Emails and realising mistakes

Part of my role within the Western Force media team is covering and writing about the PINDAN Premier Grade, the top tier of senior rugby in Western Australia. To put it into perspective, if you compared it to Australian football, it would be like the WAFL is to the AFL. With that in mind, it is important when writing about these teams that you keep their brand in mind, and ensure the articles, reviews and press releases you write accurately reflect the brands the clubs are intending to promote. 

When writing these pieces, we attempt to communicate and relate to the club rugby community by occasionally referring to clubs by the nicknames they have coined over the years, for example Wests Scarborough = 'Wests' or 'The Boars', Cottesloe could be called 'Cott' or 'The Gulls' and Perth Bayswater could be referred to as 'Baysie' or 'The Numbats'. 

To my surprise, I logged into my work emails, the standard email address for every media intern that has ever been through RugbyWA to find an email from a person high up in the Palmyra Ruby Club. It read; 

"Hi there,

Just a small thing. When writing about Palmyra can you refer to us as “Pally” not “Paly” as this is a brand we are trying to promote.

Thanks very much

Best regards,

Steve (not his real name)."

I was originally worried when I first saw this, thinking I had made a big mistake, but soon realised that not all mistakes are bad ones. I had never previously been warned about this, and after re-reading the email I realised that the person sending it was not actually upset or angry about the mistake, he was simply giving me a heads up for next time. 

I since took the advice on board, and have continuously referred to Palmyra as 'Pally', not 'Paly' in all forms of Premier Grade stakeholder communication. 

Luke. 

Great Experience in Doing Media Calls

I believe most of you have heard of doing follow-up calls or media call-downs to the media. For those who did follow-up calls before, did you really enjoy doing it? 

For me, I enjoyed doing it, but I found it quite challenging. I was asked to do the follow-up calls on the second week of my internship. It was my first time doing media call-downs. I made more than 20 phone calls to media outlets for the first time. Before I started my first media call to the media, I prepared a short script to pitch the story to the media. In the beginning, I was quite nervous and I was afraid that I might be interrupting the editors.  

Sometimes I made more than 50 phone calls to media outlets and it was extremely fun because I got to speak to them and build relationship with the media. After several times calling the media, some of them remembered me. 

However, doing follow-up calls to the media can be challenging. Sometimes it was hard for me to reach the editors or reporters as they might have gone out for their assignments. I also received different responses from them. Some of them might not be interested to carry the story while some of them might just hang up the phone even though I have not finished asking them. Those responses put me in a dilemma whether I should continue to follow up or not. I was advised not to follow up the next day, otherwise it would annoy them. From what I have learnt in PR Media Relations 250, a PR practitioner needs to build good relationships with the media because we need them to carry our clients' stories. Hence, it is crucial to remember not to annoy the media, especially when they are busy or when they are on deadlines. Therefore, I followed up with the media three days after the last call and spoke nicely and politely to them. Luckily it worked.

I had to make sure that I called the targeted media at the right time and looked for the right editor or journalist from the right department. During the media calls, the first thing that I usually did was to introduce myself and my organization. Then asked the media if they managed to receive the email or media release. If they told me they did not receive any email or media release from my organization, I had to resend them the media release and follow up with them. If they said they received it, I had to ask them if they would be interested to carry the story. Lastly, I asked if they needed any more information or photos.

When sending out an email or media release to the media, I had to make sure the name of the editor is spelled correctly. I also had to ensure that media release sent out was the right one and completely attached with photos if required. 

Here I have some useful tips for doing follow-up calls to the media.

• Target the right media to carry your story.
• Know well your target media and the editors or journalists.
• Know the right time to call the media.
• Prepare script and understand the story so that you are more prepared to respond towards the editor's or journalist's questions. 
• Always introduce yourself and your organization and sounds polite.
• Be patient. Some of the editors or journalists might hang up your call, but remember they are busy. 

It was a great experience for me. I learned how to be more patient when dealing with the busy editors or journalists. Do not be fearful of doing follow-up calls to the media. It is a great opportunity for us to learn how to build good communication skills and learn not to be shy to talk to the media in phone calls. 

Dorine Lau

16341436/ 7E2A9744

Curtin University Sarawak

Hi, I don't believe we've met.

Networking. It’s the single most important function to master as an aspiring public relations practitioner, and it’s probably the hardest too.

Throughout my time at university, I’ve been taught how to communicate effectively and can develop media releases, campaigns and strategic plans. But do I have the right personality for the job?

 

To find this out, Skye and I drove to a nice little cafeteria to meet up with a potential client. I felt a mix of excitement and nerves to be a part of this experience as well as the prospect of attaining a client for the consultancy.

Luckily I was in good hands as Skye Gilligan is an expert in engaging with people and ensuring they understand the value of public relations.

Although newly established, Skye Gilligan Consulting has been successful in gaining many clients because of Skye’s networks in the resource industry. This just goes to show that the phrase: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” has relevance to it.

In fact, some scholars have intertwined public relations with relationship management because of the importance of getting to know people and building a strong relationship with them (Harrison 2008, 83).

Effective communication helps a consultant to understand what work needs to be done to reach the desired outcome(s) of a client.

So when the potential client took a seat next to us, conversation emerged as a result of:  “Hi, I don’t believe we’ve met.” It’s a simple line that takes courage to say, but can open up a world of opportunities.

The cafeteria environment provided a relaxed feel for the meet and I noticed how constructive the conversation was – to get an insight into the goals of the potential client and determine what we could offer the company.

