Someone who offers interesting insights..

Someone who I have been following for a couple of years now and reading their blog is Dave Fleet. He has worked in different sectors of marketing communcation/consumer techonology/PR for many years. He has started a well established blog called ‘conversations at the intersection of communication, PR and social media’. He blogs about certain issues affecting the world and how PR and social media manage those events. I have enjoyed reading his blogs for some time now as it is interesting to view certain critical events in the eyes of a PR practitioner. He also writes blogs that are quite personal, his own thoughts and opinions which is interesting to read.

http://davefleet.com/

The Powers of Social Media!

Being generation Y, the internet has played a large role in my life growing up. I don’t remember life without computers and social media, but I believe I created my first social media account at about 12. Social media is now a tool that is second nature to me, as I am on it about 12 hours a day.

I am sometimes still so amazed at it’s powerful nature though! I was reading an article last week about someone hacking into a media organisations Twitter account and posting that the Whitehouse had experienced two explosions and President Obama had been injured.

http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/2013/4/24/hacked_ap_twitter_account_sends_bogus.htm

This Twitter prank may seem innocent enough, as it only was moments before the Whitehouse put a stop to the false rumors, but within 2 minutes $136 billion from the UC stock exchange had been wiped! All it took was 120 seconds!

Never underestimate the powers of social media and what they can do to a business. Responding swiftly may not always be sufficient when you have such a large public domain able to receive the message.

Career Aspirations

I have always been the extrovert in my family. I am the middle child of 3 girls, so had to be noticed some way! My parents always said I should be an actress as I was always loud and felt the need to perform for the family. I’ve grown into my confidence and no longer appear to be a dramatic 11 year old actress, but a young adult with a high level of interpersonal skills and the proven ability to communicate with anyone in any circumstance.

Engaging in communication with people has been my passion since before I can remember. Now that I have studied a Communications in Public Relations degree, it is all so clear that this was exactly what I was meant to do. Not only do I have confidence to talk to people, but I have the confidence and eagerness to excel at whatever I set my mind to. Studying in an equal environment of literature and academics vs practicality and professionalism has taught me that I can pretty much tackle absolutely anything I set my mind to.

As a uni student, we are required to do a lot of group work. Something I was never quite sure of in school but that became very evident at university, is that I tend to take charge in group situations. Not in a dominant forceful way, but I like to delegate and manage people in a group situation. I work very well under pressure and can think on my feet. I have the strength of being able to manage many different tasks under pressure with great time management. My friends throughout university have always questioned why I have my assignments in on time – mostly 2 days early, never after a deadline. This has always come naturally to me. Never late, always early is how I function throughout my day-to-day routine.

I have my short-term and long-term career aspirations. The long-term are still quite vague which I believe is quite normal, as you never know what your going to like and dislike once you start working  as a PR practitioner. My short-term aspirations are to move to Sydney at the end of the year. I want to find a summer internship in a PR firm to get a taste of what it’s like. It is hard to say where I will go from there as that internship may create new aspirations.

At this stage my long-term career goals are to end up in a PR firm, working for companies that I have an interest for. I would also like to try my luck in media/communications for a business, as I love to write as much as I love to talk!

I feel as though Sydney has more opportunities for me at this stage of my life which match up with my career aspirations. It has been somewhere I’ve always wanted to live once I finished school and university, so off I go come November!

University & Professional Experiences

So as I mentioned, I study at the University of Canberra. My experiences at uni have been amazing, I have loved my time there (unlike school). Probably because I was choosing to be there to study, whereas being at school was compulsorary. UC is well-known for having a very practical, hands-on approach to learning. I have done 3 different internships during my time at uni, 1 of them a couple of years ago for an event management class, the other two this year as communication internships for PR.

These internships have given me great experience in working in the industry. They have also been very diverse which is what I wanted (to get a taste of different industries). The first one was in the private sector, working as an event coordinator for a major sports team in Canberra (which I now work for). My job here is to run certain events, manage the timing of the official proceedings, take care of guest speakers and players and generally just be a point of contact for the guests to help out with any complaints or enquiries. The amount of knowledge I have gained from this job has been amazing. Not only knowledge about working in event management, but experience in engaging with the general public; learning how to communicate efficiently and effectively. Time management skills are important when working with events. This is something that I have always considered to be a strength of mine, but working in event management has helped me develop those skills even further. Working with people and communicating with people has always been my passion (ever since I was a little girl) which is why I decided to study PR. I believe if you love doing something and it comes very naturally to you, you need to utilise those skills by doing something you love! I love going to this job and would happily still work their as an unpaid intern any day of the week.

The second internship was in the public health sector, at a health department in Canberra. I was based in the Communications, Media and Marketing Unit. The team consisted of 5, but the department consisted of 400 employees (still a very small department for a government department). As I showed interest for both PR and event management I was doing a bit of everything. I looked into a new event management system for the organisation, did several test runs and pitched it to the head of the unit, who would then take it higher. I also took over their social media accounts. I used their different Twitter accounts to promote new launches of their new reports. I also used Twitter to promote their new app they had recently developed. I also wrote a media release which was published last month. Working with the department was a great experience, as it showed me how different it is compared to working in the private sector. After this internship, as enjoyable as it was, I decided that my personality suits the private sector more than the public sector. I discovered some more of my strengths and weaknesses working at this internship. I discovered that I like the pressure of deadlines and working towards something in a fast pace environment. I like been given almost too much responsibility (been thrown in the deep-end) as this is how I learn best.

The third internship, which I am currently working at is back in the private sector. It is similar to the role I was working in the government department, but in a much smaller private business. My role is working on different projects and communicating with different businesses. I have only just started so can’t go into too much depth about my experiences, but I will update this once I have!

Aside from all of these experiences, I have also really enjoyed uni for the academic side. I have been at my most motivated working to achieve consistently high grades. I feel that I have learn’t so much over the last few years, which will stay with me throughout my profession. UC sets you up to know how to act in a professional environment. The two main course convenor’s in the PR course are amazing beyond words. They do everything they can to prepare you for every situation once you leave uni, I now feel ready to graduate!!!

“One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is taken over by temporary defeat” – Napoleon Hill