Social Media

A lot of people have been asking me recently 'what's the point is in Social Media' or 'What's the point in twitter? Who really wants to know if someone's just had a cup of tea or not.'

They are mostly asking because it is something employers are hoping you are up-to-date on because they aren't, and they want to bring their company in to 21st century.

So here is a break down on why social media is important:

• The consumer gets to know the brand on a personal level.
• The brand can talk directly to their already existing consumers with tone and personality they want to be associated with. 
• The brand can create interest and hype around their brand.

I will update with some great social media campaigns in the next couple of days, but I will leave with a congratulations on the facebook campaign to get Rage Against The Machine as Christmas no.1. I'm not sure if that was consumer or brand generated but it was extremely entertaining and I cannot believe they've won. Poor Joe Mceldrrey!!

I love Vivienne Westwood (the person not just the brand)

The Devil is NOT Always Disguised in Prada...

Now firstly I want to distinguish the difference between work experience and internships....

• Work experience is a maximum of two weeks in a company where you observe the runnings and maybe take part in minor tasks, but the main thing is that you are there to learn.
• You should expect travel expenses and maybe food expenses.

• Internship means you stay in a company for a longer amount of time - from a month to a year.
•  It gets you ready for a job in that company, or to walk straight in to a job in the industry.

Most interns I know are being given expenses, even though they're working unpaid for over 3 months. I thought this was normal. A pain in the arse especially when paying rent, needing to keep fashionably up-to-date, traveling, food and in the present time CHRISTMAS! But recently I read an article in the Guardian by Huma Qureshi who has written about the hell that interns go through (read it here). From reading this article I have looked at a website called Interns Anonymous which publishes good and bad experiences that interns have gone through and helpful tips.

One helpful tip I have found from Interns Anonymous is that the HM Revenue and Customs say that Internships are for people who have graduated and are independently living, been given proper and important tasks to do for the company then they should be paid at least minimum wage!
Why have I just heard about this now? And why haven't the government pushed this harder? Instead of allowing companies to screw over interns by not even paying expenses.

There is a charity called NABS who do help students and people looking to start their career in the media industry, and good for them to look out for people like us, because the government are certianly taking their time over it.

Networking

London Launch invited the other interns and I to a PR, events and advertising networking social in Canary Wharf's Ice Rink on monday 16th November. So we all panicked as none of us had business cards. So in a mad rush, just after work, we printed our designs and cards with details on it.

For my card, I wanted something memorable as desperation for a job is increasing now...so I put my picture on the front of my card.  Yes the screaming pic that is on my twitter and blog. My boyfriends written a blog post about it it's called "Brand me like that" have a look!



Anyway this is what it ended up looking like:

On the journey there we quickly trying to cut them out on the train...here's Laura attempting hers! God knows what people thought when we handed them badly trimmed business cards lol.

So we met lots of lovely people, and got a little bit tipsy as there was a lot of martini's flowing, and I was so hungry so I was drinking them mainly to get to the olive at the bottom ha! I met a guy who owns an event company called Masqurade, I ended up giving him my business card and he looked at the picture and said "O my god, I already know who you are, I follow you on Twitter!" Well I felt like a celebrity and was hugely flattered, so now i'm very much praising twitter. If you want people to know who you are get on twitter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Zelebritiy Waiters

Been working so hard on this event and it turned out pretty nicely, everyone had such a good night and we managed to raise a lot of money for charity!

1. Jess and Laura with the signed pic of The Saturdays

2. Laura with the signed t-shirt from X-Factor contestants

3. All of us with Little Miss Joslyn

4. Me, Nikki Grahame and Laura

Lips

I cannot stop staring at this page, it is soooo stunning! It is inspiring me to be a lot more creative with my make-up.

Kisses xxx

Love you xxxx

Making a Mess.

After a hard week at the office I really love doing absolutely nothing on the weekends! 
Except that usually doesn't happen and even when I have the chance to I get very restless and need to do something. So my boyfriends step-mum Amy, gave me a vintage dress that she didn't want and with her permission I altered it to an inch of it's life. 

This is before.....

....And this is after!!! What do you thing??? Love ya x 

Postal Strike Sucks for all Interns!

