It's almost over! Tweet tweet!

Hi everyone,

As my final days are approaching in my internship with Alcoa and I have began writing my recommendations for the big report, it got me thinking about the types of communication Alcoa use – and what how they could improve.

It’s hard to get your head around how a global company’s communications work and how so many locations and so many operations team can all communicate with one big, loud and single voice. Alcoa in the US are very active in the social media arena, whereas Alcoa in Australia do not participate in social media activities – and I believe they definitely could benefit from doing so!

Through years at university we understand the importance of social media in today’s contemporary society, and how influential social media can be through times of a crisis, or through everyday communication between an organisation and the stakeholders.

While I am not an active user of Twitter, I was having a look other PR blogs and stumbled across this one:Do something different, engage the media using twitter, giving me a better idea as to why Twitter is so beneficial for the corporate world.

This got me thinking about why Alcoa should consider tweeting, and how it could work for them, and also made me think how I could benefit from using twitter.

-          Creating friendships

-          Developing newsworthy messaging

-          Using links to company or personal websites

-          Tweeting press release material

If I had more time within the company, or got the opportunity for employment I would be interested in talking to the Corporate Affairs team about beginning to participate in the world of social media, I have no doubt that they would be amazed by the opportunities in communication it holds.

For now, I am going to create a Twitter page, to follow people within the PR industry, PR consultancies, as well as news channels and people of interest; it seems like the new way of the future!

 

Lauren

 

The not-so glamorous PR life!

Hi all,

During previous placements at fashion PR studios required me to wear all black, high heels and to be immaculately dressed while busily working at dressing models, packing and unpacking tables and décor, and greeting guests.

Not this time however!

In order to gain information about an employee, and a new machine within Pinjarra Refinery to write a feature story for the weekly newsletter, required me to step onto site and complete my task there.

This meant dropping my previous idea of high heels and a glamorous PR life, and stepping into the reality of working in PR in the mining industry, in my steel caps and high VIS protective gear.

This moment made me think of where I aspired to be during the start of my time at university, and where I aim to be now. I enjoyed my Corporate Public Relations unit, and my Public Relations Law units a lot, in comparison to other peers in my classes.

It just shows how different everyone’s decisions can be, and how many of us when choosing a career path to pursue, will end up in many different places. It’s been really interesting to hear what other people in their blog posts have experienced during their time in their internships, and how different some of them are!

I am heading in to my last week in my internship, and I feel so much more confident about myself in the Public Relations industry. Being a part of a team and learning from the others in what they do on a daily basis has given me a really good insight in to what to expect in a Corporate Affairs team in a mining company. There is so much to do, and so much to think about!

Until next time,

Lauren x

Making headlines!

Hi all, 

There’s a certain feeling you get when you see your own work broadcasted to a huge audience.

My supervisor asked me to attend an internal forum targeting Alcoa employee Mother’s and their babies, relating to a HR initiative that has been created to increase the support maternity leave employees receive.

I wrote a feature article about the event after it finished, and sent it through to the publisher of the weekly newsletter. When I arrived the following week, it made headline story of the week!

I was quite excited by this, as the student in the team it was nice to see my work recognised.

Since finishing my internship, my supervisor contacted me to tell me the same story had been also published globally to the Alcoa Global newsletter.

This put in to perspective for me the element of excitement that PR Practitioners would experience, when there work becomes a success. While mine was only on a small scale, it has helped me to learn and understand why other people working on a project would become so motivated and driven by their successes. 

Talk to you next time!

Lauren