Out with the Old, in with the New

[Due to unforeseen circumstances, the following blog post has been published in hindsight and was originally written for publication on Friday 18th October 2013]

Hello, all!

I hope your placements are going smoothly. I see some of you have already finished -- congratulations! I can just about see the end of my placement over the horizon.

In today's day and age, social media has taken the world by storm. Blogs like Marcia's have been cropping up left, right and centre, and are vital for many industries as means to get information out that traditional news platforms might not cover. Over the last few shifts with Marcia, we've been doing a lot of brainstorming and thinking about where we want her blog Style Voyeur to go. The blog industry is a tricky one, and while blogging is fun for the most part, it is also incredibly time consuming, and time is an important resource if you're earning your income elsewhere. When I first saw Marcia at the Women In Media panel discussion earlier this year (as mentioned in my first post), she brought up some of the challenges she faces in regards to blogging for Style Voyeur:

• Sleepless nights -- this was her biggest frustration with blogging, and it is just part of the bigger picture: the need for newsworthiness. Certain events need to be blogged about the day they happen, otherwise others beat you to it and you lose newsworthiness. Blogs are often competing with each other for the best coverage, and while certain events or issues naturally garner lots of coverage, blogs will have better leverage if they are the first to get their stories out. As such, and especially during busy periods in the industry, bloggers will find themselves losing sleep over how much needs to be covered, photographed, written, interviewed, researched, and finally published. While this is done all the time in newsrooms around the world, we often forget that blogs are...
• One man bands: Marcia highlighted this as a blessing in theory, but a nightmare in reality. She, and many other blogs owned by just one person, are constantly competing with large media corporations, who can have multiple people working on a story and all the resources and talents available to them. While it is great to have all the power in making executive decisions, hiring extra hands is difficult because:
• Marcia's voice (style of coverage), expertise and taste in visuals is difficult to teach
• Her blog is not her main source of income (in fact, it's not even a source of income), and therefore it will not sustain employing additional team members
• Blogging is much more time consuming than it looks, particularly when they contain multimedia and quotes from interviewees. It can and sometimes is as credible and thorough as the news stories you may find in traditional media platforms. This ties into the two issues stated above.
• It is not commercially viable: Marcia earns no money off Style Voyeur, and given the time, effort and resources that go into maintaining the blog, it is soon coming clear that the outcome of having a successful, competitive blog that supports her career as a stylist and vice versa is difficult to sustain. 

After lots of brainstorming and discussion, we came to the conclusion that Marcia's biggest obstacle with Style Voyeur was the fact that it was not commercially feasible. If it were, many of the struggles she's facing maintaining it would not exist. Oh, the things one can do with money! We decided it was time for her to reinvent the wheel, so we then came up with a long-term strategy to turn Style Voyeur into a commercially viable business, which I'll be sure to delve into in my report.

After all the research I've been doing into the landscape of blogging, it got me thinking about how much the internet has changed the environment brands and businesses operate in. Everything in this day and age is evolving too fast to keep track of, and in the case of blogging, there will come a time where it isn't enough to just keep up -- bloggers have to try even harder to stay ahead of the game so they don't get left behind. This concept can be adopted into many industries I imagine, especially ones as innovative as media or the arts. As digital natives and current graduates, there hasn't been a crazier, more ever-evolving time to be out in the workforce than right now.

I hope you're all enjoying your placements so far,

Nicole

Half way there with no signs of a holiday!

So, I'm 2 weeks into my placement at the Imdex  PR department and finding myself drowning in work and clutter, however as unattractive as this may sound its not all bad! I'm starting to really enjoy my experiences working with a whole team of new people (some familiar and some not so much) and planning the events and liaising with my supervisors to achieve what they are expecting of me.

