A First Look into the Real World of PR

Mikayla Wearne 17081270 - Bentley


Hey everyone,

I have just completed the first week of my internship and this is my story so far!

I arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Friday the 1st of July, just two weeks after I had been told that I had been successful in attaining an internship in KL at Go Communications. This gave me the weekend to get to know the two other girls also completing an internship with GO, gather my bearings and explore the main city. Monday crept up fast and I was nervous going in on my first day, I was in another country and had no idea what to expect. To my delight we were warmly welcomed and each assigned to a team. There are 3 teams at GO, A-Team, Elite and Vuvuzela, I was placed in A-team. Each team has a list of clients they are responsible for, they conduct many different types of PR for these clients which is great because it means there is a lot of variety and lots to learn.




We were shown around the office which is medium in size, with around 30 employees. We were introduced to everyone, including the CEO Paul De Krester who is from Australia, his father, Michael De Krester was the CEO before him so it is almost like a family here, everyone seems very close.


We were then each given a desk with a computer and phone and given instructions on how to create a GO Communications email, how to access the intern folders, how to use the printer and scanner and what we should do everyday when we first come into the office. Everyday I needed to conducted online media monitoring too look for news mentions of the clients, media monitoring was an activity I had heard lots about but never actually conducted myself. I was told to use key words from any recent events or press releases sent as a benchmark for my searches and if that was not applicable, to do a general search including a search of key sponsors involved.










At lunch time I joined my team at a traditional Malay restaurant where I was able to try some local traditions and get to know my team members on a more personal level.



After arriving back in the office after lunch I was introduced to traditional media monitoring. Looking at every newspaper and magazine released on that day I was to search for news mentions of the clients, their competitors, mentions of their industry area and anything press related in regards to their company. After these had been found, I was shown how the articles needed to be presented for the clients’ records, I was shown how to find the PR value of these articles using a formula and made use of the Media Planning Guide.




The next day I was introduced to the process of compiling monthly reports for GO’s clients, these reports included an executive summary, overview of key activates, an activity time sheet, media effectiveness index, media coverage breakdown, press coverage and industry related news. This was all new to me as I hadn’t complied reports like this throughout my studies before. My main job for my second day was to complete the media coverage, press coverage and industry related news spreadsheets for the reports. This was quite a tedious job but nether the less I still enjoyed it and it defiantly gave me some new skills and knowledge.

As my first week was leading up to the Hari Raya festive season which is a “festive breaking of the fast,” I had the opportunity to gain a true understanding of this important tradition and look at some of the festive events our clients were hosting. At the beginning of my second week I helped create a note to the editor, event release and event listing for one particular clients’ “Open House Hari Raya Celebration.” I really enjoyed this task as I was able to convert my learning into practice and for the first time ever actually create these documents for real-life clients. I'm really excited to attend this event on Saturday and see first hand how an event like this plays out.

It's Internship, Not Internshit

Hey everyone, it is Lemon again! In my last post, I would like to share the things that I had learned from my two months internship.

•  “Think, Before You Ask” instead of “Ask, If You Don't Know”

I often received the advice, “ask if you don’t know” from many of my colleagues. Thus, I had always asked questions and asked my colleagues or supervisors every time when I wasn’t sure or didn’t know about something. In my mind, I had always believed that internships were like full-time employment so no mistakes were allowed. I had to be perfect because I represented Curtin to complete the internship. So I had always ensured that I was doing the right thing.

One day however, my supervisor told me that “It is a good thing you that you always ask before you do anything. However, I hope that you can be more independent. Think and work on it before you start asking questions. Ask me if you really can’t solve it or if you don’t understand.” He explained to me that an internship is the only time for me to make mistakes and explore new things. It is because there is no excuse for mistakes and there aren’t many that would allow me to make mistakes in the real world.

During my 2 months internship, I figured a new way to make things easy. I found out an easy way to approach every clubs in university, planned a convenient way to join road shows and so on. I did not ask my supervisor what I should or should not do. I told him what I would do and if I believed that there was a problem that I couldn’t solve, only then I would ask for his help.

