Benefits of Internships

At JEMSS we recognised the benefits of internships as a part of the overall learning process when studying. We have already shared some of these with you previously but we have some more great examples of students that completed internships and the benefits of completing these.

Internships with All Channel Communications Group, Bulgaria
all-channels
Diana Ivanova, Public Relations and Advertising, Sofia University, St Kliment Ohridski

diana-ivanovaDiana Ivanova was a Public Relations and Advertising Student at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. Whilst studying, Diana decided to undertake a paid internship for 10 months, which consisted of her working five full days a week. The internship was within the digital marketing department at All Channels Communication Group.

Placement Overview:
My objective for attending the internship was to gain experience and enhance my knowledge of digital marketing. I wouldn’t say that the internship directly changed my results at University, but it certainly changed my point of view and improved my skill set.

Students and Company Benefits
Key tasks/projects given and completed during the internship were:

  • Creating, editing and publishing content for social media
  • Moderation of brand pages on Facebook
  • Creating content for online advertising (Facebook and Google ads)

“The team was wonderful. My colleagues were very friendly, outgoing people and great professionals. I could always count on their help and didn’t hesitate to ask for advice.”

During her internship, Diana learnt many new digital marketing skills from creating digital strategies, the importance of words in copywriting for social media and planning.

Summary
“I definitely learned a lot and I am now more confident about my skills in social media marketing. And yes, I would highly recommend it to my friends and acquaintances.”

Whilst on my internship, the similarities, and differences between theories and practices in digital marketing became much clearer to me. With regards to Digital marketing; that area is constantly changing with new trends emerging every day! Therefore, what we learn in university should be really practical.

Gergana Zhivkova Ivanova Journalism, Mass Communication and Business Administration student American University, Bulgaria

gergana Benefits of InternshipsGergana Zhivkova Ivanova joined All Channels Communication Group as an intern in their PR and Advertising department and is now sharing what she learned and the benefits she gained.

I got the chance to work across multiple departments in the company, so I could gain excellent knowledge and experience with client management and set projects. The Client Service department organises and structures the work around every project, so I worked closely with PR specialists, copywriters, graphic designers and digital specialists.

The key tasks/projects I was given and completed during the internship

  • Being part of the rebranding campaign of a company and completing multiple tasks on a daily basis.
  • Writing resumes of business meetings with clients
  • Researching key competitors, target markets, best practices for engaging with consumers
  • Daily communication with clients
  • Creation of deliverables such as presentations, researches, etc.

Personally, I have gained a lot of knowledge and confidence. Having a big amount of responsibility for many different tasks helped me develop my focus, networking, organizational skills, approach towards a task, as well as my communication skills. I was part of a talented and helpful team, which helped gain a lot of professional skills.

The main things I learned from my internship

The internship brought deeper understanding of a real professional atmosphere and helped me sharpen a lot of my skills, in terms of organization and communication. In order to comprehend a particular project, one needs to profoundly understand the subject area. Serious preparation and identification of the specific goals is necessary, as well as the identification of the required ways of achieving them. I have now got a wide network within the industry and hands-on experience with communication in a professional atmosphere, which is going to help me for my future career

I would most certainly return as I have learnt a lot and I have enjoyed the fast-paced, challenging work at the company. I would definitely recommend it to other friends and colleagues. I have actually already recommended it.

Krastina Svetozarova Bencheva, Spanish Philosphy, Sofia University

krasina Benefits of InternshipsKrastina Svetozarova Bencheva is a Spanish Philosophy student at the Sofia University. The internship took place with the All Channels Communication Group. The paid internship was for the duration of 3 months which was split into 5 days per week and a flexible number of hours.

Placement Overview
The objectives from attending the placement were:

  • Gain experience in the advertising using social media
  • Work effectively as part of a team
  • Experience the ‘office life’ in a big company
  • Work on various projects and with a variety of clients

Students and Company Benefits
The key tasks/projects given and completed during the internship were:

  • Advertising in social media,
  • Preparing posting plans for the social media,
  • Interacting with the clients
  • Writing reports
  • Preparing presentations for the clients and carrying out research

Generally, there were excellent relations with the team and plenty of opportunities to meet a lot of interesting and influential people, who really have a passion for their job and want to achieve great success like myself.

