Tag: Communication

84. Digital Event

Posted on by Neha Goyal

In the digital era, where people prefer interacting online than meeting face-to-face; organising a digital event can be effective. To interact with people organising such an event can be fun and can be a great learning experience. Creating an event digitally cannot happen overnight. To make sure that your work is reaching a larger audience, one needs to work on their social postings, how to reach the target audience, visuals that can be used and so on.

Recently, with my team at SCoRe, we have organised a mini-digital event on twitter called #SocialPowWow. In that, we interacted through a tweet chat on the topic ‘Emergence of Artificial Intelligence in Public Relations.’ We were the host of the event where we invited our guest, Aseem Sood and held a discussion over Twitter where a lot of people engaged with us.

While working on this event, we learned what things we should keep in mind pre-chat, during the chat, and after the chat.

Before dividing our work, we should clarify our intentions for the event with each other, will it increase awareness or will it educate our audience? We should always remember that content plays an important role and it should create value for them. We should invite guests who can educate us on the topic which we select. We should be prepared with what content and visuals will go online. One should create a hashtag for social media that can be posted online to create a buzz among the people. One also needs to create a buzz among the audience before the event.

During the event, one should have good internet connectivity; while at the same time, stay connected with the guest online as well as offline to avoid any issue. Everything should be communicated properly to all the people involved in the event. The host should be ready with all the content and visuals that will go online. It should be ensured that every post should go according to the schedule with proper hashtags. The host team should proactively post things online and also engage with the audience. They should keep uploading things during the event so that people don’t get bored and stop engaging.

After the event, the host team should thank the guest and people who participated and give a summary of the whole session for the people to go back to it if they have missed.

My experience as one of the hosts of #SocialPowWow was a great learning experience. It taught me how to organise a digital event and how proper communication can make any event successful.   

82. We the Women- Part 2

Posted on by Neha Goyal

As in my previous blog, I was talking about my experience at the event We the Women, which is an event by the women for the women. Issues like equality, depression, sexual harassment, sexism are discussed in the event.

The women in uniform, Nitu Bhattacharya was polite and such a welcoming person to meet and have a conversation with. Pavni Devi had her first interaction with the audience about her entrepreneurship in a small village of Rajasthan near Jaisalmer. Dee MC told me how even today, a lot of people in Bollywood still don’t accept girls in hip-hop culture and how she had to put extra effort to be at the place where she is today. Lisa Ray, Ashwiny Iyer, and Malishka were people who were so down to earth and had an amazing personality whom I meet and talk to.

The famous fashion designer Sandeep Khosla was a sweetheart who not only posed for me to click his pictures; but also asked me to wait till the time he changes his outfit so that he looks hot. The famous Miss Malini and Anaita Shroff Adajania had not only been polite to us but also answered some questions which I wanted to know about them. Poonam Muttreja saw us working hard, moving here and there since morning, made us sit and eat pizza with her.

Out of all the sessions that happened, I could attend the last session where the guests were Alia Bhatt and her sister Shaheen Bhatt. The session was about how Shaheen was in depression, she recovered and Alia’s point of view on it. During their conversation with Barkha, Shaheen says that the last time she felt like doing suicide was 2-3months ago. Her statement brought goosebumps to all the people present in the room and made Alia get emotional. Depression of Shaheen made her write a book about her battle with depression and published it named, I’ve never been (Un)Happier.

My day at the speaker’s lounge was not only fun, learning and meeting new people but also, handle a few difficult people. Some celebrities were down to earth and some didn’t bother to even behave properly. The event also allowed me to meet some of the journalists who were present there and not to forget Barkha Dutt herself.  

Meeting and interacting with different people, working in such an event, understanding how to deal with difficult people, getting to know their stories, being proactive was some of my biggest learning from the day.

78. The Tampon Book

Posted on by Neha Goyal

Feminine hygiene products were considered as ‘luxury’ due to which they were charged with high tax rates. On the other hand, oil paintings, truffles, books and things like those were taxed only at 7%. When I got to know about this, I felt disgusted by how even today people have got such a mindset for menstruation. People are yet to understand that tampons and sanitary napkins are not a luxury but a necessity for women. A lot of women protested against this but no changes were made by the government.

‘The Tampon Book: A book against tax discrimination’ is a campaign, an initiative taken by a women’s menstrual hygiene company in Germany named, The Female Company. Through this campaign, the company tries to talk about how menstruation is not a luxury and also finds a way to sell tampons at a low tax.

