Social media and public relations

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress, Foursquare, Myspace, deviantART, Flickr, Google+, Blogger and more. These are all probably social media pages that you’ve stumbled upon during your time exploring the Internet.

In this day in age its almost impossible for someone to be completely offline. The Internet and the way in which we communicate, has drastically changed over the past couple of decades.

The rise of the use of social media has played a vital role in public relations, cutting down the barriers between customer and company. With customers being able to communicate directly with a company and its PR department. This form of communication has both its advantages and disadvantages, allowing organisations with a direct link of communication however it can also open the door for online attacks.

At Harvey’s Cureageous Pride social media played a vital role in raising awareness and support for the cause. It provided the organisation with statistical evidence of the level of awareness that the organisation was having online. 

As a part of the public relations plan which I have devised, one of the objectives is to increase Facebook page likes to 1,500 by September 2014. The weekly updates supplied by Facebook provided the organisation with clear indications of its weekly progress. The updates provided vital information in terms of community engagement and awareness.

At Harvey's Cureageous Pride, Instagram images were posted along side Facebook updates. While the Instagram posts did not achieve as large of a reach as the Facebook updates. At Harvey's Cureageous Pride social media played a vital role in community engagement and awareness, with predominant community engagement strategies focused on the online market. The organisation demonstrates how you can run a successful campaign utilising only online resources. In order to successfully engage the target publics Harvey's Cureageous Pride relied on releasing a consistent flow of information that intrigued the audience.
Social media plays an important role in the development of an organisations brand. The kind of engagement created by social media builds brand loyalty rather than just consumers. Brands which do not engage in social media strategies risk alienating their target publics, damaging their reputations. Furthermore, these organisations miss out on discussions which occur within their markets, missing out on identifying trends and consumer demands. Social media provides brands with the opportunity to better engage with their target audience by communicating with them on a personal level, building genuine relationships with influential online users is an important avenue for public relation practices.
While social media is still a new tool in the public relations tool box it is one not to be ignored.

Developing a Sponsorship Proposal

Sometimes when you enter an organisation you find that you have no idea what you’re doing, how you got there and if you should even stay. Other times you find that you seem to slip right in place and have been there for years. Becoming a part of the team at Harvey’s Cureageous Pride as a new organisation has been a valuable experience allowing me to integrate smoothly amongst the new staff. Being only a small of team of four, I’ve been able to feel as though I can collaborate comfortably with all staff members.

Harvey’s Cureageous Pride is a non-for-profit organisation that raises money in support of childhood cancer research. The main two organisations that they support are the Childhood Cancer Institute of Australia and The Telethon Kids Institute here in Perth. The main event for the organisation is a 300km walk from Augusta to Perth.  As a charity the organisation relies on the contributions and efforts of the walkers who register to raise money for the cause, however in order to deliver a successful and professional event sponsorship is vital.

As a new organisation still under development, Harvey’s Cureageous Pride had little background information to provide to the enquiring public with only a small description on the organisations website and a fact sheet to email to those who wished to learn more. The organisation required the development of several public relation principles in order to increase their community awareness.

Being only the second year that the organisation has been operating it allowed me to openly and comfortably express the knowledge that I have developed throughout my time studying my degree in public relations. One of the first tasks that I recommended the organisation undertake was to develop a sponsorship proposal, which they welcomed openly.

I was allowed free range in my research into sponsorship proposals and packages for the organisation. I compared proposals developed from other similar not-for-profit organisations such as Varity and the Glass Slipper Ball. The head of the organisation approved the final documentation that I had developed. It was really rewarding receiving the approval of the head of the organisation, knowing that I was able to provide a key document that was successfully used in acquiring sponsors for the organisation and can be further developed and used in the future.  The organisation received a $5 000 contribution using the sponsorship proposal which I developed from our sponsor Fence Wright. They now have an existing relationship with this organisation and can be used not only to further gain momentum for this years walk but will provide credibility to the organisations cause for other future potential sponsors.