Because of the postal strike interns all over Britain are having to wonder miles from the warmth of the office out in to the freezing cold to hand deliver mail...I am slightly over dramatising, it's not that bad especially as it has given me and the new interns to get to know each other!

This is James, Rachel and Nicola on the train after handing out leaflets round Ealing.

Lotsa Love xxx

The Mansion Party - Portland Place

After work Paris and I got changed and went to a bar down the road called LVPO on Dean Street. They had given me a complimentary free round of drinks as we work around this area. The cocktails there were AMAZING!


Tom then showed up and had a crazy spicey cocktail, walked in to what he thought was the girls toilets by accident but ended up being the mens just a guy had long hair and was wearing eyeliner so poor Tom got confused. 


Then Pia turned up finally and we were all ready to party. After a quick stop of in the mcDonalds toilets of course to re-touch make-up, we took off to our friend Monthira's birthday party at 33 Portland Place, a huge 24 bedroom mansion owned by Edward Davenport one of 'Britain's most flamboyant entrepreneurs.' 


The whole place was amazing, Jacuzzi, buffet, open bar, topless and trouserless waiters. Lovely evening, and even though we didn't meet anyone on the PR or journalism scene we did meet a lot of promoters and fun socialites, which is always a bonus and you never know when someone might come in handy. 

1. Paris, Me, Tom and Pia in LVPO

2. Naked waiter

3. Me and Pia by Jacuzzi

4. Me, Paris and Pia snapped by the photographer

PR Fluff.

Every year with out fail, my family always go to the pantomime on New Years Day. This little tradition is a very British affair, which brings us some of the best British personalities to our theatres such as Christopher Biggins, Barbara Windsor and none other than the dog from Churchill from the adverts for the insurance company.

If you're stuck for gift ideas to give to your loved ones, how about a lovable and cuddley stuffed MeerKat.com?

These sorts of PR stunts are called PR fluff, which basically means it is a crazy and wild idea that newspapers and critics are mainly going to laugh at. I personally love the PR fluff, maybe that is a bit AbFab of me but I think it is a great form of entertainment that people can enjoy and gives the brand a humourous personality, and when your trying to sell insurance your going to need to be as funny as you can!

So, this year I'll be very much  looking forward to Churchill in this years trip, 'oooo yes!'

Chinese Cricket Club - Crowne Plaza

Love lunching with the ladies!
We were able to go sample the beautiful Chinese cuisine at Chinese Cricket Club in the prestigious grounds of the Crowne Plaza opposite the closed-down Blackfriars station.
The food is like nothing i've ever tasted, though my usual chinese take-out is after a booze cruised so as you can imagine this tasted a hell of a lot nicer.

The dishes I'd recommend is the honey glazed pork parcels, the orange beef and the dim sum.

1. Laura, Paris and Me outside Temple station over looking London

2. Tofu and salad

3. Chilli lamb, slippery chicken and orange beef

4. Us ladies dinning

5. Dessert was stunning and tasted incredible! Wish I remember what they were called.

All Work and More Fun!

It's sooooo important to get along with the people that you work with, and fortunatley in the world of PR mostly everyone is a freindly bubbley character! Also the people that you are interning with are also the ones that will be able to further your career if you show them your true potential they will recommend you to friends in other industries/other agencies.

Here are some pics of the night out me and the girls from my office had to a bar and then Jalouse.

1. Laura, me, Ellie, Paris, Caroline

2. Me and Caroline

3. Me and Sam

Ealing Has Talent!

We are doing a competition at the moment for Ealing Broadway Shopping Centre and this fun competition is actually turning out to be something amazing! I was judging on Sunday and we had some great auditions with some making me try and hide my uncontrollable urge to laugh and some that blew me away!

Here are some pictures of me and my colleagues, unfortunately I can't put any pictures or video's up of the performers but if you want to see them live buy the tickets from: www.mariecuriecancer.co.uk/ealinghastalent

It's only £5 and all proceeds got to this charity. It's going to be a really fun night (30th October 2009) not one to miss!

Good Things Come to Those Who Ask!

....Not waiting! You must take opportunities as they come.

