20 days of pure bliss!

Time flies! 20 days of internship over! I enjoyed each and every minute of these days. I am of course really sad and I never thought I would be. I’ve actually been thinking of the day I would be done with the internship (before starting the internship).

I still remember the weeks I spent looking for an internship. I sent over 30 application letters. The application letter sent to Maluti Communications was among the first letters I sent. There was no answer; that's not a surprise, PR practitioners are always busy. There were only some days left before the start of the semester and I was a little bit frustrated because I wanted to start the internship during the holidays and be done with it as soon as possible.

I sent my CV to more than 30 organisations and I received only 3 responses. One of them told me they didn’t need an intern for the time being but they would keep my CV. Then another PR consultancy asked me to come for an interview and it was an interview of 2 hours! The longest 2 hours of my life! And as expected, I didn’t get the internship.

Here comes the third response!

I decided to call at Maluti and I talked to a guy. He gave me his name and of course, as anybody else, I looked for him on google! After a few phone calls, they offered me the internship. Bye bye the stress of getting an internship, hello stress of the first day!

I was worried for nothing, as usual. As soon as I reached the office, I loved it. A cosy office with trees all around: Pure Bliss! And the people there, they are the best! I learned so much from them and it was real fun working with them. So much fun that I was always ready to wake up early to go to work. And believe me, my bed is the love of my life.

I was lucky enough to get an internship in a PR consultancy where everybody is so nice and kind! Thanks to them, I’ve had the chance to be part of a press conference; I learned how to react to a real life crisis; I saw how real life and what is written in books could be different... I wish I could tell you about everything I learned, but there's so much that you would stop reading.

Let me summarise: Thanks to them, I spent 20 wonderful days!

If ever you are reading this post, thank you very much for everything. I spent 20 awesome days and I enjoyed each and every minute of these days all thanks to you. Words are not enough to express how grateful I am. You will always be remembered and you will be dearly missed. Thanks again!

P.S: The appraisal form was already sent to my lecturer when this post was published.

Media: Best Friend and Enemy

We all know how important the media is for PR. We were all told we needed to build good relationships with journalists. We even had a unit, Media Relations 250, on how to maintain good relationship with the media. However, we also know it is impossible to control the message; journalists publish or broadcast anything they want to.

Recently, I came across a news article in a Mauritian newspaper about a crisis of an organisation which is a client of the PR consultancy I am doing my internship with. Several employees of the company were refusing to abide by some regulations and were threatening to strike. The journalist who reported the crisis took into consideration only the point of view of the employees. It was written in the article that some employees were threatened to be sacked for some invalid reasons and the reporter did not mention the reasons he or she considered as 'invalid'. How far is that ethical? What was the aim behind it? I don’t know. I only know that the content of the article portrayed a bad image of the company.

I used that case study in a presentation last week and asked the other students how they perceived the company. They all gave positive comments. I then showed them the news article with emphasis on specific paragraphs and asked them again how they perceived the company. I received only negative comments. Some even told me that the company was unethical.

A single news article changed completely the students’ perception of the company. Even if the whole truth was not reported in the article, the readers believed what they read in the papers. This is normal because the media should normally be trustworthy and reliable. No matter what good actions the company did before and the good services it provides everyday, a single news article succeeded in affecting negatively its image.

Coming back to what really happened. The journalist did not mention anywhere in the article why these regulations were implemented. Of course, there were relevant reasons to that. The most important one: for the safety of the employees! And there were no threats of sacking, few employees were suspended for some days because they refused to abide by the rules.

How did the PR agency react to that? A media release was issued with all the reasons and benefits behind those new regulations. The release was sent to several media outlets and it was even published later in the evening on the company’s facebook account. The next day, several newspapers published articles on the reasons and benefits.

The media affected negatively the image of the company, the media itself helped in bringing back the good reputation of the company. 

