Putting Skills to the Test

Nothing is quite as satisfying as seeing your hard work pay off. I realised that when I first got my hands on the special ANZAC Day edition of Programmed’s quarterly newsletter, which I had played a big part in producing. 

  The company newsletter goes out to staff in Programmed offices across Australia and New Zealand, and as part of the ANZAC Day special employees had been asked to send in personal stories about their family’s involvement in wars. A huge number of submissions were emailed in and they were all incredibly different. From a simple timeline of a great-grandfather in WWII to a hand-written letter from a man shot seven times during the landing at Gallipoli. There were tales from Vietnam, experiences on board navy vessels and stories from more recent conflicts. Sorting through these was no easy feat. In fact, it was pretty emotional. A lot of employees had gone to the effort to do some research on their families and write up a few pages on a relative who had passed away. It was moving to read how proud these people were of their ancestors. It reminded me that to do your job properly you’ve got to have some emotional investment in your work. Of course, at the stay time you have to stay professional.

One of the biggest challenges was that I felt I needed to do justice to peoples stories and represent them in the right way. I had to ensure that the articles made sense and were factually correct. Aside from looking at my finished articles from the perspective of the general reader, I tried to look from that of the person that had submitted it. With war being such an important and emotional subject for so many people, it was important not to misinterpret anyone.

 The other day I saw a guy who is part of the digital marketing company that Programmed hires for photo shoots and to print the quarterly papers. He told me that people in his Melbourne office had read the Anzac edition and really liked it, which pleased me a lot. The challenges in writing the articles gave an insight in to what it must be like to write professionally, whether it be for PR, journalism or any other role. It’s not easy to think that there will be people reading and scrutinizing your work, but in the end I'm proud to see my name printed next to these articles, especially for such a important subject. 

The first week of my PR 393 Internship

Greetings everyone, 

I am Geetika Boyjoo and am currently undergoing my final semester at the Charles Telfair Institute (CTI), Mauritius,  majoring in a Bachelor of Commerce in Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management and Public Relations.

I started my internship at the Medine Limited last week on Monday 4th of February 2013. The first day I have to admit I was rather stressed but as I got to know my colleagues and more importantly my supervisor, I was able to adapt and understand what the internship entails.

However, before giving you an insight of my first week at Medine Limited, allow me to give you a brief introduction of the company. 

Medine started off as a sugar estate, which means that it formed part of the sugar industry which was once Mauritius's main economic pillar back in 1911, when Medine was first established. Later on Medine diversified its activities into other promising ventures as the sugar industry's economic importance declined with time. As such, in 2009 Medine divided its activities through a rebranding exercise, into 3 definite clusters which are as follow:

1. Medine Property: this involves the development of the property portfolio of the company.
2. Medine Agriculture: this cluster's role is to generate and try to implement innovations related to the agricultural activities of the group while at the same time considering diversification programs.
3. Medine Leisure: is all about managing, operating and developing the leisure activities of the Group, including the Casela - the Group's leisure hub.

For more information, you may visit their website on the following link: 

http://www.medine.com/  

and/or if you prefer their facebook page on: 

https://www.facebook.com/MedineLimited?fref=ts

As you will be able to see on their website, the Group also does news, publications and CSR-related works. The Corporate Sustainability and Communication Department at the Head Office, is where I am following my internship. 

The first few days were already scheduled as being my period of Familiarisation with Medine Limited through their printed materials namely their newsletter - 'The Medine Post', their website and facebook page and their Medine Master Plan - a document downloadable from their website which is a high-quality document written and published in 2005 by a team of architects, town-planners and sociologists under the guidance of Mr. Maurice Giraud, one of the architect planners.

This specific document contains all the details of the vision and plans of the organisation over the western part of Mauritius for the coming years. 

Up until now many of the projects have been undertaken and are still ongoing. Also every year the Medine Master Plan is reviewed, updated and adapted to current economic situation and according to present demands. Below are the covers of the latest 'The Medine Post' and the Medine Master Plan:

Moving on, on the first day, apart from going through the familiarisation process, I was able to experience what real media clipping is all about.

 What I was asked to do, was to convert the JPEG articles into PDF documents to be uploaded on their intranet so that everyone connected would be able to get access to it on one main location, in order of - published date and  - separated into 5 sections, namely:

1. Agro Industry 

2. Tourism & Leisure

3.Property Development

4.Regarding Medine, and 

5. Education 

Additionally, I was asked to make a comparative study which involved research work to identify in what ways Medine was different or similar to its competitors.

Moreover, I was asked for the address details of particular ministers and ambassadors for which took place yesterday night - 15.02.13 - concerning the laying of the foundation stone at Casela by the Prime Minister. 

