5/12/10

Today we had the launch event in St James' Park for Sedogo. We had the comedian Tony Hawks along to compere the event and be a celebrity incentive for people to come. Other incentives were winning champagne and iTunes vouchers. Here are the pages I set up and have been maintaining.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sedogo/261533591696
http://www.sedogo.com/viewEvent.aspx?EID=1114
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=178911198789659
https://twitter.com/Sedogo

Here is a picture of the live blogging and tweeting I was doing at a pub during the event -



And here is a photo of some of the group of attendees at the event after the event, champagne bottles were popped and prizes were given out.



It was a very successful day and now for the video editing and promotion in news media etc. It has been a great internship and I was told I could leave early as I have done all the work required in raising the profile of our client Sedogo for their social network. I have enjoyed all the experiences of the world of work so far, especially working alongside other people in a team and having routine, having goals myself to reach for and fulfil. I am sure this will help for future life in the world of work.

1/12/10

The event is only this next weekend! I was responsible for creating the press release and sending that to news media such as the metro, news websites etc. Also creating what news/results we have had so far into a folder in the Forster computer systems. I have done lots of copywriting whilst I have been here, especially in sending emails to clients, what to write up in the twitter and facebook pages and other forms of social media. I am Forster's first intern and am an experiment to see how effective social media is for Forster's work and what routes to take for future projects.

I feel I have used many skills while I have been here, from the obvious of writing copy, using social media, video editing, some PR work, communicating with other Forster colleagues and clients, being punctual and effective. This is a photo of a promotional board for Forster -

30/11/10

Everything is coming to together for the launch event. It will be on 5th December on St James Park, with tasks all over central London to promote Sedogo. They are group challenges for the people who attend. Tasks include getting as many people in a phone box as a group can, crossing the abbey road crossing like The Beatles on their Abbey Road album cover, crossing Millenium Bridge without using hands or feet and creating a crowd in Covent Garden by singing or doing a barbershop quartet sort of thing. It's exciting, and I will be tweeting what the groups are doing on the day as they go around London, they will be sending the pictures to prove what they are doing, sending them to the website and I will be then passing them onto facebook and twitter pages for poeple to see.

29/11/10

Today I had to talk over the phone with a client called Robin who will be making the film of the Sedogo launch event. We discussed the background music, duration and clips we wanted him to film, also the date, place and time he needed to be. This taught me some phone-calling skills such as being clear and polite. I have also been maintaining the facebook and twitter pages and replying to those who have contacted us. There is interest for the event, I have also been inviting people through the university group pages and facebook friends.

The event is coming soon, so we gathered items we need for the event, including mini laptops for live-tweeting and blogging during the event which I will be in charge of, also t-shirts, flipcam, and placards to point people in the right direction. I created four today using a printer and sticking machine to stick the printed image on hard boards. This is what it looks like.

26/11/10

The video editing is going well, I extracted all the raw video data and am currently cutting out bits we don't need down to a maximum of 5 minutes (from 30 minutes!), also adding title screens for relevant questions in between clips. Hopefully this will look good and professional. It is hard as there's lots of repetition but I will try my best and show Jacqueline what progress I have made. It's taking a few hours. This is the screen in iMovie at the moment -

24/11/10

Today I was consulted about other things we needed to do for Sedogo. One new thing is two videos we will be using to promote Sedogo. One will be beforehand and is an interview with the creators of Sedogo, Meg and Guy. It will tell people how Sedogo came about, what it is used for and how we can use it. Jacqueline will be conducting the interview and recording this on a flipcam, and I will be editing it in iMovie using my video editing skills I obtained during my music technology BTEC and A levels.

We will be going later to a board meeting on Liverpool Street with Meg and Guy to discuss what we have been doing so far for Sedogo and discussing details of the launch event on December the 5th, things we need such as Sedogo T-shirts, place and time for people to meet and carry out mini-goals during the day to promote Sedogo and this will be filmed for a second video to promote the social networking site.

