You can never understand Facebook; Adapting to Change

Being in charge of a lot of social media work, I realize that learning a set method of managing social media does not always work. This is because the rate at which technology changes is extremely fast. Not only is that fast, the algorithm by which social media works is hidden. It is extremely difficult to figure out what or when things are to be said.

Even though there are websites and social media geeks who make it their life goals to work though piles of data, statistics and numbers, however, most of time, Facebook changes so fast that before anything settles in, Facebook moves on with another different algorithm. Here's an article to read if you wanna find out more about Facebook algorithms (http://www.insidefacebook.com/2014/05/27/latest-news-feed-algorithm-change-third-party-implicit-posts-punished/).

One example of these previous changes that hugely affected the way social media engagement works is that Facebook pages used to feed in posts to a user's newsfeed if he or she has "Liked" the page. However there was a huge change that made it such that posts would only get fed to a user's newsfeed only if he or she clicked on "Get Notifications". This resulted in a really big depreciation in the value of "Likes" which was something that companies could easily buy through Facebook advertising.

Imagine you fronted an organisation's Facebook page, and ran advertisements to get 1000 Likes, all of a sudden, 1000 Likes no long means anything at all. No one will be receiving any notifications at all. All of a sudden, the money and effort spent to get the likes previously is now worth nothing at all. New strategies have to be developed and implemented to get things back up to speed.

That is why, in this extremely fast paced era of technology it is vital to keep oneself up to date so as to remain useful and relevant to society.

I hope this helped!
Signing off,
Eugene Wong

An internship at the Department of Transport was the Right Move!

An internship at the Department of Transport was the Right Move!

Interning at the Department of Transport I have had the opportunity to be involved in the promotion, maintenance and ongoing development of a new Transport app, Right Move Perth.

Right Move Perth is a new free smartphone App created by the Transport portfolio – Department of Transport, Main Roads WA and the Public Transport Authority (Transperth) – to better inform Perth commuters regarding incidents, conditions and events that may impact their journey within the Perth metropolitan area.

The new App provides real-time information on incidents, including roadworks, crashes, traffic signal faults, to train and bus service disruptions, major events taking place, project information and weather warnings. Right Move Perth also lets you save your favourite routes and notifies you of incidents that might affect your trip around metropolitan Perth.

 

 

Right Move Perth is available on both iOS (Apple) and Android platforms and can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play for free. If you haven’t download them now!!

 

Currently I am working with my internship coordinator on rolling out a communications strategy for Right Move Perth.

 

This has included:

 

Recruiting and supervising eight flyer distributers

On April 1 and 3 eight distributers recruited from Integrity staffing sported Right Move Perth T-shirts and distributed iPhone shaped flyers throughout the CBD during peak morning, lunch and afternoon periods. I was tasked with liaising with Integrity staffing to find suitable people for the job, mapping out the locations for the staff to be placed around the CBD and also periodically checked on the distributors throughout the day supplying them with additional materials and answering any questions they had.

 

After each day of flyer distribution a rise in the app downloads was recorded through google analystics which was satisfying to know that the work I was doing was contributing to the success of the app.

Twitter page

@rightmoveperth is the official Twitter page for the app. My internship coordinator and I worked on a tweet schedule which included daily tweets about events, planned maintenance, CBD projects and tips for using the app. These were then entered into a system called hootdeck which automatically tweets that are scheduled on a certain day and time, pretty cool!

 

This task also involved responding to any questions or feedback tweeted on the page and retweeting appropriate posts from MRWA and Transperth pages. Initially I was incredibly nervous when completing this task as I was conscious of tweeting correct and professional information with no spelling or grammatical errors to the 575 followers of the page (which includes news and radio pages, perthonalities and members of the general public), I also didn’t want to retweet anything controversial (political or otherwise) that could result in negative media or perceptions from followers. However once I got the hang of it I actually enjoyed the interaction with users and reading their comments on the app.

 

 

Feedback email:

Similar to this I also respond to any queries or feedback that comes to rightmoveperth@transport.wa.gov.au  the Right Move Perth email address. This is the primary source of communication for users to reach the Right Move Perth team. This involved coordinating responses, contributing to the resolution of issues and appropriately referring issues for resolution.

If you have downloaded the app and have any queries or want to provide feedback, make sure you email the above address and I will be happy to respond to you!!

Over the next few weeks I will be working with the Right Move Perth team to decide development options for stage two of the app which will include things such as parking information and cycling.

