Bowling Night Competition with the Media!

Hi guys, I'm back! Last two months which is on February 19, the Interhill group company had a bowling night competition with the media. We have invited all the press in Miri to join the bowling night competition. Basically, it is our company compete with the media.We made a few calls, sending faxes and emails to the press and Interhill's staffs that interested.  All of our staffs were excited once they heard about the news. They even practiced days before the event. Our PR department arranged the event and confirmed all the media that can join the bowling night. The main purpose of this bowling night is to create a good bonding time with the media, and at the same time to help release stress for everyone including me. Yup, sometimes you can get stress out due to work. We played two sets for the bowling match and guess what? The media are really strong competitors. In the end, the media won the match with a pretty high score and received a trophy and certificates as an appreciation for the media spent their time for the bowling night with our company. I can say that it is a very successful event even though we lost the match because on that night, all I can see are the joy and excitement in their faces. Win or lost, it does not really matter. What really matter is the experience, team work, and bonding we have made during the match. Everyone are indeed having a good time on that night, without any doubts ;)

Our team for the bowling night :D

The media won the match. Congrats!

End of the Bowling night! Good job everyone! 

Carolyne Neo
Curtin Sarawak Campus
15840945

Bring on the next chapter

This week my internship placement has come to an end and I can’t help but to feel sad but also excited as I prepare to enter the ‘real world’. Entering the real world has always seemed so far away, but now its here and to be honest I’m nervous. Very nervous in fact! Finishing university after four years is like the end of a new chapter but the start of a new one!

Being apart of this internship experience has been much more beneficial than I first anticipated. I was finally given the opportunity to put all my theoretical knowledge into practice. I feel so privileged that I had the opportunity to intern at such a wonderful organisation (Curtin), in a team that has been so friendly and supportive right the way through. The past three months has flown by and I feel so much more confident in my ability to successfully carry out public relations practices in a professional environment. I now have the confidence to pitch to journalists and clients, write captivating media releases and confidently organise a successful event. Some of the other tasks and activities I have been involved in during my time at Curtin include;

•        Media monitoring and media enquires
•         Social media management
•         Loud shirt day
•         John Curtin Medals
•          The Agency launch
•          The medical school celebration

Curtin has given me the opportunity to be apart of some amazing events and activities and I have loved every minute of it. Within the last three months I have learnt more than I thought were possible, and I’m so thankful for my opportunity. I went into my internship not knowing where I wanted to take my career, now I feel passionate about pursuing a career in events management.

Bring on 2016!

Seeking Clarity: A Dejavu Experience with Journalists

This week would be the most challenging to date. 

Even my desk depicted how bust I was with beautiful orange Clarity folders everywhere. Notice I cleaned it for the photograph. 

Despite having worked as a journalist for the Kalgoorlie Miner Regional Newspaper in the past, I found this task the most nerve racking.

With the online strategy for the ICF campaign now sorted, it was time to begin contacting media outlets to generate traffic towards the online medium to achieve awareness and engagement.

I spook with different members of the ICF leadership team and together we devised news worthy stories that would appeal to a wide target market. 

What deems a topic news worthy?

At university, if we tick off on of the topics from the ‘newsworthy’ list I'm sure we are all aware of, it almost feels as though it guarantees our topic coverage in the media.

WRONG.

Despite having stories that related to health and well being, corporate and executive, media outlets were not as interested as what I first thought they’d be. 

I wrote and pitched 4 media backgrounders to various media outlets around the Perth, including the Sunday Times, the West Australian, Scoop Magazine, ABC Radio and Business News.

The topics varied from coaching in health - more closely breast cancer, coaching and ADHD, coaching for business executives, and coaching and yoga.

Speaking with journalist on the phone was quiet the straight forward process and once my first call had been made, I was not so nervous.

Unfortunately the stories did not stick with the media, but the process from fabrication to pitch was a fantastic experience. 

Particularly, I learnt to be prompt, straight to the point, and as Ellie from the strategy team suggested, ask the journalist first if they have time to speak.

Speaking with Kellie she said that they might not work as they are not the type of stories they are interested in right as it did not appeal to current affairs. 

This meant that these press releases could be utilised next March for coaches week. 

This experience revealed my true passion for the PR industry verse going back to journalism.

