Hi everyone, I’m Jennifer Acevedo, a senior majoring in marketing and I am ready to give you a look at a day in my life as a student marketing ambassador for the Department of Marketing here at DePaul. I joined the ambassador team my junior year and it has been an amazing and rewarding experience. The Department of Marketing is found at the Driehaus College of Business, and the department serves as a resource for students that are majoring in marketing. There are a total of six student marketing ambassadors, and we all have different positions and duties. I am in charge of the events that the department hosts, which can range from networking events, skill building workshops, and fun social events for students and marketing professors.

My day-to-day is a little different from someone in a typical internship with set hours. Part of the reason that I love this position with the department is due to the flexibility that we are given to work on projects on our own time the majority of the time.  However, we do have a weekly one-hour meeting with the rest of the ambassador team and with our supervisor Jessica Sanborn. We also have deadlines to meet, therefore being in this position teaches you time management skills. Typically, the time commitment to the ambassador team is anywhere between 5 to 10 hours a week. This time commitment fluctuates depending on how many upcoming events I have to prepare materials for and attend, and what week in the quarter we are at. For example, during the beginning of the quarter I am very busy helping my supervisor come up with last minute details for events that are scheduled and designing flyers on Canva for all the upcoming events which will be posted on social media channels.

For the fall quarter, our weekly meetings take place every Wednesday at 5pm. We have the option of joining in-person or through Zoom. However, for the most part all of the ambassadors attend the meetings in-person, myself included. During the meeting we run down our agenda which is neatly organized into the different ambassador positions to make sure we all get a chance to share our weekly progress and provide any updates to Jessica on the projects we were working on for that week. I enjoy our weekly meetings because they are a time for creative ideas to flow and if we are ever stuck on something, we can count on our team members to give us feedback and offer suggestions.

After our weekly meetings we have a good understanding of what tasks and projects we will be working on for the week. Typically, the day following our meeting, Jessica will send us a follow up email regarding our tasks for the week in more detail. I like to start on my tasks right away on Thursdays and if possible complete them by Friday. That way I can send my supervisor an email with either a draft of the event flyers I was assigned, or with an update on where I am on my project for the week. Communication is very important in this role, and it is something I have gotten much better at. I try to communicate with my supervisor as much as possible, ask questions when I need to, and communicate with my team members, especially if I am collaborating on a project with them. Sometimes, I will be assigned tasks with a quick turnaround, therefore I like to get started on my tasks early to leave time in case any last minute project comes up.

Although I do spend a lot of time on Canva designing flyers (which by the way my teammates and supervisor say I am really good at!) I also get the opportunity to work on projects that extend past my job description. For example, I have been working on my writing and storytelling skills by writing blogs on the LinkedIn of the Department of Marketing. These blogs are recaps of events that have already occurred. These recaps summarize either topics, main ideas, or tips that were talked about during an event, especially an event where we have a guest speaker or if it is a skill building workshop.

Working as a student marketing ambassador has been a highly rewarding experience. I get to be the face of the department which means that I am able to connect with other marketing students and help connect them with all the valuable resources that the department offers. The ultimate goal for any of the events that the department hosts is for students to gain something valuable, whether that is a career skill, build their network, or reach out to the department to get their resume reviewed, or reach out to apply for an internship or job that the department posted.

During my first year of being a marketing ambassador, I did everything remotely and virtually, including events. That is because my first year of being an ambassador was when COVID-19 was in full force. Nevertheless, being remote did not take away learning opportunities for me in this role. Instead, I constantly made a bigger effort to brainstorm events that could be fun and informative for students even while being virtual. I constantly reached out to my supervisor and pitched ideas for engagement with students and made an effort to be involved in as many projects as possible.

Now that I am in my second year of being an ambassador, I can say that I have learned so many valuable skills. These skills range from event planning, writing and storytelling, communication, project management, design skills, and most importantly learning what it means to build a network. I have met so many amazing students and faculty that are always willing to mentor you and have your back as you navigate your career. However, one of the things I value the most from this role is that my supervisor, Jessica Sanborn, has become a mentor to me. She is always willing to give me advice, helps me navigate my career path, and is always there to support me, connect me with resources, and to challenge me so I can grow professionally.

