Launching my new portfolio site!

My new portfolio website will be able to be a one-stop shop for all things related to my career. The site houses everyone someone would need to work with me, contact me, or hire me. I’ve tried to organize it in the most logical manner, as to not overwhelm a potential client or employer. The site provides is the home base for all of my experience. I wanted one site to direct people to when looking for a potential virtual assistant and freelance clients when looking to be booked on a podcast as a guest, when looking for a job, and when potentially applying to a doctoral program. I wanted the website to reflect my skills, but also my personality.

Because of my variety of skills and experience, I had to divide the website up into a variety of section to be able to capture a true portfolio of my skills. There are tabs for my mission statement, about me, resume, my freelance information sheet, my portfolio, press releases I’ve worked on, client video projects, graphic design work, and my portfolio on YouTube. I also included my social media channels, and links to my blog focused on Marketing & PR, as well as my general interest blog. I also included links to other websites I’ve built, a link right to my Twitter feed, a list of websites related to my interests, a subscription to my newsletter and a contact form.

This website allows me to brand myself as a professional in a field and have a great way to showcase all my work and highlight accomplishments and exciting projects. I believe this website will be a great asset when applying for future jobs because I am able to show off how diverse I am, and my variety of skills. Sometimes it is overwhelming to try to include all the details on a resume, but I wanted to have a place where a potential person would be able to see all of my different skill sets but be able to go right to the aspect they wanted first.

In the future, I’m hoping to be able to add research projects I’ve done to this website to highlight my academic pursuits as I pursue the path with my Ph.D. I’m hoping to blog through the process of doing my Graduate thesis, and continue blogging throughout my doctoral program, and including blogs dealing with thought leadership in my area. I’m hoping to be able to get a professional headshot and add them to the page as well, and potentially have the ability to work and publish a few different papers and include a tab on my site for published work.

Buzzfeed: The power of influencers and viral media

Creating a website is one thing, but when your website becomes synonymous with popular culture, you know you’ve got the power of influence. Buzzfeed is a perfect case study for a website, turned business, that has it’s ear to the ground and a direct line to the 18-34 demographic on social media. Most likely, you’ve used BuzzFeed quiz to tell you what state you should live in, or you have a Tasty recipe saved on Facebook, or you religiously watch the Try Guys on YouTube.

Buzzfeed is an internet media company, that focuses on the social news which started in 2006. According to an article on TechCrunch, one of the most unique things about Buzzfeed was native advertising. They weaved in advertisements for products into engaging news stories, videos, recipes or quizzes, that were so well done that users didn’t mind they were being marketed to. In 2008, Buzzfeed made a mark on the internet with one of the most famous memes, disaster girl.

In 2016, Buzzfeed had over 200+ monthly unique visitors to its site, and 70% of the traffic is from mobile devices. The bulk of their users are 18-34 which is a prime buying demographic. This allowed Buzzfeed to gain investments and become one of the biggest news outlets for the Gen X & Gen Y internet users. They have cornered the market on the viral video, with various channels, and offshoot pages from everything from unsolved murder to DIY crafts.

For an example of the native advertisement in their recipe channel, Tasty (the BuzzFeed food section), recently did a recipe for soft pretzels with Dr. Pepper Carmel sauce. The product placement blends so fluidly in the video that very few people notice, or even care that it’s a paid post. Over 9.1 million people shared this specific recipe on Facebook and added to the view count that Dr. Pepper got out of their partnership with Buzzfeed. What started as an internet news site has become the king of product placement, and isn’t slowing down.

 

Overall, Buzzfeed is a part of our social landscape now. It is common to hear someone say, “did you see that post on Buzzfeed about…”, more millennials are getting their news from Buzzfeed then traditional news outlets. If this company can do anything, it can teach us some valuable lessons about what works for blogging. According to Entreprenuer.com, some of the highlights include the fact that List posts still work as long as the topic is timely, a well-placed GIF is worth more than an amazing article, and regular consistent posting is mandatory for a good blog. If you want to learn more what Buzzfeed can teach Marketers, this article from Tech.co is worth the read!