I believe this is because of the challenge that the PR industry requires

Hello real world (better known as full-time work)

 I’m excited to announce that I was offered a full-time position at Magenta as my internship came to an end. When I think back to April when I begun my internship, it almost feels like a lifetime away when I was only a PR baby. I remember at the start of my internship my supervisor asked me how I would describe public relations. I rattled off what I had learnt in my past couple of years: PR is communication, managing relationships with stakeholders. I think I received a long pause from my supervisor.

It’s now been about six months into real PR work experience, and I still believe in my prior definition, but after gaining experience in consumer PR I would have to also include that it is a lot of selling. Selling ideas to managers, selling stories to journalists, selling a proposal to potential partners, selling a brand to consumers.

Justine Schofield Press Release for Thermomix 

In our public relations techniques unit I learnt how to write the perfect, concise, inverted pyramid of a media release. I’ve found in practice that I’ve been allowed a little leeway in terms of how bare bones and structured a media release can be. In our media relations unit I also learnt about what is put into a press kit, and I think I was naïve in thinking that would be enough. It is also a lot of picking up the phone - which in a world of digital communication is probably still the best way to get in contact. It’s been bridging this gap between the foundation of skills I built at university to real PR practice that has been priceless.

It seems from reading through everyone’s posts on the blog that we’ve all followed similar trajectories. At first scared and nervous but hoping to do our best and learn. In the midst of our internships we face challenges and learn to put forward solutions and what we’ve learnt at uni. And finally, coming to an end, we reflect on how far we’ve come, how invaluable real experience is to our education. Also having a greater idea of what we like and don’t like, whether to stay in PR, or what areas we’d like to work in.

Channel Nine Live Weather Cross at Garden City Booragoon

At the end of the day, I feel fulfilled and invigorated to keep on going with my work in PR and finally get to do what I studied all these years for. Where my future is concerned, I know I want to stay in an agency to push myself and learn as much as possible. I love that no two days are the same. That it ranges from research, copywriting and events. My days at Magenta have gone from preparing hundreds of media kits to standing by at an event where we’ve secured a live weather news cross - which is pretty exciting!

Coming out of my past few months of work experience, I can’t recommend internships enough to future public relations professionals. It’s been a great, often tough, and fun learning curve for me. So it’s finally time to bid farewell to university and enter that real world we’ve heard so much about. Wishing everyone good luck for all the firsts they’re about to come across. 

 

Politeness and Dealings with the Media

Hi again!

So its Ramsha, again, reporting from Kuala Lumpur and the internship at Integrated Public Relations (to be referred to as iPR hence forth in this post). 

One of the first things I learned when I joined iPR, after the importance of being patient (refer to my first post), was that you can never drop the ball when it comes to being polite. Though being polite is essential in all aspects of your internship of course, what I am referring to in particular is with regards to your interaction with the media. 

By media I mean newspapers and magazine publishing firms, online media outlets like blogs and websites and television and radio stations. You will probably at some time in your internship or later in your career in the field of public relations, have to pick up the phone and call up these media outlets. You will do this to invite them to press related events like press conferences and event launches.

Now one would presume that the media would be glad to be invited to newsworthy events, giving them more items for their publications and channels but that is not always the case. 

Let me start off at the beginning of the process (note that this is a generalized process as I am sure this can vary from firm to firm):

Step 1) Drafting a Media Invitation

Your firm will produce a letter of invitation that will be emailed or sent via other means to all appropriately chosen media outlets. The media outlets are chosen based on what the event you are inviting them to is all about. If it is an environmental event for example, you might consider media that caters to environmental issues and concerns and tourism and nature in general.

The invitation will include details of what the event is about, highlight important points like the parties involved, the sponsors (if any), VIPs that will be in attendance, why the event is special or important and obviously, the location and timing (if the location is obscure, it would be wise to add directions or a map link).

Once the media invitation has been drafted, checked and re-checked for errors and finally sent off to the chosen media outlets, you allow for some time to pass so that we can be sure the invitation as been received.

Step 2) Picking up that phone

Now this part, I was so nervous the first time I was told I would need to make actual calls. Even now, after a few times doing this bit for different events, I still get nervous as I punch in those numbers. Possibly because there is so much opportunity to make mistakes here.

What happens is that you will call a given number, wait for the phone to be answered and then you wing it, hoping your charm will get you through... no not really, I am just kidding there.

