As I enter the second third
of my placement I learn more and appreciate more they lengths my supervisor and
her colleagues go to in order the achieve the best possible outcome for their
clients.
Research can mean the
difference between a successful and effective campaign or strategy. It makes a
campaign strategic by ensuring that it is specific to targeted stakeholders and
allow for us to measure and evaluate the level of success of a campaign.
We learn from very early on
in our public relations degree from the godfather of public relations Grunig
that researching and understanding your client is invaluable.
At my placement, monitoring
client’s social media followings and trends are checked nearly daily and new
targets are set every week and ideas about how to gain more followings are a
weekly task. A task I am asked to complete a lot is compile a spreadsheet or
‘database’ of companies or events relevant to a specific client. Making sure I
complete an accurate and reliable list is important as most of the time it
deals with international matters. In order the gain information I had to do
some extreme and creative researching beyond anything I had done before to gain
the information. The lengths that I go to almost make me feel like a private
investigator!
In order to find contact
names and email addresses my searches lead me to old media releases, old
newspaper articles and even Linkdin accounts! No task is too unimportant for
the team I’m lucky enough to work with. An upcoming photo shoot for a client
led me on a two-hour hunt for a children’s superhero cape. These kinds of tasks
delegated to me make me realise that research is not taken lightly but is the
focus of much of a PR practitioner’s time.
During the few hours between
specific tasks I am instructed to do general research into their clients to get
to know the types of people and companies they represent so I can contribute
ideas to upcoming strategies or campaigns.
As you can see a lot of my
time is spent on researching, gaining as much background knowledge and
information as I can get to make sure I am at the same level of expertise about
their clients and their operating environment as they are.
I’m curious to know what
kind of tasks the rest of you do during your internship? Are you expected to do
a lot of research?
Until next time,
Jordaine
2 comments:
It's interesting to hear the amount of research you have to complete and how goal orientated the firm is, always striving for better. Do you reckon this amount of research has impacted the way in which you research ? Has it helped you with your assignments?
I also have to do a lot of research for my internship to do with schools mainly as VolleyballWA are closely affiliated with a lot of high schools and primary schools. We also have a CRM program which assists us in acquiring information about individual players when needed to contact them or discover the competitions they've been involved in.
Hi Jordaine,
I'm glad to hear that i wasn't the only one doing tonnes of research for my internship. I found that it was quite a valuable exercise though as it gave me a better understanding of the client and their needs. At my internship we had a database where all active and deactivate client material was filled. I found it helpful to read through these files when i was asked to work on a specific client as it gave me an understanding of them, what they liked and a background on the project. Although my research was different to yours i too realised that research is the key to success.
When conducting your research were you able to apply any of the research methods taught at university to further your skills? Did you find that conducting so much research has helped you in other areas of your study? I found that conducting so much research taught me how to sift through the rubbish to find the most important details. During my intern i found that my research also included media platforms such as Instagram and twitter. I was asked to find a list of WAG's who have substance and would be suitable to host an event. For this activity i found Instagram as the best research platform as it allowed for me to find people within the WAG circle and also allowed for me to gain an insight into their lives and the activities they are involved in. What kind of platforms were you using for research?
I look forward to hearing about the research platforms you used and whether your studies have benefited from it.
Best of luck with your intern.
Georgia
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