Social Media Internship - Essay Example

 SOCIAL MEDIA House Of Tee is a partnership organization owned by Jameela Matthew also known as Jem and Laurelle Brown who goes by the name Twiggs. House Of Tee therefore is a trading name of this partnership organization called Trust J and L. established in 2012, house of tee is the newest addition to Trust J and L partnership. Its main aim is to deliver services to the fashion lovers, trendsetters and house music lovers. This is clearly demonstrated in their motto which goes, house music and fashion. Their mission statement also shows their dedication to serve the music and fashion lovers and it states as follows, ‘House Of Tee aims to create quality pieces inspired by house music, culture and trends at prices we would pay’. The brand creates exclusive accessories and garments which are inspired by house music and fashion. Its main aim is to come up with products that will make its clients or customers stand out from the crowd and uphold the brand. The brand provides a range of services in the garments department. It provides both customized and bespoke services to its customers to ensure customer participation and satisfaction is guaranteed. This help top deliver services that have personal touch to the clients. Customized items involve the customers selecting items from a range of ready-made products then change color or add names and messages to the garment. Bespoke items on the other hand are garments created to a personal specification. In this case, customers provide information regarding the desired garment to be made to the seamstresses and graphic designers who then ensure that the idea is made realistic. Garments are made for both men and women (Guth & Marsh, 2011). Some of the items made for men are tees, hoodies, jumpers, tracksuits, and vests. Garments for women include tees, hoodies, jumpers, crop tops, and tracksuits. Other accessories on the range of products available at the shop are hats. House music is also another area of interest for the brand. Other than clothes the organization also strives to provide satisfaction to the house music lovers. On the brand’s website, visitors are provided with information via a blog that features views and news from the house music and fashion world. House of Tee Monthly Mix is a brand that features interviews from different DJs who deal in house music. The brand also provide visitors the opportunity to download free house mix from different DJs. The owners update the gallery regularly and share what they are up to, their experiences, and their future plans regarding house music events. The managerial structure of the organization is quite simple. It consists of the founders who are basically the CEOs of the organization. Other positions in the managerial structure are the human resource which is charged with the responsibility of hiring people to the organization. The organization has outlets in various towns which deal in trendy fashion wear. The clients and customers of this brand are males and females of between the ages of 16 to 35 years who are fashion and house music lovers. The workers of this organization range from those dealing with clothes to those charged with music and entertainment (Kind, Genrich, Sodhi & Chretien, 2010). Therefore in kits list of workers there are seamstresses who mend the garments. There are graphic designers who design the prints and colors to be put on the garments. Web designer is also there and charged with the responsibility of maintaining the brands website. During my internship in the organization my main role was to do postings on the social media. I was charged with the duty of posting three times on weekdays and five posts on weekends. Most of the times I used hootsuite .com to schedule my posts. Hootsuite is a social media company that offer an online platform and solutions for businesses to sell and market their products. They also offer customer services and social media management. Hootsuite helped me schedule posts and messages for our clients. The site also help in monitoring what the audience are saying about the brand. Hootsuites’ media analytics also gave an in-depth view of how well the social media efforts are received by the audience. It also increases the social reach of a brand to the desired audience. It also protects, secure logins, and permission levels are all geared towards keeping the brands profile safe. Therefore, with the help of hootsuite my main responsibilities in the organization were to participate in website redesign project in various ways to ensure that the website is appealing to the targeted audience. This ensured that navigation in the website by the various users was made easy hence increasing participation and improving awareness of the brand. Another responsibility was to monitor and post on blogs forums and social networks like hootsuite. Most of the posts on blogs were mostly talking about the organizations’ activities, plans, products, news, and advice. Posts related to garments were mostly advising visitors on the website about fashion, the dos, and don’ts when dressing for a particular weather or event. It also marketed new products in on the shelves. On the house music bit, posts were mainly informing revelers about future events, and latest releases in the house music world. Through posting I also managed to do online promotion and outreach to the intended audience. This I achieved through other social networks like Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace. Other activities achieved through posting were website and social media optimization. I was also involved in cost benefit analysis of the online related activities to assess whether the services were giving value for the organization’s money. I did posting on blogs thrice every weekday because there was few activity during these days. On weekends I could do five posts because there were a lot of online activity with people yearning to learn about raving joints and other related activities like fashion and dress codes. My placement on the post section was based on the desired qualities that I displayed during my time in the organization. My mastery of slang was an upper hand for the management’s decision to place me there. Considering that the audience was from a youthful group who are fond of using slang, mastery of this language was a prerequisite in order to add touch