Love-Hate Relationship with Phone Calls

Greetings everyone,

Making phone call is not my forte as I have trouble with speaking and trust me, I was so nervous when I was given a task to make phone calls on my third day of my internship. I know I am not going to be better if I didn't train myself with phone calls. So, I took it as a challenge for me. Before I'm making the phone call, I learnt from the other intern, Joan on how they make a media phone call by observing.

As I get a grasp of it, I picked up the phone and dialled the number. My very first phone call was for Nokia Malaysia and my duty was to call the media and enquire if they still keep the Lumia 900 or Lumia 800 device and ask when is the right time to collect the phones from them. It wasn't that hard as I thought and I'm glad I received positive respond for my first few calls that I've made. 

Then, slowly I dare myself to answer every calls the company received and transferred the calls like a receptionist as Joan's contract almost ended so by default, I need to replace her spot as the 'receptionist'. Phone is like my best friend that can be annoying sometime as the calls keep coming in like every 5-10 minutes. There was this one time, I didn't even put down the phone and all I did was pressing the end-call button to make another phone call as there were a lot of calls to be made on that day. Yes, I made phone calls like Chris Gardner before he become a millionaire.

However, not every phone calls are positive. Its a challenge to every PR person to receive negative responder and its a must to remain subtle, calm and nice although deep inside your heart is burning and you feel like screaming and flip your table or throw away the phone. Let me share you my bad phone call experience. When I was in-charge to update the master media database, I called one of the media to enquire about their editorial team. The receptionist were so rude and not being helpful at all as they feel annoyed. Believe me, I wanted to explode but for the sake of the company, I just remain calm and spoke to them nicely and I managed to handle the situation. 

If you're hot tempered person, try to train yourself not to be one. Learn to stay calm and speak politely because you're not only representing yourself but a company. This is a must have characteristics/ skills in every PR person to protect the company's reputation. Once you blow up to the media, you're not the only one who is screwed but the company as well. My advice is, stay calm and be prepared.

All the best.

Best regards,
Fazar Ria Muneera
13761196/ 7D5B3504
Semester 1, 2013
Curtin University Sarawak 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

It's time to say goodbye....

Hi Guys!! This will be my last post and in this one I would like to share a little bit experience about my second internship. It was for an event planning firm in Sarawak called the Cinqasa. They were organizing this nation wide singing competition called the Spotlight. It was pretty much like American Idol but in smaller scale. 

They had audition rounds all around Sarawak and I assisted them to organize the audition round in Miri. The event held for two days at a fancy hotel in Miri. And as a reward for assisting them they offered me a pretty awesome room there. YAYYY!!! 

This event was much more hectic than the one I did for Deluxe paint. It started early in the morning at around 8 am and we were on our toes for the next 10 hours. My job was basically to assist the contestants to the Judge's room, collect the result from each judge, compile them and send them for shortlisting. It may sound simple but trust me interacting with so many people and running around the whole day was really tiring. 

Contestants going for registration. 

Contestants warming up before audition.

Our Team!!

We were not allowed to move from our spot as the contestants needed us at all times. We had to guide them and help them calm down as most of them were quite nervous to sing in front of the judges. When some of them didn't make it for the next round we had to cheer them up and encourage them to continue singing and try again next time. 

Overall it was a good but a very hectic experience for me. So guys realize this now, if you are into event planning as well just like me then we should be prepare for sleepless nights. 

I really hope you guys found my blog post useful. Good luck to everyone for your future endeavors. 

This is Raiyana signing off. 

Cheers!!