My name is Bianca Diaz, and I have had the incredible opportunity to intern at Shedd Aquarium this summer! I am currently the digital marketing intern, working specifically with the marketing team at Shedd, but still collaborating and meeting with all members within the organization. Shedd Aquarium is a not-for-profit, with a mission to “spark compassion, curiosity, and conservation for the aquatic animal world”. Many see Shedd as a Chicago landmark due to its popularity and prominent location on the southern end of Lake Shore Drive. A walk around the aquarium will take you into a world of wonder and awe, as it is the home to over 30,000 animals!

During my workdays at Shedd, I am always on the move and socializing with others. Get a grasp of what I mean by walking through a typical day in the office!

I arrive at 9 a.m. and settle into my desk. After my arrival, I tend to group up with a few other marketing interns and head down to Caribbean Reef to grab content of all kinds of species for Shedd’s social channels. We walk around for about an hour, and then head back up to the office.

At about 10 a.m., I begin to join in on meetings relevant to the project I am currently working on. For example, a substantial part of my internship is assisting in revamping the e-commerce shop on the site. I meet, collaborate, and brainstorm with external and internal partners to bring the project to life. After an hour of meetings, I use the rest of my morning to review, extract, and analyze data from Google Analytics to determine what products and collections should be showcased in the new shop, and in what pages/categories. If I have time left, I hop onto a software Shedd uses to review requests for website changes from teams all around the organization. To keep everything up to date for the public, this helps keep track of certain pages, events, and programs on the Shedd site.

Nearing 12 p.m., the other interns and I head down to the terrace for lunch. We especially enjoy this part of our day, as we get to socialize about our current projects and teach each other more about the organization. The best part is getting to chat all while overlooking an amazing view of the city!

After lunch, the interns and I head back inside to take a seat in the Oceanarium, as we try our best to attend the aquatic presentations. The reason being, as marketers, it is important to learn more about the organization by attending experiences, such as presentations and events, in order to strategize what is working vs. what is not for target audiences. While the guests surrounding us are engaged in the amazing experience of aquatic animals engaging with our animal caretakers, we are taking notes on what can be improved from a marketing standpoint. For example, how can we better promote our newsletter during this show?

Around 2 p.m., I sit at my desk and finish up tasks that I began in the morning. During this time, I chat with my supervisor over Microsoft Teams about my projects, creating a game plan for the next day. Although I have my own responsibilities, I love learning about all projects going on at Shedd, so I stay in close touch with the marketing coordinator and join in on a meeting with her and an external partner about paid search! Overlooking marketing topics that I have learned about in my courses at DePaul come to life at a respected organization has been super valuable to me.

Towards 5:00 p.m., I begin to head out. I pass by many guests currently attending after the re-opening due to Covid-19. While Shedd has a capacity limit to ensure the safety of our guests and staff, it continues to strategically draw the public’s awareness and welcome them to visit. It is awesome seeing attendees excited and inspired through being able to look nature in the eye after spending such a long time indoors.

I am thrilled to see what opportunities I have yet to fulfill during my time at Shedd, and grateful for the knowledge I have gained thus far.

6:30 am… the coffee pot goes off, my blinds open, and that signals it is time for another day at the (home) office. Prior to Covid-19, my mornings would have been a bit different, including a Starbucks stop for coffee and breakfast on my walk to CDW’s Chicago office on Adams Street in the Loop. However, until September 2021, my mornings are spent all within the walls of my 900 sq ft apartment.

CDW is a Fortune 200 company that employs more than 10,000 coworkers throughout its 28 different locations. I work for the Chicago corporate office. CDW is known for having great office space culture. Pre-Covid times, CDW always has in person events, meetings, and gatherings to get coworkers united and together. With Covid-19, many events have been shifted online to keep company morale present and CDW as a united force.

Each day at CDW starts the same for me. I am logged into my computer by 7:30 am, sifting through any emails that came in while I was away, checking in with my coworkers and manager via Microsoft Teams, and checking my calendar for the current day’s meetings. Once all my administrative work is set up, I dive into new and on-going projects.

CDW’s sales internship program is 10 weeks long. I started on June 1^st, 2021. Since my first day, I have been given the opportunity to work on solo projects, group projects, shadow account managers, interview my team about their recent deals, meet with managers throughout the company, practice cold calling customers, and learn extensive information about the IT industry and CDW as a company.

