To the Death of Cold Calls!

One of the key aspects of my placement has been not only creating a PR role that had not previously existed, but more importantly creating some brand value for the company and generating sales leads. It amazed me upon first entering the company that there was no defined PR or marketing strategy, and my first thoughts were, “how do they make any sales?” The Business Development Manager and sales team were previously really the only driving factor behind generating sales leads and operate predominantly though cold calling.

As a PR assistant, my idea was to help generate as much publicity and general awareness for the organisation as possible in order to have customers come to the company instead of the other way around. When I first joined the company, they were setting up a new website which we then launched in March and although mostly finished, as any website, it is a constant work in progress.

Over the almost 5 months I have been with the company one of my main jobs has been in creating content for the website, adding in keywords and generating a media presence. This included uploading all of my media releases to the website which has helped us to gain more coverage in google searches, a necessity as we have not yet committed to ‘google adwords’. Additionally I have added case studies, testimonials, news and photo galleries to give customers as much information as possible, not only generating traffic to the site but also trying to keep people interacting with our site for as long as possible.

Having a presence on the internet is crucial to our company’s success, particularly as we are a business to business organisation. Not only is important to have a functioning website, but it is also important to monitor how the website is being used and by who, something I have been covering each month in a monthly website and social media report. This report covers things like the number of hits we have received and the demographics and behaviours of the people that are visiting.

It has been really rewarding on a personal level to see aspects of the website that I have created or been responsible for receiving high levels of traffic, reassuring me that I have been on the right track with what customers expect. Not only this but it is also very satisfactory to see sales leads generated from contact forms on the website or to hear people say they have seen our website and ask us about specific programs. Hopefully in time the sales team will start getting more and more leads each month and maybe some day cold calls will be a thing of the past!

Not For Profit: Giving back to the community

Hi everyone,

My name is Jayde and I have recently started an internship at Curtin Volunteers! as the Communications Officer.

I always love working for Not For Profit organisations as I feel that it is an opportunity to give back to the community whilst utilizing and improving your skill set. This is one of the reasons why i chose to do my placement at Curtin Volunteers! I have worked in Not For Profit organisations before and even though the money is not as competitive as the corporate or private sector, I always find it more rewarding.
I'm hoping that this placement will be the same!

My role in the organisation is to streamline all communication and messages that leave the organisation. This includes monitoring social media, writing and editing content for the website and newsletters and writing media releases.

The role of communications officer was only introduced to Curtin Volunteers! at the beginning of this year which means that previously all of the communication leaving the organisation was anything but uniform and promoting a consistent message!

In my first week I went through and edited the website. This was a time consuming, but essential task! The content that was on the website was written by an array of different people, all with differing writing styles and idea's on what is appropriate grammar and spelling!

It was amazing to see how differently a website is portrayed to its audience when it is written be a single person, in a uniform style. You can check out the new website content at www.cv.curtin.edu.au

I'm finding it extremely fascinating to see how the organisation works as it is purely student/volunteer run (except for three paid positions). Due to a lack of funds they cannot employ as many people as they would like in order for things to run as effectively as possible but the amount that they do with such little resources is incredible!

I am really enjoying my placement so far and feel that i have a lot of ideas and suggestions to help improve the organisation!

Looking forward to any feedback or comments!

Jayde

More published news = Great feeling!

Every Wednesday I come into the DSR offices in Leederville and have a long week full list of emails to work through. Straight away my supervisor had a manageable amount of news stories ready for getting ‘meaty’ information and to submit to the DSR website.

After a day full of emails and phone calls to and fro, I had written, tweaked and perfected four lovely news ready for approving and uploading to the website. After a few slight changes to commas, quotation marks and full stops from the supervisor the stories were ready to be revealed to the world, or anyone who visited the DSR website.

Not only do I now know that a quotation mark goes before the full stop, I have a very proud and impressed mother.

Here are the web links to the news items I uploaded all by my lonesome last week

http://www.dsr.wa.gov.au/make-your-own-poster-competition

http://www.dsr.wa.gov.au/tammin-football-club-celebrate-100-years

http://www.dsr.wa.gov.au/geraldton-succeeds-with-new-annual-badminton-open

http://www.dsr.wa.gov.au/kicking-goals-for-community-harmony

When people ask me what I do at uni, PR needs some explanation. Most people say “Whats that?. They genuinely have no idea. As the unit is somewhat new to university, I get a kick about describing what the profession entails. I usually say, I get all the information , conduct the interviews and type up the story then send it to the journalist who then does what they wish to it, then hopefully it ends up in the papers. People seem pretty impressed by that statement and it makes me really like public relations. I know that it’s not all that it entails but I guess its my favourite part so far.

