A couple of weeks ago I finished up at my placement. I must admit that somewhere towards the middle I lost a little motivation and came to the horrible realisation that many tasks in PR can be somewhat mundane or monotonous (databases for example). However when I started the reflection section of my final report I was pleasantly surprised. I did get a varied and valuable range of experience over the seven weeks at my consultancy.
I'm really glad in the end that I got to learn about media monitoring and estimated ad. values. I realised that many of the senior consultants didn't know how to calculate these and I thought this basic skill could be helpful later on for example if working in-house or for a smaller consultancy who didn't have the administration resources of a larger consultancy.
Another great lesson I learnt was in relation to media releases. I drafted a media release for a consultant (at my own request) and the consultant gave me some really helpful feedback.
He was an ex-journalist so had a great insight into what the media are looking for. From PR 200 (Techniques) I took away a few basics, like keeping it short (5 - 6 paras), catchy opening line etc. However the consultant explained that due to budget and resource cuts within the media industry he found it was best to write the media release like a ready-made publishable story. So if the journalist is lacking time, they can print as is.
I kept thi.jpg)
s in mind when I was working at my part-time job. I work for an event styling company and we were having a small event to promote the refurbishment of our showroom and launch of new website. We invited some media and I wrote a release (I didn't expect to get any coverage particularly as it was in the middle of Perth Fashion Festival). We ended up getting some great coverage in the West (I've attached it and used my new skills to calculate the estimated ad. value) and the editorial mentioned both the website and new showroom as well as a couple of key phrases I'd used in my press release. It was really exciting to get the coverage and I think my internship (just watching and listening to how the consultants talk and follow up with media) gave me that extra little bit of confidence to deal with the media and to just go for it.
Another thing I found was that handing in the final report to my supervisor (who was the office manager as opposed to a PR consultant) allowed her to see what PR relevant tasks I had been undertaking and for what consultants so she could chat to them about my performance for the intern appraisal form.
Best of luck to everyone still completing their internship and to the rest, putting those final touches on the report!
I'm really glad in the end that I got to learn about media monitoring and estimated ad. values. I realised that many of the senior consultants didn't know how to calculate these and I thought this basic skill could be helpful later on for example if working in-house or for a smaller consultancy who didn't have the administration resources of a larger consultancy.
Another great lesson I learnt was in relation to media releases. I drafted a media release for a consultant (at my own request) and the consultant gave me some really helpful feedback.
He was an ex-journalist so had a great insight into what the media are looking for. From PR 200 (Techniques) I took away a few basics, like keeping it short (5 - 6 paras), catchy opening line etc. However the consultant explained that due to budget and resource cuts within the media industry he found it was best to write the media release like a ready-made publishable story. So if the journalist is lacking time, they can print as is.
I kept thi
.jpg)
s in mind when I was working at my part-time job. I work for an event styling company and we were having a small event to promote the refurbishment of our showroom and launch of new website. We invited some media and I wrote a release (I didn't expect to get any coverage particularly as it was in the middle of Perth Fashion Festival). We ended up getting some great coverage in the West (I've attached it and used my new skills to calculate the estimated ad. value) and the editorial mentioned both the website and new showroom as well as a couple of key phrases I'd used in my press release. It was really exciting to get the coverage and I think my internship (just watching and listening to how the consultants talk and follow up with media) gave me that extra little bit of confidence to deal with the media and to just go for it.Another thing I found was that handing in the final report to my supervisor (who was the office manager as opposed to a PR consultant) allowed her to see what PR relevant tasks I had been undertaking and for what consultants so she could chat to them about my performance for the intern appraisal form.
Best of luck to everyone still completing their internship and to the rest, putting those final touches on the report!
3 comments:
Hi Tegan,
Wow, such a small world. We have that media clipping hanging on our notice board at work because Rebecca Yarwood (one of the girls pictured) who now works here at Master Builders, used to work for that styling company. I remember her telling me about the refurbishment.
I can go back to work and say 'Hey, someone from curtin did that!'
It is such a great feeling when your work gets published.
I also think that working out estimated advertisement values is of great importance. My boss constantly tells me that at our work, we (PR people) contantly have to show what we do is of value and working out the estimated advertisement value is such a way.
I've also tried to find out the circular numbers for certain papers. One paper which doesn't give this information out is the West Australian, only telling you the circular numbers per week not per issue.
Congrats on finishing your placement.
Cheers
Dan
Hi Dan
I'm constantly reminded just how small Perth is. A couple of weeks into my internship I was chatting to the woman I shared an office with and we discovered I had dated her brother in high school! Quite funny... if not a little awkward.
I also needed to get quite a lot of circulation figures throughout my internship. I kept a little excel spreadsheet that I'd be happy to email you (perhaps if you want to post your work or uni email address, not sure how to make it private). It's got about 50publications on it so far.
I know what you mean about the West. They told me their circulation figure for their Saturday edition is 348,153 and the circulation for their Monday to Friday editions were 196,490. However obviously more people see certain editions such as Wednesdays and Fridays. The coverage I was trying to calculate appeared in a Friday edition and they said while they only have the one circulation figure they can give you the readership for Friday's edition which is higher than other Mon - Thursday editions (sorry, for some reason I didn't keep a record of this figure) but just give them a call and they might be able to help you calculate a more accurate total reach for our evaluation.
Anyway, good luck at Master Builders, say hi to Bec for me!
Hey Tegan
Bec says hi :)
Again, such a small world!
My work e-mail is daniel@mbawa.com.
Will show my boss the circulation chart, I'm sure he will be very interested. Credit to you of course for putting it together.
Cheers
Dan
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