The Hashtag Craze!

Did you ever ask yourself why were hashtags created? Well it was mainly created for twitter and what's amazing with hastags on twitter is that when you click on a particular hashtag, it gives you all the tweets that have been posted with this particular hashtag. But now we have a 'new' craze on Facebook.

#Hashtags #Facebook

When this craze started on facebook, I thought it was only for the trend. But then I had the chance to talk about it with a PR professional and he often uses hashtags for the fb pages of his clients. He says thanks to hashtags he no more needs to write long sentences and it comes in handy when he has to post quickly and via his cellphone. 

Some facebook users post things and as description, all you can read is a set of hashtags! I wonder if these people are aware of how annoying this is! Yes people, it is annoying to see a nice picture of you at the beach but then all I can read, if I can call that 'reading', as description is "#Beach #Sea #Sun #Sand #Hot #SexyLegs #IDon'tKnowWhatMore"... Why!? Is that a new trend on facebook? Just so you can say you've used hashtags? 

Good news: Now hashtags on facebook work the same way as on twitter. 

So people when you are using hashtags make sure that they are common hashtags used by many. 

Want some tips on how to use hashtags and how they can help? Go on hashtags.org (Yeah, I never thought this would one day be created!) You can even get famous hashtags which are being used on that website.

#Twitter #Tweet #Retweet #PR

Hey Curtin, What’s the craze with twitter?

Isn’t that the question almost all students of mass comm. asked themselves? First year, first semester, first journalism class, we were all asked to create a twitter account if we didn’t have one. But why?

Throughout these 3 years of tertiary study, I think I used twitter for many presentations. Why?

What about the love of my life: PR? Why do PR practitioners use twitter?

Wait a sec, why am I publishing a post entirely on Twitter?

Tweet… tweet… retweet… It’s a drug!

Did you notice how people tweet quickly? Leave your twitter for 5min and when you come you have 50 new tweets. This is exactly why professional uses Twitter! But why PR? PR is mainly about reputation; how other see your organisation? How will you know that? Well Twitter is one of the various awesome platforms provided by Web 2.0 and of course what’s the main purpose of Twitter? COMMUNICATION! If people tweet about a particular company with a specific hashtag, it becomes really easy to filter and monitor what is being told about the company. Consequently, we can figure out what kind of reputation the company has.

Throughout this week I posted tweets related to PR and I even had people who marked my tweets as ‘favourite’. Of course, I felt important and it’s an amazing feeling to see there are people in this world who actually are interested by PR. Who wouldn’t be afterall!

My tweets for this week are tweets that according to me would be of great interest to you guys.

Tweets and Retweets

• What to say and not say during a press conference! It’s stressful, I know! This is exactly why I tweeted that article; for you to have some examples of what you can say and not say.
• How traditional PR can survive in the Web 2.0! Today, everything is digital and we should know how to keep a balance between traditional and modern so as not to kill the main purpose of traditional PR!
• The importance of PR! We live in a country in which PR is not well-known. This article is about what will happen if an organisation doesn’t practice PR! Good to know!
•  Using content distribution to create awareness: an important skill in PR!
• Interesting one! Will PR and Marketing get married one day? Discuss!

Building relationships with journalists

What do think of this post on building relationships with Journalists? The post: http://www.prnewsonline.com/prnewsblog/index.php/2014/09/25/does-building-relationships-with-journalists-matter-not-if-you-ask-journalists/

“Does ‘Building Relationships’ With Journalists Matter?” Replying to that question, YES! Of course, from a PR intern point of view. We are in Mauritius: a small island where almost everyone know each other. Building relationships is important in a small country like Mauritius.

In the blog post from PR News, the author writes that journalists do not really care about the relationship but only about the content. As far as the content is newsworthy, the journalists are fine with it. Positive aspect for the journalist but what about the PR person?

“Just send us something we can actually use.” Sending them something, this means sending them media releases. But what happens when the journalist obtains information on an organisation from somewhere else? The journalist obviously needs confirm those information but why would the PR person of that organisation help the journalist?