Until more published stories (hopefully).

Cheers

Emma

The Fellowship of Australian Writers WA - first impressions

Dean Stacey PR393 Blog One
Curtin University

Hello everyone.
Currently I'm in week two of my placement at the Fellowship of Australian Writers (WA) - a non-for-profit organisation which provides training, support and friendship to the state's writing community. The Fellowship (FAWWA) is based in Swanbourne and operates out of a heritage-listed cottage. It is staffed by two women who work Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Have a look at their website or Facebook page for my information - www.fawwa.org.au, http://www.facebook.com/WAwritersfellowship.
The real benefit with this placement is the opportunity to work in conjunction with another PR student to help FAWWA better promote itself. Rather than having an established public relations department, the organisation relies on the existing staff to handle every aspect of daily operations. Because of this, we have a fantastic opportunity to put the knowledge learnt at university into practice. It is also beneficial that we are able to manage all PR related associated tasks by ourselves (in consultation with staff). This means we don’t have someone directing us what to do and allows us to show initiative.  
Initially I was sceptical as to how significant the role of public relations would be in the organisation's day-to-day running. However, after my first day I'm pleased to say that there appears ample opportunity to put into practice the skills learnt at university.

Below is an overview of what tasks, ideas and skills I've been able to utilise so far.  
- Administration/organisational skills: We have created a file-sharing system known as Dropbox where staff can save information and items. Dropbox allows those with access to view, edit and contribute to one another's work. Examples of documents we've placed into the system include a database of current members, membership forms, templates for media releases etc.
- Media releases: FAWWA hold regular workshops and events with established writers. These workshops are attended by members and the general public. In order to raise awareness, I created a media release which was distributed to a newspaper in Rockingham and subsequently was published last month. This media release now serves as a template for future releases and includes the FAWWA logo, contact details etc.
- Promotional material: In order to attract new members to I created a postcard which will be dropped into mailboxes and distributed around university campuses. The postcard was modelled on a similar design the organisation had used in the past. I created the card using a web-based printing company which FAWWA has an account with. The postcards are currently being printed and readied for distribution.
- Website and Facebook authorisation: We have been given access to modify the organisation's website Facebook and website. This allows us to update new material such as upcoming workshops, call for membership renewals and correspond with members. 

There is plenty more we've been tasked with, but in the interest of keeping this blog to a reabable length, I'll leave it there for today.
Thanks

it's just not the same without Gravy... Part 6

Last week at Gravy, I was given an amazing opportunity to recreate and design the company website. Having never done something like this before, I was extremely nervous but excited to see what I could achieve. The previous Gravy website was bland and disengaging as it was produced on a low budget. This urged Ivana (owner of Gravy) to search for a competitively priced alternative – leading her to stumble across Crazy Domains. Crazy Domains is a website by which you can easily build and design your own website having no graphic design or IT skills at a much smaller cost than it would be to hire a website creator. It works on the basis of a simple illustrations program like Microsoft Publisher, where you can move and shift objects around freely. The best part about it is; you can trial and error at absolutely no cost! You don’t pay a cent until you have a design you are happy with and would like to go public with it; something I was very relieved to know as it assured me, there was no loss or harm in the process. And so I began brainstorming ideas with the help of CrazyDomains.com suggestions, Public Relations Techniques studies (YES, you do need to know the rules to building website to ensure it is easy to navigate in) and researching other consultancy websites to get an idea of what format they should be in; all the while keeping the Gravy brand in mind.

Like Gravy itself, the website needed charisma, it required a fun element, and it had to be a little bit different from others; yet still hold a sense of professionalism and maturity. After nearly 2 days of completely unsupervised chopping, changing, moving, creating, writing, adding and inserting; I revealed the final product to Ivana. And what an amazing response I received!! She absolutely LOVED it and I was extremely happy with what I had achieved and it proved that all my hard work and effort paid off. After just a few suggestions and changes in the website text, my website creation was paid for and in cyber space! Here are a few screen shots from the website:

Home Page

About Gravy Page

Previous Campaigns Page

Current and Past Clients Page

Contact Page

If you want to visit the website, click here.

This task was particularly exciting for me because it wasn’t a client we were working on like normal day-to-day business at Gravy, it was the consultancy itself that we improved which showed me that not only should our focus be on our clients’ business developments – but our company too. This led me to additionally take the initiative to create a Facebook page for Gravy and connect the website and this together (click here to view the Facebook page). At times I think we are so focussed and put such an emphasis on our clients’ affairs that we neglect our own business – which can in fact be detrimental for both of us in the end! After all, we have to practise what we preach.

