Tuesday, 8 April 2014
Employability Opportunity
Please see below for a great opportunity from GoThinkBig for students wanting to become more employable, prepare for life after graduation and get a head start on their competition!
“GoThinkBig.co.uk is an online digital hub launched by o2 (o2 Think Big) and Bauer Media to bring you the inside scoop on exciting work experience opportunities, valuable career advice, amazing insider contacts and exclusive tips to set you up for your dream career”
GoThinkBig provide thousands of career-related opportunities alongside fresh editorial content produced by young people, for young people. GoThinkBig tackles youth unemployment in the UK by supporting young people aged 16-24 to develop their work skills and improve their employability.
They are holding a FREE event in Leeds on the 14th May 2014 which will be an interactive and informative event focusing on the roles within in Business run by one of O2’s franchise stores.
The event will involve hearing more about the different roles in business including marketing and management roles. There will also be a chance for students to bring their CV and cover letters to be reviewed.
Students who are interested in attending can apply here: http://www.gothinkbig.co.uk/opportunities/want-to-know-what-makes-a-business-14th-may-2014
An Analogue Living in the Digital World
From the beginning of a student’s time at university, it is drummed into
their minds to be socially active online – we are encouraged to use:
- Twitter - to make contacts, follow the latest trends and news;
- Facebook - to keep in touch with the friends and post personal feelings;
- Blogging - to write about PR topics or personal interests such as lifestyle, beauty, food, etc;
- LinkedIn account, to connect with potential employers.
Social media mapping
The online environment is something that for our generation seems natural, but when we go offline what are we leaving behind?
Indecision, be gone! I’m taking the PR path…
I have
always been rather indecisive about the path I want to take in life. I insist
that this is simply a large spectrum of ambitions and aspirations, and what’s
wrong with that? I have considered and dipped my toes into many different
career pools, from dancing and performing arts, to interior design. I even
contemplated construction management, before finally settling upon the study of
Public Relations and Communications here at Leeds Metropolitan University.
Job hunting via LinkedIn
LinkedIn is one of those social networks that you have but possibly
hardly use. Well, that used to be me, until this year. Tutors and lecturers are
always telling us to get on LinkedIn because there are so many opportunities to network
yourself on there - they’re actually right!
Image sourced from: www.britishlogodesign.co.uk
Tuesday, 1 April 2014
How formal is formal? How brands should act on social
Brands walk a
tightrope on social media. The last thing you want to be is boring, but that
doesn't mean that you should be too corny either. Levels of formality on social
media these days are hard to get right, and depend on the industry that brands
are in. For example, consumer brands (particularly food) have more freedom to
be light-hearted and comical, whereas I find some tech brands to be very
utopian and professorial.
The Past Three Years
With less than two months left at University and our dissertation hand-in looming, I wanted to have a chance to look back on the past three years.
I remember my first class and the look on everyone’s face when we were asked ‘what is PR?’ It’s fair to say, not many of us knew. Well, after three years I still probably couldn’t give you a perfect CIPR definition, but I am definitely much more confident when faced with that question.
Our first year was also the time we met Gerard Choo, one of the few faces we would see regularly throughout our uni life – from our first PR Skills seminar to our dissertation lectures.
Crisis management and the tragedy of flight MH370
Since the disappearance of flight MH370 on the 8th March, the media has had myself and the rest of the world gripped. With the technological society that we live in today and the vast amount of tools available to us, how exactly can a modern day flight carrying 227 passengers just vanish? It’s taken over two weeks of hard work and countless theories to finally get a logical answer to the question on everybody’s minds.
Malaysia Airlines have without a doubt faced an upwards battle with regards to PR and crisis management, with the world ready to scrutinize their every move. With huge pressure from the press as well as the hunt for the missing plane, did Malaysia Airlines handle their PR during this crisis appropriately?
Round-up of some great campaigns from March 2014
March has been and gone, so
it’s a perfect time to have a look into some of the standout campaigns from the
past month. The Breast Cancer no make-up selfie campaign is up there with the
best, and such a great cause, but as we mentioned it last week let’s look at
some others.
