SEPTEMBER 2022

First month.

I began my internship in the Postgraduate Acquisition Marketing team at the start of September. The first week was induction. Getting to know the other interns, the different teams, the complicated systems and what was planned out for me. As each of my internships have been remote it was exciting to be in an office setting, giving me a taste of something different.

My main job throughout the first month was learning the systems. There's Orlo, Sitecore, Connect, Gecko and so much more. I used Sitecore to edit some pages on the website, the more I use them the easier they'll get. It's daunting but I'm excited to get used to it. With learning the systems also comes learning how the University operates, in the sense of TOV and the services we offer/work with.

I've been introduced to the media agency Carat, that help us run our paid advertising and will be on weekly WIP calls with them. It'll be interesting to see how marketing is fully developed from start to output. Especially when there's social issues that we have to adapt to. Seeing how things was paused and changed after the Queen sadly passed away helped me understand how a business runs behind the scenes.

Ongoing jobs I work on include updating shared documents. Such as the master course spreadsheet, which is an important document for the whole team. It's my duty to keep on top of course updates and make sure the spreadsheet is accurate. Also working on a display advert audit, which helps monitor which adverts are currently live. Analysing what we have out to see if it's appropriate, accurate and can be approved. Each week I also work on the mailbox, answering people's queries about specific courses. Developing my customer service and Microsoft platform experience.

My line manager is extremely helpful, giving me a chance to get settled in and work through my workload successfully. Towards the end of September I got the chance to work on Adobe suites to create advertisements set for over the next couple of months. I have weekly meetings with the PG team, which are extremely engaging. We usually go over insights and next steps. Within the third week I presented a competitor analysis to the team. As public speaking is a weakness of mine I'm excited to be pushed out of my comfort zone.

See you next month.

OCTOBER 2022

SECOND month.

This month really gave me chance to get my teeth stuck in. I felt secure in taking on more responsibilities, carrying on updating important documents and pushing myself to learn things that may seem daunting. Such as working within the UTM tracker. At first I couldn't wrap my head around it, as before I started working here I didn't use excel. However, I have been producing many adverts throughout this month, which need UTM tags to support them. Allowing myself to go in and give it a go. Now I feel confident in using it.

This is the case with many things, such as creating LinkedIn advertising collateral and new creative for the five new courses for 2023 entry. Feeling more confident in making appropriate choices within the brand guidelines. Such as display copy, deciding images, making adjustments and working within strict specifications. I've been working more within Sitecore to make updates to the website, ensuring courses were live/correct.

I conducted an audit of third-party sites, updating out of date information and adding the new courses. This work carried over as my line manager changed. My original line manager went on maternity leave. This change helped me adapt and reach out further into the team. The support from all the team has been incredible. I'm extremely comfortable with my new line manager and this relationship has helped me push my work load. Creating advertising collateral for the third-party sites.

I feel confident in taking on other tasks alongside ongoing ones, organising my capacity efficiently. For instance, using my previous Adobe experience to make content for people outside my team. I helped put together the weekly acquisition update in the meeting, these meetings help the team understand how the team are doing.

Creating advertising content and updating the website will carry over on to next month. I hope to further my work within the team and help support others too.

NOVEMBER 2022

THIRD MONTH.

This month I worked extensively within the Adobe sites, creating more paid content. For instance, I created general LinkedIn adverts for the new year. As adverts i'd created in the past had a specific CTA like open days, new courses etc. it was interesting to create copy that had a different take.

I also made content for third-party websites. Such as, putting together an email for FindAMasters that would go out in the new year. This included making header and pod images, the email copy, UTM tags and alt text. Tasks like this are extremely helpful as it furthers my understanding in the audience and what is necessary to get your media across correctly.

I had fun this month using Premier Pro to create Youtube adverts for the new year too. This included a Bumper ad and a Trueview ad. I found creating the copy, gathering the clips and editing the video to be enjoyable. As I had to make a 20 sec video and a 6 sec video it helped further my knowledge in how to appropriately edit something down for it's specific purpose.

Vacancies left our team shorter staffed this month but I felt confident in taking more tasks on due to my time management and organisation. Working with my new line manager has been extremely fun too and I feel our good relationship helps me feel even more comfortable within the role. I'm not shy to ask questions and have even pushed myself further within Sitecore due to this. I have assisted on web updates where possible, learning how to use the media library, update images and copy.