Once of the main challenges I am facing at the moment is working with event organizers! In my case most of the events that Imdex goes at are trade shows, these are specialized events specifically designed for the trade or market in which the company runs business within. The challenge I am facing is trying to get these people to return my phone calls! After 3 phone calls to find out some simple information (like expected numbers to this show) I was almost about ready to give up and hand this one over to my supervisor, however finally yesterday I rang again and go through to someone that was able to help me.

I guess the lesson I learn from that one, was that when someone is not answering your emails and phone calls, KEEP TRYING! You will eventually catch them, or ask to be put through to someone else that may be able to help.

One new thing I have been doing this week is assisting with new copy write for a new website that is been developed. This has been a interesting experience for me as I have found the traditional PR that I have learnt through uni is very different. My supervisor requires much more detail that the traditional sentences written. In saying this though our brand is one of a high tech product which requires a lot of detail and is often read by people with PhD's in geology.

One of the other project I was previously working on before moving into this department and one which I have carried over with me to my placement include the development of the companies YouTube accounts and channels.
I have particularly enjoyed this as it has allowed me to be creative but also have that PR flare.

Samples of my work can be found here:

AMC: http://www.youtube.com/user/AMCDrillingFluid

Reflex: http://www.youtube.com/user/ReflexInstruments

Overall, I am very much enjoying my placement at the Imdex PR department!

Are you looking for a career in Public Relations?

My placement has shown me two key attributes that I believe are essential to pursuing a successful career in public relations. 

I have been studying public relations for almost a decade. During this time I have held positions in fields such as sales and marketing, conservation, taxation, teaching, management and administration. During my degree I have been able to apply public relations theory to each position I have held. University has taught me knowledge of the field, and the theory behind it, but some things are not learnt in the classroom.

I organised my internship with an organisation that places high value on student placements and mentoring. For confidentiality reasons I can't identify the organisation but I can tell you a bit about what I'm learning. My placement team has shown me that I've got the skills and education to pursue a career in a public relations role. They are also teaching me a bit more...... that a career in public relations requires passion and perseverance.

Passion: The first three days in my internship placement have been really rewarding. I have enjoyed using the theory from university along with the skills developed in the workforce. More importantly it has given me the confidence that a career in public relations is the right thing for me. With every job there is some give and take.

I am going home exhausted at the end of each day.

I am required to work some unusual hours.

I have to do things outside of my comfort zone.

Despite all this there is no doubt in my mind that it is all worth it. I look forward to my placement days and the challenges and experiences it brings.

Perseverance: I’ve been thrown in the deep end at work as we received unexpected grant funding allowing us to run an event at less than two weeks’ notice. My role has included producing promotional material, seeking event sponsors and writing a media release.

One of my duties was to produce a promotional poster for the event. I drafted a poster but it was not accepted as it did not comply with the organisations style guide.  My team was keen to use my poster as it was more relevant to our target audience than the sample head office had sent us. I redesigned the poster over a dozen times before finding a suitable middle ground that would be approved.

Normally this is something that would frustrate and disappoint me; however I had been talking to a co-worker in my team. Once graduating she had applied for over 160 jobs and taken over two years to get a position in her field. She was a member of professional bodies and sought assistance from the careers team at her university. Her perseverance to gain a career in her field inspired me. It allowed me to see the drawn out process of getting a poster approved as a lesson in perseverance, staying focused and remaining positive.

The Lesson: Sometimes finding a job might be hard work. It might involve unpaid internships, volunteering, multiple job applications and rejections. The challenges you come across during your internship are similar to the challenges you will face when looking for work or in your chosen career. Finding something you are passion about is a good grounding for perseverance and can help you get through whatever challenges your workplace throws at you.

I would love to hear how your internships are going. What key attributes do you see as essential to getting the most out of your placements and pursuing a career in public relations?
 

Public Relations and the Internet

In this modernised, technology oriented world, it is god for an organisation to have connection to new media, especially social media. This will benefit the organisation to monitor public opinion and understand their perceptions and expectations; therefore the organisation can improve in areas where needed.

