I have been fortunate to have the role of Marketing and Content Creation Intern at QUICKBLOCK for my Saltire Scholar internship. I’m writing this blog in the penultimate week of my internship and can’t believe where the 10 weeks have gone. I should begin by saying that I worked on a case study of QUICKBLOCK in my second year of university and was immediately engaged with both the product but also the mission of the company. Sustainability has always been a topic of interest for me, and therefore a case study on a highly sustainable and innovative company was fascinating and one I thoroughly enjoyed. I feel privileged to have had this opportunity to work at the company.
I started my internship in June, just a week after getting back from my semester abroad in Sweden. I was warmly welcomed into the company, and it’s been particularly helpful having a previous Saltire Scholar as my supervisor throughout this journey. In preparation for my interview, I was asked to think about a social media campaign I would do if I was successful and I came up with #BLOCKSinACTION, which would show the product being used in a variety of ways but ultimately showcasing its usability and allowing both existing and potential customers to relate to the product. This campaign has been executed throughout my internship with content being created and posted on all social media platforms. Before the internship, I hadn’t used software such as Adobe Premiere Rush for video editing or photoshop, so these are skills which I have learnt and developed.
My first week was amazing as we had a stand at the Royal Highland Show, so I very quickly became familiarised with both the product and getting to know the team better. This was a great way to learn about the company and meet some potential customers. Another highlight recently was building planters at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival- a great way to showcase the product and also a fun day in Edinburgh.
Alongside my #BLOCKSinACTION campaign, I also set up a dashboard to allow tracking for the social media analytics and the website analytics. This has enabled me to produce a weekly social media report to summarise the weeks social media and website performance. The report allowed me to see what content was performing well and therefore where improvements could be made.
Finally, I conducted a marketing material review of changes which needed to be made and this document has then been used to help the marketing agency producing some of the new material. I think one of the best things about this internship has been the opportunity for both independence and creativity. I produced a content planner outlining the content for #BLOCKSinACTION, went through it with the team and from there started creating the content. This has improved my creativity and pushed me to think outside of the box.
Last week I attended a networking event hosted by Saltire which was a great opportunity to meet other scholars and speak about our internship experiences. I was a bit nervous before going as I didn’t know anyone and turned up by myself. However, everyone was friendly, and we had a great evening. This showed me that initially networking events can seem daunting but going in with a positive and confident attitude makes for a rewarding time.
I will hopefully be continuing with QUICKBLOCK part-time during my fourth year, so am pleased to say that this is not a goodbye. The team have been very supportive with my projects, and I have also gained a good insight into the other operations of the business, asking questions about anything I don’t understand or would like to learn more about. This has been one of the benefits of working in a small company as I have had exposure to all aspects of the business. I would highly recommend the Saltire Scholars programme as it’s been an invaluable experience and a great community to become a part of. I would like to thank QUICKBLOCK, Saltire Programmes and ESF for this memorable internship!
