Rethinking PR

Posting this right at the end so I'd collect my thoughts on this experience. It has been great stepping out of class and going into the real world. The concrete jungle is not as scary after all! It was a great before graduation.

I remember, before going into university, I said I wanted to do PR because I love events and I do not want to be confined to an office job. A PR practitioner then responded that I could not be any more surprised it is exactly that. I looked at him in confusion and disbelief then but it all connects now. BUT it's not all that bad either. Most of my tasks were generated looking at this view with my laptop and using the internet. It is not glamorous and PR is not a glamorous field BUT when it all comes together at the end, it sure is exciting. Seeing my designs go live on the project website was great.

Although we learnt different aspects of PR in class, I still personally had a very strong customer focused approach to PR. I had a very focused customer-appeal approach carrying out my tasks. Reflecting on my internship, a question always comes to mind - "do I want to pursue a career in PR?" To answer that, I then had to figure out where do I fit within the world of PR. And it suddenly hit me 

PR is all around us. 

In the midst of everything, I forgot how dynamic PR is. 

This photo above perfectly says what I now think about PR and my experience, while the photo below is a representation of how my experience looked like. Public Relations is more than client engagement. A conversation in the office between the directors and myself were PR too! Internal relations. Daphne, from the Miri campus (blog linked here) mentioned that good PR should be practiced by everyone and I could not agree more. Good PR can be practiced in all aspects even as simple as maintaining good conversational skills. (personal branding)

Overall, it's a reminder that the world is changing and so is PR. As a PR student, I am reminded how vital it is to keep an open mind and to absorb everything like a sponge. Creativity and adaptability is a key attribute in the industry. It's an exciting time for PR and for us, soon-to-be graduates! 

Writing my closing blog post next.

Till then, 

Quin 

All good things must come to an end

As I am writing this post I have just finished my second last week at the WAEC (it really went flying by didn't it?!). While it is sad that my internship is almost over, it definitely hasn't been all doom and gloom.

Some exciting things have happened and are happening at the WAEC! Firstly, I worked at my first proper event, helping out with the WAEC's enrolment drive at the Royal Show last week. I was given the task of helping to confirm enrolments of those who were interested in our booth, the freebies and our competition (involving an IGA gift card & and iPad Air 2!). All interns were given a WAEC polo top to wear on the day (and to keep) and it definitely helped me to feel even more a part of the team. A great experience I'll remember!

Secondly, the fellow interns and myself have been given the fun task of creating some social media content to link into the new advertising campaign and the other social media posts that have been created. We will be at Curtin University next Tuesday to do some Vox Pops with students, asking them to name the new election mascot/character and a few questions about elections and voting. We'll be in our WAEC polo tops so if you see us around, definitely say hi and get involved (we may have some freebies to give away too)..

After almost 20 days at the WAEC, I feel very proud of myself and what I've accomplished. I began the 20 days with the big task of improving our social media channels and have successfully created some images that will hopefully be used during the election timeline from enrolment to polling day. I definitely wouldn't have been able to do this alone and would like to thank my fellow interns for their great ideas and constructive criticism.

Now to make the final week count! See you in my final blog post!

Until next time,
Isabella Olivera (17742580)

WAEC @ the Perth Royal show 2016 - Photo Credit: WAElections Facebook

Just one of the social media posts I've made for our election timeline! This one is a reminder for early voting

Week one: Success!

Hi everyone! I am currently entering the second week of my PR internship at Cannings Purple, located in West Perth. 

On my first day, I arrived at the office at 8.20am, surprisingly feeling much more relaxed than I had anticipated. As I walked into the office I introduced myself to one of the colleagues I recognised from my interview a few months prior. She gave me a tour of the office and pointed out what the different areas were and who worked in which department. I was introduced to a number of people and was greeted with a warm welcome from everyone who passed me in the office.

At 9.00am, the office has a daily meeting which they call WTF, or What’s the Focus. These meetings are designed to keep everyone informed of the daily activities occurring in the office, and give people a chance to put their hand up for extra work when they have capacity. The meetings are usually quite short, but there is always some form of banter going on between everyone and a lot of laughter. I think the meetings are a great idea, as they not only keep everyone up-to-date, but they also get the energy of the office up and create a happy environment for everyone to begin their day.

