From Little Things Big Things Grow

Looking back to where it all started I remember dreading starting my internship, where do I begin, where do I want to go, can I really do this, were all questions circling in my mind.
I think I speak for a lot of students when I say I was not looking forward to working for free and that some of the intern adverts looked a little dry, not quite as exciting as Samantha's office from the Sex and the City. But could I really be picky? I'm just a university student, and I'm definitely not the only one looking for a placement, so I should just be happy with anything I can get, right? Wrong!
If you start early enough and do your research you can find somewhere that fits you as well.

Fortunately for myself whilst social butterflying around Perth I began talking to someone who worked for Rugby WA and the Western Force. This organisation was the dream for me as an internship, because of all the rugby players walking around the office? Maybe, but mostly because I had always taken extra interest in sport. Throughout school I was always the sport captain and that didn't change when I arrived at Curtin becoming their sports captain in 2014. All my work experience and volunteer work had been with sporting events so Rugby WA just seemed like the next step up for me.
Networking is a handy tool for any students toolbox and thankfully that is how I found out that they were looking for interns for the upcoming season and eagerly asked for a direct contact that I could submit my interest to. After handing in my resume and acquiring an interview I received an email congratulating me on my new role in the partnerships team at Rugby WA and Western Force.

For a moment I had a sigh of relief, the hard part was over, or so I thought. Day one rolled around and I began to doubt my ability to 'PR', the 'what ifs began to appear in my mind, what if I have to write a press release on my fist day, what if I end up sitting alone at lunch, what if I forget how to send an email, what if I make a mistake. But day one interns don't stress, most tasks are simple, like spread sheets and data entry and all my tasks always came with a set of instructions to help me along the way. I also quickly learnt that the ability to ask questions was my greatest ally, no matter how silly I thought my question might have been, my manger was never frustrated at me and never thought my question was stupid. Asking the question helped to get the job done quicker and ensured it was done to the best of my ability.

As my internship continued my confidence built and the more tasks I was given. Towards the end I was able to walk into the office, sit down at my desk and continue working without any instruction from my manager. My what if's had faded away and I realised that every mistake I made throughout my time at Rugby WA had built me up to be a better intern, learning how to fix things myself and how to avoid making future errors.

Now at the end of my internship I realise that I was never working for free. Hands on experience teaches you things that you could never pick up in a classroom and I am so grateful to Rugby WA and Western Force for giving me this opportunity to grow and develop as a PR student. I now have the confidence I needed to take me into the next stage of life beyond university and I owe it to my internship.

'The Interns' and ladies from commercial services, celebrating our final Western Force home game together

Social Media and PR: Not As Simple As You Think!

Hi Everyone! I have been undertaking my internship at The Blue Room Theatre and thought I would provide an update about the work I have done on their social media, particularly their Facebook page. 

Like most uni students in their early twenties, I would consider myself pretty social media savvy. Most of us use it everyday (sometimes it feels like I am literally on Facebook all day!). So naturally, I thought managing the social media of The Blue Room Theatre would be a breeze. What I discovered though, is that social media in the PR and business world is not as simple as what I thought. Rather, it takes a lot of thought and planning to turn a Facebook page into a strategic business tool where you can engage with stakeholders, your target audience and potential business partners.

It’s all about what you post….

Firstly, you must have content to have a strong Facebook page and social media presence. One of my weekly tasks was to surf the web and social media for any potential developments or news within the arts world that we could use. Sometimes this would be challenging, as it would feel like there was not a lot meaningful content out there! So at times it required some creativity, as you would have to search beyond the standard news websites to find content. 

when you post….

Having approximately 6-7 posts a week was the ideal amount of content at The Blue Room. It was also important to schedule these posts so they would appear at optimum times when our audience was online.  

and how you post!

It’s not as easy as you would think to craft the perfect Facebook post or Tweet! What I learnt is that it is best to make it short and sweet, use a lot of tags/hashtags and have an eye-catching image to support your post. 

Social Media can also help build relationships

The content we did use however allowed us to build relationships with other theatres and arts organisations around Perth. For example, if we posted about an event or performance that was being run by a different organisation, it was likely that in the future they would post something about us on their Facebook page. There were also occasions when I emailed other organisations and asked them to promote some of The Blue Room Shows, and in return, we promoted their work. This showed me that social media can help foster relationships with mutual benefits between organisations in the same industry. 

Engagement Is Important

Encouraging your audience to like, comment and share your posts is also crucial. Competitions and incentives is an effective way to achieve this. The Blue Room would regularly have giveaways on their Facebook page in order to promote engagement amongst their audience. 

