Stukent and the Social Media Simternship

    

    I finally completed the Stukent Social Media Simternship program for my Principals of Social Media course this week. This program allows students like myself to experience real-world digital marketing. It guides you through 12 rounds, concentrating on creating organic social posts, paid social posts, collaborating with influencers, and ultimately executing all three types of posts simultaneously. Along with creating media, you also respond to customer messages, examine company data and analyze post success to help with future decisions. You undertake all of these tasks for Buhi Supply Co., a company that specializes in the sale of a wide array of bags. Personally, I would purchase from Buhi, they have some cute products! 

    All-around, I think my favorite part about completing the program was getting to create my own organic posts. While I enjoyed organizing the paid posts, the rounds focusing on the organic posts were definitely more my speed. Referencing the posting guide, creating audiences and coming up with catchy captions made me feel so professional. My favorite post, and one of my most successful ones, was a meme I posted. It’s a reenactment of the popular meme with the couple walking and the guy looking at another girl walking by, but instead this time it’s the girl looking at another guy. The boyfriend is “any other bag” and the new guy is meant to be a Buhi bag. I personally thought my caption was what sealed the deal and was really relatable. It read, “I want someone to look at me the same way they look at a Buhi bag…” It’s the small things like coming up with funny captions that made me enjoy doing this so much. 

    On the flip side, I absolutely hated working with influencers. It was so difficult for no reason. I felt like I never had enough money to offer or I would finally get a deal with one and then not have enough for another person. What really frustrated me was when I would offer a deal that was more than the minimum asking price and the influencer would tell me it wasn’t enough money for the content they would be creating. I’m offering you more than the asking price to create one post for me, I don't understand. And then to top it off,  after the first deal, I wouldn’t have enough money to create one with other influencers so I would have to give it to smaller influencers who would take the deal but make no conversions. The whole thing was frustrating and definitely not a fun part of the simulation. 

    Overall, doing the Simternship was really helpful and an intriguing experience to be a part of. The competition with my other classmates was of course a plus, but being able to play social media manager this semester was a valuable experience for what I want to do as a career.