Some things are best understood if you experience it first hand

Last post I shared about some of the work I've done at the agency, this post I'll continue about more work done at the agency.

Social media

One of the work that I've engaged in that really caught my interest was drafting Facebook contents for a client. While the client may not have used all of my posts, it was a particularly enriching experience because this was the first time I was involved in helping a business brand itself online. As someone born in an era of rapid technology advancements and developments, this was definitely very exciting.

Some takeaways from this experience: 

1. It's important to have good content.

Prior to drafting the content for the client, they had been coming ultimately with their own content for the Facebook posts. As that was around Mid-Autumn Festival and many hotels were trying to sell their mooncakes (a local pastry often seen around Mid-Autumn Festival), most of the client's posts were on mooncakes.

However, their posts just weren't getting the clicks they wanted.

When we started taking over this task of generating the content, I was first tasked with researching Facebook posts by some of the client's competitors. I had to categorise the different types of posts made by their competitors and rank the different categories of posts by order of how popular they were, judging based on the number of likes and comments on each post. 

The result was that we could come up with posts that got more desirable results.

2. It's more important to do research.

Coming up with social media content is very time consuming. 

Where does good content come from? Research.

Even after the initial research was done, there was still more research to do. For example, whenever we had to draft a whole week's worth of content, we go through the past week of newspapers and weekly magazines for ideas. Five days worth of content required reading, reading and more reading. 

When we were still doing our academic modules, I never understood why every module had at least one lesson dedicated to research. Now I can proudly say, I understand the rationale.

Had we never done the research on the posts, I am sure we would never have been able to convince the client to use our content and ideas. When we had actual facts and figures, while the process was still not easy, it definitely made the job much easier.

Media Audit

Another research-based task I undertook during my placement was media audit. This was surely the best experience I've had. While it was dreadful, it was one good learning experience. 

Unlike writing press releases and coming up with strategies and tactics, media audit is not something that can be taught in school. 

What school can teach us about media audit: how it works, why do we need it, how can we go about doing it.

What school cannot teach us about media audit: the actual experience.

There were editors who were patient and cooperative; they answered the questions to the best of their abilities. Then there were editors who didn't want to take the conversation any further the moment they heard you were calling for a media audit.

From being nervous about making the call to dreading picking up the phone to being able to improvise questions on the spot, that was definitely an important learning curve for me. 

If understanding how relationships with the media work was the first 'what-you-can't-learn-in-school' lesson for me, this was definitely the second.

I guess this is why people say, experience truly matters.

With much love,
Magdalene
15096324
Curtin Singapore

Next post: Reflections!