•  “Stay Out of Your Comfort Zone” instead of “Stay in Your Safety Zone”

I often received task that are out of what I have learned, for example my supervisor was joining a competition and I had to assist him to answer why Worthy Book should get the best start-up company. I panicked when I received this task at first. I was thinking “Seriously? How would I know?” But because this was after my supervisor’s little speech, I thought about it first and worked on it. I tried to look at the latest entrepreneurship news in Malaysia and looked for the past year competitors.

As I was searching for the information, I realised that I have no clue on this industry because I do not have any friends who are working in this industry. I have always stayed in the same social circle with the same people. Thus, I had no idea what was happening outside of my social circle. So I think that as a PR practitioner, we have to enhance our knowledge by getting to know people from different work areas and social areas. During my internship, I attended an entrepreneurship forum in order to make some new acquaintances. I received many information and news from the entrepreneurship society. Therefore, my advice for everyone is to step out and meet someone new! 

• “Learn More and Know More” instead of “Stop Learning Know Nothing”

It is a big advantage if you have learned something extra. I like to design and to take photographs, so I know how to play around with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. During my internship, I designed the brochure for the road show because the design team was not there to help. I often take some nice photos during road shows for future references and uses. Knowledge has no boundaries, so learning has no limit as well. I’m glad that I could show my extra capabilities during my internship. So learn and know more if you can. Who knows one day you may be able to use it to your advantage.

In conclusion, the internship was overall a great experience! I was fortunate to have met a nice and awesome supervisor. He often taught me something that could not be taught or learnt in a classroom environment. I also felt lucky to have met a group of friendly colleagues from different ethnicity and culture. In the end, this internship had shaped me into a better person.

I hope you enjoyed reading my post and hope it will inspire you to take the extra step as well! :)

Feel free to leave your comment or feedback down below! 

Cheers,

Loke Ming Ngiam

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Knowledge is Life!

Hello everyone! It’s me again, Lemon. In my previous post, I had talked about how the internship had inspired my life and how much fun my internship was (if you haven’t read it, do check it out).

As I mentioned earlier, I was working in the Public Relations & Marketing Department at Worthy Book. Worthy Book is a coupon-book based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia that was founded in 2010. In order to increase the company’s reputation, one of my job was to set up a road show.

Today, I would like to explain how a road show functions in this post, and how I managed it as one of my tasks as an intern. In order to achieve the company’s goals and objectives, the first important and essential step was to sort out who our target audience was. The target audience of Worthy Book includes youths, white-collar workers and families. Thus, I searched for an event that also targeted our preferred audience such as food fairs, business forums, university events and so on.

This was one of our road show held at Tunku Abdul Rahman University (UTAR) Setapak
in their "CNY 2015 Oh My Goat" event to celebrate the approaching Chinese New Year

I would make phone calls or type emails to the person in charge after researching the related event. I would ask for event details including expected number of participants, the event’s target audience and so on. When the event met our requirements, I would proceed to step two, which was to get a booth space for our company on the day the event would launch.

This is our booth space at Tunku Abdul Rahman University with
Worthy Book banner at the back

Can you feel a strong Chinese New Year atmosphere with Worthy Book?

Apart from setting up the booth during the event day, I would update our road show route on our social media platform to inform the public, internet users and our target audience before the event day. I would ensure that our social media platform was up-to-date and the information provided was accurate.

It was a good sign to see crowd were having an interest and gathered at our booth

I approach different demographic and ethnicity of participants during every road show. It was a challenge for me when approaching them face-to-face as I would get nervous. Customers would often talk and discuss about something that was not related to the company or our products. For instance, the latest national or international news. I had to react fast to be able to respond to their questions. Apart from this, I had to know what was happening in our current society in order to join in the conversation. As a PR practitioner, we have to always keep ourselves up-to-date. I read the newspaper everyday before heading into office in order to keep up with the current events and the current “biggest thing”.

     

Happy customers with Worthy Book!

My two months of internship had changed me a lot. I now know how to keep calm and control my anxiety when approached by strangers. Apart from this, the internship showed me that knowledge had no boundaries and my knowledge was (and still is) not enough. There is still a long way for me to go, and the world is vast and waits for me to explore and discover it.

I hope you all enjoyed reading this post! 

Feel free to leave your comment or feedback down below! :)

Cheers,

Loke Ming Ngiam

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