The first four days of my internship consisted solely of sales training. Within those four days, I was educated about CDW, what it takes to be a great sales person, and what the most important first steps are in becoming an account manager at CDW. The sales training I received helped me feel confident as an intern. Prior to this internship, I had no past experience working in sales, especially inside sales. Throughout my first eight weeks at CDW, it is clear that this company heavily invests in their coworkers to make sure that each person is set up for success.

After training concluded, I jumped right into projects with my team. My favorite solo project, to date, has been interviewing account managers on my team about recent deals they have done. I find this to be a great way to meet my coworkers and learn about what and how CDW sells within the IT industry. Currently, I am working on a group project about personal branding as part of CDW’s community service day, which is July 23^rd, 2021. I have also enjoyed and taken benefit from practicing cold calling and shadowing cold calls within my team. Each call I practice and hear provides me the opportunity to improve my technique and skill set.

Throughout my time at CDW, I am learning about the IT industry and sales; however, I am also uncovering more each day about what I want to do when I graduate and how I plan to execute that. This internship has taught me that, if given the opportunity, I would love to become a CDW account manager. This internship elevated my level of excitement for the sales industry, especially the IT sales industry. I always knew that post-graduation I wanted to enter the sales industry. Being a CDW sales intern sealed the deal for me due to the great atmosphere, training, and daily work tasks that I experience. CDW excites me to wake up and go to work each day!

Hi everyone! My name is Valentina Martin, and welcome to a day in my life as a Services Sales intern! I am currently interning for Dell Technologies, a multinational technology company headquartered in Round Rock, Texas, known in the technology industry mainly for its computers and company culture. However, it also offers solutions and services, and the awareness of these two has been increasing over the years. As I said, I am a Services Sales intern, and learning about the different services that Dell offers has indeed been a fantastic experience.

My internship is fully remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it has still been extremely fun and rewarding. As a full-time employee, I start my day at 9am by logging into my email account and ensuring all my tasks are up to date, double-checking the weekly schedule I am given, and sending emails to people I want to have a 1×1 with. At 9:30am, I have a daily “morning meeting” with my team of twelve interns, where our Lead Intern, Ryan, makes sure we have all of our zoom links for the day ready to go and goes over any announcements he may have for us.

The twelve of us have the task of learning about a particular service each week by attending zoom meetings, taking online courses, and having mentoring sessions with Services Sales Representatives. The following week, we must pitch the service we learned about the previous week to a group of managers. Pitches are done in teams, which are usually given to us on Mondays in our “morning meeting” with Ryan and are always different as they want us to learn how to work with other people.

Following the morning meeting, I usually meet with my pitch group of the week for at least an hour to work on our presentation and scripts. Some weeks I may have to pitch on Thursdays, and other weeks on Fridays; we are randomly chosen for a specific day. Pitches are usually eight minutes long and end with a broken deal presented by the managers. Once the managers have finished explaining the scenario, my group and I must quickly ask questions to develop the best solution (service) for the “client.”

After meeting with my pitch group to plan our presentation, I usually attend zoom meetings. Different executives may be speaking or employees that are experts about the service we must learn about. Once those meetings are over, I spend my time researching and learning about the different services on my own by taking some online courses provided to us or asking my mentors for helpful information.

Time flies by when attending many zoom meetings, but there is always time for a bit of fun and some rest! My supervisor truly cares about all of us, so she includes breaks in our schedule and fun activities such as what we call “Fun Fridays.” Every Friday, we choose a theme and play games related to it for about an hour – supervisor and managers included! It truly helps us connect personally and stay mentally stable, as working remotely can be extremely tiring at times.

Besides the pitches and trainings, I have also been working on my final project, which consists of creating an e-portfolio, shadowing two inside sales representatives to learn about best practices and techniques when performing a customer call, and performing customer calls myself. I have learned how to manage my time as I must find time throughout the week to focus on these three parts of the project. Additionally, I try to make time for any 1x1s I want to have with people I genuinely want to meet in the company. It is essential to build a strong network, especially in companies as extensive and successful as Dell Technologies. Lastly, I am part of two Employee Resource Groups (ERG): Latino Connection and Mosaic. I have mentors from both ERGs that I also must make time for as they have been extremely kind and helpful. I try to do all of these tasks between 9am and 6pm as I cannot work overtime.

