V Formation recently welcomed University of Nottingham student, Sherie-Lauren Eguavoen to the team as digital PR intern during the Easter holiday period.
Sherie was tasked with completing a comprehensive research project that would support us in benchmarking our digital PR service.
In this blog, Sherie discusses her duties and tasks during her time as V Formation’s digital PR intern and how the experience will support her future career aspirations.
A bit about me
My name is Sherie, and I am a first-year undergraduate at the University of Nottingham. I study a joint-honours degree in French and International Media and Communications in the hopes of becoming conversational and fluent in a foreign language, as well as gain traction in the media and film industry. I have an interest in a wide range of media, including advertising, PR and marketing, and film. My career ambitions are to be part of spreading positive, genuine and constructive messages to audiences to diversify cultural and racial representation, and to create impactful discussions as a catalyst for structural improvements within our society.
Why V Formation?
I am so glad that I chose to work for V Formation as it gave me a huge insight into the world of digital PR, traditional PR, and marketing, which I knew little about before this opportunity. The team at V has a clear, strong ethos of working collaboratively, with each and with their clients, to ensure their success, and this was something that really attracted me to the consultancy when I first heard about the internship. And I was not disappointed – the team was extremely friendly, patient and very knowledgeable about PR, digital PR and marketing, and this was really helpful for my learning.
My duties and tasks
The main task of my internship at V Formation was to create a portfolio of research and written work for the team to use as insight into their workings as a PR and marketing agency, which they would use to further improve their knowledge and expertise in the field. Initially, I researched the world of digital PR, so that I could better understand what it is, its aims, how it works and V’s expertise and knowledge of it.
I then looked into the ‘five Ws’ of digital PR to help me understand why it is important to consider these specific tactics in overall PR, marketing and SEO strategies. I learnt about link-building and newsjacking as potential digital PR tactics, and drafted a suite of collateral – a digital PR elevator pitch, a refreshed digital PR services page, and a summary of digital PR for client proposal collateral, about which I received constructive feedback, to support improving my written skills.
I interviewed members of V Formation’s PR team and its Directors, to determine their digital PR capabilities and identify and assess potential digital PR tools and platforms.
The team assisted me in my research, guiding me with links to blogs and articles to familiarise myself with the industry, and sharing plenty of helpful background guides and information from some of their own workshops and training courses. I mainly worked with Diane (PR Director) and Lucy (Senior PR Executive) and they were especially supportive and patient with me during tasks I was working on or had slight difficulty with.
How did this opportunity impact my career plans and learning within my degree?
The digital PR internship taught me a wide breadth of information about a strategy that is used more and more in PR. I now know that digital PR is the utilisation of the power of online marketing and PR strategies to increase audience engagement with a business, in turn ensuring their chances of success. I realise that digital PR will only become more heavily used in the future as the world continues to take a digital-first approach in work and life.
The experience has provided me with a level of insight into and knowledge of digital media which others may be unfamiliar with, and has not only provided me with mentors in the industry, but also the opportunity to explore the sector further in my future career.
Following my time at V Formation, I feel certain I will work efficiently and competently in future work placements since I have gained so much knowledge and many transferrable skills relating to media and marketing. I plan to explore more opportunities like this in advertising, film and media.
V Formation is an inspiring, insightful and supportive PR and marketing consultancy that values all employees and understands the value and potential of graduates. If you would like to get in touch, please click here.
