VIRGINIA BEACH, VA – At the start of 2021, iSportsman, LLC, saw a way through the lockdowns and shuttered business environment that characterized the previous year and brought on three interns to help them bolster the company’s marketing and business development efforts. For iSportsman, it was a chance to bring fresh perspectives and eager staffers wanting to learn and make a difference. For the interns, it was an opportunity to learn about marketing, branding and content creation from a seasoned professional and to ultimately, do it all in a small office environment where their efforts might actually have an impact. Six months, later, they have.
Nick Zahniser, an Old Dominion University (ODU) Marketing Major who just graduated in May and a founding member of the Pi Sigma Epsilon professional marketing fraternity ODU chapter, has been diligently increasing iSportsman’s social media presence and engagement. iSportsman has reported the company’s social media following has increased 224 percent since the beginning of Zahniser’s efforts. With a fledgling presence on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, Zahniser has also created a company LinkedIn page and is working strategically to position the company’s new product launch of iSportsman ARX, an app-based land management tool for hunt clubs, outfitters and large landowners, expected in July.
“The nurturing environment of iSportsman has been a great place to grow professionally and as a leader.” says Zahniser.
Matthew Caroll, a University of Virginia creative writing major, brought his strong writing skills to iSportsman and is working closely with Chief Operating Officer Doug Howlett to produce the company’s twice monthly newsletter, Checking In With iSportsman. The newsletter has become a valuable tool to share outdoor news, tips and tactics as well as vital iSportsman news to the hundreds of thousands of iSportsman users across the United States. Caroll has also shared the duty of content creation for iSportsman.com with fellow intern Victoria Tillinghast.
Tillinghast is an English major at ODU, specializing in journalism with a minor in media communications. She is also the Public Relations Coordinator for the ODU Tau Sigma honors society chapter. Tillinghast has put her budding writing ability and communication skills to good use throughout her internship, having a helping hand in technical drafting and design as well as internal and external company communications. Howlett recently tapped her to assume an increased role in driving iSportsman’s public relations efforts through executing a more aggressive press release schedule and media outreach.
“I was fortunate to benefit from the practical experience offered by internships when I was a student at ODU many years ago and it’s great to be able to pay such an opportunity forward to the new generation of professional marketers and communicators,” says Doug Howlett, chief operating officer of iSportsman. “These students also bring fresh perspectives, youthful energy and recent classroom knowledge to how we approach our public relations and branding efforts in an age defined by rapidly changing technology. So it’s also a benefit to the company.”
iSportsman has long worked with state and local universities such as Old Dominion University, Hampton University, Christopher Newport University, William & Mary, the University of Virginia and others to attract and develop young talent (most often from the technology and coding disciplines) from interns to full-time team members. This is iSportsman’s first effort at working with interns to learn in and provide support to the company’s business development and branding efforts.
About iSportsman: iSportsman is the leading recreational program management solution in the nation, serving as the enterprise-level provider for the U.S Army’s and U.S. Air Force’s hunting, fishing, and firewood permit sales programs. iSportsman has been delivering SaaS and customized solutions to meet the needs of large-scale recreational programs for more than 12 years and currently manages permit sales, access control, reporting, and more for than 10.6 million acres of forest, fields, trails, and waterways across the continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii. iSportsman serves nearly 300,000 unique users -- a number that grows daily -- in more than 23 states.
Contact: Doug Howlett, doug@isportsman.com, 757-550-2556