Building An Online Community

A community is made up of individuals and groups of people who all have a common interest, as either a stakeholder or general public.  A group of people with a common interest in a not-for-profit organisation are:

• Committed to the cause of the not-for-profit organisation;
• Believe in the core values of the not-for-profit organisation;
• Wanting to be more socially responsible; and
• Wanting to give back to their community. 

This is why it is crucial as public relations practitioners to be able to create an online community in today's digital world. Whether its through social media, its own website, phone apps and digital newspaper publications. 

In my second week interning at Global Hand Charity (GHC), I was going through the website looking for information on a media release that I was preparing, when I noticed it had "NO HISTORY SECTION. " 

I was quite shocked by this discovery. 

How are stakeholders and the general public supposed to know the origins of Global Hand Charity and why the charity was established in the first place...

So I made it my mission to create a History page for GHC. 

After having a meeting with the Founder and Vice Chairperson, and asking a load of questions about the history of Global Hand Charity.  I took a couple of  hours to look at the content and style of the site, as well as competitor website's to grasp an idea of what should be included in the section. Being in charge of creating a new page for the site was a new learning skill for me. So it take me a few days to fiddle around with until I was happy with the final product. 

Global Hand Charity History

The page is brief, but enough for any one to understand the origins of GHC. The charity has not been around for six years, so they do not have a longer history compared to other not-for-profit organisations with similar services. As time goes by and the years pass, more content will be added to the page. 

Global Hand Charity does not have a strong online presence in regards to its social media. They do have a Facebook page with more than 300 likes. One third of all their posts are reached but each like is most likely to receive less than 10 likes. GHC post content at least twice a month, depending on current projects taking place in Laos. The challenge as a PR practitioner is to figure out how to engage those who are aware of GHC to like and share the post. Thus, creating more buzz and awareness among the Perth community. 

It is crucial for the Global Hand Charity to be able to create and maintain an engaging online community.  If an organisation wants to increase its brand awareness and knowledge among its intended audience, this is a must. It may take a while and carefully thought out strategic communication, but it will pay off in the end. 

What Do I Really Know About PR...

It is my final semester at Curtin before I graduate and fully immerse myself into the real world.

Now it has come to that time when PR students are given the chance to showcase their skills. It will become an opportunity for me to apply my knowledge of PR techniques, skills and theories in practice at an organisation.

I am expecting the placement to be challenging and a definite change from working on PR Plans  in groups for unit assignments over the last few years.

For my placement I will be interning at a not-for-profit organisation called Global Hand Charity (GHC) Inc. The Perth based charity provides assistance and support to people living in third world countries by facilitating improved education. No deductions are made to employee staff or amenities, so everything done by the board members and staff is completely voluntary, and all donations go straight towards funding projects in Laos, its central focus of charity work. 

GHC has only been around for six years, so it is fairly new. I had no idea of its existence until I started looking for potential places to complete my placement. Global Hand Charity's goal is to raise the profile of its charity among the Perth community. 

Upon first meeting my supervisor at GHC, he asked me,

" What is PR and how will it help our charity?"

I had to pause and think about this for a moment. Not because I did not know the definition of PR, but I wanted to give an answer that would be easy for the supervisor to understand. A lot of definitions where going through my mind that I had learned and memorised throughout my studies, such as:

"The management of communication between an organizations and its publics." - (Grunig and Hunt, 1984).

                                                                                       

What I told him was "PR is similar to marketing, expect it is free." Not the best answer, but I did fell a little pressure on me, and it was simple enough for the supervisor to understand and get a grasp of. I gave him examples of ways that PR could help the charity raise its community profile, for example:

• creating a stronger and engaging social media presence;
• sending press releases; and
• creating a PR plan to ensure greater impact on communication to the target audience.

Until next time, 

Maria 15508764