My summer internship at Midwest Direct was an experience that both excited and challenged me. As a marketing intern, I worked on things such as newsletters, social media, blogs, and tradeshow prep.
During my time at Midwest, I focused a lot on finding fun content that would spark interest for the viewers of our Facebook page. One of my goals was to create social media content that showed the family atmosphere of the company. Midwoof Monday and Meow Monday, where I featured employee’s dogs and cats on our Facebook page, became the most popular of all the content I had posted. What I quickly realized is that employees are much more likely to want to be involved in social media content if it has to do with their pets. Since then, my inbox has been flooded with emails and photos of the most adorable fur babies. I also spent time taking photos around the building of some of our interesting equipment to post, as well as employee luncheons and other events happening around the office.
Direct Hit, Midwest Direct’s monthly newsletter, was one of my favorite things to work on during my internship with sections such as health and safety tips, seasonal recipes, communication tips, and fun facts. We also picked one employee each month to interview and feature in the newsletter. I was able to build out a year’s worth of newsletters during my time there which definitely helped to warm me up for later when it came to writing the blogs.
I spent a lot of time this summer in each of the departments asking questions and educating myself on the company to help gather information to write B2B style blogs on a variety of topics. The first blog that I wrote was Are You Getting the Most Out of Your Print? I had to get a lot of help for this blog from our print department because, in the beginning, I knew absolutely nothing about print! I also wrote the blog Why Your Competitors Are Using Print with the knowledge I now had from our print department, and a lot of extra research. Commingling is Like Making Cupcakes and Resources to Help You Become A Great Mailer are some of the other blogs that I wrote after getting a tour around the building and becoming more familiar with what I was going to be writing about. It took some time and a lot of questions, but I was able to write a few blogs that I am really proud of.
As interesting as the blogging experience was, my favorite experience was getting to be part of the review for the new website. I was able to attend a few of the meetings and see the layout and all of the content that would be going up. I also helped to set up and record podcasts that will promote the new website.
Editor’s note: Keep an eye on our social media and website for exciting things to come!
Now for the fun stuff
One of the more creative tasks I did during my internship were the seasonal bulletin boards in the lunchroom that we would feature three exceptional employees and a manager on the board each month. This was also known as our “MVP” board. I always found ways to get people involved in the board and got a lot of positive responses on the decor. I quickly learned that while I do have a creative side, cutting a straight line or a specific shape and drawing things are not on the list of my greatest talents. That’s when I realized that you can find just about anything on Amazon.
If there was one thing I didn’t expect from this experience, it’s that I would master the handheld steamer. The tablecloths and banners have never been so wrinkle-free. Aside from that, I spent a lot of time prepping for trade shows as well as buying and hiding the tradeshow candy. I learned two very important lessons about trade show candy:
- Firstly, save yourself the trips to multiple candy stores and just go to your grocery store’s candy aisle. It will probably melt in your car before you get back to the office anyway.
- Secondly, when you bring the candy back to the office, make sure it’s hidden and preferably out of reach. Never leave the candy in a visible place because the sales reps WILL eat it and you will have to go buy more. Don’t ever believe “this is the last one” …. it’s not.
Another very important lesson I learned is to never go anywhere in the building without your phone and your key card. Take it from an intern who locked herself in the lunchroom and had to call someone to let her back into the office. Also, save yourself some time when you’re spending hours scanning, and thoroughly look through every sheet of paper because you probably missed a few staples that will get caught in the scanner and you will have to find where it’s at and try not to rip it while you remove the paper jam.
It wouldn’t be a good experience if you didn’t have a failure. For me, that was my endless battle and inevitable defeat with verifying the company’s Facebook page. After many unsuccessful tries, I ended up waiving the white flag and letting Facebook have their victory… for now.
Lastly, I couldn’t forget the most exciting experience which was sitting on my bedroom floor for three hours, sticking and gluing foam Christmas ornaments together because you can never be too prepared for a holiday that is months away.
Nevertheless, I learned a lot (and had a lot of laughs) as a summer intern at Midwest Direct. The people I met here and the experience I had will surely help me as I continue my journey at Baldwin Wallace University this month.
