Theory and practice – oh the difference!

Hello,

It is the end of my internship and time to start thinking about preparing for exams, I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on how I feel I went overall during my internship and the key things I have learned. 

Challenges and Lessons:

•       Multitasking as definitely been a skill that I have refined over the past few months doing my final year of university and completing my internship. Trying to juggle all of these things at once has been a steep learning curve. A number of my usual activities were seriously moved down (or dropped off completely) from my to do list to make way for my increased workload.

•       Keeping the business in mind and having a ‘commercial view’ to my public relations was something that was new to me. I found that there is a big difference between theory and practise. In my university assignments where I had prepared PR plans I did not necessarily take the most business savvy approach. I have learnt that being business minded and considering the organisation as a whole is essential to an effective PR Plan or campaign.

•       Social media is not at easy as I thought it was. During university my PR assignments have always included a social media aspect. I assumed this was a fairly straightforward part of the plan and one that would be easily executed. What I learnt during my internship is just how much time social media management can take up and how it can really throw curve balls at you. Lesson: do not assume anything!

•       Working with other departments. Although the business that I interned at was small there were still different ‘departments’. My role required interaction with almost each one. For example, when it was time for a social media update about a specific house for sale I had to speak to the sales staff and find out the key information they wanted to use for the property. Managing these cross department relationships can be tricky but it was an important lesson. I couldn’t prioritise one over the other, I had to ensure that each was being considered and receiving my attention.

Rewards:

Experience!!! As I mentioned having a to apply my ideas in real life and keep the overall business in mind was a challenge, but it was also a reward because I have learnt so much. Practical experience is something that I am so glad to have on my CV for when I graduate and seek employment.

That’s all from me! I hope you have all enjoyed your internship experience as much as me.

Good luck for the future!

- Sarah

Community and CSR

Harrison defines community as: ‘any group of people with a common interest as either stakeholders or publics’(2011). Further Harrison, quoting Peak, describes community relations as: ‘an institution’s planned, active, and continuing participation with and within a community to maintain and enhance its environment to the benefit of both the institution and the community’ (2011). Community relations differ from community engagement, which typically involved consultation for decision making. 

Understanding community is an important part of carrying out effective Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The definition for CSR has remained somewhat of an enigma for todays PR professionals (Harrison 2011, 759), and I will not try and define it. However, I do tend to agree with Carroll’s summation that CSR is comprised of ‘economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic’ actions (1999).

The business that I am interning for provides professional services and, as a result, they value their corporate reputation. They are heavily involved in their local community and supporting fundraising efforts for charities. They have a number of events that they run each year. The most recent fundraising effort was ‘Loud Shirt Day’ which raised money for Telethon. Each team member wore their loudest shirt to work, and there were some hilarious garments to say the least.

However, what I noticed most about this day wasn’t the shirts, it was the internal impact that this community engagement activity had in the business. To link this experience back to our course, this week in Contemporary Practice we looked at Employee communications. It was interesting to see how a CSR initiative had the added outcome of improving team morale (everyone was in a great mood) and internal communication between staff.

From an external communications perspective, it was also great to that the team’s efforts received recognition in the local paper (see below picture).

References: 

Carroll, A. 1999. ‘Corporate social responsibility: Evolution of a definitional construct’. Business and Society 38(3): 268-95.

Harrison, Kim. 2011. Strategic Public Relations: A Practical Guide to Success. Palgrave Macmillan: Sydney.

Dealing With Negative Comments

Hi everyone!

This is my second blog post for my internship so far.

This week I was posed with a real challenge! In my previous post I mentioned that I will be shouldering some of the responsibility for the monitoring and content production for my businesses social media platforms.

Things were going well until I was faced with a  social media crisis. The business that I am interning for is a real estate firm. Apart of the service they provide is rental property management. The firm essentially is an agent for the owner of the property and deals with the day to day management of the property and its tenants.

