Life of a PR Girl

Hi there to all my fellow PR 393 interns,

I commenced my work placement at the Magenta Group on Tuesday 31^st January. So far I have completed 6 days of my internship and thought now would be the perfect time to share my experiences and what I have learnt and achieved during my incredible journey so far.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Magenta Group was established 10 years ago by owner and PR queen Melissa Lekias. A boutique creative agency specialising in Public Relations, Marketing and Events, working with a range of clients across Australia in the Fashion, Art and Lifestyle industries.

Nervous and not knowing at all what to expect I walked through the large glass doors all set to commence what would be the first day of an experience that would either confirm or disprove my dream of working in the PR industry. Greeted by my supervisor I met the team of creative’s who would teach, mentor, and share their knowledge and secrets with me over the duration of my time here.

The day commenced with the weekly staff meetingwhich is held at 9am every Tuesday morning. The Client service team (where I am positioned ) and the Graphics team along with the Office co-ordinator all come together to run through the agenda and action plan for the week. A large spreadsheet outlined the clients being focused on, the tasks needed to be completed and each creative’s role in relation to effectively actioning all the tasks.

Once the meeting was completed and I had gained an overview of what was happening my supervisor (Ivona) thought it would be beneficial to familiarise myself with Magenta’s current clients. Ivona gave me some PR reports to read through which contained all the media coverage they had generated for those clients over a particular period of time outlining the date, publication, readership and dollar value of the piece. It was interesting to see that my understanding of what a PR report was gained through completing assignments in my PR units held a very different definition in ‘the real world’.

I was assigned the task of updating, formatting and editing the Master Media Database, the database consists of numerous Excel spreadsheets broken down into National and state tabs. Each tab is categorised into Press, Broadcast and online media listing every media contact Magenta has across Australia. The primary purpose of the database is to easily develop targeted media lists for new campaigns. My task was to check that each contact’s information was current and correct, this meant calling or going online (Contact links on official websites or White pages) to ensure we had the correct postal address, editors names and email addresses. ID tags also needed to be added so you could just type for example “food” into the database and all food related media would be filtered. Not being proficient in Microsoft Excel made this task a valuable learning experience for the future, excel is used regularly to produce spreadsheets, media databases and to store, organise and filter data. With thousand of contacts in the Master database this task is ongoing and will be completed over the duration of my internship.

With the rise of social media changing the public relations and communications landscape most of Magenta’s clients have a strong social media presence on Facebook in particular. I took it upon myself to ‘like’ all the clients Facebook pages so I could keep up to date with content but also look over the type of posts that were being made. One of the PR girls had asked me to email her with some ideas for innovative and creative posts, so I got to work thinking of ideas that would command people’s attention as they aimlessly scrolled through their newsfeeds. Ultimately wanting to pursue a career in Fashion PR I thought this quotefrom the online editor of Women’s Wear Daily really captured just how imperative it is for brands and designers to be embracing social media to stay current.

“Social media is an invaluable tool for fashion brands and retailers, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, blogs or branded editorial content, maintaining a dialogue with fans and consumers through authentic and engaging content is paramount in achieving success within the digital realm.”

                                                                                                                                         - Rachel Strugatz.

I feel that during my degree there has not been a strong focus on social media and how effective use can not only directly impact online brand visibility but reach and engage media and consumers and give the organisation or brand their own personal voice. There was discussion of social media strategies and plans for particular clients in the staff meeting.

My first day at Magenta had me wanting more, I was positive that I could contribute positively to the team over the next coming weeks and take on more responsibility when given the chance.

Good luck to all the students currently in placements!

Ask questions, be attentive and ABSORB!

Until my next post,

Tess x