What happens when the information obtained will affect the PR person’s organisation negatively? In that case, if the PR person is aware of that little issue, the first thing he or she will try to do is get in contact with the journalist and try to solve things. But what if the PR person and the journalist don’t share a good relationship?

Can you now see the importance of building relationship with journalists? Not enough clear? Let’s apply it to a real life issue.

Some weeks ago, an issue arose which rapidly turned into a crisis. What was it about? Some employees refused to abide by some rules of an organisation (a client of the PR agency I am doing my internship with) and these employees were suspended for valid reasons. Other employees threatened to strike to fight for the reintegration of the suspended employees and for the employers to change the rules and regulations.

The next day, a newspaper reported about the meeting the employees had. It was reported in that article that those employees were suspended for some invalid reasons (the reasons were not mentioned).

As soon as my director saw that article, he wrote a media release with all the reasons and the benefits of these new rules. He contacted all his ‘journalist-friends’ and the next day, several newspapers published articles about the benefits and reasons.

Wouldn’t it have been more difficult to solve that issue if the director did not maintain any good relationships with journalists?

PR deserves love

You read how I fell in love with PR and you are asking yourself why you should like PR too? Then, read this!

Do you know you practice PR almost everyday?

You think I am kidding but I am really serious. Each and everyone in this world practice PR without being aware of it. Wondering how?

Have you ever organised a party for a friend or a family member? Guess what! This is PR. Event management is part of PR. We all at least once in our life have to organise an event. No matter how big or small it can be, it still requires good preparation. Organising and managing an event requires PR skills.

Have you ever tried to convince a friend that someone else is a good person? If yes, congratulations, you practiced PR!

Be a super hero with PR!

When we were kids, we’ve been wearing capes and we’ve been copying our favourite super heroes. But then when we grew up, we started believing that super heroes do not exist. You still think so? I do not and you should not too because PR practitioners are super heroes!

They can of course not fly or move objects by just looking at them but they can for sure save people and organisations. In times of crisis, an organisation shouts for help and the ones who can help the most are PR practitioners. One of their super powers is to solve issues and crises in the shortest time period possible and consequently save the organisation and its employees

PR is not pretentious!

Nobody loves pretentious people. Good news! PR is not pretentious.

I believe PR is one of the most important departments of an organisation. PR practitioners do almost everything and they should know about almost everything. But PR works behind the scene. PR practitioners work hard to promote an organisation’s image and for other people to be famous.

A PR person writes a press release and where is it published? In somebody else’s newspaper. A PR person writes a speech for whom? For somebody else to read it. PR practitioners organise events for other people to enjoy. A PR person helps somebody else (spokespersons) to talk in front of journalists and cameras.

Do they say a word about it? No, they are actually happy with the way PR works. They are happy to help others attain their goals and develop their skills.

From Ignorant Baby to Determined Young Adult

August 2012, first PR class, first row (right in front of the lecturer), and 18 years old me is quietly waiting for the lecture to start. Here we go, Mr Carpen starts his lecture. I’ve been listening for 1 hour and I still do not understand what PR is! I touch my friend’s shoulder and whisper to her:
 “Linda, have you understood what PR is?”
“YES!” she replies with a huge smile

Catastrophe! I am stupid!

After three weeks of lecture, I finally have a little notion of what PR is. “10 more weeks and I’ll be done with this unit”, this is what I told myself. I have not at all thought about the second major I would have to choose in 2^nd year.

December 2012, results are out and I passed PR201. This is when I realised I need to choose the 2^nd major. What do I do? PR or marketing? Marketing 100 was all about theory, so was PR201. I am sure about Journalism for my first major and I think Journalism and PR will be a good combination. Okay, let’s take the risk! I take PR as my 2^nd major.

March 2013, I see ‘PR Techniques’ in my time table and next to it, the name of the lecturer, ‘Veejayen Carpen’. ‘PR Techniques’, this sounds so boring but at least the lecturer is cool! Weeks and weeks of lectures and tutorials developing writing skills. Wait a second, this is fun! I am writing media releases and it is so related to journalism.