Also, during crisis and other controversial issues, an organisation can use social media as its communication mode to reach the masses globally without boundary limits. During my internship tenure, I witnessed social media helping the organisation to communicate with its publics across boarders through social media, during crisis. This helps an organisation to respond to comments posted about them, therefore, leaving no room for speculation as they respond promptly.

Moreover, social media  is a platform to build relationships with publics especially the general public and journalists. It is place to receive information and give feedback. The organisation I was placed at had more stakeholders whom they liaised with on business ventures. Some of these stakeholders started their relationship with the organisation on social media, tweeter especially, and once they found information they required, they developed interest to do business with the organisation.

From my internship placement, I learnt that as the social media account administrator on behalf of the organisation, one ought to be professional in responding to comments. They should not personalise responses and put emotions into what is written as comments. Also,employees should understand that the organisation's social media page is not meant for internal employee relations. 

No employee should discuss office matters in the page, it is not an employee complaints page. Also, the page administrator should understand that social media page is not like the organisation's website; it should not be stacked corporate brochures, info packs, annual reports etc. The administrator should always remember to be culturally sensitive with the right use of language and understanding of the target audience.

In conclusion, social media provides PR professionals with various tools to engage with stakeholders , but it should always be used together with other options from the PR tool/kit.   

Stepping up to the task!

My first few weeks at WA Water Polo were very eye opening and interesting, especially when I initially found out that I was going to be working in a small office that comprised of only two full time staff members. I was anticipating my internship to be challenging and very stressful due to the lack of manpower in the office. Dale, the CEO and Tibor, the competition and development manager helped me to settle into the office and covered the basics that I needed to know. As there is no dedicated PR practitioner at WA Water Polo, Dale handles most of the media, communications and PR related tasks. My first few tasks at the organisation included starting from the basis. I was involved in creating a Facebook page for WA Water Polo and regularly updating the page. Also, I began to put together a draft sponsorship proposal that was to be sent to another department to be further worked upon. The most exciting task for me was working on a new edition of WA Water Polo’s newsletter, “Top Corner” that has been out of publication for a few years. It was interesting process to gather information and do write ups for the newsletter as I learnt much more about water polo, its players and how the game functions. The creation of the newsletter definitely put the skills that I learnt in PR Techniques to the test! Nonetheless, the end product was an informative newsletter with updates on scores for games and write-ups on current and future events for WA Water Polo.

As my work experience progressed, I realised that working in a small organisation with only 2 full time staff members is challenging and exciting at the same time. The main advantage is that staff members handle every aspect of running the place by themselves. However, this also poses several problems as, at times, the work load may be too much to handle and the staff members are required to complete several different tasks at one go, including areas out of their expertise. As such, often, additional volunteers are brought in to help out with certain tasks. Comparing my experience to other bigger organisations that I have interned with, I realised the main differences in how they operate and how workload is handled and divided. This made me anticipate and prepare for my upcoming tasks at WA Water Polo.

Communicating Around The Globe

Throughout my studies at university I have had many units that cover the topic of cultural differences and some of the challenges of working with organisations worldwide. I recently learnt the truth to this in my internship.

For my internship I have been involved in writing emails, using social media, and posting mail to international organisation members. These are the organisations that operate within Confederation of Meningitis Organisation (CoMO) around the globe.

I have found that social media is an effective tool for communicating worldwide because it is fast compared to mailing a letter in the post. However posting to social media on a global scale can have its challenges. Time differences are something I learnt about in units throughout my degree. When this challenge became a reality it truly was difficult working out what time would be most effective worldwide. Another challenge is that some places around the world do not have the accessibility or knowledge about social media which made things a bit tricky.

When it came to sending packages/mail in the post this proved to be another challenge. I found that time was a big constraint when sending mail around the world. When you only have a few days to get something across the world you therefore need to use express post which can be expensive, especially if you are sending parcels to many places around the world and you are a non-for-profit. I found it also difficult when writing the mailing address onto the packages as many places addresses are different to us here in Perth, WA. Did you know some places postcodes are more than 4 digitis and some do not have postcodes.

