It's Not Just a Post

Content creation is something we over look. Especially when you get bombarded with pictures, videos, graphics and so forth scrolling down your social media news feed. How often do you see a picture of smashed avocado on toast in a day? Or a flat lay usually consisting of a few products to create a feeling in the image #perthisok.

No matter who you are or how many followers you have, you actually create content every time you upload something. Of course as part of an organisation, your content is important to communicate and support ideas and activities surrounding a cause.

What I’ve learnt so far in my internship is using appropriate images to support up coming stories in the magazine that is yet to be released.

There’s more thought and consideration in these images then one would imagine. Like mentioned before, we see so many on the daily through our own social media feeds. An image is just an image. But when you’re creating social media content, your image has to be engaging, appealing and translate the message across.

You think about the time to post, how many posts to posts, what kind of filters you use to reflect the brand. Not to mention the consistent hash tags for association. I’ve also downloaded a range of apps that help with creating graphics. Not to undermine the laborious degree of smart graphic designers, but these apps (yes to technology!) can give anyone a very very short crash course in the simplest graphic design. If you can call it that.

One day, I spent 3 hours, walking around taking pictures for up- coming and future social media posts. Apart from the many weird glares and confused looked; I enjoyed scouting for content and thinking of how images could be posted.

This internship has taught me that you definitely have to get out of your comfort zone, even if it is walking up and down a street taking pictures! 

What have you done so far in your internship that has brought you out of your comfort zone?

The Power of Social Media

In today’s evolving and digitally connected society, people have become highly dependent on the use of social media. Social Media is a means to communicate with people around the world, or even if they are in the room next to you. Platforms that are frequently used include Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, all heavily influencing people and their engagement with friends and even brands and companies. For companies it is a method to engage with the younger audiences, who are regular users of social media. When it comes to social media they are ways in which a brand or company can successfully engage their fans by their posts. During my time interning, I had the opportunity of running the Facebook page, and managed to gain over 500 new likes to the page. Due to this I picked up on a few tips when creating posts on social media.

Keep it simple:Whatever you do, you don't want to overload the audience with information because lets be honest, they aren't going to read it all.

Know the audience: Knowing the audience and their interests is vital when creating posts on social media. This is easy to pick up on by seeing which posts receive the most engagements such as likes, comments and shares.

Timing is key: To effectively engage and receive the most exposure on your social media accounts it comes down to the time in which the posts are published. The times of the day that receive the most views and engagements tend to be first thing in the morning between 7am and 9am and after work between 5pm and 7pm. This is when people tend to be more active on social media, posting and scrolling through their feeds.

A photo speaks louder than words: This is the most effective way to easily grab the attention of a social media user. They don't have to read a single thing and everyone loves imagery. 

 

The Mercedes College Alumni Facebook page

What are you tips when using social media for a brand or company?

Social Media in PR

At university I am completing a major in Public Relations and Web Communications. As a result, I have learnt a lot about the theory and benefits of Social Media, and it was very exciting for me to see these in action in the real world. I learnt how social media could help develop a well-rounded client strategy, and how social media helps establish an online presence for the consultancy.

gtmedia holds a strong online presence. Currently they have a Website, Twitter and Instagram. One of the tasks I completed as an intern was to find content for these social media sites. A pattern I came to realize, was that the more we kept our accounts updated on a regular basis, the more followers we gained. Ideally, we post to Instagram once a day, and to Twitter three times a day.

It was imperative we be selective about the content posted, as it is ultimately a reflection of the company and a method for interacting with current and potential clients. We wanted to maintain a professional reputation online with a light sense of humour. For Twitter, I found content like articles relating to the PR industry, what our clients were up to, or a lighter piece like the top 10 Jimmy Fallon moments. On Instagram, we post photos of things happening at our office. Like a team dinner, or a TV shoot with a client. By using hashtags on our photos like #pr101 and #Perth, we can take advantage of the Instagram platform and get our posts noticed by the right people.

gtmedia also runs the initiative @project_thankyou on Instagram. It is an account that celebrates gratitude by posting photographs of everyday people with a caption of what they are thankful for most in this world. Another of my tasks was to find content for this page by talking to people, finding what they were thankful for, and capturing the moment. It was an initiative I really admired and enjoyed helping out with.

