Media Relations and Media Monitoring

Hi there everyone,

Its me again, Jacky. In this post I’m going to share my experience on media relations, media monitoring, challenges that I have encountered and lesson learnt throughout the process.

After co-organizing the event that I have mentioned previous post(Dare to Dream), I am assigned to distribute and monitor the media release. The whole process enable me to gain more knowledge in dealing with the media.

Process

First, softcopy and hardcopy of the media release is given to me with the list of different media outlet with names, phone numbers, fax and emails which targeted by Interhill. As guided by my supervisor, my duty is to email, fax and call each media outlets that has been listed.

Media monitoring starts the day after the media release were send out. Monitoring news might be a headache as there are so many articles and possibility of appearing in ANY pages is equally divided. There's also media outlet that takes up two to three days to publish the news.

Challenges and lessons learnt

Email, as we all are very familiar(I guess?) where it is just a another formal email of informing the media outlets with the attachment of the release. Faxing however, is my first time and my supervisor guide me through as the faxing machine is quite ‘ancient’. Here comes the part where it involves the communication between two person - calling the media. From the list given by my supervisor, it is understand that there's already some sort of connection established in different media outlets. I am then to call up different individual according to the list as to make sure that they have received the media release(I guess this is to remind them to publish in a subtle way?). Talking with the media personnel through the phone may seem to be very easy then meeting face to face but making them feel at ease is hard. Luckily it all went well, due to the fact that this is my first time calling these people and I stated that I am the new intern for my supervisor. 

After that, buying newspaper ranging from English, Chinese and Malay is a must as these are mentioned in the list. This may be the annoying part of all but it made me notice different article in the newspaper which are very interesting. In the another hand, sometimes media outlet did not publish the release and according to my supervisor sometimes we had to call them up and inquire. Media monitoring are then continued to the next day if there are media outlets that did not publish the release. On third day, if there are still no signs of the release on the newspaper, I am then are oblige to call them up to inquire whether we 'missed' it or they decided not to publish. The whole media monitoring was quite a hustle for me as I had to re-inquire with the media outlets to ensure that they publish the media release. 

Conversing happily without sounding like you are asking favour is a good skill set to learn with not only the media personnel but the others too. During the whole process, I am nervous and scared obviously; I pulled through and learnt a lot. Thanks to my supervisor, opening up this path for me and this made me further understand on dealing with media and in general people who I am going to work with in the future without offending them.

Different type/language of newspaper

Clipping the article

Quite excited/ happy to see the release to be published

Overall, I think media relations is very important but if the company already established a good relationship/connection with the media there will be less obstacle in publishing the media releases.

With hopes,

Chen Hau Yung

Miri Sarawak Campus

15655945

First time co-organizing an event

Hi, fellow friends and lecturers. Let me introduce myself.

I’m Chen Hau Yung, I am known as Jacky and I am currently interning at a company named Interhill Group of Companies in the Corporate Communication Department.

Let’s get things started

When I joined this company there is another intern named Nduaguba Amauche Francisca and she is finishing in this month.

Interhill Group of Companies’ motto is ‘Committed to People’ and for the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), there are three different areas of CSR. The three areas of CSR includes Education, Women Empowerment and Environment. In the education part, there lies The After School Project.

The After School Project is a project where each and every month, the company will spend two to three hours educating the unfortunate children that has no parents or are not able to go for education due to their current financial status.

The benefits of interning in this company is that we are able to come up with ideas and organize our own event with the children. Francisca then came up with the event named ‘Dare to Dream’. I’m sure this event seems familiar, and yes Francisca did post about this event in the last few post.

The After School Project’s vision is to create a brighter future for the needy children with affordable and passionate academic learning experiences.

Francisca's event educate the children by maximizing their creativity and also improving their communication skills.

In the event, my duty were emceeing, arranging the event date, gifts buying and arranging the refreshments.

Found the creative side of the children

Group photo of the two winning teams of the drawing event

Challenges & Lessoned

Emcee

First of all, this is my first time emceeing. I nearly freaked out when my supervisor told me to emcee. After composing myself, I went out there and started talking and entertaining everyone including the children. Francisca told me that I performed well and looked calm, but I was nervous the whole time! This is the first time meeting the kids and the caretaker; as an outspoken individual, handling such event by emceeing and gathering the attention is very different. I am agitated at first but throughout the event, I learnt different communication skills. During the event, audience are consist of the children and caretaker, therefore attention grabbing topics are easy. There are times where the audiences are not focus, sometimes being silent is a very powerful in a lot of occasions(especially emcee). 

