Life as a Virtual Intern

February 05, 2014 Internships are a great way to help young adults, like me, evaluate things we have learned in school and find out where we need to learn more. My name is Danielle Licarione and I am studying Marketing at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas. I have been an intern with Blue Sky Marketing for four weeks now and since this is my first internship, this is the first chance I get to see how my classroom learning applies to the real world. I am not just any intern, I am a virtual intern.

Being a Virtual Intern

Being a virtual intern comes with big responsibility. You don't have someone looking over your shoulder to get things done. You HAVE to be dedicated and manage your time well. Since I was a collegiate athlete, I was forced to learn how to prioritize my time between work, school and a social life. There are many benefits of being a virtual intern, but right now let's focus on a few things I have learned and realized over the past few weeks:

What I've Learned (so far)
Be a Sponge
Benefits of Working for a Small Business

What I've Learned

Saying that I learn something new every day is an understatement!

Online Marketing Tools: I have been exposed to many online marketing tools and platforms that are essential to providing measurable results for our clients.
SEO: A valuable skill that I am gradually learning is effective SEO. The key is learning how to write concise, attention-grabbing and valuable content that is easily shared online. I have learned the importance of this for online marketing.
Creative: I have been helping Blue Sky Marketing with promotional planning, developing creative social media posts and coming up with online marketing strategies. All of these have exposed me to more of the creative process of marketing.
Editing: Even though proofreading doesn't seem like it's that hard, it is very important in this line of work. Everything needs to be read and re-read multiple times to ensure as close to perfection as possible.

Be a Sponge

Create the habit of loving to learn. Being a sponge means you have to listen, ask questions and actively engage in every learning opportunity. I have only four more weeks to learn all I can about marketing from this internship. Since my time here is limited, being a sponge is all about being eager to learn. I have learned that there are no stupid questions and it is better to ask a question than to make a mistake that can easily be prevented.

Benefits of Working for a Small Business

The best way to learn is to have the opportunity to fail. Michelle and Kate give me considerable responsibilities at work which helps me learn from my own mistakes. They've been excellent at teaching me how to do something and then letting me take over. Sometimes they offer a lot of direction, carefully teaching me how to do something before they let me loose. While other times, they give me a task and let me figure it out for myself. In addition to all the knowledge I've attained from this internship, I've benefited in ways of which I'm not yet aware. Being around Kate and Michelle for four weeks has given me the opportunity to learn from their work methods and habits. I've seen how they manage time, overcome obstacles, communicate with clients and much more. I am super excited to be part of the Blue Sky Marketing team and looking forward to everything else they have in store for me. Want to implement in your company some of what I am learning? Blue Sky Marketing can offer guidance for the best online marketing tools, effective SEO strategies, and marketing strategies to help you achieve your business goals.