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Social Media is NOT a Career Path

Thats right. I said it. Social media is not a career path. Justifiably, you CAN create or find a job where you can apply your social media knowledge but, in the end, those of us who currently work in social media do so for other reasons: there is an opportunity to do so.

Where is that going? Will it be around forever? Already, I’ve seen the named ‘social media’ positions morphing into other things. Community Managers. Interactive Marketing Directors. Content Creators. Is the skill itself ‘social media’ or is the skill, the far more profitable and long-term one, something far simpler and time-tested: Strategy. Marketing. Creative Direction.

I’ve been masquerading as a technical person. I’m not. I’m a communicator. A strategic communicator. I’ve always loved the interplay between people, what they say, what they mean to say, and what they ultimately end up communicating to their audience, for better or for worse. Of course, this has to do with my own personal evaluation and evolution of how I communicate and how I understand what others communicate to me, however flawed in understanding. As we apply ourselves in our social media positions, what we are really doing is understanding the community, their needs and wants required to systematically create a substantial and beneficial presence in social media. The fact that we know how to do so within these tools is arguably secondary to the main skill set of communication.

Beyond this, what is ever more so evolving out of this idea is branding versus campaign based social media, and even analytic reporting. For me, the use, integration and involvement of a brand in social media is primarily for branding purposes, and secondarily for campaign messaging. What I see out in the world is the opposite: branding very rarely is strategically thought of out in social media. The forefront is usually campaigning around a certain deadline, or ‘being there to be there’. Where most of us do implement listening strategies, what do we ultimately do with this information? Are we really using it to change our product or service platform or do we only push messages on to superiors to ensure we are ahead of any crisis communication needs?

In terms of my own career growth and learning experiments, I’m diving in to creative direction, branding and strategic communication research. David Ogilvy’s publications seem especially thought-provoking for this. Any others beyond the usual ‘Good to Great’ and ‘Made to Stick’ that you’ve found particularly helpful?

What do you think about the idea of social media not being a longterm career path? What solid, professional skills do you see in your favorite social media person?

Addiction: What’s it Really Mean Anyway?

Those who know me know that a big part of my personal drama is on again/off again relationships. Funny at first, these quickly escalate into high highs and low lows so consuming that everything else becomes meaningless. This has not been a one time phenomenon: I’ve had 3 on again off again relationships in my life ranging from 3 to 10 years in length. I’ve always thought I could ‘fix it’ or ‘be better’, and to not ‘try harder’ was to ‘give up’ . In my most recent go around a close friend said to me ‘I think you may be addicted to him. To this.’ What?

This wasn’t the first time my friend – who happens to have a degree from Brown in experimental psychology – had sufficiently diagnosed me. I’ve heard it, but I’ve not listened, laughing it off as ‘how can anyone be addicted to a person?’. Actually seeking a finality to this tumultuous relationship, I began to research addiction, codependency and how we as individuals seek happiness outside of ourselves. Everything seems to be written with me in mind.

Love/Relationship addiction is actually a very real thing. So is Alcoholism or Shopping Addiction. But in filling my brain with all that I can of the topic, the bottom line is: the ‘thing’ you are addicted to isn’t the issue. It’s the ‘thing’ inside you that you are unconscious or consciously compensating for that truly is the root of the problem. Until that is sorted, you will continue to fill the gap within yourself with addiction after addiction. A new relationship. A narcotic. Excessive shopping. Worrying about money. Working too much. Exercising too hard. Future planning. I’m sure many of us know exactly what I’m talking about.

Part of this is out of our control. Genetics seem to play a role in addictive behavior, especially if you have alcoholism in your family. Add to this family and parenting styles and childhood trauma or abuse and addictive behavior may be out of your control unless you get in front of it.

In today’s fast paced society, do we have a real problem being happy with where we are, right this second? Is the problem that we are too afraid of being labeled if we openly choose to invest in our personal, aka mental/emotional, understanding and development? Does the internet and the access to information and great tools make this far more difficult? Does taking steps to know yourself better always have to come off as ‘spiritual enlightenment’ or religious zealotry?

I’ve found myself as I distance from my ex going directly back to old addictive behaviors: overthinking my nutrition, plotting bouts of overexercising, planning where to buy a home, obsessing about my weight, working too much, focusing too much on starting a family, etc., etc., etc. The thought of being still and present, as simple and hokey as it sounds, ends up being terrifying when you finally grasp that in doing so you’ll have to look at and work on yourself – the very thing you’ve been putting off by filling your head with needless drama. What do I like to do? What am I good at? What are my hobbies, my dreams, my thoughts on x-y-z? Without the drama of the addiction, where are you left?

Basically, you’re left where you started before the addictions crept up. You need to move forward into the space you left when you became preoccupied with something or someone else. The more I read and learn, the more sense it seems to make and I’m hopeful that happiness truly can be found within. You just have to do the work to get there.

Net Price Calculators: Financial Lit or Decreased Aspiration?

