Social Media Calendar

Hello again,

its only my second post for the blog, and even though i have finished my Internship at Odysseus PR, i have learned some good way of handling a social media calendar. While working at the company, i was helping the PR manager in handling a social media calendar for the event to come. Yet sometimes, even though you do not have an answer to you mails, you are compelled to think creatively without any approval from the manager.

So, i was supposed to find ideas to post to the page we had created for an event company in Mauritius. From the very first day of my university life, i have imposed myself as a creative and motivated person. My very first step was to work with excel. How horrible, because, i have never used an excel sheet before. So the first thing was to GOOGLE, yes, google about "how to use excel and how to create an event calender in excel. Fortunately i am quick learner, i downloaded a nice template that i then showed to the Manager who was amazed of what i did to the template he sent me. I tend to forget sometimes that everyone does not use the internet as us, Students.

So, when time passed, my brain started to fuse with lots of ideas, after having done a lot of research on an very popular Indian Singer coming to Mauritius.

Picture from http://www.pardaphash.com/news/sunidhi-chauhan-loved-singing-tumhari-pakhi/724378.html

Along with the PR manager we had to find ideas how to promote the event to come. We had 6 weeks and even though i was going to be at the company for 3 more weeks, i wanted to find lots of ideas into promoting the event.

I thus thought that posting photos and videos were not enough. Why not posting on the career of the artist from the very first day she became popular, in order to engage the public about her career. Giving a reason for people to get interested to her story and her life as a singer. 

I though about her Twitter account where people were tweeting about her and her performance at  her recent concert in England. 

Putting photos of her recent hair cut and her wedding pictures and asking advice from people interested into seeing her in concert in Mauritius. Why not creating an event to give away tickets for those who would answer right to her careers awards and giving an interest to people for visiting the page. 

Numerating the awards she was nominated and also those she won.

What i have learned for that project was that, i could be much more creative that i thought. Even if i was not asked to do such things, i decided by myself to propose ideas to the PR manager and some times later, all of my proposals were posted to the Facebook page.

Below is a link to the page if some of you are interested.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Super-Unic-Events/483567105106220?ref=ts&fref=ts

These are one of the exciting parts of my internship at Odysseus PR.

See you around

Angie 

15589565

Charles Telfair Institute Campus

PR is Not Just About Writing

Greetings everyone,

From the beginning of my internship, I was never been given a chance to write a news release and honestly I felt a bit depressed and worried at the same time as I have not enough work sample for my report. Until this one fine day before my contract ends, Nokia Malaysia consultant, Gan Kel Sern asked for help from one of us, the interns, as he need to upload photos of Nokia Lumia 920 phone on Nokia Malaysia Facebook page. So, I offered myself to take photos for him as I have passion in photography and plus I need to add up my portfolio. I was assigned to take photos with the following themes:

• Nokia as most personal smartphone
• Valentine's Day

He didn't provide me with DLSR camera and the only camera he offered was Nokia Lumia 920 phone. I was skeptical with the quality at first but I just give it a try to see if its turn out as phone reviewers said about the phone's camera quality. So, I took photos of the phone and I was amazed with the photo quality. After taking few shots of the photos, I passed the phone back to Kel Sern and he chose two best photos to be uploaded. 

The next day, I saw the photos I took were on Nokia Malaysia Facebook page and I was so happy. The links of the photos are below:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=563284517017593&set=pb.113065628706153.-2207520000.1370542244.&type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=563802590299119&set=pb.113065628706153.-2207520000.1370542244.&type=3&theater

Photo is one of the medium in communications. I believe if you have more skills to offer other than writing and ability to speak properly, your value as a PR person is higher. I'm glad my skill in photo taking is applicable during my internship and after that day, they known me as an intern who can take a good photo. I'm glad to get positive feedback from FHKL about my skill. I feel appreciated.

Remember, never give up. 

Best regards,

Fazar Ria Muneera Bt. Safree Zainudin

13761196/ 7D5B3504

Semester 1, 2013

Curtin University Sarawak Campus

My very first PR event...

Hello everyone!

 

This would be my second post, and I will be sharing a brief overview about my very first PR event – GoMyWay Launch.

 

To start off with a little introduction about GoMyWay: GoMyWay is a location-based app that allows users to share taxis. Founded by four friends, they look to leverage technology to achieve greater efficiency in Singapore’s transit infrastructure. There are many benefits in using GoMyWay, including sharing the fare of the taxi trip, potentially reducing waiting times by reducing taxi queues, achieving greater efficiency to contribute positively to the environment and reduce congestion, and interacting socially with interesting people. The GoMyWay App is available for free download at the iPhone App Store and coming soon to Android.

