Perks & Creating Media Opportunities

Yes, I did just spend my morning sitting at the YMCA headquarters watching an episode of the second season of Undercover Boss Australia, and there were free sandwiches. So many perks. This is because the YMCA is the first not-for-profit organisation to feature on the show and have called Shine Communications along with a marketing company to help them make the most of the media opportunities and exposure that comes from being on national television. For the most part the hour-long show shows the organisation in a very good light and the Chief Operating Officer and several of the staff members even manage to slip in several key messages as they speak to the camera. For a form of uncontrolled media I feel the risk was worth it for the much needed exposure the YMCA will gain.

Although commercial tv and the editing process does not allow for a completely controlled message to be put across, I feel that the show showed the YMCA in a very positive way. We decided to focus on the two West Australian staff members as part of our media relations plan and localise our releases for local papers in Port Hedland (where one of the staff was from) and Perth. I also suggested local tv guides, which often do feature stories on up and coming shows and thought this was a great opportunity to target a different kind of media, rather than just local papers.

I spent the rest of my day researching a calendar of charity events for our aged care organisations to participate in like Movember, Cuppa for Kids, Loud Shirt Day, Stay On Your Feet Week etc. Participating in these kind of events is great for team building and staff development, doing positive things in the community and also creates great media opportunities. Getting the organisation to participate in events like these is not only fun for residents and staff but provides great little stories for newsletters and local paper articles!

PR Crisis

A lovely not-for-profit aged care organisation, what could go wrong?

Well in all honesty. A lot.

But it’s not what happened, it’s how you handle it. And that’s where PR comes in.

Without mentioning names or specific details (yes, it is a bit of a tease but I’m all for client confidentiality and being professional) Shine Communications, where I am currently undertaking my placement, has been called in to help with PR after a little bit of an incident at an aged care facility. The good news is, the aged care organisation seemed to handle the crisis quite well on their own. Thanks to a little bit of media training beforehand the CEO went on talkback radio and did surprisingly well. As usual everything we have been taught at Curtin about how to handle a crisis from a PR perspective was right. The CEO was open, accountable, honest and apologised profusely. Tick. The CEO had dealt with all complaints voiced by the public concerned BEFORE the matter was brought up on commercial radio. Tick. And most importantly the CEO was genuinely sorry and addressed every possible avenue to make the wrong, a right. Tick.

After the incident in question the CEO then realised how important ongoing PR and message management for the company’s publics would be for his organisation, so enlisted the help of Shine Communications. After a lengthy meeting with the CEO where we listened to a recording of the talkback radio session (and consequently decided he did a very good job), we took a tour of the facilities and my boss Ruth explained her extensive work with other aged care organisations, including the peak body in WA, ACSWA and how Shine Communications could benefit the business.

We then went away and drafted a PR plan, which included a streamlined branding, a professionally designed and written newsletter to replace the old one, a media relations plan, production of the annual report and brochures with professional photography. So a crisis was averted, and as a result the organisation is now in a better place in terms of PR. More pro-active instead of re-active if you like. A happy ending for all as now all the proper requirements are in place so that incidents are a lot less likely to occur again, and if they do we will be ready for them!

Exciting news!

I have just secured a part-time job as a result of my internship. Yay! Two days a week I will be balancing uni and work as a Junior Consultant at Shine Communications (I get my own email address and everything, it’s very exciting). My boss, Ruth, works from home north of Perth so it’s a bit of a commute, but will definitely be worth it for the experience and to pop on the old resume.

In further exciting news, two media releases that Ruth and I have been working on found their way into The West Australian. This is exciting because the majority of our clients are not-for-profits who will generally only get a run in community newspapers. It is much harder to create a strong enough angle for The West to run a story. The first was for aged care provider Amana Living who announced a joint initiative with the McCusker foundation, for a McCusker nurse who will provide comprehensive advice and support for those living with dementia and their families.

The link to the media release is http://www.amanaliving.com.au/Whats_On/Media_Releases/Documents/Amana%20Living%20-%20McCusker%20Nurse%20media%20release.pdf (although it was in the paper, it didn’t make it’s way onto the West’s online page, therefore no link).

I wrote the majority of this media release with only minimal tweaking from Ruth. When she has made changes to any of my work she sends it back to me, which is really helpful because I see what changes need to be made, where my wording is a little off or where I haven’t properly addressed all the key messages.

The second release which made it into The West (which I also mostly wrote) was for the YMCA’s HQ youth program, and was about a group of teenage refugees who made a giant foosball table as part of an arts program. In this case, the story got a run in The West mainly because of the fantastic photo opportunity it presented. Ruth (my boss) will often organise a photo journalist from the paper to come and take a photo themselves rather than just providing one, the logic being that if the paper is willing to invest their own staff in following the story, there is a pretty good chance it will get run. And for the most part it seems to work. She also tells me that sometimes if pitching a release or story idea to an editor or journalist is not working, it can be worthwhile to pitch the story to the photo editor, because if they don’t have many good photo opportunities, this could be your way in!

The placement is going very well so far, and I’m really enjoying the work. However I do feel there is a big emphasis at Shine on media relations, perhaps this is just because the type of client we are working with has budget constraints but it would be good to maybe bring a fresh new angle to some of the work we do, and try out different avenues like social media or events.

Not-for-profit PR- Making a Difference

When considering your career in PR the big question is often in-house or consultancy? I too thought this was also going to be my biggest consideration when applying for PR jobs, but since beginning my work experience placement at Shine Communications in June it’s actually corporate or not-for-profit that has really got me wondering.

Shine Communications is small boutique PR consultancy run from home by owner/manager Ruth Simpson. Most of her 12 clients are not-for-profits in the aged care sector, but she also works for the YMCA, mining company FAST, the PMH Foundation, archaeology firm Archae-aus and pro-bono for the Shenton Park Dogs’ Refuge Home. Ruth generally performs a lot of media relations and internal communication activities and has good working relationships with a large number of journalists and editors at community newspapers. The good relationships she has fostered has meant that most of her media releases do get run, which is good news for her clients.

My first choice in PR was probably always leaning towards the music, fashion or arts industries. This is because I am interested in these areas, there seems to be a lot of scope for creativity and it seems a lot cooler to say “I’m a communications officer for a boutique fashion label” than “I write media releases for an old people’s home”. Although I have started working in an area that I would not usually be interested in, it is growing on me. There is a certain satisfaction and ‘warm and fuzzy’ feeling when you get a story out into a community paper about a employee who has been working with the elderly for 20 years and absolutely loves it, or writing a newsletter story celebrating a resident who was one of the first to complete a tandem bike ride across Australia in the 1930’s. It’s also a good feeling when you are getting positive news stories out there when the media is so often dominated by doom and gloom. Above all, I feel like I am helping to make a difference to organisations that are also trying to make a difference. It’s pretty nice.

Not-for-profit clients are also a lot more friendly and easy going than larger, corporate clients, which makes for a more relaxed work environment. Despite my initial concerns that a tiny consultancy focusing on not-for-profit organisations wasn’t for me, it is definitely starting to look a lot more inviting. Most of the PR work I am doing at the moment is that of a “PR technician”, honing my writing and editing skills and applying them to media releases, newsletter articles and website copy. Because Shine Communications is such a small consultancy, I have been thrown in the deep end (in a good way!) writing material for clients straight away. What I hope to achieve from placement is to practice my writing skills, gain confidence in the workplace and perhaps even create some mutually beneficial relationships with journalists, all of which would further help me get in a foot in the door of the PR industry when I leave uni and start job hunting.