BLOG: Intern Dan Signing Off!

I have been at Dakota County Regional Chamber of Commerce for 12 weeks now and my time here has been nothing but exciting. My first big project was developing our "Chamber Style" video which took a couple weeks for us to finish.  Creating this video with Megan and the rest of DCR Chamber was incredibly fun and worthwhile. It helped me so much with getting better at working in groups and coming up with creative ideas. I also got to test a couple news aggregators and compare them. Most of my work here has been reading news articles and blogging or just taking in information. I have learned a ton about social networking from my readings. Because of my time here I understand how business and business media work a lot more than I did when I first came here.  

Social media has been my main focus and through my time researching and interacting with various social media sites I have learned a few very important things. They call it social networking for a reason, its a network. You have to utilize your different media outlets in a way that effectively relays information to your followers. First, Information has to catch your reader’s eye. There isn’t much of a point to posting anything if nobody notices it so use some kind of visual attraction such as a picture or word art. Second, the information you are sharing has to be relevant to what your reader is looking for. In other words be consistent with what you post. This will help readers know what they are “signing up for” when they follow your page. Being consistent will also give you a better idea of what works with your readers so you can change the information you share. If you’re inconsistent and you aren’t getting the hits you want then you wouldn’t know what you’re doing wrong or how to fix it. Third, post all the time and make sure you respond and follow up with comments your followers make. They want to know that when they get involved with your page it will make a difference and their voice will be heard by another human, not a computer. Researching wasn’t all I did with social networking! I also got to work with DCR Chamber’s social networking and post a few things on our twitter and Facebook pages while helping to improve our Tweet output which is our number one social networking priority right now.

The time I’ve spent here will be valuable to me in the future and help me to stay a step ahead of the game. I’ve found out that I would love to have a career in internet marketing because of its huge growth in the past few years.  My work with social media will prove to be useful in that career. I had a ton of fun and learned so much working with Ruthe, Jessy, and everyone else here at DCR Chamber! Future interns can expect a chill work environment where things get done. Even as an intern I was given responsibility and jobs that required me to use my brain to help improve DCR Chamber. You really can’t find a better place to work.

Keep workin it Chamber style!
Signing off-
Intern Dan