I put as a post of Facebook recently "Who would like an internship at a PR company? email me." A friend from school who I haven't spoken to for over five years messaged me, and out of the bunch that emailed back I wanted her.

She told me when we met up that she wasn't going to email me back because she felt rude to ask as we hadn't really spoken in so long. But she's very happy she did because we have done some great work this week, which I am going to update in a mo. x

Coverage

The other day my friend Mikey who works for Capital FM called me up asking if I wouldn't mind doing a shout out on the show. Well I thought this was a good opportunity for coverage...I sound like an absolute fruitcake, I was considerably hungover from a houseparty the night before but here it is.

aqua

Through my internship at Jori White PR me and the other interns were allowed to invite a friend along to sample aqua a new restaurant down Argyl Street by Oxford Circus Station.

As we walked in to the dark entrance with a huge sign depicting the logo 'aqua' with the 'Q' being the symbol of the female species. It felt very exclusive and myself and my friend Paris felt like VIP as the lift took us up to the enormous dining area of the Japanese section of the building. We were escorted down a long corridor with a bull at the end which we assumed meant we were in the tapas section. We walked in and was greeted by the lovely interns that i work with, we had a drink on the beautiful balcony overlooking London. It was stunning. The food was equally as captivating, i recommend the pork and all the desserts lol. It was a brilliant day and I definitely recommend it as a place to take new business partners or for special occasions, it's fantastic.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

Is this the best thing that has every happened to london??? In my eyes it is! But it's not a permanent fixture...The Central Perk cafe opened just off Carnaby Street will be closing on the 7th October, so if you want to go and have a look I suggest you get up and get out asap to get there as the line to get in is MASSIVE!

It's been put up to promote a new box set of F.R.I.E.N.D.S, I got really excited thinking the movie had finally become, but alas no, I think it is a lost dream.

Get Networking

The best way to get in to any industry is through contacts and people you know. So Helen Lewis – who works on the commissioning desk at the Daily Mail has come up with a wonderful idea called Schmooze and Booze, where young people who are from or looking to get in to the magazine and PR industry to meet the more experienced people in their fields. 


The get-together is a fun night out and to get to know each other and swap numbers etc. I went to the last one and met a bunch of lovely people and had a great time the next one is at The Volt near Victoria Station on Monday, September 28 from 6.30 till close (date may change). For more info and to let Helen know you are going email her at: schmoozeandbooze@googlemail.com

www.schmoozeandbooze.com

Wish I had taken down people's names!! Next time!

Tube turned Catwalk

The other day I heard (but unfortunately didn’t see) a load of models catwalking up and down the tubes as a way of promoting London Fashion Week! Wish I was going! I’m so upset. Though I have a bad spending habit even though all I buy is clothes yet never seem to have anything to wear. I blame my obsession on my other obsession, magazines!

PR stunts I admire...

This is something my dad told me, and he’s a creative director and copy writer at Leo Burnett’s ad agency, so I guess he has to research this stuff all the time but, Oasis apparently launched their album by giving their songs to street buskers to learn, so when people were walking to work or on the tube, they would hear the songs by the buskers and get it in to their heads. Clever huh? I love hearing stuff like that and feel jealous that I didn’t think about it. Would love to know which PR firm did this and would like to work with them immediately. 

http://www.nme.com/news/nme/42053

Jori White PR

www.joriwhitepr.co.uk

I’ve started at Jori White’s now; I literally landed off the plane the night before and hardly slept with the anxiety of starting at a new place. It’s a really small company with about four people working full-time a few freelancers and at the moment there’s four interns with another on the way.

Though small as a company they definitely do things big. They have some amazing clients on the go and already I’m searching through papers finding clippings of the coverage they received that week. Another job I’ve been asked to do is to look through magazines (no problem with that task) and find small businesses that are using advertising space, so I then call them up and see if they are looking to promote their company and what JW can offer them. Also been offered to go for a meal at one of the restaurants they promote! Shame I couldn’t go because I’d already made plans, but there’ll be more opportunities!