Once the meeting was finished, I had a brief chat with one of the executives to discuss what I would do on my first day. She directed me towards the Investor Relations area, and from there I was given a research project on dysprosium, a rare earth element that is predominantly mined in China. The reason for this research was to gain an understanding on the future outlook for dysprosium in order to give advice to investors on whether they should invest in a client called Northern Minerals. Northern Minerals is a mining company that is currently set up in the Northern Territory who are the first mining company in Australia to mine the rare earth element. My research for this project is still underway, however I have definitely learnt a lot from it, as it has not only broadened my understanding of the element and its uses, but also on how to conduct effective research. I found this task very interesting, as I discovered that dysprosium is a material used in many sustainable energy innovations, such as electric vehicles and wind turbines. As sustainability is an area I am very interested in and hope to end up working in, I found the content that I researched very valuable to learn. 

I was then given my second task for the day, in the area of Corporate Affairs. This task involved generating social media content for a client called Business Foundations. I produced a total of 18 Facebook posts and 18 Twitter posts on a variety of subjects regarding the company and their service offerings. My supervisor was very pleased with my work, which was a big confidence boost!

My second day was very similar and just carried on completing both tasks from the day before. On day three I was given a new task that required urgent research for a client called Landscorp. I was instructed to gather information such as population and economic data for various WA towns. The information needed to be sourced from credible sites and completed by that afternoon. Finding population size and demographics was quite easy, as I gathered most of this information from the ABS website. However I was surprised to find that the most recent data was taken from 2014, and even then majority of the information I needed was from 2011. I began to stress that the client would not be pleased with these outdated results. From there I became more stressed when trying to find information regarding any major projects occurring in the area and really struggled when it came to some of the less well-known areas. Thankfully I sent a draft copy to my supervisor of the work I’d already completed and was told I was on the right track and to continue doing what I was doing. That was a major relief and suddenly the task was much easier to do.

After completing my first week I can definitely say I am looking forward to graduating university and entering the workforce! I know that this internship will be a valuable learning asset towards my career and I am very excited for the days ahead! 

Benchmarking and Recommendations: A real world perspective

My project is all about improving the WAEC's website & social media and in order to do that, the topics of benchmarking and recommendations are heavily involved.

Firstly, the WAEC aims to make their website more user-friendly and easier to navigate. My task was to go through the website, the content and how it was all organised.

As a student who has had to visit the WAEC website to find information for assignments, I had an understanding of what information could be made more accessible and how information may be able to be presented differently. Regardless, I thoroughly analysed the website's presentation and content in order to provide recommendations for how this could be presented differently.

I have recently been told that my recommendations have been taken on board and that a couple will be featured on the new website. One of these recommendations is the creation of a legal page that will include all relevant legislative documents as well as information on election fines (that are issued for not voting). I was very surprised and ecstatic to hear this news.

Improving the social media channels however, has proved to be a more difficult task. It is important to mention that the WAEC has regulations on what can & can't be posted to social media to ensure political neutrality. In order to make recommendations for the WAEC's channels, I first had to look at what the other electoral commissions in Australia were posting to their channels.

Benchmarking has always been emphasised in our PR units and I've never really given it much thought until now. By having a look at the other electoral commissions, I found a great amount of similarities and differences.

Some of the similarities include but are not limited to:

• Social media guidelines regarding political neutrality
• Promotion of election information and content (as various states are in the process of conducting state & local government elections)
• The specific social media sites used (every commission has an official Facebook page and a majority also use Twitter and Youtube)

The major differences between commissions is how the information is presented. For example the Victorian Electoral Commission uses animated videos to provide electoral information while the NSW Electoral Commission uses power-point lecture styled videos to present similar information. 

There were also differences in the consistency of usage. For example, the Tasmanian Electoral Commission has not updated their Facebook since July, while the WAEC tends to update their Facebook weekly. 

I have found the benchmarking process very eye-opening and helpful for the creation of recommendations for social media content and presentation. My next project involves the creation of a content schedule as well as the creation of content for fixed events in the election timeline (role close, early voting, etc.) and thus the findings from my benchmarking & recommendations will very much come in handy.

Only 10 more days left of my internship and the pressure is on to make the most of it.