“I’m currently studying Philology, which is a completely different area, but my placement has benefitted my confidence and competence in the digital area which is great!”

I’ve learnt a lot after taking part in the All Channels Communication Group internship, I now know how to work well as part of a team as well as how to interact appropriately with clients.  My confidence has also been boosted when creating advertisements, writing posting plans and writing reports for the clients with regards to social media.

Summary
Despite there being a big difference between learning in the classroom and learning in the work place, the internship has helped me gain an understanding of the profession as well as enabling me to learn from my mistakes and become more confident in my work.

Tonia Zafirova, Public Relations student, New Bulgarian University

tonia Benefits of InternshipsTonia Zafirova joined Acella Digital in Sofia, Bulgaria, as a Marketing and Advertising intern. She is now sharing the benefits she gained from her internship and how this has made an impact on her future career.

accella-digital

My internship was focused on performance-driven marketing and advertising, where my objectives were to develop an understanding of managing customer KPIs, working in a professional team and how to work across multiple projects.

I was given the following tasks, which I completed during my internship

  • Managing advertising accounts in Google AdWords and Facebook
  • Account and budget management
  • Assist on implementing digital strategies
  • Optimisation of digital platforms
  • Creating media plans and analyse performance
  • Daily communication with clients

I was part of a highly passionate team, who loved working with all things digital, which inspired me a lot. The founder of the agency is among the first Google certified trainers on the Bulgarian market, so I got the chance to learn a lot from her as well!

My key learnings from my internship

  • Hands-on experience with digital campaigns
  • Client management
  • Excellent team working skills

The internship has taught me to put theory into practice, which is beneficial for finishing my degree, as I now have an excellent understanding of how to implement digital strategies. For this reason, it has been well worth my time and I would recommend it to other enthusiasts.

Digital marketing is the marketing of the future and I now know what to do enable to succeed within this industry.

University of Sheffield International Faculty, CITY College

sheffield


Alex Petmezas, Digital Marketing and Social Media (Masters), University of Sheffield international Faculty, CITY College

alex-petmezas Benefits of InternshipsCITY College wanted to develop its website in the Digital Marketing field
The University of Sheffield International Faculty, CITY College is an international faculty from Sheffield based in Thessaloniki, Greece. Alex’s internship occurred in CITY College for 6 months (5 days per week, 4-5 hours a day). His internship was not paid.

Alex learned fundamental tasks related to marketing in order to improve the institution’s website
The key tasks assigned to the intern were: management of social media such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, newsletter, landing pages, blog and company profile. The intern mostly worked with a computer or a smart phone. Also, The intern learned how to administrate social media, how to create web pages, newsletter, blogs and finally the intern learned the Internet research on current social media trends. The intern excelled in social media management. A sample of the intern’s work is available on this web page.

CITY College settled many objectives and Alex learned to develop skills in the digital environment
Objectives: To create posters for the events, create online banners in order to advertise the campaigns, to manage Instagram and LinkedIn accounts, creation of the monthly newsletter, research that improved the University’s online presence (software, blogs, new trend) and finally he assisted with the creation of Google adwords and Facebook ads campaigns.

CITY College statement about the internship’s success
“It was a great pleasure for us to work with Mr Petmezas and his fresh ideas brought a new spectrum within our activities. We will definitely provide such internship opportunities in the future.”

“The impact for the business was the improvement of the institution’s social media management.” (Ms Olga Flora  – Intern Supervisor)

Alex benefited a lot from his internship
“This internship made me realize that digital (social media) marketing requires good cooperation between all members of the marketing team. Also, I believe that at least some basic graphic design skills are extremely useful as well as some HTML and web programming knowledge.”

‘’Furthermore, the team was small (3-4 people). The environment was very agreeable and there was a great cooperation with the marketing team. In other words, the internship provided by CITY College was very beneficial for me.”

