How Mitsubishi wins Social Media this week

So there's this comedian, Ralph Ruthe, he makes funny cartoons and I follow him on Facebook. Today, he posted this:

What he's saying is that he's going on tour for 6 weeks and that his wife needs their car because she'll have twins soon. As you can see, he tagged a couple of car producers and rentals asking for a car for his tour. If I was a social media-personality, I would probably do this more privately, but fair enough. This guy is making money with his comics, but he's not incredibly rich (and the comics are pretty funny!).

That's when Mitsubishi stepped in offering a Mitsubishi Outlander Hybrid:

The astonishing thing is that Mitsubishi wasn't even tagged in the post, but reacted quickly in the right way! Chapeau, Mitsubishi's social media team, well done! Right time, right place!

And because it's hump day, this is my favourite Ruthe comic (probably because it's PR related haha):

Source: www.ruthe.de

Translation:
"I thought dolphins saved shipwrecked!"
"We have an awesome PR agency!"

PS. He does have a Facebook page with English comics:
https://www.facebook.com/RutheCartoons/

How a post-referendum Britain feels like for a German expat

After getting asked what it's like to live in a Post-Referendum Britain by my German friends and family, I decided to write a blog post about it. It will probably not tell you anything new about politics, I just want to express my views and feelings about the country that I live in, that I, however, to not recognise anymore.

Two weeks ago, I stayed awake half of the night, taking in the incoming results, celebrating every Remainer and mourning every Leaver. At some point, I fell asleep (around 2:30 am) and woke up about two hours later to a very frightening trend. Leave was ahead, had been almost all night. It continued like that and it became clear that Britain just voted for a Brexit.

Source: www.spectator.co.uk

I was sitting in bed. Stunned. Disappointed. Angry. Sad. Everything at once. Britain was waking up to a changed country. All my friends (almost) were as shocked as I was. I feel the desperation again as I write these lines.

You see, it is not about a work visa. Legally, nothing is changing for us expats at the moment. Britain has not left the EU (yet). The thing that bothers me most is that Britain is not the country I fell in love with anymore. The referendum has shown that it is not the open-minded, tolerant and culturally diverse country I thought it was.

It's a very difficult feeling to express because I know that at least 48% of this country are open-minded, tolerant and culturally diverse. Most of my friends voted Remain for all the right reasons, a couple voted leave for - I believe - all the wrong reasons. I won't get started with the lies and deceptions of the Leave campaign.

If someone tells me they voted leave, but it's not personal and they are not against immigrants, I can't help but (manically) laugh. Of course it's personal! You knowingly decided my future! I just can't understand how people who have immigrant friends could vote leave with a good conscience.

You see I am taking this vote very personal. I just can't help it! This vote has (probably) decided my future. It has shown me a frightening trend in world politics, that populists are getting stronger on the ground of lies and deceptions.

Nationalism is on the rise. The referendum has opened the door to a more open racism that is allegedly socially accepted. While before 23rd June I wouldn't have thought twice about speaking German in public, I am now always aware of how (if?) people look at me. So are my non-English friends. Luckily, we have not been a target of racist attacks or hostility, but I have heard of them. It frightens me.

The good thing is that I am flexible. I am not bound to Britain. If things get dirty, I will leave. I have heard from many that will as well. I will not go through the efforts of getting a work permit because it makes me feel not appreciated.

I am a EU citizen, there will be at least 27 alternatives for me. 

The challenges of PR. Part 1: Evaluation

Yesterday I had an interesting talk with some lovely ladies at éclat Marketing that inspired me to write a blog series about the challenges of PR. What I will discuss will be my opinion of the general difficulties PR is facing in modern times.

Today's topic is a bit like PR's Nemesis: evaluation.

Public Relations is often seen as a part discipline of marketing/journalism/advertising. This, however, neglects the fact that PR is a standalone discipline within the communication network with different requirements and focuses.

The CIPR defines PR as follows:

'Public Relations is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you. Public Relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.'

Admittedly, it does sound fairly intangible. Intangibles are usually difficult to measure. Still, evaluation is often one of the top priorities for PR practitioners, but it is still being compared to ’the search for the Holy Grail’ (Noble, 1999, p. 14). The problem that a lot of practitioners face and probably fear is the high amount of research that comes along with evaluation.

On the basis of this necessity Noble has established the following ‘seven principles of evaluation’ (1999, p. 19):
Evaluation…
1) …is research.
2) …looks both ways.
3) …is user- and situation-dependent.
4) …is short term.
5) …is long term.
6) …is comparative.
7) …is multi-faceted.