Writing emails to organisation members around the world proved to be interesting. I had learnt at university that languages can be a barrier when communicating to someone who speaks a different language. So when I had to write an email to someone who spoke a different language to English I had to use Google translate. This tool is not the best at grammar and based on email responses that had been through Google translate on their end I found often the email did not make sense, and therefore I am sure neither did mine to some extent. When I would send the email I would be sure to put the translated version at the top and then the English version below so I could CC anyone into the email that needed to be, and it would make it easier for them to read rather than again going back to Google translate.

I have learnt a lot about communicating worldwide throughout my time at my internship. It has been a fantastic learning opportunity. All the cultural barriers I had learnt at university where now put into practice.

-Alyce

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

 

First Week of Being a 'Socialite'

From the moment, I stepped into the office, the sound of me opening the door echoed the whole office; which made everyone turned around and looked at me. Walking into a new environment for an organisation is always daunting. However, any fears I’ve had and thought about of what Anthony Robbins has said about fears, I felt completely at ease as soon as I met Julian Amistad, the campaign manager. Julian had me set up with a desk sitting along with him and other campaign managers. Also, I had to set up new work e-mail along with my second Facebook account in order for me to look after the Socialite Media’s clients. 

The first task Julian has asked me to do was to know and understand the different clients that are partnering with Socialite Media. He mentioned to me that each clients experience services from Socialite Media under one of the following areas; social media advice, brand campaign management, training and education or short tern campaign management, and crisis management.

One of the client’s I had to learn was from a mining industry to Photography agency to Car Sales Company to restaurants, accommodations, and job consulting; which I felt exhausted, overwhelmed and challenging. Not only did I had to learn each of the client’s backgrounds, but I also had to know who are their stakeholders, who are their competitors, and opportunities that Socialite Media can provide for their business strategy plan for each of the clients.

However, I didn’t feel discourage and I told myself that it’s only the first week and it does get better. Someone once told me that if you feel under pressure and overwhelmed on the first week that you are on the verge of insomnia is a good sign, because it means you are actually learning from the organisation and learning what is like to be an employer’s shoes.

Lastly, I had to find various content for different clients and as well for the Socialite Media Facebook Page. One of the challenges I faced was tailoring content specifically to the page’s target market, as well as finding content that “likers” of the page responded well to and engaged with. Doing for one client at a time it’s easy, but doing for three to four clients in two hours max felt overwhelming in the beginning, but Julian has taught me that in by few weeks or few months depend how quickly I will learn will get much easier.

To sum it up, the first week was a challenging week; which made me grow and learn as a person and learn the areas of what I can do to improve myself for Socialite Media and what I can do for their clients. 

Blog References:  

• Diago Franco, E. (Photographer). (2013, January 29). My work Desk [Print Photo]. Retrieved from http://instagram.com/p/VJQq2NJmpD/

PR Placement – The Entrance of My Career Journey

They say all things have a tough start. Hunting for a suitable public relations (PR) placement was such a challenging task of the year. Time was going by fast, I had only got two weeks to submit the Placement Approval Form in order to continue the unit. I went through all the available resources – BlackBoard, Seek, Grad-Connection, Career One and more searching for job vacancies; spend all my spare times sending out resumes to employee seekers, and even to organisations that were not hiring just to approach for an intern position. 

It was a great learning opportunity. Through this process I have reviewed how to write effective cover letters, resume and follow-up emails. I researched every oganisation carefully before I approach to them, sent out relevant documents outlining strengths and what I can contribute to help to achieve their organization goals. Although the un-replied and rejected emails have brought me down; I was fear that I might not be able graduate in June, but I kept trying.

The good news have finally came. Two non-for-profit organizations have scheduled me for an interview to further review my qualifications. There were no words could describe how excited I was.