Unfortunately, tenants can feel frustrated by the administration of this process. This week a disgruntled present tenant took to the firm's social media to vent their frustrations over a delay in repairs to the property they were renting. I was told this is a common grievance among tenants.

My first thought was to delete the comment! After all, it was very negative and aggressive so that can only be bad right? Wrong! I thought about it carefully, consulted my supervisor and proceeded with the following strategy: take the conversation offline. (all those readings in contemporary practice came in handy!).

I replied to the person, as the business, and asked them to please call the relevant property manager on a direct number. I could not speak to the person myself because I am not trained in property management, and I didn’t have the full background of the property and the discussions on the issue. I let the property manager know the person would be calling and that it was important that the conversation was productive.

I was happy and thought the issue would be neutralised within the next 24 hours. I was wrong. The tenant chose to reply aggressively. The comment included profanity and personal attack on a staff member at the firm. Both professionally and ethically I felt out of my depth. Keeping in mind that the businesses reputation was on the line I decided to consult the Frist National Head office. I spoke to their communications team, they took over the matter from there and after another failed attempt had to remove the comments that contained the offensive language and blocked the user. The head office explained to me that they only do this where there is offensive language involved.

I was disappointed that I could not handle the situation myself, but it got me thinking about the ethics surrounding social media censorship. More specifically, the question: when is it ok to delete a negative comment about your business?

I did some reading on the issue both on online blogs and the few peer-reviewed articles I could find (“How large companies react to negative Facebook comments” by Sam H Dekay was interesting!). The consensus was that when comments contain derogatory, threatening, racist or other unacceptable language it is ok to remove them. However, if they do not the organization should not delete them. They should instead view it as constructive criticism and try and resolve the issue with the person offline.

After doing this research, I felt better about the choices I had made, and I feel like I learnt a lot from the experience.

Hello, I just wanted to add an edit to this post. upon reflection I feel as though this was actually more in the realm of an issue, rather than what we would as a full-blown crisis. 

Thanks,

Sarah

Started From The Bottom Now We're Here

Hello Fellow Intern Bloggers!

This is my first blog post about my internship, I have been a bit snowed under with my internship days and University studies.

I am interning at a small family owned real estate business and completing my final semester at Curtin. I have been helping out with the firm on and off all year and began my official internship back in the semester break.

Unlike many of you, the firm I am working for does not have a PR department, or a marketing one, or anything really. There is one designated marketing position in the entire office. Her time is mainly taken up by preparing the adds for homes that are available for rent or purchase. This involves putting the add for the house together and then distributing it to the relevant outlets (print media, electronic sites etc).

Previously, I had only completed internships in a specific PR departments, so this entering a business that didn’t not have that framework was a bit of a shock. Initially I wasn’t sure where to begin, but luckily my supervisor has been great at providing me with direction.

At this point you may be wondering what I actually do if I’m not in a PR department. The answer is that basically I am steering my own ship. With no established systems or projects to work on I started from the bottom. I suggested to the firm’s management team that I give them a PR education. This so far has entailed me briefing them on the differences of PR and Marketing and preparing’s a report that explains their current situation (situational analysis). I am now in the process of preparing recommendations, I am hoping that the management team will green light some of my ideas and I will get to start working on setting them up.

Aside from this, there are a number of upcoming community events that I am going to have a hand in running. I am really excited about this because event management is something I love doing.

I am also active on the firm’s social media and have input into our other external communications. Social media has proven to be a very useful tool for the firm in selling so there is an emphasis on ensuring it is always engaging and moving forward.

So far, coming into a firm with no PR set up has been a bit daunting. Although it has been a challenge, I believe I am gaining very valuable experience. Having to go back to the basics has reminded me what PR is all about and why I decided to study it in the first place!

Is anyone else interning in a small business or an organisation with no established PR practises?

Thanks,

Sarah

Humble Beginnings

My first thought when I started applying for placements was, "What kind of industry do I want to be in?". Over the course of the next few months, I would search and stumble upon a little company called The Brand Hierarchy. Interestingly enough, it was not through Curtin's business search or an intern-search site, but rather through word of mouth.

