An end to the beginning

It’s hard to believe that not only my internship has come to an end but so has my time of studying, hopefully.  What an incredible journey it has been, over the past six years, I have studied architecture, quit university, come back to university and now, I’m finally about to graduate.  The last three years of studying Public Relations though has truly been the best, and reassures me that I have finally chosen the right career path. My 20-day internship has given me a valuable insight into the world of public relations and has given me the opportunity to build relationships and gain vital knowledge that has equip me for the rest of my career. During my time at PPR I was able to utilise and build upon the foundations taught at university.

During my time at PPR I learnt several key things that I can carry into the business world. Some of these things I already knew before starting, but working as an intern really highlighted these things. I would like to share with you and future interns to help improve their intern experience.

Ask Questions: I learnt very early on in my intern that the best way to get work or be invited to events is to show interest and ask questions. I realised by asking questions about colleague’s clients, work and upcoming events that they would realise my interest and quite often I was asked to help them out. This happened to me in the first week. With a background in architecture I was very interested in one of my colleagues clients, Finbar, who are Perth’s leading apartment developers. After showing my interest in this client I was invited to attend a meeting with Finbar’s Chief Operations Officer Ronald Chan and his marketing director. It was a fantastic experience to share my ideas for Finbar in this meeting, something that wouldn’t have been possible if I didn’t ask questions.

Meet your deadline: Completing a task before the deadline is a great way to show colleagues that you are a hard worker and are eager to learn.  Be sure though to fully fulfil the brief and to complete work to the best of your ability. After all you’re there to learn and improve your skills. It’s also important to show initiative and ask whether there is anything else you can follow up with, which will shape your colleagues opinion in regards to your work ethic.

Always say ‘yes’: This was definitely something I knew before hand, but saying ‘yes’ at PPR opened up so many doors and opportunities for me, and highlighted to me the importance of always being open to opportunities. Saying ‘yes’ allowed for me to attend various events, including the opening of a gymnasium where the premier was a guest, sit in on meetings, venture into the city to carry out tasks for colleagues, activations and attend media filming and interviews. It’s really amazing to see the opportunities you’re presented with when you just say ‘yes’. By doing so I have been able to use many of my PR skills including writing, interviewing, event planning, communicating and my ability to network.

Overall my experience at PPR was amazing and it taught me so much in regards to the PR industry. I was proud of myself for completing something that was so far out of my comfort zone at the beginning. Each day I was challenged in some way or anything, but this has only helped me face my fears and develop my skills and understanding of the PR world. I am so grateful for the opportunity I was given and I now feel ready to take a leap into the world of PR and start my career.

Good luck with your intern.

Georgia 

The snowball effect

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress, Myspace, Flickr, Google+, and blogger are just a few examples of social media in today’s society. Social media has revolutionised the way we interact with our colleagues, family and friends.  Communication is key in PR so it’s no wonder that some of the top PR companies have adapted to sociological change.  Social media ensures that the brands message keeps circulating, creating brand exposure and grabbing the attention of key influencers within that circle. Essentially it’s a snowball affect in the form of tweets and re -tweets. The bigger the snowball, the bigger the snowman and the more people that are exposed to your brand.

During my intern I have been working with social media analysts, learning that different clients want different outcomes from using social media, what McDonalds uses social media for is very different to what Finbar use social media for.  This week I was asked to research food bloggers in Perth to invite them to a McWrap activation, A common trending topic it was interesting to see how certain bloggers target specific audiences and palate types, while other bloggers focusing on food types and targeting their content to a certain demographics.  The way you construct your tweets, when you publish it and what you #hashtag inevitably work together to gain likes, re-tweets and interest. This activity was juxtaposed to the next job I was asked to do which was to research blogs in the construction industry.  Although I had an understanding of this industry – due to my previous architecture degree – I was amazed when I came across ordinary mums and homeowner’s blogging about their recent renovations. I think that with the hype surrounding renovations shows such as Reno Rumble and The Block more people are inclined to blog about their experience too. This was juxtaposed to corporate companies who blogged in a more formal manner about construction updates, and design tips.  I found it really interesting to see how social media can be used communicate in different mediums, and once again reaffirmed to me the importance of PR and social media.

 Having an extensive knowledge of social media has helped me utilise this tool to promote campaign messages and communicate between stakeholders. I truly believe that this knowledge of social media and PR is thanks to PR Techniques and Media Relations specifically. I feel that there is a strong presence of social media at my placement, where they even have their own Instagram page where client updates, events and exciting news is posted. And like a snowball again, this gains attention through likes an follows, the snowball grows and becomes a snowman and without knowing it the organisations Instagram page has almost become a platform for promoting themselves as a organisations, where their key messages and qualities are conveyed.

I look forward to hearing about your experiences with social media. 

Thanks

Georgia 

:)

Building and Maintaining Relationships

‘Building and maintaining the relationship,’ it might seem to simply to some, yet the mechanics of it are quite diverse and complex, or so I have realised this week.

Strong business relationships with the client and their stakeholders are the key to success in PR, without them you have no clientele and no work. But like any relationship you must be willing to share, give and support not just take.

I have come to realise that the best way to build a relationship and maintain it is to develop more than a business relationship. I don’t mean this in a sense that you hang out on the weekend. I mean that you as the practitioner understand the client’s life and get to know them. Remember their passions, milestones- babies, illness, promotion- it may seem simple but it’s the little things that count.  

