Ella's Blog

About me:

Hi! My name is Ella and I’ve just graduated from a history degree. I love history, but I realised that I like it as more of an interest or hobby, rather than an academic pursuit (I don’t think I could face another 10,000 word dissertation). So I needed to figure out what kind of career I wanted. I knew I liked writing (under that 10,000 word mark) and being creative, plus I spent a little (a lot) of time on social media, so I considered looking into a marketing career. I reached out to Severn Arts for an opportunity and I was so happy that they were willing to offer me a marketing internship!

What did I learn?

Graphic design 🎨

I was let loose on Canva to experiment in creating graphics for our social media. This was a lot of fun, but can be so time consuming. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and I could spend hours working on just one post!

Copywriting 📝

I thought this would come naturally to me, given that I like writing, but actually it was harder than I expected. I had to think about where the copy was going (social media, in the newsletter, on a poster etc), who was going to read it, and if it fit our tone of voice guidelines. With practice, it did become a lot easier! ChatGPT was really useful for helping me start, but I don’t think an AI could write as well as a human…yet!

Social Media 📱

After I made the graphics and copy for a post, I scheduled it so that it could be posted later in the week. For this I used Buffer, which automatically uploads your post across multiple social media platforms at an allocated time. I probably checked each post about five times after scheduling, paranoid I was posting the wrong thing or accidentally posting at 3am! To get inspiration for future content I scrolled through TikToks and Instagram reels and added ideas to our content bank (I didn’t really feel like I was working at this point!)

Analytics 📈

This was brand new to me. Analytics involves tracking what is going well and what could be improved in our social media performance. On Buffer, I tracked things like follower counts and the number of users engaging with our posts. Over time, we began to see trends. For example, we found that photos performed better on Instagram than graphics, so we decided to focus more on photo posts in future.

Newsletter 📰

I’m now famous in the office for my grammar and spelling sticklerism. I was responsible for proofreading and uploading our newsletters to LinkedIn, then managing our contacts on Mailchimp. Mailchimp is a platform that allows us to send the newsletter to all subscribers simultaneously. I was tasked with removing and adding some contacts, as well as adding tags, which tell me which newsletter to send to each contact.

Favourite bits

Socials ✨ 

The Severn Arts staff are so lovely and welcoming, and I felt like I integrated really easily into the office. My favourite moments with my colleagues include:

• The staff picnic (10/10 cakes on offer)
• Wednesday doughnut trips
• Working outside in the sunshine
• Making an office playlist (I think I went slightly overboard adding 80 songs on the first day)
• River walk and drink social

Having my own projects ✨

It was nice to have mini projects to work on independently, meaning I got to work on them from start to finish. I also got to attend great events like the LINE UP festival.

How much I learned ✨ 

I can’t believe how much I’ve learned in the few months I’ve worked at Severn Arts. I’ve gone from not having a clue about analytics, scheduling or graphic design to really growing in confidence. Everyone has been so helpful and encouraging, and I am really grateful for these new skills. I wasn’t sure I would use my history degree during my internship, but it’s been invaluable for researching, copywriting and proofreading.

Thank yous!

I’d love to thank all the staff at Severn Arts, this internship has given me so much more than I could’ve asked for! Thank you to Laura, Severn Arts’ CEO, for giving me this opportunity. It’s amazing to find an employer so willing to offer young people work experience opportunities. Thank you to my manager Ellie for being very patient with me throughout my internship and sharing with me all her marketing knowledge. Thank you also to Bethany for giving me tips and offering me guidance in all things graphic design. I’ve loved this opportunity and I will always be grateful!

At Severn Arts, we're passionate about helping young people explore their potential and start their employment journey. We have lots of opportunities available for people interested in starting their career!