Audience relations at TSN is a number one priority. Myself and another intern come in at 8AM, where the rest of my coworkers come in at 9AM. The reason for this is so that I have that hour to scan over all of the audience relations emails sent to TSN. When reading these emails, I have to sort through them to delete the irrelevant ones, such as spam or ads, and sort the remainder into file folders which are intricately organized. Following organizing the emails, I go through and read them. After a weekend this can mean reading through hundreds of emails (if a crisis occurred). After reading the emails, I take to twitter and other social media to find out if the same topics are trending. The platform I use is called Tweetdeck, and it allows me to monitor all of the important and relevant pages on twitter in on location. Once I have checked social media, I compile a report. Some days, no report is necessary if there were no alarming emails. I have gained experience in learning whether or not something is a real issue, or if a topic is just a few people upset (There is always people who are unhappy). I have also come to realize that every sport in the world is the most important sport and that there is no pleasing everyone.
An example of a real issue which have encountered in my time at TSN is when an anchor referred to the weather as "schizophrenic" on air. This upset a large group of viewers, many of whom took to social media. This was especially important to deal with in terms of issues management because TSN is owned by Bell Media, who runs Bell Lets Talk, so it is important that TSN's employees represent the ideologies of the overriding company. When the emails came flooding in, I had to compile a report, called an audience relations snapshot. This snapshot includes the topic, the tone, meaning positive, negative or neutral, and the volume, depending on how many people responded. In this report, I had to take snapshots of important examples of tweets, emails and Facebook messages, while keeping track and counting how many complaints were received in total. This report was then sent to my supervisor who spoke to the anchor and consequently, he issued an apology. Following the incident, there were no further complaints.
What I learned in relation to Mohawk's PR program and issues management in a corporation is that image is everything. For a company like TSN, who is owned by Bell Media, it is key to keep the brand in tact and thriving. For this reason, I am only allowed to draft emails in response to audience relations, and a senior employee must send them out. This is to ensure that the image and brand of TSN will be maintained. Ultimately, I have had a great experience learning how to do a variety of interesting things at TSN, but audience relations definitely stood out as being a priority in a corporate setting.
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ReplyDeleteThank you TSN
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