What is it like to be an intern at University of Bedfordshire?

As an intern at the Communications department /MARC/ of the University of Bedfordshire I was given the opportunity to work alongside experienced marketing and recruitment professionals, always willing to help.

Besides developing my communication skills, I have learned about the structure of the department, how the different positions are related and the importance of organisational structure for work efficiency.

Furthermore, I have developed a better understanding of the factors that contribute to a student’s decision to choose the University of Bedfordshire over other options and how the University is meeting the students’ expectations by delivering a wide range of courses developed in conjunction with the market demands, world- class facilities, a new state-of-the-art library at Luton campus and unlimited opportunities for development. The academic lecturers across all disciplines have significant industry experience and research history. Soon, a £40m investment by the University will deliver new subject areas in STEM including Automotive Engineering, Pharmacy and Optometry.

I was given extended information about the marketing research at the department. Based on the marketing research data analyses, recommendations are produced to the academic departments, with regards what to deliver for an improved learning experience. The essence of the research work is that the information is used for decision making. I was introduced to the digital and traditional marketing practices adopted by the University.

My particular placement is at the press office of the University. This is the first point for communications with the University. From the first day I have been given real tasks. I was trained to use software for media intelligence and to create a media report. Writing content for short announcements and articles is a daily routine at the press office.

Currently, I am given a challenging task - to plan a marketing campaign for the Go Green Week. To complete the task the first thing to do was to research the sustainability policy of the University. It's really impressive what gets achieved by the University and its employees. The University of Bedfordshire currently holds the 6th position out of all other universities in the UK for delivering sustainability. To achieve this prestigious award and being classified as a first class university for sustainability, Bedfordshire has implemented significant innovations on campuses. These include green sedum roofs to harvest the rainwater and increase the biodiversity of the surrounding areas, extensive use of solar panels and a wild flower meadow project currently running at Putteridge Bury.

The University has made an excellent decision to include the Graduate Development Program into its curriculum. I'm so grateful for my time here, as well as all of the opportunities I have been given. I have developed new skills as well as enhancing my understanding of the industry I want to go. With my improved skill sets, I am excited to move forward to the next chapter of my professional journey! I cannot wait to see what doors this internship will open for me!


Teodora Todorova

Marketing Assistant Intern

To survey, or not to survey.....

Happy new year everyone. 

Hope you got through the turkey, Baileys and mince pies (other festivities/comestibles  available) and are  plugged in to take 2018 by the horns (other animal parts also available).

January often brings hope and expectation. Or a sense of tension and gloomy foreboding. Is such optimism/pessimism well-founded? One way to find out would be to do a survey. 

Meh.

In this blog, I’m going to look at when it's good to use surveys, their limitations and when you may be better off doing something else. Knocking a survey together is dead easy; crafting a questionnaire that delivers is a different prospect. It's like comparing Dairylea with Stilton. And so, ok, sometimes there's time for Dairylea......... if you're a maniac with no taste (see left).


Why survey?
Good question. One you should always ask yourself and/or your survey sponsor. If you don't have a  clear set of aims and objectives, scrap the idea. If the reason for doing the survey is anything like “It would be quite interesting to…..”, turn on your heel and FLEE.

Medieval fleeing

Surveys can confirm hypotheses and quantify suppositions, but rarely provide insight. If you're after insight or new ideas or have no idea of your audience views, you should chatting to them, not surveying. Listening rather than asking questions. Unless you have a good idea of your outcomes or potential outcomes beforehand, you’re on dodgy ground setting questions and expecting meaningful answers.

How do I confirm hypotheses and quantify suppositions?
Surveys. Though bear in mind, surveys are blunt instruments. The ideal market research survey should:

• be accessible (usually online - but do consider anyone without access to computers);
• be as short as possible - only ask questions key to the survey aims and objectives and keep open ended (non-precoded questions) to an absolute minimum;
• be piloted (tested). Get another set of eyes. I get fantastic help from colleagues in the CRM team, who have no problem telling me when questions or layouts don't work. I don't pretend to be Gary Gallup or Micky Mori, but would be happy to cast an eye over any survey you may be proposing - give me a shout;
• like I said, be AS SHORT AS POSSIBLE - if you don't need to know the views of different sexes or age/ethnicity groups, don't ask (it's good practice from a GDPR point of view);
• contain questions which are  clear and unambiguous, and easy to answer (remember, you can't explain things or correct any misinterpretations if you're not face-to-face). Here are some of the more common mistakes when drafting questions;
• be something which can be acted on – don’t ask about a la carte dining experiences if you’re researching locations for a grotty tea bar;



Keep questions as short as possible

• be something people will want to do. Offer incentives (very important for students; staff aren’t allowed a prize draw, although you could think about a charity donation based on the number of responses).