Note to all interns: bring a note pad and a contacts book that you keep on you at all times. Write down everyone’s contact details that you have personally spoken to, you never know if they might come in handy in the future. Write down all ideas, even if they’re small or a bit crazy, because it could inspire something creative for events or for coverage. 

Holiday!

I didn’t have to start till September so holiday it was. The whole of August was spent lazing in the Caribbean sun, I even learnt to sail and got my competent crew certificate with OnDeck, if you ever go to Antigua and want to learn to sail I recommend this company and ask for Logan!

picture 1: me on Bird island beach

Picture 2: The crew minus Logan

Then the second half of August was spent in Sorrento, Italy’s very own Brighton. 10 times nicer obviously, it seems to be the place where Italians go to holiday just like the Brits do to Brighton or Blackpool. Anyway, that time flew by and it was SO beautiful! My boyfriend did a blog of our travels if you want to see: 

http://tomharveytravel.blogspot.com/

Recession bores me!!!

“You couldn’t have graduated at a worse time,” says absolutely everyone that I hand my CV to or talk to over the phone. “Because of the recession, its hard times,” they would finish.

‘Recession’ a word that I had never heard of till the last year of my journalism degree, and now that’s all I hear and I’m sick of it. So even before I left uni I was sending out CV’s to potential employers hoping to be thrown a line before uni had even finished. I was sending out close to 40 cv’s a week and only a few would reply saying that they’ll “put you on the database for if something comes up in the future,” or “sorry but we don’t have any jobs available at the moment.” Even at a company I worked for as a receptionist they asked everyone who worked there to take a 10% pay cut in order to save some employees from redundancy. Then they went back on their word and ended up making loads of people redundant anyway, even after everyone had taken a 10% pay cut.

But I did finally get a foot in the door with a 3 month internship at a PR company at Jori White PR, they look after a range of companies but mostly bars and restaurants. I was so excited when an email came through asking for my availability and if I was willing to come in for an interview. Yes it is unpaid and yes I am scrapping the bottom of my overdraft, but the homepage of my facebook wall was graffitied with peoples feeling of hopelessness of not even being able to score work experience.

You actually have to beg to work for free now! So I wasn’t going to let this slip out of my hands. 

www.joriwhitepr.co.uk

From the beginning....

8^th May 2009 was the date that I and my fellow course mates finished university. We all handed over our dissertations to the hatch and watched the shackles drop away from our hands. It felt wrong that there wasn’t a crowd of people awaiting to clap and cheer at our accomplishment as we all proudly strode out of the door of the main campus and straight to the pub.

We all sat around the table, with our pitchers of cocktails each smiling at our triumphs and congratulate each other on getting through the three years. I felt so overwhelmed, emotional and fresh with the felling of relief. As we all sat back and laughed about all the crazy times we’d shared on nights out and because we were having such a good time, everyone decided not to bring up the one thought that was plaguing our minds, “what is going to happen now?”

The subject was ignored, and the cloud of dread and anxiety loomed on in the distance.

The bestest friends I could ever have made x

Introducing myself...

Well hello darlings!

Welcome to my very first blog! My name is Yazmin, I've loved writing since thirteen when i discovered I actually could, and it was a great way to express my opinions and just rant away. I love giving a good ear bashing to anyone who will listen to me. Magazines and blogs are my bibles, Grazia, justjared and Dazed & confused are my top reads! Along with Company Magazine, but only because Dawn Porter writes for it, and I ADORE her. She is hilarious and has my dream job. 

So a bit more about me....well I live two separate lives, a luxurious lifestyle in a gorgeous town house in Richmond, and a grungey student life in Southampton, which i'll soon be leaving in about two months time. SOB. 

The main reason I'm starting this blog is so then I can add it to my magazine website when I make it in three weeks time. This is probably the worst time to be distracting myself with a blog at the moment as i am in the process of finishing my degree. Only three weeks to go! I'd love to be an art director for a lifestyle magazine, maybe interior, travel or fashion! Wouldn't that be a lush job? 

Anyway I will be blogging away to you all about what ever comes to mind. I love to review things, and I watch a LOT of television, so if you love TV, fashion, celebs, art and nightlife, then this is a haven to express your opinions!

Love to all,

xxxx