Never in a million years would I have imagined myself working for such a big company. To be honest, I didn’t really think Dell Technologies was THIS big when I got the job. I have quickly learned how big it really is and how there is so much room for opportunity. There is a lot to learn, so I have learned to work in a fast-paced environment. As my supervisor says, “working for Dell is like drinking from a firehose.” One must always be ready to actively listen and learn from all the fantastic people who work in the company.

This Summer internship has been by far the most rewarding experience of my life. I have grown personally and professionally. Most importantly, I have gotten out of my comfort zone as I never really considered sales. I accepted the job because I needed the experience and knew Dell was a good company. However, now that I have worked at Dell Technologies for ten weeks, I can say that I enjoy sales, and now I have a sales background.

I am genuinely grateful to Dell Technologies for giving me an opportunity when nobody else did and for believing in me. I have met incredible people throughout the Summer that I will remember forever. Additionally, I now have more knowledge about the technology industry. Lastly, not only have I learned about this fantastic company, but also about myself and skills I did not think I had. I am so excited to see what the last two weeks of my internship look like, but I am sad it is almost over. I will never forget this experience and the life-long friends I made this Summer.

Thank you, Dell Technologies!

My Digital Marketing Internship
Coffee machines, department lunches, games at the start of weekly recap meetings– working in an office can be a ton of fun. Can’t you just hear my excitement? While all these little facets of working in an office can be entertaining, what I really find exhilarating is what happens in between all the quick snack breaks and friendly meetings; work

As a digital marketing intern at Americaneagle.com, a fast-growing digital agency (not the clothing store), work looks like hundreds of pages of missing meta descriptions and titles, excel spreadsheets with countless internal and external links that need to be changed, and CMS platforms just begging for updated content. Does it sound like a lot of work? It is. But no matter how tedious the task, I know what I am doing is important. I and 600+ other employees at Americaneagle.com are passionate about making sure a client’s company can not only be seen by their target market, but be engaging enough to get them to learn more about the company, fill out email subscription forms, or simply buy something. Our job is to make sure that a client’s money is well spent by driving statistically relevant traffic and conversions to their different webpages.

How do you make sure a website has good visibility and engagement you ask? Well, the digital marketing team at Americaneagle.com utilizes a combination of digital marketing strategies based on the needs of a client. We work with companies of all different sizes and industries so what works for one might not be what works for another. The department consists of marketers capable of problem solving in search engine optimization, pay per click advertisement, email marketing, social media marketing, and content writing. While there are some who specialize in one area, most of the team can be dangerous in more than one field.

What I’ve Learned
I’ve come to learn at my internship that each one of these fields within digital marketing is important to building a company’s digital presence. Without search engine optimization, user experience design, social media marketing, email marketing, and content writing, the websites we visit would look and feel bland, boring, and confusing; and in a time where there is nothing that can’t be learned or bought online, bland, boring, and confusing webpages are unattractive and unacceptable.

To make sure websites are easy to find and use, I’ve had to learn both the technical and content sides of digital marketing. Americaneagle.com has made it very easy to do this as there is an endless number of projects to work on, a collection of blog posts and articles sharing the best practices for all areas within the digital marketing industry, and responsive senior team members always ready to help tackle a problem. The combination of hands-on contributions to projects and helpful resources provided by Americaneagle.com has built exponentially upon my foundational digital marketing knowledge gained through DePaul course work.

An Irreplaceable Internship Experience
I believe that my opportunity to join the digital marketing team at Americaneagle.com has grown my interest in digital marketing as well as the skillset needed to be successful within the industry. Along with irreplaceable learning experiences, I’ve also been exposed to wonderful people at Americaneagle.com who are passionate about the work they do and are always ready to help somebody green to the industry learn from and contribute to a variety of challenging and fulfilling projects.