I was a little confused at first over all the details but am making sure I ask my supervisor Jacqueline details so I know what's going on and so I can get on with the task ahead. I was very tired today and sitting at a desk/computer all day doesn't help but it was good to get out for lunch break. I start the video editing tomorrow.

23/11/10

I was slightly late for work today as I had to wait for 3 or 4 tubes as they were packed full. That is one downside of the commuting, many thousands are also doing so and all wanting to get to work on time too. I apologised to Jacqueline and hope to set out earlier in future to make sure I get there on time.

I am keeping a record in a word document of all the work I have done so far, such as creating the Sedogo twitter page and facebook events page, advertisements in craigslist, timeout etc. We have a few new followers in Facebook and twitter, and also a few new users in the Sedogo site itself. This is great success.

Forster are very environmentally and ecologically friendly. They don't have many lights of but rely on sunlight and lower-power / energy-saving lighting, and even ecover handwash in the toilets (which are nice and warm) and encourage you to turn things off you aren't using, and when away from the computer, to put the screen on standby.

22/11/10

Today I have created a facebook event, a goal/event in the sedogo website and tweeted relevant twitter users to raise the profile of Sedogo. I feel I am doing a good job at this and what I am supposed to be doing for Forster. I feel very privileged to be working with the people I am working with. Peter (the main project leader) and Jacqueline (my supervisor and who I work next to) are very hard working and it has been refreshing seeing how committed and effective they are at their jobs so far. They are both part of a bigger picture, also working on one or two other projects for Forster and do not time-waste at all.

I was introduced to the three floors of people currently working at Forster, there is a design/media team, others who do PR things and are always on the phone, and also receptionists, and a few people who do other things I don't know yet. They all seem very nice and friendly, it is quite cool working here, worth the 45minute commute from Earl's Court!

19/11/10

So today was my first official day as the 'Social Media Intern' at Forster Communications, London Bridge. I was briefed on my job, raising the profile of the Sedogo social network, using social media and other outlets to get the name Sedogo around and namely promote the launch event of the social network taking place on the 5th December 2010. Here is a link to the client's website - http://sedogo.com/ . I have been given passwords to the admin of the site and their facebook and twitter presence. I have also been given my own email (sedogo@forster.co.uk) which I will be using to correspond to the client, companies, other Forster staff and other emails I need to send as I work here.

Today I was also given the task of using the experience I have of social networks to group which ones I think would be effective in promoting Sedogo; such as different areas of facebook and twitter, forums and advertising websites. Sedogo is a social network about 'reaching/achieving goals you set yourself, with the help of other users and others around you'. The website has tools to help you do this, such as a timeline you can create realistic goals to reach on, and in the same way as many other social networks, the ability to add/message friends. Because it is a goal/resolution website, we thought of the different goals people might be setting themselves, especially action/adventure sorts of things such as climbing mountains, swimming the channel, cycling long distances etc. Although Sedogo is not in the charity sector, we thought we could utilise charities as many of these goal sort of things are also (but not exclusively) done for charities. To name a few sites to target, university pages on facebook, relevant tweeters (such as action/goal people, marathons, iron man, competitions etc.) Also craigslist, gumtree, timeout etc. Today has gone well and it feels I have done a lot of work and something to work from on Monday as we start contacting companies and using websites.

18/11/10 - Forster Communications

Today I had my interview/induction at Forster Communications for my work placement over the next few weeks. They are a PR and media consultancy based in London Bridge, Southwark. It has been agreed I will be the 'social media intern' for the next 4 weeks, raising the profile of their client 'Sedogo', a new social network. I will be working under a supervisor called Jacqueline. I'm really looking forward to starting this internship as I gain some experience of the world of work, working in the media, using skills I have to help their company and having some routine! (The working hours will be 9am until 6pm Mondays to Fridays). For my Journalism degree at Thames Valley University, I am required to fulfil 40 hours of work experience for the Work Placement module, and it looks likely it will be the minimum of 80 hours working for this company. I start properly tomorrow and will be given a briefing and the desk/computer I will be working at for the duration of my time here.

Sunil