Prepare Yourself for a Career in Marketing, Advertising and PR

As summer winds down and the school year begins again, college students have to turn their focus from tan lines and barbecues to studying and working toward a successful career. Whenever we visit college classrooms to talk about the marketing and advertising industry, students ask our team, "What can we be doing now to make ourselves competitive in the future job market? How can we better prepare ourselves?"

In this day and age, having many talents and skills, or being a jack of all trades, is crucial to a newbie in the industry. The more you know, the better, the more valuable you become in the eyes of a potential employer.

Not sure where to start? Never fear-we've created a list for you:

How to Prepare Yourself for a Career in Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations

1. Read the newspaper. Okay, okay, you don't have to read an actual newspaper, but you should be reading the news every day. Visit cnn.com or your local online paper every day for just ten minutes. You never know when someone is going to ask about a current event, and you don't want to look like an idiot, trust me. It's important to read publications from more than one perspective as well. Not everyone shares your views.

2. Learn as much as possible about social media. Understanding the basics (i.e. updating a status, uploading photos, checking in, etc.) isn't enough. Teach yourself about social media ads and how to interact with a target market with these tools.

3. Set up a portfolio website. There are many free platforms available, and if you have the extra cash, a personalized domain looks great to future employees. It's something extra to put on your resume and allows future employers view more of your work. A portfolio website is also a great place to showcase your writing skills, which brings us to our next point.

4. Practice blogging. Start a personal blog and write things you wouldn't be embarrassed for a potential employee to see. This allows others to get a feel for your writing style and is excellent practice for you.

5. Learn about content management systems (CMS). Many websites are built on simple platforms that many non-web saavy industry professionals need to learn how to edit in right away.

6. Be creative. Whether it be through music, art, writing or another outlet, allow yourself at least a few minutes a day to be creative.

7. Intern somewhere. Anywhere. Companies want to see that you have experience and can perform in an office environment.

8. Business savviness is a growing need among young professionals. Companies are reluctant to hire someone who doesn't understand the basics of a business, i.e. profit and loss, growth rate, etc. Your basic Business 101 most likely can teach you everything you need to know.

9. Knowing AP style is a must. As a writing professional, it's crucial that you understand how to use correct wording and form. Businesses won't expect you to memorize the entire style guide, especially since it changes every year, but they do expect you to know the basics and reference it often.

10. Get involved. Your future employer knows that you had fun in college, but what else did you do? Extracurricular efforts show companies that you have drive and dedication, especially if you hold a leadership position. It doesn't necessarily have to be related to your industry-just show passion about a subject and commitment to your organization.

These days, putting in the minimum time and work for your degree isn't enough to land you a job after graduation. Follow the tips above and you should greatly increase your chances of finding a great first job. If you have any questions or would like to inquire about an internship, feel free to contact the Marketicity team.

Don't Forget the Bottom Line

As a marketing and advertising professional, it's easy to get wrapped up in all of the fascinating ways that ideas can be expressed. First I think of a great idea, then I find a creative way to tell others and I sit back and watch the target audience become enthralled with my brilliant work.

With all of this going on, it's easy to get lost in the fun of advertising and forget its purpose–the bottom line. Our clients love when we come up with engaging ideas but do great ideas always make them money?

Not necessarily. It's important for us to take a step back from our work and ask ourselves, is the target audience going to visit this store because of this work? Will they pick up the phone and call our client about this product or service? Will they make a purchase? Will this generate revenue and profits for the client or will this just be an advertising piece that generates discussion, not money?

Great advertising isn't about how funny, interesting or confabulatory (oh yeah, I just used that word) something can be, it's about how many viewers turn around and purchase a product or service from the brand.

Word of mouth marketing does wonders for brands–don't get me wrong. However, if it doesn't translate into leads and sales for the client, it's accomplished nothing. However, marketing efforts don't have to successfully bring customers in right away–after all, the point of social media is to engage customers and show a brand as approachable. Consumers aren't going to run out and immediately start throwing their money at a brand just because they read a great blog or interacted with a business on Facebook. However, if these interactions don't eventually translate into a sale at some point down the road, the marketing efforts haven't been successful.

What do you think? Do you know of an example of great advertising that you think did nothing to increase revenue for the brand? Share your thoughts by commenting below. We'd love to hear what you think.

Have any questions about how to determine your advertising and marketing's return on investment? Contact us today.

The Impersonal Peril of the Scheduled Tweet

The dawn of programs such as Hootsuite and TweetDeck have been a blessing to social media managers. Supervising and controlling several company accounts can prove challenging when you have a presence on multiple social media outlet. But the thing is – the certain features of these operating systems that we love so much can be brand killers. Come along and let’s talk.

Automated Direct Messages

Yes, we can agree that personally thanking someone for following you on Twitter is a polite gesture. But guess what, consumers know it isn’t genuine when they receive a general statement in the DM Inbox within seconds of the follow. As a ‘victim’ of this annoying occurrence, my first impression is that none of their tweets will be personal or direct, just a broad self-promoting callout. Meh, I will most likely pass. Businesses big and small need to rethink this action. People on social media, Twitter especially, are looking for conversation – and you’re not delivering.

Not Monitoring your Scheduled Tweets

Listen. No one cares about what promotion you have going on when significant national and local event is occurring and it’s all everyone is talking about. This is more challenging for national companies, and I usually let those slide because they can’t necessarily relate to substantial local events. But when a tornado is ripping through Lambert International – please don’t try to convince us to ‘come sit on your patio this evening for half priced martinis. Keep an eye out for situations like this and prevent appearing like an oblivious Twitter robot.

Not Responding to @ Tweets

The reason why I am such an advocate of Twitter is due to the power of obtaining instant gratification by means of a reply, especially when it comes to communicating with a business. I’ve had fantastic experiences with companies such as @redbox and @SouthwestAir with near immediate or quick responses to inquiries about policy, status, etc. While I salute companies who exhibit this behavior, I still get tripped up on the ones that take days to do so OR not even at all. Now I have to let you know that the ones I’m referring to are smaller, local companies. I would ask a question, eliciting a response and…nothing. It’s one thing to get to the game, but if you only want to sit on the bench, don’t bother.

The apparent attraction for a business to belly up to the social media bar is the opportunity to converse with their audience, the consumer of their product or service, or in some cases, sway potential consumers. As a company marketing on social media, it is your job to listen first, and then reply. If you’re not replying, you’re already losing.