Digital Marketing Clinic Experience

As I near my college graduation date, I've been getting post-graduation advice from many people. One of the things I've heard over and over again is that when I start my first full-time job, the culture in the office will be a huge factor that could make or break my work experience. During my time at ShapeLog this summer, I've paid close attention to the culture in the office. Here are a few of the biggest things I've noted: At ShapeLog, everyone's opinions are valued. Every member of the team gives input when they have it, and everyone else listens to it. Frequent communication is valuable and necessary! Every Monday, the team has a conference call so that everyone is on the same page for the upcoming week. Work/life balance is extremely important. Everyone in the office works hard, but they also know how to enjoy their free time as well. At the beginning of the weekly conference call, everyone shares a little bit about what they did over the weekend. I hav

Over the last six weeks, I've heard many different acronyms during my experiences with ShapeLog and our weekly All-Clinic meetings. It can be hard to keep all of the jargon straight, so I'm going to jot down some of the ones I've heard the most: KPI: key performance indicator - measurable information that shows how you or your business is performing against the set goals CPG: consumer packaged goods - products that average consumers use every day CPC: cost per click - refers to online advertising, the company advertising pays the publisher for each time the ad is clicked B2B: business-to-business (normally used in terms of sales) B2C: business-to-consumer (normally used in terms of sales) - this refers to businesses that sell directly to individual consumers

This week, Dasha and I started working on an exciting new project. Right now, ShapeLog is running a biweekly fitness class at the Anytime Fitness in Ypsilanti. Participants can come and go as they please, and attendance has been dwindling over the summer. In order to increase interest and commitment for the class, Brian would like to launch a new ShapeLog fitness class in the fall. These classes provide ShapeLog with valuable data, so having people participate is important. The idea for the fall is to get 20 people to commit to one fitness class each week for 8 weeks in a row. 10 people would participate in the class Monday, and the other 10 people would participate in the class Wednesday. Tasks for Dasha and I to complete are creating a writeup for the event, designing flyers and shirts, drafting emails, creating social media promotional content, and coming up with ideas for the prizes at the end. It should be a fun project!

I am now in the fifth week of the clinic, and things are going really well so far! I've gotten to know Dasha and all of the employees at ShapeLog, and I'm enjoying the time I spend in the office. Dasha and I have been very productive. Over the last few days, we have completed many different projects. I put together ShapeLog's July Newsletter on Campaign Monitor, and we sent it to everyone on their email subscription list. Dasha set up and launched a 4 day paid promotion through LinkedIn. We created new visual content, and that has already been used on the ShapeLog website, the July Newsletter, and Instagram. We established a new connection in the industry, and we introduced that new contact to Brian, ShapeLog's CEO. It feels good to have a few projects under our belt now. We have an exciting new project coming up too - stay tuned for a blog post about it!

During our most recent Wednesday clinic meeting, three people came in to speak to us about their careers in Digital Marketing. They were from Google, iProspect, and the Ann Arbor Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. Here are a few of the main takeaways I got from the discussion: Constant curiosity and passion for your industry are two things that will help you succeed in the workplace The ability to tell stories is always valuable Some people enjoy the numbers (likes, retweets, etc), and some people want to hear about individual people ; recognize that, and cater to both types of people Comments on social media posts can make great content, and they help companies recognize the real people you can reach through social media " With _____, I can provide _____ for you. " This is a good, basic format for any type of pitch you give someone Work/life balance is important, and you should ask questions about that during interviews with companies

This week, Dasha and I met with an EMU alum who also works in the fitness industry in Ann Arbor. I had reached out to him in order to learn more about his experiences, to hear about the fitness industry in Ann Arbor, and to hopefully get some advice about steps to take after graduation. Dasha and I were a little nervous, but our conversation with him ended up going very well! The three of us met for coffee, and we chatted for about an hour. He seems to love his job, and it was exciting to hear how a fellow EMU student went on to become successful after graduation. He mentioned that his career is incredibly rewarding because he is able to help real people, and that inspired me. At the end of our conversation, he mentioned that he would like to connect with the CEO of ShapeLog at some point in the future to do some networking with him, which was great to hear. I was so happy that the meeting went well, and I learned quite a bit from him. In the grand scheme of things, this was just a sho

This week, Dasha and I attended the ShapeLog fitness class at Anytime Fitness in Ypsilanti. ShapeLog has been piloting its strength training tracker at this gym for the past eight months, and classes are offered every Monday and Wednesday. The class consists of 10 different strength training stations that everyone rotates through, and after each class, participants receive a print out that shows them their progress and how they compare to other members in the class. Dasha and I attended in order to take some photos of the devices while they were being used. We posted a few videos and pictures on ShapeLog's Instagram story while we were there, and we took a couple hundred photos. We plan to use these new photos in an Instagram campaign for ShapeLog, and we'll also be using them in ShapeLog's monthly newsletters. We have great new visual content to work with, and we had a lot of fun at the class!

Once Dasha and I successfully finished our first project, it was time to begin a new assignment. One thing we can do for ShapeLog is create new visual content for the company to use in blog posts, newsletters, and social media posts. ShapeLog is running a pilot launch of their product at a gym in Ypsilanti, Anytime Fitness. Dasha and I plan to attend a ShapeLog fitness class there next week, where we will be taking photos, live Tweeting, and posting content on ShapeLog's Instagram story. It should be a lot of fun! Also, later next week, we are meeting with someone from another fitness company in Ann Arbor to learn more about the industry. I am very excited for what next week has in store for us.

During our second week at ShapeLog, Dasha and I met with the woman who currently runs the company's social media accounts. She is leaving for graduate school soon, so Dasha and I will be running some of the social media accounts for her while she gets settled in at school. Our primary focus will be Instagram, Twitter, and ShapeLog's monthly email newsletters. One thing that will be tricky about running ShapeLog's social media is that the content needs to interest fitness equipment manufacturers AND individuals who enjoy fitness and working out. Equipment manufacturers like to see posts that involve data, numbers, and facts, whereas individual people are more likely to be interested in fun, intriguing photographs. It might be challenging to find a happy medium for the content, but I'm confident that Dasha and I will be able to work together and come up with posts that can interest both crowds.