From office to on-location... all in a days work

Hello everyone,

This post is a little out of sync because for some reason the draft did not save!
Today I wanted to talk about the days where I would work on-location and then return to the office to complete things of vice versa.

It's an interesting feeling arriving in city early, before everything is open and people have started moving.
On one occasion we were in Central Park for a conference on Homelessness Prevention Week. It was a morning convention and it meant setting up and providing morning tea for attendees (including Lord Major Lisa Scaffidi), laying out name tags, setting up flyers and banners and making sure there were microphones and other IT prepared and ready to go.
Once the conference was over we packed down and headed back to the office to de-brief and finish up tasks just like a normal day. It's disorientating when you go from a fast paced morning to a slow afternoon.
But I think this was one of my favourite things about working in events. It meant days got mixed up and changed around and not every day was the same.

Did anyone else have this experience?
Did you enjoy being on-location?

Bridgette

From 367 pairs of jeans to a 630am start full of raw treats...never a dull moment!

A BTS photo taken by myself of the raw goodies made for the Channel 9 segment

I have now officially been at my internship with Detail for 6 weeks. Not too sure where the time has gone but I am happy to say that it has been a wonderful experience thus far. I am assigned to one project, the Garage Sale Trail. A fantastic, not-for-profit event that occurs simultaneously across Australia. The aim of Garage Sale Trail is to encourage reuse, recycling while having fun, socialising and meeting the neighbours. This year, the event occurs on Saturday 24th October and the Detail team are assigned as the WA PR Team as well as overseeing all other state PR's and looking after media and PR opportunities on a national scale.

I have been assisting with a variety of public relations strategies and tools for the Garage Sale Trail event, and we recently worked on a pitch to the Community Newspaper Group in relation to a story on factoids about reusing and recycling. The factoid related to the recycling of jeans, being: if people recycled 367 pairs of jeans rather than throwing them out, it would effectively save enough water to fill an Olympic swimming pool. My Account Manager had the idea of creating a story around the factoid, involving a Garage Sale Trail ambassador, the Waste Authority WA Chairman, an Olympic sized swimming pool and 367 pairs of jeans. Community Newspaper loved the idea and we were set to run the story. We had locked in Beatty Park for the use of their swimming pool, as well as the Waste Authority Chairman and our ambassador, however the challenge was in sourcing 367 pairs of jeans for the photo opportunity. We approached a variety of op-shops in Fremantle, all who were willing to help but did not have a large enough capacity of jeans to assist us. 5pm the day before the shoot, we managed to get Good Sammy's head office on board. It was then my task to go to Good Sammy's the following morning, bag up 367 pairs of jeans, fit said jeans into my Yaris and transport them to the shoot at Beatty Park. Safe to say that was my exercise for the day! We had a beautiful day and the shot ended up looking great, definitely proving it is worth the extra effort and persistence to make for a great story and piece of publicity for the client. To view the final article, click the link below:

http://www.communitynews.com.au/news/Garage-Sale-Trail-open-for-business/7673885

Two days later, we had a media opportunity for a client with the Today Show for Perth Channel 9. This involved being at the location at 6:30am for a 7am live filming start. The client was re-branding and also launching a new product - a Vitamix. Our story involved a lady by the name of Chriswho runs her own raw, health food company 'RawbyChris'. Chris uses the vitamix to make delicious raw treats, so she was the perfect ambassador for the launch of the new Vitamix. While it was an early start, I managed to snap a great pic for Instagram and had way too many raw treats for breakfast (albeit healthy so it makes it okay)! Getting a first hand encounter of behind the scenes of a live TV cross was a fantastic experience and certainly gave me an insight into the many different hats a PR practitioner is required to wear!

Improving The World Through CSR

Corporate Social Responsibility

I have discovered that Corporate Social Responsibility interests and fascinates me. Through incorporating activities and elements benefiting society, I feel I’m giving back to the community and the environment.

More and more companies are incorporating CSR into their business, as well as creating social responsibility webpages to showcase their morality. Large organisations involving themselves in activities and programs purely for the benefit of the environment and the wider community are the organisations that will develop long-term reputational and financial success.

On week three of my internship experience, I was invited to attend an important interview between an influential client and the owner of a Malaysian youth magazine. Our client was the managing director of Brickfield’s Asia College, a critically successful establishment involved in many projects and developments that benefit the disadvantaged, as well as the wider community.

The interview concerned a funding project called ‘EduNation’ where free online tuition is provided to Malaysian students. BAC is attempting to further develop the project to an international scale, for all age’s groups and children wanting to learn more. It was fascinating listening to the goodwill of BAC’s managing director.

He spoke with a general concern for the disadvantaged and less fortunate. This man explained current business initiatives of his college, such as giving scholarships to those who couldn’t afford education, projects empowering women, communicating with the ministry to allow refugees to sit examinations, and many more volunteer projects for students at the college.