Felicia Siavalas, Business Administration (Bachelor), University of Sheffield International Faculty, CITY College

felicia-siavalas Benefits of InternshipsOPAP wanted to develop its website for marketing purposes
OPAP is the national Greek lottery company that has branches all over Greece. The duration of the internship was three months (four days per week – 5 hours per day). Also, it was her first experience in the marketing field.

onan Benefits of Internships

Felicia learned fundamental tasks related to marketing in order to gain experiences for her studies
Felicia was able to gain practical knowledge, which was difficult to gain during her studies since she is only in her second year of her undergraduate courses since she wants to choose the marketing concentration. There are many areas where Felicia excelled – design of the posters, the use of dedicated programs and the use of social media platforms in order to disseminate company’s marketing material.

OPAP settled many objectives and Felicia learned to develop skills in the digital environment
Objectives: To work on the website in order to digitally promote the new games developed by the company.

Resources: The resources required by the company are computers and creativity for new ideas. The intern learned how to utilise digital marketing and marketing resources since it was her first experience in the field and finally improve the her skills.

Resources: The resources required by the company are computers and work space. Ivona learned how to utilise online sales and marketing resources and tools to perform market research.

OPAP statement about the internship’s success
“Due to the internship, we made a very good relationship with the university and it will help to recommend us as a good prospective employer for the future. We will definitely develop further contact with the university in order to provide the opportunity for future internships.”

“ The intern was a really creative person, which was very helpful in order to create our new design for our store. The company would absolutely employ the student.” OPAP benefited a lot by doing this internship. Even more, this specific branch of OPAP experienced for the first time working with an intern

Felicia benefited a lot from OPAP
“I wanted to get some experiences in order to see if I would like to continue my studies in the field of digital marketing and social media”.

“I can say that I have improved my general knowledge in the field of social media, content marketing and digital marketing”. Mrs Siavalas would totally go back to work for this company.

Giannis Matziaris, Marketing (Masters), University of Sheffield International Faculty, CITY College

giannisMarketing Solutions wanted to boost its digital department
Marketing Solutions is a small and recent company established in Thessaloniki, Greece. He performed a part time paid internship at Marketing Solutions Thessaloniki for six months. They wanted Giannis to introduce marketing plans for the enterprise.

Giannis learned fundamental tasks related to digital marketing
Giannis learned many key elements such as: SWOT analysis, how to make marketing plans, branding, advertising and also how to do digital marketing. The intern described the staff as “strong and comprehensive as well”.  There were many benefits that the intern acquired by doing this internship. For instance, Giannis got the experience to work with an enterprise and got the confidence that he needed as a student for his future career. Also, he learned a new way of thinking and acquired patience throughout the time that someone needs in a business context. The main impact of the internship was the practical experience, which gave him strength and he got the chance to put in practice the theoretical part that he assimilated while he was studying.

Marketing Solutions claims that the intern was an interactive employee, with the potential of a future cooperation with the company.

Marketing Solutions settled many objectives and Giannis put them in practice through real life procedures
Objectives: Giannis worked in a concrete environment and get accustomed to real life procedures. Furthermore, Giannis learned about various enterprises and had the chance to put in practice his theoretical background through the practical implications of the position.

Marketing Solutions statement about the internship’s success
“We would fully employ the student if there is availability during our main positions. We benefited a lot from this internship. It made us open the door to academic field for future links. This internship was concrete and successful and because of that, we managed to develop all the procedures and skills to offer more internship. We are willing to have future contact with interns to do an internship with in this field.”

“There are two areas where the student excelled which are the Marketing plan and digital marketing.”

Giannis benefited a lot from Marketing Solutions
“I would absolutely recommend this company for any students that are looking for an internship in this field due to the interactive role that they offered to me. I would also go back if an official position opens.”

