Where Worlds Collide: The Marketing & PR Overlap

Tweet this quote now! 

When I first started my PR & Marketing degree, I always imagined that these two majors would rarely overlap in the real world. How wrong I was! I'm currently completing my internship at my place of work - I work 30 hours a week as the Marketing Assistant at WA PCYC - and my role has really proven how much all communications roles are intertwined. Even though PR isn't even included in my job title, about 50% of my role could be considered PR-based activities.

For example...

• I manage 1 Twitter page and 3 Facebook pages, and then oversee another 19 Facebook pages that our individual centres also have access to.
• I write media releases regularly and liaise with (mostly local) media most weeks - we need to have a great relationship with local media as our centres are scattered all over the State.
• With the above also comes maintaining media distribution lists, tracking which stories were picked up and ensuring we have copies for our records, which I'm also responsible for.
• I'm accountable for producing WA PCYC's bi-monthly newsletter, Intervention (which I'm excited to say will be getting a fresh new look soon!).
• I am currently on a three-person planning team for WA PCYC's 75th Anniversary Gala Dinner, which involves working closely with our internal stakeholders and various suppliers.
• I'm also on a three-person planning team for the 2016 Youth and Community Justice Conference, which will be held in October. The Conference boasts speakers like WA Police Commissioner Dr Karl O'Callaghan, Chief Justice of WA Wayne Martin AC QC, ACIC CEO Chris Dawson APM and the 2IC of ASIO, so stakeholder management is essential.
• For the above two events, I'm responsible for creating and implementing a PR plan to maximise ticket sales and secure media coverage of the events. I've also designed the invitations and programs for both events.
• Even in the more marketing-type duties I do, my PR skills are so valuable - you're not taught how to write succinct yet engaging copy in your marketing degree.

Since the cross-over between disciplines and duties can be pretty large (especially when you're working in an in-house comms role), I think having extra skills can always be helpful and can even give you a bit of an edge in interviews! If there were 3 tips I could give first year PR students, they would be:

1. Learn your way around the Adobe Suite.
   Having a basic knowledge of InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator will help you so much! I know that we now have Canva for creating social media tiles, but I sometimes find some of my favourite fonts aren't supported by the platform - plus it's not a photo-editing software. Adobe offers a great deal on their student subscription, so it's worth checking out. There are heaps of free tutorials on Youtube to help you on your way.   
2. Learn how to read and code basic HTML.
   I'm not saying that you need to know how to code an entire website, but even knowing how to insert a picture or create bold text through code will put you in good stead. In fact, while formatting this post I had to go in to the HTML editor to override the rich-text "compose" mode, as it wasn't formatting the way I wanted it to look. Codecademy has some FREE basic courses you can take if you're unsure where to start.
3. Learn how to use different communications platforms.
   MailChimp, SurveyMonkey, PRWire and Hootsuite are just some of the platforms you'll encounter in your travels, and if you're a proficient user of them you'll be making your bosses life so much easier. Plus, if your boss hasn't used that specific platform before, you've now got a unique skill to bring to the table. Win-win! 

Tweet this quote now!

I'm by no means professing to be an expert, so I'd love to learn from you!
What are your top three tips for PR students/graduates to help put them a step above their competition? 

'Til next time,
Jess.

GS,GA,WA,C,WD,GD,GK,PR : The Role of PR

Public Relations. 
By third year we know what's up.
We know that Grunig and Hunt describe it as the "management of communication between an organization and its publics," (Grunig & Hunt, 1984), but in layman's terms I often find myself describing PR as "professional communication", "everything from internal communications, to media relations to event management," and every so often I spout, "PR people manage all the communication between a business or an organisation and the people who are interested in or affected by their business/organisation, we kinda make sure that everyone knows what they need to or want to know."

Going deeper than this might require me to explain that each piece of communication is considered, planned and implemented depending on who the message is aimed at and the unique way that this specific audience consumes their information, but usually people aren't that interested.

I suppose my main point of reflection here is that PR is a very diverse field of practice, my internship placement has only confirmed this as truth.

