My role as the VP of Marketing for the DAB has expanded considerably in the wake of this global pandemic. In a non-digital quarter, the DePaul Activities Board will host between 20 and 30 events on campus. My role required me to promote these events through social media, email blasts, and direct marketing. I managed a discretionary budget for printed and promotional items, and I managed a team of designers to create them. Our organization is present at involvement fairs and orientations and is known for our large-scale events and concerts. We have around 25 members, but we serve the entire DePaul community. When the university went completely digital DAB’s plans changed, and so did my job. Our team of graphic artists was reduced, several members of leadership left, our calendar became limited, and everything had to go digital. I began to fill holes where I could. I became the host and sole planner of a weekly trivia series; I instigated multiple social media campaigns and contests; I completed a portion of our graphic design needs.

In this internship, I have learned how to adapt. Every week provides a new challenge that we are looking to overcome. Right now, we are beginning the organizational planning process for the coming school year. All signs are indicating that any programming we do in the future will have to be severely limited. Our challenge is figuring out how the events can adapt to either be conscious of social distancing or take place online. I have also learned that regardless of the virus, the realm of digital marketing is shifting. The consumer audience is changing, and with that the platforms for marketing are changing with them. I have learned that managing a TikTok page and a Spotify account can be as effective as any email list. In the world of marketing, it is important to recognize these shifts and build a toolkit to execute conscious change.

Being a marketing intern for a team out of Baird & Warner has been an awesome experience. I started before the quarantine and adapting to that has been challenging although very educating. A lot of work and material and just life in general is trending to being as digital and virtual as possible. Majoring in digital marketing made that transition easier due to the trend of things moving digitally before the virus. As a marketing intern, there are several tasks that I am in charge of. There are the traditional marketing aspects such as ordering brochures, flyers, postcards, open house, and for sale signs. With digital marketing I run social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Also, the website, smart CRM, Zillow, other listing sites and the monthly newsletter.

The thing with working in real estate is that many days are very different. For example, this week I have to prepare a Digital Open House. This is something fairly new to the Real Estate world and is in response to COVID-19. There are several steps that go into creating the event and then getting people to actually attend. The way these events are being hosted is through facebook and creating an events page. You will set the page up with all the necessary information such as what, when, and where. Once the facebook event is set up, there are several ways to spread the message. First, is going into the listing service and set an open house on the specific property. Once this is done, you can promote on social media. We have attached graphics to the event and shared it on all social media as organic posts, on stories and as a boosted ad. Another way we get the message out is with our newsletter. Knowing that we had this event coming up, we included it in our newsletter so people from out CRM system could RSVP. The final thing we do is send an email to all the local agents in the area asking if they have a potential buyer that would like to check this property out.

Working in real estate, it is important to remember no two days are really the same. One day can be spent getting an open house ready while the other is getting the newsletter together. This can take time to incorporate the links necessary for the open house or other digital tools. For example, over quarantine one thing we had to do was convert all of our physical brochures to digital versions so we could still share with clients and potential buys. While another day can be used to create graphics for social media including; just sold, open houses, testimonials, tips and other content. The content is to promote the agent and the listings.