Aivaras Juška, Marketing BSc student, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania

aivarasAivaras joined Sinergija Verslui, a digital marketing agency located in Kaunas, Lithuania. Now experienced within several digital disciplines, Aivaras is sharing what benefits he gained from his internship.

sinergija

I had previously participated in a Google Online Marketing Challenge, where I realized that I had a great passion for digital marketing and especially social media campaigns. After gaining all the “how to” knowledge, I had been given tasks requiring to experiment and analyse how those experiments change the results. For example, to change the keywords and to observe what happens. This later led to in-depth knowledge of what is best in the specific market. It was even more than I expected out of internship

I learned a lot by reading on my own and also from colleagues at the company, from the internship advisor and from other people in the industry. The internship contributes greatly to the studies of Aivaras as he had an opportunity to combine the knowledge gained at the university and the experience of applying it in practice to deepen the said knowledge and improve his digital marketing skills.

I would advise other students to first find out what would they like to do and then find a company which could help to do that rather than just looking for any company working in digital marketing area

What did Singergija benefit from this internship?

During initial period of learning to work with Google AdWords, Google Analytics, to create the content for and to manage social media campaigns, the company is looking out for the strengths of the employees and give them responsibilities related to tasks they are best in. At first Aivaras had tasks related to learning how to create new types of search campaigns, how to create Facebook campaigns. He felt overwhelmed at first with all new information as he only had some basic knowledge. However Aivaras showed ability to learn quickly and has strong analytical skills. That led to his role as junior AdWords specialist for his internship.

Aivaras proved himself very well during the placement period and became a member of our team. We are happy to have him here. He proved in very short time that he can work in this company, that he understands the product, and that he can be very useful to the company. I can say that not many people we employ for probation period would prove that in 3 months’

Aivaras is an employee at the company now and he works with clients, creating and managing AdWords campaigns for them.

Giedrė Labanauskaitė, Marketing BSc student, Kaunas University of Technology

giedre Benefits of InternshipsThe company was looking for interns to bring fresh ideas:

giedre-logo

Ortopedijos technika is one of largest manufacturers producing orthopedic products in Baltic States. The company was established in 1945 and currently employs over 400 qualified and innovative staff members in five locations in Lithuania, with its headquarters in Kaunas city. They develop and produced highest-standard customized orthopedic solutions which are successfully provided to European and worldwide markets.

Department of Commerce of the company is usually looking for interns with the background of marketing studies. They also pay attention to applicant’s communicability, innovativeness, motivation to solve problems and strive for best results, as well as prior experience with projects. Interns are expected to bring in fresh ideas for the company.

The student was looking for an opportunity to start marketing career
Giedrė Labanauskaitė studied in Marketing undergraduate study programme and sought to start working in line with her future specialization as early as possible. She also wanted to experience the job of in-house marketing manager. Therefore she applied to Ortopedijos technika for additional voluntary internship during the summer holiday before final study year commenced. She was accepted for unpaid internship and worked from July till September.

Proactive approach to tasks and fresh youthful ideas led to full employment:
Giedrė was primarily responsible for online marketing. First tasks given to her were more simple and she was given more time to perform them, later she was given tasks of increasing difficulty and decreasing time allocation. She started for keyword analysis and continued to content (text) development, content visualisation, uploading of it on website, Facebook strategy development and implementation.

The company found having Giedrė for internship beneficial because of her youthful modern approach to marketing, and willingness to learn. She provided analysis on perceptions of advertising among modern youth and offered a lot of new ideas for the company which now have to be implemented because the company liked it.

Giedrė approached the tasks given with proactive attitude by clarifying them well in advance, performing them to full extent and in a responsible manner. This approach to work was not missed by the supervisors at the company and Giedrė was offered a position.

Now Giedrė has to implement the ideas she offered to the company and her responsibilities involve managing the websites of the company, content development and updating. She already coordinated development of a new website for the company and currently coordinates development of new e-shop. She also manages activities on Facebook, carries out direct marketing through newsletters and dedicates time for analysis of Google Analytics data.

Internship gave new point of view to studies at the university
Internship helped Giedrė to acquire a wealth of digital marketing knowledge. Working on tasks given during internship forced Giedrė to learn a lot of new things. She learned how to use WordPress content management system, and Google Analytics. She also gained basic knowledge on SEO.