The structure of the coms team at Netball WA does not have a specific role PR role. Working underneath the Communications GM are a whole team of people dedicated to different areas, who I have noted each take on a lat least a little bit of PR in their role.

Media & Communications Manager:
At Netball WA this probably the closest thing to a 'PR person' that they have. He deals with, of course, media enquiries, writes releases, liaises with journalists and briefs professional players on their public appearances and speeches. However, he also goes beyond his media role and, in 2015 when the Netball WA coms team were originally formed, I believed that is was mostly this guy who developed an official "Media and Communications Strategy" detailing a coms plan complete with goals and objectives linked to Netball WA's five-year strategic plan.

Digital Marketing Coordinator:
As Digital Marketing Coordinator, predictably, this guy covers off on the online marketing content and also advises on and coordinates more traditional marketing channels. On top of this, this role includes keeping tabs on online sentiment regarding Netball WA including the professional Western Australian Team, West Coast Fever. This media monitoring component also involves crafting responses to rumours, queries and feedback through online channels. This guy also works together with the Membership and Events coordinator on promotion and communications in this area.

Graphic Designer: 
The Graphic Designer role is crucial in all of the communications, this role is probably the least 'PR' in the coms team, however, still has a vital impact on the brand of all content produced and each design decision helps to build and maintain a brand and organisation image.

The following roles, according to Netball WA, are not included in the communications team, however I have noted that they are very involved in PR activities.

Sponsorship and Corporate Sales Manager: 
This role is highly involved with a number of very influential stakeholders and is the face of corporate and sponsorship communication. This is arguably one of the most vital PR roles at Netball WA, without the major sponsorships secured and stable, their is no funding for any organisational activities.


Membership and Events Coordinator:
The Membership and Events Coordinator is also a vital PR role as it is the one that faces out to the some of the most engaged stakeholders. This role is provides a consistent reply to member and events queries, and also liaises with the Digital Marketing Coordinator and the rest of the communications team to deliver consistent messages across the owned, earned and paid communications channels (including media releases, social media content, the Netball WA and West Coast Fever websites and direct email communications.)

During the course of my time at WA I jumped between these roles, among other things I reviewed membership feedback for the Membership and Events Coordinator, I created program tailored marketing strategies for the Digital Marketing Coordinator, I made wrote media releases and listed media contacts for the Media and Communications Manager and did competitor and legal research for the whole team.

All of these things were PR, and yet they all fitted under the umbrella's of each role in the team. Perhaps a better awareness of PR theory and best practice would help the team at Netball WA to better coordinate across departments and allow for more succinct and effective justification of funding for PR activities? Hopefully my report will highlight some of the ways they can apply PR to increase the effectiveness of their already (unconsciously?) implemented PR strategies.

While it's not immediately apparent, even to the people who are coordinating and implementing PR activities, PR is not an option, you either choose to do it well or leave it by the wayside to be done badly.

References:
Grunig & Hunt (1984). Managing Public Relations. p. 4.
Netball WA Staff Contacts. http://wa.netball.com.au/contact-us/staff-contacts/.

Game On : Ethics and Business Partnerships

Game On : Ethics and Business Partnerships:

Last weekend I attended the 'Smarter than Smoking Western Australian Netball League Grand Final' as part of my internship. While that name is very detailed and all-encompassing, from this point on I'll refer to the event as the WANL Grand Final, for obvious reasons.

But, as you'll notice in the Netball WA content, the 'Smarter than Smoking' name stuck at all times, as was vital for their agreement with Healthway as a major partner. While event naming rights, signage, uniform logos and MC mentions on game day were all expected and rather standard, there was a little more to this partnership than was originally obvious.

On Tuesday, back in the offices at the State Netball Centre, I was tasked with writing a follow-up media release for the weekend's events. Great! But there was a twist. Another part of Healthway's partnership states that a certain amount of content each season must be released from Netball WA promoting Healthways messaging, in this case the "Smarter than Smoking" message. It felt a little sinister, a little sneaky even, having to find an angle that somehow worked this message into the release. As a Journalism/PR double major student I felt especially like I was going against my media ethics training.

