PR Practitioner In The Making

Nowadays, PR is recognized as a profession with promisingly high income. The qualifications are the capability to be creative with ideas and solutions as well as establish communication with clients, media, and stakeholders. Grunig & Dozier posit that organizations increasingly depend on someone who has the expertise to communicate and build relationships with these stakeholder groups (2002, p.2). PR has a significant role in the success of almost all kind of activities or events, whether are related to individual, organization, or company.

According to my Managing Director, the essential to be a PR practitioner is the ability to build relationships that are beneficial and trusted among organizations, individuals and stakeholders into action. To survive we need to shape ourselves in to someone that is reliable and trusted with capability that is meet the expectation.

During my last week of internship I summarize all the learnings I gain during my placement in Fortune PR, and these are some of the learnings I’d like to share:

PR practitioner is act as solution provider; we are meticulous and garrulous for the sake of the brand or the client. Don’t sweat the small stuff? That doesn’t work in PR. We have to sweat the small stuff, meaning, we should be ready to take care of everything, including the small stuff, such as to make sure the journalists receive comprehensive news, the microphone is ready to use for press conference, the message is not misleading, which venue is suitable and meet the budget, etc. Perfection in every single aspects is inevitable in PR.

PR practitioner should be keen to identify which media is influential, in attempt to conduct appropriate story and approach for the market. The point is to recognize the medium and love the medium. Noting bylines and blog profiles, followers, viewers and database. Understand all the interesting conversations going on, so then we know where and how to be involved.

Research and observe is a must, the ability to collect and sort is vital in everything a PR person do. Starting with market understanding and situation analysis to get the background before we start develop our proposal, and or interviewing a journalist/ blogger. It is vital to have the ability to understand the company background and its industry field, in connection with the understanding of their ability to achieve their goals. 

Reference:

Grunig, L. A., Grunig, J. E., & Dozier, D. M. (2002). Excellent public relations and effective organizations: a study of communication management in three countries. Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Sincere,

Indri Ervianti

Curtin/ LUCT

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Summing up my experience with angelhands

Hello Fellow PR393 Students!

This will be about the final thoughts about my placements with angelhands as this is my last and final post even if I still have 2 weeks of placements left. I can’t believe how fast time has past and I still have much to do before the campaign launches. Though I have learned so much throughout my time here, I believe there are more skills that I can perfect.

In regards to what I have accomplished so far, I have:

1.     Drafted a final corporate email

2.     Drafted a final coverletter

3.     Drafted a final flyer

4.     Design of the poster is completed

5.     Made appointments with past victims to be in the 50K in 50 Days promo youtube video

I believe that on placement I have used all the skills that I’ve learned from Curtin University. From PR techniques to write press releases or even helping out with the monthly newsletter updates for the campaign. I just can’t believe that the semester is already over and time just flew by.

There are 3 more weeks before the campaign’s launch and since I have decided to continue volunteering once a week with angelhands until the campaign ends, I’m sure that I will be able to meet the deadline and that this experience will be immensely rewarding when I decide to find a job after a graduate.

I hope everyone else have enjoyed their placement as much as I do (:

Thank you for reading my last post & good luck on your reports!

Deanna C.

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It’s all fun and games at DSR

 

I have settled in a little bit more at my placement and am starting to interact with more of the staff members which has made my time at DSR a little less daunting! I got to see a different side of government work this week by helping out a member of the Inclusion team run an X-box and Wii day for members of Amana Living aged care facilities. Around 40 members took part in the day that saw them put their co-ordination to the test in a few rounds of golf. Scores were kept as trophies were awarded at the end of the afternoon, today’s event being the last in a series that have run over the year.

It made me realise that the Department of Sport and Recreation is so much more than just funding and supporting clubs. It was great to see mature aged people getting up and giving it a go, socialising, laughing and smiling the entire time. The position statement for mature aged sport and recreation can be found here: http://www.dsr.wa.gov.au/609

This week at DSR was made more enjoyable by seeing the community based side of government work as well the benefits it is having.