These seven principles show that evaluation is definitely multi-faceted and not so easy to grasp. However, for PR you just need research and statistical skills. Evaluation is crucial for the professionalisation of our job (more about this in Part 2). You can't manage what you can't measure!

Source: Padmanegara, 2010

Macnamara's Pyramid Model highlights one crucial factor of PR evaluation: the distinction between Output and Outcome. The output such as readership or circulation is a crucial factor, but it is important to recognise that it is not the ultimate objective. The outcome, however, is the desired goal of evaluation.

In 2010, the second European Summit on Measurement agreed on a global evaluation standard for the first time, the Valid Metrics Matrix (VMM). This framework ‘integrates measurement and evaluation into a planning framework as well as focusing on the contribution of communications to the achievement of business […] results’ (Watson & Noble, 2014, p. 170). The VMM moves the focus from ‘measuring outputs to measuring outcomes’ (Jeffrey, 2013). It helps identify ‘metrics [that are] […] linked to the business objective of the program’ and apply them to the communication activities (Jeffrey, 2013).

Source: Slideshare.net

Due to its relatively young age, there is not much literature about the VMM. Time will have to tell whether it is a tool applicable to practical work or if there is something better coming up the way, but I can tell you, it's not the AVE.


Sources:

Jeffrey, A., 2013. AMEC’s Valid Metrics Framework: Magic Measurement Bullet?. [Online]
Available here

Noble, P., 1999. Towards an inclusive evaluation methodology. Corporate Communications, 4(1), pp. 14-23.

Padmanegara, P., 2010. Pyramid Model of PR Research. [Online]
Available here

Watson, T. & Noble, P., 2014. Evaluating Public Relations. A guide to planning, research and measurement. 3. ed. London: Kogan Page Limited.

Why you should never work for free

I am a bit sad while writing this post. I am sad that we have to talk about this. But I keep seeing job ads (mostly for PR interns) that don't pay you anything. And every time I am just thinking 'Really?'.

Ok, this is a charity. STILL!

This is even worse: a permanent unpaid position. Really?

Another charity. Not very charitable to not pay your interns...

These are just three examples. I'm sure that I'd find many more if I dug a bit...

You may have found yourself considering to do an unpaid internship because, clearly, you need the experience and you can't get anything paid. Don't! Let me explain why you should NEVER work for free:

1. Money

The most obvious one. You do work and therefore deserve to get paid. It's as easy as it gets. Everything else would be slavery. This article hits the spot by saying that unpaid internships are 'a worrying form of modern slavery accepted both on the left and right of politics, journalism, fashion and big business.'

You simply can't live on love and air alone. Oh, so you can afford living and working in London without a single penny of income for a couple of weeks or months? Then let me get to the next point:

2. Equality

Unpaid internships (or work in general) - especially in urban areas like London - limit the chances for everyone to gain experience, as only the upper class can afford to do this. It also means that this practice decreases the diversity in a work place.

3. Profession

You've probably heard that PR has a professional issue. No? Then read THIS. So, we are apparently not (yet) a profession. PR is often undervalued, as we also have measuring issues (but this is another topic) so we're making it hard for us to prove the value of our work. Do you really think working for free would contribute anything positive to this image? Then think again.

We are damaging our profession if we do unpaid work. People go like 'hey, she's working for free, then PR can't be that valuable/important.' Might have exaggerated a bit, but it proves the point.

To all students/graduates/interns out there: Don't ever work for free! Don't let someone exploit you!

To all employers out there: Go and pay your interns! If I hear one more excuse that you can't 'afford' to pay them, then don't hire them!

Work deserves pay!

Rant over.

PS. Ok, I'm going to make one exception to this, but only a small one: If you choose to volunteer for a charity for the good cause. Like, proper volunteering and not this bullsh*t internship disguised as volunteering like in the examples.

PPS. If you want to read more: Unpaid PR Internships and the Law

We need to get rid of Integrated PR!

Now that I have your attention, let me explain this.

An 'integrated PR campaign' according to the CIPR is 'a campaign which demonstrates the integrated use of communications, including marketing and advertising, which is led by public relations in order to achieve its objectives'. Ok, fair enough so far. An integrated campaign consists of PR, Marketing and Advertising strategies. Brilliant! The point that is being missed here that this is reality already. The name 'integrated' is simply outdated.

The lines are blurring. What about the PESO model? Paid, earned, shared and owned media. Who is responsible for that? Marketing because of the paid part? PR because of the earned part? See where I'm going with this?