Arranging the event

Contacting/get in touch with the person in charge is quite a hustle for me as I am not familiar with their schedule and three out of five times the person in charge of the events and activity is not available. Here, I learnt how to adapt and arrange events accordingly as I have never arrange anything with a stranger before.

Francisca - The organizing person

The poster that's done by Francisca and me

The children are very proud of their work of art

Overall, the event is a success. After a few days, there are people called us to express their interest in joining us and cooperating for future events this also proves that the exposure level of the event is well maintained. 

Last but not least, from this event the important thing that I learnt is always be prepared for any unforeseen circumstances and embrace the moment. 

Chen Hau Yung
15655945
Curtin University Miri Campus.

Unlocking My Potential

Hello again, everyone. Is everyone adjusting well in the establishment you all are interning at? I hope everything is going smoothly and I wish everyone happy working!

This is my second blog post and it has been a week since I first started my internship in Miri Marriott Resort & Spa. Besides’ the task of media clippings as mentioned in my previous blogpost, I have been assigned to do the company’s social media monitoring. My supervisor gave me their Facebook and Twitter’s ID’s and passwords. I was trusted with their social media accounts and boy, was I excited! Handling the social media accounts of a 5-star establishment known worldwide was thrilling.

Miri Marriott’s PR department is handling Mulu Marriott’s social media accounts. Hence, I was tasked to monitor both Miri and Mulu Marriott’s accounts. My first task was to increase the likes of their Facebook page as well as increase the follower counts. When I started, Mulu Marriott’s Twitter account’s followers were merely 42 followers. As of today (7 July 2015), I managed to increase the count to 388. As for Miri Marriott’s Twitter account, it first started off at 7690 and I managed to bring the count up to 8062. My supervisor have been telling me that the Miri Marriott Twitter accounts followers have been decreasing for weeks now. After mentioning to him about the increase, he praised me on my efforts and I was proud of myself. The feeling of accomplishment truly is indescribable. Please do visit Miri Marriott's Facebook page here and Mulu Marriott's Facebook page here. You can also visit their Twitter pages: Miri Marriott & Mulu Marriott respectively.

Every morning at 8.30 am, our department team will have a morning briefing and we will go through our daily packet which includes messages from the General Manager of Cluster Director of both Miri and Mulu Marriott, birthday shoutouts, forecasts of room bookings and many more. After the briefing, we each have to mention our goals and tasks to be done on that very day. I will always update the team on the amount of followers I’ve managed to increase yesterday and hopefully increase them further that day.

Besides’ that, today, I was given the task of writing a press release on Mulu Marriott’s “Spirit To Serve” (STS) program. STS program is Marriott’s community relations program where they support the communities where we live and work. Marriott International focuses on five global social issues: poverty alleviation, the environment, community workforce development, the wellbeing of children, and global diversity and inclusion. The program helps to create goodwill by supporting special causes. This program is a way for Marriott to “give something back” to the community. Besides that, it helps to garner valuable media attention as well as developing close working relationships with local businesses and community groups. Through the program, the company can build partnerships with other corporate sponsors and develop rapport with them.

You can read more on Marriott's Spirit To Serve here.

Press release format:

Be sure to indicate right at the top that this document is a news release. The words, “News for Immediate Release,” should be bold as possible in the upper left-hand of the page.

Be sure to:

• Use the full name of the property;
• Type the release in Times New Roman font, 12 point type;
• Use an informative or catchy headline in all caps, on two single-spaced lines. Position the headline flush left, not centered;
• Double-space after the headline, and double space between lines of a release. Triple space between paragraphs. Do not break paragraphs between pages;
• Do not indent paragraphs;
• If a release is longer than one page, put the word “more: at the end of each page. At the end of the release, put a “30” and “###) to signal the end;
• Number all pages but the first one. Include a shortened version of the headline at the upper left-hand corner of subsequent pages and the appropriate page numbers, including the word “page”;
• Only capitalize executive titles when they come before the person’s name. Do not use courtesy titles (Mr., Ms.) on the first reference on an individual. Use the full name instead, Use courtesy titles on all subsequent references; and
• Spell out numbers from one to nine, use numerals for numbers from 10 and up. Always spell out numbers that begin a sentence.

Media Monitoring Do's & Don'ts

Media Monitoring Do’s

• DO complete your profiles

Make sure your profiles are branded, and that they explain what service you provide. Include a link to your website or how people can get in touch with you.

• DO engage with your audience

Make sure your posts are interesting for your audience, respond to questions and comments as timely as possible, and keep your messages consistent with your brand’s identity.

• DO plan ahead

Creating a monthly calendar of any special days or content you want to distribute can help to keep your social channels timely and fresh.