 

It's true... technology changes everything!

We have always been taught about the advancement of technology and how it has changed the world and all communications, including how it has impacted the PR industry. I felt and noticed the change first-hand while working for an online-based company. 

1. Press Releases

In the good old days, press releases were printed out and mailed to the media. However, with the advent of technology, the media releases that I have sent out are rarely in hard copies, but all through email. The exceptions that I have encountered are when a creative press kit is utilised to capture the attention of the targeted journalists, or when the press releases are distributed personally at press conferences. 

There are obvious pros and cons to this, as a digital release would reach the journalists so quickly, but may not be noticed as their mailbox are usually bursting at its seams. But with the attention span of our audiences (and us!) getting shortened and the need for instant news growing, it becomes essential for hot news to be delivered as quickly as possible. 

Press releases can also now be uploaded online onto portals such as Mynewsdesk (www.mynewsdesk.com). This increases the exposure of your press release exponentially, as journalists or individuals can search for news and updates in real time automatically anywhere in the world. Someone from Austria could pick up your press release that was written in Singapore just by browsing through these platforms. I find that so cool and exciting, and it really brings the point across - technology makes the world so so so much smaller. 

2. Newsletters

Likewise, in a corporate communications setting especially, corporate newsletters are rarely printed out for every employee in the company, but simply sent to their inboxes. So easy and environmentally-friendly! 

3. E-invites/eDM/e-Cards

I'm sure everyone is familiar with these, but it really wasn't too long ago (maybe 10 years ago?), when I was still receiving birthday and Christmas cards from my friends. In the same vein, companies who used to send physical cards, invites to the media, and direct mailers have gradually stopped doing so, and started relying on communicating electronically. 

My company is totally paperless. I create eDMs twice a week, and send out e-invites to the media to our events. Maybe it is just because I'm an old soul by heart, but I do miss the personal touch of snail mail and actual hard copies of things. 

With technology developing so rapidly (even more so within these past few years), I'm really excited to see what changes it would bring to the PR industry, and how our working styles and habits would evolve in time to come. Maybe we will all check back on this blog in a couple of years, and laugh at how old-fashioned or "predictable" a blog or a written press release is! 

That's it, friends. Hope you enjoyed my final post, and see you in space! 

The Value of Voice

I've invented my own word, I call it 'techciety' (pronounced tec-si-e-ty) and I use it to describe the current corporate culture we live in.

Week three of my internship has come and gone, and I found the need to develop a universal term to describe the environment my office operates in, and what I feel many offices nowadays are operating in.

I am placed in an office 2 days a week (over 10 weeks) with an event planning company called TriEvents, however as I mentioned in my last blog, I am doing my internship through correspondence with an event staffing agency called Event Workforce. I have fast come to realise that business people rely heavily on technology, many I feel are co-dependent.

I operate my day on the computer, carrying out market research and emailing students from our database and university lecturers who I am trying to organise the delivery of promotional presentations with. In my first few weeks my day has relied solely on what information the computer can provide. The majority of my market research is carried out online, and when I need to contact new university lecturers I find myself researching their details online and sending them an email. If I did not have my computer, my to-do-list would be unachievable.

It was this week that I realised that the techciety we live in, whilst it is fast, efficient and convenient; doesn't satisfy our need to communicate verbally and physically. I was delighted this week to receive a phone call from Michelle at Edith Cowan University. I had emailed Michelle earlier on in the week with information on Event Workforce and to discuss distributing flyers across the campus. When Michelle organised to call me, my first reaction was fear. I felt nervous to communicate with a person verbally as it makes the conversation somewhat 'real'.

When I picked up the phone, my afternoon became a delight and I automatically satisfied  my personal need to effectively communicate using Grunigs two-way symmetrical model. My conversation with Michelle opened up many business opportunities. Michelle explained to me the current volunteer program that ECU currently operates and also gave me the names of professionals in other tertiary institutions that I could contact for my own purposes. She also kept our company details on file so she could recommend Event Workforce to students who contact the careers office looking for volunteer opportunities.

We live in a techciety, which is fabulous. Our reliance on techonology not only reflects our internal operations, but also the habits of greater society. As such we must use our technology wisely. As a communications student I recognise that online communications are essential and preferred in the corporate world. However in saying this I have also learnt that we must embrace the notion of face-to-face and verbal communication when addressing particular stakeholder publics such as university contacts as it helps build a mutual understanding and stronger relationship.

