When One Chapter Ends, Another One Begins
As I embarked on my last week of internship with AgregoryPR, I took a stroll down memory lane and recalled the first meeting with my supervisor. I remember feeling like a nervous wreck as my brain absorbed several new and unfamiliar terms such as listicles, landing pages, and lead generation; which had me thinking about whether I’d be able to survive for the next 10 weeks. Admittedly, there were times when I also wondered whether this was the right field for me due to the amount of pressure, workload, and deadlines I had to manage, but it was just a matter of time before I saw the fruits of my work and gained the confidence I needed. It’s crazy how time went by so quickly and before you know it, I was already on my last day of internship.
It has been an incredible journey and I learned so much, despite working from home. If I could list all the things I did throughout my internship, I think I would be able to publish an entire book! As promised in my last blog entry, I will be sharing some of the exciting, creative projects that I worked on.
1. Created content for a Facebook group called ‘’Inspiring Storytellers’’
When I went through my list of weekly tasks, I was pleasantly surprised when my supervisor assigned me to work on something different than the usual – creating social media content, writing blogs and articles for our client. This time, I got to work on a creative writing project for our agency’s Facebook group called ‘’Inspiring Storytellers’’ and wrote a short story titled ‘’My Safe Haven’’ based on a picture that I took during my stay in Hong Kong.
The purpose of this project was to inspire and encourage the rest of the group members to share a story of their own based on any photo, painting, or art piece that they created.
‘’My Safe Haven’’ featured on Inspiring Storytellers
If you’d like to read my short story, feel free to head over to this link 😊
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=4822649081138705&set=gm.1259444247805874
Besides this short story, I was also tasked to create three interactive posts to increase engagement with the group members. My supervisor suggested that I could either design some interactive polls or ask questions that will spark a conversation between the group members. After spending some time thinking and researching for ideas, I came up with ‘’Trivia Questions’’, ‘’Emoji Pictionary’’, and ‘’Mad Libs’’ and showed the final product to my supervisors. For a visual example, I’ve included these posts below for your reference. 😊
a) Trivia Questions
The theme of this activity is ‘’Would You Rather’’ and there were several scenarios for members to choose from. To participate in this activity, members are simply required to comment on their preferred choice. I came up with this activity because I wanted members to get to know more about each other in a fun and informal way.
b) Emoji Pictionary
Next, this activity was designed to get members to guess the meaning behind these emojis where they could earn up to 85 points for each correct answer. Though I wish I thought of a reward or an incentive to get more people to participate in this activity but that’s alright, I’ll surely put more thought into planning and strategising the next interactive content that I’ll create in the future!
Before we proceed any further, would you like to try your hand in guessing the meaning behind these emojis as well?
The answers are Doorbell, French fry, Harry Potter, and Four Seasons. Let me know if you got any of these correct!
c) Mad Libs
I created Mad Libs specifically for Valentine’s Day so the members could share some laughs by completing a sentence that prompts them to fill in the blank with a word that does not necessarily have to make sense.
What I learned from this task:
From this task, I realised that the art of storytelling comes in many different forms and it is up to our imagination and creativity to help us decide how we want to share our story.
At the same time, this activity taught me to be more expressive, especially when it comes to creative writing. On that note, I have also become more motivated to continue exploring different ways to boost my content creation skills.
2. This or That polls via Stories
If you managed to read my previous blog entry, I mentioned that I also came up with a series of ‘’This or That’’ interactive polls for our client’s Instagram and Facebook social media pages. These were also part of our agency’s strategy to build better engagement with our client’s audience.
Here’s an example of the polls that I came up with:
3. Drafted a Pitch Email to Journalists
As an intern, one of my tasks required researching and proposing media outlets, including blogs, as a means for article distribution to boost our client’s publicity and gain earned media coverage.
When I stumbled upon Espoletta Lifestyle Journal, an online journal that helps small and big brands by telling their stories, I immediately told my supervisors about this discovery. My supervisors were interested in the idea and asked me to come up with an angle that we can pitch to the journalists. I thought long and hard about it and eventually, I decided to feature the story of our client’s cultural inspiration behind their clothing designs.
While I managed to send a draft copy of my pitch email to my supervisors, I did not manage to contact any of the journalists. Unfortunately, I came across this journal a bit too late and by the time I submitted the draft, I was already on my last day of internship. Nevertheless, crafting a pitch email was a memorable experience for me as it was my first time doing so and to be frank, I had no idea whether I did it right. Despite not being able to proceed with this task, I believe that there will be future opportunities for me to do so.
