PR at RiteKit: A window to the real world
Going after what I was pretty sure I would not get from school
I found out about RiteKit’s internship program during the month of April, just when my first year of university ended. I was vigorously searching for an internship opportunity that was related to either engineering or business. I was determined to get solid experience over my summer break. During this time, I had registered as a job-seeker on AngelList and I found numerous companies to apply to.
I read through the description of RiteKit and how the company had taken off. The values of RiteKit resonated with what I believed in and I liked how the company aimed to make social media a less daunting task for individuals. I believe that social media is the forefront of communication at this time and because of this, the company seemed interesting as it is a tool for social media optimization. RiteKit was the company that responded quickest to me and this was a major eye-catcher for me because some companies don’t reply for weeks or months.
Wha-What? ZERO pay? I’ve read about bad internships, so…
I read a good number of horror stories on various employment and internship sites, and found a couple common warning signs that I set out to avoid:
- If you look at many internship experiences, you find banality in what they did. This created disinterest in their positions and thus, their roles lacked any element of challenge, education or true professional experience.
- Companies take pains in recruitment, but only aim to tempt us with massage rooms, free lunches and other perks. Although these things are nice to have, you have to wonder whether they acknowledge a responsibility to educate interns.
Truth be told, I had never heard of RiteKit. (Hey, that was before all the press came, okay?!)
They clearly did original things with data, were a real startup (I saw the experiment in their business), and they had at least some people whose arms could be twisted into saying something nice, post-internship.
After the initial response from RiteKit, I corresponded with Saul, the CEO. He had me read an article with interviews of ten former interns at the company. I had read through it as he asked, and from this article, I could see that RiteKit was a pivotal step for many of their past interns. Saul had me send him my resume and after that, he had me schedule a video call with him. From the way Saul responded in his emails, I was able to see that the interview/video call would be different from most.
The days were slowly creeping up on me and I was becoming anxious for the interview. I wanted to make a good impression during the call so that I would be able to work at RiteKit. The conversation with Saul was very informative and educational. He introduced himself and explained the company’s history and values.
Value prop?
In our interview, Saul asked me what I believed RiteKit’s value prop was. He must have recognized my panic, and matter-of-factly explained what value proposition meant. I honestly had no clue and told him that I did not know. He shared with me that and and continued to educate me on various business terms. Saul made me feel at ease and continually asked me if I understood what he was saying. At the end of the call, he told me what expectations he has and what I would be doing during the internship. He told me I could take some time to think about whether or not I wanted the internship. I looked into all the advantages of the opportunity and decided to accept the challenges.
Finally, Saul let me know that now everything would work out, that I would make mistakes and that the team will still appreciate my efforts: “it’s an internship. You’re supposed to make mistakes.” (My class of interns would hear this a few times, throughout the Summer.)
In the thick of it
During the course of the internship, there were several things that I did alongside other interns at RiteKit. The first thing Saul had me do was to get fluent with RiteKit. Saul gave the interns a general tutorial on how to use RiteKit. After that, Saul had an experienced intern, Kristin, teach us how to set up our social media accounts. We had to create a Twitter handle that corresponded with our interests. It was important to make sure our Twitter handle expressed our identity so that people who visited our profile would pick up on that. I am interested in technology and I knew that it would be relevant to me forever which is why I made my twitter handle, @ShweyTech. After that I had to create a Call-To-Action to go out on pages I shared in Tweets/posts — that would be eye-catchy yet represented my personality and what I was actually about, professionally.
The staff were tough when we were giving them not good enough, but would always temper criticism with it’s an internship; you’re supposed to make mistakes.
Saul has all of the employees using Slack for communications. We had to learn how to navigate around the application. For customers chatting on the site (customer service), we used Tawk.to. In getting proficient with Slack and tawk.to we all improved our communication skills vastly and using it also helped increase our knowledge on navigating RiteTag and the RiteKit products that got launched over the Summer.
A website called Meistertask was used by everyone so that Saul can assign tasks, and we could interact on progress. This helped us stay informed about what tasks that needed doing, and when the due dates were, and so on.
The most important thing we really mastered was Twitter. We had to learn how to do auto-enhanced quoted tweets and automate tweets or any posts. This was difficult to grasp at first but by doing auto-enhanced tweets, the engagement statistics for our twitter accounts shot up. By constantly posting content and engaging with people on Twitter, I was able to create myself a strong social media presence.
To be honest, when I started, my Tweets were this weak:
https://twitter.com/ShweyTech/status/731870848873828352
Later, Tweets like this would be the norm for me:
https://twitter.com/ShweyTech/status/739583892601098240
Other interns in my class clearly made great progress…
Before:
https://twitter.com/ellietronics/status/750407601976999936
After:
https://twitter.com/ellietronics/status/762759564265721856
Before:
https://twitter.com/tran_biz/status/731869091661774849
After:
https://twitter.com/tran_biz/status/771724815099162625
After building ourselves a general social media circle, Saul had started teaching us how to do case studies. He had us reach out to crowdfunding campaigns that appeared to be in need of some help getting seen through their social streams. After that, we started reaching out to companies that may be interested in both learning to get better results, faster, with social, and also, in the free PR opportunity that we would offer: getting featured via a case study on their results with social media optimization and the RiteKit suite of tools. We taught case study clients how to use all the features of RiteKit and studies their Twitter analytics with them, to see how their engagement statistics changed, as they got to using the products well. During this task, I was able to learn how to effectively communicate and teach others how to use the products. I learned how to analyze the client’s wants and needs and find ways to help them.
