"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)

The Big Launch!

As of the 1st of August the oZAPP Awards has been launched!

This is the event that I have been working on for the past 13 days of my internship. Throughout this time I have done completed numerous tasks that have given me an understanding of different areas of the competition including;

- Developing a PR plan for the duration of the awards
- Developing a Media plan for the West Australian
- Establishing an extensive national media contact database
- Media sponsorship package development
- Media release writing and distribution throughout Australia and
- Client meetings

It felt like it was a long time coming but gee does time fly when your having fun! Before I knew it the launch had approached and the competition was under way!

Unfortunately I spent the week of the launch in bed by the doctors orders but I have been kept in the loop via email and have done some work at home, I cant wait to be back in the action next week! 

Just so you understand the project I am working on; The oZAPP Awards is Australia's largest app competition searching for the nation's best new mobile application concept. The oZAPP Awards is a Curtin University initiative and aims to foster dialogue and collaboration between innovators, researchers, investors and industry, and to stimulate innovative business culture throughout Australia. 

Along with the launch of the competition, the oZAPP website was officially launched. The website

includes information on the industry, resources, case studies, blog posts, information on the judges and sponsors, and entry forms for the competition.

The last few weeks have been busy as we worked to get everything completed by the launch and it has shown me a lot about working in the PR field and for a consultancy. The biggest thing that I came to realise is the time needed to be factored in to get all media coverage and work approved by. When your working for a client it an integral part of the operation to get all media content and information signed off on by the client to ensure that what we as the consultancy are sending out in their name is accurate. As a national competition with industry professionals from around the world involved, there is more than one person who has to sign off on all content and with different time zones, getting things signed off has been difficult and deadlines have had to be altered to ensure that all content is accurate before it is distributed to the media.

So now that the competition is under way, we'll be following the PR plan I developed for the roadshow coming up, publicity for the event, and developing the judging criteria and outline for all judges.

Have a look at the website and spread the word about this competition. You don't have to be tech savvy to have a great idea for an app so get involved!!

Until next time!