4. Wrote several articles for our agency
Last but not the least, I also wrote several articles that could advertise and bring awareness to the agency’s Resume, Portfolio, LinkedIn, and Personal Webpage Guides for 2021. My supervisor informed me that the purpose of this task was to educate the public on the importance of having these essentials which will then draw their attention to the agency’s guides and get them to download these resources.
Since there were 4 guides, this meant that we had to write 4 articles in total. For this task, my colleague and I split the work, therefore we wrote 2 articles each. After deciding the most suitable angles for each article, the articles that I wrote were entitled ‘’How to Make Your Resume/CV Stand Out’’ and ‘’Why Your Personal Website Matters More Than You Think.’’
What I learned from this task:
From this task, I learned that there are 3 types of Resume format which consist of chronological, functional, and combination format. Before this task, I had not known these terminologies, and most interestingly, the commonly used format is done chronologically. After writing the article, I realised that my current Resume/CV needs to be tailored to a more Public Relations-oriented Resume. On top of that, I also began to realise the value of having a personal website, which will be highly beneficial for us when we apply for jobs someday.
Overall, I’m blessed beyond measure to have interned with AgregoryPR as it has fuelled my knowledge and passion for the PR industry which would not have been possible if it weren’t for this Reflective Practice unit. Before I left, my supervisor gave me a valuable piece of advice which went along the lines of, ‘’always look for ways to upskill yourself because it’s important to be multi-skilled these days, especially as modern-day PR practitioners’’. These words will always be of great importance to me.
Before I joined AgregoryPR, I came in with nothing but now, I can humbly say that I left with so much. I’d like to thank my lecturer, Dr. Adamu, and my unit coordinator, Dr. Bridget for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity which has become one of the major highlights of my degree life.
So, what’s next for me?
Geena
The Joy of Working with a Fashion Client
Greetings everybody, I’m back with another blogpost! After a fulfilling weekend, I was ready to face another week of my internship. As soon it was time for my usual 9am meeting with my supervisor, I grabbed my notepad and noted down my assigned tasks for the week.
Much to my surprise, our client requested us to create a new type of content that’s never been done before, and that is, to create a wedding-themed social media post based on the 12 astrological signs. Although there won’t be any huge weddings anytime soon due to the pandemic, our client still wanted to inspire her ‘’bride-to-be’’ customers on how to dress for their wedding day, according to their birth signs. Here are some of the things I did:
1. Research popular wedding trends for 2021
Google was my best friend in this task. Before anything else, I dug the internet and did some desk research on trending wedding colours, decorations, and floral arrangements. I also found that there would be a growth in micro and small-scale weddings in 2021 which convinced me to put more thought into putting together a personal and intimate selection of wedding looks for each bride, in line with the change of wedding environment due to the pandemic.
After getting the information that I needed, it was time to get down to the nitty-gritty part of the job: studying each bride’s zodiac sign! As our client wanted to incorporate wedding horoscopes, I figured it was essential not to skip this part so that I could understand our target audience better and identify their personalities and characteristics.
2. Read up each zodiac signs
To help me organise my research, I opened a Word document and produced a brief 2-page wedding guide that includes each sign’s lucky colours, ideal wedding gowns, flowers, and accessories. For example, to match with Virgo’s temperament, I came up with an earthy colour palette that would complement the bride’s wedding look. For those wondering how it looks like, here’s a simple visual illustration:
With the help of the wedding guide, I was able to structure my notes cohesively and most importantly, to stay on track with my work. In the document, I’ve also listed down the sources and links to the images I’ve used, for my supervisor’s reference. Looking back, I’m glad I learned about copyright and infringement issues in PR Law which is important for us to bear in mind when using content that are not ours. As a large chunk of the images that I used were found on the internet, I had to be prepared to give credit to the rightful owners of the images.
3. Set captions for each post
Once I found the perfect pastel pink Instagram puzzle feed template and after making the final edits to the post, I drafted captions for each of the 12 posts. Ladies and gentlemen, I can’t stress enough on how research, particularly on the brides’ personalities; has allowed me to tell a story through the use of visuals and words to describe each bride’s ideal wedding look.
As storytellers and communicators, we have the power to give brands the voice that they need. From this experience, I was able to put my writing skills to the test as I simultaneously figure out how to effectively deliver key messages to target audiences.