The experience of working in a company was also beneficial for Giedrė’s studies at the university as she started to value the studies differently, from practical point of view.

I gained a wealth of digital marketing knowledge. I got to know websites from their inside, how to develop the informational content for websites, and which are metrics to measure website’s success’ – Giedrė Labanauskaitė

Working with Giedrė was useful to our company because of her youthful modern approach to marketing, and willingness to learn. We received a summary of perceptions of advertising by modern youth and a lot of new ideas which had to be implemented as we liked it. Giedrė stayed to implement those ideas after internship. It was pleasure to learn and improve together, because marketing is not finite task, but rather continuous dynamic process’ – Irina Sabaliauskienė from Ortopedijos technika.

 Vilija Balčiūnaitė, Marketing BSc student, Kaunas University of Technology

girl Benefits of InternshipsThe company needed the analysis of its image:
UAB Prekybos miestelis URMAS (further – URMAS) is a business providing largest shopping area in Kaunas city (Lithuania) – over 70 000 m2 of trading area. Main business activities cover real estate leasing, development projects, offices, commercial and warehouse management. Former warehouse-type flea-market area is now housing over 2000 shops, which attract average of over 25 000 visitors daily, and approximately 70 000 visitors on days of specialized fairs – celebrations, such as “Summer blessings”, “Back to school”, “Harvests’ Basket”, international Flea fair “Circle of time”.

urmas-logo

The company was cooperating with Department of Marketing of Kaunas University of Technology for several years, in order to tap into ideas of young people as students are. The company specifically looked for intern to analyze image of the company both online and in general.

The student took the challenge of learning new topic during internship:
Vilija Balčiūnaitė studied in Marketing undergraduate study programme. As she had experience of working with the company during the additional internship previous summer, Vilija decided to take this challenge for her curriculum defined internship. She did unpaid 9 week long full-time internship in Marketing department of the company.

Analysis of image of a company was totally new topic for Vilija. She had to learn what elements are relevant for measuring the image of a company, analyse marketing management projects implemented by URMAS, analyse shoppers of URMAS, analyse image of URMAS among shoppers (individuals, not businesses), and identify possible issues to be solved.

Internship lead into contact to leaders in marketing industry
Though tasks of analysing of marketing projects did not provide Vilija experience of implementing marketing campaigns, she closely worked with digital marketing agency employed to advertise the company in order to attract shoppers to the shopping area. Internship enabled her to get close-up knowledge on how large marketing projects are organised. It also brought her in close contact with marketing industry leaders, who shared their experience, gave her advice.

 


Małgorzata Leszczyńska, Management – Marketing (Masters), University of Lodz

malagorzata Benefits of InternshipsMalgorzata joined Skanska as an intern, where she worked with their established marketing team. She is now sharing her experience and the benefits she gained from her internship.

skanska

I wanted to gain practical knowledge of marketing, and how I would fit with such a large, global company and if it was a place I wanted to work in the future. In the beginning of my internship, Skanska set key tasks for me:

  • Organising internal and external events
  • Preparation of marketing materials (brochures, maps, presentations)
  • Conduction of photo sessions and virtual walkthrough (360 degree photos)

My main tasks and achievement of the placement was to prepare virtual tour in SKANSKA’s new office. I was supporting ongoing projects of the business unit and marketing team and responsible for online activities, where I organized auctions for the interactive agencies and prepared catalogue of placemaking solutions for new residential projects.

I furthermore launched new projects and implemented new technologies (ie. Google Street walks) and introduced new communication tools that was adopted by the marketing team to improve work flow inside the team (OneNote). I managed to establish new relationships with key stakeholders, so I have expanded my network within the industry a lot, which is highly beneficial for my future career.

Working across multiple departments helped me to gain excellent planning skills and working under pressure, which also has been useful for my studies. I quickly got involved with business meetings and negotiations, conflict management, strategic planning and budget management, which has given me an outstanding skillset I can use for future employment.

I’ve met so many inspiring people who helped me and taught me so much. My boss was a real mentor. He showed me a lot of tools and ways of working and analyzing data. I’ve learnt what I should look for in Google Analytics and how to plan digital campaigns as well as how to work with interactive agency.