The inspiring interview led the magazine director to actually request future collaborations on similar projects, as the two discovered their similar interests for their community.

The wider benefit for the environment is endless when large organisations begin to immerse themselves in sustainability. CSR allows people to come together to establish meaningful connections, improve the environment and help the less fortunate. As well as individually making the world a better place, large corporations can create a world of change through collaborating on CSR projects to improve the world we live in.

Organisation 101

Today my internship officially ended (queue loud chorus of cheers) and for my final blog I’d like to share some tips on one of the most important lessons I learnt over the past three months.

Here goes!

'BE ORGANISED. BE, BE ORGANISED'

Moment of truth, I’m terribly unorganised. Give me a filing cabinet and I’ll destroy it in about five minutes. Give me an assignment and I can guarantee I’ll be doing the final edit just minutes before it’s due. In saying all that, I learnt very, very quickly that organisation is absolutely imperative in a PR department. At first it was daunting, but by the end of the internship the word deadline didn’t terrify me quite so much – in fact I even completed some tasks early! I can definitely say I came a long way in developing time management and organisational skills under the guidance of my Activ supervisor, and I know those are skills that are crucial in future employment.

So, what organisational tips do I have for future students doing their PR internship?

1.       Have a diary - and use it! Keeping a consistent track of meetings, deadlines, and projects means that you will never be caught by surprise and stuck doing something last minute. Trust me, one week of using a diary and you’ll be ready to buy it a BFF necklace.

2.        Don’t sleep in – ever! It may seem tempting to press snooze for that extra ten minutes (or hour) but rushing around because you’re running late is just a recipe for disaster.  Beginning your day stressed has this terrible knock on effect to the rest of the day where it sets you up for failure before you’ve even left the house.

3.       As soon as you complete a project, file it properly. At the end of the semester you’re going to have to compile a portfolio of all the fantastic, wonderful work you’ve done and it would totally suck if you forgot about something or – even worse – couldn’t find it.

4.       Pack everything you need for your internship the night before. I know, I know; I sound like your Mum. But trust me, going back to your Primary School days and packing your ‘backpack’ the night before will save you the embarrassment of forgetting an important document or project (or, worse still, your lunch).

5.       Make a list at the beginning of your workday about everything you need to achieve and tick them off one-by-one. Seriously, nothing is more satisfying than finishing up and looking at a list of crossed-off tasks. Plus, it means you haven’t missed doing something important. Double score!

Well, that's everything from me. I had a blast during my internship and I hope everyone else did too! To anyone reading this, best of luck for the future. We're all in this exciting adventure together. 

An invaluable experience

Before I started my internship, I was positive I wanted to work in-house PR. However, after my time at Go Communications in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia I have learned some important lessons about effective public relations, and I will definitely consider working in a consultancy when I graduate. 

Some things I learned from my internship in Kuala Lumpur;

1. Team work - Throughout my degree, almost every unit has included some kind of group work. I saw first hand the benefits this could have when at the Go Communications office, where my team often brainstormed ideas at lunch or called a team meeting to discuss ideas for a client or upcoming event. The reason this worked so well, was because in these meetings everyone was given an equal say, and everyone’s ideas were considered. PR is often about engaging with a large audience, so interacting with your team - who all have different views - will help you achieve this.

Image - Fradley Croft

2 - Thinking outside the box - One event required my team to get creative for a Halloween-theme launch. This taught me how to bring a little fun into public relations work.

Image - Growing Up With A Disability

3 - Don’t get overprotective of your work - I had more than one idea knocked back during my internship, and this helped me view my work impartially, and edit it without restraint. I think we all get a bit overprotective of our ideas and work, especially when we put a lot of time and effort into it. But to be an effective PR practitioner, I understood sometimes it’s better to step away and try something new sometimes.

Image - Libelty SEO

4 - Think about how your message could be received by a range of people - I think growing up in Australia I have a relatively good idea about how people might interpret a message. For example, when watching the news, I can see a headline and predict how a number of people will respond to it. I now know I definitely took this knowledge for granted, because interning in a different country, I understand you must thoroughly research the cultural values of an audience.

5 - Take advantage of your seniors - As I learned writing my first press release, even though you've done it countless times at university, doesn't mean you know everything. Ask your supervisors any questions you have (It's better to ask too much than make the mistake). They know so much more than you do, and they can help guide you in the right direction. 

Image - Muhsin budiono

6. Don't take tasks for granted - Not everything you're given is glamorous or a hard-hitting press release. That doesn't mean it's not equally as important, you can still take important lessons away from it. And if you do it well, it proves your commitment to the job. 

 Image - The Office, NBC

Image - Smshamma

 

7. Good Attitude - I can't stress enough how important it is to have a positive attitude to everything you do. This relates somewhat to the 6th point, but if you have a good attitude it will not only make the task easier, but it shows in the quality of your work. 