Apparently we’d been sitting down for more than one hour, but I remember thinking it couldn’t already be time to go. I was enjoying talking to the potential client and observing the way Skye represented the PR profession.

And that’s how I figured out I did have the right personality for the job!

In case you’re wondering, that individual is now an official client at Skye Gilligan Consulting.

References: 

Harrison, K. 2008. Strategic Public Relations. A Practical Guide to Success. 4^th ed. Perth: Century Consulting.

Marketing Mindset Mentor. 2013. Business Networking for Profit. http://www.marketingmindsetmentor.com.au/2013/05/business-networking-profit/ 

Building relationships takes time and personal sacrifice

Over the last few weeks I have become less like my Supervisors “Intern” and more of a fellow work mate. I have found that I spend a great deal of time in the office than my allocated two days a week, 9am-5pm. Often I am there until at least 6pm at night and it is not unusual for me to be following up on different things for Starlight on my days off. This has made me feel more involved as an employee of Starlight and it is with going this extra mile I have developed close relationships with those in the office and have gained their trust and respect. This means I have the capability to go above and beyond the role of a basic intern.

Over theses weeks I have discovered my Supervisor struggles when pressure is placed upon her. This is nothing against her capabilities; her work is constantly immaculate, no matter the time frame. Simply when she realizes she is close to a deadline (of which there are a huge amount in event coordination and planning, who knew four revisions would be required for a dinner menu! – but I digress) She struggles. She will begin to “stress out” and often will begin hyperventilating. I believe my commitment to going above and beyond at Starlight has assisted in calming these situations. I know she trusts me and therefore my presence and reassurance has a great deal of impact in calming her.

I have found I have been trusted to do a great deal of activities that generally interns would not be provided with. Last week for example I spent two days driving around Perth by myself meeting with our generous benefactors. This was in order to strengthen Starlight’s relationship with our contacts and collect donations for the upcoming event. I was trusted to not only collect thousands of dollars worth of donated goods. I was a representative of Starlight, promoting exactly what we do, conversing with the donors and encouraging them to maintain their commitment to Starlight.  This was an interesting concept as I was expected to “have a chat” with our donors (something I have never shyed away from!). Starlight believes the core of their work is to make people smile and to ensure everyone who engages with Starlight has a unique and personal experience. It was my responsibility to make sure this occurred.

I was very proud to have this opportunity and I believe it has re-enforced the PR ideal of two-way communication. I now realize this is the very core of what public relations is all about. It is engaging the public and our stakeholders face to face, it is having a conversation and responding to feedback. I feel that this is the best form of Public Relations for any company – whether or not they are “not for profit”, that engaging with our associates on a personal level is the best way to maintain relationships. 

One Controversial Topic - a Journalist's Dream and a PR Intern's Nightmare!

I started my official internship with The Freeform Foundry the week just past and what an exciting week it was. Being a current employee I found the transition into the public relations department seamless and comfortable – knowing familiar faces truly made it a lot easier! There isn’t a quiet day at The Freeform and this week surely proved this. My day-to-day responsibilities drastically changed from my usual Account Coordination role to that of a Public Relations Consultant, from writing press releases to organising events – there was never a dull moment. 

In today's first blog post I would love to share my experience of dealing with the media and one of our clients, amid the drastic changes made by the Federal Labor Government to the Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT). I won’t bore you as I know this isn’t a riveting topic – however I’d like to briefly explain what FBT is and how these changes will affect the industry and in particular one of our clients, a fleet leasing company. 

Kevin Rudd announced approximately a month ago that he is planning on terminating the carbon tax by implementing an emissions trading scheme. Part of the plan to fund this is by abolishing the Statutory Formula for FBT on cars, hence FBT may no longer be calculated based on 20% of the FBT value of the car, but now on the Operating Method, based on actual business use. 

Our client, who is predominantly known for Novated Leasing now faces the challenge of requiring leaseholders to monitor their work related kilometres, by keeping a logbook for up to 12 weeks to monitor business usage. They also face the burden of diminished benefits for their customers. 

This drastic change has caused many fleet leasing companies to announce major redundancies, however our client’s main objective was to inform the public that this was not the path that they would be taking. My first task in my internship role was to write a media release aimed at communicating this objective and coordinating a company photo shoot to be used within the publication.

This drastic change has caused many fleet leasing companies to announce major redundancies, however our client’s main objective was to inform the public that this was not the path that they would be taking. My first task in my internship role was to write a media release aimed at communicating this objective and coordinating a company photo shoot to be used within the publication.



To top off this experience I also had the pleasure of interviewing Member for Swan, Steve Irons who showed his support and reaffirmed the Government’s promise to oppose Labor’s FBT reform.



The process of writing this media release was very eye opening. I was given a draft handwritten article from the Managing Director and was instructed to use this as a guideline, but to source my own supporting information.  Once I read the draft alarm bells triggered and I was remembering back to my PR Media and Technique classes. The article read very one-sided and emotional, I could already see the media and journalists ripping this to shreds. I had to re-write this media release to still express our client's view of not relinquishing whilst keeping a levelled two-sided approach to the situation.

On the other hand, I still wanted to express these emotions and the fight of our client so I then decided to write two articles, one to be used as the official media release and another as a 'latest news' article on the client's website, linked to Facebook and Twitter.  This experience made me realise how much I drew from my university's teaching of public relations – the multitude of practice media releases really did pay off! It is truly an exciting feeling to know that these will be published in renowned media outlets and already I believe that I have put many of my public relations skills into practice and even to test! 

All in all, I learnt a lot from this first task and am really looking forward to the next! Watch this space for more insight into my internship at The Freeform! 

Rachel Chandler