Twitter: The perfect place for a PR stunt
Twitter allows brands to show their personality and to create an identity online, when this is achieved it can create perfect PR stunts. All it takes is creativity, simplicity and intuitive for a brand to form a PR stunt which gets everyone talking and even better…it’s free!
Here are two brands that have caught my eye this month:
Chancellor George Osborne announced in his budget statement there would be a new shaped pound coin as it is believed that 3% of existing £1 coins are fake.
Jaffa Cakes were fast acting and responded to the tweet from the Royal Mint, George Osmond and the HM Treasury by recreating the new £1 coin in the form of a 12 sided Jaffa Cake and an amusing hashtag #ReduceJaffaCounterfeiting
Manifest Comms - Guest Lecture
(Photo from Manifest Comms website they have won lots of awards!!)
Last week we were lucky enough to receive a lecture from Alex Witham and Lizzie Marlow, both of whom are Leeds Met PR Alumni and are now working at Manifest Comms in Leeds.
It was a really great, informal and conversational lecture and I thought I would share 5 key pieces of advice that I jotted down during their talk:
Tuesday, 25 March 2014
Agency VS In-House Experience
The chances are you’re probably going to get a lot of experience throughout your degree. I have undertaken placements and a year-long internship with various Leeds agencies throughout my time at university. Sorry to reiterate everything that’s always being preached, but it really is true – experience is invaluable to help you succeed in your degree and PR career.
Despite
having a lot of experience under my belt, one thing I regret is not having
undertaken a placement with an in-house PR department. I have always wondered
how each experience compares and how they differ in developing an entry level
practitioner’s skills.
This
week I asked a number of course friends to comment on what their respective
in-house/agency experience taught them. Adding to the comments, you’ll learn
why I love agency work later in this article…
#Nomakeupselfie
The
no-makeup selfie campaign has been a successful way of raising money and
awareness for cancer support, with Cancer Research receiving over 800,000
donations and raising £2 million in 48 hours. This campaign is a great example
of how social media can be hugely important for communicating important issues.
An Interview with Blogger Olivia...
Blogging
has become a social media platform for the fashion gurus of modern society, but
do we really appreciate or even recognise the hard work and creative
posts? It has given people like us, the
encouragement to try different trends and venture away from the easy options,
exploring more than one colour and unleashing that inner Gok.
Twenty year old and fashion fanatic Olivia,
reveals her award winning blog: www.whatoliviadid.com, her journey into the fashion
industry and “what Olivia did” to get where she is today:
Tuesday, 18 March 2014
The campaign that I love in February
NHS Blood and
Transplant (NHSBT) launched the Blood
Doesn’t Grow On Trees campaign on 21st February, and the
campaign is still running to date. As a
regular blood donor and a communication student, this campaign caught my eye.
Image sourced from blood.co.uk
The importance of SEO
For a long
time now SEO (search engine optimisation) has been thought of as a dark art,
black magic or an immeasurable formula. However with the growth of the internet
age, this area of Public Relations is not to be overlooked.
Search engine
optimisation in its simplest form is to try and make companies feature higher
in Google’s rankings when entering keywords. It is important however, not to
overuse these keywords as Google has the right to penalise and even take down
your site off their search results pages. The ultimate goal of SEO is to increase traffic to a
particular website in order to increase sales. A good way to measure how
successful an individual is performing in his or her job role is to see the
amount of hyperlinks they attain back to the company’s website.
Image sourced from Google
What is PR to me?
When
I was younger, I always had a misconstrued perception of the world of Public
Relations. People who worked in PR to me were glamorous socialites who drifted
from celebrity party to record label office on a daily basis. They went for
lunch at top LA restaurants and fraternized with the ‘In crowd’. This is
because television and the media always represented PR practitioners in this
way, especially our American counterparts.
The Spin Crowd TV show
Image sourced from Google
You’re the new tea boy
So
it’s the first day of your placement at the PR agency that are willing to take
you on as a first year student, you start to question what to wear, how to do
your hair, am I good enough to be there, what happens if they don’t like me,
what should I do?
Image sourced from Google
How to get employers (P)interested in you
We are
all aware of how we need to act online. But as Public Relations students, we
are advised on how to use social media as a platform, and as a way to promote
ourselves like a brand.
