Twitter Tutorial

Hi guys,
It's not long now until the end of semester which is why stress levels have risen due to the mountains of work I'm sure everyone has had. However, i have breathed a sigh of relief after finally finishing my internship report. Apart from doing a final edit and putting my blog posts in, it is all done and dusted which I couldn't be more excited about. The reason why I had a time frame to finish the report was so that I could send it off to my intern mentor, Sandra, for her to have a look over the report in order to fill out the appraisal form.

As part of the recommendations section in the report, I suggested that Savvy Creations could better utilise social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook in order to promote their services. This is because setting up an account is cost effective for the company and social media is becoming such a huge component of Public Relations due to peoples dependency on the internet to stay connected 24/7. As a response to this, Sandra asked me during a meeting to construct a Twitter handbook as she wasn't too familiar with the platform. The handbook will be written as a step by step guide on how best to use Twitter in a business sense using layman's terms, outlining the benefits which will be received by Savvy Creations through using it. A lot of people seem to not understand how Twitter works and are a little put off to use it, preferring the convenience of Facebook or Instagram which are more straight forward, however, the benefits of using it in a business sense are immeasurable. I myself don't use Twitter on a regular basis, but I do have a strong understanding of how it works, its features and benefits through studying Web Communications and often having to use Twitter for assignments. This handbook will then be used for future interns at Savvy Creations to assist with social media monitoring tasks and building an online presence for both Savvy Creations and clients.

I'm excited to undertake this task as my knowledge in social media is being put to good use so that hopefully future interns won't be daunted by using Twitter through following my handbook.

Happy report writing!
Tahlia

My interview with a West Coast Eagle

Hi Everyone,

Here's a bit of light entertainment for you all to read. As part of Savvy Creations re-branding its website (still waiting on the web developer to finish the final touches!) the company will be including a blog section to their website which will include blog posts about topics within the industries they specialise in: Fashion, Beauty, Health and Fitness, Travel, Lifestyle and Charity.

For the first blog post, I was lucky to interview West Coast Eagles player Jack Darling as part of Savvy Creations' Health and Fitness practice area. The questions I asked were some of the trivial questions that I'm sure many people may wonder about with what an athlete gets up to in his spare time and what not. Blogging in PR is becoming so popular due to the need for all professionals in this technological era to embrace social media and work out how audiences are using certain platforms to get information. Blogging is a great way for PR firms to attract greater traffic to their website and reach out to a greater number of people.

Here's a preview of the interview which will be featured on the new website soon.

5 Minutes with AFL’s Darling

Jack Darling has come a long way since his 22 goal performance during a game when he was in the junior league for Sorrento Duncraig. So far what we know about the lifelong West Coast Eagles supporter turned player is that he has a pretty mean appetite, eating his way through 15 Weet-Bix just as a snack, a huge Game of Thrones fan (let’s face it, who isn’t?) and has 3 older sisters… talk about being outnumbered. Oh, and did we mention he has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do? We sat down to talk about all things fitness and what the 22 year old gets up to in his spare time, including his love for his adorable American Staffy, Bailey.

What do you do on your days off from training?

 On my days off I enjoy going to the beach, fishing, sleeping in, having a coffee, bit of house work and pay bills and usually get a massage or physio. My family has a house down in Kalbarri so my girlfriend and I go up there during the off season or when we have a bye. Love to do a bit of surfing when I’m there and of course we have to bring Bailey my dog. 

What is your guilty pleasure food wise? There must be moments where you find it hard sticking to such a healthy diet.

 I really love Italian food. Pizza, Garlic Bread…you name it! I often go down to Little Caesar’s to satisfy the cravings. Generally I don’t eat too badly but I just eat lots and lots until I am beyond full.

 If you could be any athlete from any sporting code, who would it be?

Adam Scott the Australian Golfer- Don’t have to work too hard on fitness!

What is your exercise routine?

At the club we usually train in the morning, have a few hours off to get lunch and a massage then go into weights. After weights we do a group yoga session to focus on our core strength and flexibility then into the ice bins. When I’m at home I tend to relax a bit more and just take the dog for a walk around the lake near my house or down at the beach.

 What’s your ultimate holiday destination you would love to go to?

