Making corporate social media more personal

Social media changes constantly. It’s a PR practitioner’s job to stay abreast of the latest trends and work out what online forums a company should be using and how it should be using them to best reach the target demographic. When doing my daily scroll through Facebook, something on the Curtin University page caught my attention and stood out as a great technique for social media. I noticed that any comment responses made by the Curtin PR team, always had the individual employee's name attributed to it. So instead of just being a response from Curtin University, it was now a response from Emily at Curtin University.

The simple idea of having an employee write their name next to their post is used by lots of corporations and I think it can have a really positive impact. Firstly it makes an online corporate profile a lot more personal, after all social media is intended to be social. People are more inclined to interact with an organisation via its social media if they feel they’re talking to one person rather than an entire corporation. I also think making corporate pages more personal could make people think twice before trolling. Many people use social media, particularly Facebook, to vent about their bad experiences with an organisation or its products. While there is no way of controlling this and people will still attack an organisation, I think people are generally less likely to do so if they felt they were attacking an individual.

Attributing the employee name to the comment also suggests it is that individual’s comment rather than an official company statement, which could also assist the company if that comment were to attract criticism. I think this is a great technique and I would definitely consider using it if I were responsible for the social media of a large corporation, particularly one that often receives customer feedback on online forums. So if you're like me and need a reason to justify your time on social media, start observing what tricks and techniques other corporations use to encourage social media interaction and perhaps you too will get some ideas that can be implemented in your work place. 

Verity

Overcoming a fear of telephones

Growing up in the digital age has seen a reliance on emails for communication. Rather than picking up the phone and talking to a stranger, I would much prefer to send them an email and just cross my finger that they reply. However when I started in the PR industry I realised this had to change. Don’t get me wrong, emails are still important and can be a good communication tool, but when it comes to establishing relationships, face-to-face or over the phone conversations are much more effective.

This idea is particularly important when pitching to the media. Journalists are flooded with press releases and event reminders from public relations teams every day. If you can make the effort to make a quick phone call and really sell your story, the chances of success are much greater. In saying that I have found times where using email is actually superior to phoning. Some journalists prefer you to contact them via email and rarely answer their phones. When dealing with journalists in the Eastern States or overseas, time differences may mean email is the only option. I also find that sometimes an email works best because I have time to compose my thoughts and write the most enticing pitch possible, rather than getting nervous and bumbling my way through a phone pitch. Working out whether to phone or email pitch is quite an art that develops over time as you get to know the journalists and their individual styles.

Overcoming my fear of the telephone pitch has been very important. I used to get stressed over the fear of rejection and worry that journalists would be rude to me. But then I realised that if they say no it’s really nothing personal. Also, if a journalist doesn’t like your email pitch they just won’t reply. This leaves you wondering if they got the email or if maybe they opened it and liked it but then forgot to reply. I used to spend time worrying and waiting for their reply, then I realised it would be quicker and a lot less painful if I just rang them and found out yes or no. So my words of wisdom for today would be, don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and chat to someone. If you’re pitching an idea, the worst they can say is no.

Verity

BLOGGING IS THE NEW BLACK

If you have a computer, a phone, a tablet or any devise that connects to the Internet, I can almost guarantee that you have stumbled across some form of blogging. It is even rumoured that there is no longer a count for how many blogs exist in cyber space these days as the number is so great and increases so rapidly it would be too hard to keep track.

We need to remember that Blogging has expanded past the traditional forms and has expanded into Micro Blogging such as twitter and Video Blog just for a few examples.

I know that I personally have been aware of the existence of blog for a while now and do even read and follow a few myself. However, I have never truly realised the true potential and value that a blog can hold.

During the time I have spent at my Internship I have come to realise how much of an asset a Blog can be, but even more so, a relationship with a Blogger. It may not be the case in all industries but for the Industry I have been involved in Bloggers are the new Media power player. They have taken such a large role in influencing certain publics and can have very strong and loyal followings.

A large aspect of my Internship is Media Relations, so in the beginning I started to build a media guide of the outlets I felt were important the company builds relationships with. I followed the traditional paths of newspapers, magazines, journalists, reporters but it was the blogging world that really attracted my interest the most. With page upon page of Blogs that focused on my industry not to mention located locally in Perth, this became a large aspect of my research.

I have found that Bloggers are actually a key media for this industry and any company within my industry. The particular target market that we aim to reach really values the opinion of bloggers within the industry so to have this segment on side became of key importance in the companies media relations planning.

