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

A jack of all trades

PR professionals must be a jack of all trades. Working in the industry you are expected to learn new programs and stay on top of the latest developments in the industry. One day you’ll be organizing an event, the next designing a new website and the day after that hosting a press conference. You never know what a day will throw up at you in this profession, which is why you must be able to think on your feet, be creativity and be organised.

I came to Fremantle Press with a basic set of software skills. I could use word and powerpoint and I was a wiz at Facebook, but that was about it. But what I lacked in expertise, I made up for with a willingness to learn and the ability to pick up new skills quickly. So now I have mastered InDesign, Hootsuite, Campaign Monitor, Wordpress and even the company website.

Working in PR also means paying very close attention to detail. Sending out a press release with typos, grammatical  errors or the wrong information is a big no-no. This week my project was the monthly enewsletter and before it was sent to all our subscribers and posted on our website, it was proofed numerous times by different staff.

If you’re interested in reading a couple of my stories click the links.

Final call for Hungerford entries

Consultancy title raises money for Starlight

Working in PR is exciting and challenging because there is so much uncertainty about what each day will involve. But if you can handle the pressure, have a thick skin, a willingness to learn and a positive attitude, then this is the profession for you.

Verity

Making corporate social media more personal

Social media changes constantly. It’s a PR practitioner’s job to stay abreast of the latest trends and work out what online forums a company should be using and how it should be using them to best reach the target demographic. When doing my daily scroll through Facebook, something on the Curtin University page caught my attention and stood out as a great technique for social media. I noticed that any comment responses made by the Curtin PR team, always had the individual employee's name attributed to it. So instead of just being a response from Curtin University, it was now a response from Emily at Curtin University.

The simple idea of having an employee write their name next to their post is used by lots of corporations and I think it can have a really positive impact. Firstly it makes an online corporate profile a lot more personal, after all social media is intended to be social. People are more inclined to interact with an organisation via its social media if they feel they’re talking to one person rather than an entire corporation. I also think making corporate pages more personal could make people think twice before trolling. Many people use social media, particularly Facebook, to vent about their bad experiences with an organisation or its products. While there is no way of controlling this and people will still attack an organisation, I think people are generally less likely to do so if they felt they were attacking an individual.

Attributing the employee name to the comment also suggests it is that individual’s comment rather than an official company statement, which could also assist the company if that comment were to attract criticism. I think this is a great technique and I would definitely consider using it if I were responsible for the social media of a large corporation, particularly one that often receives customer feedback on online forums. So if you're like me and need a reason to justify your time on social media, start observing what tricks and techniques other corporations use to encourage social media interaction and perhaps you too will get some ideas that can be implemented in your work place. 

Verity

Am I the curse?

Traditionally, Paterson's Stadium has been a fortress for both Fremantle and West Coast, however the Eagles have lost all three matches they have played there this season. Am I the curse? Surely not, but we will have to wait until May 5 to see if they can beat the Western Bulldogs!

Yesterday (Saturday night), the West Coast Eagles took on Carlton, and lost once again.  It was my second match day at the Eagles and I was super excited to see what such a big game would hold.  Once again, I arrived an hour and a half prior to the match and we had to organise Nic Naitanui to be interviewed by channel seven.  When the time came for us to enter the hallows of Paterson's Stadium and find the big man, we couldn't locate him anywhere! We ran around looking for him for 15 minutes, luckily we had decided to look for him early. We eventually went to the place where he needed to be to find him standing there; he had decided to make his own way to the media, much to the relief of staff.  Once the team had run out onto the ground, we sat down to watch the game, however we noticed John Worsfold being interviewed by channel seven, something we didn't know about, however we later found out that the communications manager had taken John to the media.

After numerous tweets during the game, and directing players who were not actually playing to where they needed to be, the game finally ended and the rush started once again.  We made our way to the bottom of the race and watched as the players came off the ground disgusted with yet another home loss.  We organised Josh Hill, Scott Selwood, Shannon Hurn and Matt Priddis to be interviewed by different media including channel seven, 6PR, The West Australian and afl.com.au.  A really satisfying moment for me was when one of the players remembered me after we had been introduced a couple of weeks ago.  Once the players had completed their media commitments, we waited for Mick Malthouse's press conference to finish.  In this time, I was shown what happens post-game.  I watched as players were given Powerades, protein shakes, food, lollies and given a run down on the game.  I was able to see how they track how far a player has run and was introduced to some important people in the football operations side.

After all this, we were once again ushered to the press conference by security which was cool, considering it was only the two communications/public relations bosses, myself and John Worsfold.  I listened in on the press conference and saw another side of John Worsfold.  He shut down Braden Quartermaine when he asked silly questions and it was an insight into the world of a press conference.  It was also surreal sitting next to football journalists and experts including Justin Chadwick, Braden Quartermaine and Alex Malcolm.  After the press conference, it was home time and time to write my review of the game which is now online at www.westcoasteagles.com.au.

It was a really great experience, however hopefully the Eagles win the next match and I get to experience a win at Paterson's Stadium.  Tomorrow (Monday) we have our press conference with four players which will be great fun once again. I already know that two of them will be Ashton Hams and Scott Selwood.

Until next time,
Have fun!

Nathan

Full Time Mellen

Hello again!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until then,

Mel x