DECEMBER 2022

FOURTH MONTH.

This month I worked further with third-party sites. I created email collateral for FindAMasters. This task has got me familiar with alt-text and how to access the accessibility of a post so it can reach the correct audience no matter what barriers might be there. It's also helped me find the UTM tracker easy to use to create tags for the advertisements. Along with this I feel I can confidently take on the brand personality and create imagery suitable for any third-party assets.

We had a new start in our team at the start of the month, resulting in our acquisition team being whole. I spent her first day with her going through each aspect of my role and advising the parts she may take on more directly. This was a good opportunity for me as it worked as a refresher for myself too while also helping develop my teamwork skills. It made me take initiative in a way that wasn't work focused, thinking of all the little things that may get missed and may give her a head start.

Updating the PPC copy on our remedial courses was a new task I took on this month. Before Carat just had generic copy in place. I worked with Laura, the new team member, to edit these. We worked together to split them between us and edit the copy to be more course specific. We had to adhere to word counts - for some long course titles it was a case of switching wording between headline and description where appropriate. This helped develop my collaboration skills as I haven't had much opportunity in the past to work with other individuals. 

As we were off for a week for Christmas it was a case of getting everything prepared to go live in January. This meant my organisation was key. Luckily my time management allowed me to take on new tasks as they came, such as re-editing the TETfund document and creating PhD third-party advertisement imagery. It was nice to do festive things out of the office as a team. Such as our Christmas lunch and work drinks. These activities made me realise how much i'd settled into the role.

My main task before Christmas was editing the Open Day and Events page. It included out of date information and the images/pods needed tidying up. This was quite a fun task as it pushed me to use Sitecore further. I used Photoshop to create the pod images the correct size

I removed pods to different pages and added them within the FAQ drop down boxes instead. This created a sleeker look on the page and clearer direction for people looking through. I used Getty Images to find the correct imagery as we have a new subscription with them, helping widen my resources.

I also looked at updating the Current NU display ad that was live. Editing the copy and image where necessary. In the next months I hope to widen my knowledge of appropriate imagery, assessing what emotions and concepts they evoke - evaluating if that fits the brand.

JANUARY 2023

FIFTH MONTH.

The month began with trying out something completely new to me, Google Analytics. I had the task of finding where specific web traffic was coming from. I looked at paid and organic search. This task helped out across the team and also made me develop my confidence in understanding the impact of campaigns. It was helpful to see why I do specific tasks  and how this brings in an audience.

This month was also full of preparation. Various scholarships were set to go live in February, like the Vice-Chancellor's Scholarship and Master Your Future Scholarship. Due to this it was my main role of the month to get assets together and prepared. This included working further on Adobe Software to create creative to use as pods on the website. 

I updated the display adverts for the focus courses that were part of the Scholarships. This task involved making sure all copy and imagery was correct then changing the second caveat frame to include the specific scholarship information. Once this work was finalised we briefed the updated ads to Carat and set them to go live in February.

My knowledge of Sitecore became developed throughout the month as I was frequently making edits to the pages. Such as updated copy, pods and doing new things such as adding a carousel to the page and linking to certain pages. These continuous updates to the pages help develop the usability and visibility of information through our various pages, including key landing pages, which are vital to the navigation of the site.

FEBRUARY 2023

SIXTH MONTH.

Every time I create new display assets it then needs to be approved, such as the scholarship display I created last month. Carat sends an email when they're ready to be viewed and I then go into the portal and list which ones are approved/not approved and leave comments within the spreadsheet if they're needing further improvements. This check would include looking at each frame and making showing the imagery is showing properly, all copy is spelt right and within word count and that when you click through the advert it takes you to the right page. When I include these links I create them as UTM tags - in that way we can analyse traffic through the page more accurately as it tracks which campaign the person has clicked through from. All scholarship display has since been approved and put live.

I also reviewed our third-party site FindAMasters, the main task was to create UTM tags for each course, again so we can track exactly where traffic comes from and how well our FindAMasters profile is performing. I helped out across teams again this month for the PhD team to create a general flyer for potential students. This was something new to me but as I was recommended prior due to my past experience they asked for my help again as they were impressed with the work I produced. This made me feel more confident within my graphic and Adobe skills.