• DO consider timing when posting

Ensure your posts have a good chance to be seen by your target audience by posting at the most effective times to achieve higher levels of social engagements

• DO use links and hashtags

Links can be used to direct traffic back to your website and hashtags help to get your posts seen. Breanded, unique hashtags can help users find your content faster and more easily, as well as establishing your brand.

• DO reshare content

Social media is all about community so reshare and engage with the content of others that is relevant to your audience. It’s a great way to build connections and show support to the business community you’re a part of.

• DO make your content stand out

Variety is key when it comes to types of content being shared. Include a mix of images, blogposts, infographics, tips, authoritative content and video.

• DO respect your audience

You’ve worked hard to build your audience so don’t let it go to waste by being rude or aggressive. Respond to people who have taken the time to get in touch-always be positive and emphasize your strengths rather than highlighting any weaknesses.

 Media Monitoring Don’ts

• DON’T spread yourself too thin

Don’t waste time signing up to every social media platform going if you’re not going to have time to update each one regularly. Think about what’s important and will work for your business.

• DON’T spam your feeds

Social media should be used to inform and show your expertise, not just to hard sell. Don’t overwhelm your feeds with too much information though; carefully consider the content you’re sharing.

• DON’T forget to monitor

You should be monitoring your channels daily for comments, compliments and complaints so that you can respond to them effectively.

• DON’T skimp on resources

Don’t underestimate what is required when running social media channels for your business. Fresh content must be created and be up to date with the industry news and changes, while someone should be responsible for regular posting and interacting with any customer comments or queries

• DON’T overdo it

No one likes a post with a thousand hashtags in it. Limit yourself to 2-3 key phrases and try to use them naturally within sentences instead of lumping them at the end.

• DON’T plagiarize content

Resharing is one thing, copying content and branding it as your own is another. Always give credit when credit is due.

• DON’T forget about the visuals

From infographics to videos, posting visual-based content drives interaction. Time is short so having content that is easy on the eye and quick to digest is key.

• DON’T share or interact with questionable content

There’s a delicate line on social media as to what should be shared and what shouldn’t. think carefully about your business and what it stands for before you interact with controversial or questionable content.

If you would like to read more on the Do's & Don'ts, please visit the website here 

"The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.”
– Jimmy Johnson

That's all for my second blog post. Stay tuned for my next one. 

Till then, happy working!

Jasmine Alyssa Epui
Miri Campus
Curtin Sarawak University

17143743

Show Them What You're Made Of

Hello fellow interns, my name is Josephine Joeyna Ak Joseph Jantan,  I’m in my final semester of my Bachelor of Arts, Mass Communications degree, majoring in Public Relations and I’m interning full-time with… *drumroll please* Curtin University Sarawak’s Corporate Communications Department.

A lot of my friends were surprised when I told them that I will be interning with Corporate Communications and some seniors even told me that interning in the university will be a bore as I will probably only be given newspapers to read and to do media clippings.

After the end of my first week here, I can say that there has not been a boring day in the office. The office is always bustling, colleagues are nice and friendly and are always eager to share their knowledge of the corporate world with me. After the first three days, I actually look forward to my early mornings (though I am not much of a morning person) when I get to walk into the office, greet everyone good morning, make myself a steaming cup of coffee and then sit at my desk reading the day’s newspapers and updating the rest on current news every once in a while.

A week in and I already feel like I am part of the Corporate Communications family. When it gets too quiet in the office, Ian or Flynn would pipe up with a funny or witty comment on something they stumbled upon on their Facebook newsfeed or they would ask me if I read anything interesting to which will lead to short interesting discussions.

Whenever I am done with the media clippings I would ask around to see if anyone had anything for me do. My colleagues were more than happy to pass some work on to me, especially if it includes walking all the way to the other end of the campus to take a group photograph for a press release, and I did not mind doing it. In summary of what I have done this week, I've taken photographs of 3 events and they were used to accompany media releases sent out to the press, I've drafted a media release and a press conference invitation to the press, done a week’s worth of media clippings and kept the Monthly Activity Report updated with the week’s media analysis.

It felt amazing to see the picture I took printed on one of the first few pages of the local section and it was printed in colour! I am sure I was grinning like a Cheshire cat while filing that media clipping away.

In conclusion though, my advice is don’t believe in everything people tell you about their experience of interning. Everyone walks away with knowledge but not everyone’s journey will be the same. Just be yourself, keep an open mind and don’t be afraid to step up and ask for something to do if you end up just sitting there at your desk doing absolutely nothing important. In this case all I really did was to take the initiative and opportunities came my way. So I say, to all fellow PR393 students, head out there and show them what you’re made of!

Cheers,

Josephine Joeyna