Social Media… and the news.

In week 6, our focus was on social media and the news. This is a topic I thoroughly enjoy, with social media being the focus of so many people’s lives. I also find this topic enjoyable as I have personally seen the effects that social media can have, personally building a business (www.byjem.com.au < plug!) all via social media outlet. I now have (after a lot of work!) over 10,000 followers which may not seem like much, but to me is a huge achievement. I also have seen how Instagram influencers (also known as bloggers) can help a brand build itself up as I have used several to gain business, and it works. If you had said 10 years ago, I’d be paying people to look pretty and wear my jewellery in order to sell it, I would’ve told you that you are CRAZY however, that is the way the world is now. Before this course however, I did not realise the PR term for paying influencers was called commissioning content, so I did learn that this week also.

This week I also liked the idea of the characteristics of good content. These were described as;

• Reader – Centric
• Focus on story-telling
• Strategic
• Strong Visual Elements
• Interactive

The interactive one especially is quite common and I have seen this been used on several occasions. For instance, running competitions on Instagram to get people to comment on your post;

(Source: By Jem Instagram, 2017)

This interactive post gave By Jem 257 likes and over 520 comments, when on average, a post usually gets approximately 80-120 likes with only 2-10 comments. This was an astonishing result and shows the effectiveness of interactive (and also giving free things away).

The lecture also described good content as real. I also believe this and have seen this to be true. I released a blog a while ago on my website, which outlined my why behind By Jem. It was raw and it was honest. I received an influx of emails & the post received over 300 clicks in one night, which for By Jem is unheard of.

Content Calendars was another thing discussed. I believe this is extremely vital for any successful online business. You need to structure your posts, write your captions in advance, ensure the posts flow from one another and are also appealing to the eye when looking at the overall social media feed. Without structure and planning, social media can often be a fail. In the bigger scheme of things, the lecture showed a content calendar of what would potentially be a slightly larger business:

(Source: http://blog.marketing.ai/sample-content-marketing-agency-editorial-calendar/)

This is a content calendar of a business who has a large presence with media, as shown above they have press releases, surveys, newsletters, Tweets, and Facebook (plus a lot more) to schedule in. By also doing this, makes other PR employees easier to work on. For instance, if the main social media manager was off sick, someone else knows exactly where to pick up from without causing havoc and throwing different characteristics into the mix.

Overall I could thoroughly relate to this topic! Enjoyed learning how social media and media releases are influenced from PR and how PR can help to manage these aspects of a business.

PR in Non-Profits & the Government

So PR in Non Profits is where I would like to end up too. When I chose marketing as a possible degree path, I felt that as an outsider, with little knowledge on how marketing really works, the non-profit sector is where I’d like to ideally end up at, especially as they are all about giving back to the community.

Our lecture this week, demonstrated the importance of communications and public relations in the non-profit sector.

This includes developing and maintaining the fundraising side of this, using technology and social media outlets to extend the reach and ensure they are targeting a large variety of demographics. PR in nonprofits has also seen an increase in paid advertisements, this is largely caused by social media outlets and paid Facebook and Instagram adverts. Another PR aspect, is paying social media bloggers to advertise a particular fundraising event.  This is also evident in fundraisers such as the Hospital Research Community Lottery, where they have Cosi from South Aussie with Cosi giving tours, and Lucy Cornes from She Shopped – another large Instagram based blogger, who has a following of over 50,000 people (She Shopped, 2017).

A point made in the lecture that I do feel and also agree with, is that that non profit PR is quite competitive. There are so many charities and fundraisers these days, that may confuse and put off potential targeted people, however I do feel that by doing things correctly, like the Hospital Research Community Lottery have done, they can have a point of difference. This is also evident with them selling out before the closing date, often within just weeks, as stated on their Facebook page.

Now to Government PR, something that does not fascinate me as much as non-profit PR (sorry for anyone reading this that is working in government PR at the moment, it is just not for me personally!)…

The lecture this week, showed that the primary focus for PR in the government sector is to encourage citizen support and co-operation. I feel that this is a simple back to basics with PR, where a lot of their focus is to maintain that brands reputation (Johnston, 2014). In this case though, they are trying to maintain the governments reputation.

This is a little different to corporate PR, as corporate PR is primarily dealing with large businesses who are not state or nation government owned. However, institutions such as Centrelink and the ATO would fall under government PR as they are all entities of the government. Johnston (2014) also says that often in government entities, PR teams will carry a variety of positions, starting at a junior level and going up to senior given the diversity of activities that the PR team may need to participate in.