What actually happens is that you will be given a script or guidelines as to what you are expected to say before you start making the calls. You should make it a point to practice this script out loud so you can assess what you sound like. The aim is to sound self assured, calm and NOT rehearsed. You have to sound natural and completely unperturbed. Basically, you need to sound like you got this.

Now when that phone is answered, you need to ask for the right person to be connected with. Once that call goes through, make sure to be pleasant and introduce yourself, give the reference of the email so they know who you are and ask them to confirm if they received it or not and whether they will send someone to cover the event.

Make sure to record who you spoke with and take down any important information they give you.

Step 3)  Sounds simple enough? Not quite!

Now at this point in the call you will most likely receive one of the following responses:

"No we have no received any email, can you please resend it? Call back in about an hour to reconfirm please".

"Ah yes we got your email but we cant confirm attendance till so and so time and so and so date because so and so person is not in office/the assignments have not been finalized. Please call back at so and so time and on so and so date."

"Yes we got your email, sorry we do not cover events like this".

Now the last one is the easiest one to deal with because that is basically a chapter closed. 

The first two however require follow up action. 

In the first case, you must confirm the email address and make sure you resend the invitation as soon as possible and then call back in due time to check again. When you call back you will most likely be given the second statement. 

The second one requires you to swallow your frustration and note down every word of the call-back detail. Then make sure to call back accordingly.

This routine can get very frustrating, trust me. The more calls you make, the more you will be faced with harassed or uninterested sounding people that just want to get you off the phone. They may try to rush you or try and pass you off to someone else in their firm. You may be yo-yoed back and forth for a while before you are basically, yet again, told to call back at some other time.

Usually no one will out rightly be rude but you may feel a sting that borders on what rejection or being brushed off feels like. So even though you will get annoyed because all you want is a definite answer so you can move onto other things, you must remain calm and BE POLITE.

This whole charade plays heavily into my first post actually. You will need to call up that newly found PATIENCE you acquired and combine that with an unshakable graciousness and politeness in your dealings with the media.

It all comes down to the fact that we need them to cover our events. What is a press conference with no press in attendance? And for the press to be in attendance, it is essential that the media be treated with respect and be accorded every reasonable consideration. 

Its not an easy task and it wears you down. You will get angry and feel discouraged. But there really is no two ways about it. You have to keep at it till you get results, or in this case, answers. Definitive, confirmed answers. Even if it takes hitting the redial button many times to get that. 

Keep in mind that the representatives from the media you are speaking to are also just doing their job. It may feel personal to you but remember to not take it as that. Instead remind yourself how hectic a newspaper office can be, for example. These people work under a lot of pressure and unforgiving deadlines. So make every effort to not let your frustration show.

It all pays off and becomes worth the head ache when, after the event, you start the media monitoring activity and see the articles come out in the various publications you managed to get to attend the event. As a PR consultant it is part of your job to make your client the IT news (in a positive light, obviously) and seeing the articles that feature an event you organized for your client is extremely gratifying and makes the effort totally pay off.

So that's the second lesson that I had to learn, how to deal with people. It requires consideration, kindness, patience and POLITENESS to get the results you want. This skill is actually a very handy one to cultivate, not just in the practice of public relations but other aspects of your life too. Knowing how to handle people in the least damaging way will ensure that you have a peaceful life and smooth sailing.

Until next time, happy interning!

Ramsha Zia Siddiqi
Miri Campus
ID: 7e2b1164

The Bethanie Medallion 2014

16th October 2014

I’m pretty sure everyone has had a touch and experience of organizing an event – be it a small-scaled one such as a birthday party or a large scaled roadshow. So you will know when I say that organizing an event requires paying attention to the smallest of detail and having it planned in a systematic order in order for it to be a success.

This is true for me at least. I was tasked to help organize and coordinate the Bethanie Medallion 2014. Bethanie is one of Devahasdin’s largest clients –the company currently stands as WA’s largest aged care provider and we at Devahasdin, are in charge of taking care of the media and public relations aspects of the organization.

The Bethanie Medallion is an annual awards ceremony that honors individuals or organisations that actively contribute to the delivery of exceptional service within the aged care sector in WA.