Momentum Forum Events is a non-for-profit organization, providing corporate and social networking through its signature annual charity events include Internaitonal Woman’s Day in support of women’s rights; Men in Black Ball in support of men’s mental health; and Pink Ribbon Ball supporting breast cancer. The founder Barbara McNaught is such an admirable woman who was a former Polish actress with a law degree and ability of speaking five languages.

Western Australian Water Polo Inc (WAWPI) on the other hand is the peak body for the sport in Western Australia. It runs professional water polo competitions and supports the teams and clubs. The Chief Executive Officer, Dale Ballantyne, is a very nice and enthusiastic leader.

Although Momentum seemed more appealing I decided to go for two, so I will have a back-up. Due to I have very limited experience working in the field (the only relevant experience I had was volunteering as an event assistant for ‘Unwrapped Marketplace’ last Christmas) I brought along my recent assignments into the interviews; after considering the relevance I decided to take the Media Placement Strategy, Media Release and Public Relations Plan that I have conducted for the previous PR units. Both interviewers were extremely impressed by my assignments and offered me an intern position, they also offered an immediate start and asked me to produced similar documents for their projects.

Initially I was going to take both placements offers but after carefully consideration, it was not a good idea to stretch myself too thin, I had to withdraw my offer with WAWPI – what a pity. 

That was how I began my PR internship journey. Success key is to be confident and honest; know your interviewers and their organization; and most importantly show them all your capabilities that are suited for their expectations. I treasure this opportunity and felt valued, now the door has opened for me and I am ready to work hard for the coming challenges. 

PR Placement – The Entrance of My Career Journey

They say all things have a tough start. Hunting for a suitable public relations (PR) placement was such a challenging task of the year. Time was going by fast, I had only got two weeks to submit the Placement Approval Form in order to continue the unit. I went through all the available resources – BlackBoard, Seek, Grad-Connection, Career One and more searching for job vacancies; spend all my spare times sending out resumes to employee seekers, and even to organisations that were not hiring just to approach for an intern position. 

It was a great learning opportunity. Through this process I have reviewed how to write effective cover letters, resume and follow-up emails. I researched every oganisation carefully before I approach to them, sent out relevant documents outlining strengths and what I can contribute to help to achieve their organization goals. Although the un-replied and rejected emails have brought me down; I was fear that I might not be able graduate in June, but I kept trying.

The good news have finally came. Two non-for-profit organizations have scheduled me for an interview to further review my qualifications. There were no words could describe how excited I was.

Momentum Forum Events is a non-for-profit organization, providing corporate and social networking through its signature annual charity events include International Woman’s Day in support of women’s rights; Men in Black Ball in support of men’s mental health; and Pink Ribbon Ball supporting breast cancer. The founder Barbara McNaught is such an admirable woman who was a former Polish actress with a law degree and ability of speaking five languages.

Western Australian Water Polo Inc (WAWPI) on the other hand is the peak body for the sport in Western Australia. It runs professional water polo competitions and supports the teams and clubs. The Chief Executive Officer, Dale Ballantyne, is a very nice and enthusiastic leader. 

Although Momentum was more appealing I decided to go for two, so I will have a back-up. Due to I have very limited experience working in the field (the only relevant experience I had was volunteering as an event assistant for ‘Unwrapped Marketplace’ last Christmas) I brought along my recent assignments into the interviews; after considering the relevance I decided to take the Media Placement Strategy, Media Release and Public Relations Plan that I have conducted for the previous PR units. Both interviewers were extremely impressed by my assignments and offered me an intern position, they also offered an immediate start and asked me to produced similar documents for their projects.

Initially I was going to take both placements offers but after carefully consideration, it was not a good idea to stretch myself too thin, I had to withdraw my offer with WAWPI – what a pity. 

That was how I began my PR internship journey. Success key is to be confident and honest; know your interviewers and their organization; and most importantly show them all your capabilities that are suited for their expectations. I treasure this opportunity and felt valued, now the door has opened for me and I am ready to work hard for the coming challenges.