BerkShares Digital Media Ambassador Program – BerkShares

Timeline: June 6 – August 22 | Location: TBA (in Great Barrington area)

The BerkShares Digital Media Ambassador Program is a 12-week hands-on educational program for teens to learn skills in digital marketing while supporting small local businesses with their social media outreach.

The first four weeks will consist of classes— one to introduce students to BerkShares and the importance of supporting the local economy, with the other three dedicated to learning technical skills for creating social media content, each taught by a local professional in the field! Students will spend the second half of the program applying these skills as they each assist a partner local business with boosting its social media page(s), forming a productive relationship while learning new skills in the process!

This is an unpaid educational program, and thus students are not expected to act as full-time marketing staff, but rather as short-term collaborators gaining hands-on experience offering support with social media marketing. A good-faith estimate of a program’s time commitment would be 4 hours per week.

The program is slated to take place from June 6 through August 22 with the following schedule:

Week 1: BerkShares and the Local Economy – Saturday, June 6th | 12:00 – 1:30
Facilitated by: BerkShares Local Inc.
Goals: Gain familiarity with the mission of BerkShares. Learn about the history of local economies and why they matter. Obtain an overview of the goals of the Ambassador Program.

Week 2: Graphic Design & Branding – Saturday, June 13th | 12:00 – 1:30
Facilitated by: Elizabeth Collins
Goals: Learn to make simple but effective graphics for branding and marketing, tailored to social media.

Week 3: Storytelling and Marketing through Video – Saturday, June 20th | 12:00 – 1:30
Facilitated by: Yonah Sadeh
Goals: Learn how to capture quality, compelling storytelling videos primed for social media, plus learn how to work with businesses on a video project from start to finish.

Week 4: Curating Content for Social Media Marketing – Saturday, June 27th | 12:00 – 1:30
Facilitated by: Beth Carlson
Goals: Learn to curate raw digital content into a professional, consistent feed of content tailored to a business’s marketing goals.

Week 5: Making Partnerships – Sunday, July 5th | 12:00 – 12:45
Facilitated by: BerkShares Local Inc.
Goals: Match students with a partner local businesses, creating space for them to make action plans for the remaining weeks of the program.

Weeks 6 – 11: In the Field – No Meetings
Students will work with their partners tackling their action plans.

Week 12: Final Get Together – Saturday, August 22nd | 12:00 – 1:00
Facilitated by: BerkShares Local Inc.
Goals: Celebrate the completion of the program. Share experiences and submit feedback.

Program Contact:

Peter LaRochelle
peterlarochelle@centerforneweconomics.org / info@berkshares.org
413-717-8572