Building the Corporate Identity

Whilst completing work experience at my professional placement, the consultancy itself was in the process of rebranding, which is still ongoing at present. I was fortunate enough to be invited to partake in attending some of the redevelopment meetings and found it gave an interesting insight into how organisations, like PR consultancies, start the process of constructing their desired corporate identity. The rebranding process of the consultancy was essentially part of taking steps forward in achieving the consultancy’s mission; to be a well-recognised and respected public relations consultancy, (on both national and international platforms).

The more immediate aim of the rebranding was to create a corporate identity which better reflects the corporate culture and overall organisational image Sinclair Consulting is trying to encapsulate – that being; professional, contemporary, unique, innovative, motivated, considerate, prestigious and Perth-based.  

As part of achieving consistency, throughout all elements that construct new corporate identity, the consultancy is updating all of Sinclair Consulting’s corporate identity materials such as; the Sinclair Consulting logo, document templates, promotional materials, website design and associated corporate images (that will be displayed as the backdrop for his website when it finally goes live).

On reflection, I found the meetings concerning the redevelopment of the consultancy’s website in particular to have given me good insight into the complexity of, and content required, to build a website for an organisation. It also gave me some understanding of how certain functionalities in website design are constructed and the end result they will give the user, such as ease of access in navigating around a site or keeping online engagement within a site - (which now is an important factor for increasing a websites SEO).

The meetings also enabled me to be an active part in contributing as part of the Sinclair Consulting team to what we thought would be valuable content to include on the website, functionalities that would contribute to engaging the consultancy’s stakeholders online, as well as images that would evoke association with the desired corporate identity of Sinclair Consulting. I found this process very interesting and it gave me a better understanding of how new technologies have changed the processes now used for online media tools to gain an outcome for an organisation, like increased online presence.

Most interestingly it reinforced how technology is now such an integral part of practising successful public relations, not only for clients but for a consultancy itself, operating in the modern world. It also highlighted models of stakeholder engagement we learnt during our studies, such as Grunig and Hunt’s 1984 model of “Two-Way Symmetrical Communication”, that are still been applied in a ‘real-life’ context today. This was especially reflected when we were discussing how elements of the website (such as content) would help facilitate stakeholder engagement through an online medium.

Goodbye Scitech

Last week I completed my work placement at Scitech.
I began my placement in February and have been there every Thursday and Friday since.
In the past week I have been finishing up my final report for PR393 and it has allowed me to reflect on my time with the organisation and what I have learnt.

Scitech conducts public relations in a very practical hands on way. I wrote countless drafts of media releases during my placement which helped me in honing my writing skills while promoting various events or Scitech services.

As Scitech is a not for profit organisation, funding and staffing are limited, which means the communications team that conducted all of the public relations work at Scitech had to be multi skilled.
Every day I would be doing something different. While people would have their specialities it seems in a small organisation it's crucial that anybody be able to complete a variety of different tasks in order to meet deadlines and keep stories that are going out timely.

I think it was beneficial for me to work in an organisation that conducts public relations in this way, rather than only specialising in one area. It allowed me to improve on a range of skills including media release writing, preparing for events, writing for social media, website management, communicating with stakeholders and planning promotions.

Now I feel well equipped to enter the workforce after graduation and ready to continue improving these skills, no matter where I end up working.

The importance of accurcay accuracy.

Hi everyone!

I have now officially finished week eight of my internship and thought I would pop by and tell everyone about how I went throughout week four to week six at St John of God Murdoch Hospital (SJOGMH) in their marketing and public relations department.

I've decided that from now on I will be choosing a theme or topic for each blog post that best represents what I have learnt within the given time frame. Though the last three weeks weren't as hectic as the first three I definitely feel that I have gained a greater appreciation for the importance of accuracy in the field of public relations, and that is what I will be talking about today.

We were taught throughout our public relations degree that accuracy is paramount in everything we do and we need to adhere to the highest standards of verbal and written communication and ensure all our facts and details are correct. It was also stressed the importance of checking and rechecking all of our work as once it was published, printed, exposed, etc. it is harder to correct.

Any mistake in accuracy, no matter how small, can have a huge impact on your organisation. It could be monetary (costs associated with reprinting if it was grammatical, time lost from redoing work) and can impact your organisational reputation or image in a negative way (one example is the backlash Myer experienced from their grammatical error on their early bird gets the right size campaign). When faced with these sorts of consequences it does surprise me how organisations can make such mistakes in the first place.

But how does this apply to SJOGMH? Well aside from the fact that you should always be checking your work and aiming for 100 per cent accuracy, I have been spending a lot of time updating our contact database and organisational website.

I know a few of you have had the joy (sarcasm) of updating databases during your internship. Though it isn't the most stimulation of jobs I did gain a real life appreciation for how important accuracy is to SJOGMH. My primary focus was on updating the top 50 and top 100 doctor lists which is used by the public relations and marketing department and the hospital executive for various reasons, such as deciding event guests’ lists and for recognition.

On top of working on updating the database I was also charged with doing a small update to the organisational website. SJOGMH went through a small rebranding in which the official name of the hospital changed from St John of God Hospital Murdoch to St John of God Murdoch Hospital. As a result I had to check all the pages on the website and change the name of the hospital to the new name. Whilst doing this check I also picked up some spelling and grammatical errors that I fixed in the process.

It is through these tasks that it was reiterated to me the importance of accuracy. If I had the wrong number or address for the doctors on the database then they could not receive official invites to hospital events which could decrease morale and/or waste tickets on unfilled spots at events. If I didn't update the hospital name on the website it would cause inconsistencies in the branding of the hospital and spelling and grammatical errors portray a lack of professionalism of the organisation. I know and accept that mistakes can happen but completing these tasks I learnt that I had to be accurate if I was going to succeed, and sometimes there are no short cuts or easy options if you are aiming for accuracy.