Hi everyone! Welcome to my life as a digital marketing intern for V5. I’m often asked what working as a V5 employee is like and now you get to read a bit into how that goes. V5 is a marketing and promotion company based out of Chicago specializing in event marketing, branding, and concerts. This large team of experts market mainly in the entertainment or nightlife industry. They market to thousands of people per day in order to invite them out to join their Latin-based events. Any top-rated Latin night in Chicago that you’ve ever heard of in the past 20 years, V5 nights are the way to go. The music that they play ranges from reggaeton, bachata, hip-hop, top 40’s and an EDM-reggaeton mix. If you haven’t checked out their events, you should give them a shot! The following is just a bit of what I would accomplish to help get the party started!

8am – 10am
I usually arrive at the office between 8 and 9am, depending on when my mom needs to get to work (since she’s my ride). I open my laptop and get to work. This week we have a major concert to host, Mariah Angeliq, at Mansion Nightclub. She’s a reggaeton artist and our fans love her! The upcoming week to her concert we push promotions as much as possible so that fans know that the event is happening and to come to our event. These first two hours I would work on opening emails, replying to them and making sure to prioritize all my tasks for the day. If there are not as many emails, I work on prioritizing a list for myself and making sure to send out messages to my team to ask for any tasks that may need to get added to my running list.

10am-12pm
From 10am to 11am and every hour on the hour, I would check Numa (our customer service outreach center) for any incoming messages and reply to them. This would be one of my daily tasks. Since I would already be on Numa, I would also send out birthday confirmation texts and when they responded, I would input them into our tracking section on google sheets. I would update the sheet by confirming or cancelling each reservation. This google sheet is used at the venues themselves when the bottle hosts, servers, and managers need to check how many reservations have been booked for the night. This task would take up to an hour or two of my time depending on how many reservations there were for the day and how many questions were asked throughout the night.

12pm-2pm
After confirmation texts have been sent out and guests have been tended to, I move on to some tedious but necessary work behind the scenes. During this time, I would go over the website, make sure all 15 events have been added to the site and all of them have the correct info on each flyer, landing page, and that every single link would work with all the correct information on them as well. This task would often take one to two hours. In addition to the main V5 page, I would check that the third-party service, Solo, has all the correct information along with the right links for each event that would be attached. This is one of the most important tasks I have because our source of information needs to be 100% accurate so that we have no unhappy customers. This is also important so that any V5 employee relaying information that they received from a manager correlate to that of the V5 website. It is very important that our “Google” so to speak is as accurate as any information we relay to our customers in the field.

2pm-3pm
Lunch, my favorite hour!

3pm-4pm
Back to work it is! From 3pm to 4pm I would focus on creating and sending out a newsletter through Mailchimp, a third-party service. Newsletters often take me 40 minutes to an hour, depending on if I would reuse a template, create my own, or have all the correct flyers for each event added to the email. In addition to creating the email itself, I would come up with catchy email headings.  The word FREE or the name of an artist, i.e., Mariah Angeliq, would always catch the audience’s attention. I know this because of the reports I would see on any of the newsletter headings in the past. Any title that had those headings would have the largest engagement compared to any regular heading that I would put.

4pm-5:30/6pm
Since I’m already in the groove of creating email headings, I would take this next hour to create a mass text to let our audience know about our weekly events. I often would get creative throughout the week and keep a notes page of catchy titles or sayings that have become famous and incorporate those sayings into these texts. Considering that I would have these on hand, it would only take me about 15-30 minutes to complete this task. The last 30 minutes to an hour I would make sure I had all the major priorities checked off my original list. I then would try and accomplish as much as possible before I leave for the day. Something that I would be able to finish in this time would be sending out a story post promoting this concert and our weekly events. Taking flyers, we already had, this task would generally take me about 10 to 20 minutes to add a song from our third-party app, Storybeat, and make the post look attractive and inviting. Every post would need to at least have the event title and above all else a link to the event itself. This would provide quicker and easier access to the event. I then would start to track how many tickets have been sold for the Mariah concert and any of our major events and boost events that have low ticket sales. Considering we have so many events, this would take me about an hour to do. I would start this task and most likely will have it rolled over into the next day. I would still have some tasks left under my belt, but this will have to wait till the next day.

Although we have had COVID-19 struggles in the world, most of us would not wear masks at the office unless we felt the need to. We would all have a day at the office like it was as normal as ever, while it felt as if the world was on fire outside. What would affect us more was the struggle of not filling up our venues. Throughout the pandemic, it forced V5 to limit how many guests were allowed at each venue. At the venues themselves, we would all wear masks, sanitize 24/7, and have plexiglass up every which way.