I was curious, not having heard about this kind of content-based agreement within a partnership before, so I asked a few questions. According to the media relations officer at Netball WA, this kind of sponsorship is negotiated between the two organisations, with Netball WA preferring this method, as opposed to receiving Healthway content straight from the horses mouth, and then having to attempt to put a netball twist on things.

Which made sense, this way, we chose a netball angle and subtly worked in the smarter than smoking message. However in some ways it might have been better for it to be less subtle, and more obviously (and ethically) a partnership deal.

Having considered all this, I gave the release a good old crack. My morals aligned with Healthway messaging, and the fact that these athletes can actually attribute a lot of their on-court success to their diligence and dedication with healthy choices, including training, diet, and other healthy habits, off the court. Given those facts, I didn't feel like such a propaganda pusher, but I definitely would've had a different feel about things had the organisations and their goals not been so well matched and the messaging not so well aligned with my own morals.

I guess this is the kind of ethical issue that you take on a case to case basis, however my personal stance remains that transparency and clarity about paid/advertorial content is always for the best.

The Importance Of Research

The importance of research;

Until recently my placement organisation Netball WA had been essentially flying from the seat of their pants in terms of communications strategy. While what they describes as a “going with the gut” feeling has evidentially not had any serious ramifications on their business success, it’s an approach they finally reconsidered. As far as I can gather from chatter with my supervisor (Netball WA’s Communications Manager) and those who work under him, the communications team was a one or two man show up until 2015. With the addition of four extra staff members, a ‘Communications Team’ appeared, complete with a Media Relations Officer, Social Media and Marketing Officer, Graphic Designer/Photographer and Events Manager/Membership Coordinator.

Under the Events Manager/Membership Coordinator I completed one of my first major projects at my internship, while that was a week or two ago, I was recently reminded of the importance of the work I was doing whilst in a Public Relations Planning and Evaluation seminar earlier this week. The seminar, entitled ‘making a case for communication’, explored the ways that research and evaluation in PR can help to justify the existence of communications teams in businesses and organisations.

Clearly, a core part of the business at Netball WA is to ensure the WA netball team (West Coast Fever) have well-engaged and happy members. The work that I was doing, while rather laborious, was to analyse membership feedback data from the recently finished 2016 season, compile trends and finally recommend some changes to the way the memberships were handled based on the feedback data. This kind of research is an example of the data and analysis that can contribute to ensuring that West Coast Fever members are well engaged and happy with their membership experiences. Not only does this kind of communication and research help to achieve this business objective, it allows a concrete connection to be made between the quality of this communication and the rate of member retention and registration. This kind of data gathering and analysis is not only a great example of a feedback channel in operation (part of the 2-way symmetric model of communication in action), but also a fine example of a way that professional communications justifies itself and it’s place in a business or organisation.

While back in first year, research may have seemed like an inconvenient prequel to an exciting PR plan, looking back through my third-year goggles I can definitely see that not only is research a fundamental foundation to the formation of clear communications goals and objectives, but it is essential also as an ongoing review and monitoring activity. Without this continuous reflection upon our PR efforts and their results, the efforts themselves are nullified in the way that we have no record of their effectiveness, and their results are practically invisible to CEO’s and organisational boards.

Research is an not only an essential starting point, but it comes into play at both the mid, end and review points of any PR activity in the forms of all kinds of feedback lines as well as the day-to-day monitoring conducted by PR practitioners.

This has finally solidified for me having seen the kind of tasks performed daily by the Netball WA Communications Team, without research no plan or proposal can be justified.

A First Look into the Real World of PR

Mikayla Wearne 17081270 - Bentley


Hey everyone,

I have just completed the first week of my internship and this is my story so far!

I arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Friday the 1st of July, just two weeks after I had been told that I had been successful in attaining an internship in KL at Go Communications. This gave me the weekend to get to know the two other girls also completing an internship with GO, gather my bearings and explore the main city. Monday crept up fast and I was nervous going in on my first day, I was in another country and had no idea what to expect. To my delight we were warmly welcomed and each assigned to a team. There are 3 teams at GO, A-Team, Elite and Vuvuzela, I was placed in A-team. Each team has a list of clients they are responsible for, they conduct many different types of PR for these clients which is great because it means there is a lot of variety and lots to learn.