Even if I was not asked to search for their phone numbers, fax number and e-mail addresses, I produced a contact list where these were included in case these were urgently needed. I used the same procedure when making the ambassadors' contact list and as a matter of fact, these two documents came in handy when we had to make follow up calls afterwards. 

Also, during the first week I learnt how to officially communicate on behalf of Medine Limited, whether this was done by calls or e-mails when asking for quotations of certain logistics and how crucial proof-reading is before sending out e-mails. 

Furthermore, what I essentially grasped was that representing such an organisation called for professional behaviour and attitude. 

Afterwards I got to help with the company's fun day scheduled for their employees, which involved:

1. Cross checking of a Power point presentation

2. Re-organising and adding details to a budget document

3. Making integral calls, and 

4. Chase up calls of logistics

As a whole, this is how my first week went by in a jiffy. Having been working on these two events is the reason why I was not able to post my first blog earlier.

Nonetheless, remain posted to check my second blog post coming up soon.

In the meantime, I wish you all good luck with your internships,

Take care everyone,

Warmest regards,

Geetika Boyjoo

Curtin ID: 15172402

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)

Going Solo: My First Interview

As mentioned in my previous post, not for profit organisations present some fantastic learning opportunities to interns such as myself. Not for profits are typically in need of extra assistance and students will often find themselves with the opportunity to be involved in some quality organisational activities.

During the course of my internship at Baptistcare WA, I was involved in the production of the quarterly newsletter ‘Reaching Out.’ As I was involved in content generation, my supervisor and I would have meetings with various departments to get their wrap of the last few months. I obtained my big opportunity on one occasion when my supervisor was unable to accompany me on a scheduled interview.

My assignment involved paying a visit to a young woman living with Cerebral Palsy who Baptistcare provided assistance to. Subsequently, I needed to form a story to be included in Reaching Out from the interview. Having no knowledge or experience with the issue of Cerebral Palsy, I did not know what to expect. However, I knew that I would be dealing with a sensitive issue and needed to tread carefully.

The interview sailed fairly smoothly. The young woman was confident and outgoing, with quite a story to tell. This made my job of interviewing and forming a story much easier, given that I did not need to probe or provide too much direction to our discussion. As I was hurriedly scribbling away, I could see that the story was perfect material for our newsletter – which exists to inform industry and stakeholders on how Baptistcare is fulfilling its mission. The story was a true example of Baptistcare’s mission in action.

With quite a story to tell and so much scribbled down, I ended up writing a piece that was about double the length my supervisor was looking for. Of course, it’s always better to be over prepared than under and cutting the story down was a piece of cake. As usual with all Public Relations practices at Baptistcare, any direct quotes and images used in my article had to be approved by the subject in writing.

The biggest issue with this assignment, however, was ensuring that the subject of my story was satisfied with her portrayal. The story would be going public to all of Baptistcare’s stakeholders and industry partners, as well as online. It was difficult to get into contact with the young lady given that she was facing some personal issues at the time. This meant that the story had to be pulled from the planned issue of the newsletter. We were not prepared to run the story unless we had absolute confidence that she was satisfied.

Fortunately, my story was published in a later newsletter once we were able to make contact and obtain approval and I now have a record of my first solo interview to place into my portfolio.

Parting is such sweet sorrow

Previously, at Student Edge...

I was tasked with creating the corporate enewsletter, which would communicate on a business to business level from Student Edge to its clients. The next step was the brief the design team. Unfortunately, this proved extremely difficult due to the designer in question working externally. I was having to describe something visual using words, which I think was difficult for both of us!

Emails - complicated?!

Image source

After much going back and forth (5+ times - I think the designer became more frustrated with me than he showed!), the enewsletter was signed, sealed and delivered, and ready to go into production to be coded and 'html-ised'. Our in house designer told me this was quite a lenghthy process, including spam filters, test sends, cross browser compatibility and consistancy - wow! Who would have thought such planning and testing went into emails? Before I started work at Student Edge, I had never given much thought to daily mailing list emails that would land in my inbox. But now I think differently, and actually take the time to open emails and appreciate the work that goes into them.

Final words

Last intern day complete, 30 page+ placement paper written - what now? I have learnt so much over the past 18 months of working at Student Edge. I loved all the tasks I was given, which included copy writing & proofing, developing media release templates, working with a wide range of stakeholders, briefing and providing feedback on design, as well as the exciting task of having complete ownership of a key corporate communication project – the corporate enewsletter. 

The highlight of my placement was not only working with such a great team, but also getting the satisfaction from developing the corporate enewsletter from scratch and see it get to the final stage. I can look at it and think, "I did that!" I don't know about anyone else, but despite us being third year public relations students, I still often feel like I don't know anything! My experience at Student Edge has taught me otherwise, and shows that a lot of the content learn at uni really did manage to sink in after all!

All the best, Semester 1 2012 PR393 students. Look forward to seeing you in the 'real world'!

Rachel