As part of completing my degree at Bournemouth University I have had opportunity to partake in a four-week placement at Liz Lean PR. During my work experience placement, I gained a great deal of industry knowledge, experience of working in a professional office environment, and was delighted to be awarded Employee of the Month! As well as enjoying walks along Sandbanks beach with Bryher the office dog, I was given the opportunity to take charge of my own mini-project throughout the four-week period.
This project focussed on growing the agency’s social media pages and entailed creating a social media plan followed by taking initial steps to put this plan into action. To begin this process, I completed a competitor analysis as well as a social media audit of the agency’s own social media pages. I then came up with a set of SMART goals that were suited to the agency’s objectives of brand growth. Along with this, I created a set of style and brand guidelines including suggestions for profile style, visuals, tone of voice, formatting, and content creation. I then used all of these elements to create a complete social media guide for the agency which will be used on an ongoing basis following the end of my work experience with Liz Lean PR.
I also performed a variety of ad-hoc tasks daily such as blog posts, press releases, social media plans for clients, brochure proofreading, and transcribing interviews which gave me an awareness of what work is implemented day-to-day in the agency.
The office was always a great environment to work in and the company is mindful of staff wellbeing by providing team activities that are the perfect time to wind down such as the office afternoon tea we indulged in. We also took advantage of the rare sunny weather by spending lunch breaks on the beach and one in my last week with fish and chips!
During my time at Liz Lean PR I was given a balance of independence as well as guidance when needed. The team support really assisted in me achieving the best work possible within my four weeks with the company.
The team were extremely welcoming and helpful and made me feel like a valued employee despite the fact I was only there for four weeks. My time at Liz Lean PR went above and beyond my expectations and I believe it will be incredibly valuable experience to apply to my PR Masters in the next academic year.
By Lauren