We're Halfway There

Written by Candace Sharpe
PR Internship  - Blog Post Two
Date - 04/10/2016

Hi there!

I am well into my Internship right now, with just a month to go. My last post was all about the corporate environment I was working in and how I was coping with all the different types of people in the offices. Quick update on how all that's working out; it's definitely getting easier to navigate the department dynamics and personalities. I even made a friend! Her name is Kate and she works in Admin, she is 30 and works part-time with Toyota while she studies at ECU. She is very kind and we bonded over studies and our mild coffee addictions while I spent two hours in her department, doing archiving. #repetitive #fellowcoffeeaddict

Back to the actual work of my Internship. As promised in my last blog, I will dedicate this post to all the work that I've been doing with my Supervisor, Dannielle, over the last month. My very first day was mostly formalities. I had to read and then sign various AHG documents. These related to confidentiality, OH&S, Toyota guidelines and AHG technology use. After I did this, I was asked to spend some time online, to study the Toyota websites and social media, so I could understand the style and tone that created the brand of Toyota. It was important that I matched this when I wrote up my own documents for the organisation. Danni then took the time to take me through to all the other departments and introduced me to everyone that I would be working with. Everyone was very kind and laughed that they had heaps of work for me to do. #theywerenotjoking

The best part of the work throughout this Internship, is that it is actually *gasp* very similar to the Seminar tasks and Assessments that I've been doing throughout my PR degree. I've felt very comfortable doing the tasks that Danni has been setting for me. I have completed an Event Timeline and Event Checklist, which has been a staple in the PR degree since PR Techniques. An important aspect for this was to include a Social Media aspect, which hasn't been included in the previous Timelines and Checklists. I included a section about monitoring the company website and Facebook page when an event is approaching.

Grand Toyota in Clarkson and Wangara have various sponsorships with different community and sporting groups in their local communities. All together, there are about 15 different groups. A task that I have been continually working is promoting the relationships that we have with these groups. The first few days of my Internship, I worked on gathering information about the groups that Toyota supports and created a poster that included photos and a summary of the groups.

Last week, I was tasked with writing up the Facebook posts Schedule for the organisation, which included everything that was to be posted in the month of October. I wrote up posts about the community groups we sponsored, the upcoming events for both Perth and Toyota and a few fun facts about Toyota vehicles. During my degree, I have had to come up with various Facebook and Twitter posts for my Assessments. This was the first time that I've ever written something to be posted on Social Media commercially. I felt the responsibility immediately, I was writing up the brand of Toyota, for it be posted forever online; to be seen by all their stakeholders. Once I got over this initial shock, everything came easily to me. It was a very enjoyable task, deciding what people would want to see at what time on which day. #whatthepeoplewant #branding

I am enjoying my Internship so far, it's been a massive learning experience but also enjoyable. Toyota has a few events coming up this month, so my next post will be all about how that goes. My supervisor, Danni, is in charge of making sure that these event go smoothly so I will be right there to help out with anything she needs. It should make for a great blog post.

Talk soon!