We were shown around the office which is medium in size, with around 30 employees. We were introduced to everyone, including the CEO Paul De Krester who is from Australia, his father, Michael De Krester was the CEO before him so it is almost like a family here, everyone seems very close.


We were then each given a desk with a computer and phone and given instructions on how to create a GO Communications email, how to access the intern folders, how to use the printer and scanner and what we should do everyday when we first come into the office. Everyday I needed to conducted online media monitoring too look for news mentions of the clients, media monitoring was an activity I had heard lots about but never actually conducted myself. I was told to use key words from any recent events or press releases sent as a benchmark for my searches and if that was not applicable, to do a general search including a search of key sponsors involved.










At lunch time I joined my team at a traditional Malay restaurant where I was able to try some local traditions and get to know my team members on a more personal level.



After arriving back in the office after lunch I was introduced to traditional media monitoring. Looking at every newspaper and magazine released on that day I was to search for news mentions of the clients, their competitors, mentions of their industry area and anything press related in regards to their company. After these had been found, I was shown how the articles needed to be presented for the clients’ records, I was shown how to find the PR value of these articles using a formula and made use of the Media Planning Guide.




The next day I was introduced to the process of compiling monthly reports for GO’s clients, these reports included an executive summary, overview of key activates, an activity time sheet, media effectiveness index, media coverage breakdown, press coverage and industry related news. This was all new to me as I hadn’t complied reports like this throughout my studies before. My main job for my second day was to complete the media coverage, press coverage and industry related news spreadsheets for the reports. This was quite a tedious job but nether the less I still enjoyed it and it defiantly gave me some new skills and knowledge.

As my first week was leading up to the Hari Raya festive season which is a “festive breaking of the fast,” I had the opportunity to gain a true understanding of this important tradition and look at some of the festive events our clients were hosting. At the beginning of my second week I helped create a note to the editor, event release and event listing for one particular clients’ “Open House Hari Raya Celebration.” I really enjoyed this task as I was able to convert my learning into practice and for the first time ever actually create these documents for real-life clients. I'm really excited to attend this event on Saturday and see first hand how an event like this plays out.

Balancing our professional and personal lives

What a coincidence that the first day of my internship falls on my birthday! It is very hard to balance both professional and personal lives. When we do start a new job, we often ask ourselves, “Is it OK to have a close relationship with our colleagues?” or “is it OK to add them on Facebook?” One of the dilemmas of modern life is how to manage one’s connections’ and relationships’ on social media. The big question is how do we separate our professional lives from our personal lives?

Ideally, it is better to keep both areas separated but it is hard to achieve that. We all use the same brain in every situation. How will you switch off some regions of your brain depending on the surroundings? My experience is that it is all mixed up.

Professionalism is fundamental in this case. Once you start connecting with colleagues, especially on Facebook, you will want to maintain a professional presence and not forget the responsibilities you have for the company, but of course, you might still want to share those crazy party photos and, in my case, birthday celebrations.

In order to separate your work network from your friends, you will want to create friend lists. At minimum, you will want to create a list with the people you work with. You can use this list to post updates that are only to be shared with your work colleagues, but more importantly, you can use this list to post updates that are to be hidden from work colleagues. You may also want to add mutual friends of yours and your work colleagues to that list as some updates are shared to friends of friends as well.

At the end of the day, it is up to you to make the judgement of whether to mix business with pleasure. Everyone is different and have different backgrounds and work ethics. Just do what you think it’s right for you.

X Hannah

Goodbye and a tiny cactus

I’m finished! It was 10 of the toughest weeks of my life trying to juggle my internship, my usual job and three other uni units – but it was one of the most important and uplifting career experiences I’ve had.