Blogging really has become an outlet to watch, and one to make sure you do not forget when it comes to whom you want to build your media relationships with. Considering current trends and the amount of people moving from paper to the Internet, I can only see their presence getting stronger.

Just because individually they may each be just a little fish in the big sea of the Internet, combine them all and that is a great amount of power you are not harnessing or that could be ultimately working against you.

Find out if people blog about your industry today, you will be surprised about what you find.

Happy Blogging!

The End is Upon Us

On my last day at Linc my supervisors and colleagues took me out for lunch and drinks(!) on the company credit card. Discussion about the payment led to an interesting conversation about an upcoming initiative of the PR team. It will involve targeting prominent editors and journalists and taking them out for, lunch or drinks (whatever is deemed appropriate) in order to 'build relationships' with them.

I would personally favour drinks...

This is all to be done on the company credit card. Apparently this is just good practice for PR practitioners in order to maintain good relationships. The research I've done on the topic has revealed as much - journalists are not as opposed to relationships with PR people as they portray. They can't afford to be when 40% of their news content is generated by practitioners! But while they are quite open to a good relationship, they firmly believe that it is up to the PR practitioner to maintain the relationship.. And it would seem Linc is quite aware of this contradiction and mean to capitalize on it!

They're actually besties

So there you have it - my last story for this blog and for this unit. The semester is nearly done with. Exams are upon us. The final report nearly completed. The internship all but over. All that remains is the reflection.

My experience at Linc was... eye-opening. I'm not sure I want to work in consultancy or even in PR anymore. But the experience was an interesting one and I'll definitely be taking away plenty of skills and a great addition to my resume.

I hope everyone else had a great time at their placement.. All the best into the future!

Beth Caniglia

Go time!

Hey all!

So this is my third blog, and no matter how complex and varied day to day PR activities can be, I always find myself wondering what topics to address in each post. This time, after having attended my first big event in a professional context, I thought I would share my experiences, and how, unexpectedly, my PR skills were put into action on the night, and not just in the lead up to the event.

So Mellen Events first event of the season was Godskitchen 3D, on Friday night at Metro City (I did mention in a previous blog my attendance at Thirsty Merc gigs, but due to the small scale of the event, I found myself offering my friendly services on the door rather than assisting in the actual event proceedings). I thought I would be required to do a similar job this time, since I am very new to the game and haven't had any hands on event experience as of yet. But Mellen had other ideas for me, getting me involved in everything from the get go! I got to the venue a couple of hours before the artists were due to arrive, to set up the venue and backstage rooms, and ensure the artist riders and requests were all good to go.

I was the first point of contact for the VIP prize winners of a competition run through Facebook. After organising a hotel room and limousine ride to the event, I then had to meet the guests and welcome them on behalf of Mellen Events before escorting them to their VIP designated area for the remainder of the night. Throughout the night, I was to make sure that they were happy and generally having a good time.

I found that for most of the night I was ‘checking up’ on the artists and VIP guests to ensure that all their needs where met. This was an eye opener to me, to show that the nurturing of relationships doesn’t stop once the planning stages of the event are complete. I had to make sure that a positive and professional impression was left on behalf of Mellen Events, so that the artists had a good experiencing dealing with us, and would consider doing so again in the future, as well as giving the VIP’s a positive experience to discuss on our social networking pages, which they did.

I often had a hard time pin pointing PR activities on event days; it was obvious how they are implemented in the planning stages, but I was lost as to how a communicator can help on the day. But that was exactly it, my job was to communicate! I have discovered from this experience, that PR professionals are required to maintain relationships before, during and after the events (I am now speaking with media guests from the night, to encourage positive reviews in their publications). Even if it was just having a casual chat with the event staff, patrons or artists, I was providing my assistance wherever it was needed to maintain that positive and professional impression of the company.

Feel free to share your events experiences too! Each and every event is different so I am sure there are so many other examples of PR being activated on event days :)

Thanks,
Mel

Relationship building at Sunset

So as we all know, relationship building is a major tool used within PR for reputation purposes and also to create a better working environment. Relationship building is a major aspect of communications at Sunset Events with it used in aspects of employee and media relations as well as promoting goodwill.

Throughout the duration of my internship, social media was a big focus. Sunset has social media pages for all of their separate events along with official Sunset Events pages. On facebook, these pages are a great tool in creating two-way relationships with not only the punters but also large media partners and upcoming bands/venues. Only from working on maintaining these facebook pages did I actually experience how valuable they can be at building relationships and getting contacts with really important people!