 

Lucy Morrison

Opportunities and Open Doors

I remember writing in my first blog that government work might not be for me and I wanted to try something in the not-for-profit sector. Well, it’s funny how things turn out. One of the fellow members in the programs and services department asked for my input on a survey designed for young girls to assess their physical activity levels and potential qualms they have about exercising. I was also given the proposal to look over to be able to better assess the survey and whether or not it was meeting the objectives that were set out. I fell in love with it! It was the first time since starting my placement at DSR that I was genuinely excited.

 I read through the proposal several times, I even took it home and made notes that covered the entire margin with ideas and ways I thought this project could be improved. My public relations creative juices were flowing and I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to meet with the director of the organisation that will be implementing the program in schools next year. He too could sense my enthusiasm, it may have had something to do with the fact that I could barely sit still and my hand gestures were particularly over the top! He asked me to be the face of the program in the interim with the potential to be the full time co-ordinator in a few months. I couldn’t believe that I had found a program that embodied everything I was passionate about, exercise, health, nutrition and body image! Not only that it also made me realise that this is what I want to do in my career, I want to have a close relationship with communities and be involved in the creation of websites, the implementation of proposals and communicate messages in person not just via a media release or a press conference.

 

Lucy Morrison

It went NATIONAL!

Hi Everyone!

So I've got some exciting news to post!

Since my last blog, I was asked to write an article for Bowls WA's bi-monthly magazine! The article is about a young up and coming Western Australian female bowler named Kelli Rogalski. 

The article has been published in the August-September issue of Jack-Hi Magazine and can be found via the link below.

http://www.bowlswa.com.au
Issue 89 - Article can be found on page 22

In order to complete an article for the magazine, I had to complete numerous steps. These included:
(1) Background research on Kelli - this need to be completed so that when I was to host an interview, I knew her history and had viable questions to ask for my article.
(2) I then had to write a list of approximately 15 interview questions, then host the interview.
(3) Let the writing begin!
(4) Images were taken/collected for the article.
(5) Editing.
(6) Printing!

But that's not the only exciting news! The day after I completed my article, my supervisor informed me that it was then sent to a NATIONAL ONLINE BOWLS MAGAZINE! Even though I had never heard of this magazine before, I couldn't contain my excitement!

It's days like those that you know all your hard work is definitely paying off!

Hope you have enjoyed all your internships!

Kind regards,


Lauren

Final Race Time of 26 Days

Well the day has arrived! All that planning will be paid off this morning, Sunday August 26! Been up at 4am may not seem the most ideal situation but it did not phase me at all. I could not wait to be at City Beach Oval! 

Watching people pass the finish line and listening to interviews conducted by the media to the winners felt like a huge achievement thinking ‘hey I helped put this all together.’ It was amazing to see all that planning come together on one day and it was also extremely rewarding, making all those hours worthwhile.

I have learnt so much and I cannot wait to get a job and show off what I have learnt and further extend my knowledge in the public relations industry.

A few valuable lessons I will take away from my internship are:

Planning

Without planning, you are just going to create a recipe for disaster. every little detail for the event was planned and had a team behind it that had worked on it and designed it to work in a certain way. Although during my internship some tasks I did, did not seem as important as others it was all a part of the ‘bigger picture’ Planning for anything and everything that will and could happen on the event day all works to ensure a smooth event to be enjoyed by the participants and the organisers. 

Time Management

The ability to meet deadlines and have a high level of organisation is all part of maintaining strong relationships with both stakeholders and colleagues. As the event was on August 26, there were a series of tasks that needed to be done months, weeks and days in advance and without the completion of those tasks the event would not have gone ahead and would have been terrible. 

Time management and organisation reflects highly on the industry you are in and a part of. 

