Hi guys. I’ve missed ya & also really missed chatting social and digital marketing! After plugging away at my marketing career for almost a year now, I can thankfully admit that to some success thus far, getting to work for 2 large companies with solid marketing teams and leaders. The first year out of college is truly an eye-opening one. My days are spent applying the knowledge accrued in college, and while there no tests to prep for per se, a different type of “learning” constantly occurs, and each assignment “tests” my ability to convert head knowledge into an actual campaign. I similarly conduct a whole lot of inwardly focused research as I try to decide where I want to go with my career. Yes, I am 100% grateful to have a job in my field AND one that pays me well. But let’s be real, who is really totally content with their job at 23 years old? I am thus looking for the next way to advance my knowledge and career. That all to say that while my day job may not be my “dream job,” it’s a great and wonderful jumping board into a path, one that includes 2 specific aspects of marketing that captured my heart.
Throughout my time in school and my year out in the marketing field, I have always come back to 2 general sectors that have, and probably forever will, interest me: social/digital media and consumer behavior. And honestly, don’t those two totally go hand-in-hand? Besides hard statistics and one-on-one interviews, where else can you go to truly understand a consumer? Well, how about his or her digital daily diary, plastered for the world to see on platforms such as – you guessed it – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, etc etc etc. I like people – a lot- but more than that, I really like trying to understand people and their buying behavior. We are curious consumers, aren’t we?
No matter where I work and what company I work for, I will forever try to pinpoint that company’s target consumer, the inherent job description of every aspiring and practicing marketer. Right now, I am not pledged with the task of interacting with buyers and readers, and yet I find myself constantly judging those that are, considering their “social media brand strategy” and then deciding that “I could do this way better!” Cocky? Definitely. Ambitious? Maybe. Proving that I have a God-given desire to learn and work in the digital sphere? Absolutely. Though far from the point in my marketing proficiency that I would be able to boast about my ability to understand and implement social media strategy, day after day I am ever more eager to learn and reach that pinnacle.
As daily advancements in the art of successful digital marketing occur, the field begins to boast so many brilliant and talented men and women working diligently to modernize the way marketers diffuse, and infuse, messaging across platforms to their target consumers. It blows my mind, but also strikes a drive in me, one that ignited originally in my #MARK5000 class by the ever-sassy and ever-savvy Jen Osbon. What she introduced me to what not only lessons, but also real professionals. I got to sit in a room of 30 students and listen to Nick Ayres, the social business lead at IHG; David Favero, global account manager at Shoutlet; Derek Van Nostran, VP Digital Marketing at CNN (like..yeah) & Lila King, Products and Partnerships at HLN (!! shameless plug: best guest speakers ever and two of the smartest individuals I have ever listened to), and many more. These are some down to earth people doing some seriously incredible things in digital. To say this class and these speakers were inspiring would be the understatement of the decade.
Anyway, I am eager not only find home in forward-thinking company, one where I can grow in my career, but also one that already houses 1) those currently rocking the social marketing world that I can follow around like a little child, hoping to learn from them and also one that 2) can give me room to take what I learn from digi-savvy veterans and [try to] implement strategies.
So oh dear job market, be kind to me as I jump back into your waters in search of a mate of sorts, one that wants me to not only grow in my profession, but grow with it in this crazy changing world.
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A Social Love Affair 