Marketing Trainee Frances from St Mary's University College on placement with Training Matchmaker pictured with Make It Click workbook

As part of my BA (Hons) Liberal Arts Degree Programme with Business Studies at St Mary’s University College, I was required to seek out and secure my own six-week placement. I was anxious that I could not carry out my placement this year due to the ongoing pandemic. I contacted Chartered Marketer Christine Watson via email following a Google search of the Best Marketing Agencies in Belfast. Christine’s services appeared on the top of the list, which intrigued me.

This is my first blog in which I will outline my learning goals and how I will achieve them through the Make It Click programme and Training Matchmaker.

Learning Goals:

CV

By completing relevant courses on Make It Click and Training Matchmaker, I hope to tailor my CV more to the digital marketing field as I do not have that much experience.

Training Matchmaker provides me with upskilling signposts such as the Fundamentals of Digital Marketing provided by Google Digital Garage, which I aim to obtain a certificate when completing the full 26 modules. This course will help to develop my skills in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) with gaining appropriate knowledge on how to drive traffic onto websites from organic and paid strategies. This course will also develop my analytical skills through Google Analytics as it provides effective information on where to improve and what content to improve on.

Training Matchmaker signposts the Hubspot Academy certified online courses including social media marketing, email marketing and SEO training course. As I am hoping to obtain certificates and tailor my CV towards digital marketing, I could create a new section in my CV called Professional Development below my work experience. This will enable me to showcase my knowledge highlighting what I have learned which could provide potential employers a better idea of my skill set.

I also aim to improve my CV with help from the Make It Click programme such as through how to create a CV in Google Docs and the 50 CV examples for inspiration and benchmarking. This will help to structure my CV and make it look well-designed and attractive.

Social Media

I aim to learn more about social media from a business’s perspective, including advertising strategies. I will complete the Introduction to Social Media Marketing course signposted on Training Matchmaker and provided by  Hootsuite Academy. This will develop my knowledge on how companies use social media to engage with consumers and create brand community.

Following my interview and placement letter of offer, I have already completed the Social Media Mastery course via Canva, through Make It Click, which developed my knowledge on how a business can set the right goals. I hope to learn more about how to advertise on different social media platforms including TikTok, Facebook and Twitter. There are many courses signposted on on Training Matchmaker which will help me do this while strengthening my technical skills. Twitter Flight School which offers a certificate, Instagram and YouTube Playbook for Creative Advertising. These courses will help me to learn how to tailor content and understand the different audiences within each platform.

I hope to develop my content marketing skills including my editing skills. There are many opportunities to do this found on Make It Click such as Trello; to organise projects, WordPress; to create blogs or websites, Loom; a video messaging tool and Hootsuite; an scheduling platform. I will also create a social media content calendar which will enable me to produce exciting and engaging content.

Photos

On Make It Click, I have already studied how to take good pictures with your mobile device through which I explored many photography techniques. I aim to study this further to ensure that I can take professional quality photos with my iPhone 11 to enhance my practical skills. Therefore, I will study the tips for improving mobile photography.

I aim to improve my graphic design skills and editing skills through Canva. I have already completed the Graphic Design Basics course  found on Training Matchmaker,, which developed my knowledge on how to make imagery stand out. I aim to complete the course signposted on Training Matchmaker on Canva’s 7 lessons on how to be more creative. This will improve my creative thinking skills and graphic design skills when creating eye-catching graphics. Trace will also allow me to design the background of a photo including uploading multiple photos in a college from Unsplash and resizing the object.

Online Presence

As I have recently created a LinkedIn profile, I believe it would be beneficial to gain sufficient knowledge on how to present myself on LinkedIn. I can do this through Watson & Co. Chartered Marketing “Tuesday Tip Go Learn LinkedIn,”which provides many learning opportunities and resources. This will help to drive engagement on my LinkedIn profile and provide me with more job opportunities which suit my skills.

I aim to build a better LinkedIn profile by completing LinkedIn basics course and the guide to setting up and using LinkedIn course found on Make It Click. This will develop my strategic thinking skills and planning skills while improving my chances in attracting potential employers.

Email

I aim to develop my email marketer skills through completing the introduction to email course, the guide on how to write in plain English and the blog post on how to write the perfect email found on Make It Click. This will help to format my messages to a higher standard. It will also enable me to connect and engage with future subscribers so they feel compelled to open the email and read the content.

 

About Me

I am in my second year at St Mary’s University College in Belfast studying the BA (Hons) Liberal Arts Degree Programme. I am currently carrying out my university work online due to the current pandemic with Covid-19. My specific subject area in my course is Business Studies and my favourite functional area is marketing. I enjoy exploring different types of digital marketing such as social media marketing, email marketing, mobile marketing, content marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

I am excited to develop my marketing confidence in the digital world. I aim to not only learn about social media but also understand who the target customer is, how to reach them and the right message to send out, which will achieve sales goals. You can find me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

 

To follow in my footsteps here are all the links to my ‘To Learn’ playlist:

  1. Research and Auditing
  2. Content
  3. Social Media Competency
  4. Work communications
  5. Events Listings
  6. Email Marketing

About Make It Click

Make It Click provides support for all people helping to improve their digital skills. The programme is developed by Good Things Foundations and funded by Google. This provides thousands of people with many learning opportunities to help develop knowledge and build their confidence while supporting their professional development.

About TrainingMatchmaker.com

Training Matchmaker signposts provide people with free and paid online learning opportunities to help them reach their full potential. It also enables them to build or gain new digital skills with special help from trainers across Northern Ireland.

About St Mary’s University College

St Mary’s University College is a Catholic higher education institution which provides bachelor, postgraduate and liberal arts degree courses. The BA Liberal Arts degree is offered to those who have not chosen a teaching career as it is more geared towards a combination of focused study and broad development. Each student enrolled in the BA Liberal Arts degree can choose one area for Subject study including Business Studies, English, History, Religious Studies, Irish or Physical Education. The aim of the subject study is to provide students with a more focused study in one specific academic area to degree level.

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