Verbal Communication

The PR industry relies heavily on both written and verbal communication. Whether you are communicating with your colleagues, stakeholder groups, publics and other industries, communicating confidently, fluently and well is very important. PR is all about messages, 

As an intern it is pivotal that you have a excellent verbal communication to ensure you all a part of the planning and the organisation and your voice is getting heard.

Teamwork

PR heavily relies on working in teams. Who knew all those group assignments with good and not so good group members would be a reflection of the type of team work you would be doing in the industry. Especially working for such a huge event, it would be impossible for only one person to do this event all by themselves and have the same results as if a team were to organise it. 

CONFIDENCE

One priceless lesson I will be taking away from this unit is ‘confidence’. Over the 26 days of interning, I have grown confident in my ability to step into the ‘real world’ as they call it and apply for jobs knowing I can do it, and I’ll be able to do it well. 

I cannot begin to describe how much I enjoyed my time at Corporate Sports Australia and help organising the City to Surf and to be a part of such a great community event. I was given some great tasks and felt like I was providing a service to the event. All the little tasks that may seem not so important such as answering emails and phone calls was a huge learning curve as you were interacting with primary stakeholders and aware publics - the way you responded to their queries reflected on the practice of event management and the organisation itself.

I’m also glad to know that I will also be helping out with their next event, the inaugural Suncorp Bank Fremantle Fun Run that will be on November 11. 

I hope you all enjoyed your internship as much as I did and good luck with the final weeks of semester!

Thanks,

Steph Sbrocco

Diffusing the Crisis

“In today’s world, it is not a question of if or whether an organisation will experience a crisis; it is only a matter of what type of crisis will occur, what form it will take, and how and when it will happen.”

Ian I. Mitroff

As Race Day comes closer and closer, things are starting to get more hectic around the office, making sure that the year of planning has not left anything out or not completed perfectly. Race Week mainly consisted of last minute planning and organisation with tasks such as booking a helicopter for event day for the production team, promoting Race Week events and spectator zones on Facebook, final newsletters to Team Captains and participants and final preparation for the press conference. 

One of my tasks during Race Week was to create media statements for crises that may happen on Race Day. This included a notification of fatality, an incident if a participant ran the wrong way and protestors against Chevron, as Chevron thought they may arrive at the City Beach Oval and protest at the presentations. The media manager and marketing coordinator explained that at last year’s event there was the unfortunate case of a participant collapsing at the finish line and passing away and a media statement needed to be released to inform the media what had happened and keep information controlled. She then continued to tell me that although it may seem morbid in writing these statements, it was an important detail in the planning of the event as they need to be prepared for everything and anything that could happen on the day and ensure that the organisers were not caught off guard. 

Crisis Management has been spoken about right from the start in PR Principles to to PR Corporate and Consultancy. Doing the PR 393 Professional Placement unit can allow you to put all this theory into practice, just like I had to.

A crisis can be defined as an extraordinary event or series of events that adversely affects the integrity of the product; the reputation or financial stability of the organisation; or the health or well-being of employees, the community or the public at large. (Wilcox et al 1995, p. 222) 

Potential effects of a crisis can include a loss of reputation, decrease of sales, other financial loss in the terms of compensation and costs of products, management being distracted from regular business operations, loss of employee motivation and new political regulation imposing constraints for business.

However, the way a crisis is dealt with by the organisation can heavily impact the consequences that they are further dealt with. For example, comparing the Queensland floods with the Japanese tsunami is a great way to show good and bad crisis management. Although no one is accountable for a natural disaster, if your risk management is not well prepared for dealing with the potential impact of a natural disaster, then you will be accountable for its consequences. 

The Queensland floods was a terrible natural disaster but the way Premier Anna Bligh and her team dealt with it deserves recognition. Anna Bligh always spoke to the public and media, leaving nothing hidden with regular updates and information in regards to how the government and SES were dealing with the situation. She showed concern, consistency, confidence and competence and was not aggressive during and after the floods.