Image - Positively Present

And now I'm back in Perth, and it's almost time to start looking for jobs. I worked with some fantastic people at Go Communications, and I have a wide range of work to add to my portfolio. My internship has not only further honed my writing and communication skills, but it has allowed me to broaden my understanding of PR and how it relates to different countries and cultures. I would highly recommend future students to consider interning overseas. 

Whitney Slater

Curtin Bentley 

It's your values that stand out

Interning in a consultancy, I have had the opportunity to work on a range of projects with different clients. 

One client was a cosmetic surgery company, where I was asked to come up with an idea similar to the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. This was a campaign to challenge 'beauty stereotypes' and give women more confidence and self esteem. Women are one of Dove's key stakeholders, so they have positioned themselves as an advocate for women and women's issues - with a genuine interest in customers' and stakeholders' wellbeing. 

Photo - Kendra McGowan - Dove Real Beauty, PR in Practice 

Building community relationships should be a priority for any organisation, but it can be more complicated when the organisation deals in sensitive issues - such as the cosmetic surgery company. The basis behind this is to put your name behind a solid idea or conversation, which firstly benefits the community, and benefits for the organisation come later. This comes under the category of Corporate Social Responsibility - a topic I have come across countless times in my studies. Paul Portney defines it as:

"A consistent pattern, at the very least, of private firms doing more than they are required to do under applicable laws and regulations governing the environment, worker safety and health, and investments in the communities in which they operate," - The Not So New Corporate Social Responsibility: An Empirical Perspective. 2008. Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 2008, Vol. 2(2), pp.261-275). 

My objective for this task was to;

• Define key stakeholders
• Work out what issues these stakeholders are facing
• Work out how to address these issues

I came up with two campaign ideas for the client - both centred around improving life for women in Malaysia. The actions called for in the [proposed] campaigns did not immediately benefit the client in any way - the only benefits they would get was from putting their name behind the cause. I also recommended using local celebrities and well known advocates on the issues to lend authority and publicity to the campaigns. 

Photo - Essential Kids

I based this approach on the BHP Billiton Iron Ore & West Coast Eagles partnership, where BHP funded a number of campaigns including 'Kicking Goals,' and 'Eagles Rock My School.' These engagements show BHP's commitment to supporting the communities they operate in (Giving West, WA Corporate Giving Index. December 2013). By engaging West Coast - who have a strong public profile and community ties - the campaign was better received and had more impact. And the benefits for BHP were that they built stronger ties with key stakeholders, allowing them to operate more efficiently and effectively. 

Photo - Giving West 2013

While I am not sure if either of these campaign ideas will go ahead, it gave me an invaluable opportunity to understand how to implement effective community relations. This brings me to an important point about CSR. Did you know a study by Reputation Institute shows your, "...willingness to buy, recommend, work for, and invest in a company is driven 60% by your perceptions of the company - or it's reputation, and only 40% by your perceptions of the products or services it sells," (Forbes). 

However I think it is important to note good CSR and PR strategies don't cover up bad business ethics. Freeman, Velamuri and Moriarty point out:

"Corporate social responsibility is often about seeming to “do good works.” And, while there is certainly nothing wrong with doing more good, there can be an implication that companies need 

to do good works because the underlying structure of business is not good, or morally neutral. This is a destructive idea—it fails to recognize the central role business plays globally in improving the 

well-being and prosperity of hundreds  of millions of people. And, it can cause companies to act in bad faith and get involved in matters where they have little expertise," Company Stakeholder Responsibility. 

Until next time, 

Whitney Slater

Curtin Bentley 

A fresh pair of eyes

Starting a new job is always incredibly daunting, especially when you’re in a different country and you don’t have much knowledge to fall back on. In my second week in, I was asked to seek out an appropriate venue for a media event, I was stumped. I wanted to find a unique venue, but I also had financial restrictions along with space, catering, and visual requirements to fulfil.

I wanted a venue which was more than your standard hotel events room:

• Where guests had space to move around (while still being close to the city, otherwise attendance would fall) 
• Different events of the day (catering, meeting area, greeting area) could be separately set up to save time and maintain a professional and organised image. 
• Room for media to interview guests away from the noise of the event

When I first got the task, I felt completely bewildered. I hadn’t seen much of Kuala Lumpur yet, and my research was hampered by language barriers (Google Translate can come up with some strange interpretations) and my own lack of experience in event management. 

However, I eventually started to use my lack of Malaysia-experience to my advantage. Not being a local, I was open to researching venues some may not consider. This led me to discovering a fantastic venue at the Bird Park - usually a tourist destination. 

Turns out, there was an ideal meeting room which met all the requirements, and as a bonus it had a great visual element to lend itself to photographs and an overall relaxed atmosphere.