I will always recommend to all students to take part in placements. It’s great experience.

 


Mingki Choi, International Business (Masters), Salford Business School.

hotel-desk Benefits of InternshipsHotel Desk decided to it would be a great idea to hire an intern who would then be able to assist them whilst they were testing and applying new digital marketing techniques to their strategy.

hotel-desk-logo

Hotel Desk is a global venue finding agency which operates in the B2B travel sector.  The company is currently situated in the Manchester, UK and Mingki has worked for the company since November 2014 up until March 2015. In return for her working 15 hours per week, Hotel Desk paid Mingki’s travel costs both to and from work.

They wanted Mingki to take her digital marketing knowledge from the classroom and apply it in a real life business context by carrying out research and implementing new digital marketing techniques which would evidently aid the success of the business. Hotel Desk was keen to embrace new techniques in order to entice new customers to the business; they knew that Mingki’s academic experience would beneficial towards achieving this.

During the course of the internship, Mingki combined both the company’s business objectives with the new digital marketing strategy before applying it internationally.

Throughout her time at Hotel Desk, Mingki learned many different traits that would be advantageous to her professional career.  She learnt how to set up a digital marketing strategy for the company, after carrying out in depth research on their business activities.  She was also able to communicate and target core audiences after working on survey’s, SEO techniques and the company’s Social Media accounts. This was then applied on an international level; ultimately targeting US event managers.

The student maintained a professional, proactive and analytical approach throughout the duration of the internship, which Hotel Desk certainly benefitted from.   The company felt that Mingki integrated well with other members of the team which evidently made her more effective in her role.  Her knowledge and enthusiasm for new digital marketing techniques was a welcomed motivational injection into the department.

The employer set defined objectives and Mingki deployed these through a range of SEO and social media activities:

The Objective:
The company wanted to improve their marketing strategies greatly so they wanted to carry out an analysis of the current digital marketing activities, identifying the weak areas before developing a new strategy which would eradicate any problems.  At the same time, they also needed to enhance the company’ ROI and develop the website in order for it to appeal to more potential clients.  Hotel Desk also set Mingki objectives such as collecting data, assessing the company’s activities on an international basis and working with the key stakeholders in the business.

Her Responsibilities:
In order to meet these objectives, Mingki was responsible for developing the webpage to standard which would attract more people to the company.  She also had to carry out SEO optimisation and search engine keyword mapping whilst extracting results from Google Analytics.  Mingki was also gifted the task of developing the social media account, ensuring that the content was relevant and up to date.

Using their search and social media, Mingki was responsible for increasing the company’s ROI from their customer base:
Mingki acquired new customers so therefore she had to set up techniques in order to be able to communicate with them in an effective way, on a regular basis. This proved successful as it helped to increase the ROI from the customers who had interaction with the business. The newly developed digital marketing communication methods which the company uses, has helped generate long term relationships from new customers.

Not only did this internship help Mingki achieve an excellent grade in her dissertation but it also helped enhance her LinkedIn profile as well as her CV: 

During the course of the internship at Hotel Desk, Mingki was able to bring fresh idea and new digital marketing techniques to the table before formalizing the company’s marketing activities.  In return, they provided her with a comfortable environment along with easy access to a variety of experienced individuals which aided the success of the objectives.  She became the driving force behind the excellent results displayed to the company and left a legacy of improvement behind her! Mingki’s confidence grew the more involved she became within the marketing department; she has taken this newly gained confidence onwards into her professional and personal life now.  Mingki learnt a lot from her experience as working as an intern for Hotel Desk and this helped her to write her dissertation.  In the end, she achieved a distinction for this particular piece of work.  Hotel Desk’s Marketing department has also contributed positively to Mingki’s LinkedIn profile by giving her that helping hand needed to gain more work experience.

‘Mingki has since graduated and although she is currently living in South Korea; she plans to relocate to Canada in order to use her qualification and intern experience!’