A little while ago, we worked with client Breast Cancer Care WA to develop a unique strategy for Purple Bra Day 2015 that had a heavy emphasis on social media. The client had told us they wanted to use the hashtag #PutYourBrasOut, similar to the hashtag #PutYourBatsOut that trended in memory of cricketer Phillip Hughes. The strategy invited people to put their bras out in recognition of the one in eight women who will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. Part of our PR plan was to instigate this hashtag and gain some traction across social media platforms in order to promote Purple Bra Day.

One of our goals was to target Perth bloggers like @pegasusunicorn and @lovethread because of their large followings on Instagram. Blogs hold niche markets as well as an element of trust with their followers, and therefore can effectively promote a message. These bloggers were lovely to work with and helped us promote a message for a good cause.

Something I had not thought about before was the importance of measuring reach and engagement of social media. Because it can generate a lot of publicity for a client, social media needs to be taken into account for billing purposes.

Social media is a massive game changer for the Public Relations industry.

Until next week.  

The rise of social media

As I told you all in my previous blog post, I began my internship at Devahasdin Public Relations after I worked there in 2010 and found my love for PR.

I've completed 15 days of my internship and after looking back at my time from 2010 and the past few weeks, there is one significant change I have noticed: The rise of social media.

Of course, I'm aware social media was around in 2010, but the ways in which it was used has now changed dramatically.  Although social media does not replace traditional media and the importance of a good media release or news coverage, I believe pairing traditional PR practices with new technologies and social media is the most powerful way to get a message across.

A couple of weeks ago, I sat down with my supervisor and we devised a social media plan for the month of May for their client Queens Riverside. You can view some of the things that I helped to plan here.
Here's a version of a previous social media plan done by Devahasdin so you understand what they look like, but I can't show you the one being currently used before the plan is carried out, sorry everyone!

A social media plan didn't even exist when I last worked in this office.  I was shocked at how much work is actually put in to posting on social media on behalf of a client.  Even though the tone used is conversational (number one rule when posting on social media!), the effort put into deciding exactly how to seem casual when communicating to the client's stakeholders is crucial.  You must include important events happening in Perth during the month but also making sure events used throughout the month aren't similar to one another.
For instance, Wicked The Musical is beginning to show at The Crown in May, which means that it would be best not to use any other theatre events in the rest of the plan.
It is incredibly important to make use of plenty of hashtags, most importantly the few that are essential to that certain client, and as I have stated, the tone in which you post is vital.
I learnt all of these things in Techniques and Media Relations, so it was nice to be able to put some of what I knew to good use.

The social media plan covers what should be posted on many platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Facebook post for Queens Riverside posted by Devahasdin.

Instagram was only established in 2010 and not even on anybody's radars when I last worked at Devahasdin, now, it is becoming one of the first ways in which clients can directly communicate with stakeholders.

We have discussed the rise of social media and its uses in PR many times during class, but seeing the social media plan mapped out in front of me for an entire month really did give a lot of insight to what we have been talking about for the past few years.

The use of social media allows for direct two-way communication and real-time feedback between an organisation and its stakeholders.  Through the use of these platforms, many of Devahasdin's clients have been able to develop a stronger relationship with their clients, as there is ongoing communication mapped out for each month.  Stakeholders involved with Queens Riverside are able to see ongoing updates of construction via pictures (the staff at Devahasdin, including myself are also in charge of taking these pictures) and posts on these platforms.

Ongoing construction at Queens Riverside taken by Lauren Sydoruk (Account Support) and myself

Although social media allows organisations to engage proactively with their publics and the speed of information has significantly increased, there is a negative to using social media and that is in the form of complaints etc which can be seen not only by the organisation itself, but by the general public as well which can severely effect an organisation's reputation.