Check and share data early – an early check will confirm if an online survey is working. It may also prepare managers for any shock results if you're lucky/unlucky to get them.

Be prepared to be ignored
So. There will be times when minds are already made up. I recently carried out a survey looking at different choices of artwork. It was a good survey and gave a clear "winner". Inexplicaby, the third most popular design - there were four in all - was used. Fine. This isn’t a sob story. It does, however, illustrate how running a survey can be a waste, both in development and time spent by respondents. It’s always worth asking “will these results matter”? If not, why are you surveying?

Who do I survey?
You should be looking to represent the views and taking time to identify and reach a specific audience. This could, for example, be students, applicants or staff. It could be a combination of groups. Think about each audience's expectations – students and applicants may expect an incentive (immediate gratification), staff may be looking for feedback down the line to engender (so encouraging engagement and buy-in).

When should I survey?
Again, think about your audience and plan.

• For most audiences avoid holiday times;
• Check what else is going on, survey-wise. If you want to survey students, you need to contact the Student Experience team;
• If you want views on an initiative, it's best to ask the questions after the initiative;
• If you want to test the initiative, you may think about repeating questions before and after the initiative and check out the difference.

Anyway, this is all basic stuff. Quant 101. But then surveys should be basic.

Thanks for reading. This weekend, I'm going to have a shave and a haircut. i might think about The Ramones. Here's The Ramones with a top tune:

New year, same you. Just better.

Happy New Year everyone, I hope you had a great time celebrating! 

I feel there's a level of expectation about the first blog post of the year, so I hope I won't disappoint! It IS going to have a 'new year's resolution' type of message, but one I hope you won't find cliché.

I've never read a 'self-help' book in all of my life, however I asked for a book for Christmas called 'How to be a BAWSE' by Lilly Singh. What's a Bawse, I hear you ask? Well it's like a boss, but better. It's when you're not just surviving life, you're conquering it. Lilly is a YouTuber I watch (am I showing my age yet?) and her motivation and drive for business, work and life always astounds me, so I thought I'd give her book a go. 

Yada yada yada, long story short...it's amazing. It's essentially all the little arguments and discussions you have with yourself written down. With solutions. I'm a fair way through the 50 chapters, but these are two of my favourite points so far, and I hope they'll be helpful to you too.

1) Schedule time for inspiration.

I'm not entirely sure who reads this blog, but I'll go with a wide assumption that most of you are working. When you have a job - a day in, day out, 9-5, doing similar things over and over kind of job - updating and re-vamping can be the last things on your mind. Well here I am, giving you permission to schedule time for inspiration so that you can change that. 

You're a web designer? Spend 15 minutes searching for your favourite websites. What do you like about them, is there anything you could replicate within your work?  
You're an architect? Watch a TED talk on how architecture can transform urban spaces. It might give you some structural ideas you've never thought of before. Boom. Inspiration. 
Script-writer? Go on Netflix and watch a genre you're not usually interested in. The story-line or characterisation you see might help you create a play that's unique and different to anything you've ever created. And there you have it. Inspiration = motivation to do better. 

We try to do it here in the Marketing team too sometimes. Recently Pete (Digital Marketing Manager) gave a presentation on some of the best digital marketing campaigns out at the minute, and we picked our favourites and thought about how we could use some of the methods in our own marketing. I'm not sure about the others, but I left the room feeling like we could make some legitimate changes to better our work. Don't treat inspiration as an after-thought, schedule time for it. Otherwise creativity dies. 

2) Don't keep doing the same things, and expecting a different outcome.

I have to learn this lesson the hard way pretty regularly, both at work and in my personal life. Most recently, I have been working on a series of emails promoting our February course starts. We (my manager David and I) sent out a first wave in mid November and they performed pretty well. We then needed to send a reminder email out in December. We tweaked the design a little and cut down the text, but the messaging was the same. And guess what? They tanked. I looked at the reports and just thought, why am I surprised? I did the same thing but expected a different outcome. I'm aware there were also external factors at work, like timing and the fact that it was a second email, but even so. I should have known better. 

So please, write it on a post-it note and put it somewhere you can see it. Because you're not going to get fitter if you always take the escalator and not the stairs. And you're definitely not going to learn anything or find a new hobby if you don't audition for a choir, join a gym, or watch a YouTube tutorial on how to learn HTML code. (Okay that one's specific to me, but you get what I mean). 

I'm hoping that was more of a motivational speech than a boring lecture, and that it also brought you up to speed with some of the things we've been doing in the marketing team as well. 

So remember...new year, same you. Just better. 

Until next time. Over and out.