Until next time,

Isabella

An end to an amazing internship | importance of appropriate issue response!

Hi Everyone!

My internship with RSPCA WA unfortunately has come to an end; I have really enjoyed being an intern for the company and believe I have gained valuable knowledge about communications in the real world.

Through studies and my intern I have learnt that social media is a great platform for personal communication with publics, however publics are given the opportunity for a convenient, fast vent or express negative feedback rapidly. We had this problem with our Cupcake Day Facebook event. Although Cupcake Day is meant to be a happy event to raise funds for a great cause, there is always going to be someone whose views or opinions differ. Although we promote the use of RSPCA approved products in the baking of cupcakes, we had a few people with vegan lifestyles spread negative opinions about ‘Cupcake Day’ and RSPCA for creating such an event. This made me realise how important it is to respond immediately with an appropriate response in order to prevent the issue growing further. I crafted some responses and let my supervisor look over them and responded appropriately.

In a happy light, Cupcake Day was a fun-cupcake filled day where all staff came together to eat cupcakes and ran a competition for the best creations. After the event, I thanked a few of our sponsors on the Facebook page and wrote up some marketing debriefs for our Facebook advertisements and for our event page, and gave some suggestions for next year.

Gorgeous puppies we had for Cupcake Day

We received many creative cupcake creations from hosts!

My experience with RSPCA was wonderful, I had a supportive team and my supervisor was very helpful and I felt I could ask any questions I needed to ensure I had an understanding what was required of me.

Good luck to everyone and the rest of your internships,

Best of luck,

Jasmine

Introduction To My Internship

For my internship I wanted to do something different and get out of my comfort zone as much as I possibly could. This resulted in me landing an amazing opportunity to intern at Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego. Last year when visiting my family in Newport Beach, California I expressed my interest and passion for public relations to my uncle and he said he had a great contact for me. I set up a shadow day at Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego where I spent the day seeing what it would be like working as part of a hotel in the areas of public relations, events and marketing. This day that I had last year is what inspired me to reach out to the hotel and see if they would accept me as an intern for the summer.

Fast forward to now, I have just completed my first two weeks at the hotel and can most definitely already say it is going to be such an amazing experience. At the end of day one I had already learnt so much and it is such a satisfying feeling to put into practice what I had learnt in class as well as realizing how much I truly enjoy the practice.

I thought I would use my first blog post as a chance to introduce my internship as well as some of the projects I took on in the first two weeks before all the Comic-Con craziness begins. My first day at the hotel consisted mostly of orientation; I had to learn my way around the huge hotel as well as get to know all the people I would be working with for the next month. My first two weeks I was given a range of different tasks from creating a "Which Cocktail Are you" quiz for an e-blast to promote a new partnered cocktail company, to creating radio scripts, pitching press releases, to the job I'm sure we've all done plenty of by now - creating media lists.

A project I completed that I really enjoyed was that I was asked to walk around the hotel and surrounding areas and take photos of things I found interesting and draft up some social media posts to be used in the upcoming months. I used this as an opportunity to be creative and as the hotel features music memorabilia, I researched some of the artists who had upcoming birthdays so we could tribute to them on social media. I also researched national days that were relevant to the hotel such as 'National Piano Day' and 'National Romance Day'. Once I had all my content I used a tool called Sprout Social to schedule these posts for Facebook and Twitter for the upcoming months.


As there was a lot going on in San Diego at the time such as the all-star baseball game, pride day and Comic Con; it was not hard finding interesting content for the hotels social media platforms. All of my scheduled posts were published on the hotels Instagram, Twitter and Facebook which was quite an exciting moment for me. I have attached some of the social media posts below that have now been published on the hotels social media.

At Hard Rock Hotel, social media and PR are executed by two different directors, my role in the company was positioned between the director of PR and the digital marketing manager. Through this I learnt that the units I completed throughout my degree had prepared me extremely well for practicing the traditional forms of PR as well as the new media.


I am not sure whether hospitality and hotels is where my future in public relations lies, but most definitely the industry of lifestyle and entertainment. I enjoyed my first two weeks of my internship so much and can't wait to learn and experience so much more.

AIME for the Best

New environments can be daunting at first, even one that is based at Curtin University. You have the initial introduction to your colleagues, observing the team in which you will be working in, as your internship begins its 1st day.  However, following this quick initiation it seems as if you are thrown into the deep end.  

