High Tea last weekend was success!!!

It was great to be involved in AAA high tea this year. It was the first time for me to see how the real event runs.  The event was attended by more than 200 animal’s lover in Perth, Western Australia. I am glad as I was a part of the event and a big success to AAA team for sure! We have raised $20.000 and the most important thing is we have raised some people’s awareness about AAA works and projects.  

I could say the high tea was running smooth .It was really enjoyable afternoon with lots of foods and drinks while at the same time we raised an amazing amount. The high tea started at 1 pm and AAA team were in the location before for setting up. The brief in regards of job description on each person have given a week before so everyone would know their responsibilities.  We were a bit nervous because things could go wrong on the day. 

It is important to remember before running an event as each person need to give a clear explanation about their roles on the day so everyone will know what they are doing and what organisation is expected.  It is also better to make sure the skills, interest, and experience of each person in order to know what position would be best for them. I also suggest that it is better to make everyone understand something could go wrong and how to avoid those things. There are some possibilities that could happen on the event. This was why everyone was given a brief a week before to make sure they understand what actions need to be taken to anticipate the negatives impact when it occur.

I had responsibility to make sure everything was going good. My job was to set up the market stall and AAA stall before the high tea started. After that, I need to make sure others stall already set up. We finished setting up everything before 1. Some of the guest already arrived as well and they had a lot of time to look around by visiting our stalls. The team was expected to be on board by welcoming the guest, helping the guest to find the seats, serving the guest when they wanted to buy something from the stalls, and etc.

 Janet Thomas as the founder of AAA started the high tea by giving a bit of speech and presentation.  The presentation was about AAA projects and what AAA has done so far in supporting working animals. After giving presentation, guests were served with very nice foods and drinks while they were enjoying their time with family or friends.  After that, we run the live auction which I found very interested. After 5 most of the guest already left and we started to pack up some of the stuffs.  

I just want to say a big huge thank you for everyone. I am glad I was part of the team for such a good course.

PR and Social Media

In my previous blog before, I have mentioned that I am working with non-profit organization, Animal Aid Abroad (AAA). There a lot of things that I learnt during working with AAA and this time, I want to share how social media is really important for PR especially when you have to work with very limited budget for your campaign. These days, public relation tends to use social media to communicate with their target public, to answer questions, to share any information about the new campaign or event.

For AAA, social media plays an important role as I have found they mostly share any information about their projects and events through social media. I have been using social media myself, however before I had no idea how social media would work for organization in real life. I always remember in my PR class I learned about how PR use social media as part of their strategies and tactics. I am glad that I could see and practice how to use it.

So, as part of AAA strategic and tactic in order to reach their goals and objectives, why did they use social media? These what I have found:

1. As non-profit organisation, AAA has very limited budget to spend. Social media is perfect to use as it does cost a little to no money at all.
2. Social media will help AAA to send out their message in order to get people who share the same thoughts together for a common cause. It is because social media will enlarge a message by connecting groups of people together.
3. AAA target public is around 18- 55 years old. Most of those target public are using social media to share things and communicate.
4. There are a lot of potential volunteers and donors for AAA projects who are using social media. AAA target public is not in Australia as the projects are worldwide. Everyone has a chance to support. There are millions of people around the world are using social media and there are always a chance to for them to be potential volunteers and donors for AAA projects.
5. It essential for AAA to keep their target public especially their memberships inform and social media is valuable tool. A lot of people have donated their money/time to support AAA projects and social media will help the donors to keep inform about their contribution into AAA projects.
6. Social media helps AAA to share any events, information and or anything that is happening within organization. It is a perfect way to raise people’ awareness about the issues because it is easy and quick. The goal to use social media is to get people’s thought about the issue and then to make them supporting the issue through AAA. .
7. Social media provide two ways conversation. It means, it is not only AAA who can share the information but people can also share their thoughts. People are freely to ask question to AAA through social media.
8. Social media allows AAA to monitor how people’ satisfaction of their works.

Social media is a valuable tool for PR; however as PR practitioner it is important to always make sure to use it right.

These are few things that you should always remember:

1. The first thing to know before posting online is the target public. Knowing your target audience is essential to avoid any misleading/wrong information. For AAA, PR practitioner has to keep in mind that AAA target public is not only in Australia but worldwide.
2. Second, to always make sure what your goal is.
3. Be honest by showing your audiences what is exactly happening within organization. As I mentioned before, a lot of people already supported AAA by donating into AAA projects. It is important to let them know what has been done with their money.
4. To communicate and update regularly so audience will always keep inform. It is important to update social media pages with the new content daily.
5. Act professionally. If you find out any negative comments about organisation in social media, response it wisely.

The use of social media is not only for non-profit such as AAA, but also for profit organisation. There is no limit whose can use it or not. Everyone can use it. This time, I just want to share what I have learnt during my internship about social media. It is such a great experience for me to see how the real organisations run. J See you guys in the next blog