Whether you are using them to show off your antics from last night, or using
them effectively as a way to build connections.Now more
than ever lecturers, potential employers, PR practitioners and other
influentials are taking to online networks to see how you behave on the sites.
Tuesday, 11 March 2014
Meet the Media: William Stewart, Times Educational Supplement
Two weeks ago, I attended an event along with fellow Leeds
Met PR student, Bryony Czujko. The evening – organised by the CIPR’s Yorkshire
and Lincolnshire regional group and the Education and Skills sectoral group – took
the form of a dinner with William Stewart, reporter and features writer for the
Times Educational Supplement (TES) and two-time winner of the CIPR’s National
Education Journalist of the Year award.
It offered a chance to hear William’s interests and priorities
as a journalist, what he and his colleagues are looking for and how they prefer
to receive potential stories.
 |
| Times Educational Supplement journalist, William Stewart |
Is our reputation the reason for a female dominated industry?
As a PR student, reputation management is a topic I cannot
shy away from. However, the better I understand the Public Relations industry,
the more inquisitive I become as to why we – as ‘PR people’ cannot seem to
manage our own reputation. Not only this, but PR supposedly serves to create
awareness and inform its public’s. So in light of this massively important
function: how has my future industry become so saturated with the stigma of ‘fluffy females’ and ‘PR
girls’?
 |
| Image taken from quicheisinsane under the Creative Commons License |
For The People Who Voted Poppy
 |
| Students With Disabilities Officer 2014/15 |
This year’s student union elections were a thrill from start
on finish. Two weeks of non-stop campaigning gives you a
buzz that only competition brings. Everything that I stood for while I was
running was of huge significance to me and to have people validate my passion
for change was an amazing feeling.
Top Five Interview Tips
Placement interviews are always daunting and if like me,
you’re a second year applying for your placement year, I’m sure you’re fully
aware of the stress that can come with it. However exciting being invited to an
assessment centre is it is also extremely scary.
 |
| Image taken from Rilee Yandt under the Creative Commons License |
Here is some advice that should help, whether this is for an
assessment centre or a placement interview:
Updates from Lucy - Week commencing March 10th
NSS Reminder - Final Year
Could all final year students fill out the National Student Survey (link), more than half of the year group have yet to complete the survey.
Opportunity for Business students to get involved at Major Music Festivals
Apply today to attain UNIQUE volunteering/intern work experience and increase your employability in a role at a major music festival this summer!
In 2013, we gave over 750 students and alumni unique placements at music festivals, sporting spectacles and arts events.
This year we are providing festival volunteers and interns in a variety of roles at Hove (Norway), Latitude (Suffolk), Leeds and Reading Festival.
Roles include:
· HATs Team Manager
· Media and PR officer
· Press Tent Office,
· Assistant Production Manager (4 weeks including festival),
· BBC Introducing Stage Manager,
· Security Crime Mapping Intern
And many more…
For more information, roles and to apply (before April 11), please visit;
An audience with Erik Kessels - Creative Communications Director, Thursday 27th March 2014
Leeds College of Art would like to invite you to the next Creative Networks event, ‘Strong Ideas allow you to Blur’ with Erik Kessels.
Kessels is a world-renowned Graphic Designer, Advertiser, Photographer, Curator and Artist and in 2012 he was elected as the most influential creative of the Netherlands.
Erik is Creative Director of communications agency KesselsKramer and works for national and international clients – such as Diesel, Heineken, Oxfam, Nike, The Hans Brinker Budget Hotel, J&B and has offices in Amsterdam, London and LA. KesselsKramer is one of only a handful of advertising agencies producing work that rises above the level of consumerist background noise, often witty almost anti-advertising.
Join from 6pm at Blenheim Walk on Thursday, March 27th, 2014 for drinks - prior to the talk there will be a range of goods on sale from local independent art and design bookstores Colours May Vary and the Village Bookstore.
Booking is essential as places are limited so please click on the Eventbrite link www.erikkesselsindustry.eventbrite.co.uk and follow the instructions as soon as possible to reserve your seat. There is a £5 refundable deposit required to confirm your place but this will be refunded the day after the event once attendance has been noted.
