The End of being a Socialite, but with a New Chapter

May 9, 2013 

 

( Dwyer, It's about progress not perfection)

You know the feeling you get when the final day of work is not really the final day of your work? When I showed up for work, I wasn’t as keen to work on my roles and responsibilities like I always do, because I knew this would be the last task I would work on.

However, towards the end of my internship, I’ve pondered of what I’ve learned throughout the internship and thought about my new chapter of my career. The quote above “It’s about progress not perfection” says it all and sums of what I’ve learned throughout the internship.  

When I first walked in, I thought I knew everything of what I learned from the past three years and thought I could do everything in my knowledge and power to add the value for Socialite Media and their clients that I’ve worked with.

 However, I had to learn the hard way from my mistakes. The only ways to learn knowledge is from your mistakes and also learn from campaign manager’s success and failures.  Also, it’s all about progress and improvements.

Furthermore, throughout the day it consisted of me writing a monthly report for two clients comparing the month of April to the month of March.  I had to provide recommendations for brand awareness, demographics growth, and provide recommendations of strategies they can improve and add for the next month.  The content and date needed be to be analyzed to understand any trends or large differences between those two months. It was interesting for me to compare and look at the evidence of what segments of the contents for Facebook and Twitter made it work and what didn’t. 

To sum it up, all the internship is all focused of Public Relations and Social Media. I hope you guys learned something from my blog. Also, if anyone is looking for an opportunity to work in Social Media and use your knowledge of Public Relations in social media agencies, I highly recommend Socialite media and other social media agencies that are available depending on what type of social media agencies you are after.

Blog Refrences:

• Dwyer, S. (Photographer). (2012, December 9). It's about progress not perfection [Print Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.five-words.com.au/page/8

The challenges of viddy and vine apps

It’s pretty much impossible to get through a degree of Public Relations in todays society without hearing about the importance of understanding social media. For me, during my studies I learnt that social media was so important, especially for non-for-profit organisations. I have learnt through my internship that this is definitely the case and should be utilised by organisations.

 
At my internship I have been asked to develop a social media plan based around World Meningitis Day. As I am doing my internship at a non-for-profit I am learning that social media is valued as it is free and effective in reaching its target audience. As a part of my social media plan I was asked to look into Vine App. Through my research I found that Vine App is an application that makes six second videos that loop and can be linked to Facebook and Twitter. I was very excited to learn about this, however I was surprised to learn that this app was only available for the IPhone and the phone we would be using is not an Iphone, its an android. Therefore I was faced with the challenge of figuring out what else we could use that’s free and easy and does a similar function. That’s when I discovered Viddy. Viddy is an application that makes fifteen second videos. The ideas of these short videos is that they are fast and punchy and challenge businesses to promote certain products or events in a short time and in a creative way. So I did some further research and I found this app was going to be great as it was downloadable on the android phone.
 

All was going well, I had implemented Viddy videos into the social media plan and thought I knew how to work the app. However, when the time came to make and upload the video I was faced with many issues. I could not seem to upload the Viddy to Facebook or Twitter. The challenge I faced was that the business page is not like a personal page. You don’t log into it and therefore you cannot link the Viddy to that page it would have to go to your personal page. Another issue was that the app simply did not work. For some reason the app would not upload to Facebook or Twitter, it simply was not connecting to these sites. After some time of trying I eventually figured out I could upload to YouTube from my phones version of the video not the Viddy apps version of the video. I have now uploaded a Viddy video successfully and am happy to say I look forward to the next one next week which will be made for World Meningitis Day.

Although in my degree I learnt the importance of social media, and I agree it is so important, I never realised that there were apps involved and there would likely be challenges involved.
 
If I have one recommendation it’s that you should learn how to use an app before suggesting that your workplace use it. I am learning so much about applications and social media and it’s a great learning curve.

Check out the first viddy if you have a moment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1to12Ka--2w


-Alyce

 

A beginning not an end.

I have come to the conclusion of my internship experience as well as the conclusion of my last Public Relations unit (I still have Business Capstone ahead of me so this won't be the last time Curtin University assesses me on my commerce skills) and I have felt it necessary and appropriate that my last blog entry be a reflection of my thoughts and feelings.

To be honest, I was initially disheartened by the harsh reality of a career in public relations. Though I was not expecting it to be the most glamorous job in the world, some part of me thought I would be applying the techniques that I learnt more. For the most part the tasks I had to to do within my internship were things that could've easily been learnt 'on-the-job' provided you had at least an average IQ and a slight ability to write but I had been assured by my supervisor and mentors in the company that this was typical within the first few years of graduate work and eventually it would get more challenging and I would be writing larger-scale documents of more importance.

That being said, on the job I have learned invaluable skills being thrown into the deep-end such as InDesign which I feel is an excellent desktop publishing program that Curtin should consider incorporating into their curriculum- it's fast becoming an industry standard! I have never edited more proof work in my life it seems, I have cold-called clients, corresponded with various stakeholders via e-mail for serious issues, been in business meetings, planned successful events and learned the in and outs of social media among other things. Overall it has been an unforgettable experience.

I definitely can say after all this, my heart is still in public relations and I look forward to a career in the field. My internship has taught me the reality of the field which can be at times rewarding and cruel and when I weigh the pros and cons, the pros are far more numerous. Though my internship is coming to a close and so is this unit, I feel it is not an ending but rather a beginning for myself as an imminent true professional.

Jazzed About the Outcome!

After working with WAYJO for the past three months, my time has come to a sad end.

Throughout my time I was able to undertake a wide variety of tasks, and experience the daily workings of a public relations employee in the not for profit industry. This provided me with a true understanding of the importance of the public relations role and enabled me to develop my PR skills. Some of the main tasks I undertook included: compiling media and other stakeholder contact lists; event organisation, planning and promoting; updating and proofing of the website; supplying an e-newsletter, communicating and liaising with school contacts; and sourcing relevant information regarding possible sponsors and past alumni.

All of the tasks I have completed, even if tedious, have proved to be very beneficial to my studies as I've been able to put all my classroom knowledge into practice. I have also been very lucky to have gained a placement at WAYJO as I've been able to contribute to their inspiring cause and meet an array of people dedicated to the arts. 

After completing my placement what I feel I will miss the most is the staff. The ladies in the office have been there throughout my placement and have each shared with me their experiences and advice about the industry. This has provided me with invaluable information about what the future can hold. I was astounded with how friendly and available they made themselves to me and how they were always there to inspire, listen, and guide me throughout the process. I am internally grateful for their patience and dedication.

Reflecting on my placement I've been able to grow both professionally and personally. I cannot stress how rewarding this experience has been as it has taught me about the PR profession and prepared me for the workplace after graduation. I know I still have a lot to learn and experience but I now feel confident with attacking any task and role given to me head on. I can't wait to see what next year brings for me!

I hope everyone has enjoyed and learnt as much as I have from their placements!

Christina