My last day

The last day of my internship consisted of mixed emotions.

I was offered to stay but turned it down due to job commitments. It was a tough decision for me as staying might help to establish a greater portfolio should I decide to embark on a PR career in future.

Hesitation was partly due to adaptability issues. I realised that I wasn't quite suited for a small organisation culture.

Sadness filled me when I was handing over my work. I knew I will miss the work done and the industry.

Nevertheless, I was glad to be given a chance to work with PPR Singapore. I learnt a lot and it really opened my eyes to the world of PR. It was there I had an opportunity to work on a real project and not in-class group work.

Although the work that I've done might be considered basic to some, I was happy to be given the chance to work freely on some aspects of a project.

I managed to complete a master media list for the consultancy as per suggested. The consultancy did not have a master media list prior to my suggestion. Instead, a media list with the targeted Medias will be done up whenever a new project was accepted.

Hence, a master media list will help to reduce hassle, steps taken to complete a project and reduce resources wastage.

Even though it sounded easy, but it took up a lot of my time since the entire media list was done up from scratch. I spent days flipping through magazines and scrolling web pages to complete my work.

Despite the hard work needed, I was glad to complete it. I felt that the company will benefit from the work that I've done.

Overall, I am thankful for the opportunity to work with PPR Singapore and the world of PR.

Media Monitoring can be tough

Media monitoring is vital in the Public Relations industry. It is essentially important for PR Practitioners to be updated on current affairs, policies or news. By being updated, it will help the PR Practitioner to come up with better strategies and the ability to provide better services to clients.

Prior to the internship, my perception of media monitoring is simply flipping through newspapers, magazines or browsing online.

However, my idea of media monitoring changed when I was given the opportunity to do it. I was tasked to monitor financial news for a client doing Investor Relations. I had no financial background and most often, I was confused by all the financial terms used by the various Medias.

Thus, I couldn't understand most of the articles and was struggling to pick out relevant articles for the client. Nevertheless, practice makes perfect. Things moved faster and easier after some guidance and reading.

Media monitoring for this particular client was only limited to the online platform.

On the other hand, I had to monitor hard copies of the various Medias (newspapers, magazines, etc.) for a consumer client.

The challenge came when I was instructed to flip through magazines in convenience stores or book shops. This is done to cut cost as the client will only be paying for copies with an editorial of themselves. Hence, I often need to sneak around to avoid being caught by the store keepers and reprimanded.

I encountered problems as I was always caught and dislike the feeling of being sneaky. Thus, very often I will purchase the anticipated copies instead. On one hand I will be able to complete my tasks. On the other hand, I made use of the copies to learn more about the Medias and understanding them.

Scanned copy of the page, featuring the editorial, had to be sent to the client. Scanning the page requires some knowledge too.

In order to display professionalism, the page has to be scanned perfectly (without dark edges, creased lines etc.). Editing of the image has to be done to eliminate white spaces.

Despite all the difficulties and trouble, I began to enjoy media monitoring. It is definitely a task no PR Practitioner can escape from!

Regards,

Yiwen

Curtin Singapore

Internship Updates

Somewhere along my internship, I was given the opportunity to offer ideas for a promotional tie-up with the various Medias.

The client involved is a leading player in the earphone market. Thus, my ideas revolved around music as it is directly related to earphones.

I had to locate and pick out the Medias suitable for the promotion.

In order to present a well-prepared and good pitch, I went to purchase magazines of the Medias selected, and that included Malay magazines. Understanding a magazine in a foreign language was tough. I simply could not understand a single word that was written and relied heavily on my trusted friend - Google Translate.

Initially, I was quite apprehensive and hesitant to contact the Medias for fear of rejection. However, after making the first call, I realised that things was not as difficult as what I had imagined. People in the Media industry are not as nasty as the stories portray and in fact, they are quite helpful. Well, perhaps a handful can be a little hard to deal with.

Negotiating with the Medias is another tough nut to crack. Most Medias have a page space cost and this can be in monetary or product cost equivalent sum. Hence, it was virtually impossible to work with some Medias due to this criterion.

At the end of the day, I managed to secure a promotional tie-up with a leading teenage magazine. The feeling was great and a huge sense of satisfaction hit me.

From this opportunity, I learnt that one should not give up in the face of setbacks. It is true that some Medias will be nasty or haughty upon knowing that there wasn't a budget to talk of. They may even ignore calls or emails sent. Nevertheless, there will definitely be one that will be interested. Results will show through persistence.

Secondly, it is extremely important to speak to the right person. Do not be afraid to call and ask. The right person can be the answer to all worries, questions, and even help to make things work.

Lastly, know how to tweak a story to make it appealing to the Medias involved. Every Media has an angle and target audience. Thus, it is vital to offer what they want to hear or will be interested in.

More updates coming up soon!

Regards,

Yiwen

Curtin Singapore

The First Day of My Internship

Hello all,

My internship experience was at Professional Public Relations (PPR) Singapore.

As PPR is a well-known consultancy in Australia and Asia, I was really excited to be given an opportunity to learn from them.

Locating the company was tough. There wasn't proper signage bearing the company's name, except for the letterbox. Otherwise, there weren't any banners, nothing. I was worried about getting to the wrong door or company even after I knocked on the door.

The first day was a day of adaptation for me due to cultural shock. Due to PPR's huge name in Australia, I was expecting big teams and comfy office.

However, I was shocked when the team comprises of only four people (inclusive of me). I was expecting close to eight people since I was told that there were two teams in the company. Never did I expect each team to only have two people.

Initially, I found it hard to accept the fact. This is due to me working in big organisations prior to this internship. Nevertheless, I managed to convince myself that small has its good too. I will get to learn more since work couldn't be distributed among many people.

As the company is small, conversations were kept to a minimum as everyone was seated together. Nobody wants to risk disturbing others, plus some are not as tolerant towards noise as compared to others. Hence, aside from lunch, there were little interactions between staff. This is yet another cultural difference for me as previous jobs enable their staff to communicate and have fun together, even while working.

Putting culture aside, my first task for the day was to run through the entire email inbox and sent box of the previous intern. This was to familiarise myself with the work as I will be picking up the project from where she left it.

Lots of readings were required due to three months' worth of emails. Besides, I did some research on the client and products involved. This is because, no proper briefings were given regarding the client and products. Thus, I was very much left on my own.

My second task was to do up a media list. It was tough as the media list must include Medias from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore. As I wasn't familiar with overseas Medias, I had to do a lot of researching and translating to get to my sources. Thank you Google for the search engine and Google Translate!

However, the tough part came when I was instructed to track down freelance writers or journalists for the targeted countries. I had no idea how to go about doing it and Google doesn't provide much help.

Eventually, my superior taught me the proper way to source for freelance writers. Things sail faster and better from then on.

Overall, my first day went by with a blur as I was busy immersing myself in the work given. Plus, I still didn't know much of the organisation and its structure as no proper introduction was given. What I know of the organisation is what I managed to google.

Nevertheless, the first day opened my eyes and doors to doing PR. PR in reality is so different from theory and project works. It is a whole new experience and challenge that I need to tackle and conquer, and I hope I will be able to achieve that.

Best Regards,
Yiwen