The Bethanie Medallion 2014

The entire conceptualization of the event is indeed a tiring but eventful one. Planning an event is never an easy task. The amount of effort and planning that goes into planning an event is enormous! Talk about the running sheets, the emcee notes, event task lists to RSVP lists, the list just goes on and on.

The one thing that I have learnt about planning an event is to always envision that there will be some element of it that will fail on the actual day. I’m not trying to be negative here but having the possibility of the event failing at the back of your head allows you to plan and have measures in place for contingencies to counteract the possibility of a unforeseen screw-up. Tiny details such as having a back-up wireless microphone on standby or having the powerpoint slides for the awards ceremony in a flash drive might seem like minor things but these seemingly little setbacks can definitely ruin an event.

During the actual day, I was given the incredible task of coordinating the entire event from the back-end, controlling all technical aspects of it from the slideshows that is to be projected up, to the coordination of the music with the audiovisual expert. I know some of you might think that this is a minor task but let me tell you it is incredibly stressful for I had to be attentive and be in synchronization with the emcee to change the slides shown accordingly. I was glad that everything went well without a hiccup and I couldn’t help but feel a sense of accomplishment and pride seeing all the happy faces of the audience who commended the event – saying that it was extremely fun and well organized.

So I hope in the future, always take my little tip of paying attention even to the smallest of detail and contingency planning is extremely IMPORTANT for any event in order for it to be a success – be it large scaled or small. Happy event planning in the future!

My Little Technical AV Workstation

The Bethanie Medallion in action! 

Nicholas Cross

ps. did I mention that it was covered by Channel 7 and Home in WA? Do check out the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI_wvjJHNGA to get a glimpse of the event! 

It’s October! Engage in the Walk Over October Campaign!

4th October 2014

Did you know that something as simple as walking is associated with a number of health benefits?

Well, walking helps to reduce the risks of

• Heart disease by 30 to 50%;

• Type 2 diabetes by 30%; and

• Breast and colon cancer by 20%.

The list of benefits is an enormous one but it seems that most of us take walking or exercising for granted – me included.

You can describe me as a couch potato actually – the idea of spending the weekend with a pizza in hand and watching the latest episode of ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ is what I would describe as nirvana. Even when I’m at my Devahasdin, I have the habit of lazing in the outdoor porch whilst having lunch, basking in the rays of the sun and enjoying the start of summer.

I guess my Account Director noticed that I pretty much lead a sedentary lifestyle for she tasked me to draft a media release for ‘Walk Over October’. Firstly, I had no clue what the campaign was about and secondly how ‘fitting’ for a couch potato like me to write a media release about exercising and walking!

So what is the ‘Walk Over October’ (WOO) campaign you might ask? WOO is a month-long campaign that runs during the month of October and is organized by the Heart Foundation in conjunction with Healthier Workplace Western Australia (HWWA). The aim of the campaign is to encourage membes of the public to ditch private transportation and engage in walking activities that boasts a multitude of health and environmental benefits.

I was tasked to draft a media release for WOO’s campaign – Lace up for Lunch.

The ‘Lace up for Lunch’ initiative encourages workers to break the habit of eating lunch at their desks and aims to encourage a short walk during their lunch hour. Having lunch at the desks contributes to sedentary behavior, which is a main contributor of cardiovascular diseases.

I can say, there is indeed a large difference in writing a media release for a school assignment against writing an actual one that is to be disseminated to the Western Australian media. Extensive research is much needed with the correct factual data and relevant quotes as well as the language and tone has to be appropriate – proofreading is a must!

So the quest for building up the media release began. It’s not as simple as it seems! I firstly had to identify the angle of the story – which was that of Human Interest as it’s a health topic that pertains to individuals. I also had to look at my intended media placement strategy. Where do I intend to place the article – community or state newspapers? How am I going to pitch the story to garner coverage?

What we have learnt in Curtin was indeed beneficial due to the fact that it armed me with the necessary experience for me to build a media placement strategy and I was confident in looking at how I could pitch these articles to the press. So it’s really a case of putting all that I have learnt into synergy and using the tools that I have learnt to assist me in what is required of me. I am pleased to announce that as of writing – 3 media outlets have agreed to cover the story!

So a closing thought for this article is that when drafting a media release to pitch to the media – always associate it with a strategy where you have to look at the right research being done, the right content and the right outlet for dissemination. I hope these tips do help!

Nicholas Cross