At the end of this year my girlfriend (now fiancee) and I are going to Greek islands which should be great. Love traveling.  Get about 8 weeks off a year and I like to go overseas in the offseason for as long as possible. Went to Japan with some of the boys at West Coast and last year my friend and I went travelling around America and got to see a few baseball games and did all the touristy things you would do.

What would you be doing if it weren't for AFL?

Something definitely relating to sport.  I love my surfing, golfing, Tae Kwon Do. I’m very lucky that I’ve been given the chance to play for the AFL team my family and I grew up supporting and always had my sights set on playing footy.

Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?

I’d like to think I’d still be playing at West Coast, it’s such a great club and have made some really good mates. Adam (Simpson, Coach of West Coast) is a good guy who has been a great addition to the club. Looking forward to getting in to a more senior role in the playing group and seeing some talented footballers join us. And of course, winning a Premiership. That’s any footballers dream. 

All the best,

Tahlia

Being a socially conscious PR consultancy

Hi Everyone,

In my report I'm just about to start writing my recommendations to Savvy Creations which will outline its areas of improvement and areas of strength. After reflecting on the firm's areas of strength, something I've found really admirable is the way in which Savvy Creations places charity and not-for-profit organisations at such a high priority. My mentor at Savvy Creations who is also the Director, Sandra Spasojevic, goes about exercising its  Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to help out those companies who may not have the big budgets to afford PR professionals to promote their cause to the public.

An example of this is Savvy Creations' client, a bottled water company who are a charitable organisation that gives over half of its profits to international charities. There are 3 different bottle caps which represent different charity sectors; the red bottle caps donate funds to health orientated charities, green bottle caps donate funds to environmental charities and blue caps donate money to clean drinking water projects in developing countries. It really is a great initiative where by buying a bottle of water,  people can contribute just a small donation to important causes without going out of their way to do so.

Savvy Creations offers free initial consultations and pro-bono work as part of their mission to help smaller companies, thus strengthening their CSR to the local Perth community. I think this is becoming a greater expectation that in the PR industry, firms need to be socially aware of the economic climate  smaller companies and charities are in where they don't necessarily have the big budgets to hire a PR consultant who could make their brand even more recognisable.

This definitely resonated with what I've learnt throughout my studies at Curtin, especially in the PR consultancy unit, where CSR and community engagement is crucial in order to maintain a positive reputation in the industry as stakeholder expectations are growing where by giving back to the community from firms is becoming a priority. After all, the fundamentals of PR that I learnt way back in PR Principles is that the role of PR in society is to create mutually benefit relationships between firms and their stakeholders...so why not create these relationships directly between the PR firm and the community which they practice in?

Something to think about!

Tahlia

Making the switch to marketing and interning from home

Hi guys,

Hope everyone is enjoying their internship, it really is such a great component of Curtin's PR course as it gives us students the opportunity to work in the PR industry, and I can say that I'm so happy that I chose an industry that I find exciting and enjoyable to work in.

So as mentioned previously I work at PR firm Savvy Creations who have just expanded to marketing as well. This leap has been both challenging and rewarding as I am now accumulating more skills and a greater understanding of the communications industry. For my task this week, I have been asked to create a brochure that will feature as part of Savvy Creations' media kit which will offer 3 PR and Marketing package deals for businesses and individuals . A few weeks prior to this, I was asked to research the types of services other marketing firms offered in order to incorporate those to the services we already provide. I found that a lot of marketing these days is based around the internet, whether that be e-marketing through email campaigns, web and logo design, merchandising or market research, many elements of PR transferred over to marketing. This made the task a lot easier as I could get a better understanding on how the two complement each other and which services could be of use to our package deals. With already having gathered the information on what types of marketing and PR services will be on offer for our introductory, intermediary and advanced packages, this will make the task a lot easier and will finish before the next scheduled meeting which will be held in a week's time.

Speaking of meetings, as Savvy Creations is independently run, it currently has no head quarters. This means that our meetings are held on location and us interns work from home. For the past 7 or so months that I have been interning, the meetings are quite structured and have to be to ensure that an efficient work environment is maintained. The meetings are held every 1.5-2 weeks depending on the size of the workload, and are scheduled in the mornings To start off with, we talk about any challenges we have had with the work or any comments regarding it, we go through each of our tasks and either have a printed copy to give to Sandra or e-mail her the work (either way, all work must be emailed to her). After this, Sandra goes over her current projects and clients, giving feedback on the previous week's work and runs us through what needs to be done for the upcoming week. She then allocates work loads. With two interns, me being a PR student and the other who is a Marketing student, our tasks are designated to suit our skills. Sandra runs over the things she would like me to do, discussing the specifics of each tasks which I will ask questions so I can fully grasp what needs to be achieved. This routine is something I have gotten very familiar with over the course of the internship, however, requires lots of communication and mutual understanding as the work is done from home.

