10.7.10

Marketing Posture

This summer I've started interning for a clinic that, in essence (and to avoid the longer explanation) cures back problems by teaching its clients good, more natural, posture. My job as their intern is to help them grow an online following, by maintaining their facebook, twitter, youtube and various other accounts. It's been an interesting experience so far, but not what I had expected...at all.

The job description sounded like a very formulated commitment, but from what I've seen so far, the reality of this internship has been -- dare I say it -- unorganized. There's this general mindset at this place it seems that because I am a teenager, and thus well-versed in the language of social media sites (i b on fb errrday, yeeee XP) that I have some mystical knowledge of the internet's inner workings. Let me just clarify: Yes, I can create an account on facebook. And yes, after a month of use my site navigation will seem pretty much second nature. But by absolutely no means does this "competency" (I mean, I said 'a month') indicate that when faced with the task of getting page hits for a program aimed at middle aged women, will I have the slightest clue what the hell I'm doing. They basically gave me passwords to preexisting networking accounts, a copy of their book, and a pat on the back, calling out "own it, sister," as they walked off. Either they are severely understaffed, or completely insane, but I have been almost completely clueless as far as how to help them . I've googled everything from "how to become popular on the internet" (recommended google ads) to "how to get facebook fans" (also, google ads). (Yes, I asked them about ads, and the idea was shot down. Ah yes, no one is safe from stinginess.)

My original plan was to use primarily facebook, just because I'm already a pretty frequent user and feel the most comfortable with it. But after posting a few articles and painstakingly getting them a couple dozen more fans, I realized a program like this does not come across well solely through articles. So now my current goal is to use YouTube to post some video content and see if we can traffic an audience through that. Unfortunately my video editing knowledge is ridiculously limited, but then again, so is that everyone else in the office. I'm optimistic.

For the time being. It's an interesting, unique opportunity. But it's also a very good opportunity for a very miserable failure. Fingers crossed.

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