Feature stories and meetings mark the 3/4 milestone

Hi everyone!

I am now 15 days into my internship and since my last blog entry, I have been more involved in the meetings happening at DSR. I really enjoy these as I get to witness what goes on behind the scenes in planning a new initiative and how communications play a huge part in it, such as the Outdoors October initiative. At the Outdoors October meeting, I got to see how they plan out their events, PR strategy and campaigns, social media strategy and media strategy (which I can't disclose much due to the confidentiality).

I also got to participate in the divisional meeting. Since the communications division falls under the policy division, both the communications and policy divisions meet once a month and go around the table to update everyone on what they have been working on. It was really interesting to see how communications integrate everything together (I wish I could elaborate more but can't due to confidentiality once again).

Another thing that also happens once a month is the entire DSR staff meeting. At this meeting, everyone within the department and in their regional offices (via webcam) gets together and hears the latest significant updates. It was a pretty short meeting compared to the weekly team meetings and the monthly divisional meetings.

I also finalised writing and editing the four stories I was assigned to for the Chronicle publication. Through this experience, I got to learn and receive plenty of feedback about writing feature stories, how to make lead paragraphs attractive and how to tailor general news to a specific audience. I also learnt that if somebody is too busy to give a quote, it is best to make one up for them and get their approval.

An ironic thing I experienced was that even though next week will be my last week at the DSR, my orientation training was scheduled last week. It was here where I got to meet two other interns (one from ECU and one from Notre Dame) who were also completing their placements at the DSR but in different divisions. The orientation training also gave me an insight into my second major, Human Resource Management.

I am still doing the media monitoring every time when I come in and over the past few weeks, I have come to appreciate how important it is. At the last communications team meeting, they were discussing new ideas on how to improve media monitoring, especially in regards to effectively monitoring and clipping regional news. 

I am going to be pretty sad when I finish my internship with the DSR. I have been learning so much and got to meet amazing people along the way.

Well, that's all for now! Till next time when I write my final blog post to reflect my final day at DSR!

Michelle

ONLINE TROLLS – How to deal with negative feedback?

“Your reputation is important. Today’s organizations and individuals are at the mercy of the 24/7 internet media. Unflattering news, reviews, pictures, and even outright lies can be posted instantaneously and spread throughout the online world swiftly.” (Digital Firefly Marketing, 2013)

 

One of the main roles of Public Relations is to foster a positive perception of a company or brand.  With the ever-increasing number of on-line forums and platforms for people to express their opinions freely, there is always the added complication of negative feedback.
 

As the world moves ever forward towards a digitally savvy society, negative feedback and harsh criticism online can be quite damaging for a brand. Reputations can be destroyed overnight! Information online can live forever and is accessible to everyone. But not matter how hard you try, there is no way you can please everyone. Whether negative feedback is warranted or not, it must be addressed. Once something is published online it is open to the world to view and further comment on.

Here are some helpful tips when responding to negative feedback online:

• Monitor continually your brand’s online reputation – consumers may disregard your products based on reviews and comments found online

• Don’t escalate the situation - avoid adding fuel to the fire by steering clear of inflammatory comments

• Remain professional and have a calm approach

• Address the situation – protect your reputation

• Respond quickly and factually

• Remember the information you post is accessible to anyone

• Reinforce the values of the brand in your response

• Turn the negative into a positive brand opportunity – Rise above it!

• Move onto the next thing – change the topic by creating content to draw the attention away from the negative comments and guide the audience in a more positive direction

To delete or not to delete? Everyone is entitled to their opinion and even though deleting the post may seem like the best way to protect your brand – it is important to act with transparency and remain open to all feedback.  Criticism is also a great way to gauge the consumers’ perception. It can be an opportunity to discover ways to adapt a product in order to cater to consumer needs more effectively. It can even be a chance to ask for suggestions on how elements could be improved. Resist the urge to engage in a social media slinging-match it will only generate more negative exposure.  Of course there are exceptions to this rule, such as, when negative feedback includes discriminatory or highly offensive content.  In this instance, it may be best to delete the harmful content but then to provide an explanation for the removal.
 

I found that the professional placement experience was an excellent opportunity to witness Public Relations techniques put into practice in “real-world” situations. To illustrate the above points I want to relate an experience that I had during my professional placement at Magenta. Magenta has established a leadership position in retail marketing with a focus on lifestyle and represents leading Australian and International brands. This includes Magenta managing the social media elements of particular clients.  One day at Magenta I was notified that a client’s brand had received negative feedback online.  The negative content related to the design aesthetic of the client’s product and was posted as a comment on a Facebook photo.  Although the negative comment was a relatively minor one, I learned some very important lessons when dealing with online criticism.
 

In my case at Magenta, the negative comment on Facebook was effectively defused by using a variety of the media monitoring strategies mentioned above.  As a result of excellent social media monitoring the Magenta team were able to react extremely quickly.  The negative comment on the Facebook photo was located and replied to within the hour.  The reply was constructed using a calm and professional approach and acknowledged the opinions of the Facebook user in a positive light.  The response then went on to remind the Facebook user that for every product purchase a portion of each sale was donated to a specific conservationist charity.  This information was included to reinforce the values of the client’s brand.  Presenting these facts could also encourage other Facebook users to continue to support the brand knowing that funds from every purchase would be contributing to a worthwhile cause. After the comment reply was completed another constructive tactic was implemented. New positive content was posted above in order to move the damaging comments further down the page.  I thought this was a very clever strategy and a great way to shift to a positive focus.
 

So remember these handy hints and send those Trolls packing!

Jacinta McDonald #13958888 

Digital Firefly Marketing. (2013). Reputation Management Services. Retrieved from https://digitalfireflymarketing.com/reputation-management-services