From our weekly meetings we find areas that may need more focus or brainstorm ideas that could be potentially changing. For a consistent amount of weeks the Fashion MA's have been under performing. I took on the task of auditing what display adverts we already had out and how I could improve these - to help get more traffic through to the page ultimately and hopefully resulting in more applications. To do this I reviewed each course page and pulled the best information and what I thought would resonate to people viewing it. For the imagery I used Getty Images to find eye-catching and accurate photos to use. Sometimes this can be the most difficult part as there's 6 different templates they need to look good in: Skyscraper, Wide Skyscraper, MPU, Dbl MPU, Masthead and Leaderboard. Reviewing these are important so we're showing exactly what we want and reflecting a high-standard of the University at every opportunity. 

MARCH 2023

SEVENTH MONTH.

The start of this month marked the end of my probation period, I have successfully met both my business and behavioural objectives set for me within these past six months. Me and manager had our final probation meeting, where we spoke on what we think works, what doesn't, what i enjoy and what i don't. I feel really comfortable in the relationship we share which i'm extremely grateful for as this is my first 9-5 setting. I feel I've been given space to learn, make mistakes, question things, change things and so on. I'm glad I took this direction.

Learnt how to brief in the display adverts, this made me feel confident in providing support to the rest of my team. After final approval I can brief them in my own time instead of sending to my manager. Then once Carat lets us know they're available for preview, I go back into the sheet and either give final approval or add comments that need amending. This is a very smooth process and ensures that the display that's going out is exactly as intended, hoping to get the best results. I briefed in the fashion display, this had a lot of amends to go back into as sometimes it translates different to what I expect from spreadsheet to the visual moving imagery.

With a group of the other interns we helped with B-roll filming around campus. This included filming around the library, sports central, business building and general shots of us walking across campus. We worked with an external film agency, it was interesting watching him work and what he felt worked the best for 'candid' shots and what pieces of the campus grabbed his attention. I noticed myself offering opinions and remembering previous skills I'd learnt when filming. I found this process very fun as I hadn't had the situation where i'm the one in front of the camera, for all i'm not excited to see myself on a screen it was fun to relive my experiences.

I also stepped out of my comfort zone this month as we had an acquisition update in one of our weekly team meetings. This included Laura and I gathering data, explanations and imagery on everything we had been working on and informing the rest of the team through a presentation. I am not the most confident public speaker so I made sure that I knew what angle I was going in with, especially since I had to say numbers - this would be a place to easily stutter and slip up. I am really happy with the turn out however, I believe I spoke concise and clearly. Even making conversation after, showing that the data had potential explanations etc. I think i'll take this attitude of public speaking into the future. 

APRIL 2023

EIGHTH MONTH.

A skill that I have developed throughout this placement is consistency. There are many times when the web pages and documents I keep need frequent edits, such as the Conservation of Fine Art MA. This course became updated into two separate pathways. I needed to use my intuition to edit the documents I upkeep for the team, ensuring that they can always access up-to-date information. The same goes with checking our third-party sites. I regularly do audits on our profile on sites such as Prospects, Uni Compare etc.

I assessed our key landing pages such as our current nu and return nu pages. I was viewing how these were seen on mobile compared to computer and whether it was accessible over different platforms. This task flagged some important changes that needed to be made within the website. Communicating within my team helped these updates to e completed - resulting in an our website being even more readable than before. This was also the case with the Open Graphs. This is the first time I've dealt with these so it took some getting used to, due to this it's an on going task.

This month brought some different tasks than i'm used to as I helped across teams helping the UG team. For their focus courses campaigns they wanted to create social media assets and content. Since I am a Fashion Communication student I helped them create this content. They required a video of me talking about my time as a student, why I came to Northumbria, benefits etc. I answered prompts as I filmed myself talking through it all, I used the Northumbria filming app and these clips got sent straight to UG's Content team. For all this seemed like a daunting task for me at first, I'm not comfortable hearing/seeing myself on film, it actually turned out extremely fun.

As I have prior experience of holding interviews and filming film content myself it was nice to be able to create this for other people. This became evident that I had a skill in this when I filmed the B-roll. I thought about what i'd want and the team seemed grateful for it. I'm happy with the outcome of the video and think the team did an extremely good job. I've included the Instagram reel below:

MAY 2023

NINTH MONTH.

