Internship Adventures at Where the Fun Begins: Learning Reflections Round # 2: Sept. 9

Overall, this last few days have been very productive for me as an intern. In addition, I am getting more comfortable with the marketing staff members, which is not difficult to accomplish since everyone is super helpful and enthusiastic that I will be spending the next few weeks there. I am pleased that I get to learn and to have fun at the same time, which makes it for a great internship experience.

Regarding my learning objectives: I had the opportunity to work on the Flickr account of the park district, and to promote the upcoming events and programs during an event organized by the city of Aurora. And here comes the detailed explanations of my learning adventures for the last couple of weeks:

Social media communication

image is from greenangelenergy.ca

One of my internship's learning objectives is to widen my social media experience. Most of us are familiar with Facebook and Twitter, so when my internship supervisor, Jeff Long, public relations manager at the park district, gave me the fun task to update the Flickr account, I was excited.
This last few days, I had the opportunity to view the beautiful photos capturing the park district's special events and to upload them for the viewing pleasure of the people who browse the website for information.

And boy, the number of those who rely on the website for learning what is going on at the park district, is really high: the website, containing more than 1,700 pages, receives no less than 50,000 hits per month.

Needles to say, I am so proud to be contributing to the marketing department by updating their Flickr account!
There are close to 5,000 photos in there right now. Not bad for starting from only 75. And with all those fun programs and special events scheduled for the next few weeks, I am sure I will have plenty of photos to choose from and to add to the website.

And the photos are gorgeous! Take a look of them by visiting the website and clicking on the Flickr icon!

Expanding my social media knowledge - mission accomplished!

Promoting the FVPD programs and events directly to the public
What a fun activity this turned to be!
With my partner in crime, Marisela Soto, who is also an Aurora University student and an employee of the park district, I had the responsibility to set a marketing table with flyers, brochures, pencils, bracelets and other fun stuff to promote the current programs of the park district during the Roots Aurora event that happened on Sept. 7 at the new RiverEdge Park in Aurora.

Promoting the park district's services and programs during this event covered another of my learning objectives: marketing via public appearance. Being able to talk to people and to directly answer their question about future events proved to be an effective marketing tool. People's opinion counts; you bring awareness about the organization you are involved with, and if there are any negative remarks- you take a note and improve your services.

And here is the little video I took that demonstrates what we do during such events. The music you will hear is from a local Indian artist:

Next time, I will bring a better camera to shoot similar events, since the quality of my phone's camera, obviously, is not that great, but at least I learned how to upload videos on my YouTube account and then to share them on Blogger. Another step toward being more comfortable with online marketing and social media.

In addition, I took several photos during the Root Aurora event that visually summarize my work as a marketing intern: