thoroughly enjoying my placement at the City of Perth and quite honestly never
want to leave.
From the PR
placement blogs that I have seen so far, social media is a popular topic.
Rather than writing a blog highlighting the importance of social media (which I
am sure is a general consensus), I thought I would discuss the importance of
viewing social media as just one of many communication tools.
Increasingly
social media is utilised as the ‘go to’ tool for communicating with
stakeholders, sometimes at the expense of utilising other effective
communication tools.
The PR units
at Curtin are structured appropriately in the way that social media is only one
component of the units which is beneficial as it is important to educate
students that there are a variety of useful communication methods.
In my
opinion the City of Perth utilise social media in an effective and efficient manner
in order to communicate with stakeholders and realise that social media is just
one communication tool.
On Friday 30th
August the City of Perth Communication Team organised for The Project to do a
live cross for their Metro Whip Around section. The theme for the cross was
Fathers’ Day and therefore the cross promotion was a Fathers’ Day special and involved
a promotion of Sunday’s Piazzarama Northbridge.
For the live
cross we needed fathers and children in the background to illustrate the Fathers’
Day theme. As there were no City of Perth events scheduled at the right time
(making it easy to gain a crowd) we put the following call out on social media;
As popular
as the Facebook post was with 50 likes, 5 comments and 12 shares, the main
reason for the crowd turnout was through utilising other communication methods
including face to face communication. If the City of Perth relied solely on
social media then the live cross would not have been as successful as it was.
If you would
like to see the Perth Metro Whip Around click here and skip forward to 41:35.
I would love
to hear your feedback on this blog, despite whether you agree or disagree.
Until next
time, keep enjoying your placements!
Rachel.
(Written: 8th
September 2013)
Reference:
The Project, Friday 30 August. 2013. The
Project. http://tenplay.com.au/channel-ten/the-project/2013/8/30.
1 comment:
Hi Rachel,
I am loving reading about your City of Perth experience!
It was refreshing to read a blog that acknowledges the importance of social media in conjunction with face to face communication.
It is great to see businesses utilising social media as an extra outlet to communicate with stakeholders but I do feel that social media sometimes causes people to forget how important it is to communicate face to face!
http://buprssa.com/2011/11/01/face-to-face-communication-and-pr/
This link provides an article from the Public Relations Student Society of America and reflects on the importance of the 'old school' way of communicating.
I think it is critical for us, as the next generation of PR practitioners to keep in mind that communicating face to face, (although sometimes more time-consuming) is a tried and tested effective way of communicating with stakeholders.
I look forward to hearing more about your internship!
Laura
Post a Comment