20 minutes chrono

The roof of Cyber Tower 1

Last week I had the chance to assist my supervisor at Maluti Communications for a partnership announcement ceremony. The partnership announcement was about one of the local telematics leader associating itself with another world leader. The press was of course invited to the event. Everything was ready: press release was written, invitations were sent, media kits ready to be distributed… The big day was finally there and I was all thrilled to assist to my first press gathering. I thought everything would go as planned but I was wrong! 1.30pm. 30 minutes before the opening ceremony, my supervisor and I reached the venue which was Voilà Hotel at Bagatelle. We headed to the reception and asked which conference theatre. But then, due to some unforeseen situations, which I cannot mention here, the venue had to be changed. It was 1.40pm and only 20 minutes were left to fix and reorganise everything. I was amazed by the rapidity with which my supervisor thought of a solution. Just a couple of phone calls. Cyber Tower 1 in Ebene and the time was maintained. My supervisor organised for two vehicles to be sent to Voila Hotel for the journalists – in case some needed a lift in-between the two venues. My supervisor left Bagatelle at 1.45pm and I stayed back to inform the journalists about the last minute change. I was tensed and worried; I was wondering if everything would be ready for 2pm. I informed some journalists about the change and they preferred going to Ebene by their own transport. I waited till 2.10pm and left for the conference in one of the vehicle. I asked the other guy to wait till 2.40pm in case any journalist would be late. 2.20pm, I reached the new venue for the conference. I was pleased to see everything was going fine. The conference already started and we had an excellent media presence. The lesson learnt is that however planned and prepared an event could be, issues may always arise convert dreams into nightmares. One should always be ready and able to find quick and reliable solutions to these issues in these circumstances.

The power of banners

Yesterday, August 9, Ciel group and its partners organised the 7^th edition of the Ferney Trail at ‘La Vallée de Ferney’. The Ferney Trail is an annual mountain race open to everyone as from 6 years old to 80 years old. Maluti PR and Communications was part of the organisation team. Maluti took care of all the press relations (local and international). Media releases were sent to the press and on the day of the event, results were given to radio stations instantaneously. Maluti also updated the Facebook page of the Ferney Trail with relevant posts. On the day of the event, Maluti ensured everyone had what they needed and helped with the organisation.

Unfortunately, I joined Maluti only a week before the event and I could not help much with the preparation. I did not do much during the trail too; I only took some pictures for the facebook page but I did learn much. Sitting in front of your computer and writing an assignment on creating, organising and managing an event is very much different from participating as the organisation team to a real event. I was amazed when I reached La Vallée de Ferney and saw so many participants and sponsors all around. At that moment, I thought of how much hard work there was behind the scenes. I reached there at around 7am and I spent the whole day observing. The first thing that caught my attention was the presence of so many banners.

At that moment, I put myself in the skin of the organisations and asked myself if it was really worth it to display so many banners! Then all over the day, I kept on seeing the reasons why banners are displayed for events. The first thing that comes into the mind of the common people when seeing a banner of a particular organisation at an event is that it is kind from that particular company to help organising the event and consequently help raise funds for NGOs. The objectives of that particular organisation was not only to help but also create a good image of itself. By only displaying some banners with the organisation’s name on it, the organisation showed everyone who was at the Ferney Trail that it helped in some way to organise the event and is consequently perceived as a good organisation ready to help others.

Another thing that was not noticed but confirmed is that however cautious you can be, no event can be without flaws. We were often told in class that when organising an event we should be as much careful as we could but we should also keep in mind that nothing could be perfect and we should consequently always expect some issues and be prepared to solve them. 

Be myself or pretend to be better?

You think you are ready to work in the Public Relations field because you are a third year student? Now is the best time to see if you  are truly ready or not!

A picture at Maluti Communications

I am Gunadevi Chengalaram, third year BA Mass communication student with majors in PR and journalism at Charles Telfair Institute (CTI). I started an internship on Wednesday, 30 July at Maluti Communications which is an independent PR and Communication company existent since 2003. “We believe in hard work, dedication, results for clients ... and fun!”; this is the motto of Maluti and when I read it the first time on their website, my attention was drawn to the ‘fun’ part. That sentence made me believe that the team working there would be great people and I was right. I usually take some time to open myself to new people but this time it was different. It feels like I have known these people for a very long time. It is not a big office but it is a very cosy one with a young and dynamic team.

However, as expected, I am torn between showing I know perfectly what I am doing and asking whether I am doing the task the way it is expected from me or not. Should I be myself and ask questions when I am not sure or should I pretend to know? It is true that if I do not know and I do not ask about it, I may most probably not do the task correctly. On the other side, it may be something simple and I may look silly if I ask questions. Keeping in mind that the internship is a chance to obtain a job at the end, it is hard to decide whether to be oneself or to pretend to be perfect.

Yesterday, I was asked if I knew how to use photoshop. I did not know what to answer. I have some basic knowledge acquired during the design practice class in first year but I am not an expert in the field. I said I knew but not with a very confident tone and I guess my supervisor noticed that. Luckily, I managed to do whatever I was asked to without difficulties. I even received a mail from the supervisor saying that the work was ‘perfect’. I was just lucky this time!

I am maybe not the only one being hesitant to ask questions. So my advice to you would be to clear your doubts. You may look silly once but at least you will not be ignorant all your life. The sooner you clear your doubts, the better it is for your career.