This can also be applied to internal communications, perhaps next time you go to write an email to your colleague, a walk to their desk to say hello may be in order? The value of face-to-face contact cannot be underestimated, as it is the original and the most basic medium for developing mutual relationships.

Lets not lose the most valuable tool we were given in this techciety- our voice.

Until next time,

Amy

21st Century Options...

Who would've thought it'd be possible to provide a means for direct communication between a business and customer, and increase lead generation and selling, all whilst the business is improving their relationship with the customer via email and the internet? It seems e-newsletters are quickly becoming one of the most necessary and compulsory tools for distributing information to clients and customers in todays society.

As part of my internship at The Hub Marketing Communications, I was allocated the task of researching into the various e-newsletter choices available online. I used two different e-newsletter developer websites to compare options; mailchimp.com.au and campaignmonitor.com.au. After conducting research into both of these developers' offerings, I was amazed at the hundreds of different options that were available to help an organisation transform the way it delivered information to a client.

To help you better understand the degree of creativity that goes into creating an e-newsletter, here are a few examples of what e-newsletter developers can offer clients today:

• Mobile ready templates - or more simply, any template you design on a monitor will be automatically optimised for both desktop and mobile clients (i.e. how you see it on the desktop is how you see it on the mobile)
•  Segment your email list based on any category of difference to ensure clients and customers are only receiving information necessary to them (and customise the content)
• Free reports - after you have distributed an email/e-newsletter, you will have access to a variety of charts, graphs and calculation tools that will show exactly who has opened the e-newsletters, what they have been looking at, any links they have selected to open and how many times they have re-opened your e-newsletter.
• 'World view' feature - shows you exactly who has opened your email and from what exact location in the world from the view of a fullscreen world map that you can then share
• Give clients access to your reports
• Personalise everything! From the template, to the customised information included to the signup/subscriber forms and confirmation emails
• Have 'time zone' control - ensure e-newlsetters are sent out at exactly the right time using the time zone controller tool
• 'Subscriber snapshot' - a function that allows you to see a single page showing every interaction you've ever had with each of your subscribers (e.g. see which email client they view their emails on

These are just a few of the hundreds of differing options available to organisations who chose to go through a e-newsletter developer when constructing their very own e-newsletter.

This research certaintly gave me an insight into the world of the internet and how it's possible to customise everything right down to the core!

Now, more than ever, public relations firms have the option of going above and beyond competitors by utilising the various techniques for differentiating yourself apart from a client organisation. And whats even more exciting, being creative has never been easier with the ease and simplicity of using websites to develop email campaigns... What's not to love about 21st century technology?!

A Big Help. .

I know that I have now done one blog too many but I felt like there was so much more to share about my experiences in the 'real world'. 

Following the oZAPP Award Roadshow I checked off another step in the PR plan I established at the beginning of my placement. The 2012 oZAPP Awards is a competition following on from last years WApp Awards. Both competitions have the same concept, however the competition is now national and is open to all states throughout Australia. 

Following the launch of the winning concept from last years awards, I developed a media release and fact sheet and distributed it to all Western Australian media outlets. Tim and Leon, the winners from last years awards, were at the roadshow event and once again I was able to meet the people I had been writing about so often. Their app, the Big Help Mob, is a fun, creative approach to community service, attracting hundreds of people who had never volunteered their time before, to helping out causes throughout WA. The ABC news report on their app can be found here. For more information on the WApp Awards and the winning app click here. 

Official oZAPP's photo: Left to right: Leon Delpech, Bill Tai and Tim Kenworthy

Once the media release was completed and sent out, my next task was to update the national educational institution database and develop an information pack on the awards that could be distributed to all Universities and TAFE's around the state to generate awareness among university students. These information packs included a cover letter, fact sheet, media release, social media links and poster. 

I also had the chance to challenge myself by writing a package for a client. I spent a day researching and developing pages on the company, the experience of the team and the the proposed establishment. This experience taught me that my writing strength is in PR media and plans and it is a lot less natural for me to write documents of this calibre. Throughout my placement I had the chance to work on them twice and my supervisor sat down with me and went over the way she altered them for the client. I learnt that it is definitely a lot harder for me to get this work out but I definitely want to practice and learn how to do it for the future. 

Being my last week the work load was massive as I worked through to have everything completed! I took out the PR plan i developed at the beginning and had a meeting with my boss about the next steps and how the PR could be altered to attract a larger audience. I also had the opportunity to experience the planning, execution and aftermath of a radio interview that took place and how feedback is given to the client, and social media comments responded to. 