The start-up company didn’t want to break any law but also sell tampons at a lesser price by taking less tax. Through their campaign, they tried to make a mockery of how men have been making laws for ages. We women should be smart by paying 7% of tax on books and, well, also on tampons. They came up with an idea of selling tampons by placing them inside a book, a book which was against the discrimination of tax.

They say, “We outsmarted the law, with the law itself.” The 46page book had fifteen organic tampons in it to save taxes. Other than having tampons in it, the book also speaks about gender inequality in the tax system by cracking illustrations. The content in the book had information on period and how people still consider it as something to be embarrassed of.

The book got sold out in a day and everyone including celebrities and media was talking about it. They didn’t break the law but also sold tampons at low taxes. The message became a political message and members of the German parliament were also talking about it. The content was temporarily banned on Facebook. Yet, it didn’t stop 150,000 people were signing petitions. The government is talking about it and plans to change this tax system by 2020.

It was a great campaign that not only went out of the box with its creativity and won an award at Cannes but is also going to change the rule of the German government. It’s a campaign which is going to stay with me for longer and is a great example for future communication.

Reference: https://www.adweek.com/creativity/the-tampon-book-which-protests-taxes-on-menstrual-products-wins-pr-grand-prix-at-cannes/

74. The magic mix for PR

Posted on by Neha Goyal

Today, we class of 2020 got an opportunity to meet Cornelia Kunze at School of Communication and Reputation (SCoRe) for a masterclass. She is a global communication consultant who has got work experience in different countries across the globe. She is the creative brand strategist, founder, and partner as i-sekai based in Germany. She started her session by sharing with us how PR is in different countries and the US and UK are the two countries that are most advanced out of all.

Ms. Kunze showed us some of the creative campaigns that have entered in Cannes Lion as she is one of the very few jury members there. She told us that we need to be creative to stand out and make people notice our message. To be able to stand out, she shared with us her personal seven ingredients which we can mix to create magic, standout in our campaigns:

  1. Dramatize a solution- Public relations professionals are storytellers and they should have the ability to create a story that gives the solution in a dramatical way. In this, they can dramatize a situation and give its solution more dramatically.
  2. Be bold- build in a controversy- Most of the time, PR professionals end up apologising when the brands are getting highlighted for a controversy. But here she says that professionals should be creative to leverage the controversy and give a bold answer.
  3. Address a societal tension- It is good to show concern and acknowledge on social issues by a brand. It connects with the audience more and they feel satisfied that someone is talking about it. 
  4. Humanise empathetic storytelling- Empathising and humanising with the audience through its story takes the brands a long way. It helps to connect with the audience in a more down to earth manner.
  5. Be truly local- While working on a campaign, brands should be more local in their language to connect with their audience easily. She stated that Indian and Chinese campaigns are the ones that always make local campaigns.
  6. Merge data and human truth- Data today plays a very important role. A campaign can be successful when it is data-driven which is merged with a real-life scenario.
  7. Create a product- She says that PR is not only a profession but a mindset.

She shared examples through campaigns while explaining her key ingredients in public relations. Ms. Kunze also says that just telling a story can be boring and one should believe in creating one.

70. Change in PR space

Posted on by Neha Goyal

Today, the rise of Internet and digital/social media is changing things around us. The way people are communicating is very different than what it was earlier. Public relations is becoming more important for the brands due to such changes in the communication culture of both organisations and consumers. 

Digital public relations help to create visibility of the brand in this digital world and most of them are making their online presence a priority. People are staying online for long duration and looking up for information there. Interacting online requires digital strategy as it has both, advantages and disadvantages. It is important to engage with consumers, listen and react to them, have good content and increase online presence to build a reputation.

Content is really important when it comes to digital PR campaigns. It helps to build a positive reputation by identifying right influencers, bloggers and online journalists creating a good rapport. Digital helps the audience to stay updated about the things related to brands. A good digital PR campaign can give good results only when one can identify their target audience and deliver their message through correct digital platforms. It can be done by researching about it and having proper data through different tools present online like Social Baker, Meltwater and so on.

Numerous brands are doing a lot of digital PR campaigns that help them to earn brand credibility and connect with their target audience. It creates brand awareness through different online posts. It enhances business reputation by delivering positive content to the audience. Through different online posts, one can create engagement and increase conversations among the target audience.

Brands have started evolving and thinking beyond press releases and media coverage. They are working more in crafting their messages for their social presence. The communication campaigns are happening more towards digital PR.

