What Beth thought of her time on our Marketing placement...

As part of my final year as a Liverpool John Moores Media, Communication and Culture student I was encouraged to undertake a placement to give me experience and an insight of what working in the social media and marketing sector of a company would be like. I first learnt about the charity from a lecturer who had worked closely with the Trust’s Artistic Director, Sam Avery on previous projects for the University. I soon got in touch with Sam to see if he would be willing for me to take up a placement with the charity and within days we had arranged a meeting so we could discuss how using social media as a key marketing tool could benefit The Comedy Trust.

During my time at The Comedy Trust, I have not only learnt many new things such as how to schedule a tweet or a Facebook post to be published at a later date. I also have learnt to use many social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram in order to reach audiences and as a result I have learnt to always be on alert for people mentioning The Comedy Trust and the Liverpool Comedy Festival on social media as I recognise that it is imperative to always respond to social media interactions. However, during my placement I didn’t just learn how to improve social media, I also learnt how to create professional emails to be sent out to colleagues and potential clients. Another skill I have learnt whilst being at The Comedy Trust is how to create a professional spreadsheet using Microsoft Excel. This was a good skill to have as it allowed me to organise lists for a networking event that we held in April. Along with all of these skills, I had to work to deadlines that were set in order to make sure that content was published at correct times in order to get the best possible target audience reception.

In addition to this, I have expanded my communication techniques as I have had to communicate with both the public and clients on several occasions. Also, I have been introduced to networking events and launch parties, which not only were enjoyable, but they taught me what to expect at networking events and how to communicate with everyone in attendance as we could both have valuable connections. Furthermore, I also participated in brainstorming sessions and meetings which allowed me the chance to work as part of a team and put my own ideas forward.

As well as learning lots of new skills, working at The Comedy Trust allowed me to improve upon skills that I already had such as using a HDR camera to capture high-quality photos and videos and then using iMovie and Adobe Premier Pro to create a professional video and using photoshop to enhance photographs as I had not used these editing techniques since being in college it was helpful to become reacquainted with these skills as they are vital when working in the social media and marketing industry.

If there is anyone who is considering undertaking a placement I cannot recommend it enough as without the experience I gained at The Comedy Trust, there would be no way I would be prepared or experienced enough for the world of work as I would not know what to expect without my invaluable experience and new skills I learnt whilst at the charity.