Social Media; Not as Simple as it Seems

Hi everyone,

Today I wanted to share with everyone the experience I’ve had with social media while interning at Magnetize. Obviously we all know social media is one of the key elements of our eventual role as public relations practitioners. A strong social media presence is a key aspect in any part of modern marketing and PR efforts. At Magnetize it is of high importance to include social media as part of all communication strategies and to ensure the success of these efforts they must display engaging content.

One of the main challenges during my time at Magnetize is creating such a variety of social media posts for various clients. We deal with anyone from IT companies, hair dressing studios, finance brokers, cosmetic therapies and local community based groups. This really keeps me on my toes, as I have to switch quickly from one client to another. Some of the key strategies I’ve used during my time here is to really think about who our target audience is for these posts, are they looking for simple posts or do they want lots of information so they don’t have to go to a second source? Or are they purely there for the most visual appealing posts?

 I learnt very quickly that posts that needed more of a visual appeal included any clients that worked in a creative type role, the posts that created the most likes for these users were bright, short worded and kept a constant theme.  In comparison for more traditional businesses such as the finance brokers and IT companies, their users preferred to see quick and factual posts with visuals being less important to these people. Finally I noted that our community based clients liked the most information in a single post, this included ones on Facebook and Instagram, written content was of very high importance to these clients and visuals while also important definitely were not priority number one.

Once determining these factors and creating the social media posts as drafts I used Hootsuite to schedule the posts across generally periods of two weeks at a time. This was also a really great tool that during my studies I had heard about but had never used before. It basically allows a person/organisation or consultancy that has one social media account or more to schedule posts on various platforms to allow for consistent uploading. At Magnetize we have a premium Hootsuite account that allows us to have multiple clients accounts in one convenient location. Another great feature about Hootsuite is that by preselecting when to upload you can target certain groups during peak social media times. Depending on the client I was posting for the times that were generally the most successful were between 8am-9am and 5-7pm. These times are generally when people are commuting to work or arriving home and tend to view social media sites the most.

Learning how to effectively use social media postings has been one of the greatest experiences I’ve had during my time at Magnetize. I’ve learnt the value of content, time and audience. These were things I hadn’t necessarily thought too much during my own personal use of social media, but it was great to be able to use and develop skills I already had and put them to use in a practical sense. Thanks for reading, until next time.

Xoxo B

What do you mean the importance of social media still goes unnoticed!?

While at the agency I was asked to help them with their instagram account. I was surprised to see that still to this day there are companies which don’t realize the benefits social media can bring them! 

The importance of social media has been drilled into us for three straight years, we’ve made our own twitter accounts and blogs in order to get familiar with all the technologies available to organisations. However there are companies which still are unaware of how important it is, Jett themselves have no clear strategy for social media. They have an instagram account but no twitter or facebook page and their personal website has little to no information available to the public. However their instagram account has a much higher following rate compared to its follower rate which some will put down to having no clear strategy.

Jett agency instagram account (@jettfashionagency)

Everyone go follow!!

I found it very unusual that they didn’t have a facebook or twitter page but as my internship continued I realized why. The girls at Jett are extremely busy and social media just isn’t a priority. As part of my internship I took on the duty to manage their instagram which was a really beneficial as I was able to incorporate what I have learnt over the course of my degree into practice. 

When posting on the agency account I had to make sure I was always researching before every post was made, ensure I noted where the photos were from as well as mentioning the particular style or collection the clothes came from. I made sure I was posting consistently as well as posting around the times social media traffic is know to be at its highest. So far the Jett instagram is growing at a much faster rate than before I took on this role and this has helped show the agency how important it is to be consistent on social media in order to really reap the benefits. Although it will take time to really increase the followers to the point where it overtakes the number of accounts the agency is currently following, it will happen over time.

What are your social media experiences? And what are some of your techniques you have used to gain a larger social media following? 

TPFF 15

It doesn’t get much bigger than this event for the fashion industry in Perth. The Telstra Perth Fashion Festival 2015 (TPFF) was one of the many highlights I experienced through my internship.

Having never participated in TPFF before or worked with a designer, I was extremely intimidated leading up to the event, but eager to learn as much as I could.

While my role with Steph Audino for TPFF 2015 wasn’t revolved around Public Relations (although leading up to the event there was media liaising in regards to photo shoots and news articles), it was to help Steph in anyway I could and learn as much about the fashion industry as I could to see if it is an industry I wanted to be apart of.

The lead up to the night was all about organising the event as best we could.

As a team we:

• ·      Went to model castings
• ·      Decided the line up for the outfits
• ·      Went to model fittings
• ·      Finalised shoes, steaming etc.
• ·      Dressed the models for dress rehearsal 

On the night of the show I was apart of the back of house (BOH) team for the Steph Audino show on closing night. And BOH was chaotic, stinking hot and confined, yet it was exhilarating, fast paced and so much fun.

Words cannot describe the atmosphere backstage, it was electrifying and adrenaline pumping. Dressing models is by far an extremely stressful job; trying to zip, button, add belts, lace up shoes and make sure everything is 110% correct before they step foot on the runway.

Although no matter how stressful, it was an amazing experience and a success that I wouldn’t have been able to be apart of if I hadn’t undertaken this internship at Steph Audino. I couldn’t be more grateful or lucky to be apart of it. 

This event definitely re-ignited my feelings towards wanting to be apart of the fashion industry through public relations.

*note; photos of the runway can be found on the Steph Audino Instagram page: @stephaudinolabel 

Did you feel that your internship help you decide whether or not you wanted to pursue a role in the public relations industry? Why/why not?

