All Roads That Lead To Success Have To Pass Through Hard Work Boulevard: Final Reflection

Unreal.  It's the final week of my final semester.  I'm sure I can speak for many of you when I say my computer is lucky to still be in one piece!!  

Having completed two placements within slightly different industries at the same time this semester, I have learnt about things that I enjoy doing in the workplace, and things that I don't enjoy so much.  Writing, as always, is one of the best parts of this public relations and communications industry.  Unfortunately I haven't done as much of it as I would have liked in my placements, and I can only hope that as my career progresses, I get to do it more and more.  I have thought about working in magazines in the past - perhaps this is something to consider as I move forward.

My times at Magnetize, the boutique integrated communications consultancy that focusses on online marketing and business development, and Muse Bureau, the luxury public relations and events consultancy, were very different.  Social media driven development of clientele and learning about industries like financial advising was part of my work there.  My roles at Muse were more publicity based, heavily involved with liaising with talent and media in the lead up to Perth International Jazz Festival over 29-31 May.

I have learnt so much about my own professional and personal skills, along with the differences between the classroom and the real world.  There is only so much that can be learnt at university, and experiencing placements in two consultancies filled with professionals has been an eye opening experience to what awaits me in the future.

The world of public relations and communications is so intertwined, I still do not really know exactly what lies before me.  The pressure of finding work is a daunting task that I must be ready to face - but I know I can do it.  Having grown as a practitioner in my field, I believe that whatever comes, my time studying and my placements have shown me that I am indeed capable of tasks put before me.  

I leave you with this quote - as graduates, we all have to start somewhere, even if it's not in the place we first saw ourselves coming out of university.  However, with at least one placement behind us, we all know that we are capable of hard work - that means we are bound to be successful if we put our minds to it!

Good luck everyone, and all the best with your future - congratulations, we made it!!

Laura xx

Facebook = everything gets culled

Here I was thinking that doing some Facebook posts for a company would be easy. Here I was thinking this would be a quick task, something I could breeze through. After all, I see them on a daily basis posted by the companies and organisations I follow. I occasionally update my own Facebook status - this should really be too easy. WRONG. This is not easy; this is a time consuming and meticulous job that makes you look like a slacker because you have Facebook open on your web browser. I had no idea the time and effort that went into just drafting a Facebook post. This probably sounds ridiculous, but you jump through quite a few hoops to have a potential post maybe published.

Your client

First of all, you must consider the client you are writing for. Which probably seems obvious but that means you need to understand you client. You need to consider what they would find appropriate. You must make sure you aren’t doubling up on posts because that is repetitive and their audience will get bored.

Target Audience

This brings me to their target audience. When you are creating the posts, you need to think about how the client wants to be positioned, and you need to think about what the consumer would find interesting, informative, or fun – what ever it is that you’re going for. After all, we are fighting for that little bit of attention from the same groups of people within our market segment. We need something that will stop the client or potential client in their tracks, and get them to like/share/follow us.

Keep it interesting

Which brings me to interesting posts. Go and find something interesting. When you are posting on behalf of the same clients week after week, it gets tough to find new and interesting things, I can promise you this. I found myself searching for hours, digging through news articles, “why you should” articles, fascinating or thought provoking images. When I was at a loss I’d see what the competition was doing, and try to do one better, yet stay ahead of the game. 

Everything gets culled

Then after everything, you put your research together, present it with some catchy titles and submit it to your editor/marketing manager (whoever). They go through what you’ve done, cull half of it, knowing exactly what the client is looking for, and you’ll find some of your hard work is posted. Don’t even bother looking at the number of likes you get, because then you might never want to do it again, except for the times you get a few hundred likes, that’s always rewarding. 

It’s a crazy world, the social media world. We scroll past these posts on Facebook or Instagram like they’re nothing at all. What we don’t consider is that poor intern who researched all of that information for us. We look it over in two seconds if it has a nice picture, and go on with our days and forget about it. Hard world isn’t it? It makes me question the effectiveness of social media, but for some organisations it really works. We just all seem to be fighting for the attention of consumers, and they just really don’t seem to care. There is so much to choose from, so why would they?

