The Importance of Online Presence

Hello,

Heading to the last week of my internship, I was asked to propose some ideas to the ECCEA to make it more connected. I was surprised to see that the organisation's website was not up-to-date and that it had no other online presence except of the website.

The task was not difficult because it was all about 'Facebooking' and showing the importance of having a well presented website and a YouTube account. Taking into account the stakeholders of the organisation, I prepared a brief that would fit the personality of the ECCEA, the 'Whys' and the importance of polishing an image for external communication. However, what came as a difficulty was to make the propositions accepted.

The fact that the website needed amends was acknowledged and a professional website developer was in the agenda of the director because the ECCEA has international stakeholders as well and the external image is very important. However, I found hesitations concerning the Facebook and the YouTube account. The underlying problem was who will have the responsibility to update the page and whether the person will be able to do it in a professional manner. Also, I realised that working in the government sector required far more discussion for propositions to be approved. For instance, updates concerning the ECCEA would need to pass on the board meeting and only after the approval of the board members, the propositions would be put into place.

Even though the organisation lacked online presence, the director knew about the notoriety of Facebook and YouTube and how it would impact stakeholders. The only difficulty was to assigning the role to someone who will be able to handle external communication effectively. And this how PR recommendations for the whole organisation cropped up. My only wish is that with the Ministry of Education making the effort to make the education sector more advanced and more connected, it does not forget the pre-primary sector in the process.

Regards,
Divya Ruggoo
15636429