Brands are now understanding the importance of public relations and how digital PR is becoming a thing irrespective of the size of the business.

68. Is PR space dominated by women?

Posted on by Neha Goyal

In almost every session, when a new professor walks in our class at SCoRe, the first thing they notice is there are 2 boys and 18 girls in our class. Some say it’s good to see boys in the class, some say that there are more women out in the public relations space.

Globally, it is said that the Public Relations space is dominated by women.

Public Relations is a field where empathy plays an important role and women with higher emotional quotient naturally do good in this profession. They know when to be empathetic as compare to men. It enables them to understand their clients more properly and is more sincere in delivering their needs. Storytelling plays an important role in public relations. Be it pitching to a client, making a campaign or writing; all have to be done in a story format for people to connect.  This makes women more competent for the profession because of their compassionate nature.  

Public relations require networking with people and socializing. Women are considered to be more active and social as compared to men. They are more comfortable in making connections and meeting strangers than men which can be helpful in getting clients or be it building contacts. They are good connectors and aren’t afraid to speak about stress or issues.

Women are capable of multi-tasking as they also do several roles like being a wife, daughter, and mother in their personal life. It is a skill that is highly required in this field which makes them more of the better choice for this profession. Women are considered as a solution giver and that makes them suitable to handle crises that the firms face across the globe.

Despite the qualities and women dominating this space, we find fewer women leaders in our country. The scenario has started changing slowly and space is becoming brighter for women as women have started taking charge.

The world of public relations is incomplete without the presence of women and they are the ones leading the change.

67. Power of saying NO

Posted on by Neha Goyal

‘Yes or no is a central dilemma.’

Is it only me or is it with a lot of people out there who feel awkward in saying “No” to others?

“No” is a highly powerful word, which can be offensive and can also be simply, stating what you feel.

I always think that saying ‘No’ to others is kind of like disrespecting them and find difficulty in doing so. It is one of the setbacks I have. One day, my elder brother told me that sometimes I should say ‘no’ when required. As sometimes not saying it can be unfair to ourselves as well as to the other person. He told me, how telling ‘yes’ all the time cannot be easy. Since then, I am trying to work on it.

To work on it, I would say that I have been doing certain things which are helping me to learn the art of saying “no” at the correct time.

  • Communicate properly: One can say no in the right manner by giving the context properly so that it isn’t considered as negative.
  • Clarity of thoughts: One can communicate and deny well when they are clear about what they want to say or do in a particular situation.
  • Prioritise properly: One needs to learn how to prioritise their things and take decisions accordingly. This helps to do what one exactly wanna do without feeling guilty when they say a no.
  • Be confident: One should be confident of their decision that helps them to say no to people regardless of whoever it is. They can communicate with confidence and also give respect to that person.
  • Use of correct words: When a person is unsure of what they should do in a particular situation they can use ‘maybe’ or ‘will let you know’. It helps to have time to figure out and decide properly in certain situations.   

In the end, we should remember that saying ‘no’ is our right. It doesn’t mean you are being rude to a person. Saying no can be important in certain situations. What matters is how you convey your message without disrespecting anyone. As you are saying no because it either doesn’t go with your belief or your schedule.  

65. Skills for Generation Y

Posted on by Neha Goyal

In today’s digitalized world, globally millennials have started to nurture new skills and knowledge to succeed and be a better version of them. They are the people who are comfortable with the change in technology and innovations happening. But to be a successful person in life and avail great opportunities, there are certain skills that today’s Gen Y should go through to reach the marked goal in their life.

The skills required for millennials can be divided into three categories- Learning, Literary, and Life. These categories enhance one’s aspect which can be a vital point to grow in life.

Each category has a different per se and can be used in different aspects of the career as and when required. These qualities make them stand out in the crowd by knowing what they are doing than staying clueless in life.

The learning skills focus mainly on four C’s which are- Critical thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, and Communication. The use of the skills depends on the virtue of an individual’s career options and for the business model. In every field, millennials must excel in these qualities to think differently and have ideas that are out-of-box by working and communicating with various kinds of people coming from different backgrounds.

The literary skills can be divided into three different skills set: Information literacy, Media literacy & Technology literacy. These involve understanding facts, figures, and statistics, how to get your articles published and understanding the mechanisms which make the derivations of information possible.

The final category, the life set is the ones that help to build our personalities. Since the time of school, it is taught that one should be productive, flexible, proactive, social skills, an initiator, and to be confident. These qualities help to blend in the professional environment and helps to work as a leader.