 

Hi everyone, my name is Libby and I am interning for AIME at the Curtin University campus. Although we are delving into what could be described as the ‘real world’ on training wheels, taking that first step is very exciting.  

AIME (Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience) is a non-for-profit organisation focused on closing the gap on post-schooling opportunities and outcomes for Australian Indigenous students. The mission of AIME is to reach 10,000 Indigenous children by the year 2018, guiding their transition into university, employment or further education or training. It is heart-warming to know that I will be a part of this journey in some small way.

 

If you would like to know more about this wonderful organisation and how it was brought to life, watch this episode of Australian Story, introducing the CEO of AIME, Jack Manning Bancroft. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt5RxdQRFR4

The first day...

I get a text the day before stating that my first day was to be held at Murdoch University. Always expect the unexpected, plans change and it is our duty to be adaptive to these changes. 

So what do you know, the plans changed once again and after arriving early to be driven to Murdoch, I was notified that my day was to remain at the Curtin office. I was particularly happy about this as I was able to meet my colleagues who were surprised to see me.

After the introductory things were out of the way, I had to put my creative hat on as I was asked to write a pitch targeted towards the John Curtin Leadership students. At first it was a little difficult not knowing the ins and outs of the organisation or the personal jokes that might make a pitch more appealing. In reflection it was a great learning tool, especially after reading the Communication Coordinator’s pitch which gave more insight into the organisation.

What is really exciting is that in October, AIME WA is holding its biggest fundraising event, KiNDLiNG. Events management is my primary major so I am very grateful for this learning experience. I am particularly interested in the media relations aspect of this event, already having started to design social media tiles and a promotional strategy plan. Mind you, graphic design is not my forte but it was nice to practice the 'skills' learnt in Design Computing. You really don't know what will come in handy until you are out in the workplace. Who knows Information Systems 100 might yet come into play as valuable knowledge. 

What I can say about this internship is that it is very casual, yes I wear a AIME T-shirt and Hoodie. However, the colleagues I work with are very dedicated to this cause and are professional when it comes to getting the work done and seeing change happen. I feel privileged to be an intern for an organisation that is focused on helping children and seeking to close the gap between non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians. 

I am very excited to see how these 20 days pan out, and more excited to learn about and meet the students that AIME so dearly cares for.  

Creating New Momentum

Beginning any internship is nerve-wracking and exciting; and this was no exception with my first day with Momentum Forum Events.

It was a late afternoon at the Pan Pacific hotel, when I met with other Curtin interns to help set up the ballroom for the event of the night, the Men in Black Ball. 

This fantastic charity event is an annual dance-fest full of delicious food, good music and entertaining highlights thought the night with unforgettable guests (like Carmelo Pizzino from Dancing with the Stars and Soa ‘The Hulk’ Palelei, but I don’t want to name-drop).

The Men in Black Ball Flyer

The Men in Black Ball came about to raise awareness of men’s mental health and well-being. I found it amazing seeing this one idea, after many months of planning and organising, manifested itself that night. I didn’t really understand what it took to organise such an extravagant night, as I was there when it all came together; that’s why I’m looking forward to the next events (such as the Pink Ribbon Ball and the Silver Prints Perth Pet Expo) and being there from the beginning.

As I walked around collecting the raffle tickets from the elegantly set tables, feet aching from the discomforting and foreign feeling of wearing heels for too long, I found myself thinking that this is surreal; the thought of being a part of creating and putting something like this together throughout the internship.

Coming back home I knew that in the following weeks, working in the office, I wouldn’t be able to anticipate what each day would bring. To have the opportunity to be surrounding by so many different people and the variety of tasks that will become my responsibility is refreshing; beginning something new often is.

Admin Duties 

The Intern Desk

Administrative tasks are part of any job. A small office space houses some amazing work ethic, forward-thinking ideas, and hands-on things to accomplish. Barbara McNaught is the founder of Momentum, and is both relatable and inspiring. She really shows that you can take an idea and make it happen. To have a mentor like that is really humbling. She is also from Poland, so whenever we are alone in the office we often speak Polish, which makes me feel lucky to have someone else to talk with who knows this language.