Building relationships is also a major part of the culture at Sunset. Their workplace is very laid back and operates like a family as there are only about eight full time employees! The managing director, Dave Chitty, is very adamant about everyone working together and getting along as a team. Whilst I was doing my internship, we all participated in a weekly yoga session, every Wednesday at 11am. This was actually a great experience as you got to know the team and actually enjoy the working experience. We also went out to a group lunch and I really enjoyed meeting and working with everyone which made my internship a lot more meaningful. This team environment is also expressed to the public using social media and the internet which demonstrates that good employee relations can have many positive effects for an organisation. Did everyone else enjoy their working environment as much as I did??





The team doing our Wednesday morning Yoga session!









Not only was employee relations valued within communications at Sunset but as was media relations. They currently have in place a lot of strong long term relationships with various print, online and radio outlets which makes the communication job a lot easier! If you pick up any entertainment magazine such as The Wire, Drum Perth or X-Press I can pretty much guarantee a Sunset event will feature in there somewhere! However, having such strong relationships with different medias can sometimes cause problems. During my internship, there was a stage where The West threatened to break a media release embargo. This was because the information in the release was being featured on Triple J radio, however this is national. So because it was being broadcasted over east, people listening to the radio in Perth would have received the info a couple of hours before The West was able to publish their info (due to the embargo time). So they threatened to publish the info at the same time it would be heard on Triple J. In the end, there wasn’t really much Sunset could do to stop them. What do you think can be done about embargo times?? Do you think the West had the right to break it seeing as the info would be heard on Triple J anyway? In my opinion, I didn’t see the point in not allowing The West to do so if it was going to harm the relationship.

So relationship building was a major aspect of my internship and only by the end did I realise the real importance of it!! I hope your internships were just as insightful as mine was!

Melissa
Curtin Bentley Campus

The Undefinable PR Role

Hi Everyone!

I’m currently half way through my professional placement at Perth Zoo and I love it!

However, it has come to my attention over the past 5 weeks, how much everyone’s PR roles over lap here (and I’m sure in other organisations as well). I used to think that, for example, the events team would deal with only events and carry a project from beginning to end. Nevertheless, the more I experience each department here at the Zoo, the more I realise how much everyone’s roles overlap.

Last week I was helping the events team organise an up and coming event. Because the event was a fundraising event, it needed some work done by the fundraising department. In order for visitors to be aware of this event, the advertising team had to create on site and off site advertising and finally it needed the financial support from a corporate sponsor which therefore needed the approval from the sponsorship department. All this running between departments made me think how much all the pr roles here at the zoo are integrated.

At first this seemed rather time consuming and pointless. Wouldn’t it be easier if just one person looked after one project and knew everything there was to do with that one project?
But it then occurred to me how everyone knows what is happening at the zoo. They all have a thorough understanding of every aspect which takes place and are all genuinely interested in each others work.

So it seems this overlapping of roles creates a more positive work environment and stronger work relationships. And isn’t relationships the most important part of public relations in any industry?

Lesson Learnt? Build as many relationships as you can because you never know when you'll need that persons help for a project!

The significance of networking and relationship building...

Hi All!

After five official days at Sunset Events I have begun to ponder the importance and, I dare say, the necessity of networking and relationship building with regards to events development and management. In particular I bare reference to the sourcing of an invitations/guest lists for anniversary/launch parties for new products/services and other internal events.

This became of immediate relevance to me in particular, as I spent numerous hours on the internet discovering the cool and trendy bars, music venues, galleries, restaurants etc around Perth and then another countless amount of hours ringing these establishments for contact details and confirmation of mailing/email and other informations (needless to say, I'm a pro on the phone now, haha!)

During this process I wondered whether it would be the exact same case for every event to follow, whereby the poor little office intern for that particular day/week/month would do exactly the same tedious tasks as I had done, or whether the contacts made throughout my search would be forever aligned with the organisation from that point on?

...Also, would the task have been a little less involved and time consuming had it focussed primarily on persons and organisations already affiliated with Sunset? Or would the event have been seen as lacking variety, scope and relevance if it were completed in this way?

What's your take on the situation?

--

Unrelated to the topic at hand, here are a few little highlights of my time at Sunset so far:

• Birthday cake for morning tea (yum!);
• Learning how to and performing my first mail merge (yay!) and;
• Seeing the final product, being invitations, sealed and addressed in their envelopes- of which I was involved with sourcing, quoting and compiling all of the elements =)

Signing off for now,

Ana B (Bentley Campus).