Student: Britni Clark

Date: November 25, 2016

 

Evaluation of Learning Objectives

 

Objective One: To increase social engagement

 

   I am the Social Media & Marketing Coordinator intern for Tree Naturals Inc. When I first started my internship, I was given a spreadsheet on what the CEO of the company expected from me during my internship. I was responsible for posting content on various social media platforms, creating newsletters, creating a social media calendar, and calculating analytics, just to name a few. From past experiences, I knew Twitter was going to be more challenging as far as social engagement vs. Instagram. As my internship comes to a close, I haven’t mastered social engagement but I’ve definitely learned various ways to increase social engagement. I’ve really studied what the viewers like and don’t life and It’s different for each social media platform. Instagram has a business profile option and Tree Naturals Instagram page is set for a business profile. This allows me to view the analytics each week for the company. I can view where our followers are located, the age range of our followers, our top posts, how many new followers we get weekly, and the number of people we are reaching through our posts. Facebook also allows me to view how many page likes we get on a weekly basis, how many comments we received, and also our most popular posts. I’ve learned what our viewers like to see on the various platforms. When customers send us messages, I’m usually the one responding. I reach out to our followers and let them know that the Tree Naturals team is thinking about them. When customers send us pictures of how the products work in their hair, I make sure I post it to all of our social platforms. I want Tree Naturals to grow and I feel like it’s all about the social engagement. You have to reach the customers because they are the ones buying the products.  Tree Naturals is a natural hair and body product line for women, men, and children. Our followers are Instagram like to see beautiful people with beautiful hair. They also like inspirational posts, easy beauty tips, and haircare tips. With Facebook our viewers like to see funny trending videos, haircare tips, and pics of celebs. Twitter has been the most challenging with increasing social engagement. I’ve found that I get the most engagement on twitter when I respond to someone else’s post. Of course I get likes when I post on twitter, but I want retweets and responses. So that has been something that I haven’t quite mastered, but I’ve definitely received some engagement. With Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, I’ve learned what gets the most attention from the followers and with guidance from the CEO I’ve been able to incorporate the content that she wants.

 

Objective Two: Build a 6-month social media calendar

 

     Another expectation during my internship was to create a social media calendar. I was pretty excited to create a calendar because I knew this would help me plan content for the various social media platforms. I’ve used Hootsuite before which is a tool used for posting content and it also allows you to schedule the content. I knew using Hootsuite for Twitter and Facebook would be easy, but Hootsuite recently created an Instagram option that is still getting the bugs out. I also thought creating content for Instagram would be a challenge because something new is always trending. The CEO of the company wanted me to post to Facebook and Twitter, but emphasized the importance of posting to Instagram more. I’ve used tools like Pinterest to search for tips on creating a social media calendar. I’ve found various pins on the #National this and that day, which months celebrates specific awareness, and the most popular times and days to post. This has been really helpful to me because not only does it help with increasing social engagement, but also time management. By building a calendar, I’ve been able to have more time to focus on other aspects of my internship. I know in the back of my mind I’ve planned the content out to the day. I want to make the CEO of the company proud and by completing a calendar I’ve made her job and my job easier. I’m glad one of my tasks for this internship was to create a social media calendar. In the field I’m going into, a social media calendar is a big part of the job. Many companies want to know that you have experience with Hootsuite and posting their content. I’ve been able to learn more about Hootsuite, and also better time management skills.

   Objective Three: Create Memorable Newsletters

    Before starting my internship, I had never heard of MailChimp. MailChimp is a tool used for creating newsletters and keeping track of email analytics. I have become quite familiar with using MailChimp and I think it’s wonderful for businesses. When a person subscribes to our email, they are automatically added to our MailChimp database.  I’ve created and sent out over 10 newsletters since interning with Tree Naturals. With MailChimp I’m able to create campaigns, design templates, upload pictures, and track the email analytics. Once I send out a campaign, I’m also able to view how many subscribes we currently have, how many people opened the campaign, and also how many clicks were made to the website from the email. I can also view who has unsubscribed from our newsletters and why they chose to do so.  It’s really amazing to be able to track all of that information.  If I needed help or didn’t understand anything about MailChimp the CEO of the company was always there for me. When it came to designing various templates for campaigns, I would just keep navigating through the website until I found the right thing. Ms. Sayles who is the CEO of Tree Naturals always gave me a spreadsheet of what she wanted on the newsletter. I had free reign over the design of the newsletter but I always sent a test email for her approval. I really enjoyed being to create newsletters and designing them and I know that’s something that will help me in my future career.

 

Objective Four: Enhance Writing Skills

   

   I really wanted to enhance my writing skills during my internship with Tree Naturals. Sometimes I found myself stuck making sure what I wrote was correct, whether it was in a newsletter or a caption. If I was ever in doubt about something I wrote I would usually text or email Ms. Sayles to get a final say. It’s a lot of pressure making sure what you say in your newsletter or caption actually makes sense and stands out. I also battled with what I actually wanted to say more so in the captions versus the newsletters. In our society today, many people don’t like to read a lot, so I knew I needed content that would grab the viewers’ attention. I wanted to make sure my writing skills were great and also that my creativity was flowing. Writing newsletters and creating content has really helped enhance my writing skills. I’m able to practice and gain experience that I know I will use in my future. The CEO of Tree Naturals has been very impressed with my overall contribution to her company. She’s become like a mentor to me and I know she will be there if I ever need help with my writing skills or anything else. The feedback I receive from her is positive and I’m always able to take what she says and apply it to life and my internship. The CEO of Tree Naturals actually offered me a job because she said my work was impressive and she doesn’t want to lose me. That let me know that everything I worked so hard on has paid off. I’ve been able to increase social engagement, create memorable newsletters, build a 6-month social media calendar, and enhance my writing skills.