Looking at how the Japanese government dealt with the aftermath of the tsunami and the nuclear plants, it is evident that it was not dealt with as effective as it could have been. Not having a solid speaker until the Secretary took charge, did not allow information to be released as smoothly and the Japanese public felt as if they were alone in the middle of the crisis. There was no confidence, competency or consistency shown.

Although no crisis occurred on Race Day that needed a media statement to be released, there was that ease of having a statement ready and knowing that even organisers would not be caught off guard and would be able to have control over an unfortunate event. 

What crisis do you think was handled well or terrible? Have you had to do any crisis planning at your internship?

Thanks,

Steph Sbrocco

And welcome to the City to Surf press conference!

I have been doing many tasks at my internship which include media releases, answering emails, official invitations to the event, schedules, newsletters, offline registrations and write ups for the City to Surf website (which you can have a look at here)

About a month into my internship I was then given my official role for event day - I would be the media assistant. This role would include helping out the Media Coordinator on the day, been at the finish line in the media tent, helping out the media with any queries they may have, making sure the athletes that place get an interview with them and organising the official pre-event press conference. 

To say I was excited about my role was an understatement. To be the organiser of the Chevron City to Surf for Activ press conference, their main media opportunity was amazing! About four weeks prior to the conference I started organising it, making sure I had athletes from each ‘field’: elite, human interest and interstate, writing out the MC Notes for event commentators Jon Kappler and Ray Boyd, the floor plan, working with the PR team from Chevron, the running sheet and the official invite.

Another first for the City to Surf is the attendance of two Japanese elite athletes, an agreement that was made with Japan and the Department of Sport and Recreation where Japan will send two of its elite athletes to compete in Perth’s top running events and some of WA’s elite athletes will compete over in Japan, further placing the Chevron City to Surf for Activ on the international running calendar. 

For the conference I secured the following speakers:

Elite Athletes: Kenyan athletes Luka Chelimo and David Kemboi and two Japanese elite athletes Chihiro Tanaka and Takeshi Niki.

Interstate Athlete: Sam Maxwell and Lauren Shelley

Human Interest Speakers: Monika Volpi and her guide dog Jonnie, Activ ambassador Beth Ebert and her family and Richy Bear, a man who will be running the Half Marathon in a bear suit. 

Working on the press conference made me think back to PR Media 250 when we discussed if media conferences still have a place in today’s industry, looking at the pros and cons. The positives of a media conference are that it gives journalists the ability to ask questions, relays on one key message, involve your employees (i.e. them attending), information is more controlled, able to personalise the story, gives the opportunity for simultaneous announcements and adds credibility. 

For example, a press conference that worked extremely well was during the Queensland floods when then Premier Anna Bligh used many press conferences to update the media with information about the floods and ensure that the people of Queensland were kept informed and understood the government knew what they were going through and that they were trying to fix it.

The negatives of a press conference however can include the opportunity to make you vulnerable to negative questions.

In my opinion, having a press conference for the Chevron City to Surf for Activ worked successfully. This was their chance to showcase key participants to the media and release information such as ‘event organisers are expecting a record 45,000 participants to attend the event’. See here for the article published on PerthNow after the press conference with this information. After this experience I also agree with the fact that press conferences do have a place in the industry given that they are organised well and for the right reasons - there is no point holding a press conference to release information that is not valuable or would give your company the opportunity to be vulnerable to negative questions. 

So after getting minimal sleep the night before due to nerves, I couldn’t wait to show off what I had been working on for the past month. We went to the Chevron office to get ready to set up. We went to the conference room and started to put the media backdrop together. The thing is, no one knew how to put up the banner. That’s right no one knew how to do it. This was what I was fearing the most - something going terribly wrong. How could I hold a press conference without a media backdrop? You just can’t. At the same time, speakers started to turn out so it was fair to say the beginning of the conference was a bit of a nightmare. I had to go to a corner and calm down for a bit and work out what needed to be done. Thank goodness for my fellow intern Alanna and the Chevron girls who figured out how to set up the media backdrop whilst I briefed the speakers of how to the conference was to run. Once the conference started I could breathe and I must congratulate on the fantastic way Ray Boyd and JK did the event - the way they speak and engage with the media was amazing and so inspiring to hear, you can understand why they are the event commentators for the Race. 