My personal goals to further improve my skills:
1. To boost my creative abilities
After showing the finished product to my supervisors, they were impressed with the outcome and gave me the ‘’green-light’’ to schedule the post via Buffer. These posts would be published on the client’s Instagram and Facebook account.
However, even if my supervisors are satisfied with my work, I still want to take a step further and boost my creative abilities. With that being said, I aspire to create more eye-catching and unique social media content in the future. I believe that creativity is a valuable skill to have as a PR practitioner, so that we can assist our clients to stand out among their competitors.
2. Increase social media engagement with target audience
In terms of the number of likes and comments that we receive on our client’s social media pages, I’ve observed that engagement can be quite low. So, I brought this up to one of my supervisors. We agreed that we needed to elevate our engagement with our audience and proceeded to brainstorm on new content ideas. At the end of the day, it all boils down to having a creative mind! A few weeks later, we launched a series of weekly interactive polls of ‘’This or That’’ on Instagram stories as part of our engagement strategy to stay consistent in engaging with our audience.
This would be one of the times where I realised that our roles as PR practitioners requires us to constantly review our communication goals and objectives for our client. In this case, it involves employing the right tactics and strategies that can help us achieve our goals and lead us to a better social media ROI.
In my next blogpost, I’ll be sharing more about the creative projects and content that I got to work on in the later weeks of my internship. If you’re keen to know more, feel free to stay tuned for the next entry. As always, thank you for reading my blog and till then, take care and stay safe!
Geena
Are we using social media the right way?
At some point, I was just a regular kid who would scroll through social media aimlessly. As oblivious as I was, my internship made me realise how brands like Starbucks or GoPro are putting their social media management skills to good use. Inspired by this discovery, I’ve decided to share a couple of things about the art of good social media management and how we can use social media more effectively.
It all began as I was close to completing my daily tasks when I suddenly received a text from my supervisor: “Geena, could you come up with an article below 500 words on the importance of good social media management? Focus on content calendar and content planning so I can slip in the download link to the leads.”
I don’t know which part of me assumed that I had a couple of days to submit the article, so when I learned that I had less than 24 hours to complete it, a wave of doubt and pressure came crashing in.
via Giphy
But I didn’t want to let negativity get the best of me. So, I gave myself a pep talk to help boost my nerves and take on the challenge. Did it work? Kind of! After researching the information that I needed, the words transformed into sentences, and slowly, I progressed. Here’s what I learned while writing the article.
1. Know your target audience inside out
Thanks to the PR units that we’ve previously learned, the theories have always mentioned that it’s crucial to define our target audience. Thinking about it now, it makes perfect sense to know who we’re communicating with so we can understand and relate to them better. I remember when we had to create a PR campaign for our client last semester for our Transmedia Storytelling assessment. Before anything else, our group firstly discussed who our target audience was by identifying their demographic, geographic and psychographic segmentation. Indeed, it helped us in shaping our strategies. In terms of my work experience, the client that our PR agency is working with is a modest fashion brand that primarily caters for Muslim and even non-Muslim women interested in modest wear. These women include young and middle-aged working adults. Without this information, it would have been challenging to align our PR objectives with the customers’ needs.
2. Next, be strategic and original with your content plan
I believe that having a strategic content plan that radiates originality is a recipe for success. As we’re living in a dynamic world, new trends are always on the rise. So that means it’s so much easier for us to stay updated on any trending topics and, in this case, the issues that relate to our client’s industry. What’s more, we can then use them to generate relevant and real-time content and engage in a conversation with the audience.
via Giphy
From my own experience, one of my first few content ideas for our client was a listicle on “5 Work from Home Tips + OOTD ideas.” When the pandemic hit, many had to work from home, so I was inspired to create something that many can relate with. In the listicle, I shared some of my work from home tips, where I also included a fashion element to it as well.
3. Understand why a content plan is needed in the first place
There may be times when we seem to know what we’re doing, but when asked to explain why we do them, it can get pretty tricky to do so. In the context of PR, having a content plan and understanding why we need them establishes a direction, and it serves as a reminder as to why we create content in the first place.
via Giphy
By having a content plan ready, it can:
Help you to be more consistent
With due dates around the corner and provided that we stick to the plan, we’ll be able to create and publish content regularly. When we make content creation a habit, as opposed to; a mere one-off strategy, this can lead to a better reputation, stronger brand trust, and improved bottom line.