The Brand Hierarchy (TBH), as I found, is a small marketing and PR company which was started just over a year ago by Director, Karlee Trout. TBH specializes in promoting small businesses and achieving sustainable growth. One thing I have discovered working at TBH is how personalised the company is, and how it aims to achieve a partnership rather than play a traditional consultant role with clients and other businesses. In particular, the relationship that Karlee has established with a neighbouring advertising agency, The Globe, allows for both companies to gain business from potential and existing clients, due to their relevance in similar fields and client needs (PR and Marketing). One good example is Tasker's Living, with TBH handling all PR related aspects and The Globe being responsible for all print design.

I have been lucky enough to be have to opportunity to be part of the beginnings of a small business rather than a big established company, which many people do not have the chance to experience. Since TBH is still a small company, I can understand that there are many obstacles that it faces regarding time, budget, and ethics. Not only that, but larger competition such as Concept Marketing or 3AM Thoughts may attract more potential customers. However, as stated previously, TBH has a specialised niche market that it caters to - which may attract a market that would not think to approach large-scale marketing and PR companies.

The latest project that I have been working on is for the client "Places with Pets" (PWP) - an application that is to be launched early this year. I have been responsible for compiling lists which, although may not be enjoyable, I know will be a part of something big that I have personally contributed to. I have also been tasked with gaining an understanding of the target market and public sphere of our client - which has proven to be quite interesting.

All in all it has been an interesting first few weeks and I am looking forward to seeing what The Brand Hierarchy has to offer!

Wendy Wang
1615 9260

Small business exposure relates directly to Social Media!

Hi everyone!

My name is Lydia Crostella and this semester I am interning at Lamont’s, which is a WA family-run winery and restaurant business. Lamont’s consist of five venues within WA, including two in the Perth CBD, one in the Swan Valley, one in Cottesloe and one at Smiths Beach. Most of you have chosen large corporations, who specialise in public relations (consultancies), marketing and publicity. However, due to my ever expanding love of fine cuisine I decided to intern at a local business who do just that!

From my first day working at Lamont’s I realised how much of a family run business it really is. Everyone knows everyone and everyone works together to get the job completed. Each employee does not just have the one role; they have multiple roles across the board, which helps to gain exposure, skills and overall knowledge of the fine wine and food business within WA.

Because Lamont’s is a small business they don’t as such have a “PR team”. The girls I have been working with at the Swan Valley venue complete numerous tasks on a day-to-day basis. Answering phone calls, taking restaurant bookings, taking payments for events, liaising with staff, liaising with suppliers, having meetings with the outside marketing team, putting together event packages, updating the business website, organising events for all venues, updating the business social media sites and the list continues. Their role is not defined to a set 9am-5pm job, whatever needs to be done they will complete it.   

All the Lamont’s venues hold numerous annual events which target the same clientele each year. I decided to think of new and exciting events which would target a different age bracket and income group to further extend the Lamont’s customer base. By introducing new and different customers at a younger age, it will help market the Lamont’s brand and further entice customers to visit Lamont’s. My other roles include organising the event calendar for 2014, writing a marketing strategy for the business (12 months and 5 years), analysing the website, sitting in on marketing meetings (rebranding of the wine labels and improving the website), working on the customer database and thinking of ways to further increase the number of people who are a part of that and overall thinking of new and exciting ways they can further develop the Lamont’s brand and gain exposure in an affordable and easy way in the 21^st century.

Since the beginning of my internship here I have realised how important exposure, brand identity, publicity and overall marketing is for a small business trying to expand their brand. Social media plays a huge role in this, through images of new menus and food, upcoming events and news of the business, they help to keep customers up to date with what is occurring at Lamont’s and further encourage people to buy a Lamont’s product or book a ticket to the next event.

I have been enjoying my internship at Lamont’s so far, having learnt numerous skills over the time I have been here and I thoroughly look forward to what comes next.

If anyone is interested in Lamont's, jump onto their website