The press conference didn’t run as smooth as I would have liked - but there was a lady with her guide dog, a man in a bear suit and a three year old toddler, so maybe next time I would think more about what kind of speakers will attend and the flow of movement a bit better. I also learnt a very valuable lesson that I should have thought about before - to test out the media banner.

Rob de Castella, Sam Maxwell and Lauren Shelley speak at the Chevron City to Surf for Activ press conference

Overall I loved having the trust of the event organisers to be the organiser of the press conference. Not many people get to take on such an important task as an intern! I felt very honoured that the people at Corporate Sports gave me this responsibility and it was a fantastic experience.  I learnt so much about planning all the little details and how important planning is to ensure that the event goes smoothly and nothing is left out. It is the little details that may not seem like a great deal but at the event you realise that without those little details it would all fall apart. I also grew confident in my ability to tackle tasks and work in the PR industry and with other people.

What are your thoughts on whether a press conference still has a place in today’s industry? And what amazing tasks have you taken on in your internship? Would love to hear them!

Thanks,

Steph Sbrocco 

Putting the RAN in BRANDING

Throughout my internship at Corporate Sports Australia for the Chevron City to Surf for Activ, I have quickly realised the importance of branding. Throughout our degree the importance of branding has come up and although it seems straightforward, it is when you put it into practice in the ‘real world’ you see it all come together.

Branding is a distinguishing name and/or symbol such as a logo, trademark or package design, intended to identify the goods or services of either one seller or a group of sellers and to differentiate those goods and services from those of competitors.

The diagram below looks at the positioning of the brand and understanding the link between a brand and its organisation, customers and competitors:

Based upon stakeholder evaluations of the strongest corporate reputation within different countries, they suggest that organisations with the strongest reputations are characterised by high levels of visibility, distinctiveness, authenticity, transparency and consistency. 

Every piece of documentation - media releases, official invitations, emails, newsletters and letters need to have the official Chevron City to Surf for Activ logo/brand on it and every time the event is written out, it needs to be ‘Chevron City to Surf for Activ’ not ‘Perth City to Surf’ or ‘City to Surf fun run’. In ensuring that all documents have this logo on it , event organisers are able to know, with confidence that its customers and competitors are familiar with the brand and can easily identify what the event logo is and are shown the same consistent logo that is distinctive from other events and organisations and is visible to them.

The event organiser, explained to my fellow intern Alanna and I about how important branding is. Everything needs to get the tick of approval from Chevron, and both organisations have an understanding of the brand of the Chevron City to Surf for Activ which you can see at the beginning of my blog post. Although the white background in the logo may seem irrelevant and unimportant, it is a part of the brand. The event manager wanted to test out a black background for the banners that will be placed everywhere - in the Event Expo, all down St Georges Terrace, Adelaide Terrace and other streets in the City and at City Beach Oval. When a sample arrived at the office, we were shown the difference between the black and white banners and all agreed that not only did the white background look more effective and let the writing stand out more but was more reflective of the City to Surf ‘brand’. The event manager continued to tell us that Chevron may not have approved this logo as it was different to all the logos that were currently in use but was good to test it out and see the difference and make notes for next year’s event.

Above are the banners on St Georges Terrace, the City start line. Imagine them with white writing and black background, the design that wasn't put forward. 

Branding may just seem to be a part of the process and come as second nature to include the proper naming of the event and have the logo on everything but when the event manager explained in literally black and white how branding works and why the banners need to have a white background, it opened my eyes to see this little detail has such high importance and works with the organisation, its customers and competitors.

What are your thoughts on branding? Have you had an experience at your internship when the wrong or right brand has been put out to the public or know of any brands that have gone wrong or are successful? 

Thanks,

Steph Sbrocco