August 2013, PR Unit: Media Relations 250; Lecturer: Veejayen Carpen. Media and relations, this sounds pretty interesting and Veejayen as lecturer again, this is more than cool. I feel this is the beginning of a semester full of laughs. Week 7: 1^st simulation of a press conference with a PR person, a spokesperson and reporters. Veejayen is not happy with the questions of the reporters.
“You guys are too nice reporters! I want nasty questions!”
“YES SIR!”

Oh my God! I am falling in love with PR!

September 2014, I am doing my last PR unit which is an internship and I am just loving it! 

From a baby of 18 years old who ignored the existence of PR to a young adult of nearly 21 years old who is now dreaming of the perfect job in the PR field! PR is simply the love of my life!

Language Barrier

PR has always been fun for me. I maybe took 3 weeks to understand what PR was, but once I understood, it became more fun day by day. I am sure that some students, reading this post, are saying to themselves that there is still hope. Since I am doing an Australian degree, all my units are in English. Learning everything in English? No problem, I have been doing that since 3 years old. I never thought this could be an issue for me since here in Mauritius we speak both English and French. When I left college, I was more fluent in French (written and spoken) than in English. I remember in my first year, I was replying to lecturers in French and I was constantly being told to talk in English. Now that I am used to English, it has become harder for me to speak and write in French. However, I told myself, it would not be an issue since I was doing an Australian degree. I was once again completely wrong!

By Marcus Koljonen under Creative Commons License

My mistake was that I did not think about the future. Being a Mauritian, I thought it would never be a problem for me to work in a Mauritian PR organisation. Fourth day of internship, I was doing a task when the supervisor asked the other intern to update something and that something was, I quote, “un ours”! Wait, did he say ‘ours’? Update ‘un ours’, what does that mean? For me ‘ours’ is the French word for bear. How can somebody update an animal? I asked if he said ‘ours’ and the other intern said yes. I stopped what I was doing and searched for the word on Google. ‘Ours’ is simply the French term given to the information written at the start or the end of a document. This may include names, addresses, organisation names, email addresses…etc.  ‘Ours’ is not the only French term they use here. I also came across terms such as ‘dossier de press’ (media kit), ‘communiqué de presse’ (Media release), ‘document d’information’ (Backgrounder)… etc. However these French terms were easy to be understood compared to ‘ours’.

Mauritius is maybe a country in which we talked both English and French but the media here works mainly in French. Having an Australian degree is cool but in the working world, not everyone will take into consideration that you did your degree in English. You are in a country in which people talk more in French than English, as a PR practitioner you should be fluent in both (written and spoken).

Lesson learned! Now, if I come across an English PR term, I make sure to look for the French one and vice versa. Better be on the safe side and not look ridiculous when being asked to do a task.

Thank you Design Practice!

Two years and a half ago I remember how I was complaining in my design class saying I would be doing Journalism and Public Relations as majors and design wouldn’t be of any help. I was obviously not the only one complaining. I was completely wrong! I never expected I would use the few design skills I have in the Public Relations field.

I started a PR internship last month and on the second day of internship my supervisor asked me a question I thought no one in that field would ever ask me. “Do you know how to use photoshop?” I hesitated for a while thinking what to answer. I know how to use photoshop but I am far from being an expert. Should I say yes or no? What if I say yes and he asks for something I don’t know? If I say no, wouldn’t he think that I am not qualified enough? I finally reacted after some seconds and said a not so convincing 'yes'. I am sure my supervisor noticed I was not too sure.

After some minutes, my supervisor came back to me asking me to design two stickers for a client on photoshop. I felt relieved when I realised that what he was asking was simple to do. However, the stickers would be better on illustrator than photoshop. I explained to my supervisor why I preferred doing the task on illustrator rather than on photoshop and he agreed. He liked the stickers and I was asked to design other stuffs during the following days.

My advice to you would be to never think you are learning something which will never be of any use. You are most probably wrong. It will come in handy at some point of your life. Today, I regret having complained that much in my design class. I should really thank my design lecturer!