My internship at Spotted by Locals

Romy Smit, Social Media Intern

Hi there! If you’ve been checking out Spotted by Locals in the past three months, you may have seen my name pop-up every now and then! I’m Romy, and I was a Social Media Management intern at Spotted by Locals for the past few months. I’m originally from the warm and sunny country of Kenya, though I’ve been happily studying in the much colder city of Rotterdam at the Erasmus University for the IBACS (International Bachelor of Arts and Culture Studies) for the past 4 years.

As doing an internship for my Bachelor is compulsory, and I have done a Media minor and focus courses in Social Media and Management during my studies, I decided to check out local and international internships that delve in Social Media. I found out about Spotted by Locals from a fellow classmate and friend of mine, Yoliana, who also completed her internship in social media here in 2016.

I was interested in trying out for internships that deal with social media as a major platform as I am someone who regularly makes use of social media for both personal and school-related reasons, and wanted to know more about how companies and media interact with one another in a contemporary society where all the information we need comes from social media. I also wanted my internship to focus more on an international scale, as I felt that it would give me more opportunities to learn about different countries and cities through the eyes (or in this case, words and photos) of locals.

What ultimately drew me to Spotted by Locals was that it was a largely international based social media company that would give me a chance to improve my writing, particularly in article form, while giving me an opportunity to learn more about how social media and travel work together to bring people tips and news on where to go. It also helped that Spotted by Locals chose not to focus on the more ‘touristy’ attractions, but on fun, interesting and actually really cool local places that tourists wouldn’t know about if they only checked out large touring companies.

Since I have started working at Spotted by Locals I have been honored with the opportunity to learn more about the company and how it uses social media to interact with their large following, while also improving my writing in a professional setting, all from the comfort of my home. I have also learned more about how to communicate and interact with local ‘Spots’ and their owners, record and present media statistics in a clear way to my colleagues, and have just learned more about which platforms do and do not work well for what Spotted by Locals wants to achieve as a group.

Of course, there have been difficulties, and I’ve made some mistakes in the process of this internship, but it’s always important to learn and grow from your mistakes in order to prevent them from happening in the future. I am so glad to have had the opportunity to work with such an amazing group, to learn and grow as both an individual and as a worker, and to have had the amazing experience of getting to know how social media and contemporary companies work together to bring us the information we want and need.

I am now certain that working in social media management is something I would like to pursue further after my studies, and that I would like to continue working in the social media field in the future.

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