Social Media Internship Turned Marketing & Editorial
This past semester I took on a fully remote internship with The Wink Initiative. My title was Social Media Intern, however with my work laptop and second monitor to help me, I did much more than post on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. By utilizing Slack for communication with my boss and coworkers and the project management software Asana, I was able to complete a variety of tasks independently, learn through research and spearhead several initiatives to contribute to the success of the business. I edited articles, modified content for SEO, published articles, and worked to improve the conversion rates for the three websites that the company runs.
I feel that I had two major transformational feelings towards this position. The first was adapting to working remotely. I found that it was essential to communicate with my boss and the team when I needed guidance or opinions. Additionally, I learned that since I was working alone at home, it was my responsibility, not only to do the functions of my job position, but to learn in whatever ways that I could about what I was doing in order to understand the company. This was especially important because I was lacking the in-office experience where I imagine I would have learned a lot more about each coworker and their job duties. I found it was important to ask all questions, learn to work completely independently in order to have the confidence to start taking on new tasks or initiating projects. Finding the motivation to focus on work was also a struggle. I worked from my apartment bedroom at my desk and found that I often would need to take breaks to refocus my eyes or move around after spending so much time at my desk. I learned a lot about self-discipline, but also ensuring that I was being kind to my body.
The second transformational experience I had was learning about things completely foreign to me. I have had social media experience from prior positions so that portion of my job was very comfortable. However, a majority of the work I did day to day involved many more marketing applications that I had not learned in other internships, jobs, or courses. I found myself learning a lot more than I had anticipated upon starting this position. As I mentioned, I learned about search engine optimization, A/B or split tests, domain ratings, spam scores, backlinks and a lot about content strategies overall. Had I not taken on this position, I would not have these skills today. I feel that these skills are very transferable and that I will be able to use these skills in various ways moving forward in my career. Additionally, I learned what marketing and editorial tasks I do not like doing. I found that I enjoyed some of the work and cannot say the same about others. This piece alone was transformational because I now know moving forward that there are certain job functions that would contribute to a negative job experience and I can now avoid positions with such job functions in the future.
The first transformation I discussed came about mainly due to external factors. The Covid-19 pandemic allowed me to land this position remotely, as the company works out of LA. Due to the implications of the pandemic I found myself working from home rather than finding a local position and traveling to an office each day. I feel that the company had the appropriate resources to facilitate business effectively online and those resources are what enabled me to have a positive learning experience from working remotely. Had there not been constant communication via Slack messages, phone calls, video calls, comments on Asana, etc. It would be very hard to keep up with business and complete my assigned tasks. In positions I have held in the past, there had not been routine, scheduled meetings. In this position, I think what really allowed me to be able to communicate effectively, keep up with the business, and learn from coworkers were these meetings. Each Monday I would have a check-in call with my boss to discuss what I had done during the past week, what I wanted to learn, and what questions I had. It was also her time to discuss her expectations of me and what more she could offer as a mentor. In addition, our department held weekly meetings where we each screen-shared presentations explaining and denoting the past weeks business progress through each of our roles. Next we would have company meetings where any issues could be resolved, questions asked, and updates shared. Best of all, sometimes we would have virtual game days where I was granted the opportunity to connect with my coworkers in a fun activity to develop more of a relationship. Otherwise, my only interactions would be through messaging. These engagements really helped me to learn from others and showcase my progress as well.
Not only were there resources available that allowed me to learn and grow as a person in this remote position, but my boss and other coworkers, after a certain point, would come to me with new ideas of things they thought I could take on. After proving to them I could work remotely effectively and efficiently, I was asked to initiate other projects. This is where I really took the time to research and spend time understanding how the gears of the business worked, and what I would need to understand in order to achieve success with each new initiative. I think the prodding to take on these new responsibilities really allowed me the space to take time learning and then showcasing the quality of work I could offer from working independently. I feel that despite the struggles of working from my bedroom, I was still offered enough space to learn and have the flexibility to do so despite being trusted to work on my own.
My second transformation came unexpected. My boss would walk me through the tasks assigned to me on the daily. At first, these included social media posts and editing articles to be published on the company’s three websites. Once I got the hang of editing and did so in good time, my boss would assign me more things to do. Whether that was adding more tasks to my workload once I got efficient doing the task added on previously, or learning something new. My boss, in our weekly Monday meetings, would ask me what I wanted to learn next. I had a list of the things I did not understand or thought would be interesting to learn. Those things included SEO, domain rating, and more. After several weeks of learning new things, my list ran out. However my boss still asked what I wanted to learn. Since we work remotely and I have not physically seen the work she does, I asked – What tasks have I not covered that would be useful to learn for this job? She then was able to come up with a couple other tasks including split tests and spam score. I think having this relationship with my boss being focused on learning allowed me to make the most out of this experience and make positive contributions to the company.
This experience has been extremely valuable for me. Not only was I able to almost double my working knowledge of marketing, but I was able to learn by doing. I learned transferable skills that I can utilize in any position moving forward. I want to work in the music industry doing marketing or promotions, or even open my own music venue one day. This experience has allowed me to have functional skills to carry out marketing communications in this industry and gives me a baseline to creating a successful website to drive traffic to a business, should I open a venue one day. These are skills I hadn’t known could be so important. Had the pandemic not closed up music businesses, meaning I wouldn’t be able to intern in that industry, and simultaneously opened up the opportunity to work remotely and land this marketing position, I would not have learned all that I have.
In the same vein, due to the pandemic, I have learned so much about myself from working remotely. I have grown confidence to ask questions, a growing eagerness to learn, how to practice self-discipline outside of a work-office environment, how to maintain my overall health by working at home and staring at a screen all day. The list could go on and on. These are all important factors moving forward. I do not know what the world will look like post-vaccine. I do know that I am a step ahead of many other students. Having already had an experience working remotely for months makes me a better candidate for other remote internship opportunities. It shows future employers that I have achieved a level of discipline and responsibility for a length of time that many others have not. It also shows my eagerness to learn and to not give up when the specific industry I am interested in has no internship opportunities available. Additionally, I am unsure when the world will return to normal, if at all. This experience prepares me for job searching post-graduation, where I might be tasked to find a remote full-time position. I now know what I can achieve, and what I like and dislike in marketing. I am prepared to be an advocate for myself as I begin my career.