You learn so many useful skills throughout the duration of your course. After you’ve completed your degree, when you start to work for a company you can develop the skills you’ve learnt in a business environment. It can be synergy for both the student and the employer.”

The internship has helped me to become more confident when working abroad as an international job seeker. Before working at Hotel Desk, I was scared to work in an unfamiliar cultural circumstance but in the end I got used to it and overcame my nerves.”

Mingki showed a very professional, proactive and analytical approach in her working methods. She also showed excellent integration with the team. One great additional benefit to us was the positive motivational aspect that she brought to the business. We would employ Mingki again in the future” – Joanne Egan, Marketing Manager at Hotel Desk.


Lucie Apampa, Marketing MSc Student, Salford Business School

lucie Benefits of InternshipsLucie’s objective was to help the company increase their number of clients:
JMW Solicitors is a full-service solicitors firm that is based in the heart of Manchester City Center. Lucie Apampa was a student on the MSc Marketing course at the University of Salford.   During the duration of the course, she undertook a 6 month paid placement which consisted of working 5 days a week. Lucie’s placement was within the Personal Injury department where she was brought in to run social media campaigns for certain areas of industrial disease claims. JMW Solicitors wanted Lucie to focus on research, implementation and ROI, with the aim of bringing more clientele to the firm.

lu

Self- taught and keen to make a difference, JMW would generate new business:
When Lucie first arrived at JMW Solicitors, she had no previous experience of running paid social media campaign or working within the legal sector. She was largely self-taught, using her course information and support whilst being closely managed with budget caps and strict ROI requirements.

The company strongly felt that paid social media campaigns were a new area in which they needed to focus on in order to generate new business.

Both the student and the client benefited momentously by creating an agreed list of objectives:

Lucie’s Objectives:
Throughout her 6 month placement, Lucie was given a list of objectives which she had to meet in to ensure that the company generated more clientele.  She had to increase the customer acquisition whilst also using various social media accounts to promote specific services that JMW Solicitors offered.  They also wanted Lucie to define the activities that would be required for the campaigns at the same time as building and sustaining strong relationships with other members of the team to ensure success.  Lucie was also required to carry out research and draw conclusions from the results as well as creating a positive ROI and potentially using the blue print and successes for the other departments at JMW Solicitors.

Lucie’s Responsibilities:
Lucie’s main job at JMW Solicitors was to create and implement the company’s paid social media campaigns which would be the main driving force behind the company’s desire to increase its business.  She also had to oversee the finances given to her to ensure that her campaigns where within budget whilst carrying out law and sector research with the aim of defining her target audience.  JMW Solicitors made Lucie responsible for writing their competitive reviews and their advertising strategy.  She was also required to attend the stakeholder meetings to gather information which she could use in her campaigns or to help her achieve her objectives.  Lucie was in charge of overseeing the result compilation from the social media campaigns she had run in order to identify any areas for improvement.  As part of the placement, she had to optimise all forms of the JMW Solicitors social media to ensure an ROI and then create a presentation, which contained all this information, for other key members of staff.

Lucie’s impact meant they were speaking to new groups of clients, previously untouched by JMW:
Lucie has established a new access point to the market for the firm and JMW Solicitors now continue to refine the marketing each month in order to draw more clients to the company.  The company’s revenue has significantly increased in light of Lucie’s marketing activities; this is clear indicator that her strategies have increased the number of customers for the business.

She has also influenced the firm’s communication style, allowing them to relate to a new audience who previously were unwilling to speak with lawyers.

‘As Lucie cultivated new skills in communication and analytics, JMW benefitted significantly’

Primarily, she has excelled in her digital marketing knowledge whilst enhancing her skill set; gaining an impressive hands-on experience of both paid and organic social media.

Lucie has developed her knowledge of personal injury law substantially after working in the business and carry out lots of research in order to run effective campaigns. She has gained confidence working with people particularly when liaising with a range of stakeholders of differing levels within the company. This has significantly enhanced her communication, presentation and interpersonal skills. In addition, Lucie has profited from increasing her analytical skills, IT knowledge including Excel and Microsoft packages, conducting audience research, campaign planning and project management skills.