Kuala Lumpur Bird Park

A few lessons I learned from this events experience:

• Research facilities - It is so important, especially in a big city, to ensure guests can easily get to the venue, there's ample parking, and furniture availability (in this case many tables were required in a specific set-up). 
• Catering - Does the venue allow outside catering, or can they provide it? How will catering work with the venue? E.g will the room be too small, making it awkward?
• Financials - don't let costs get out of hand. A few places I looked at had reasonable starting prices, then costs grew out of hand when other factors are considered (may charge for extra furniture, cleaning costs). 
• Look at reviews - If you can find them, it's good to get someone else's opinion. Sometimes a location looks great until you hear others experiences. 
• Time - research what else is happening on the day and time of your event. Is it school holidays, or a public holiday? Will traffic be bad? What will the weather be like? 
• Photo opportunities - Photo's make a story! It will make it more likely to be published a resonates more strongly with the audience. As this article explains, having good photos should not be underestimated. 

Adding a photo to your tweet makes it more effective 

Some more tips on basic event planning I found to be useful are here.

Until next time,

Whitney Slater

Curtin Bentley 

Building a brand blueprint

During my internship I had the good fortune to sit in on a meeting that was to decide the blueprint of one of the company's brand. My company is a cosmetics and jewellery company and is undergoing some big changes to its branding.

Our Vice President of Jewellery, Perfumes And Cosmetics was leading these changes and had experience leading brand blueprint workshops, so she facilitated the process as the PR, communications and creative people contributed. The objective was to make a comprehensive brand blueprint document that would inform PR activities, but also marketing, creative design, product design, even how it would be sold.

We started with more standard business terms such as what the vision, values and positioning of the product were. But then we started knuckling down to discuss the belief behind the product, or what it's essence or promise was. 

 

It all sounds a little silly, thinking about how a brand sounds, what it says, what its soul is. 

 

What surprised me was how useful such a process was. I had a much better idea of how to write and communicate the brand once I had a better understanding of what it was. 

 

But this was high level stuff. Planning a brand and how to communicate is something I likely wouldn't touch until much later in my career. Strategic PR as opposed to the technical daily grind of media releases and social media writing. 

It was also a shared process, with key people involved in the communication of the product working together. I think part of the problem with promoting a business or a product is that people have very different ideas about what it is and how it should be done. Sitting down from day one and planning this out will likely help lots with this problem.

 

Ultimately, walking out from that meeting I had a much better understanding of what the new spa range was and what it meant for the business. This would let me communicate the product to people better in future and plan PR activities around the product. I think this will result in a much stronger communications strategy overall.

My top three social media tips

I’ve spent a lot of time on social media throughout my internship. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter… you name it, I probably did it! Here’s some tips I picked up that might help you execute a social media strategy. 

 

Be a consistent poster

Social media is not a static tool, it’s something you need to update regularly. I updated each platform once every two days to keep content fresh and different each time a person sees it. I also started a post series called “Pearl Tip Tuesday” and each Tuesday a new tip about pearls and their care is posted. I thought this would be a good way to get a sense of regularity and get people looking back through older posts. It’s been a good strategy so far, and will likely become a great tactic to keep in mind. 

 

A picture says a thousand words

Did you know that including a picture in a Facebook post increases engagement (likes, comments, shares) by 39 per cent*? I was lucky at my company to have a big bank of beautiful photos to use in social media. Almost all of my posts had a picture attached as well, which makes the social media profile much more interesting and varied. If a posts pops up in someone’s newsfeed as well they’re much more likely to look at it if there’s an interesting picture as well. 

 

Prepare in advance

Although social media has an advantage in being current and great for news updates, it’s really time consuming to post every day and it will often get pushed by the wayside when there’s other more pressing tasks. As such, I used Hootsuite to schedule posts to the company’s Twitter profile and Facebook’s scheduling feature to save time down the track. I ended up scheduling three months of posts in one sitting, which was a much more efficient way of doing things. We also posted more recent content from events and media as they happened, to make sure the page also had a sense of currency. It was a good strategy overall.

Do you have any social media secrets? Please feel free to share in the comments.

*7 Powerful Facebook Statistics You Should Know About: http://www.fastcompany.com/3022301/work-smart/7-powerful-facebook-statistics-you-should-know-about

Media Pitch - Scored!

This should most probably be my last post on this blog.

To end it off, I'm gonna post my best (by far) working experience at Ogilvy PR.

I was kind of rambling on about my love-hate relationship with media calls in my previous post. This time round, I got to do a little more than media call downs.

This week, half of my team were on leave. With that, my supervisor and I had to take on some of their job scope, one of which includes media pitching for a client. Although they may sound the same, the difference between media call downs and media pitching was quite big for me. When I did media call downs, all I had to do was to confirm if the media had received the email sent to them earlier.

My supervisor gave me the task to draft the email pitch for the media. Just when I thought the pitch was over, she told me to do the pitch calls for media. You could say I turned blue in the face almost immediately. I think at that point of time, only thing that was running through my head was, "What if I screwed this up?" It was a really important pitch.

