A challenge in a different country - PR in Asia

Hi all!

I am Jun and i started my internship at a new Automotive company called M&H Elegant Auto Care in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was a company founded by an entrepreneur and a business partner who had over 15 years of experience in the industry. The business was founded to provide the best auto care service like no other in an industry already dominated by hundreds of similar companies.

Being in Asia, the world of PR is vastly different than what we have learnt during the course of our education in Curtin. When i first started my first day i was quite excited and motivated to just get through this semester and internship with the best of my abilities. Little did i know that my enthusiasm and energy was not well accepted in such a hostile environment. From what i knew, my co-workers were quite shocked and taken aback to my forwardness and my interactions with them. I slowly learnt day by day that getting to know them took time and effort and being friendly doesn't guarentee their loyalty and friendship either. People in the company and also in the industry definitely needed time to get to know me and to show my abilities and what i can do for them before they accepted me as one of their own.

It was a culture shock and a lesson i learnt that was so essential when i was given the task to communicate and provide media releases to news corporations and events companies because if i were to approach them the way did on my first day, i do not believe i would achieved anything for my supervisor. The world of PR in malaysia is more conservative and strict compared to Australia and there are many guidelines to follow if one was to be a successful PR practioner in Malaysia.

My journey continues!

Jun
14041624

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