Lately, I have been working a lot with spreadsheets; getting contact lists in order from the Men in Black Ball, and crafting emails to send out to potential exhibitors at one of the next events; the Perth Pet Expo. There is a specific colour code for the spreadsheets I use, which can get confusing if you don’t keep track of which person you emailed, which email bounced back, whose contact information was incorrect, who didn’t update a certain colour, and who was already emailed yet not marked as emailed and have doubled-up. No wonder spreadsheets have a bad reputation.

The Social Side of Media and a Piece of Advice 
Social media and its analytics have fascinated me since last year’s Transmedia Storytelling unit. Getting the chance to do a few social media posts and seeing how the number of people exposed to the links, posts and updates grows is really insightful. With Momentum, I observed from the start that every post on Facebook or every Tweet has a meaning behind it, and that it’s all about having a clear message you want to share with your target audience. Without ideas worth talking about, why use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram to strengthen your presence?

At another desk, working on spreadsheets,
social media posts and emails

Someone gave me some advice worth remembering when it came to doing the internship at Momentum, which I constantly remind myself of; take notes of anything and everything because every little detail counts. Deciding to take this advice, I now actively take notes of anything that I can write later in these blog posts or the final report. I found that having this sort of mentality helps in picking out key information or even skills that formulate themselves from doing various tasks; whether they be ‘desk-and-char’ based or completely hands-on.  

Coming into the compact office every week, I never know what I’ll be doing. From one side I find it unnerving (how am I supposed to prepare for the day??), but from the other side I see it as another learning curve. If I am able to learn something I didn’t know how to do before, then that’s the key thing I want to get out of this work experience.

I hope everyone reading this is also enjoying their internships all over Perth as well as overseas, taking the PR world by storm! 

- Ewelina

Why is Your Library Suddenly Interested in a 90’s Cartoon?

It’s 4pm on a Tuesday afternoon at the City of Kwinana. I’m on my third double shot espresso and I’m scurrying to meet a press deadline. Time is not on my side and distractions are most unwelcome.

So when a colleague, the Manager of our community library, interrupts my frenzied typing to ask me about little monsters called Pokémon, and puts in a request for a Facebook post, you might expect I’d react poorly.

Not the case.

It didn't take long for the memes to roll in.

As a Public Relations practitioner, my job is to anticipate and respond to social trends and use them to the advantage of my employer and our publics.

So the explosion of new smartphone app Pokemon Go, with its focus on local landmarks, is a clear opportunity for local government, with our myriad facilities (think parks, artworks, community centres and the like) at constant need of a sustainable draw-card.

If you’ve been living under a rock for the past two weeks, there are countless articles explaining the Pokemon Go phenomenon.

For a Public Relations practitioner it presents a clear leverage opportunity, but also a degree of uncertainty. Jump too early and risk not fully considering the safety and reputational impacts. Jump too late and miss the small window of social relevancy. It’s a fine line made finer by the immediacy of social networks.

Something as simple as a Facebook Post can conjure dozens of questions:

Does the post align with the existing and desired audience?

Just because something is trendy, doesn’t mean it is audience appropriate.

How will micro audiences react?

While the majority may react positively, you must consider if a small segment will be adversely affected. Maybe local businesses are finding the Pokemon craze more a hindrance than a help.

When should I post?

Should I try and compete during high traffic windows, or post at quieter times when competition is lower? When is the audience for this not just active, but likely to interact?

How should I post?

What combination of text, image, video and links should be used?

Tools to the rescue

Social media management is both an art and a science - at the same type bursting with creativity and technicality. At the City of Kwinana we utilise a range of tools to ensure professional and effective outcomes.

• Sprout Social – Our weapon of choice for day-to-day monitoring, responding, scheduling and reporting.
• Bitly – For all of our link shortening needs (via a custom domain – kwin.city).
• Pablo – For easy image resizing.
• ShortStack – For when we want to run a contest or competition.
• Trello and Todoist - For task and project management.
• Zapier – For automation of every kind. The efficiency gains possible will surprise you! (check out IFTTT for a free, but still brilliant, alternative).
• Snip.ly – A nifty tool for more engaging links.

Tools are great support mechanisms however I could list all the websites in the world for the rest of this blog, but they mean nothing without the knowledge to back it up. Only a skilled digital copywriter who understands the industry at play, the audience being targeted, and any influencing environmental factors, will achieve great results.