PR May Seem Invisible But It's Always There...

Implementing the skills I have learnt in a theoretical based environment into the real world always seemed like a very daunting proposition to me. For many years, I have had the luxury of learning about Public Relations in a very sheltered environment where if a mistake was made it didn't matter too much because it was all make-believe. Now I would be applying what I know into a real organisation where if a mistake was made it is very hard to just backspace your wrong answer from your essay. It is out in the real world for everyone to see.

However, I was very lucky with my placement. For four years, I have worked with Sydney-based marketing company Mesh Marketing. They specialise in representing high-end brands across Australia- some of which include Nespresso, Moet & Hennessy, Movenpick and SKII. I have worked as a sales demonstrator for Nespresso which involved me going to events or into stores to demonstrate their products with the aim of selling.

I had always thought of Mesh as more sales orientated and had never actually thought too much into the PR side. I began to think more about it though and realised that although this organisation is all about marketing, there is definitely PR present. As an employee of the company, I began to think about the PR tools that they have in place and how they affected me.

I realised that PR had seemed almost invisible for me in the organisation for two reasons- 1) They are a very efficient organisation who I have been working with my whole working life so good PR is all I've known a company to achieve, and 2) As I've learnt more, I've noticed some areas have been lacking because they have been struggling to implement strategies across the country without a PR representative based in Perth.

Very excited about the prospect of nurturing and changing my own work environment, I discussed with Managing Director Gayle Clark a few ways that I could use my internship to aid the organisation on a PR level from Perth.

These ideas included:

- Creating a company Intranet for employees based in Western Australia to boost morale and the sense of team environment.
- Helping with the set-up of all commercial events and also internal events such as staff training days.
- Writing a "bible" for staff at Nespresso demonstrations across shopping centres with all information compiled into the one document (sections such as issues management and media guidelines would be added from scratch).
- Creating a social media presence for the Western Australian side of the company.

I am very excited to start as not only will I be gaining invaluable on-the-job experience but I will also be working to create a better work environment for myself and my colleagues.

The end of my internship... and the start of my new job!

Hi guys,

This is my fifth and final blog post. I'd like to think this is more of an overall reflection of my twenty days of placement overall.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, my internship came to an end last week. Twenty days spread over 5 months was a significant, challenging, but very valuable experience for me. I believe the PR internship unit has probably been the most valuable unit I have undertaken during my undergraduate degree and would recommend it highly to all future PR students.

Here are some of the most significant efforts I have contributed to my PR placement:

• Assisting in and being part of the development of 5 events facilitated by the City of Swan with the help of skills and techniques learnt throughout my PR degree. 
• Writing up social media content for these events and more.
• Communicating with internal and external stakeholders of the department.
• Updating and expanding the departments extensive and detailed media list.
• Creating a social media content schedule to be followed by the PR and marketing department for 2016. 

I believe my placement has also provided me with some amazing things too!

• I have developed my skills in communication
• I have experienced working in a real PR office environment 
• I have observed real issues-management and gained knowledge from the experience
• I have developed knowledge in marketing, in the WA tourism sector and in events management
• Finally, I have been offered a paid job in the PR department as a result of the valuable work I have done so far!!

I am so excited to begin my job at the City of Swan. I cannot wait to learn more about the PR industry and build my CV thanks to this amazing opportunity!

Question: What has been the most valuable experience of your PR placement?

Thank you to those of you who have engaged in my blog posts so far. I wish you all the best of luck in your internships!

Greta J

First project - JLPT Enrolment

Right from the beginning of my internship my supervisor had given me my own project to work on. The overall objective was to increase the number of participants signing up for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) in December 2015. This test, which started in 1984, was to measure and certify the Japanese-language proficiency to those whose native language is not Japanese. It has subsequently become the largest global Japanese-language test, with around 610,000 examinees in 62 countries in 2011.

Applications closed on September 11^th with a strict no late admission policy. The particular primary stakeholder was a university student as they are known to be the largest segment to participate in the JLPT. While initially I was nervous I knew that I was capable to deliver results by using a number of tools already at my disposal.

This blog will briefly describe an overview of the project and my thought process.

Project objectives

• Spread awareness of the exam and the application deadline
• Communicate its benefits and exam structure
• Increase the amount of registrations from 35 to 120

Challenges

• Students are normally unaware of benefits (improves immigration prospectives)
• The cost of $80 - $90 for the exam
• Students lack confidence in their ability to pass
• Students misunderstand the nature of the exam. Students often avoid speaking practical exams. However the exam is multiple choice with no speaking component.

Methods I used

• Social media campaigning including posting and event creation
• Liaising with Japanese lectures and clubs at the universities in Perth
• Presenting at club meetings about the JLPT and representing Hyogo Cultural Centre
• Creating flyers and other digital communication to be sent online through email and social media

During the project I found it difficult to gauge how I was doing as university students were not as interactive as I would have liked. However, through fierce campaigning and acting as a public relations ambassador for my internship organisation I was able to over achieve the amount of desired applications to 176 – around 50 more than we hoped! I believe many students had signed up the night before the deadline.

While my supervisor was pleased with my work it has actually impacted the previous venue arrangement. We now have to either inquire into expanding the venue or changing it!

I really did learn a lot from this experience. Not only was it a nice feeling knowing that I had succeeded at my project but it was also an opportunity to showcase my abilities.

Have you had the opportunity to work on your own project? How did it go?

Please comment below and share your experience.

Until next time,

Jared