‘In addition, Lucie was successful in turning the placement into a full time role!’

“I feel that I’ve benefitted immensely from this placement. My digital marketing knowledge has grown enormously over the past year and I am much more confident when using my digital skills.”

“Despite making me busier, as I had to juggle full-time work with writing a dissertation, the placement has undoubtedly improved my final master’s result and certainly my time management skills.”

“Lucie has shown willingness and enthusiasm to work beyond the remit first given to her. She has succeeded in running profitable campaigns for us and has also been proactive in seeking work from other departments. We would most certainly be open to further partnerships with students from the university it they arose‘– Chris Sutton from JMW.”

Elisa Ferrero, Argentina, Digital and Social Media Marketing MOOC

elisa Benefits of InternshipsDigital and Social Media Marketing management are now essential marketing aspects for any corporation. Constant innovation leads to constant learning, no matter what age, title or sector you are in. JEMMS provides a wide range of courses, which gives everyone a chance to develop and become qualified within digital.

So why do people choose JEMMS and what do they get out of it? We asked Elisa Ferrero, a student from the Social Innovation MOOC.

I signed up for the Digital and Social Media Marketing MOOC course because I started to co-operate with a Virtual Assistant specialised in Social Media Marketing and the whole online experience was really exciting. That’s when I seriously started considering it as a possible future career.

Elisa further explains how the course surely improved her communication, interaction and social media management skills; however we asked if the course changed her daily life and career motivation.  At a deeper level, the course really stimulated me into starting an online project of my own, which I did this year. I didn’t have to change my daily routine because I don’t work the same hours every day, which gave me the opportunity to manage my time. In any case, the chunked course structure really fits anyone’s routine.

What was the best part of the MOOC course? For me, the best part was the first blog, where Aleksej, Lecturer at Salford Business School, guided us step by step in the creation of our blog and gave us assignments in that direction. That was really great. Furthermore, the contact with The Candidate right now is an unexpected pleasure. Staying in touch and being part of a community, is one of the key points of this MOOC.

Many people choose JEMMS to gain more qualifications to climb the career ladder or change sector. This was also the motive for Elisa.

The course influenced my choice of career. I was into the Social Media world to begin with, but the course really strengthened my interest and made me see the digital world as a real career possibility. I feel more competent and confident with social media and digital marketing. I would recommend this MOOC to people who are approaching the digital and social media industry, because it really shows you the digital sector from the basics.

Furthermore, Elisa advises that future students must remember to use the community to share achievements and their own experience.

The MOOC is perfectly set to give us the perfect mix between self-studying and a real interactive experience. I honestly didn’t expect that much from an e-learning experience. I was surprised.

Fred Zimny, Netherlands, Digital and Social Media Marketing MOOC

fred-zimmy As a digital professional I’m challenged by the many developments in the field.  Yes, I can read books and papers, but academic insights and the possibility to create a new network are reasons why nowadays I often opt for MOOC’s. The insights of the experts were the best part for me. I challenged (or better) strengthened my beliefs that digital developments are happening in all parts of Europe.

Many students are also professionals, where they both develop academical – and personal skills. Fred Zimny explains how he found this MOOC relevant for his motivation in his career.   

For me it is all about knowledge, skills and attitude. The course confronted me with my lack of knowledge in certain fields (and confirmed my knowledge level at other fields). But much more importantly, I realised that a digital only attitude has to be my goal for 2016. And, yes I’m working on that!

Did the course influence your choice of career?  

As a 61-year old person, it enables me to compete with the youngsters in the field. But – as age discrimination is a fact of life – it will not enable me to find a new job. However I’m more competent and it boosted my confidence and I was thrilled to get access to certain papers. I was able to schedule the course activities in my personal life. Working on Sundays, Saturdays and in the free hours of the working week

Who would you recommend this MOOC to others?

There are many MOOCS that deal with the topic with an American perspective. This course supplements those insights with a European perspective. And also, people aiming to gain insights at an operational/tactical level can benefit from the course.

Just do it, have fun and schedule enough time!