The experience working on this event has been amazing! It has taught me that you can't always anticipate the reaction of the media or the public and that sometimes your original plans need to be altered in order to gain greater success. The concept of the awards is incredible and it focuses in on a developing industry, however for some reason the public and media's interaction has been limited and hasn't taken off as anticipated. I have also learnt that every client is different and you have to speak and deal with them in a way that shows them how integral each part of the plan is without undermining them. On top of all these lessons, one of the biggest lessons I had was at our goodbye drinks. The social media coordinator was on Facebook and the alarms went off and within seconds all three people were on the phone and social media responding to the issue. The lesson: there is no weekend for social media and it is essential that you monitor it at all times. PR does not sleep and you never know what can happen out of the office! 

It may be the end of my placement but its not the end of my experiences at 32DSG. I am staying on a day a week to see how the oZAPP Awards pan out and have been assisting here and there, taking on every learning experience that I can! 

INSTIGATING INSTAGRAM - SOCIAL MEDIA MANIA

As the forms of social media communication tools continue to grow, the demand for organisation to keep up is increasing!

Welcome to my second reflection on my placement at the one40william division owned by Jones Lang LaSalle. It has been a busy past few weeks as one40william prepares to enter re-development stage at the 140 Perth sector.

In today’s technology driven society, social media has taken the forefront of corporations communicating and engaging with their stakeholders. Although one40william currently has a Facebook page  and a Twitter account  and a 140 Blog on their website, 140 has recently entered the INSTAGRAM photo sharing world.

TIME TO INSTIGATE INSTAGRAM AT 140

As a result of the social media meeting that I attended regarding 140’s new INSTAGRAM strategy, I was given the role to liaison with Caitlin from Zebra (an organisation that specializes in social media and web design). We both set out to take interesting and creative shots of 140, to capture that unique brand image. It is a creative and exciting role that allows me to utilize the 140 brand position and interact with the retailers.

I was fortunate enough to experience and be a part of the step-by-step process required to create and form a social media tool. Steps were taken to ensure that the photos taken represented the 140 brand and in turn were able to capture the interest and attention of those whom were scrolling down their INSTAGRAM photo feed. Through the use of bright colours, two creative minds and bringing ideas beyond the ‘normal product’ Caitlin and I were able to capture images that were out of the ordinary. It proved that to be different is to think differently when using social media to communicate with your customers in today’s social media realm.

As 140 Perth has recently begun its social media exposure on INSTAGRAM it is receiving great support and exposure. Not only communicating 140’s brand tag line “The 140 Difference” but also promoting the retailers and the products offered at 140 Perth.

To view such creative and interesting images from 140 Perth, search ‘140 Perth’ on INSTAGRAM.

TODAY’S SOCIAL MEDIA

From Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Blogspot, YouTube…the options are endless! The large range of social media communication tools are highly accessible to corporations. However, through personally seeing social media used in a real life communication sense proves that the planning and management of social media is essential to ensure that it is effective and stands out from competitors.

As a result of my experience with initiating INSTAGRAM for the 140 brand, I found the most essential aspect was the planning period. Planning was the most significant step to ensure that when images were released to the public that they were stimulating and enticing. Therefore the planning and periodic management of such a social media tool is crucial to ensure that 140 does not fade into the INSTAGRAM background but leads the forefront of creativity.

I am enjoying every aspect of my placement as the day’s fly by at one40william. To finally be completing an internship instead of casually volunteering at events has proven to be exciting, insightful and allows me to use my creative ideas.

Until next time,

Alexandra Wheeler 

"Social media is also like throwing spaghetti at a wall — we’re still trying to see what sticks"

 In today's world, social media is becoming more and more intergrated with who we are, what we do and how we express that. This is no different for companies, corporations and not-for-profits. In fact, they have more of an online presence and social responsibility than most indivuduals ever will.

Most organisations will have the basic social media tools; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. But a new era of social media is arriving, especially for small businesses and more relevantly, night clubs.

As part of my internship, I have been working closely with the Promo and Communications manager, Ken. It has been our responsibility to fully implement an application for the club. It took a lot of convincing to get the Chief Finicial Officer to approve the funding for this, because it is a new and untested medium for social media. For all we know it could be high cost, low profit.
The idea is simple; an interactive application which has all the events and details that patrons may want to know as well as an incentive and reward program.

