As the new school year begins, it is time for me to reflect on my summer as a Marketing/Public Relations Intern at Baer Performance Marketing. I am happy to summarize my internship experience and what I learned with these five statements:
I can firmly say I am a better writer than I was three months ago.
Throughout the summer at BPM, I was able to consistently work on my writing skills. I knew before this internship that my writing skills were not terrible but could be improved. I was able to do this through blogging, writing case histories, creating unique hashtags for Twitter, developing social media content, and writing media releases. The staff at BPM helped me through this with constructive advice and by allowing me to implement my new found skills on a daily basis. I am confident to share with everyone that I am a better writer today than I was in May, and I can’t thank the BPM staff enough for that.
Blogging and media releases were my favorite projects to work on this summer.
I love to promote and share with others what I find interesting. Blogging let me share my ideas with facts, figures, and my own opinion. Writing media releases allowed me to market events for organizations throughout Green Bay and the Fox Valley, and every media release I created promoted a good cause.
I was able to utilize my existing strengths and develop new ones.
When I’ve previously listed my communication strengths to my peers and professors, I would say I excel at public speaking, collaborating, and facilitating. During my internship, I was able to implement these strengths by presenting research, staying on task throughout the day, and helping the BPM staff with miscellaneous marketing-related tasks. I also gained a new strength these last few months: brainstorming. I was often given the chance to brainstorm ideas for blogs and what I felt was important to include in competitive research for a client.
Google AdWords is a powerful online marketing tool.
I wasn’t familiar with Google AdWords before my BPM internship. However, BPM’s staff was patient with me and showed me how important it is for a business when trying to advertise in today’s tech-savvy, internet-obsessed world. For example, if I put in “hardware stores in Green Bay” into a Google search, and there’s a local hardware store that advertises through Google, their store is more likely to pop up at the top of the search results. BPM does an excellent job teaching their clients about Google AdWords and helping them develop online marketing strategies.
The BPM experience has steered me in the right direction for my career.
I can’t begin to express my gratitude to the BPM staff for all of their help and knowledge. I knew public relations and organizational communication were the fields I wanted to go into before interning at BPM, and the staff has helped me move closer to accomplishing that goal. Because of BPM, I have experienced what it’s like to conduct competitive research for a real client, advertise and promote a real event in Green Bay and the Fox Valley, and develop a comprehensive marketing strategy. After I graduate, I want to continue helping businesses succeed through research, brainstorming, and writing. From the bottom of my heart, thank you, Baer Performance Marketing, for helping me become a better marketing and public relations strategist!
