Getting Comms Right

Hello all you wonderful humans. Before I honour you with my first blog post for Templemere PR, I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Anna-Maria and I am one of Tempelmere’s Junior Account Executives. I joined Templemere around seven months ago and I am here for a year as part of an industry placement before I go back to University to finish off my Business Management degree.

From Wuhan to working from home

To a lot of people around the world, the Covid-19 pandemic has been one of the greatest physical, mental and financial challenges they might ever face in their lifetime. Words such as ‘lockdown’, ‘Covid’, and ‘Zoom’ meant nothing to most of us before the pandemic graced us with its presence and now, they are part of our everyday vocabulary.

I was at the University of Birmingham learning and studying Business Management with PR related modules, but I had never imagined my university experience would be almost entirely virtual! This was now taking place from the comfort of my own home; no lecture theatres or seminar rooms, just myself, my laptop, and hundreds of other students listening with their cameras off and voices muted. All physical and interactive aspects of my degree were stripped away and this meant my learning and social development was tarnished. Being stuck behind a screen meant that students like myself could easily slip away and be forgotten about.

TEAMplemere

By the time I started my placement with Templemere, the return to normality was underway and I was fortunate enough to start my job in the office with the flexibility to work partly from home. I was extremely excited to start my role with Templemere and my first real job in the big wide world of work.

Since day one, I have felt truly welcomed into the team and after my first week it felt like I had been working at Templemere for months. I love going into the office to a positive and friendly group of people who make every day more enjoyable just by being themselves. Working at Templemere quickly made up for the previous year which lacked social contact and interactive learning.

Putting theory into practice

Over halfway into my placement year, it is interesting to compare the ‘Public Relations and Reputation Management’ theory I have learnt at university to what it’s really like working in the PR industry.

A large part of my role involves media monitoring and monthly reporting for clients. This is the less attractive side to PR and tasks such as these were missed out in my syllabus at university, yet they are paramount to the day-to-day operations of a PR organisation.

Working in PR definitely isn’t as glamourous as it seemed from my learning or compared to how Samantha in Sex and the City makes it out to be, and there’s a lot of hard work involved in keeping our clients happy at all times. However, I am grateful to have learnt a lot from my time here. Even just grasping what might be seen as simple basic tasks such as; office etiquette, how to structure a formal email, how to pitch to media, how to effectively use Excel - you get the picture! It has all contributed to the knowledge and skillset that I have now.

I like to think I came into this job possessing relatively good communications skills for a rookie, however since starting at Templemere I soon learnt that effective communication with clients is a slightly different ball game. With the unconditional support from my colleagues, I have had time to develop and polish these skills, such as understanding the different styles of tone to use depending on the client, always actively listen to your client and make concise, clear and context-driven meeting notes and actions. Human connection and personal touch are so important in PR as it helps you build a strong, trustworthy and sustainable relationship with your client.

Moving on

Templemere has allowed me to experience a real PR agency working environment and has given me multi-dimensional insights into how a well-run organisation operates on a day-to-day basis. My time here has facilitated my growth as a professional, and given me a deeper understanding of my greatest strengths, as well as highlighted areas to work on. The communications skills and self-confidence I have developed, along with many other new capabilities will stay with me forever. This will place me in a strong position for when I graduate University and I have Templemere to thank for that.