Source: www.PRweek.com

Plus, have you tried to find a job as PR Manager/Executive? Yep, it's difficult. Many job offers are called 'PR & Marketing Manager/Executive'. Now what? You don't apply to jobs that have marketing in it if you're a PR pro? Of course you do because the responsibilities are not that different!

Source: www.online-income.xyz

I am also currently working on a project with my former lecturer to analyse how the careers in Marketing, PR, Advertising and Journalism (yes!) are converging. We are building a database with all Solent alumni in the respective jobs from the last years. We then check which responsibilities (PR, Marketing etc.) these jobs contain. 

In the past I noticed that often PR and Marketing acted as opponents because the responsibilities were not clear. Many Marketing people want to see PR as a part of Marketing while PR wants to be independent from all this.

We have to stop this and start working together to achieve our best results for our clients and companies. This doesn't work as long as we have separate PR-, Marketing- and Advertising-departments. The solutions are 'integrated' courses at university (such as the 'new' PR Masters at Solent University which as of 2016 will be known as Master of 'PR and Multimedia Communications'). Integrated PR & Marketing Agencies will be the future.

Read more here.

PS. PR rocks! ;)

The Social Generation Gap aka. Do we need Social Media Education?

So the other day I met a fellow PR Girl I know from uni. As you would, we were discussing PR in general and quickly came to the topic of Social Media, in particular the Social Media usage of different generations.

As we're both way beyond our early twenties, we didn't grow up with Social Media. We were introduced to it in our late teenager years. I have to admit, we were both quite happy that we didn't have access to Facebook, Instagram & Co. back then to document our teenage drinking sprees and fashion mistakes. It is clear that we use social networks quite differently than young people nowadays do.

We both agreed that social media tends to make us narcissistic and, of course, we tend to share the super-polished version of us. Our holiday photos? Beautiful beaches and sunsets. No sign of cockroaches or dirty hotel rooms. Our latest updates that we found that awesome job. No mention of the dozens of applications we had to send out to get it.

This can lead to increasing insecurities and even depression with those who haven't quite understood that Facebook profiles do not depict the real life ('How can she afford to travel so much?' 'Why don't I have this perfect relationship?' etc.). This is not meant to sound derogatory; it is indeed difficult to see through all the 'perfect' profiles.

Source: 9gag

The discussion led us to the question whether we need more social media education. With social media being everywhere today, do we need to teach the right usage at school? This way younger people could learn how to deal with privacy and oversharing issues and maybe come to terms with their 'offline personality'.

Source: Pinterest

What's your opinion about this? Am I being old-fashioned?

FriedaGoesDotcom aka. How to boost your employability

I am a .com! 

You can find me now on www.FriedaGoesPR.com!

Source: www.reactiongifs.com

However, I am well aware that this is probably not worth a whole blog post, so I am also writing about how you can boost your employability.

I have always been quite lucky when it comes to getting jobs. The fact that, after six months after graduation, I am still not employed is due to some serious travelling (check out my previous post about what you can learn from travelling) and...well, that's a long story. 

So what can you do to find a job? I have to say that I love working in this industry because you can be so creative with your job application!

Corporate Identity

First things first. If you want to incorporate several ways of applying, you should think about a corporate identity first. Do you have a favourite colour/shape or are you even knowledgable enough to create your own logo? Perfect! If not, it's a perfect excuse to gain new skills!

Business Cards

During my Masters programme, I took the opportunity to go to different networking or other PR events and generously handed out my business cards. Everyone I talked to was - positively - surprised that I, as a student, had business cards.
You don't have to be an Illustrator or InDesign Pro to create a good business card (although it does help). I designed my own business card on VistaPrint with a design template.

Résumé

For one of our assignments at uni we had to create a professional profile. I really enjoyed this and in the process produced a résumé in form of a small brochure. Another benefit of doing this was that I taught myself (and also got taught by my skilled friend Susanna) how to use Adobe InDesign. Again, I handed out the brochure to a couple of people I met at an event (particularly to that one PR Agency director I admire) and, guess what, they liked it!

Front Page of my brochure

Homepage

This is my latest clue. I thought that nowadays people (who consider hiring you) want to have quick access to all information about you. What's easier than a homepage? So I spent the last week to create one. Although you can use helpful tools (I used wix.com), it turned out to be more complicated than I thought it would be; especially from the content and the SEO perspective. Well, I am still figuring out how SEO and SEM works. The plus side of this is I get to learn new skills.

Landing page of www.FriedaGoesPR.com

So all this stuff will hopefully help me to get a job. How do you like my new homepage? Do you have other creative ways to apply for a job? Let me know!