Getting the creative juices flowing!

For me, Richard Branson and his PR team at Virgin Active have always been the cream of the crop. I love reading about his PR stunts and their effect on the public. Him and his team are so innovative and "loud" with their ideas and I think that is what makes them stand out in the PR arena.

This in mind, this week at my internship at United Way I was given the opportunity to come up with some of my own ideas to launch the Student United Way department that is coming into fruition at the organisation. As a student myself I had to think of what I would find interesting and stimulating enough to get me involved with a volunteer program. I have carte blanche to work with! Suddenly all the case studies from classes through the years came flooding back and I found myself on Youtube watching PR stunts. I came up with the idea of a flash mob.

I was then directed to speak to the PR professional that consults with the organisation (which is not-for-profit). Nerve-wracking yes, exhilarting YES! Being able to share my ideas with someone who has years of experience in my chosen field and has the power to bring ideas to life is very exciting. I felt like more than a student at a work placement, I felt like a productive employee.

The brief I put out was well received and the idea is being put into motion! No matter how it turns out (and I am determined that it will turn out REALLY WELL:) I finally feel 100% certain that I have chosen the right career path because this satisfied, challenging feeling I have is something I treasure.

A SINGLE TREE CAN’T MAKE FOREST ON ITS OWN

True that, a river need drops of water to flow, so are the humans, they need each other to survive. A famous African proverb says, “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.”

First week at work, we leaned on this proverb while working on the research which the company wanted to conduct at the beginning of 2011. The main goal was to strengthen and maintain good relations with the community. Generally retail stores rely on the community as they are the everyday customers, so we focused on some of the foundation values of the store….trust and loyalty. The question being: how to make the customers loyal and trust us?

We set up a booth in game city and I was honored to prepare some questionnaires and conduct interviews with customers. I had so much fun (professionally); the customers responded well to the research and were flattered, because not all stores in Botswana conduct this type of researches.

The idea behind this was to create a two-way communication through interviews because not everybody is interested in digital media or other forms that make a two-way symmetrical communication achievable. Botswana is still developing and only a handful has access to the internet so it wouldn't have been easy to reach a large number of people as compared to us interacting with customers directly through interview sessions.

Do you guys think two-way symmetrical is the best method to use when building relationships with the community?

Well from my opinion I strongly agree that when you involve and engage the people, they begin to trust you and the relationship automatically improves.

We didn't just sit on the research, but we picked up the key words from the community and focused also on them, like; progress, the people, service, partner, giving back, government, perseverance, participation.

Why focus on some of these key words?

The research was meant to help us make a tremendous impact in changing the stakeholder’s perceptions. They depend on us, we depend on them, and so we are each other’s strength. We talk to them; we listen to them, and act. They talk to us; they listen to us and act, which is why we had to also consider what they have to say and that helps us as a company to know our stand, what the community desire from us and what need to be improved.

Do you guys have better suggestions on how two-way symmetrical can work in a country like Botswana?

Feel free to give your opinion, nobody is wrong! :D