Planning my first Internal comms event

This week has been both real busy for work and school. I am not sure about other agencies but the year-end always have been much more hectic for AONIA than other periods. It is times like this where work and school becomes difficult to balance. As my boss has started giving me more responsibilities at work. However, it has created some problems for me as I no longer have much spare time at work to get some of the report writing done and by the time I get home I am usually too tired to get on my PC and write the placement report or finish up any other school work.

But I believe in a saying “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” RIGHT? Well, I am sure many of my peers doing PR placement also faces such issues. So how do you guys manage your time to ensure work and school get equal attention?

Anyways, let get on to the new PR task I have gotten recently. Last week, I was given the responsibility of being the person-in-charge for employee welfare and events. My first task is to plan a company retreat this coming December for all the employees from AONIA and Quaffs. It is a new PR responsibility where I can put what I have learnt in PR modules into practice at work. It is definitely an educational and interesting role that I get to work on and apply my PR knowledge to improve internal communication. My first internal communication is the Annual Retreat for employees, basically, it is a dedicated work-day set aside for employees to get together not only to relax and have fun but also deepening the bond amongst employees. The first step for running an internal event is to find out how many employees are going to be participating at the retreat. Then, I had to do a quick survey amongst the employees to identify the activities they would like to participate in or any suggestions of activities to do during the retreat. Next, is to set aside dates to conduct the retreat and start liaising with various companies to get quotations for the activities.

Initially, I planned to have a stay over at local chalets as part of the retreat progamme, as being together under one roof is one of the best ways to get to know one another. After much researching and calling I found out that December is a peak period for chalets and most chalets were already booked months before. Instead I have to re-tweak my programme plans and just have activities for the day. After, getting all the quotes and creating an event plan/programme, next step is submitting to my boss for approval and confirmation. For now, my responsibility as the internal comms executive is done until I get approval to go ahead and reserve the activities and venues for the retreat.

So has any no else tried their hands in doing internal communication for their company during placement. Please share your experiences by commenting on this post.

Also, this is my last blog for PR professional practice, I have really enjoyed blogging about issues facing during PR placement and discuss about the PR tasks I have done. I hope everyone enjoyed reading some of my posts and good luck to everyone who is finishing up their placement reports.

Ganbette =)

Social Media tools for the PR professional

I actually lost track of the time I have been working at AONIA, it’s all fine and dandy working here. I just finished another article for the press page – Knowledge section. We here at AONIA have one critical KPI (Key Performing Index), which is to regularly churn out knowledge articles on topics we are strong in and have an acute interest towards. “Effects of Social Media"

Ever since I started my placement at AONIA, my boss has helped me and he has tasked me to write about Social Media and its related news that affects the communication and marketing industry. For me it was a perfect fit, as on my own time I am often seen reading up about the social media and going to try out the upcoming social media sites.

In this blog, I will discuss about two of the social media tools that can be especially useful for the PR professional. I would love to hear comments from everyone if they had tried these tools as well.

First up is this social media site that goes by the name of HARO ( Help A Reporter Out), it is a free online resource in which PR professionals can directly help a reporter out by answering to a query they have posted online. Every day, HARO will email individuals queries posted by journalists grouped to various topics, those who are expert in specific field can reply to those queries. PR professionals could sign up for this service and monitor the daily queries, in an event when a journalist post a query that the PR professional could match with one of their client, they can step in and provide the needed information. In turn, the client will get media coverage within that media, without the need to seek out to journalist and pitch to them. Also, HARO being online, it has a wider media reach and it will be a strategic move for PR professionals to look beyond local shores to spread its message about animal welfare.

The next tool is called Pitch engine it enabled users to openly create and share their own content, while including images, videos and attachments at no cost. Pitch engine allows organisations get media releases without the need to get individual media contacts and media releases posted here are seen by more eyeballs. It works a little bit like wired agencies, the difference being that each release is only viewable for 30 days ,it can be posted free of charge and the press release can be reproduce on other media.

Personally, I prefer Pitch engine over HARO for now as HARO media queries are restricted to mostly USA, Australia and UK. There are hardly any queries from Singapore or Asia. However, I can foresee that if more journalists/writers within Asia start to make use of HARO, it will definitely change the way PR pitches are done in the future.

The Glitz and Glamour of media events, plus the hardwork that goes to making it happen

During my stint at AONIA, I was exposed to numerous events, however, the PWNT Networking Night and the Press conference at the SIWW’10 (Singapore International Water Week 2010) was the most memorable.

This networking night will be attended by the company’s trade partners, trade and local media. The planning started at least 6 months before; I was roped in to do research on venues where we can hold the event. The task was fun but challenging, as the client wanted a venue, which is near water as client was a Water Technology Company, as well as somewhere with a great view of the Singapore Nightscape. It took a good amount of googling (Thank god for google) as well as asking around my colleagues for recommendations. We finally settled on the picturesque venue, ONE on the Bund located at the iconic Clifford Pier that has been refurbished into a place to wine and dine.