My time at V5 has given me a lot of real-world experience and I have really enjoyed working there. I received a taste of what it’s like mixing event planning and marketing. I knew that a lot of work was needed to get put into both, but I did not realize it was as much as I had seen. You can’t just plop a crowd of people in a bar and say have a party. You need to schedule DJs, write up a contract for artists, book flights, hotels, schedule staff, and much, much more. Working with all these amazing people has gotten me even more excited to join the marketing field! In addition to learning the back end of event marketing, I also learned the value of networking and connections. Many people get places because they “know people” and you can’t get to that place if you don’t network. No matter what industry you’re in, network, network, network! Well, thanks for joining me as a digital marketing intern and I hope you gained a mental image of what it takes to work at V5! Have a great day!

Hi everyone! My name is Crystal Barron  I am a social media and digital marketing intern at Bon Aprontit. I’m excited to walk you through a day in my life as an intern!

Bon Aprontit is a small female-owned business founded in Chicago that sells a luxury collection of hand-beaded dress-like aprons. Their company mission is to increase confidence in women and make them feel more beautiful in the kitchen through their aprons while they cook, bake and host guests. Due to the size of the business, I have the wonderful opportunity of working closely with the founder of the company. I have learned directly from her about what it takes to successfully operate and manage an e-commerce business.

As a social media and digital marketing intern, I have various tasks and responsibilities that fall under several digital marketing specializations such as social media and content creation. One of my main duties is managing Bon Aprontit’s social media accounts, which are Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook. I utilize social media management platforms like Hootsuite and Later to schedule and publish social media posts. My work day usually starts by logging into each social media channel and monitoring important engagement key performance indicators from our in-feed and stories posts such as likes, comments, and clicks. After that, I analyze and interpret these metrics to determine the type of content that performs the best on certain social platforms and the content that is the most and least engaging to Bon Aprontit’s follower base. From the social media side of my role, I have learned how to execute brand storytelling through content and how to properly engage with followers using a brand voice.

Due to the pandemic, the work environment of my internship is fully remote and I accomplish all of my tasks virtually. One of the most important takeaways I have learned from working in a virtual remote internship is that communication is key in order to be successful. Every Tuesday, I have video call meetings with my supervisor, which are dedicated to creating a strong social media and content strategy and for brainstorming fun and entertaining ideas for Bon Aprontit’s blog and social media. These meetings have been one of my favorite parts of my internship at Bon Aprontit because I have a lot of fun collaborating with my supervisor and working off our ideas to curate new and engaging digital marketing campaigns and initiatives.

Overall, I have loved being a social media and digital marketing intern at Bon Aprontit. My internship has been a very rewarding and beneficial experience. I have expanded my knowledge in digital marketing and developed a diverse digital marketing skill set. I am looking forward to applying the knowledge and skills I have gained in my future digital marketing career.

FashionBar Chicago is a fashion business consulting agency that brands and designers are able to hire to provide them marketing services as well as fashion design services from our in-house designer. Our company consists of about 10 people (employees and interns), some who work remotely and some who come to the office (like me!). This may be due to COVID-19 where having less people in the office, lessens the chances that anyone gets sick. I’m currently working with the company as a Fashion Marketing Intern where I help my supervisor with both marketing and engagement. On the marketing side of things, I help the company do market research and analysis which helps our clients build their brand profiles as well as determining target markets, market trends, pricing, expanding product lines, etc. On the engagement side of things, I help keep the company in touch with the people they’ve worked with. This entails me to email designers, brands, models, photographers/videographers, hair and makeup people, and other volunteers that work with us during Chicago Fashion Week, which we host!

12:00-1:00 PM – I come into the office and have a small team meeting with my supervisor and the rest of the team about what we need to get done for the day. This helps us execute work plans more efficiently. My first task of the day usually is just getting back to anyone who may have emailed me while I wasn’t in the office or finish up any work I may have not had time for the day before!

1:30 PM – My supervisor will come check on us and see if we’ve finished our initial tasks. If we have, we usually talk everything over with him and he’ll give us a new task.

This is where the fun begins!

