The importance of using the right tone

So far, in my whole academic life, I have been writing reports that require a formal tone to be used. However, during the course of my internship, I had to kick the habit of writing almost everything formally, and instead, adopt a tone that is more personal and emotive. These include the creation of e-newsletters, as well as social media updates which I am in charge of.

The big question I always ask myself is: How do I convince people to click and read my blog article/newsletter?

In order to do that, I have to put across a message that is persuasive, but not desperate. As a public relations personnel, I'm not someone who sells the product, but someone who informs our stakeholders about the product, and of course make it look appealing at the same time. However, as I am not a fashion-forward person, let alone a mother, I find it a little difficult to convince myself that these items are worth buying. At this point, another question comes to my mind: How do I convince others when I can’t even convince myself?

I find it amazing how people can just conjure up posts after posts, thereafter gaining likes after likes on their page with just simple words and pictures. I want to be able to engage in effective communication with our stakeholders too, but how?

This is a snippet of a newsletter I did for the company to promote one of the brands featured on the website. It’s very different from my usual style of writing, and I’m quite satisfied with the way it turned out, be it the visual appearance, or the way the newsletter was written. Even though the paragraph was short, I felt that it had a more personal touch than the usual report-style writing I’m used to.

Another challenge I face while creating newsletters and updating the company’s social network accounts is the word limit. Yes, the dreadful word limit. There are only a certain number of characters before a post goes to a “see more” in Facebook, and I thus I have to create the most impactful message without going crossing over the word limit.

It’s the same for newsletters, as most people focus on its visual appearance. It wouldn’t make sense to send a newsletter full of words, as most people wouldn’t take time just to finish reading the whole newsletter. Therefore, I have to put the main point across in just a few words, or a really short paragraph, and also grab the attention of our stakeholders with a strong title.

Some of you may not find it that difficult, but it’s a huge challenge for me, and I am still trying to overcome it at the moment. The semester is coming to an end, but my internship will still go on for another month. Cheers to another month of hands-on learning in the public relations industry! 

Tay Si Min Priscilla
15909891
Curtin University (Singapore Campus)

Communicating with dormant stakeholders

In school, we usually learn how to communicate with active stakeholders. However, companies should not neglect their dormant stakeholders either. As an online retail business, it is common to have inactive members on our website. However, we should not just leave them be. Instead, we should try to engage in two-way communication with them, and try to persuade them to be more active on the website.

We learnt about the many different stakeholders in school, but we never really focused on dormant publics. One day, my superiors told me that she wanted to send a newsletter to members who are inactive on our website, and being inexperienced in this field, I could only research on the internet to look for effective ways to do so.

One of the most common tips given was to not send them the same message that you would send to regular members. This would turn them off immediately, and most of them wouldn't even care about the newsletter.

 As they are members who we have not interacted with for a long period of time, I felt that it was important to know how why they were inactive, and what would make them come back to our website. At the same time, it wouldn't exactly be the most feasible idea to just shove a survey in their face and expect them to do it without any returns.

Therefore, I suggested to my colleagues that we should ask just a few simple but effective questions, and offer them incentives in order to encourage them to come back to shop at our website. By doing these, it would show that we care about them, and are willing to listen to them so that we can improve on our website. After all, we are a consumer-based business, and we should always be able to adapt quickly to our consumers’ needs.

That being said, I'm still nervous about the turnout. Would it be good, or would it fail miserably? Or would my colleagues not use the idea at all? I can only wait and find out. Well, this is all from me for today! See you again when I write my next post!

Tay Si Min Priscilla
15909891
Curtin University (Singapore Campus)

New look for the New Year

On Wednesday morning, I was pretty sure that I walked into the same office I had been working at for the past month. However, it looked a little different, and it certainly took me some time to get used to it. One thing that’s good about this new layout is that I am finally not facing my back to my superiors!

The old layout had the permanent staff sitting in the middle, facing each other, and the interns sitting right at the side of the office, facing the wall/window. I feel that my colleagues have become more approachable just after a simple change in layout. It’s much easier to talk to them now, as I no longer have to turn my head back just to do so. Most of all, I feel more included in the office, as I am now able to partake in discussions more comfortably.

Even though it’s a little late since I’ve already been working for a month, I’d still like to take you guys on a tour around my office! 

The above is a picture of my work area! Now that there’s a picture, isn’t it easier to understand why I said that my colleagues are more approachable? Well, from this picture, it’s also quite obvious that my office is quite small, and we only have a few employees. Doesn’t this layout remind you of that of a meeting room? I sit at the place nearest to the window, and I’m provided with a laptop to do my work!  

Even though Foxysales is an online retail store, we have a showroom too, and it is also located at our office! Like in the pictures, we display items that are on sale, are going to be on sale, or already have been on sale at our website! Over here, you can see a variety of clothes, bags, sandals, jewelry for women, as well as clothes for kids! My photography skills probably don’t do these pretty items justice, but I really like them, especially the bag that’s slung over the mannequin!

I hope this gives you a better idea of how my workplace is like, and in the next post, I’ll cover something that’s more relevant to public relations. Till then, au revoir!

Tay Si Min Priscilla
15909891
Curtin University (Singapore Campus)

First Step towards the Public Relations Industry

Hello! I’m Priscilla, and I’m a student at the Singapore campus for Curtin University, undertaking the degree for Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing and Public Relations). I’m currently working at Foxysales Pte Ltd, a relatively new company which was founded in 2010, and it’s an online retail shop that’s catered to busy mothers. They hold sales on their website every day, and each sale usually lasts for only a week.

Since they are a fairly new company, there have not been many chances for me to interact with the media. However, I am still able to put the skills I’ve learnt from the Public Relations modules at Curtin to good use. Small start-up companies are usually tighter on budget, and thus look to doing more public relations than advertising on the whole. This means a lot of social media updates, blasting of e-newsletters, and writing of blog articles, which is very similar to the tactics we recommended for most public relations plans we had to write for non-profit organisations.

However, in the public relations plans, we merely suggested these tactics, and never really put them into action. Therefore, it was a situation where I knew exactly what my job scope was, but was unsure of how to carry it out in reality. At Foxysales, I really had to carry out all these public relations tactics to communicate with our stakeholders, and it put a lot of stress on me as I wasn’t sure if I was doing it the right way. Thankfully, my colleagues have been very kind to me, and will guide me along by telling me when I did something well, and giving me constructive advice when what I did wasn’t up to their expectations.

Of course, even as a small start-up company, we need to try to reach out to the media. Thus, I also need to put together a media kit, create a media list, and think of good angles to write press releases which we would then send to various relevant media. After all, the best way to reach out to the mass public is through traditional media, which is still very much alive in this century. I’m really glad to be able to put the skills I learnt from school to use in this internship, as we were only able to learn about it theoretically in the past. With adequate hands-on experience, I should be ready to start my career in the Public Relations industry after graduating from Curtin University!

So far, my internship has been really fun, and I hope that it will continue this way! Till then, see you again!

Tay Si Min Priscilla

15909891

Curtin University (Singapore Campus)