So, practice makes perfect. My supervisor got me to draft out what I would say to the media on the phone and had me practice the pitch with her quite a number of times. With much encouragement and practice, I dare say I delivered the media pitching quite well.

Then came the email from a television broadcast station saying they were interesting in interviewing our client for their news program. Boy was I elated!

Okay, to cut the long story short, I became the media liaison between the client and the broadcast station, which was quite an experience for me.

Where does school comes into place in this situation? Media relations 250 definitely!

Apart from learning the importance of maintaining a relationship with the media, what else came in handy was the lessons from the interview assignment where we had to prepare an interview brief for the client as well as the "Do's and Don'ts" during an interview.

The client was invited to do a live television interview and my supervisor had to prepare the briefing documents for him and was asking around for some "Do's and Don'ts". Luckily for her,  I still had some notes from the lesson and could share it with her.

The 4 key things to note during an interview are:




1. Make the Point you want to make
2. Back that point up with a Reason
3. Provide an Example to illustrate your point
4. Restate your main Point again to make it really clear

A very great reminder!

And with that, this post marks the last entry of my PR393 Reflective Blog for internship at Ogilvy PR. The past two months has been eventful, and I hope the blog posts has been insightful and helpful to all of you!

Have an awesome internship everyone!

6 Tips for Getting the Most out of Your Internship

During my two internships there are things I did that worked to my advantage and things I wish I had done differently. Below are my tips to ensuring you get the most out of your internship.

1.   Triple check your work

No matter how small or insignificant the task may seem, always take the time to ensure you have completed the task correctly. Check your grammar is correct and that you have finalized the task to the standard requested.

When you are doing the same task over and over it is easy to slip up and make a typo. It might not seem like a big deal. However if you pass this work to your boss who picks up the mistake (or worse, the client) you are unlikely to be trusted with jobs with bigger tasks.

At the end of the day the work you output is a reflection of you and your professional standards.

2.   Complete the small tasks with a good attitude

I am not going to lie, there were times during my internships where I was completing a task thinking ‘three years of my life and $30,000 on a degree has lead to me spending half a day scanning documents’. It is frustrating, but at the end of the day you are an intern. You are going to be given the tasks that no one else wants to do.

My advice is to try and learn as much as you can from that task. Even if it is just scanning, get to know the documents you’re scanning, learn from them. Do these tasks fast and to a high standard. Only then will you be trusted to take on jobs that require more responsibility. No one is going to let the intern who can’t even scan a document strait write a media release.

3.   The answer is yes

You might just be lucky enough to be given a task that is challenging or even scary, that think you are incapable of completing. Never decline such an offer. You have been allocated the task because your supervisor believes in you. You should too. 

Don’t think about the worst that could happen. It is more than likely that you will do a fantastic job and impress everyone, including yourself.

4.   Dress for the job you want not the job you have

You might be surprised at the opportunities that can present them self if you are dressed like a corporate professional. If you have read my previous blogs you will know I attended a press conference during my internship. My job was media registration. With the knowledge that I would be meeting the client I dressed as professionally as my wardrobe would allow me. 

I ended up being asked to MC the press conference. I spoke to 30 media from Malaysia’s most successful media outlets. I have no doubt that I would not have been asked to MC if I was not dressed corporate.

See my blog post ‘From intern to press conference MC’ for more information on this story.

5.   It’s not what you know, it’s who you know

Networking has been absolutely hammered into us throughout university. Yet still I just cannot stress how important simply knowing the right person can be. Meeting one individual can change the way your career progresses.

When I start a new job, particularly an internship, I do my best to talk to everyone. Better yet, make a good impression on them. Chat to the person in front of you in the down stairs café, strike up a conversation with the lady heating up her lunch in the kitchen, pick up the pen the guy dropped because his hands were full of files. You just never know where that conversation might lead you.

6.   Talk to your supervisor about what you want to experience

A simple conversation might be the difference between you getting little out of your internship and getting the rewarding experience you want. Tell your supervisor what you want to be exposed to during the internship. Whether it is writing a media release, a story for the intranet, organising an event or interviewing people. At the end of the day if you don’t tell them they won’t know. 

Communication with your supervisor is just an important as any other form of communication, and I know you are great at communication, after all you are about to get a degree in it.

My internships at GO Communications and the Public Transport Authority have taught me a lot about Public Relations in the real word. I even learnt a thing or two about myself. 

Good luck to you all.

Whitney

Butler Station Opens

Since the beginning of my internship at the Public Transport Authority I have been planning the opening of the Butler train station.

It was my role to organise most of aspects of the event, from organising the plaque, the ribbon to cut, the community involvement, completing the run sheet, to writing promotional material in the lead up to the event.

While my boss did the very important tasks such as writing speeches for the Premier and managing media, the planning was very much left as my responsibility. 