 

Days before the event

The GoMyWay Launch was held on 22 August 2012, at Sansui Contemporary Japanese Dining and Bar (Clarke Quay). The whole event was actually split into two parts, where both the media launch and the consumer launch were taking place on the same day. As such, lots of preparation works were required for the different group.

Days before the event, the entire MAX team had several long meetings, with my colleagues briefing us on the event schedule, our respective roles, and other work-in-progress issues to be completed.  A list of things to prepare was also listed out. I was tasked to purchase the items required for the event, getting the media name tags ready for the lanyards, and the packing and organising of the event box (important materials for the event).

 

Day of the event

Though the event was held from late afternoon onwards, time was passing fast for all of us in the office with the event preparations and other work from the company’s other clients. Throughout the whole morning, other than the usual daily tasks, I was assigned to burn the soft-copy of the press materials into CD-ROMs (in addition to the hard-copy press materials), and making sure that the files could be opened. At the same time, I was peeling the price tags off from the files. Soon, I started to pack the media kits, lanyards and the event box, making sure that all materials were included in it. My colleagues were also very helpful in helping me along with the packing.

 

A bag of media kits and lanyards, with the event box packed ready for the event



Media kits

Media kits





 Our team went down to the event venue two hours before the media launch, to make sure that the arrangements for the media launch were all in place. I was also tasked to prepare the media registration area and arrange the media kits and lanyards accordingly. But soon, just about an hour before the media launch, a small nerve-wrecking situation happened. One of the journalists came much earlier than expected and I was the only one manning the registration area (the rest of my colleagues were inside the venue briefing the founders and having a final check through). Luckily, I was able to manage the journalist well after I had regained my composure. It was a pretty scary situation as it was my very first event in contact with a journalist. Luckily everything went well! As time passes, more journalists began to arrive at the venue, and for those journalist who have not yet arrived, my colleague and I were doing call-downs to them. But sadly, there were some journalists who were unable to attend last minute.

 

The whole media launch went smoothly according to schedule, first starting off with a presentation by the founders, and Q&A sessions. There is also a small demonstration area for the media to explore the app using the iPads available.

 

After the media launch, our team went for a quick dinner around the area before the consumer launch party at 7pm. For the consumer launch party, only attendees who have RSVP their attendance on the GoMyWay event page were allowed into the restaurant. I was assigned to help take photos for the attendees with the taxi cut-out and other ad hoc tasks on-site. There were free flows of F&B throughout, live music and an interactive game. For the game, attendees were to key in their next destination after the party using the GoMyWay app. Four lucky winners, whose destinations are the nearest to any of the four founders’, would win $20 in cash and a trip together with the chosen founder. 

 

Though it is a little messy with the amount of attendees for the event, but overall, the event was a success in being able to spread awareness of the app and getting people to use it.



Attendees for the event outside the restaurant

Source: GoMyWay Official Facebook Page



For more information about GoMyWay, you can access their website or official Facebook page:

http://www.gomywayapp.com/

http://www.facebook.com/#!/gomywayapp

 

 

It was really an eventful and interesting day for my very first PR event. I gained many experiences, and had learnt more about press events and the PR skills needed before and on the event. The right planning, team work and management are really the important ingredients for a successful event.

 

Till my next post,

Delvina Chiang

15006527

Curtin Singapore

Social media - no longer just an assignment procrastination tool

The role of ‘new’ media, ie. Social Media

At uni and in the public relations industry in general, we are often told of the importance of being familiar with “new media”, also known as social media. For the present day public relations graduate, calling the media “new” is amusing seeing as the majority of us have grown up with it, and we are now more connected with society than ever! The majority of us are very familiar and skilled at using social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, blogs, and the newer ones Instagram and Pinterest.
 

Facebook timeline crisis

Earlier this year in mid-February, Facebook announced their new 'timeline' layout being rolled out for brands as of March 31st. This annoucement, while not entirely unexpected, caused a bit of a hurdle – especially as we had been working with the creative agency on a new Facebook ‘splash’ page for the old layout of the Student Edge fan page (eg. drive the like). Our communications team worked hard to ensure we were going to ‘timeline ready’. Along with the new timeline announcement, Facebook also released a set of updated guidelines, in particular that the ‘cover’ photo could not advertise the products or have a call to action to like the page.

Anna our marketing gun worked closely with a consultant who specialised in social media for brands (what a brilliant job! Definitely something I would like to do!) to roll out the new timeline (especially revising the creative) for the Student Edge Facebook page.