The lesson: A good blog can become more than you ever thought, so make sure to be consistent, have good content, and stick with the trends.

via GIPHY

Media Relations in a Social world

Social media has forever changed the playing field for all aspects of PR & Marketing. What once involved mailing campaigns, along with some special ads on television or radio, has become a world where you create one ad and it can be viewed on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Amazon, and your email. Ads follow you around based on your browsing history, and because of these changes, Media Relations has drastically changed. One of the biggest changes is the increased customer focus and higher engagement with the customer base directly. Social Media is where the consumer lives, and the smart PR person leverages this, while also tying in influencers, to create a well rounded digital plan.

According to an article by 5W, a PR firm, there are 5 significant ways that Social media changed the PR game. One important way is keeping the PR cost low for small businesses, and this includes independent authors, one of the biggest small businesses of the last few years. Before social media, you had to take your book manuscript and send it off to different publishing houses in hopes of getting picked up, now there are pitching days specifically on Twitter where indie author pitch their book to big publishing houses, and indy publishing houses alike with hiring an agent, or spending any excess money.

The benefit of this is more promotion. Before if you wanted to promote your client’s new book, you’d need to do the legwork to find an in at a news station. Now, with social media, bloggers have become influencers in such a large way. In exchange for a copy of a novel, bloggers and vloggers are willing to take your book and possibly promote it to all their followers and friends. For example, the vlogger below – Tiny Reads – has a YouTube following of over 3,000 people, and constantly reads and reviews books. In times before social media, reaching 3,000 would cost quite a bit in the promotion, but now, all it costs is an email, a copy of a book, and many some exclusive items to giveaway! The advent of digital media has made media relations an evolving thing because no one is quite sure who the media really is.

Another benefit of this is to continue to craft a relationship with traditional print and video journalists in a new way. Instead of pitching via email, you can now pitch via Twitter or Facebook message. Hooking media into your plan is much more of a tech-savvy choice as according to Cision’s 2015 Global Social Journalism Study, 94 percent of journalists are using social media on a daily basis — with 67 percent spending up to two hours a day. In the U.S., 25 percent of journalists report that they use social media to make new contacts and 12 percent report that they have published stories based on information found on social media. Though PR has been a thriving industry way before the advent of social media, there is no doubt that social media is changing the game for PR professionals.

The Rising Trend: Podcast Marketing

Podcast, or internet radio as it was once called, has been around for awhile. For most marketing professionals, podcasts haven’t yet cracked the list of the most marketable sites, but as podcasts are growing in popularity, there are a few reasons that either starting a podcast or getting your service marketed on a podcast, may be an up and coming trend in the future. According to an article on Forbes, 57 million Americans listen to at least one podcast a month.

PR & Social Media Practices: lululemon, Fabeletics and Ellie

One of the biggest topics for entrepreneurs is branding. Positioning yourself correctly in your market, and aligning with the right client is important. Your message will determine who comes to you. This is equally important when dealing with PR for a major brand. Whether you’re Lululemon, McDonald’s, or RedBull. Your messaging on social media needs to be consistent with what your audience expects from you. For my case study,  I chose to look at Fabeletics for their Facebook, and compare them to their competition. As Fabeltics is an online only store, I decided to look at two different options for competitors. I chose Lululemon, which is an in-store & online fitness clothing company, and Elle, which is an online-only subscription service for fitness wear. Each of these different brands is at a different price point. lululemon is the highest price. They provide high-quality activewear and are known for quality so the price tag can be higher. Fabeltics is the middle ground. It is partly a subscription service. People will be charged monthly for credits unless they skip. These credits are about $60 and can get an individual a workout outfit. Lastly, Ellie. They are a monthly subscription box at $35 which provides a workout outfit to the subscriber every month.