After booking the location, my other colleagues were tasked to settle dinner menu, the performance and other event management. I was tasked to collate a list of invitees including the media that will be invited to this event. The list of media was simple yet tough, simple in the sense it was much shorter than the usual media list as it was focus on trade media, therefore not many media qualify as Water Technology trade media. Next, comes the part where I personally feel can be a real daunting task for some that is fresh in the PR field. The call downs for RSVP for the event after sending media invites. In order to sound as professional as possible on the phone, I wrote down a quick script to ensure I cover all points necessary that help out with my confidence on the phone. From this incident I learnt that even as technology progresses and now media invites can be in electronic format, PR professionals still are required to call the media and personally get them to confirm their RSVPs.

As the date of the official event draws closer, there is a lot more preparation for the events section, like getting all collaterals printed, corporate doorgifts which was a 2gb thumbdrive and getting venue ready. On the date of the event, I was glad Murphy’s Law was absent that night. I was in-charge of the media registration; I also had the responsibility to introduce the media to the PWN Technologies CEO and various dignitaries to the media.

The networking night at One on The Bund was a blast, however, the company could not really rest as we not only had to finish packing up the venue but we also had to the press conference which was three days later. The first thing I had to do was to confirm with the Debbie, the PWNT VP of communications the speeches for the press conference. The next issue on my agenda was confirming the attending media by calling them and reconfirm with them the time of Press conference. Before I knew it, it was D-Day, my first press conference it was definitely an eye-opener as SIWW 2010 was such a big event, there were more than 20 press conference held just that day. That how busy the media was that day; we had to get the press room set up as we were only allocated 1 hour to have the press conference before it was another company coming in for their press conference.

One we got in the organizers for SIWW 2010 bought us to the room and once it was empty I was task to go in and set up nametags for the dignitaries present for the press conference and getting the pens and MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) set on the table. It went smoothly the only glitch that happen was that the tea snacks that was prepare for the media and dignitaries after the press conference was cancelling without our knowledge and we had to bring them to the café near as a solution.

That’s all for my first press conference, it was an excellent learning experience , I recommend those was are in a PR placement to try their best and attend or even help organize one. Before I end this blog I have attach some pictures from the Networking Night and press conference.

Introduction about me and my PR placement

Hi Everyone,

Just a short introduction about myself and the company where I am currently undertaking my PR professional practice placement. I’m Bridget from Curtin Singapore Campus, local Singaporean born and bred here and a final year student at Curtin Singapore. I am now interning from AONIA Private Limited which is a boutique Integrated Marketing Agency.

A short history about AONIA, it was started in 2003 by my current Creative Director, Daniel Chua with a vision to excel as a best practices Integrated Marketing agency.

It my first job that is PR related and I count myself really lucky to have this placement as I got it through a recommendation from a friend. I have been in this agency since November 2009, might sound bizarre but I have been balancing full-time school at Curtin and interning since then. Trust me; some weeks are killers with deadlines both in School and at work. However, I have been really fortunate to have an understanding boss whom not only provides the opportunity for me to PR related accounts but also time-off to prepare for projects and exams. Unlike some of my peers who will only have experience of 20 days as interns, they might be facing a problem of not having enough PR practice. However my case is the exact opposite, I was able to work and be exposed to so many aspects of agency work and PR that I need to really think about which are the notable PR activities I should write about.

Therefore, I have thought hard and thorough, I have decided to writing about the following. which can be mainly divided into two aspects;

1) Internal PR –

a) Copywriting for Internal EDMs(Email Direct Mailers) to employees, clients and trade media

b) Online PR – Social Media ( Blogs, Facebook, Wikipedia etc)

c) Maintaining company press page and facebook account

d) Copywriting – Knowledge or opinion articles on AONIA’s press page

2) External PR

a) Craft media releases for PR accounts

b) Online PR through the use of Social Media and online portals for PR accounts

c) Assist with media research

d) Assist in the planning and implementation of various Press Conferences and media lunches.

e) Craft , sent out and follow up media and VIP invitations

f) Come up and maintain media list

Let me move on to the issues I face during the start of my placement. When I first started at AONIA, my biggest concern was my ability to do copywriting and flair of writing or the lack thereof. As other than for writing reports and crafting press releases or feature article whilst undertaking PR techniques, I do not have any other practice. My first media release was rigorously and thoroughly dissected by my boss. He made me understand my lack of professionalism in my media release. Through that I realise writing media releases for PR techniques is actually easy as most of the time we can “invent” events or quotes. However, reality is I have to learn to make use of whatever information that is given to me and turn that into a well-thought out piece. That I found out was one of the toughest when the info you get is minimal. It took several re-writing and editing till I got the style of writing meets the company standards.

Here is the link to my first media release that I have written, feel free to comment on this blog entry and the media release.

On my next blog entry, I will share with everyone about the PR accounts that I was roped in to assist and eventually helped manage, as well as my first press conference experience.

Till then. Happy placement everyone.