Completing the tasks from home is something that I have never experienced before, but it has made balancing uni life and a part time job so much easier. It allows me to complete the work at a time that suits me, but also requires a lot of motivation in order to complete the work on time to a high degree. This is because you don't have to leave the house, dress up in certain attire and behave a certain way when you are in a corporate environment which help to shape performance levels due to expectations. What I have learnt that when working from home, motivation is key and needs to be maintained, which is why I allocate myself certain times when I have to wake up early in order to complete the work and enforce a sense of professionalism.

Working from home, I have learnt a few key things that I would like to pass on to those who may be thinking of starting their own freelance PR business after uni or those who may also be working from home as part of their future internship;

1. Communication is key: It's easy to get immersed in your workload with no-one standing over your shoulder giving you feedback on your work. Make sure you touch base with your mentor often to ensure you are on the right track. Even if you don't have any questions or inquiries, by communicating it builds a greater working relationship dynamic and allows team members to see where you are on a project
2. Maintain professionalism: Even though you are working from home, you are still working in a corporate environment. Try and get out of your pyjamas to do the work, put on the alarm to wake up early to get you in to a routine  (as your clients will most probably have a typical working day from 8am-5pm) and therefore still need to be contactable within those hours
3. Don't slack off: Self-explainable. Its so easy to do when you are in the comfort of your own home but point 1 and 2 sum up how best to avoid this.

(How not to do it)

Hope that helps!

Tahlia

Introductions and catch-ups

Hi Everyone!

My name is Tahlia Manners, I'm a Mass Communications student majoring in PR and Web Communications and, like all of you, am completing my 20 day PR internship at a company called Savvy Creations who specialize in Fashion, Beauty, Lifestyle, Health and Fitness and Travel PR. I started the process to finding a placement way back in January of this year and secured the role as a PR (and now marketing) intern in February...so technically have done a few more than 20 days! The experience so far has been fantastic and have learnt so much on the way.

To get you up to speed, the past 7 months has been focusing on the total re-branding of Savvy Creations. When i first started, my roles included copy-writing for the new SC website to make it sound sophisticated and modern and RESEARCH, research and more research in to what makes a great PR company- from aesthetics to their practices (which is why Savvy Creations later decided to include marketing as part of their services. Clients want a one-stop shop). For this, I spent hours researching many different PR websites, media kits, logos and branding which acted as inspiration. During this time, I helped in providing images for the new website, the content, colour schemes, PR and Marketing packages for businesses and decisions on logo designs. The final logo decision is the one below which embodies the way in which the company wanted to be perceived: contemporary and sophisticated

Now that you are all up to speed on some of the highlights thus far, my last meeting with my boss (meetings occur roughly every 2 weeks where we are assigned the work) I was asked to;

1. Write 2 Press Releases:  
2. Come up with an innovative publicity stunt for a client**
3. Write and draft an advertising campaign for a client**
4. Come up with 30-40 Web Development companies in Perth and write up a generic email to send to them to inform on our services and how we can help
5. Look over a Perth photographer's website and write up some possible content changes.

I'm currently completing all of these tasks with an upcoming meeting this week, which I will update you all on the end results

What i have learnt so far from my internship (in particular this week)

1. Organisation is key: with uni work, part time job and assignments, prioritize and get all the work done before the due date as in the past couple of weeks, my intern boss has needed the work early. That way, you'll never get caught off guard. 
2. Always ask questions: the more you know about a task and the company the better you can complete it. Background research is also vital, so have a look at the company website, their vision and missions.
3. Be enthusiastic and eager: ultimately one of the main reasons I was originally hired was due to my enthusiasm, which as my boss says is something you cant teach. I will always ask my intern boss if there is any more work she is willing to give me to build up my experience and make a lasting impression.

I promise the next post will be shorter..7 months of catch up (in a nutshell) is now done. 

Tahlia