2:00-4:00 PM – As we’re preparing for next season’s Chicago Fashion Week (October 11-17th), I was tasked to help create new information packets for designers, sponsors and vendors so they can register for the shows. I gather any new images from this past Fashion Week that we can use in the packet presentation as well as make sure the information is accurate and complete. I then make everything look aesthetically pleasing as possible so that people are drawn to register for Fashion Week. I spend most of the day doing this.

4:00-5:00 PM – This is when we usually regroup with our supervisor and he looks over any work we did for the day. At this time, we have one-on-one discussions with him about what we’ve done so he can approve it and make sure everything looks good. We also discuss what else we have to do for the week and what the plan is for us when we come in next. Then, it’s time to go home!

With COVID-19, the workday probably looks a little different than it should. Rather than having too many in-person meetings, we usually have team meetings on Zoom and the same goes for meeting with clients. Email contact and social media marketing is now used heavily by us. In regard to Fashion Week, COVID-19 has completely changed what the shows look like. First off, they’re a lot smaller. Because we have to abide by state and federal COVID guidelines, FashionBar has decreased the number of guests that can attend the shows as well as rearranging the shows in a way that each designer gets their own show in which timings don’t overlap. This way we minimize the amount of people in the building at one time.

Personally, I really enjoy working at FashionBar. I’ve met a lot of people who are so incredibly connected as well as inspiring. The people I work with are so welcoming that coming to work is fun and enjoyable. Because it’s such a small team, everyone grows very close very fast. You quickly become like family! I’ve also come out of shell quite a bit. I have less anxiety about meeting new people and am quick to introduce myself to someone new.

I’ve also learned a lot about the fashion industry and how to navigate it especially from a marketing perspective. How to effectively execute market research is probably the most important thing that anyone needs to do. Knowing how to do market research means you can determine what your brand will need to succeed. Building this brand profile is what helps attract people to you, whether that be clients or customers. But that’s not the only thing I’ve learned. I’ve also learned how important it is to keep up with your network/connections. These people are the people that guide you and help you succeed. The fashion industry is all about connections, no matter what position you work. Without a solid network, you’ll never get anywhere.

Did you know that the average American social media user spends 2.7 hours per day on social media? Obviously this statistic does not need much of an explanation, however, it is a solid reminder of the constant presence social media has in our lives. Therefore, social media is one of the most powerful tools a business can use in order to connect with their customers, provide them with information, generate brand awareness, etc. As a Social Media/Marketing Manager, I have especially seen Instagram grow from a place to share life’s most precious moments to businesses marketing their products/services through the different tools the app now has to offer. I work for Just Peachy Occasions– a small, up and coming event planning company based in the Chicagoland area- where I generate creative content in order to reach our targeted demographic to boost sales. I stay informed of the latest trends in digital marketing and emerging platforms in order to build, monitor, and optimize- campaign delivery, cost efficiencies, and performance.

My position as a Social/Media Marketing Manager is fully remote, therefore, my day-to-day activities consist of writing, editing, and managing all social media content in the comfort of my own home. Due to Covid- 19, the event coordinator has been sending me all the content since I have been unable to attend the events to capture my own pictures and videos for our accounts. The main app I manage is Instagram, so the first thing I do every morning is engage with our followers by liking and commenting on their pictures. The more active you are online, the more visible you are to your audience so it is essential for me to get at least 3 hours of scrolling in per day. Then, I study our numbers by checking our insights to see how many accounts we have reached within the past week and what the most active times are in order to get a post uploaded. Next, I upload all of the content to my editing soft wares, Canva and Splice, in order to create the graphics for the posts that day. Editing usually takes a couple hours because I have to post on both our story and actual feed, ensuring that everything flows together perfectly in our grid. I then have to curate a list of 30 hashtags that relate to our post to categorize our content and make it more discoverable. Hashtags are important because they help you reach a targeted audience, and more importantly, help your targeted audience find you. Finally, before posting I write a caption that is catchy and lures the audience in to visit our profile. After it is posted, I make sure to engage with any followers who have given us feedback through comments and direct messages. By doing so, it can drive brand awareness which can translate into algorithm recognition.

