As Public Relations assistant at Gallagher Bassett, I’m responsible for public relations and social media marketing. My key tasks are creating and disseminating media releases and liaising with industry publications. I also organise and strategise our social media platforms. This includes creating written and visual content for social media, as well as managing our social media campaigns through HubSpot. I’m also involved in the broader marketing function that involves tender development, marketing collateral and internal communication, and I’ve assisted with video creation, compiling the company newsletter, corporate event planning, and website updates.
I think teenagers would understand the importance of social media for sure! Social media has an increasingly important role in connecting with clients and establishing credibility. In my role, I create consistent and interesting content to engage with our team and clients. There’s also a strong focus on SEO development (search engine optimisation) and using data analytics.
I grew up in Brisbane and studied at QUT in Business and Behavioural Science. I’ve gained a lot of experience during that time at a marketing agency and now within the insurance sector.
I applied for the internship position at Gallagher Bassett after one of my friends found the internship position on LinkedIn, which shows how social media is interacting with businesses!
I gained so much experience during the programme and having practical experience has guided my career path.
I think anyone can always learn new skills, so yes. Someone with a marketing or internal communications background could definitely do the same job, as many of the principles are similar. As in most roles, there’s a client focus and I believe that can be translated across positions. However, if you’re not particularly creative, you might have trouble with the role. I think having a degree is great to gain theoretical understanding, but practical experience is imperative.
In marketing, there’s definitely an element of creativity and the ability to deal with time pressure and multiple requirements – sometimes meeting the needs of stakeholders is complex. Understanding the internal and external stakeholder’s perspectives is important.
I think the best part about my job is seeing our news published or creating social media posts that get a positive reception on LinkedIn or Twitter! Our brand presence is growing and we are engaging with our audiences, these moments really demonstrate that. I also appreciate the flexibility and coming to work knowing the team are supportive of one another.
As with any job, there’s accountability and responsibility required. I’m responsible (in part) for ensuring the correct information is relayed internally and externally, and there are implications if this doesn’t occur.
Sometimes this work can be repetitive, which is hard if I’m not feeling creative. There are also needs from different stakeholders and balancing these is sometimes a struggle. However, I don’t work weekends and there’s great flexibility.