Internship: CultureCritic

I have chosen to do a marketing placement as it would open up my career options in the future as most jobs include marketing, advertisement or some kind of promotion. I have also had some previous experience as a fashion design assistant and want to be able to open up as many doors and options for my future as I can. I chose Culture Shock Media as the website CultureCritc reviews across the arts and there might be a chance for me to be able to do some research for some of the arts that they are promoting. I would also like to enhance my skills on website building and to have the ability to confidently approach and talk to clients and various people in the industry as this is something I find quite nervous and need to improve. I have only previously worked in retail so I know I can work to targets and as part of a team and I would quite like to experience an office atmosphere. There are many paths a career can lead to when going into Marketing and I want to explore and experience some of these roles, I am also quite keen to be able to give my team members some of my ideas and ideas on how to improve. Also as a lot of businesses are online now I would like to gain some experience of an online internship.

From this placement I would gain more research skills, communication skills, the ability to work individually and as a team, Mac ICT skills, website building and editing skills, organisational skills and decision making skills

The Interview Process:

My interview took place at the Culture Shock Media office in Vauxhall, London with a guy called Oli Dillon. He asked me some questions including how I found my course at university and what I could bring to their team. I explained that I thought I could bring a fresh approach to research to their team and have worked within research over social networking sites a lot in my projects which could help them get more viewers on their web page. We also discussed what my roles would be within the internship and how I might cope with some of the tasks given. I think my main advantage was that I was confident and knew what I was talking about. I have been building web pages and blogging for a while now so have the skills and the ability to cope with working on their webpage. I was shown the V&A Magazine which they are also in charge of publishing and was asked if I could e-mail him some ideas on how I would improve the websites layout to gain more viewers and subscribers.

In the end I didn’t actually need to e-mail Oli back my ideas as he has accepted me for a 4 week placement starting in August.

Marketing Internship at CultureCritic

Culture Critic is a website that reviews accross the arts. It offers a weekly e-newsletter of all the latest goings on with film, music, books, theatre and opera and dance. It also has offers and competitions that its viewers can enter to win loads of prizes. It also offers viewers a chance to add their reviews and comments about the information / reviews they put up.

The role of a marketing internship for CultureCritic includes various tasks, the main task being to increase the number of viewers to the website and the mailing list.

This job seeks an individual whose skills consist of having the confidence to talk to and conduct e-mails to contacts which will then lead on to having a relationship with these contacts in the future. Basic ICT skills are needed to enable uploads to the Culturecritic website and to develop spread sheets and databases containing information for other staff to access and use when needed.

Beginners Tasks (Week 1)

- To meet all team members (colleagues).
- To familarise themselves with the office surroundings (safety ext).
- To familiarise themselves with the Mac computer system that is used within the office and how to access various files and information that could be used in the future.
- To familariese themselves with the CultureCritic website and ask any questions.
- To access e-mail and learn who certain e-mails are forwarded to. (i.e. promotional e-mail for a show would be sent to the editorial staff).
- To access user names and passwords to learn about the social networking sites Twitter and Facebook so that they can be used to update members and followers information about the website, new Critometer results (a % scoring system that is calculated through reviews of the press), new competitions, blogs from the website and when the e-newsletter is released.
All the new Twitter followers should receive a message asap stating:

Thank you for following CultureCritic. If you haven’t already please sign up for our free weekly arts bulletin http://tinyurl.com/lqh6pb

- To learn how to use the TinyURL tool on Firefox for use on Twitter.
- To think of new ideas to promote the CultureCritic name and how to get more friends and followers on the social networking pages. This could maybe include adding a fan page, sending out group messages or updating the page.
- Updating the Facebook page so it includes more images and discussions.

- To create a signature for sending e-mails.
- To tidy up office.
- To forward on e-mails from promoters for staff to go and see film previews or to receive other demos / previews / catalogues through the post.
- To access the databases with contact information and to phone or e-mail contacts to see if they would be interested in working with CultureCritic on Contra Deals / PS Swaps or competitions on the website. Also if there are blanks within contacts information the intern should try to fill them and get personal and direct contact information. This information could be tidied up and stored in a new database if necessary but must be saved under the server so other staff can access it. When using the telephone to contact a company, the intern must state that their name, that they work for the website CultureCritic and that they would either like to talk to somebody in the marketing department or the person that would be the best help. They will then ask for a direct e-mail which will later be grouped with other contacts e-mails to ask about working with CultureCritic.

Summery:

A Contra Deal / PS Swap is when two companies advertise each other over their websites with banners, buttons and text which may include images (animated or still) with a link to the webpage / e-newsletter. The Contra Deal is popular as it is a free swap rather then having to pay for advertising, so both companies are helping each other out. The Deal will be negotiated on advertisement space and the time period.

An e-newsletter is an e-mail sent to subscribers of the weekly news from the website. It appears like a webpage with information about the previous week and the week commencing with direct links straight to specific pages on the website. This would normally include details of what’s new to be reviewed, the best of the web blog, news within the arts, competitions and advertisement. This provides more hits for the webpage which is currently getting around 10,000 hits a month and has 10,000 subscribers. The most popular pages on the websites currently are the competitions page and the reviews for books, music and films.

Review:

The intern will have a meeting at the end of the week to discuss how they are finding the tasks and if they have any other questions about what they are doing. They will also be told the advantages they are making for the team and if they have anything they need to work on.

This week the intern has show initiative to work independently and as part of a team, there has been a lot of calls made and e-mails sent out to clients / contacts and there are some competitions and Contra’s already starting to be set up. I think that the only improvement to be made is confidence when calling a contact however so far it has been a complete success. The intern is confident that the tasks will be fulfilled with no problems in the future and has already come up with new ways to advertise and promote the website. The intern has not only got more followers and members to our social networking page, but had made a fan page so updates can be sent directly to consumers about the page. The intern has also tidied up the database lists and increased contacts.