My role in this was to review the current copy in the ‘About’ section to ensure it was updated to be on tone with the new Student Edge brand. After Sharyn reviewed my comments I was told to cut it down. Unlike at university, in the real world less is NOT more, particularly when speaking as a brand that communicates primarily to 15-17 year olds! Check out my Facebook copy here.
 

Using social media as a brand

Having the insight into how brands use Facebook is fascinating. As an avid Facebook user myself, I am very well versed in using it as a personal user – and in doing so, maintaining my own ‘brand’: setting my privacy settings to high, detagging potential incriminating photos, etc. However, using Facebook as a brand adds a whole new dimension. As I’ve learnt, there are two things that need to be considered when setting up a social media page for a company:

1. Who is your target public? There is no point having a Facebook page if your target audience is not on Facebook.
2. What is your communication objective? Do you wish to ‘broadcast’ to your fans (eg post messages) or engage with them? Whichever approach is taken, companies needs to remember that social media cannot be controlled, and that people ‘follow’ or ‘like’ you because there is something in it for them.

Great use of Facebook timeline

In the process of developing the Facebook timeline creative for Student Edge, we looked to what other brands were doing well. See below for some examples:

Fanta:
In their Facebook page, you can see they have integrated their profile picture into their cover picture which is very clever. The profile picture also works as a 'stand alone'. Fanta uses their page to engage fans and has utilised the 'timeline' feature well, with important milestones filled in (eg. back to 1955)

Student Edge:
With the Student Edge Facebook page, the profile picture was also made to be able to 'stand alone', as well as be consistent with the rest of the cover photo. The Student Edge Facebook page is used to engage members as well as drive traffic back to the website. Student Edge’s use of Facebook is a major focus for this year. It is the social network of the moment, and it is where their target market is.

 
Have a look at this thought provoking article on PR Daily: Why 2 million brands should shutter their Facebook pages. The article argues that you either need to do a Facebook page well or not at all. I agree!



Beyond Facebook
 
It will be interesting to see what the new ‘new media’ will be after Facebook – the wave will not last forever – remember MySpace? There is a lot of industry buzz around Pinterest, but I’m not yet entirely convinced. What do you think?


Rachel

A 24hr Job

HERE IS SOMETHING NONE OF YOUR LECTURERS AND TUTORS WILL TELL YOU-

PR IS NOT A 9-5 JOB... THERE IS NO END... THERE IS NO CLOCK OFF... THERE IS NO DOWN TIME. 

YOU MUST BE ON YOUR GAME ALL THE TIME. WORKING ALL THE TIME. LEARNING ALL THE TIME. CONTACTABLE ALL THE TIME. EMAILING ALL THE TIME. FACEBOOKING ALL THE TIME. TWITTERING ALL THE TIME.

AND ABOVE ALL... YOU MUST STAY AHEAD OF THE PACK.

No one told you this? Why are you so surprised?

A career, a job, an industry that is built on interacting with people, socialising and crises management  could never have a start time or an end time and don't you DARE hit the snooze button.

BUT

Heres the good news.
If you are on your game all the time, You are committed to working as hard as you can, You are constantly willing and wanting to learn, Always clutching your phone waiting for that phone call, Always replying to emails, Constantly watching the companies Facebook pages and closely monitoring activity then you will be the most in demand and successful PR agent. That is the key.

To be fair to everyone, I fear this may only really apply to anyone that wants to get into the music and events industry of PR, however, consider yourselves warned and advised!

Company and Social Media-Facebook

Hello my fellow bloggers!

Finally, I have time to actually blog and just take a breather. It has truly been a busy couple of weeks, juggling uni, a part time job and my internship at Promaco Conventions.

My internship is going smoothly, and I am taking a lot of things in and learning a lot. There is no dull day in the office, it's definitely a go go go kind of workplace. With the first event coming up in May my supervisor and I have been busy with liaising, sponsorship packages, getting quotes for venues and lots of other event like things. Every week I come into the office, I check my emails, reply to them accordingly and get down to my tasks and deadlines that has to be met.

One of my weekly task is to monitor the company's Facebook page. Every week I will do at least one post, preferably on a Friday. Last week I came across one of the most interesting article I've read this year. It's called  How To: Improve Engagement on Your Brand's Facebook Page (STATS). 


Here is the link: http://mashable.com/2011/04/06/facebook-engagement-data/

Basically the article talks about statistics and tips on how to engage your audience on your Facebook page specifically for companies. I thought the article just had to be shared around.

I highly recommend anyone to read this, especially if your doing your PR internship. You might be able to use these tips for the companies you are interning for and impress your supervisor.

Social Media is truly everywhere, and it is such a great tool for communicating to your audience.

That's all for now.

Have a great Easter break everyone.

Till next time...