A week prior to the event everything was on track for a perfect event. The weather was to be 28 degrees and sunny with minimal wind. Until three days prior when a storm began to develop. It was to hit at 10:00am on 21 September, which coincidentally was the start time of our event.

Contingency plans swung into action. Many of our plans had to be cancelled or changed. Being a train station we had very little room inside. Enough room for the guests, but not enough for community activities. Due to the weather two community activities had to be cancelled. The remaining groups soldiered on but struggled to proceed in the rain.

Despite the poor weather the official proceedings went ahead perfectly. The Premier Colin Barnett and Transport Minister Dean Nalder both gave fantastic motivational speeches to all that were present. The guests then made their way down to the platform and rode the very first train from Butler Station.

Click here to see Channel Nine’s coverage of the event.

If you pause this video at 11 seconds you’ll see me in my two seconds of fame on the right side of the screen in a bright orange t-shirt.

It very was satisfying to see a project I had built up from the ground successfully come together.

Whitney

Media call downs - a love-hate relationship

This is how I feel when someone rude picks up my call.

One of the things I've done as an intern is media call downs. What is that? It's basically making follow up calls to the respective media from the client's media list, checking whether they have received a media invite/release and if they are interested in covering it. The media list usually consists of publications, trade publications, broadcast, online publications and bloggers.

Don't get me wrong. I actually do enjoy doing media call downs, because it means talking on the phone, and having the chance to get better each time. But there are the times when you face nasty people who snap and hang up the moment you mention where you are from.

I do most media call down for the same clients, as such, I would always make calls to the same few media. I think there might come a point where they start taking note of the number I used to call, and even my name. To this point, I realise that this comes under part of "forming a relationship" with the media. Yes, despite the nasty media I faced, there are a few media that I love speaking to and approaching. And when they hear my name, you could almost hear and "Oooh, hi it's you again" in their voice.

Having said all these, there are a few learn tips that I've got out from my media call sessions.

1. Be a goldfish

Don't take the nastiness from the media too much at heart. It builds a wall when you have to make a call to them again. So what I've learn is to have a goldfish memory towards their nastiness and pretend nothing happened the next time I have to call them again. However, this does not apply to remembering what some of the media requirements, which brings me to my next point.

2. Having a relevant media list
After many years of doing media lists for multiple school projects, I finally understood the importance of having a relevant media list. As PR officers, we love to have as many media cover our press releases/events. But the best way to get the most coverage is to pitch it to the most relevant media who might have the highest chance of saying yes. And this is to remember and noting down what preference the media has mentioned during the calls. By pitching it to the relevant media, not only does it save the media's time, it also saves our time and effort to reach out to media who would most probably say no.

3. Knowing what you're pitching
I remember when I first started doing my call down duties, I just called to check with the media if they had received the email sent. And that's it. It was only later a senior colleague came over to tell me that I had to sound more excited to excite the media, and also to explain details of the press release/email sent out to help the media because some of them might not have the time to look at it. I think it was then when I realised it was important to understand the content of the releases before starting a media call down. By knowing the content, I could better explain the event and direct more information to the media if they needed any.

This concludes my love-hate relationship with media call downs. Stay tuned for more updates! :)

All about my team - Impact

Right before starting PR393, I had taken the module PR Corporate 360. I have to say I never saw the relevance of that module until I started interning under my team - Impact. 

Here's just a brief overview of what the PR department at Ogilvy looks like. Ogivly PR consists of 8 teams: Engage, Pulse, Brand Marketing, Technology, Common Health, Social@Ogilvy, Corporate & Finance, and Impact. 

Each team handles a different aspect of PR.

Engage - motivate and assist consumers and other stakeholders adopt socially-beneficial behaviors that are good for individuals, good for society, and good for business.

Pulse - Consumer goods

Technology - migrates online, tech pages in major business media outlets are shrinking and new influencers are being recognized in bloggers and podcasters.

Brand marketing - connect with brands that engage through authenticit, purpose, relevance and a bit of fun!

CommonHealth - pharmaceutical and biotech arena

Social - integrated social solutions that combine deep disciplines like CRM, public relations and shopper marketing and rooted in what drives behavior.

Corporate & Finance - helps corporate clients achieve their business goals 

Impact - employee engagement and change management

My team is the smallest team in the PR department. Other than myself, there are three other people - Michelle, the team's director, Valerie, my supervisor, and Vanessa. 

So, what gave the 'Euraka' moment of relevance of the module taught in school? I've always thought PR was very much limited to media relations, B2B and B2C strategic planning. One of the topic taught during class was 'Change Management'. It pretty much talked about how leaders' role are important in Merger and Acquisitions (M&A), and the impact they have on corporate reputation and corporate culture. To that end, I just brushed it off as any other topics that have been taught in any other PR classes. 

Little did I realised how the knowledge would be relevant to what Impact does. While most PR practices focus on external communications, Impact handles a lot of internal communication towards corporations' employees especially during M&As. 

