Hello! My name is Lapo Passarini and I’m from Florence. I’m currently on a 4 week erasmus placement in Belfast, Northern Ireland and I’m working for Watson & Co. Chartered Marketing with Trainer Christine Watson. This traineeship offers me a lot of opportunity to learn new skills in marketing and graphic design. I met Christine on the 10th of September and we talked about what I’m going to learn and what I want to learn during this month. I would like to unlock as many skills as I can during this experience to improve my marketing knowledge as well as improve my english skill and understand the UK working culture.
My learning plan consists of a lot of things:
Free Photography and Videography courses at Apple store:
Only a few people know that Apple has a free course where they explain how to create good photos and videos or to improve them using the best functions on the Iphone. I plan to attend these with Sophie, another marketing trainee that works with Christine, and we will get to practice our new skills in photography and videography with each other. I hope to learn about the functions, including taking time-lapses, the settings of the camera and lighting tips and advice.
Social media marketing:
Another thing I’m planning to upskill on is social media marketing . To make a good social media post I hope to be able to take the best pictures, edit the best videos and add the idea copy – the words that accompany my visual content.
Go Succeed:
Go Succeed is a source for expert business advice led by Northern Ireland’s eleven local councils. Their team of industry experts will provide support and guidance to help achieve business goals. My Trainer Christine Watson runs a number of fully funded, free to attend, online webinars as part of this business start up and growth support programme and I plan to attend lunchtime learnings to help me upskill on platforms such as facebook, linkedin and in marketing in general.
Canva:
As a marketer the look of something can influence the perception of what we are showing to others. During this month I will discover all the functions of Canva that will help me with the design of everything, from making a presentation, to editing instagram reels, or social media posts and to edit photos and videos. I will work a lot with Canva because I need to master it so I can improve my design skill.
How to write a Blog:
I have never written a blog so Christine is going to explain how to do it in the correct way. Once I know how to, I plan to write more blogs, because it is something I have always liked but I have never known how to do it. I will be posting on a wordpress website so I will also learn how to use wordpress to update a website and the Yoast plug in for search engine optimisation.
About WordPress:
WordPress is a web content management system. It was originally created to publish blogs but has evolved to support publishing other web content, including traditional websites, media galleries and online stores. In WordPress there is a function called “Alt text”. This function has the objective of “reading” the images you upload to blind people. I think it’s very important because otherwise people with accessibility needs can’t understand the article as others do.
How to use an action camera:
I’m going to learn how to create giphy and gifs. This can be useful because it allows brand placement in various social media posts and it can be fun to add a moving image to represent what you are trying to say. I have used GIFs and Stickers when posting on whatsapp before and I have used an app to create some before too. This placement will allow me to develop and use these skills to support the marketing communications for a business.
