The Final Curtain Call

I’ve come to my very last working day for my placement. In two days I will begin my 35 hour journey back to Perth. My London placement has been absolutely rewarding. Working in house for a client of my placement consultancy has given me a little taste of both consultancy and in house PR work. This has reinforced my belief that I want to work in a consultancy environment.

For the month I have been interning I have been dealing with many people from different backgrounds, therefore I thought I would share my top 4 tips for successful communication.

1.    Simpler the better

When communicating cross-culturally or even with the media, I have found keeping everything short, simple and clear results in the best response. Once you have established a relationship with a person and know their personality then you can make messages more personal (include humour etc.). However until then the simpler the better, especially considering most people are time poor.

2.    Keep it Formal

At first I was worried about the level of formality in my writing even my emails. Every time I communicated I would ponder whether or not I was too formal. In my opinion it is better to be too formal. It is respectful and since you are representing a business, you must present yourself in a poised manner.

3.    Ask for Help

Even though most people I dealt with could speak English well, there were still many cultural barriers and phrases that I being from Australia did not understand.  Don’t be scared to ask for help or for someone to rephrase something, it won’t make you any less of a person. I was amazed at the many little cultural differences even between the UK and Australia. 

4.    Slow Down

Australian’s are very well known for being extremely fast talkers. Even if the base language is the same, accents can confuse people. Time and time again I was told to slow down so people knew exactly what I was saying. Annunciate words, be clear and slow down for effective communication.

For those people completing their internship overseas, would you agree with these tips?

Thanks for reading.

Georgia

Lights, Camera, ACTION!

Today marked the day of the big photoshoot. Both myself and another intern Emma have been in charge of the preparation and organization of this shoot. So it safe to say anxiety levels this morning where set on heart attack mode.

The client is launching a new active wear range and therefore needed studio shots for the website as well as the social media pages.

Being a little Aussie girl in the big unfamiliar setting of London proved to be difficult when organizing this shoot. Models, photographers, studio space, makeup artists and hair stylists were all needed for this event to take place.

If I was back in Perth I’d use my networking to be able to contact people, I’d know their work and what to expect. But being here knowing no one it proved difficult to execute what I had planned without having worked with the talent before.  Luckily for me one of the girls I’m living with over here is a model and was able to give me a few handy tips on people who would be able to assist me with this photoshoot. PHEW.

Emma and myself created a running sheet for today including every little task and person that may be involved. Every minute of the day was scheduled specifically in order to complete all our tasks within the studio’s time allowance.

Despite this morning’s anxious nerves, the day ran extremely well! The client SoHot were very pleased with how the day ran and I am completely and utterly relieved! Here’s a few tips I would suggest to anyone running an event similar to this…

 1.   Wear the sneakers. Comfort is key ladies! Those stilettos aren’t going to allow for the running   around that comes with carrying out an event.

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            2. Too organized? NEVER! A detailed running sheet is highly recommended in order to complete every single little task. 

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      3. Speak up. If you have an idea that you think will benefit your client don’t be afraid to share. I did exactly that and suggested a video reel be shot to help customers purchasing decisions and curate original content for social media. They loved the idea and chose to run with it.

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      4.  Did we just become best friends?? Make those contacts ladies and gents. I cannot stress how important it is to make a list of contacts, especially on a global scale. These people can help you in the future. It’s not what you know it’s who you know – I can assure you, from what I have found over here; it most definitely is the case.

Here’s a picture taken on my phone from today’s shoot.

 Do any of you have any tips to add for event running? How has your experiences been in organizing and planning events? Comment below!

Georgia Burmas

New Challenges

Working in a consulting environment “outsourced” to an in-house position with SoHot can prove to be beneficial at times. Like all Public Relations consultants, our job is to act as an intermediary between an organization and its stakeholders.

Working in-house our job is to complete tasks SoHot simply do not understand how to do, nor do they have time to do. We recommend strategic business recommendations for the business’ s future backed by research and expertise knowledge. However what happens when the boss doesn’t agree with a thoroughly thought out recommendation?

I spend 50% of my time at SoHot monitoring and updating SoHot’s social media accounts. The team and myself have a good understanding of how social media works and the tactics used to achieve certain objectives, something that the boss admittedly knows little about and therefore is hard to get him on board with social media recommendations.

For example the client wished to gain a bigger following on its Instagram account. We suggested hashtags and reposts of popular pages credited photos. The Movement practitioners knew this would be hard to get the boss on board as he admittedly shy’s away from social media tactics.  However having worked in-house and quite closely with the boss of SoHot, myself and a few other team members knew exactly how to present this recommendation in a manor in which he would understand.

Our presentation for the social media strategies was well received and a social media manual was produced to help him and others within the organization have a basic understanding of how to use social media and why social media is a valuable tool in today’s society.  Our understanding of his personality was beneficial in completely tailoring a presentation for the client. I believe our level of understanding and relationship with the client would be harder to obtain if we were not working in-house.

Has anyone else experienced working with conservative clients? How did they respond to social media suggestions?

Georgia