During my semester abroad in Montpellier, I had the opportunity to intern with Montpellier Basket, the professional basketball team in the city. As an intern, my role was the social media manager for the team.

 

The goal of my internship that my boss Tariq had expressed to me was to promote the team to attract more attendance at games as well as making the games more fun and entertaining by enhancing the team’s presence online. My main tasks to improve the team’s social media included taking and gathering photos and making edits for Instagram posts and stories. I worked with my boss, Tariq, as well as a French marketing communications team, Evea, to create and schedule posts to a announce upcoming games and game reports. Even though my main focus was social media, not all of my work was done online. I attended the team’s practices and games to take pictures and collect content. I would also meet with Tariq weekly to promote games in person by word-of-mouth marketing. Another task I did was hand out flyers before each weekend game to students at the French school I attended, Paul Valéry.

 

This internship was a great learning experience and I had a lot of fun expressing my creativity on social media. All of the in-person networking allowed me to meet a lot of people and improve my French. I loved creating graphic designs and video edits for the team and sharing my ideas with Tariq. We got along very well which made for a great work environment. I felt very comfortable and casual, and weekly meetings with Tariq and the team felt like hanging out with friends.

 

Communication was very important in this job, but difficult at times because of cultural differences and language barriers. However, I was able to improve my French in formal and informal settings by communicating with the marketing team and Tariq, as well as French students and Instagram followers online. I also learned a lot about digital marketing and how to appeal to social media users through graphics and captions and engage with followers.

 

Overall, this internship was an amazing experience and I would do it all over again if I could!

 

Below you will find an essay written in French that highlights my internship experience in more detail and compares the cultural differences in sports and the role sports play in the business world in both France and the United States.