A day in the life of a Sanky intern
A day interning at Sanky Communications starts like any other day — with me pressing snooze on my alarm clock a good two or three times. But after that initial hurdle, it is a day filled with new challenges and new rewards, none of which resemble the last.
By the time my commute is over, I take a walk around the block to wake myself up. It’s a beautiful day to save lives, I think. Wait, wrong profession.
The door on the modest building is easy to miss, but inside is an office that is about as diverse and dynamic as the pedestrians on the street. There is this incredible synergy that’s hard to overlook: people of varying ages and backgrounds and skillsets, all working in quiet cooperation, at a steady pace towards a common goal. Whether you’re a coder or a copywriter, there’s a way for you to give back here at Sanky.
There is a very modern atmosphere about the office, from the use of the instant messenger Slack — “Just Slack me” is a thing people actually say without irony — to the open desk plan that encourages you to reach out to the people around you if necessary.
So where do I come in? As the social media/SEM/data intern, there are a variety of tasks that fall within my jurisdiction. Let’s break down each:
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Social media: This is deceptively self-explanatory. The key to any fundraising campaign is optimally utilizing social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Whether that means posting and boosting content to different accounts at the request of a nonprofit, or monitoring just how much those clicks are costing, it’s a process I can assist with from all angles.
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SEM: Search Engine Marketing is also very important. Working with Bing AdCenter and Google Ads might be something I do on a given day.
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Data: I like to classify this as everything else, all the charts and graphs and numbers that let us know what’s going well and what could use some improvement. It’s the grey area of my day, in the most fascinating way possible.
So, what does this really mean for me? What do I actually do? Why do I keep asking so many questions? (That was a hint).
There are the semi-regular tasks of updating budgets, then there are the tasks where the multi-faceted title suddenly make sense, where I am answering simple enough questions that are posed to me: What keywords are the best fit for this SEM campaign? What do these charts tell us that we don’t already know? Is this ad vendor someone who could improve our current operation? What is all the hype around Pinterest? In 140 characters or less, can you explain the rewards of using society’s beloved emojis in our marketing efforts?
My approach to these answers sometimes starts with a follow-up question. Internally, however, it starts with a shrug. Who knows? Certainly not me. But I can find out. And that’s the essence of the Insights team here at Sanky, always working together, searching for better and newer and more improved ways to get the client’s message out there. And isn’t that what it’s all about? A day at Sanky is a day of seeking answers — not all of them easy to find — but it is a collaborative effort.
