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When opening TikTok after a long day of class and other activities on campus, I have always expected a quick laugh, a glimpse into someone’s daily routine, and the dreaded temptation to endlessly scroll through my recommended feed.
After discovering Avalon, commonly known as @internshipgirl, on my for you page, I realized that not all content on the app is the stereotypical “waste of my time.” In the middle of researching internship opportunities for the upcoming semester, Avalon’s guide to LinkedIn requests and messages came to my rescue. Her careful use of short clips and brief blocks of text, accompanied by viral sounds or songs, quickly captivated millions of viewers, specifically female high school and college students. Information that is so frequently overlooked when shared by university career centers and counselors was instantly liked, saved and shared by thousands of users on social media.
Later scrolling through her page for a little longer than I’d like to admit, I found endless tips and tricks on how to land a competitive internship and network with alumni. Seeing another university student my age demonstrate a genuine passion for her early career and sharing the wealth with other young women left me fascinated and excited.
After following her page and keeping up with her content for several months, I slowly understood Avalon’s mission and intent with her online presence: empowering young women from any background, interest, or level of experience to successfully enter and thrive in their career of choice. While the majority of her content focused on early career advancement, Avalon also utilized her platform to share vulnerable and empathetical messages about prioritizing mental health and addressing self-doubts when embarking on professional journeys. Every aspect of her brand resonated with me and guided me through pursuing my own early career opportunities, doing so successfully.
After landing my first role in a marketing and communications agency following a thrilling internship, I gained insightful experience and a firm understanding of creating compelling stories, managing brands, and driving purposeful messaging across various kinds of engagement opportunities, specifically in the realm of public relations.
Around the same time, Avalon released her “Life + Career Organizer” Notion template, and I became a Notion Campus Leader.
Newly confident in my ability to network, I reached out to her via LinkedIn with a simple intention to get to know her and her experience managing a brand across different platforms. After several email conversations and friendly chats over Zoom, we decided to launch a public relations initiative, hiring me as her freelance Public Relations Coordinator.
Having used Notion for several years and knowing its potential to organize a campaign and all its moving parts, I used Avalon’s template to organize our collaborative goals, key metrics and examples of similar campaigns. Each database and its customizable properties allowed the opportunity to build a vision for the campaign and measure the steps and progress needed to make it a reality, even while each of us was managing internship and full-time student responsibilities. Our strategy and execution followed the steps described below:
Define problem points and opportunities for growth
Develop a solution strategy that is specific and measurable
Review materials (pitch, op-ed, selected outlets)
Avalon’s social media profiles now reach over 260k followers, engaging her community through her Discord server, Notion template and resources, podcast, newsletter, and more to come!