Unlike most strategic planning, the clients undergoing M&A require a lot of in-depth primary research work that include blueprint workshops, focus groups, online surveys, one-to-one interviews with key leaders.

I had the privilege of putting together survey findings and transcribing some interviews for a client who is undergoing merger. Honestly, listening to an hour-half recording can get really dry, but after awhile, I could hear some repeating issues and messages from the recordings. Some of the key takeaways I had were:

• Leadership has to be aligned during M&A to reduce uncertainty and distrust of employees
• Leadership of the various department do not necessary have the same feelings towards corporate issues
• Consistency of communications can become limited by technology
• Different hierarchy of employees have different point of view of what a corporate brand is
• Combination of different corporate culture can be a challenging task
• Mergers do not happen over night; it could take many years to change the mindset of employees and keep them aligned
• Employees look up to the action of their leaders and expect leaders to walk-the-talk

I have to say it is really cool to see how what has been taught in school become a "real" experience during internship. It does prove that as redundant as a topic may seem in school, you never know when it might jump back at you and become helpful.  

Inspiring & embarrassing moments at work!

In my last post, I mentioned about letting my Communications Officer know that I would be working for five days during the tuition free week.

It barely felt like I even a chance to rest during that week! It was hectic and obviously I suffered a lack of sleep, making it almost seem like it was already the end of semester where all students experience sleep deprivation because that's when all major assignments are due. 

Can't say I regretted working for the entire week even though I struggled on Saturday and Sunday to complete three assignments due the coming Monday when the semester continues. There were days when I had to drag my feet to work - not to mention the weather during that week was TERRIBLE - and 4.30pm felt so far away. But honestly without all those, I would probably still be inexperienced... and spoilt.

I can say I've managed to look past those and learn to suck it up. And I probably deserve a clap for that. ☻

Moving on to what I actually did during that week. Of course, there were more articles, considering the deadline to publish the in-house newsletter was getting closer. I was given the task to research, construct articles, and arrange them in Campaign Monitor. I had to also update the organisation's website, Facebook and Twitter page. 

My biggest nightmare was to contact the house seniors of the organisation's respite houses to get interesting stories for the in-house newsletter and the annual report. I get REALLY uncomfortable and tend to stutter whenever I was given that task. I managed to pull through, of course, after making a fool out of myself... several times in fact. 

Phone conversation example: 

Receiver: Hi, this is <respite house name>. Who's on the line? 

Me: Hi, it's Identitywa, and I'd like to find out if there's anything particularly interesting that the residents are doing so I could include it in the Identikite.  

Receiver: Sorry, who's on the line?  

Me: Identitywa... 

Receiver: I meant your name, the houses are under Identitywa, so obviously you have to be from Identitywa to be calling.

That was one of the most embarrassing one for me. But there's a saying that goes, "you have to fall in order to learn". 

The most insightful experience while working there so far, was on Friday where my Communications Officer brought me along to the airport to interview a man with intellectual disability. She told me instead of her conducting the interview and me taking pictures, she wanted the roles to be reversed. 

She gave me a brief background information of the man; he has a deep passion and thorough understanding in aviation, and is striving to get a job at the airport where he once used to work at. She was also kind enough to brief me on what questions she wanted me to ask and what information she planned to get out of the interview for the article. 

When we met him and his friend (a support worker), and considering how it was my first time doing a face-to-face interview with a person with disability, I just went blank. My Communications Officer saved me, and took over the role of interviewing. I felt so lost for the first half an hour because I found it really difficult to understand what the man was saying as he had a mild speech impediment. But after a while, I started to get the flow of the way he spoke and learned to interpret it in my own understanding much faster, I managed to do a few questionings. 

My Communications Officer said told me she had a bit of trouble trying to understand him at first, but managed to pick it up. I believe it comes with experience. 

We spent a fair bit of time walking around the airport, taking pictures of him looking at the planes, and just talking to him - which I found very enjoyable. It was a great way to end the week, and it left us feeling very inspired by the man's strong passion to pursue his dream. 

I managed to take down a lot of notes for my Communications Officer to write the article, and just maybe I'd offer to write the article instead. ☻

More work coming up next week! Hopefully they don't consist of me having to make phone calls again!! Is anyone else experiencing embarrassing things at work, or is it only me?!

Denissa Goh
15652315

What's next? - Remaining Useful and Relevant

So it's almost the end of the internship, and really enriching journey. I must say that I have learnt a lot through this experience and definitely am looking forward to learn even more, where ever my next stage of life brings me. That being said, I think I feel very proud to be a Curtin PR student. Being matched up with PR students from other educational institutes, I feel that Curtin really prepares its students well.

