Louisa Purinton, a graduating senior at Tufts University, has been our intern for the past year, covering all aspects of our growing social media presence. Before starting a full-time position at Dell Technologies, we thought it appropriate to chat with her about her past year at Compass Marketing and what advice she might have for the next intern.
What was your biggest surprise when starting this internship?
There were many surprises throughout my internship. I would say the biggest surprise was while working on our LinkedIn strategy. I came to realize the importance of attention to detail when creating effective social media content. During my tenure, we revamped the social media strategy to focus on building the partners’ networks and personalizing the social media content. This made the content more relevant for the readers, increased engagement, and amplified the messaging for the overall business.
Through my internship, I have learned about the plethora of products and services within the health and wellness industry. From women’s health to equine wellness to improved senior living, Compass gave me the chance to dive into so many different industries. I also discovered how to conduct inbound marketing campaigns by showcasing how Compass can impact businesses in our network. I am grateful to have gained essential skills from this internship, like being better organized and more detail-oriented while learning about the health and wellness industry.
What is your advice to students looking to work in marketing?
1) Be curious.
A crucial part of marketing, especially for a small company, is being able to work on a multitude of projects at the same time. I enjoyed my internship at Compass because I gained hands-on experience creating presentations, pitching my ideas, and being able to lead a new content creation strategy. Through these opportunities, I continued to hone my marketing skills.
I always said “yes” when there was an opportunity to grow.
Marketing is a vast field with many exciting aspects, making it ideal for interns exploring new areas and seeking a variety of experiences.
Another example of being curious is uncovering why one LinkedIn post did well, and the other did not. It also meant being fearless in trying new things, like discovering and mentioning more and different companies in our posts or developing the skills to create compelling graphics using new AI tools. While being curious, I also had to remember to portray our content in a consistent manner while also ensuring that the information being conveyed was new and value-added.
2) Be creative and think outside the box.
As social media strategies continue to evolve, my advice is to be able to do something different than mainstream posts. One thing I admired about our last intern, Caroline Andrews, was that she created a video series for Compass. Experimenting with new and fun ways to interact with our network is the key to captivating a bigger audience.
Compass has brand guidelines to follow, but with that, there are still many new ideas that you can bring to the table and change the way you might perceive marketing. I advise the next intern to be creative and bold while experimenting with new social media strategies.
I also recommend that the next intern ask to engage in Compass client work. As part of my internship, I was able to conduct research and work on decks for SmartPak Equine and Lexie Hearing. This helped me look at both the horse and the hearing aid industries in new ways. If I were starting again, I would ask myself: How can I learn as much as possible from each assignment while always looking for new tactics to help Compass?
Are you going to work in marketing next year?
Following my work at Compass Marketing, I am joining Dell Technologies as part of their Next Generation Sales Academy. Despite the shift to sales in my next role, I am interested in returning to a marketing role one day. As part of my internship, I discovered that I enjoyed conducting market research and analysis for companies. In fact, I may even return to the health and wellness industry. I enjoyed my time working at Compass and was able to hone my creative marketing skills.
I want to thank Annette and Lynda for being my mentors in this role. Compass has been a great experience and I am excited to further develop the skills I learned here!
We congratulate Louisa on her graduation from Tufts and are delighted that she is joining Dell. Throughout the year, she has successfully balanced her academics while juggling the Compass social media calendar. We are grateful to have worked with her and wish her all the best in the future.
Annette is skilled at identifying growth opportunities and successfully guiding products from concept to launch. At Compass, she advises leading brands and category disruptors in the health & wellness, personal care and digital health sectors.
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