Until next time…

--Sarah

it's just not the same without Gravy... Part 4

The countdown was on in the office Thursday morning. Lawless Cooking’s new website design was being unveiled to the team at 11:00am and we could all not wait to see the end product.

Lawless Cooking is a catering and cooking class company headed by celebrity chef, Iain Lawless and is the fourth client of Gravy’s that I would have introduced to you. Lawless Cooking lends us space in their office in Mt Hawthorn which forms part of our contract with them. This means Gravy is not solely at this office for Lawless Cooking duties as I am on-site for The Bra Bar, but we are there day-to-day for all of Gravy’s undertakings. Gravy controls and operates all of Lawless Cooking communications (social media, e-Newsletters, enquiries, bookings of functions and classes, etc.) and any promotional or marketing ventures that are embarked upon.

In Thursday morning’s instance, this entailed Ivana and I sitting in on the meeting with the website designers and Vicki Lawless; Iain Lawless’s wife and business manager of Lawless Cooking. This was a fantastic experience as I could see everyone’s opinion from all different kinds of skilled perspectives. Firstly, there was the website designer pitching his proposal to us and explaining as to why he has made specific decisions on the design. Secondly, there was Vicki Lawless, whose main concern is that the website harmonizes with the Lawless Cooking brand and what she expects the company to be portrayed as. Lastly, there was Ivana and I, the PR and Marketing gurus. We were mainly seeking functionality, efficiency and ease of the website and likewise to Vicki, making sure it corresponds with the brand.

Well, we were all BLOWN AWAY! It was what we imagined, and beyond. The website designer completely understood the brand and identification of the company, whilst using his expertise for the best practices of website operation. He clearly understood and identified with the brief he was given by us to produce such an amazing product. I would LOVE to show and prove to you just how amazing the website is but, unfortunately, that was simply the design. The website is now being created and will be up and running soon (I will keep you all updated so you can check it out!).

The website images where all spinning around in my head for the rest of the day with me agonizing over the question: “WHY CAN’T I DO THAT?!” As professionals in the PR and marketing industry, we are all sure to come across some artwork that is needed to be produced at some point in time; whether it be a newsletter, a poster, a brochure (the list goes on!) and as for me at Gravy; times like these come around quite often as we don’t usually work with budgets that can afford fancy graphic designers. Well, my artwork was certainly put to shame that day. Nonetheless, I went on with my day which did in fact include creating posters for Lawless Cooking cooking classes! I did get a few good ideas off him at leastJ. And although they may not be as high-grade and professional as the website designer’s, they do the job and am reassured by Ivana that they aren’t as shabby I may think! It is also a huge consolation hearing Ivana assure me that I CAN’T DO EVERYTHING and in the real world, different projects are passed through many different people until the final product is completed. This can be through various departments in an organisation or, in Lawless Cooking’s circumstance (a small business); this can be outsourced or sometimes attempted by someone within the organisation which may mean doing so in an ad hoc fashion.

I may or may not have still looked into a graphic design courses when I get home (purely out of interest of course!) It turns out… there is no quick fix for learning such skills. Lesson officially learnt – leave it to the professional graphic designers!!

Until next time…

--Sarah

Full Time Mellen

Hello again!

It been a while since I have posted anything, so I thought it was about time to get cracking with my updates since we are so close to the end of the semester.

Well, I have officially completed my 'internship' with Mellen Events, but I was lucky enough to be offered a full time role as Marketing Assistant. I am pretty much there to assist both the marketing and advertising managers which naturally incorporate a lot of PR style communication too.

Recently, I have been given the lovely job of maintaining and updating the website. After lots of training sessions, and the launch of the new and improved site, my new role wasn’t too difficult to adapt to, as for the past 2 years, I have worked in the website office of UWA. It is so interesting to be able to have worked in 2 completely different industries, doing virtually the same job, noting many similarities and difference that lie between the two. The main difference that was very clear from the beginning was the style of the website, the style of writing required and quite obviously, the nature of the news updates.

I am given a lot more freedom with the Mellen Events website, to write short and sharp news items about upcoming events or recent news that may have relevance to a particular act (the most recent being the tragic news of DJ Mehdi's passing, who was due to play at Summadayze in Jan). The content that I am writing about it also a lot fluffier and interesting (to me) than the types of news items that are being published on the UWA website. I have also been involved in the up keep of Mellen Events on their social media channels, relaying stories and items of interest to the people monitoring those. Having an integrated online environment, means that all of the Mellen's online stakeholders are constantly kept in the loop with what’s going on, and a lot more value is added to the "website experience". This integration is evident on the main website, were a live feed of Facebook is on the home page, as well as links to twitter and the Mellen Events YouTube channel.