One of the biggest takeaways I feel that gained through this is the importance of remaining useful a relevant. Specifically in my generation, there seems to be a change in mindset for people entering the workforce - the main difference being "What I can do for the company" vs. "What can the company do for me". From the number of days of leaves, to extra benefits, to break times and quality of pantries, it really seemed very much like a selfish decision as to why they choose to work in a company. The former mindset, however, is really about how one, as a person, can add value to the organisation he or she is working for.

I will have to admit that initially, going into an internship, I did have the previous mindset, thinking about how much money I could earn, and whether I could take leave (which obviously was not possible in an internship), and trying my best to find shortcuts to get a way with doing too much work. As I went through my internship, I realized that working, or in fact life itself, is never about yourself. It's about how useful you can be to others. After that realization, I felt like the entire world around me changed. It was pretty darn awesome.

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure how relevant this post is to the internship, but what I know is that this is something that is meaningful to me. Just wondering, anyone out that share similar revelations?

Promotion, exhaustion and getting closer!

Hi guys,

So Its getting very close to the event we have been working all year to make happen. The process has been enormous and quite a challenge. I was unaware there was this much involved with creating an event that only takes place over one night. I have recently been promoted to the role of Event Manager! This has been an extremely challenging task of which I was not sure I was capable of. The founders trusted my abilities and I felt as though they threw me into the deep end a little. Suddenly I was principally responsible for ensuring tasks were all completed each week, following up on the Dine for Life team and a lot of communication between the enourmity of sponsors involved.

At first I was completely overwhelmed. I had a huge amount of responsibility and large amount of tasks that needed to be completed each week, however I only had one day to do it in. Unfortunately this was the problem I felt. Although the event was only annual, one day a week was very difficult to coordinate or sometimes get anything done. However, I am pushing through and I hope I don't disappoint.

The experience of event manager has been quite practical. Creating several event run sheets, liaising with sponsors, allocating roles and tasks for others. Another thing that has been a shock to me was the amount of emails i now receive and send each day. My inbox is full to the brim with Dine for Life coordination, which can be very stressful and daunting at times. However, little celebrations need to be made when things go well or else you loose sight of why you are doing everything in the first place. Working in non-for-profit is, what I imagine, quite different to a paid position, but at the end of the day the outcome can be immensely rewarding.

Through the all the scramble and stress that is non-for-profit, I am still contributing to fighting human trafficking. A cause that is what is pushing me through this final month at my industry placement.

Hope everyone else is learning and loving!

Siobhan Herne xx

Getting the job & my first week.

Hello! 

This is me, blogging about my first week of internship, which also happens to be my first ever official job. It's all still very new to me, and so is blogging in an academic manner - so please forgive me if I sound too casual. 

First off, since the beginning of the semester, for three consecutive weeks I have been so anxious about getting a placement. I made at least 30 over calls to all kinds of organisations, in hopes they would get back to me before Week 4 comes - which is the deadline for placement approvals as according to the unit outline. 

During the first three weeks, I had never hated the weekend so much in my entire life because that is when companies are not working, which means I cannot make any contact with them at all. Every week I made full use of the weekdays from 8am to 5pm, just making calls, and on the weekends I would mope about not getting a call back. 

I communicated with Lydia, our course coordinator, during the entire time and she was just the kindest soul to help me out with all of my incessant queries - which I am extremely grateful for. I eventually managed to get a few calls back, and finally chose the organisation of my choice - Identitywa. 

The Communications Officer in Identitywa provided me a space right outside her office where she regularly visits and asks how I am coping with the work I've been given. She's nice enough to make sure I am not overloaded with stress, but at the same time makes sure I have been given enough work. She's also very keen with the idea of brainstorming together, and this makes me feel comfortable that I can ask her for help whenever I struggle with a task - whether minor or major.  

My first task at work was to design three flyers in Microsoft Publisher, where one of it needed to be printed out in the next half an hour. It was manageable as I can still recall the in-class practices with the software during PR Techniques, and managed to also apply my experience with digital design from the other units I have taken. 

Besides that, I was also given the task to write several articles. One article was for the in-house newsletter called Identikite, and another for Emmanuel Catholic College's newsletter - regarding a recent event that took place. I also had to write an article on the NDIS and WA NDIS My Way in relation to their latest media release of the Fourth Quarterly Report. I applied my understanding and experience of writing media releases and articles from all the Public Relations units that I have taken in the past semesters. I also applied my knowledge of writing to cater to specific audiences, which is something that the previous PR units and my current Magazine Feature Writing unit taught me. 

I've also been given minor tasks like calling up the house seniors of Identitywa houses (where people with disability under the care of Identitywa are taken care of) to take note of any interesting things the residents are doing, so that I could write an article about it to be included in the monthly in-house newsletter. Those are the things that I have been taught in the previous PR units that I have taken and I am extremely glad that I didn't find any of the tasks a problem. 

And since next week is a tuition free week, I have decided to let my Communications Officer know that I will be coming in on Monday to Friday for work! Hoping everyone is enjoying their internship as well! ☻

Denissa Goh 
15652315