Experience

The Southport School

• Australia
• Education Administration Programs
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Upper Primary School Teacher

  • Dec 2021 - Present

• Robotics Teacher/ICT Mentor

  • Jul 2017 - Dec 2021

  An internal reputation managment role with a high level relationship mangagement focus - overseeing various aspects of internal communication publication. - Source, write and publish good news stories for internal website, accessible by more than 30,000 employees. - Write and implement internal communications plans to communicate executive messages across the organisation. - Provide advice to internal business areas on internal communications plans. - Liaise with and provide feedback/analysis to executive on success of internal communications messaging. - Manage internal good news website via the WordPress platform. Includes basic manual coding where necessary. - Train staff on the use of the WordPress platform. - Proactively maintain internal business relationships, including with executive staff—liaising with relevant business areas to ensure relevant internal messaging is targeted and effective.



Media Adviser

• Media Adviser/Public Relations Adviser

  • Oct 2013 - Jul 2017

  A reputation management role with a high level relationship management focus—overseeing proactive media production and issues management across multiple media platforms. Scope of role: - Create engaging content and tailor for publication across multiple media platforms including print, TV, social media, website, radio and internal publications—developing media releases with succinct messages to clearly communicate important information to customers; and working collaboratively with local centre staff to identify and generate good news stories. - Create and edit short informational videos for cross channel social promotion and develop radio grabs featuring relevant spokespeople. - Anticipate media inquiries and develop effective strategies to manage major incidents—abating negative representation by maintaining relationships with media representatives, and negotiating embargoes to ensure reported facts are correct and the organisation’s viewpoint is put forward. - Manage misinformation and rogue media inquiries including various rumours—acting proactively to clarify with journalists, and briefing relevant business areas to ensure they are prepared for potential media enquiries. - Proactively maintain internal and external business relationships—liaising with relevant business areas to foresee potential future media issues. - Monitor and analyse media reporting—maintaining an up-to-date overview of issues that may generate positive or negative media coverage and providing timely actionable advice to relevant business areas. - Provide media training for spokespersons located in business units and centres across the country—providing on-topic talking points and giving one-on-one training in person and over the phone.



Federal Government

• Social Media Adviser

  • Feb 2013 - Oct 2013

  A proactive content creation role aimed at providing important information to customers as well as responding to online queries. The role included producing visually engaging content to communicate important information to customers across integrated social platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube. Scope of role: - Manage and mediate all social accounts—ensuring content fits with brand tone and adheres to social media publication guidelines; advising business areas of best practice; monitoring comments for inappropriate content. - Publish proactive social media messages and respond to social media enquiries—conducting macro social media searches to identify and quickly respond to comments concerning the organisation. - Collaboratively develop, implement and monitor effectiveness of cross-platform social media strategies - producing reports on activity; and tracking, analysing and responding to trends concerning each department. Significant achievements include: - Contributed to a project which enabled a quicker response time to social media comments with the aim of clearing up misinformation and developing/disseminating answers to questions away from main social media accounts. - Successfully increased the volume of ’likes’ for a main Facebook page from 2k to over 15k in 8 months. - During peak periods, reduced excessive amounts of repeat queries on Facebook and freed up resource time.



RSPCA Australia

• Australia
• Non-profit Organizations
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Communications Intern

  • Jan 2013 - Jan 2013

  A short but challenging role working in RSPCA’s national office—responsible for monitoring media about the organisation and political coverage such as live exports; contributing to the development of creative animal welfare campaigns; and developing an engaging blogging schedule: - Monitor media activity for stories of interest to the RSPCA - Develop a strategy to expand the 'All Chefs Great and Small Blog' - Assist in the development of national awareness campaigns A short but challenging role working in RSPCA’s national office—responsible for monitoring media about the organisation and political coverage such as live exports; contributing to the development of creative animal welfare campaigns; and developing an engaging blogging schedule: - Monitor media activity for stories of interest to the RSPCA - Develop a strategy to expand the 'All Chefs Great and Small Blog' - Assist in the development of national awareness campaigns



Queanbeyan Age

• Journalism Intern

  • Dec 2012 - Dec 2012

  I have completed an internship for the weekly paper, The Queanbeyan Age. The paper aims to produce stories for Queanbeyan and the surrounding area. Part of my role was as follows: - Conduct interviews by phone and in the field - Produce print articles to industry standard on various topics - Take high quality photos to be published online and in the paper - Liaise with various sources by phone and email - Assist other journalists as required Significant highlight: - Achieved front page story in second week—taking guidance from Editor to research and write an article that was highly newsworthy (http://russellayres.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/retailers-christmas-wish.pdf)



Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)

• Australia
• International Trade and Development
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Communications Contractor

  • Aug 2012 - Nov 2012

  In my role as a Communications Contractor for the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) I helped maintain their social media presence on the photo sharing social media platform, Flickr. Part of my role was as follows: - Publish photographs online for public viewing - Sort 'tag' and organise photographs into appropriate categories - Choose best photographs for publication - Maintain a database of non-published photographs for potential future publication - Liaise with internal clients regarding photograph publication - Ensure the general public can easily locate relevant photographs



ABC Canberra

• Journalism Intern

  • May 2012 - Jun 2012

  A highly competitive internship gaining experience working across all ABC platforms including print, radio, TV and internet—conducting interviews, writing and editing radio content for air, producing quality content for online publication, writing reader voiceovers (RVOs) for TV and taking photos for publication with stories on ABC website. Significant highlights: - Successfully stepped-in for an absent reporter to do an on-air interview with Super Rugby coach, Ewen McKenzie, at Canberra Airport—conducting last minute research to prepare and be across all team injuries and issues. - Wrote several radio news stories that went to air (Reel: http://russellayres.com/2012/10/02/russell-ayres-at-abc-canberra/). - Travelled offsite to conduct research for a story about a significant brolga breeding project—writing content and taking high quality photos for publication.