Included below is an example of content I have created for our Instagram story and highlights reel:

Although I received this internship opportunity during Covid-19, I have enjoyed working remotely for Just Peachy Occasions. The event planning industry has been negatively affected by the pandemic since we are required to follow social distancing guidelines, so work has been fairly slow. I am excited that things are now starting to open up, and I will be able to go in person to capture content during these events. I have learned about the different social media marketing strategies that have been effective for our company in particular. I have researched our targeted audience in order to curate content that lures them in to get more impressions, profile visits and website taps. One of the main things I had to learn how to read is our insights, which helps me establish our most important metrics and KPI’s. No matter what your marketing, your social media strategy should be data driven. Due to the passion I have found for social media/marketing, I have taken other businesses aside from Just Peachy Occasions and have successfully boosted their sales and leads. This has inspired me to create my own marketing agency, JASS MKT, which will hopefully be up and coming within the next year. My mission is to work with businesses on their marketing strategy and social media platforms in order to create brand awareness through content creation. Overall, social media continues to evolve in terms of marketing tools and businesses should use Instagram in particular to attract their targeted markets, since the average American social media user spends 2.7 hours a day on social media

My experience with Maci Moo Treats so far has been a wonderful learning opportunity for the field I want to work in, which is e-commerce marketing. Maci Moo Treats is a small, family-owned startup, so its been exciting to work with the owners and hear of their experience in creating this company.

I am a marketing strategy intern for Maci Moo Treats and am currently working on website optimization for macimootreats.com. This has required me to do a lot of benchmarking of other pet company websites. I have been trying to examine which logistics successful e-commerce companies commonly use, such as Chewy. These logistics I am referring to are small details on a website, but they can truly attract or retract any potential customer. For example, color schemes, pictures, text size, and even where certain site buttons are located can have a big impact on conversion rate. With this in mind, I would take note of similarities on competitor websites, such as promotional website banners at the top of a homepage. These similarities indicated a pattern in conversion success rates, given how big the company was that I was benchmarking, so I recommended them to my supervisor.

Once I have received her approval on how I want to optimize their company website, I would create a number of layout previews, each including different features. One important detail that I keep in mind while optimizing the website is the fact that Maci Moo Treats currently wants to promote their home delivery service. For this promotion, I recommended adding a website banner with an enticing headline that included, “FREE shipping” which leads to a page that further explains their home delivery service. Their current customer base’s acknowledgement of this is crucial since this is the only way they have been able to attain revenue since the start of the pandemic.

Prior to the pandemic, they would promote themselves at farmer’s markets, but that has not happened for over a year. Since Maci Moo Treats is only composed of two owners, they have had a hard time figuring out how to promote themselves solely through e-commerce. So, my position is preparing me to attract and maintain customers in a way that drives in more revenue without the physical promotion of the company at a farmer’s market.

Aside from adding a new page for their home delivery promotion, I have also suggested adding an ‘About Us’ page, that includes pictures of my supervisor, her sister (the other owner), and their dog Maci, the company’s namesake. This page would include all necessary information and fun facts of the company. I will eventually add onto this page by disclosing ingredients in our dog and cat treats, which will further ensure how organic and healthy the products are for pets. Without disclosing this sort of important information, I have found pet owners may find Maci Moo Treats to be a dealbreaker when it comes to buying treats.

I also work with another intern who is in charge of setting up and monitoring the website analytics. During our weekly Zoom meetings, she presents her ideas and recent findings after I do. Our supervisor has stayed very open-minded and has allowed us to express ourselves in a way that makes me confident for future positions that require presentation.

As of our most recent meeting, my supervisor has approved my most-preferred website layout for the company. However, I asked if she was going to change the pictures of the products that are sold since they look like they were taken on a bed. Fortunately, she has mentioned that she knows a photographer that will take more appealing photos of the products, so I am currently waiting on those before I publish the new and improved website layout.

From what I have learned so far, I understand the difficulty of maintaining a business, even a small local one like Maci Moo Treats. I also realize the significance of keeping a target persona in mind with every action you consider. These are some specific questions I remember when creating content: How will the customer view this? Could this possibly be misinterpreted by the customer? Will this intrigue the customer to read more into this or convert?

After this internship has concluded, I plan to keep in touch with my supervisor so I can hear customer feedback on the features I have added to their website. I have enjoyed getting to know my supervisor and appreciate her honest critique of my ideas.