Ken and I launched the application last week, but without little fanfare so we could do a limited release to work out some of the kinks. One of the biggest issues was the fact that point system didn't seem to have the lock out once you had accrued the maximum amount of points, so we called the developers only to be told that it was only uploading photos that had the point limit. This meant we had to change our reward scheme.

Who knows if this will work, but it will be interesting to see how it develops and how many other clubs get on board with this. Already in Perth: Metro Freo, Amplifier, Air Nightclub, The Deen and many other competitors are on board; though few seem to have a rewards system.

Here are some details available on the Metro City website.

Another issue to contend with is how we increase the amount of NEW patrons into the club. The application is most likely to be downloaded by regular visitors and though I pointed out that this might not be a bad thing (it seems like a reward system to a regulars) the Chief Executive Officer said that the main idea of the application was to increase the variety in the crowds and pack out our club nights.

I found a link which is useful for my own placement and involvement with their social media and thought it is specified to nightclubs it may also be useful for others who are taking placements in small businesses or even not-for-profit. You can find it here. It has an interesting few points, one of which I used for the title of this blog post - which is think is witty and highly relevant but it also points out a few things that some of us might forget whilst entering the real world.

Whilst I think the progession of social media is a good idea and that following the app trend is a good idea, without substantial proof that it is a worthy investment...I doubt the mangement will be happy to continue forking out $400/month of something which yields little to no returns.

We'll just have to see what happens in the future! (It seems to be catching on - here is a link about a US company giving it a go)

Facebook mistake!

This week was a week of uploading blog posts I wrote that had been approved as well as writing more blogs and focusing on 32dsg’s website content.

I usually upload Facebook posts about upcoming events, working off my events calendar, however this week their Facebook page was devoted to a competition we were offering for two tickets to Perth Fashion week. I think I have mentioned before in one of my previous posts that I have been made an administrator of one of their clients Facebook pages. Not realising I was on the client’s Facebook page (thinking I was on mine), I ‘shared’ the competition on their page. This has NOTHING to do with them or their target audience and therefore was a big mistake. Luckily one of the girls alerted it to me and I was quickly able to take it down. It just outlined the fact that social media while it is easy to use, free and global, it can be extremely dangerous. Luckily this was not such a massive blunder and was easily fixable but you can see how quickly something can turn into a crisis if it is not handled correctly. I may be able to ‘blame’ it on Facebook since it said I was on my own page when I ‘shared’ the post (not realising I had to click another button to say- switch to your personal page), however this would never stand if you were to argue your case in a crisis. Technology may fail you, but ultimately it is your fault in the end. You controlled the mouse and you pressed enter.

After that mistake was quickly rectified I continued with my work. I uploaded my Sharing Healthy Conversations article- choosing the best photo for the subject (one with the most important attendees included). I had to fix the lighting on the photo first and crop it so that all the focus was on the people in it. I had to link all the important peoples names to their personal pages (usually linked in accounts) and make sure everyone’s names were spelt correctly.

I continued to work on companies that are similar to 32dsg and an events list for their Facebook posts. After looking over what needs to be included in the report I was quite pleased to see that we need to write about our companies competitors. Because I have been looking at what other companies there are similar to 32dsg I have in fact been researching their competitors. I have also been looking at what they are doing differently and how we could incorporate some of these positive attributes into our company as well. By collating all this information 32dsg can take the best of their competitors traits and add them to their list of expertise.

It has been interesting for me to look back at the events the company or the people who work for the company have been involved in organising. From the Breast Cancer Foundation’s illumination campaign to the Grand Prix ball, the people working at 32dsg have a diverse range of skills and networks. It’s a privilege to be around such successful worldly people. The collation of events data that I have been looking at, I will be putting into succinct descriptions to put on their website under the events section. This is quite an important job (in my opinion) since ‘case studies’ or previous experiences are important for those wanting to use the company to see.

My blog post on the Perth Baby Expo got approved at 4:45pm but I wanted to stay until it was up online, linked and positioned well. I stayed on after everyone left however I like things to be done and to be done without rushing. I don’t think I will ever mind staying behind to finish up and do a good job. Once you’re at work, what’s another 40 minutes? I also got to write another post for a Frasers Restaurant lunch that the 32dsg team went to this week. It got approved right away (showing how much better I must be getting with my writing skills) and I put that one up too.

You can read all my blog posts on:

http://32dsg.com/blog/

And my news article on:

http://32dsg.com/?post_type=news

Thanks for reading guys!

Xx

Martine