I completed my task on updating the Open Graphs this month. This included finding suitable imagery using either Getty images or our media store and creating a headline and description. Updating these were especially important for pages like our fees and funding page as it contained out of date information on the government loan. It was fun to create these as I had to think about what little snippet would grab people's attention enough to click through and ensure it aligned with brand personality. I initially struggled with understanding what open graphs were and how to edit them within Sitecore - however with the help of Rosie from the content team she gave me clear guidance and I was then able to quickly edit the long list of amends I had to make. This highlighted to me the importance of having a diverse team as there's skill set in different areas.

Updating the website was another continuing priority task. This time focusing on older pages that needed a revamp. Such as the postgraduate loan page - this included creating a wireframe of what I wanted the outcome of the page to look like. Completing tasks like this makes me realise how far I've come with Sitecore, as I am much more confident than at the start. I removed pods and videos I felt were irrelevant and added ones that I had created on Photoshop. My time management was put to the test as it was a long list of courses that needed looking at, I made this more digestible for me by breaking it down into a list and focusing on the more time consuming tasks when I was free. This meant that if I got given tasks during the rest of the week I could complete them while also maintaining my schedule.

I noticed the page included a postgraduate loan informative video that contained out of date information and felt too word heavy. I took initiative and used Premier Pro to create an updated video. I condensed the information so it was more digestible for the viewer and included more visuals as prior it was just white bg with text and short cut away scenes to clips. Once final and approved I published it to the page  I then shared the media across my team in case they found it useful. I was quite proud of this work as it was used within our emails and then re-edited to be used for socials too. The team complimented me on my work and i feel this has drove my desire to succeed and create quality content. The video can be seen below.

I also updated the current student journey presentation I started a couple of months back. This was revolving how current students may experience the web page, searching and applying for courses etc. I added in further info on how the journey might differ between pc and mobile, the downsides of the portal journey and any further improvements that we could make. It feels good being able to showcase my analytical skills and be given a platform to give forward any ideas on changes i may have.

We have a new weekly system that's been put in place which is a PG weekly resource planner. Here we put in our hours for the week, any holidays, meetings, tasks etc. It's in hopes that we can see which is the most useful way to spend your time and which tasks seem the most beneficial to the company. I have never worked in this way before as planning out specific times for tasks never seemed to work for me, so it's interesting to view my tasks in a different manner. I'm hoping this pushing forward my time management and scheduling skills even further as it's always important to change up the way you work in order to better yourself.

I also completed an audit of university compare as our account was coming up to renewal. This included correcting images they recommended, updating copy and providing UTM tags. For this task we weren't given a deadline but asked on the spot for the UTM tags, this is when I realised how far my skills in the UTM document have came because I created them quickly in the short time span I had to do them. This highlighted the importance of organisation. Due to this I quickly made sure the rest of the audit was done and any edits were briefed in to Carat the following days.

June 2023

TENTH MONTH.

This month our latest campaign was surrounding our change direction courses. Brittany, my line manager, was on holiday frequently around these months which really gave me the chance to be independent. I worked on the tasks while she was away and collaborated with Laura, my acquisition colleague when necessary.  Brittany gave me free reign to create native and think of different ideas. I created a short form, mocked up display, story boarded a video, wrote a content card and made this all accessible to her through an email. This made it a smooth transition when she came back and we could be on the same page in our 1-1. I edited the work further from her feedback and then got to work on the video.

This was a particularly tricky task as I had to edit 20 minutes of interview footage down into a 30 second video. This took longer than I am used to so I had to manage my other tasks correctly to ensure everything was being completed on time. The briefing was when I was on holiday so I wanted to ensure that everything was either completed or accessible if further edits were necessary. I created three variations of the CD video: text with b-roll, a cd computer science student and a cd nursing student. When these were all completed I put the project files on Teams so that they'd be accessible to edit. Since I returned they have been briefed in and are awaiting for the live date. See the general video below:

I continued to edit the website pages while Brittany was gone, using my initiative to remove open days that have been and update them with future ones.  Through team updates I find out about courses that have been removed for the year. When I find this information out I remove them from third-party sites and course lists. This ensures that all information that is out is up-to-date and correct.  

This month marked the hand in of my placement work for university too. This included me collating all the work done separate over the past year and compiling it all for submission, I am happy with how this came out. I feel like my CV shows the step up I have had since the one I made in 2nd year with my experience moving from retail to industry. My poster feels informative and hopefully acts as a good support for students. I am extremely happy that i completed a placement year and I feel extremely proud of the progress I have made while in this company. I am excited to complete my last months and i'm even saddened that i'll be leaving end of August. I hope to improve even further in the upcoming months.