Book Review: How To Get A Job In PR
How to Get a Job in PR
Sarah Stimson
CreateSpace, 2013, 216 pages
How do you really get
a job in PR? Academics, practitioners and students all have different
perspectives, and there is no right answer. We spend three-four years at
University, gaining invaluable experience in essay writing; presenting; working
in teams and – for us studying at Leeds Business School – a healthy portfolio
at the end of it.
Wednesday, 5 March 2014
Five Mistakes Made by PR Students Past and Present
We’re all
human; mistakes are inevitable within every walk of life. Being a second year
public relations student I’ve certainly made and witnessed a few! Here are my five
mistakes made my PR students past and present...
Changes to the PR Industry #PRAnalytics
PR Moment’s
annual #PRAnalytics conference took place last week at Ketchum’s London office
in front of a packed audience.
Chaired by
the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication’s
(AMEC) Executive Director, Barry Leggetter, the event’s speaker line-up
consisted of eight of the most influential opinion leaders on the PR industry’s
Achilles’ heel – measurement and evaluation.
Meaningful objective setting is key
The
importance of SMART (smart, measurable, aligned, realistic and timely)
objective setting was the order of the day, with every speaker reinforcing the
view that the use of analytics should demonstrate how PR activities are helping
to achieve broader organisational objectives.
Updates from Lucy Week Commencing 2/3/14
Survey Season:
Please don’t forget to complete the National Student Survey
(Final year students!) and the Student Survey (first and second year
students)... Link here!
It’s really important that you give us feedback – both the
good and the constructive!! Final year
students will begin to receive calls from IPSOS Mori for failure to complete so
please don’t wait to get hassling calls – click on the link above and log in to
the student portal.
Volunteering:
A huge charity event will take place on Saturday 8th
of March at the John Charles Centre for Sport, LS11 5DJ, and it is
going to be an official Guinness World Records attempt.
Become a volunteer and make your CV look better. Just send
an email to powerleeds@gmail.com or info@pillowfighting.co.uk
The title of the event is "Pillow Fighting for a Good
Cause" and you can find more information about it through the links below:
Website: www.pillowfighting.co.uk
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/poWEr.Official.Page
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/events/296577230489761/
The aim is over 5000 participants and everyone will receive
a certificate of attendance and for breaking the record! All participants
should bring their own pillows. There will be music bands, competitions and
awards!
A lot of celebrities are already supporting the event, like
Jeremy Clarkson and James May, and local sports clubs!
Registration: www.pillowfighting.co.uk
Placements:
John Lewis short term placements: anyone interested should
contact ali_laurie@johnlewis.co.uk
with the usual cover letter / CV.
Calling all first years: Student Wire is seeking a new editor for next year, to take
over from Hannah Palmer who is doing a fabulous job but going on placement to
Porsche next year! Well done Hannah!
Focus Groups:
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the focus group that
took place on Monday. A great deal of useful information was exchanged with
some immediate actions to take forward by the course team, as well as by
students.
Business Start-Up at Leeds Met Courses:
Research and Business Planning- Wednesday 5th March
Develop your business strengths and minimise potential
weakness whilst learning how to identify your target audience and understand
your customer’s needs.
Marketing & Selling- Wednesday 12th March
Become a marketing and selling maestro! Clout Marketing
& Media will help you jump start your strategy whether you're a new
business or in need of fresh ideas.
CIPR's Commitment to Better Student Relations
In response
to an email sent by Lucy Laville asking: ‘How well does the CIPR engage with student members’, I replied ‘not very’
(obviously written in a more eloquent fashion, synonymous of a PR
student!) As a consequence, I was asked
by Lucy to represent Leeds Met at a CIPR led student focus group.
Tuesday, 25 February 2014
Studying Public Relations in England compared to Malaysia
I came to England to
complete my final year of degree education at Leeds Metropolitan University. Studying here is different in comparison to
in Malaysia. The PR industry in Malaysia is not as matured and established like
it is over here. PR in Malaysia is mainly focusing on event management. PR is not seen as a profession, like over
here, people do not know what PR people actually do, but the perception and
awareness of the functions of PR are improving.