As we are all aware by completing this part of the assessment, blogs are also a large part of PR practice nowadays.  While being at Devahasdin I have been asked to compile media distribution lists for a number of different clients.  Another thing I've noticed about the rise of social media is that blogs and different bloggers are now targets for PR practitioners when reaching out to the media.  This also wasn't a large occurrence the last time I worked for Devahasdin.

Has anyone else been highly involved with social media during your placement?
Were you shocked at the large amount of work that is involved to post on social media on behalf of a client?

Let me know guys! :)

Claudia x

Beauty and the 3geeks... Episode 1; Set-Up

Beauty and the 3geeks

 

Episode 1; Set-Up            

Hello there,

I’m Ashlee Harrison and I started university at the “mature” age of 21, I place mature in inverted commas because three years ago I thought I was mature and too old to be commencing university for the first time. However, now I look back (a little wiser) and realise that I have so much more to learn. Looking back I am not sure how I ever thought I was too “mature” to be starting this adventure called full time study without compromising on my work commitments.

I have a career history that has been heavily focused on sales, real estate and marketing and in more recent years I have taken a detour into Public Relations (which I find is a glamorous version of sales in a way) and I am loving it. I have also spent the last four years starting and operating a local Perth charity; zero2hero, we focus on suicide prevention and increasing the awareness of suicide and depression in WA. I share all of this information so that you have the context from my choice of role for my PR Placement.

I have worked in a few different PR capacities, mainly through consulting, and have also co-ordinated many client functions and events over the past three years and when confronted with this placement noticed that nothing I had ever done before was going to quite cut it for both the PR Placement and also the beginning of my future career endeavours. 

Therefore, I chose to commence my placement simultaneously with the new position as Social Media Manager at a digital agency; 3geeks. 3geeks offer a HUGE range of services for any business in both online and offline marketing. I was approached earlier this year to head up their social media division, as this was previously a service the agency had to outsource. The role of social media manager includes; social media monitoring, channel implementation and set-up, account management and also prospecting. When I first accepted the challenge I wasn’t sure how it would look but knew it was a position and opportunity that I was ready to take.

In my first week with the company I drew on many skills that I have acquired during the years of both running zero2hero and also my PR and marketing units. I was required to prepare a presentation to pitch to a prospective client; this included the brief and written proposal…. Finally!!! I was using a document I had been asked to produce so many times as an assignment. There are definitely similarities between the documents used in the ‘real world’ and those we are taught to do at University however there are also some big differences.

As a digital agency specialising in marketing and advertising it is essential that what we produce is fully aligned with the 3geeks brand. My first power-point presentation would have been of a high calibre ie: well researched, easy to follow and overall a convincing pitch however it was definitely not at the same level of work that 3 geeks produce and was not in line with their brand therefore it was back to the drawing board. My manager was great at working through this with me and he definitely has a creative mind that can cut through the crap, which I enjoy working with.

Over the first week my main task was to set-up several standard documents required for any standard social media campaign and also review the content for social media on their NEW website. In doing this I found that I needed to complete a lot of work on my own personal social media sites as these weren’t up to date and no longer promoted me and what I am now up to. This then meant I had to conduct a complete overhaul on all of my personal social media pages…

1.       Tumblr

2.       Facebook

3.       Pinterest

4.       Linkedin

5.       Twitter

6.       Youtube

7.       Google+

8.       Instagram

Just to name a few ;) a couple of those I didn’t even use or see the point of until I started researching the numbers of people utilising any one channel and the opportunity it is to understand each of them when I am advising my clients. This meant I needed to research, edit and align my pages according to the target market, sounding familiar? It definitely was.

So in my first week the focus was getting ready and laying a solid foundation. Next task was to build something on it.

Final thought: I must keep a password log.

Regards,

Ashlee Harrison