This will help you to understand what makes your client ‘tick’. I recently attended a meeting with one of Perth’s leading high-rise developers. It became evident to me that the client was very laid back and liked to listen and enjoyed us providing him with a list of suggestions for certain campaigns. He was not the sort of man to express what he wanted. This was refreshing and allowed for us to get creative with our ideas.

When building and maintaining a relationship with a client is it important to understand what medium to use, when its right to email, phone or attend a face to face meeting. I don’t think there is anything worse than building a relationship via email. I don’t think it sustainable and I think you become a face behind the screen and nothing else. Hence why I choose to phone over email in most circumstance. The minute you pick up the phone, you become a person, you have a personality, tone and emotion. During the week, my understanding that phoning was more beneficial then email really became evident when I had journalists getting back to me straight away and remembering my name and who I was when I called at a later date. I found that building this relationship gave me a ‘one up’ over other. So much that at the end of the week, one of my colleagues asked me to get some contact details for a journalists, who she was unable to get contact details for. I rather surprised myself when within 5 minutes I was able to fulfil her request. Saying this I think sometimes its beneficial to use email. For example when fact checking or asking a simple question. There is no need to bother your client with a phone call. Of course when the need is there, you get out of the office and go see your client face to face. One of my mentors visits his clients on a weekly basis, just to touch base.

Being seen is so important in building and maintaining this relationship and developing yourself as a respectable and trustworthy PR. This week alone I have attended multiple outings. I helped in the activation of the McWrap Patch, attended a opening and assisted in the filming for a cook off between Kymba from 94.5 and The Standard head chef Chase Weber. You never know what advantages showing your face might bring. In this case we got to eat this delicious dish that will be on the menu for Breast Cancer Care WA long table lunch.

It is important that we build and maintain these relationships with Grunig’s and Hunt’s PR Theories in mind. I believe that two-way communication is important in PR. Not only does it allow for a balanced and mutual understanding but it also allows for your message to be expressed.           

As an end thought I would like to leave you with a quote from Tony Robbins “To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others."

 

Thanks

Georgia

 

 

 

An ending is a new start

My one month internship just ended. Looking back to this very short period, I feel lucky that I have so many supports from my department and their trust in me for me to try.

As this is the last post, I will be sharing my opinion of how to be a better PR person.

1) Be flexible

This is a “must have personality” in workplace, especially in PR field. I was assigned to do social media operation and daily media monitoring. But I was expected to contribute in other tasks (In charge of two campaigns which are not related to my main job) and dealing with emergency (As what I mentioned in the first post: a girl committee suicide in one of our hotel branch in a Sunday morning). Only the weak people see challenges as bullying from the surrounding people. I have told by the others that how to say “no” for extra works. But I think it is better to say “yes” because we know every challenge is a chance for you to learn and grow up.

2) Move fast, and faster

In real world, it is not always giving you three months to plan a campaign. It can just start from an idea on the weekly meeting and you have to make it real in one week. There is not much time for you to organize and hesitate. You have to move as fast as you can, with a clear mind.

3) Build your basic skills

Many people criticise that learning in university is more on theory and practicing in real world is another thing. It is true sometimes. But if you did not pick up those theories in university, you don’t even have a chance to practice in real world. You could feel blur when you are given a task. To avoid this, you have to make the theory into practical skills before you even enter the workplace. People say don’t bother with crisis management and so on because an intern will probably doing media clipping every day. Who knows I met a potential crisis just the 7^th day in my internship? Have the basic theories in mind and build some skills will help you, even though you don’t know when it can be used.

4) Be ethical

As we all know that PR is bridge between the organization and the public. It is called “Guanxi” in China. You are going to face a lot of temptation. I am serious. You have to build good relationship with the others but also a lot of people out there are approaching you to seek some opportunities for future cooperation. And what they use sometimes is money or unethical benefit. We have to be smart enough to say “NO” unless you are pushing yourself to prison.

So be flexible, be prepared, be ethical and move fast in your PR career and I wish all of us a bright future.

 Have a good PR day!

Claudia Xinyin Xie 

It's not the end for me just yet!

Although it’s now nearing the end of our work placements for the majority of us I am happy to say, I will actually continue interning at Jett! I have learned so much and I am really enjoying my time there, it has been an amazing experience so far and I couldn’t have asked for a better placement so I’m not leaving just yet. As for my last blog post I thought I would reflect back on my experience thus far, talking about communication and teamwork.

First of all we already know communication is key in the public relations industry, but it isn’t something we have necessarily been tested on. As brand managers the Jett girls pride themselves on being excellent communicators. I have been lucky enough to see how they communicate with publics and how they handle both the positive and negative situations they are thrown into. They always stay very formal and professional, they go out of their way to help their clients and brands and there are never any signs of disappointment or irritation even when the worst of news is delivered. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to sit in on showings and really listen to how the girls communicate and how they cater the way in which they talk, communicate and present themselves in accordance to each client. This experience, and being exposed to so many different scenarios has really helped me gain an understanding of communication I could have only attained through a workplace environment. As a result I think I will be able to communicate more effectively when I enter the workplace in the near future.

The importance of teamwork and a positive working environment is something I also came to value and respect during my internship. It is something our employers seek when hiring employees all the time. They always want to know how we work in a team and really value seeing this sort of information in a resume. As a fashion agency, teamwork is highly valued, the agents need to work with brands, clients and it is vital to work together and have strong relationships in order to reach their aim and goals.

I knew that an internship would be the most effective way to apply what I have learnt over the course of my public relations degree into a real world situation. However I didn’t realize how much I would learn and grow as a person as well. I am thankful to both Curtin University and Jett Agency for this experience and look forward to entering the workplace much better equipped to handle the any situation.