All I can hope for is that between now and the conclusion of my internship I continue to keep accuracy at the forefront of my mind so I don't slip up and make a small (but important) mistake.

Until next time.

PRintern.

Why did the spider go on the internet?

Because he wanted to be on the web!

Everyone wants to be on the web these days, including organisations big and small. We are in an era where the first point someone consults for information is no longer the Yellow Pages but Google (which might lead to the online Yellow Pages). While print marketing materials still have their place, what an organisation puts on its website will most likely be its first avenue to attract a customer. It has become so important to have and maintain an online presence that companies have a staff member (or even a group of staff members) dedicated to the task. The past week at Baptistcare I was asked to use most of my time coming up with recommendations to improve the Baptistcare website. 

I began by surfing the website and writing down aspects that I dislike or I think are not user-friendly. I then proceeded to look at 15 competitors' websites and write down good elements that can be adapted to Baptistcare's website. It was a time-consuming and exhausting task, but it was a necessary process to get an idea of what content and presentation are provided online by other organisations in the industry.

After doing my research, I made the following observations:

1. Most of the websites I looked at had rich content but it wasn't written in succinct, informative forms, which is a big obstacle in the communication process. If a user has to read the information twice and stop to process it, most likely that's a sign you are not getting the message across.  

2. Colour combinations, font type and size, spacing, and picture placement are very important to make a website look attractive and user-friendly. I personally prefer a clean and elegant look, with photos organised neatly in a photo gallery. 

3. I think "smart functions" like cost calculator and postcode search are especially helpful in the aged care and disability services industry. However, none of the websites I looked at had any of these functions. (I suspect one of the reasons might be the complexity of cost calculation, but I wonder if there's any way to enable an estimate)

4. Custom photos (photos taken by the organisation) make the websites look more authentic and personal. However, most of the websites I looked at use stock photos due to privacy and cost. The disadvantage of this is there is a high chance another or a few other organisations are using the same pictures. The websites that did use custom photos gave real and tangible images of what the organisations are like and the services they provided, which I think make a better impression to a potential client. 

5. Providing helpful resources, such as fact sheets and list of tips, increase the usability of a website. These resources also make a website more than just a once-off information portal, but a place one can always come back to for more information - which makes the website a valuable resource itself.

Those are some of my observations. What do you think make a good website? What positives and negatives have you observed organisations have on their websites?

Facebook mistake!

This week was a week of uploading blog posts I wrote that had been approved as well as writing more blogs and focusing on 32dsg’s website content.

I usually upload Facebook posts about upcoming events, working off my events calendar, however this week their Facebook page was devoted to a competition we were offering for two tickets to Perth Fashion week. I think I have mentioned before in one of my previous posts that I have been made an administrator of one of their clients Facebook pages. Not realising I was on the client’s Facebook page (thinking I was on mine), I ‘shared’ the competition on their page. This has NOTHING to do with them or their target audience and therefore was a big mistake. Luckily one of the girls alerted it to me and I was quickly able to take it down. It just outlined the fact that social media while it is easy to use, free and global, it can be extremely dangerous. Luckily this was not such a massive blunder and was easily fixable but you can see how quickly something can turn into a crisis if it is not handled correctly. I may be able to ‘blame’ it on Facebook since it said I was on my own page when I ‘shared’ the post (not realising I had to click another button to say- switch to your personal page), however this would never stand if you were to argue your case in a crisis. Technology may fail you, but ultimately it is your fault in the end. You controlled the mouse and you pressed enter.

After that mistake was quickly rectified I continued with my work. I uploaded my Sharing Healthy Conversations article- choosing the best photo for the subject (one with the most important attendees included). I had to fix the lighting on the photo first and crop it so that all the focus was on the people in it. I had to link all the important peoples names to their personal pages (usually linked in accounts) and make sure everyone’s names were spelt correctly.

I continued to work on companies that are similar to 32dsg and an events list for their Facebook posts. After looking over what needs to be included in the report I was quite pleased to see that we need to write about our companies competitors. Because I have been looking at what other companies there are similar to 32dsg I have in fact been researching their competitors. I have also been looking at what they are doing differently and how we could incorporate some of these positive attributes into our company as well. By collating all this information 32dsg can take the best of their competitors traits and add them to their list of expertise.

It has been interesting for me to look back at the events the company or the people who work for the company have been involved in organising. From the Breast Cancer Foundation’s illumination campaign to the Grand Prix ball, the people working at 32dsg have a diverse range of skills and networks. It’s a privilege to be around such successful worldly people. The collation of events data that I have been looking at, I will be putting into succinct descriptions to put on their website under the events section. This is quite an important job (in my opinion) since ‘case studies’ or previous experiences are important for those wanting to use the company to see.

My blog post on the Perth Baby Expo got approved at 4:45pm but I wanted to stay until it was up online, linked and positioned well. I stayed on after everyone left however I like things to be done and to be done without rushing. I don’t think I will ever mind staying behind to finish up and do a good job. Once you’re at work, what’s another 40 minutes? I also got to write another post for a Frasers Restaurant lunch that the 32dsg team went to this week. It got approved right away (showing how much better I must be getting with my writing skills) and I put that one up too.

You can read all my blog posts on:

http://32dsg.com/blog/

And my news article on:

http://32dsg.com/?post_type=news

Thanks for reading guys!

Xx

Martine