Key words and content: the life of a digital intern

For someone who is looking to start a degree in Marketing & Management within the next year or so, getting to be in a real marketing environment for the first time has been an invaluable experience, so I’d like to start off this post by thanking the Cobb Digital team for this opportunity.

Upon entering Cobb Digital’s spacious and brightly lit office unit on the first Monday of my work experience placement, I was greeted warmly and immediately led around and introduced to the whole team. To say that I remembered everyone’s name and department immediately would be the overstatement of the century – from the confusing presence of the two James’ to having a Laura, Lauren and a Lawrence, there was some uncertainty for a day or two – but now, on the Friday morning as I write this I feel like I really know the team and what they all do.

Immediately following my foray into paid social advertising paid social guru Paola when I arrived, representatives of each department had a conference call briefing with that very same client, which I sat in on. I understood the majority of the jargon used as a result of my formative years (read: past year) taking Business Studies A-Level, and the whole experience made me feel a lot more professional than I really am, despite obviously not having contributed to the call myself in any way, shape or form. But it’s the little things.

As for organic social, well… when it comes to social media, I’m more of a passive user than anything else: I look at what other people share, lurk on my acquaintances’ Facebook profiles in search of juicy information, and laugh at memes just like anyone else, but I very rarely post anything myself. However, this week has definitely changed that.

With the guidance of Cobb’s organic social connoisseur, content executive Emma, this week I have worked on various clients’ Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest profiles, and have posted more content than I think I had in my entire life up to this point, and found it to be great fun! And despite managing some interior design clients’ profiles giving me major apartment envy, I am leaving with a newfound understanding of the nuances of social media etiquette that makes the house envy very much worth it – as well as with an unexpected and questionably useful knowledge about steel windows.

This is one element of being a marketing professional that I spoke to the team about and found that everyone can agree on: working in an agency, you end up with a bank of deep and wide-spanning knowledge on the most seemingly arbitrary fields, with no idea how you got it. You seem to imbibe them as though by osmosis – the search for content to share or copy inspiration leads you down some strange paths, ones which you may or may not come out of with an in-depth knowledge of gothic window restoration or design psychology – or bananas, in SEO expert Lawrence’s case.

I think SEO was actually my favourite area that I worked in this week. Lawrence taught me how to optimise everything from title tags to content copy, and while keeping within character limits isn’t my strong point (this post was meant to be 400 words, imagine), I found working in this department immensely satisfying. However, I also got irrationally annoyed yesterday when I looked up a website and found that the first line of their meta description was actually the alt text from their main image despite not even knowing what either of those things meant four days ago, so this experience does come with a cost. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss!

But all joking aside, my work experience at Cobb Digital has been an invaluable and massively rewarding experience. From partaking in the agency’s Sandwich Club (and the as of yet unofficial but equally important Fruit Club) to writing up research, ideas, content and copy for Cobb’s clients, I feel like I have learnt a lot about the marketing industry and have gained a lot of transferable skills that will aid my transition into professional life. Above all, everyone at Cobb Digital this week treated me like a truly valuable member of the team, which I cannot thank them enough for, and it would be an honour for me to come back one day and rejoin this fantastic team and agency.