When I was studying in
Malaysia, I had a very hectic timetable with lectures and tutorials. Our curriculum was mainly theories from
textbooks, I have to say, it was dull and had very little stimulation. I enjoy the ways of learning here; the tutorial
sessions are very interactive, these methods of teaching encourage students to
engage and to build rapport with tutors.
A bloggers life
I started reading blogs on fashion and
beauty around 4 years ago, and after becoming hopelessly addicted to the
personal, genuine nature of them in comparison to magazines, I finally decided
to start my own a year later. I’ve now been blogging for around three years,
and follow hundreds of blogs on food, lifestyle, PR and more. Whilst at first
it felt like I was putting myself out there in front of the whole world, I’m
now so glad I started and couldn't imagine life without my blog.
Is PR the right course for me? A retrospective view on my journey so far…
I’m now into my second semester of the Public Relations and
Communications course. I was first drawn
to this course because of the focus on the work experience and the strong
teaching team who has a wealth of industry knowledge. Since beginning of the year, this course has
taken me out of my comfort zone and really challenged my creativity.
Updates From Lucy
Updates From Lucy - Week commencing, 24/2/14
Claire Mascall Award winners announced:
Congratulations to Adele Roberts (final year PR with
Marketing Student) for winning this year’s Claire Mascall Award. Adele will
undertake a two week placement at the London Stock Exchange, and wins
£1,000. Becky Mason (PR Student final
year) and Anja Swan (Journalism student) win a week’s placement at Quest PR in
Harrogate and MCG PR in Chapel Allerton, respectively, as well as £500 to
support their transport costs, and hopefully leave some left for nice outfit!
Monday, 24 February 2014
On Placement – What I’ve Learned
I’ve been on placement
with Harrogate-based Different PR
since October 2012, typically in the office one day per week during term-time and
full-time over the summer as well as the odd week here and there.
I feel I’ve
learned an awful lot working at Different, the fact that it’s a small
agency has been a real benefit I think. Because it’s relatively small I know
the team and how they work very well, and unlike placements at larger agencies
where smaller, more menial tasks can be the norm, I've been allowed to spend
the vast majority of my time there really contributing to the work the company
does for its clients.
Monday, 17 February 2014
Survey Season At Leeds Met
But it is
important to remember that these surveys are your chance to reflect accurately
on your overall experience of your course and your university – not air grievances
on specific issues.
A Day in the Life of a TV Publicist
As we all know, PR is a pretty broad industry, with scope to work in just about any field imaginable, whether it's tech, fashion or consumer. For me, it's always been entertainment, what better way to put all those hours spent watching endless amounts of TV series and reading which celeb is dating which into practice? Well, sort of. On my placement year, I managed to bag myself a job at UKTV in London where I worked with the likes of Dynamo, and it only confirmed that Television was where I wanted to be.
Top Five Tips To Succeed In Your Studies
1. Listen/Read – You’d be surprised at what you can
pick up by listening to what’s being said both at lectures/seminars and online.
Often the best gobbets of information can’t be accessed by glancing at lecture
slides on X-stream (no matter how much you want that to be true first thing on
a Monday morning). Be it quotes and statistics to use in assignments or
comments on trends in the industry seen on twitter, be aware of what’s being
said – it could be the difference between a 1st and a 2:1 or secure
you a placement at interview.
Five Lessons Learnt On Placement
I started a placement year in July 2012 as Communications and Market Access Assistant at Baxter Healthcare, working within the UK and Ireland communications team. This was the beginning of a journey of ups and downs and more lessons learnt than in the entirety of my previous education. After completing the year I would, without doubt, recommend a placement year to anyone considering it.
Alastair McCapra Shares Plans for CIPR Future
Wednesday 12th saw the
population of Leeds hanging onto their hats and trees gracing the tarmac of our
roads, but that did not stop Alastair McCapra, Chief Executive of the CIPR
venturing up from London to attend and speak at the CIPR Yorkshire &
Lincolnshire Annual General Meeting, held at Leeds Business School.
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