Overall, this week has given me a clearer idea that non-profit PR, despite being competitive, is ultimately where I would like to end up. To know that I am giving back to the community and my organisation has the same morals of helping others out is where I would love to work.

Social Responsibility… say what? And what is Internal Communications?!

Another surprise (for some!) as to what PR is and is capable of doing, is our social responsibility. This is hugely important to myself also, as I pride myself as contributing to others and feel that I have a responsibility to help contribute to anyone and everyone.

A statistic which was from the lecture this week and really stuck with me was;

90% consumers want companies to give back to society (Ragas & Culp, 2014, p.109)

That for me, is quite comforting to see. This is also evident with Westpac’s actions to back Adani financially, a corporation that could have potentially affected the Great Barrier Reef. Their Facebook comments for the 6 ongoing months were all about people withdrawing their funds and going elsewhere due to the fact that Adani was not giving back to society and Westpac was helping them achieve this (Facebook, 2016). This also relates to the sustainability of the company and its ethics. Is this compromising potential areas for the future? Potential,yes. So people decided to leave.

Another area of social responsibility that PR can partake in is demonstrating the companies thoughts on large debates, such as equal rights for gay marriage. I had done a previous assignment on gay marriage this year, and how PR campaigns were used to help influence and persuade the Australian community to vote one way or another. In the lecture, it was also evident that companies have taken this on board also, with the AFL and QANTAS changing their branding to campaign for yes.

Internal communications was the other topic discussed in the lecture this week. This for me is quite important, as I believe any great company is great because of the way they communicate with employees across the whole board. I believe this, as I had worked at a previous job where internal communications were poorly done and when they were done, they were done so in a degrading way. This in turn, demotivated a lot of staff members, which in return resulted in a high staff turnover, and unsatisfied customers.

The lecture this week, reinstated this as employee engagement should be a priority for most companies. If people do not like where they work, it will show. I also liked this week, how it was stated that employees need to be looked as an asset. I now work for a company, who truly values me. They communicate effectively via regular emails and hold regular staff functions to build staff morale. This in turn, has resulted in less staff turn over, and an overall sense of satisfaction at work. It also reflects on our customers, who comment regularly on how happy everyone is to be at work and how different it is to walk into a place that has happy employees all the time.

Corporate Public Relations. Yes, this is a thing.

So, if you are anything like myself, you would’ve envisioned public relations to be an industry full of bottles of Moet and events with flowers draped along all the tables as far as the eye can see and branded cookies. This however; is just a tiny glimpse into what Public Relations is. Public relations goes far into corporate as well as government and political industries (this topic will be discussed another time).

Now, I won’t try to bore you so I’ll explain as briefly as possible as to what corporate PR exactly is. Cornelissen (2008) states that corporate communication is;

“a management function that offers a framework for the effective coordination of all internal and external communication with the overall purpose of establishing and maintaining favourable reputations with stakeholder groups upon which the organization is dependent”

In simpler terms, they are the foundation for ensuring that co-ordination of all communications from both within the organisation, and out; are all on par with each other. This helps to maintain reputations of the organisation, by ensuring that no mixed signals are sent to stakeholders and establishing a clear message as the purpose of that particular organisation, whilst building its reputation.

The lecture this week, also discussed how corporate communications fit into a management structure. Dependent on the corporation itself, will depend on where the PR team will sit. For instance;

(Source: The University of Queensland, 2016)

The above shows that marketing and communications work alongside of each other, however under the director who also manages legal.

I personally, work in the financial industry so I have got a clear idea as to what the public relations team do for corporate organisations. For instance, with CBA currently making news headlines (and not for the best reasons), their PR team would be in charge of all media relations to ensure that they are managing the crisis the best way they can, and to also ensure (or try to save at least!) their reputation for what has happened.

The PR team at CBA would’ve been frantically crisis managing this situation, trying to protect and maintain their reputation. They would’ve also ensured that media releases were done so in an appropriate manner, as well as ensuring that staff do not liaise with the media about this topic during this time.

PR teams in corporate organisations also need to ensure they structure their employee’s correctly, dependent on the organisation itself and how it runs. For instance, PR can work alongside of a marketing team if needed, or at times may be involved in the legal team to help with media releases and also writing of letters to stakeholders of that organisation.

I personally, did not enjoy this lecture as much as others. As much as I understand that corporate PR is important (I have seen and worked along side of it myself), I feel that this is not an avenue I would like to venture further into. This week has also helped me confirm this.