3 Tips for Interns: Digital Marketing for Start-Ups
When I first came in to intern at reSET, it was during the winter break of my sophomore year at UConn, meaning I was only on board for three short weeks. In that brief period of time, I was assigned a project to work with a man named Nahum, who opened Camilla’s Latin Restaurant, about 9 months prior to our introduction. Given that the restaurant recently opened and the owner was mainly concerned about keeping business running smoothly, he had not focused much attention on the marketing aspects of business and attracting new customers. His website was very simple and lacked key information, and his Facebook was ineffective, with minimal activity. My objective during this time was to go through his website and Facebook, compile a list of things that he was doing well, areas he needed to improve on, and provide any and all suggestions I had on ways to optimize his web presence. By the end of my time at reSET, I launched a new and updated website, and developed a new Social Media marketing strategy and helped to implement it. Through my experience, I have developed this list of the best practices to use when going about a project of similar intentions.
1. Do your research
The first thing you should do when taking on a project like this, or any project for that matter, is get a good idea of what your objective is. Talk to the business owner to figure out exactly where they need help and what you can do for them. After you know what to do, you must figure out how to do it. The best thing to do before jumping into the project is to do some research and learn up on the topic at hand. This is necessary, and will help you greatly when creating an audit of the business’ profiles, as you will be able to use the info you find as a kind of checklist when working your way through different areas of their website and social media. It is truly amazing how much information is readily available for you on the internet. The trouble is no longer acquiring that information, but rather sifting through it all to find what is relevant to your topic and produced by a trustworthy source. While you may find an article that seemingly fits your needs perfectly, chances are that there are a hundred other articles that are just as substantial, but may include a few other tips that could be useful. So once you find a good article, go through all the related articles given by that website, but make sure you’re not basing all your knowledge off of that one trustworthy site and seek out other sources. Try to find websites of companies that are geared towards helping improve businesses because there are a lot of them out there, and they’re trustworthy more often than not. Google Scholar is a great place to find academic or “scholarly” articles on your topic when you’re tired of filtering through the muck, but they’re not always as clear and concise.
In addition, if there’s something in an article that you don’t understand, look it up! It’s probably important, and can lead you to a whole other set of information on the topic that you didn’t know even existed previously.
There’s a lot of information out there, so take your time, read through everything carefully, and let the related links take you down a rabbit hole of information. I spent the entire first day at reSET reading through articles and I learned an unbelievable amount about marketing and using the internet as an advertising platform, and all of it was very helpful with my project.
2. Take lots of notes and make them shareable
As you’re doing all of the research on your project, it is important to take notes on all of the relevant information you come across. Reading article after article, it would be easy to forget most of the info you just read, but taking notes, and more importantly, applying those notes to the business you are working for, is of the utmost importance. While doing all of the reading, you will surely have many ideas pop into your head about things that the owner can do to better promote his or her business, like giving a discount to someone if they like your Facebook page, etc. It is important to write down all of these ideas because at least one of them will be useful, and it will help you do some further brainstorming. While it is definitely acceptable to just write down notes as they come to you, it is also important to go back into them afterwards and organize them in a way that all your thoughts are separated into categories, which will make it easy to pick out specific bullet points when the time comes. First, I organized my notes by platform – the website and the Facebook page. Then, within each platform, I further separated my notes into different categories, like what type of content and pictures should be posted on Facebook, and what areas of the website should be emphasized and ways to make it as user friendly as possible.
This brings me to my next point about making notes shareable. I made sure to transfer all my notes onto a Google Doc. That way, it is all online and saved automatically, but it also makes it easy to share it with anyone. It’s the best and easiest way to get approval from your boss and the small business owner you’re working with. If you’re going to be sharing with the owner, it’s also a good idea to make a concise list of items you need from them, like a value proposition or bio about the business, because no one knows the business and their goals quite like they do. You could also make a list of potential posts and sample promotions that will give them an idea of what they could do, in addition to allowing them to do their own brainstorming on things that they’d actually want to follow through on because, again, every decision is ultimately up to them.
3. Don’t be shy about asking for help and giving your input
Being an intern, despite the fact that you’re the lowest on the totem-pole, is the best position to be in. This is because you are given the most leeway if you mess up, and everybody is willing to help you because you’re the youngest and least experienced, so that kind of flexibility is built into the job title. So take advantage of it. Everyone was in your place at some point and know what it’s like to be thrown into a professional setting for the first time, so they want to see you succeed because you’re in it for the experience, and they want you to have the best experience working alongside them as possible. So, if you need help or have a question, just ask, because as long as you’re not making them or the company look bad, no one minds your inexperience.
It is also important to make your voice heard. Although your advice and assistance is unprofessional, it is still educated, and therefore has some value and validity. You have skills that, even though they’re not fully developed, are still useful and are needed around the office. There was a reason you were taken on in the first place, so have the confidence to make your ideas and opinions heard because they are still of some significance, even if they are not the most valuable.
If you put in the time and effort into the position, there is no reason you can’t succeed. All of the people at reSET are extremely helpful and kind, and will give you all of the resources and assistance you need. I thoroughly enjoyed my time here and acquired invaluable experience and knowledge in the field doing very relevant work. I hope any intern working here has as positive experience as I have had.