As part of my role as Marketing Assistant, I am also responsible for the assigning of media accreditation to media outlets, photographers and reviewers. This means constantly research media outlets that would suit particular shows and liaising with these people to allow access to a show in return for media space and after show reviews.

So the latest update in my role is my assistance this week at the Thirsty Merc gigs around Perth. I guess this is the exciting part I have been waiting for, where I can actually experience what all the hard work has been for. I will make sure to update at the end of the week on the goings on of the gigs, and hopefully by then I will have gained even more experience and knowledge in the events industry..

Until then,

Mel x

I need more than 24 hours a day!

Its been about 3 weeks since my last post and I'm really busy juggling with my full time job and my internship with Thomson Catering. It will be great that i have more than 24 hours a day!

I've been busy wrapping up the website stuffs and doing the materials (calenders & vehicle dress up) that provide awareness of the company and the new website.

I am also updating the customers database so that we are able to mail out calenders once its done.

Despite the hectic schedule, there's free meals provided and helpful colleagues to work with! :)

I need to start drafting my report... =(

Busy busy busy!!

Hello all,
Just a quick explanation as two why I am making two consecutive posts- I have been having trouble posting my blog so I had them saved in a word document until I worked out how to post them- So now I have worked it out- here is my second reflective blog!

So I have now been at CCA for 10 days and Linc for 5 days! Very exciting...but also keeping me very busy!

At CCA I have continued my involvement in the business development side of the company and the expansion into Melbourne- at times this has been boring work, for example entering names and addresses, business names etc from the company directors business cards into the Melbourne contacts database. On the flip side exciting work has included researching into different areas and aspects of Melbourne and presenting my ideas to my superiors and having them take my ideas and comments on board.

Last week I was really pleased when a new administration assistant was taken on board and I was able to hand over the Melbourne database work to her- however this process was also very surreal as I had to create a brief for the new assistant and she would be answering to me if she had any questions.

A lot of time an effort has been spent on the new website for CCA- and I can now reveal to you the before and afters- the website that I have contributed to will be launched and go live on Friday 17th of September.












On the left is a screen shot of the old website and on the right a screen shot of the new website, as you can see they are vastly different- and the new website incorporates concepts and ideas outlined in the 10 year business plan.

At Linc I have also been very busy. Some of the jobs I have been undertaking here include writing media releases for clients that recently won awards, proofing newsletters before they are released, helping Amanda and Gemma with an auction event at Churchlands Green- this has meant ringing hire societies, portaloos and marquee operators for quotes. To do this job properly and efficiently I had to be briefed on the client and the event- taking away the information I had and working to the budget and deadline.

Hope everyone is still enjoying their internships!

Website = Problems

Hey bloggers!

I hope everyone is enjoying their placements and well done to those wrapping them up!

I have two weeks to go, and I am enjoying my final weeks and trying to get everything finished off.

One project in particular is taking a little longer than I had hoped - the website.

I have never had smooth sailing with websites.

From initial design to regular updates, the recurring theme for me has been patience. You need a lot of it.

The biggest lesson I have learnt is no matter what, be nice to the IT guy. I don’t know their language or their world, and even if I think they are lazy or not doing their job, I really have no choice but to trust them – they are the almighty gatekeeper to the brave world of cyber space.

The Community Investment team I am working with has an internet (.com) site and a mirroring intranet (.org) site that hasn’t been updated for a few months. My project was to update the stories that are waiting to be uploaded, and then write new articles for more recent events like the Great Bike Ride and Movember.

After the first day, I (somehow??) deleted the file off the CMS I had been working on and lost everything. Not the best way to impress colleagues in your first week…

After we got this fixed, the problems haven’t stopped.

I upload to the internet, the changes are visible. The next day the changes have been mirrored to the intranet, but have dropped off the internet. Every time we fix one problem, another one jumps up!

The good news is the intranet is looking fantastic.

The bad news is even the IT guys are scratching their heads.

Today we found out the guy we have been working with internally has been retrenched – I am not sure whether to sigh in despair or relief. Either the process starts over, or the fresh start could be the quick fix we need???

So, the first project I wanted to get done quickly has become the on going project that plagues my work days!!

But, what it has taught me is these problems are not specific to smaller business or not-for-profit organisations. No matter where you are working, or how big the budget, IT issues happen everywhere.

I would love to hear about any IT issues at other placements?

Take care!

Amanda