Writing, speaking, listening and
reading. These four skills are the necessary ingredients for a mastery over
communication. If Public Relations is indeed ‘the management of communication
between an organisation and its publics’ (Grunig & Hunt 1984), then
mastering these skills will gain an individual advantage for the PR person.
Among the four main communication
skills, speaking has always been my most ‘dodgy’ skill. I did not speak English
daily at home – not until I went to Australia four years ago. To be able to
talk to Australians as if I am one of them, I would have said, would be an
unreachable dream, since there is not many among my Indonesian community that can
communicate and pronounce the English language properly to the Australian
community, let alone merge into the Australian culture altogether.
How does this relate to my
internship you may ask? Well, one of the tasks given to me is giving cold calls
to clubs. On around the first week of September, my supervisor wanted me to
inform clubs on the upcoming Clubs WA AGM for the 22nd October, in
the hope to get their awareness and attention in signing up one of their
members to the AGM.
The burden of the task given to me
gives me mix feelings. I like talking with people, since I like communication
in general (which is why I took Public Relations in the first place). However,
I know and understand the position I am in – an Indonesian guy who never joins
in any clubs in Australia.
A job is a job to be done, so I am
up and ready to do any tasks given to me. I refer back to PR Techniques class
where we learn how to construct a speech transcript for certain leaders in a
certain event. Although this does not relate to cold calling directly, it does
help me relate to common attributes of making speech and telephone call
transcripts. Some of these attributes are on keeping in mind who I am talking
to (target audience), ensuring that the words I chose to deliver is correct and
suitable for club leaders. I also kept in mind some questions that they might ask,
such as “what is the AGM?” or “How do I get it?”
I have to say that having a
transcript really helps me to talk. PR Techniques used well.
In the end, I called around 50
clubs in total telling them the same hello and questions. I got one or two in
which I hesitated and faced awkward conversation, but in all, I was able to
deliver the message to them. Not only does this cold-call job enhances my PR
skills in general, but also increases my confidence in speaking the English
language. My supervisor was happy when three people signed up to the AGM, as a
direct result of my conversation with them.
You may have noticed (or not) that
there is an AGM coming up on 22 October. In the next two blogs, I will talk and focus more about the upcoming event itself. Stay tune for my next story of my PR internship in Clubs WA!