Here are some of important nuggets of wisdom I’ve learnt through my internship at LiveLighter that I’d like to pass on to you all:

1. By August this year, Facebook will make changes to reduce newsfeed "clutter" from organisation's pages. This will mean that organisations' posts will have next to no organic reach. This essentially means that organisations (both businesses and not-for-profits) will have to pay to boost almost all of the Facebook content they post, rather than relying on it being organically shared to their followers and through likes and shares to non-followers. This will mean that organisation’s Facebook posts will likely become less frequent, but more professional. Social media managers will have to consider the organisational benefits of each Facebook post (as they are putting money behind it) and will have to be looking more closely at KPIs to make sure their Facebook posts are worth the financial investment. These changes will likely impact you just as you’re starting to get jobs at the end of this year – so keep this in mind.

2.       2.  A useful exercise to ‘sharpen’ an organisation’s social media presence is to come up with a very specific profile of a hypothetical person who fits into your target audience. For LiveLighter, the Comms team came up with the hypothetical person “Tracey Turner.” Tracey is a mum in her late forties, works as a part-time receptionist at her local tyre power, likes Take 5 magazine and Today Tonight, and has tried a number of different diet programs but keeps putting the weight back on. Before creating a Facebook post we would have to think “how can I make this post appeal to Tracey?” which helped us to make sure we were creating content that was actually engaging our target audience.

3.       3. Pay attention to who’s liking your content on different social media platforms. LiveLighter’s Facebook was mostly middle-aged women who were looking to make lifestyle changes for themselves and their family, whereas LiveLighter’s Twitter following was mostly health professional looking for resources to share with their patients and clients. We had to tailor different posts for each platform to cater for these specific audiences.

4.       4. Bring a notepad and pen with you everywhere! You may think you can remember everything that’s discussed in a meeting, or all the points your manager wants you to include in the media release, but I can assure you that you won’t. Good note-taking will ensure you’re not annoying people by asking them to repeat what they said.

5.      5.  Blogging is still a thing. I’ve had many blogging-based assignments for my Internet Communications degree and always complained that nobody still reads blogs. But they actually do – LiveLighter’s health advice blog is one of their most successful social media platforms.

6.      6.  Only wear dresses and skirts you’d be comfortable climbing up stairs in to your internship. If it’s going to shimmy up your thighs as you’re climbing, leave it in the wardrobe.

7.     7.   I’d also recommend getting your mentor and other team members you worked closely with a small present to say thank-you for taking you on as an intern. It leaves a positive lasting impression of you as a worker and person. I got everyone in my team a bunch of flowers, and they got me a tiny cactus (I know you were wondering how the cactus comes into it).

Thank you for reading my blog posts. I'll continue to follow your internship adventures.

All the best,

Bec

Stakeholder communications can be fun and engaging (here’s how)

I thought the media launch for the new LiveLighter TVCs would be the most interesting event I’d attend as part of my internship, but I had no idea how great the stakeholder launch would be!

The purpose of the stakeholder launch was to introduce LiveLighter’s stakeholders to the new TVCs, as well as the new resources (cookbooks, leaflets, online resources, merchandise). The stakeholders were mostly from other health promotion agencies that use LiveLighter’s messages and resources in their work, and governing bodies like Healthway and PHAIWA (Public Health Advocacy Institute of WA).

Before the actual stakeholder launch, I got to sit in on another interview for the H+M (Health + Medicine) liftout in the West Australian. This time the interview was with the two experts who we had as spokespeople for the new campaign – nutrition expert Professor Amanda Lee and gastroenterologist Associate Professor Leon Adams. Because the interviews were for H+M, the interviewees could go more in-depth with medical and nutrition science terminology and explanations than they could with their interviews at the media launch. This seemed to make both interviewees a lot more at ease, as they didn’t have to worry about dumbing-down the science (which is much harder to do than you’d think).

My job for the stakeholder launch was to live tweet the event. It was the first time I’d done a live-tweet and it was quite exhilarating (in a PR dork kind of way). We’d stuck posters all around the lecture theatre with LiveLighter’s twitter handle and the hashtag for the launch (#junkfree), and encouraged any Twitter users present to live tweet the event as well. We had a number of the attendees participating in the live tweet, including guest speaker Amanda Lee. I had to think on my toes and let go of my perfectionist tendencies when doing the live tweet. My engaged twitter audience was seeing things at the same time as me, so I had to make sure I tweeted things in real time.