Post on other organisation’s Facebook Page

At one point during my internship, The Blue Room was seeking applications for their Summer Nights Program, which is run during the Perth Fringe World Festival. With the goal of seeking international applicants, I posted on the Facebook walls of Fringe World Festival’s from around the world (particularly those in Europe and USA) and promoted our program. This surprisingly worked quite well, and we received a number of replies and direct messages from international applicants and the Fringe World Festivals themselves! Therefore, this is definitely a tactic I would use in the future. 

Overall, it has been very interesting to see first hand just how valuable Social Media is to organisations today and the many ways which we can use it in Public Relations. I have learnt a lot monitoring and generating content for The Blue Room Theatre’s Facebook, which I am excited to put into practice in my future career! 

Fundraising Campaigns: Tips for Success

I am completing my internship at The Blue Room Theatre, a small, independent theatre which relies heavily on the support and donations of its members. Recently, the theatre ran a campaign with the goal of raising $21,000, allowing them to install solar panels. Not only did they reach this goal, they actually exceeded it, with funds totalling $22,935. Being involved with the campaign and witnessing the work of The Blue Room team allowed me to learn a number of valuable lessons which I hope to incorporate in my future studies and career. These include:

1. Find a great spokesperson

Finding a spokesperson who is well-known, liked, and relevant to the cause is vital. The Blue Room was able to achieve this by having comedian Tim Minchin as their spokesperson. Not only is he a well-known figure, but he has previously performed his work at The Blue Room in his early career. He therefore had a personal connection with the theatre and was able to help generate support from the community.

Tim Minchin in The Blue Room Theatre's campaign video

2. Integrate all communication channels

Promoting the campaign across all communication channels is vital to ensure consistency and that the word is spread. Making sure that the campaign is promoted on the organisation’s website and social media channels is obviously able to achieve exposure, however The Blue Room also had links to donate on their e-mail signatures and gave people the opportunity to donate whenever they purchased tickets. These extra initiates can only assist the cause, and were responsible for a number of donations which The Blue Room received. 

3. Use your networks

There’s no better time than during a fundraising campaign to use any networks and relationships you have developed! The Blue Room was able to do this and in particular, was able to secure a lot of big donations by reaching out to some of their networks. 

4. Thank your donors

Thanking and recognising your supporters is an important aspect to implementing a successful campaign. This allows donors to feel valued and more inclined to donate again in the future. The Blue Room did this be acknowledging donors on their website, via email and through personalised phone calls if the donation was above $250. 

5. Be prepared

Having a clear plan and schedule is the foundation of a successful campaign. Furthermore, having contingencies in place if the campaign appears to be falling short of meeting its objectives is also extremely useful. 

Event Site Publishing- Free ways to market your event!

Marketing events can be really hard and expensive. Obviously old techniques of print marketing like posters and flyers still work really well but with the associated cost of printing, designing and distributing (and distributing to the right places to reach your correct audience!) it can be really difficult, especially for smaller PR and Events budgets or for NGO's. A quick and simple way to avoid this/supplement/ replace is online event posting sites.

As part of my internship I had to list events that the consultancy were running for various clients. I was lucky enough to already have had lots of experience with these sites through my position as Vice-President and then President of The After Party, a social networking and film club at Curtin University. 

These sites are extremely easy to use. Some do have different features and work differently to one another but you will soon work it out. You will also fast develop a preference for which ones you like using the most depending on the amount of detail you can put in e.g. maps, graphics, long or short descriptions, social media links or ticketing.

Eventbrite would have to be my favourite site to use. This is because of it's custom-ability for layout, colours, font and images to match your event and whatever other design material you have. It also has the features for RSVP's and creating tickets for your guests to buy online. All you need to do is link your preferred bank account, set the different ticket types e.g. price, qty, qty to purchase at once etc. and you are able to have an online portal for your guests. There is a small charge and you only get the funds once the ticket sales close but overall it's worth it when looking at the costs associated with sites like Oztix. There is also a area to manage sales, generate door lists and see who has purchased tickets.


EventBrite
(https://www.eventbrite.com.au/)

My 24/7
(http://my247.com.au/)

Event Finda
(http://www.eventfinda.com.au/ )

Eventful 
(http://perth.eventful.com/)

Liveguide
(http://www.liveguide.com.au/)


Here is the example of one I did for my internship matching the event's themes and colours





Hope this helps in your event management endeavors as PR professionals!

Cass