Intern Excitement - The Joys of Getting Published

Three days into my internship and I’m actually loving it.

My main roles so far have been social media posts, including the brainstorming of potential blog topics, editing and drafting several posts for a medi spa and health clinic, along with writing some Facebook posts for several different clients.  I was extremely excited when Melissa called me into her office to show me my posts queued to be published!  It was a great feeling over the following days to see my work posted on behalf of the clients (and consequently I have been stalking their pages to see each update).  I also got to see a marketing strategy in the final stages and contribute to some parts, with the Magnetize girls presenting it to the client the next day with some of my work included.  It was interesting to note that the format for the strategy was indeed very similar to those we have prepared at uni - a relief to find that I already know the basics! 

As I really enjoy writing and playing with words to fit into themes and messages, these tasks have given me a huge sense of accomplishment knowing that my strengths are of assistance to the company.  I’m very grateful to Mel and the team for giving me jobs that are actually necessary for them, rather than slave labour jobs like photocopying that some of my friends have unfortunately had to do.  The praise for doing a great job is a mega confidence boost, and I can feel myself improving on things already.  I am also learning lots about time management in the industry, with efficiency and attention to detail being very important in the marketing and PR world. 

Now the initial nerves have worn off, I am confident that this industry is something I can look forward to being a part of in my future career.  Each day has led me to doing something different, and it is so great to be told you’re good at something by people you admire.  I am really excited for my next day (a whole week away L) and cannot wait until I can get a proper job in the industry.  I can definitely see myself as a corporate businesswoman either in the city or areas like Subiaco – having a coffee in the morning in a trendy café suits me very well!

Until next time.  I’m going to try and remember to ask at least one good question each day I’m there so that I can learn even more and make the most of the Magnetize team’s knowledge.  I hope everyone is enjoying their roles as much as I am and are learning lots!  

Laura x

Blisters, Boardrooms & Blogging: My First Day Interning

My first day as an intern at Magnetize was almost a disaster as I missed the train I was meant to catch and had to run through the Perth Underground in order to make the connecting train to get there on time - giving myself terrible blisters in my smart new business pumps.  Having been badly sunburnt the day before, I was pink, patchy, puffed, and got there with a minute to spare, not feeling like I would make a great first impression to those in the sleek Subiaco office containing Magnetize, a boutique integrated communications company. 

Melissa, my supervisor and the Marketing Manager, was a fellow Mandurah local, and could understand my travel panic (and sunburn woes).  I was introduced around the office, and to my dismay not only did most of the workers comment on my sunburnt appearance but the majority of their names went straight in one ear and out the other.  Oops.. not a good start.

Melissa put me to work compiling an Excel database of potential targets for a new business. I got interrupted several times by colleagues poking fun at my sunburn. It was embarrassing, but did set me at ease.  The database took me a good few hours, and I felt disappointed with my slow work.  Surely a PR practitioner would be able to whiz through this type of work in no time at all!  As it was only my first day, I tried not to beat myself up too much.

Magnetize share an office with an accounting firm, and it is a good experience to be surrounded by the different industry and listen to what's going on.  The businesses seem to work well in the shared space, and I can see how working in one consultancy could be very different from one firm to another.  I think in future I will be looking to work in a consultancy as opposed to in house.

Later, I was sent a blog post to edit – English and writing being my strong point, I was relieved to be able to do something fast and well.  I emailed the edited copy back to Mel with a great sense of achievement.  My final task for the day was to flip through an automotive magazine and compile a marketing contact spreadsheet for potential advertising. 

At the close of my first day, I wasn’t sure how I felt about my new internship.  The majority of my day had revolved around marketing – would I be able to achieve what had been asked of me as the internship continued?  Would I learn lots?  Would I enjoy it?  Hard to say from just one day, so I knew all I had to do was my best and to take each day at a time.

First day as an intern – complete!