After my experience, my advice for anyone doing a professional live tweet for the first time is:

-        -   Try and memorise exactly what the speaker is saying as they say it – verbatim quotes are perfect for live tweeting

-        -   If possible, ask the speakers for a copy of their PowerPoint before the presentation – it looks much better to tweet a screenshot of a slide than a photo of it being projected on a screen

-       - Ask key players (eg. Campaign director, guest speakers) to get involved on their personal accounts – some audiences members may be more comfortable to tweet their questions rather than ask them in front of a room full of people

I have to share a photo of the creative healthy catering for the event – fruit pizzas in pizza boxes, veggies sticks and dip in chip buckets and mushroom “cheeseburgers.” The catering at a health promotion event is always under a lot of scrutiny and LiveLighter cleverly tied it into their junk food theme.

I think one of the main reasons of I enjoyed the stakeholder launch so much was the sense of being a part of a committed team. The whole LiveLighter team (not just the Comms staff) pitched in to help with the event and it ran like clockwork because there were so many hands on deck.

On a slight tangent, I’ve noticed that because Communications (and health promotion as well) are female dominated industries, a large percentage of the staff are part-time. This had presented me with some challenges regarding whether it’s crossing professional boundaries to text/email co-workers with a work-related question if it’s their day off, and has made me appreciate how difficult it is to schedule a team meeting when everyone works different days.

What do you think about the work-force having greater part-time flexibility? Is it better for families/post-graduate study opportunities, or impacting workplace productivity?

Until next time,

Bec

The media launch! How we unveiled our new advertisements with PR flair

On Sunday we had the media launch for the new LiveLighter TVcommericals, which was an important learning experience to say the least!

We’d hoped to get as many Perth metro news outlets to the event as possible for an advanced preview of the new TV commercials, as well as presentations and interview opportunities with health and nutrition experts. We’d hoped to secure a lot of media coverage around the new ads so that viewers would see them and go “oh – these are the ads that everyone’s been talking about” and watch them more actively. We had also hoped to get some public discussion going about Australia’s junk food consumption and some follow-up media elicited by the initial news stories (talk-back radio often repeats stories that are in that day’s newspaper).  

The media launch event really drove home to me how unreliable the media can be. We originally had four media outlets confirm that they were coming to the event, but channel 7 were the only station that showed up. The West Australian couldn’t make it, but asked for a voice recording of the presentation (alongside the general media release). Here are some photos of the media launch set-up:

 Prop from the filming of the new advertisements made a great feature decoration

 Our display of situations where people often eat junk food (eg, had to stay late at work, 3pm pick-me-up, etc.) to show frequency of Australians' junk food consumption

Set-up of the room for the media launch

In the end we got a couple of media mentions from the launch: a short piece on Channel 7 Sunday night news (which has a very high viewership), an article on page 7 of the West Australian (below) and an online article on the West’s website on Monday morning.

It was interesting to see how the different news outlets went with different news angles based on the same media release and launch – channel 7 focused on the new ads being shocking and “graphic”, whereas the West Australian went with the new link between fatty liver disease and obesity as their angle. I think the way LiveLighter’s PR manager wrote the media release was highly effective, as there was lots of newsworthy content within it, which allowed different equally-newsworthy angles to be used by the media. This is a technique that I’d like to employ in my future media release writing.

Immediately after the media launch, we had a photoshoot with a family we were hoping to have as the focus of a Sunday Times article about ways families can avoid junk food. It’s true what they say: don’t work with animals or kids! It took around an hour to get the shot we needed because the kids couldn’t keep still and were getting very bored and impatient. We ended up getting the shot, but not needing it because the Sunday Times now wants a story about a family going on a “challenge” to quit junk food, rather than a family that’s already very healthy. Again, working with the media can be somewhat frustrating at times. I wrote the pitch for the Sunday Times article, so am still pretty stoked that the PR manager liked my work enough to pitch it to the media.

I'd love to hear about other people's media experiences so far, feel free to leave a comment.

Until next time,

Bec