The result?

73 likes, 55 comments, 33 shares and 12,000 views.

The post was made just before 5pm to catch those heading into the City Centre after work and school and a question was posed about what Pokemon had been spotted around the City. This resulted in an immediate and ongoing response from followers.

The key takeaway from this post? Communication is equal planning and responding. By being flexible with your comms you can avoid costly mistakes and take advantage of trending topics.

Oh and if you were still wondering, I did meet that original press deadline (from my intro) – but chose to omit the reason for the delay. We can’t have our journo friends thinking Pikachu comes first.

Til next time...
Rhys

Useful Lessons

Hi team!

For today's post, I thought that I would share some useful lessons that I have learned throughout my internship from my colleagues.

Almost every morning, in the daily catch up meeting, a different consultant shares some insights that may prove to be useful or interesting for the rest of the team. These presentations are one of my favourite aspects of my internship thus far, as I am keen to learn as much as I possibly can.

An interesting talk was from one of the digital consultants on SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation. This basically means that you make your website optimisable for search engines such as Google, which means it will rank higher in the search results. There were many points covered, but a good tip was to check out a website called MOZ, which has helpful blogs on SEO. The diagram below illustrates the elements of an optimised page and may be useful to some of you.

Another useful talk was by my supervisor about a collaborative website called Trello. I was introduced to Trello by her previously, and think it is a fabulous website. I would recommend you guys check it out! It is similar to Google Docs in its purpose, but it is much better in terms of visually presenting information and giving you a better idea of what everyone in the project is getting up to. It is definitely a website I will use in the future. 

Lastly, I was given a few social media monitoring websites to check out. These present information differently and are useful in their own way. I enjoyed having a bit of a play with them and will take this on with me for my own part time job, where I am a PR and marketing assistant for an online business. These are highly useful for any organisation with an online presence and are great for scanning the environment. Check out the following websites: 

• Keyhole 
• Hashtagify 
• Sprout Social
• Google Trends
• Ctrlq 

I hope you guys find these as useful as I have. I am always wanting to expand my knowledge and gain as much as I can from each experience, and treat it as a lesson. 

Until next time,

Stav. 

A Purple Beginning...

Hi everyone! My name is Stav and this is my first blog post.

Like the rest of you, I am in my final year of my double degree (PR and Professional Writing and Publishing), and I am really excited to have landed an internship with Cannings Purple. For those of you who may not know, Cannings Purple is a highly acclaimed PR firm in Perth, specialising in corporate affairs, government relations, stakeholder engagement, and other B2B PR-related areas. I decided to apply for an internship with Cannings Purple as these are the areas of PR that interest me the most, and I wanted to go somewhere that would give me a wealth of knowledge and experience in the world of corporate PR.

I go in to Cannings Purple two days a week, and my first week went by really quickly. On my first day, my supervisor showed me around the office, and it is really cool! It feels like a real office, with boardrooms, and people in smart clothing - the office looks out onto Perth's skyline, which makes it all seem very grown up and professional. I learned that the team has a brief meeting every morning to go over what everyone is up to, so that the whole firm is aware of what projects are undertaken and to have a general catch up. I was introduced in this meeting, and everyone was very nice and welcoming. After the meeting I got everything set up - I got my very own laptop, desk, and email address. I was given the task of writing up blurbs about hip local restaurants, bars, and shops for a client's website. This task flowed onto the following day - day two, where I worked closely with the Design & Digital team.

On day two, I joined the Design & Digital team at their weekly meeting, and it was a great insight into the more creative side of the firm (as opposed to the corporate side I had seen previously). I was responsible for creating social media content on Photoshop, working alongside the Art Director and the Digital and Social Media Consultant. This all tied in to the previous day's task, as these social media images linked to the blurbs I had written. On day two, I was also given small tasks by other directors in the firm which was mainly to do research on various vendors for events. It was nice to work with the Design & Digital team as they were all really friendly and keen to help.

My first week was enjoyable! Although the tasks were simple, I enjoyed writing and creating content. My supervisor highly praised my work which was nice, and I was proud to have played a part in creating content for a client. Looking forward to the rest of the internship!

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