Saul’s expectations of us to take responsibility for managing the progress with each of our case study clients was at first daunting. To be honest, this was where I at first felt like too much was being asked of me. That feeling lasted for weeks, but only until I came to understand that the staff at RiteKit also entrusted me with the authority to create boundaries with clients, even if it meant losing their business. I knew then, and profoundly, so I pushed myself beyond my comfort zone. When things did not work out, Saul was quick to express his admiration for trying. This is something I see myself doing — when it is time for me to lead.
Retrospective
During the course of the internship, RiteTag was transitioning into RiteKit. Initially, RiteTag was a single product and it was changed into RiteKit, by which RiteTag was split into the RiteForge, RitePush and Rite.ly SaaS (Software as a Service) products, and a brand new, entry-level product, RiteTag was released. This proved to be difficult for the interns to cope up with as it meant we had to not only master more products, but also had to anticipate customers’ misconceptions, when they wrote, Tweeted to us, or chatted with us on the site (Tawk.to).
On top of this, we had to teach our case study clients how to use these new products. This wasn’t an easy task as the new products had many bugs that we needed to fix as we encountered them. As we transitioned, we simultaneously tested the products to see where the bugs are and reported them to the technical team. However, it was easier this time around to learn how to use the products as we were already acquainted with the RiteTag product before it was split. We were taught how to report the bugs to the technical team so that they can fix them as quick as possible. We took screenshots with the web console open, scrolled down to the bottom, learned about browser cache issues, and even did quick videos for the technical team. We were always told how we saved them time in demonstrating exactly how we encountered bugs. The major transformation from RiteTag to RiteKit helped me learn how to adapt to a high stress environment and I also got an insider view of how a company’s dynamics change when new development is going on.
As we had just learned how to use RiteTag, it was strenuous to restart the learning process for the new products. I could see that it was even stressing Saul and Kristin out as well. At least they shared our paid, right? I also heard many stories of specific customers who interns and RiteKit staff helped, and learned a whole new level of patience in working with someone who might begin as an angry free trial user, becomes a confused but intrigued customer of one product, and with our help, becomes a raving fan. This was a huge take-away, and something I’ll certainly aspire to replicating — when I build my own company.
Overall, the internship has prepared me for various tasks in the business and technical field. I learned how to effectively communicate with everyone and be engaging with my social circle. I was able to build myself a stronger social presence which will prove to be helpful in the future for both my career and personal life. During these months, I was also able to learn how to manage and work with clients. I gained insight on business development which will help me look at business situations with a more informed perspective when required. All of this combined helped prepare me for any setting related to PR.
“Ambidextrous” and “Double Threat”
Not my words, that’s what Saul told me I was becoming. When I become a trained engineer, I would be one who already understood the marketing thought process. On the other hand, if I lead my own company, I will be a manager who communicates well with designers and engineers.
Where does this leave me?
RiteKit presents interns with opportunities to grow, learn and discover their identity. I have been able to learn how to engage people in this buzzling world and how to work with clients. I have gained a lot of knowledge in both business and social media automation. I believe this was only possible due to the team’s willingness to give us the space to grow and learn and his constant emphasis on perseverance, and the creativity required for a level of research that I had never heard of in school.
It was an educational experience seeing people cope with the changes being made and I feel great that I was able to be a part of the starting phase of RiteKit. Though the changes posed new challenges, it was the built up frustration that helped the team push through and succeed. Every week involved another step up in both task difficulty and responsibility, team communication and collaboration.
I cannot tell you how satisfying it was to hear that it was us, and how committed we were to pushing through all the obstacles, that the company was able to successfully transition from RiteTag into RiteKit. At the same time, if Saul might have overdone the credit-sharing at times, I witnessed and I learned more than any university course offered on actual leadership. When it is time for me to lead, myself, I intend to model much of what I witnessed, and what I would call culture at RiteKit. It is not beards, ‘bros, beers that gets a tech company through their toughest times, it is how their key people educate, elicit and embrace their newest people’s creativity, how they express gratitude for even the smallest feats achieved, and how they inspire.
What about you?
This internship has provided me with insight that I would not be able to gain in a school setting. A taste of this experience can only be attained by being a part of it, not by hearing about it in school. For those looking to find an internship, I would recommend researching startups. Find a startup that has a value proposition you can resonate with, is making actual breakthroughs -and where they seem to onboard people well, inspire them, and when they leave, they remain allies for life.
To research startups, look up the name on LinkedIn and then, switch to advanced search where you can search people only. If many names show up, find those who did the same/similar internship to the one you qualify for. See if they got a recommendation and if they did, from whom? Is the recommendation genuine or does it sound artificial? Write a couple of the former interns. Sometimes, they have email addresses inside their LinkedIn profile and if not, use a tool to find an email address or some form of contact. Do a thorough research of the company and social media accounts to see how they treat their customers and whether former staff are saying great things about them. These are the tips I leave you with and hopefully, my experience will be of some help to you.