to the conversations, and passage of the desired information to the customers and clients. I was also abreast with the current trends in the music and fashion world. This led to my placement in the position as it required someone who is up to date with information relating to house music, broad knowledge on some of the house music DJs and finally current trends in the fashion world. The position also required someone who was techno savvy. This included someone who had a strong understanding and knowledge of the digital media landscape. I satisfied this qualities and this enabled smooth posting on blogs. My strong sense of humor was also another contributor to my placement in this position. Posts on blogs needed to be captivating and interesting in order to capture the attention of visitors in the website, customers and clients. This ensured consistency by the visitors and helped generate feedback and promotion of the products. The team and staff at the House of Tee were very supportive and accommodative. The management was open to any contributions from the staff regardless of their status. They made this achievable by having special sessions where staff and the management could interact and voice their opinions. Their existed a cordial relationship between managers and the employees which enhanced voicing of opinions. Another policy of the company was freedom of expression. This policy encouraged staff to open up and air their views regarding the operations of certain aspects in the organization. This ensured that opinions from the staff were taken into account. Another factor that promoted voices to be heard is the age factor. Almost every person, be it in the management and staff was a youth. This meant that the interests were shared if not all thus avoiding conflict of interest that would otherwise result from differences in the age. This also ensured good relations thus promoting interactions with the management. My presence and contributions in the organization was tremendous. I assessed this by the volume of sales that were made by the organization. During my internship in the organization the company realized large volumes of garment sales and home music downloads. This was a team effort but it made to realize the impact my presence and contribution had brought to the company. Another difference or contribution I made was a suggestion to post on blogs in the evenings especially during weekdays because there was increased online activity at these times of the day. I also enjoyed my internship throughout the period I was there. The management was courteous and the staff was friendly thus creating a good working environment. I was also impressed with the staff which was so passionate and vibrant and ready to share skills and experience in the industry. The tasks that were delegated to me were as interesting as they were in line with my hobbies and interests. Posting on blogs meant interaction with the audience. One of my hobbies is making new friends and socializing. Posting duty gave me the opportunity to meet new people, share, and interact with a large audience (Cheston, Flickinger & Chisolm, 2013). It further enhanced my love for music and especially a new genre, house music. I also ended up adopting and appreciating the street look dress code which was propagated by house music culture. The tasks delegated to me even though I perceived them challenging at first, the supportive staff available in the organization were able to help maneuver with ease and I later approached them with tact only to realize how easy and simple they were. Some of the strengths I noticed along the course of work were my ability to mobilize and convince people. I noticed these from the many positive responses on the website and the response with which the audience, customers, and clients welcomed my views. Another strength I noticed was my flexibility. I noticed how flexible I was to change from the way I adopted the house music culture from my hip hop one. Another strength of mine was the power to negotiate. Some of the weaknesses I noticed during my intern were punctuality. I struggled with time and most of the times I arrived late to work. I guess this was influenced with my free style college life which was not time conscious. To a larger extent my course so far has imparted some skills for my career path. The only bit that was lacking but now completed is the practical bit. The internship provided me with practical experience which was different from that of the theory provided in school. To a greater extent my course has provided me with better communication skills which are necessary when negotiating or dealing with clients and customers. Another contribution is the broad knowledge and information about the industry provided in the syllabus. The experienced I got from the internship motivated me to continue pursuing my career as it was interesting and self-rewarding. The experience gave me an insight into what my day will be looking like in the near future when I join the employment sector. I noticed my career is enjoyable and involves socializing and meeting new people who share common interests. It also helps to unite people. From the experience gathered I noticed the career path I took was an interesting path and even after leaving the organization have never been the same again. Am on a countdown of days to see myself finish school and join the workplace. During my time in the organization I also came across different careers that caught my attention. Some of the careers I found interesting during the course of work were those dealing with web design and app developers. Fashion designers also caught my attention as they loved what they do. The striking career that touched me was that of a seamstress. I found it interesting because it could help design and mend clothes according to the taste of an individual. With this career I could be able to design and mend clothes according to my passion and maybe start my own clothing line. References Cheston, C. C., Flickinger, T. E., & Chisolm, M. S. (2013). Social media use in medical education: a systematic review. Academic Medicine, 88(6), 893-901. Guth, D. W., & Marsh, C. (2011). Public relations: A value driven approach. Pearson Higher Ed. Kind, T., Genrich, G., Sodhi, A., & Chretien, K. C. (2010). Social media policies at US medical schools. Medical education online, 15. Read More