3 reasons you should blog about your internship
Posted: July 22, 2013 Filed under: going back to school, marketing | Tags: Blog, Blogging, Business, Concur Technologies, Internship, San Francisco State University, Student 4 Comments
Hanging out in the courtyard of the SF Concur office. Photo by Amy Higgins for the Concur blog.
Summer is in full swing in San Francisco! And that means fog, fog, and then a little fog on the side … plus some more fog.
And for many of us college students, it also means internship season!
Are you interning this summer? Here’s some advice for you — definitely consider blogging about your experience. Taking the initiative to write about your internship is a smart thing to do in the long run, even if it means a couple of hours off the beach one weekend.
This summer I’m working on an internship in the marketing department of Concur Technologies, a top provider of travel and expense management solutions. In addition to giving 100% to my internship project, I knew I also needed to keep writing this summer. So I pitched my new team on the idea of writing about my experience as an intern. As it turned out, the idea for a Summer Intern Series was already on the table, and I ended up writing the kickoff post for the series on the Concur blog.
Here are three reasons for you, too, to turn on that laptop and get to blogging!
1. Enhance your online presence.
It’s rapidly becoming common knowledge that in order to get hired, you absolutely must establish your credibility online. Blogging about your internship is a perfect way to showcase your writing skills. It’s also a great opportunity to prove that you can turn the things you’ve learned in school into achievements in a real-world setting.
2. Enhance your employer’s online presence.
Companies are starving for good content to add to their web sites and share on social channels. “Content is king,” they say, and you are in a fantastic position to add value to a content marketing program. If you’re studying marketing or communications you probably already know this. But no matter what you are studying, your unique experiences in the courses you’ve taken may allow you to make a connection to a topic that your company may not have thought of yet. And that can mean a new way for them to connect with new or existing customers. And that brings us to #3.
3. Show your internship managers that you care about the business.
Bringing on an intern requires time and money from an employer’s perspective. They chose to invest in you; now give them something extra. Sure, they may be getting inexpensive labor in return, but the relationship does not have to end with your first classes next semester. Your internship managers can be fantastic advocates for you when you are looking for a full-time permanent position.
Blogging about your internship is a fantastic way to help out your new employer, demonstrate that you really care about their business, and build your own online credibility in the process!
Have you blogged about an internship before? Tell me in the comments!
Do you have questions about how to blog about your internship? Read my follow-up to this post by clicking here.
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(And now a shout-out to my school’s Facebook page. They originally shared the HubSpot and Forbes links I reference above! Thank you, San Francisco State University College of Business!)
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Love this, Dwayne! As a business owner, I can’t stress enough how important it is for employees (not just interns) to participate in the company’s social media networks and blog. We have several clients who leave all of that to us and they don’t participate at all…and then wonder why it’s not working as well as they would like.
Everyone needs to be involved, including interns. It gets you valuable experience and it helps out the company.
P.S. For the record: You can totally blog while on the beach. Just don’t hold your laptop in your lap or you’ll have funny tan lines.
Miss Gini! Thanks for taking time to leave a comment. I hope that readers will see it and take it as further inspiration to do some blogging while they’re interning. And sure, even from the beach! I would also caution against spilled margarita mix.
I totally agree with your model of employee engagement with social networks. And I think its success is directly related to another topic I love to go on about — people strategy. When you’ve created a culture that attracts and retains people who share your company’s values, there is no one better to tell your company’s story than the people who are on the ground living it every day! I think your company is a great example of that.