Business model requires how we as an individual can deviate from one plan to another smoothly is what matters. We should learn how to increase our efficiency by motivating ourselves, initiating things with different methods and network with people to grow as an individual.   

With these fundamental sets of skills, one can ensure effective outcome and develop foundational outcomes into various sectors and also empower to succeed in life.

64. Consultancy Visit- Ketchum Sampark

Posted on by Neha Goyal

The class of 2020 of SCoRe spent a day in India’s one of India’s top ten PR firm, Ketchum Sampark. Our institute gives us an opportunity to visit consultancies and learn how they work and gives us practical knowledge. These visits help us to understand how the work culture varies from one office to another.

Our Monday morning, at Ketchum Sampark, started with the introduction of the firm by the HR, Jayashree Chaudhry. She introduced us to how Ketchum Sampark was started by Bela mam and Rajan sir in 1994, how they become global and their strong believe in building long-standing relationships with their clients. She took us to the media scanning room which was filled with newspapers. Every day they do an extensive scanning of the newspapers for their clients. The team starts working at 6 in the morning to scan the newspaper in the old technique, that is not followed by every firm these days.

We had an insightful interaction about the BFSI sector by Mr. Ram Kumar and how they as a firm has pioneered in it. The discussion about the BFSI sector with case studies was continued by Darshana Mam and Ashish Sir. They spoke to us about why PR is required in the BFSI sector and shared some of the campaigns and surveys done by them. They also told us the importance of the survey while working on a client and how it can help us to know the point of view of the audience as it is more realistic.

Mr. Avijit’s session was about digital PR and how we can leverage digital media in doing our campaigns. He shared with us about some tools which we can use during our campaigns and stated the importance of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and keywords.

Later, we had an interesting session with NS Rajan, Managing Partner of Ketchum Samapark.  He told us that a PR job is like a general physician and we are supposed to have knowledge about everything and keep learning every day. He shared with us how journalists are different in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore than compare to other cities in India. While writing a news article we should always think like a reporter to get it published. He also touched upon crisis communication and what things we should remember.

Suman Sir introduced us to the different sectors in corporate PR. Kaveer and Adreesh Sir spoke about the corporate and automobile sector where they took us through some of the recent campaigns they have done. The session with Kirti ma’am on consumer and lifestyle was different than others. She divided us into different teams, gave us a situation to build a campaign upon. She went through our ideas and told us what things we could have done to polish our skills.

It was a long day for us, filled with a lot of insights and learning’s which we received in different sessions. All the professionals taught us something new and how we can use it in our professional life.

63. Think-Tanks

Posted on by Neha Goyal

Think tank is a research bank that performs as advocacy on topics like economics, political strategy, technology, social policy, and culture. It aims to fill the gap between policymaking and academia by publishing that are easily accessible. They are reports that are like academic research which is filled with a lot of information done with intense research work.

They can be conducted for governments to do planning for the economy, defense or social policy and commercial organisations for testing a new product or for new technology. There is a huge demand for policy expertise because of the way the government is expanding. The people started getting more updated because of 24-hour news due to which think-tanks started trending.

The objective of think-tank is to give knowledge and make policy together by informing and influencing the policy process. They conduct and recycle the research which is aimed to solve policy problems that come in the form of seminars, publications, conferences, and workshops.

According to a survey conducted by Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program of the University of Pennsylvania, Brookings Institution was ranked the top think tank in the world. The Centre for Civil Society (CCS) of India was ranked fifty globally.

It’s not easy to make think tanks and they face a lot of challenges. To start with, getting funding is not an easy task for all the research and work projects, the competition is increasing, not all information on the internet is accurate. It has increased the demand for policy advice and think tanks are alternative policies to study from across the globe and then adapt it.

While making think tanks, one should take advantage of digital tools and resources available and also follow old school methods to stand-out in this competitive world. It is important to decide what kind of organization one wants to set up, find a correct good leader for it, decide the scope of a think tank that covers all aspects, define the governance required for it.

Knowing the value of your action is really helpful which need not have to be specific as it helps to draw the attention of the researchers. The think tank will need board members who will handle various aspects of work, researchers who will do all the necessary research work and funders. Finding your approach, your funder to give funds to plan and deliver huge research projects that will be credential.

A new think thank team should be initially flexible and not limit themselves to personal contacts only. The market of think tanks is increasing globally and they should also help people in growing their knowledge.     

Reference: https://ccs.in/5-indian-think-tanks-world-s-top-150-surveyhttps://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2017/01/05/what-do-think-tanks-do