Indiana INTERNnet celebrated internship excellence on Feb. 5, 2014, at the 8th Annual IMPACT Awards luncheon. Though the event is over and the winners have been announced, we are continuing to celebrate the nomineesâ successes.
This is a blog post by Kristen Hay, student at the University of Indianapolis. She was a social media intern with a writing focus at BLASTmedia.
BLASTmedia (BLAST) is not your typical internship experienceâitâs above and beyond.
I started and completed the summer of my senior year at the University of Indianapolis as the social media intern with a writing focus on the social media team at BLAST.
Along with a great team, work environment and job tasks, I spent the summer working as a cashier at a retail job and tutoring in my schoolâs writing lab. While BLAST provided fun in the form of company outings, it also gave me the learning experience that I craved.
While I started college with a concentration in Physical Therapy, it didnât take long for me to figure out that the sciences were not my cup of tea. When I started at BLAST, I had never written a blog post or done social media for clients, but it didnât take long for me to catch on and excelâbut not without instruction. Everyone on the social media team took me under their wing and gave advice and feedback, but still allowed me to figure things out on my own. My internship solidified what I want to do with my life, and for that reason I know I couldnât be luckier. The end of the summer felt bittersweet for me. I had found a company, team and job that aligned with my goals, personality and skill set.
Lucky for me, at the end of the summer, BLAST asked me to stay on. I continued writing content and working from home for the first semester of my senior year, and Iâm currently serving as Social Media Jr. Coordinator, which involves similar tasks from my internship, along with more strategy and goal-based execution. As a double major in English and Communication, a peer tutor in my schoolâs writing lab, and an account executive in my schoolâs student-run PR firm, adding on an extra role wouldnât seem feasible, but I did it. And Iâve loved every minute of it.
Some of the things I learned from my internship
- How to write, optimize and upload blog posts and content for various clients and BLAST.
- How and why to create Twitter lists.
- How and why to research potential YouTube reviewers for product reviews.
- How to optimize Pinterest for BLAST and different clients.
- How to write succinctly and edit efficiently.
- How to create strong messaging in tweets and Facebook posts.
- How to utilize Google Analytics to measure website traffic, time on page and unique visits, and gauge demographics, traffic sources, top site content and focus keywords.
- How to create editorial blog calendars for various clients.
What I do now
- Everything listed above plus brainstorming and developing new goals and strategies to meet the clientâs objective.
Looking aheadâŠ
My hope is that I continue working in the PR and social media field at an Indianapolis agency. Iâm excited for graduation and whatâs to come, and I know that my experience and time spent at BLAST has directly and positively had an effect on my success and preparation for the real world.