Elevate your branding
I once stumbled upon a quote by Lisa Gansky, an American entrepreneur and author; and it goes something like this, “a brand is a voice and a product is a souvenir.” In today’s world, it’s perfectly normal to care about a brand’s values and what they stand for before buying their product(s). In fact, 83% of American consumers are concerned with brand values before sealing the deal and making the purchase (IDealogic Brand Lab 2021). Seems pretty interesting to me!
“So, how does this relate to brand elevation?” If we know what our audience value most, a content plan will help us present a brand in the best way possible. This can be done by publishing relevant and quality content.
Boost your SEO score
Still need convincing if having a content planning strategy is a must? How about this, do you want to see the fruits of your PR efforts and get your content to be more visible on Google (or other search engines)? Suppose you can include the right keywords, write good meta-descriptions and incorporate relevant title tags. In that case, you’ll certainly boost your rankings and eventually, your content will be highly visible than usual.
Overall, I hope that I’ve shared some useful insights on how powerful good social media management is. Nowadays, effective content creation is an essential skill to have. This will not only determine our storytelling abilities, but we can also form more meaningful relationships with our audience, and boost our online brand presence.
Thank you for reading all the way here. I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts and insights on social media and other ways that we can use them to our advantage as professional PR practitioners! 😊 Till then, take care and stay safe.
Geena
Reference:
IDealogic Brand Lab. 2021. “Brands vs Products: What Do People Really Care About?” IDealogic Brand Lab (blog). https://idealogicbrandlab.com/products-vs-brands/
Gearing up for the life of a (hectic) PR intern
“I am pleased to confirm your internship placement as a Public Relations Officer with Agregory PR.”
I can still clearly remember the burst of excitement when I received the news that I was officially accepted to intern at Agregory PR. As excited as I was, I felt quite nervous as I didn’t know what to expect! Also, I’ve yet to mention that throughout my 10-week internship period, I was assigned to work remotely from home.
My work from home ”office”
Come Monday morning, on the 23rd of November 2020, I met my direct supervisor through Google Meet, who was kind enough to walk through the work schedule and expectations from A-Z.
Though I can’t get the experience of working on-site, I indeed didn’t have to worry about running out of things to do. For starters, my main tasks revolve around content planning and writing for our client, a modest Malaysian fashion brand. I had to develop exciting and engaging content for the client’s social media consistently, mainly on Instagram and Facebook, and website, for blog articles.
It was here that I was introduced to Buffer Publish, a social media management tool that helps people like us to plan, organise, and schedule posts ahead of time.
Buffer Publish Website
After getting to know my roles and responsibilities, I initially thought that everything was going to be a walk in the park, but it’s safe to say that I was NOT prepared for what’s coming next because I realised that:
- The PR field is hectic During the first two weeks of my internship, I already had a ton of work to do, which means that I had to complete my tasks quickly! Two days after joining the company, I sent my content calendar for November, then immediately tasked to create a Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sale banner for the client. Also, I had to design several Instagram stories where I was given two days to complete everything. As much as I tried, I couldn’t finish everything on time as the client wanted something different than what I had in mind. However, my supervisors coached me along the way and told me to keep practicing!
- My designing skills needed a LOT of work I struggled the most in designing something from scratch. I realised that I lacked the innate ability to be creative. However, I didn’t lose hope and continued to practice my craft with Photoshop. Canva is great, but with Photoshop, you can do wonders. For aspiring PR professionals, consider investing some time learning more about Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator because good design skills are valuable assets.
- Patience is key
Ever heard of the quote, “if at first, you don’t succeed, try, try, try again”? There are times when I had to continually revise my work to ensure that it fits the client’s needs. At one point, I questioned myself whether I’m suited for this job because of how challenging it was. Thanks to my family and friends’ words of encouragement, I tried to adopt a positive mindset and recalled why I chose to pursue PR in the first place. When I decided to be patient with myself, I found the confidence I needed and eventually worked better. I want to share a word of advice for those reading this. If you feel burnt out, it’s alright to take short breaks in between to re-energise yourself. Having a healthy and peaceful mind will help you cope better with work!
If I could sum up what I’ve learned from the first few weeks of my internship, it would be these three main points. Thank you so much for reading this blog. I hope that it was insightful 😊. Feel free to share your internship experience with me; I’d love to hear all about it.
With that being said, that’s it for now, and stay tuned for my next blog entry!
– Geena