Last Friday marked the deadline for colleges and universities to have their Net Price Calculators live in accordance with the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008. The template must include the following, at a minimum:

Data elements to approximate the student’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC), such as income, number in family, and dependency status or factors that estimate dependency status
Estimated total price of attendance;
Estimated tuition and fees;
Estimated room and board;
Estimated books and supplies;
Estimated other expenses (personal expenses, transportation, etc.);
Estimated total grant aid;
Estimated net price;
Percent of the cohort (full-time, first-time students) that received grant aid; and
Caveats and disclaimers, as indicated in the HEOA.

What this does not take into account, as many who work in higher ed know, is extenuating circumstances, changes in status, accuracy of information and academic standing to say the least.

With the economic downturn and schools fighting for the dwindling college going – and college affording – population, the NPC requirement may actually hinder students from applying to schools that they could afford and aspire to attend. Aspiration has repeatedly been a determining factor in college completion (see previous post and research).

Further, how long until we see resources that price total cost of attendance across several schools? Will this take into account academic standing, reputation of the school, etc?

What if we created tools that let you know the job outlook for your intended profession/major in the city you anticipate working? If you received a BA in English in Boston, what would the job outlook be for you? Then discuss cost of attendance, fit and financial requirements.

Would this be a better way to determine if the cost of attendance was ‘worth it’?

Prioritizing US Hispanic Outreach for Higher Education

More and more we tend to focus on reaching out to international students. For one, they are a much larger population, with many seeking to go abroad for their higher learning experience. Add to that the fact that many, if not most, pay full tuition, making them a highly coveted market for most institutions. But as we move forward in trying to attract more of this demographic, are we missing the larger, closer, more meaningful market of US Hispanic students?

According to the Pew Hispanic Center’s recently released research, Hispanic college enrollment has jumped 24% between 2009 to 2010. Further, this demographic accounted for 15% of the overall enrollment of college students in the US. With such an audience growing in America, shouldn’t our focus be instead on reaching this demographic?

It is understood that colleges need to make a profit and that international students aid in that effort by paying full price tuition. Many Hispanic families in this population boom will be needing assistance from schools and the federal government to obtain a college degree.

Between 1990 and 2000, the Hispanic population in 20 states grew by more than 100%, according to the Center for Public Education. The US Census Bureau also projects that this population will grow from 12.6% (2000) to 24.4% (2050): almost doubling in size. These will be the future of the American economy, the skilled workers who keep our country growing.

Will we leave them behind in favor of educating those overseas who will be doing our skilled trades for us in other countries?

Define Before You Measure

In moving into a more strategic role, I’ve seemed to have stumbled upon an issue I’d not previously thought of: many people define things differently. How can you measure without a complete understanding of what each term you’re measuring if people are not all on the same page?

Prospects. Leads. Inquiries. Visits. Applicants. Accepts. Enrolled. All of these need to be defined and agreed upon across the board. Only then can you assign values to each of these to begin to measure the return on investment of your marketing tactics.

The industry defines these terms differently. Institutions define them specifically. Regardless of what you prescribe to, its important to be sure that internally anyone using them uses them consistently.

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Pumped for NYC Google Analytics Seminar

Still trying to learn Google Analytics, I’ve been lusting after the Google Analytics Seminar by LunaMetrics. Finally, I’ve received approval to attend this December in NYC! Whoo hoo! 🙂

My working knowledge of GA is simple at best, although I’ve been able to use segmentation to find tid bits of useful info for the powers that be. Not being a code monkey, I’ve found it frustrating not being able to implement things that I know the program is capable of. Even more so when those who are cannot see the value in helping me to implement it. Three days of education – I hope – should rectify that. 🙂

Sadly, I’m excited to learn more about tagging, reg ex, coding and implementing campaign tracking. Although no one has requested such, as practitioners, I know its our job to be well versed in the analytics world and sell that knowledge at the appropriate time to the appropriate internal constituents.

How do you keep your analytics education up? How often do you seek out opportunities to learn?

Defining Interactive Marketing

I’ve been throwing around the words ‘interactive marketing’ lately and been met with odd looks. ‘We/You don’t do that’ is often the response. I started to wonder how many of us have changed our definition of what Interactive actually means in our marketing efforts. Am I just using the term incorrectly?

‘Interactive’ was once a term used just for web-based assets developed in flash or some other script. Now, its evolved into all that we do as conversation based communicators. Interaction is what we are requesting every time we put out a product for engagement. Blogs, social media, video are all forms of interaction with our audience. Products we hope they interact with and that leverage them to interact with each other. Is this what interactive marketing means to us and our colleagues?

Where once interactive may have described web-based applications that required users to click, they now demand that users communicate. Just as ‘marketing’ has changed, so has ‘interactive’.

How do you discuss ‘interactive’ marketing/communication efforts? Is everyone on board with this definition? If not, are you educating them?

Time for a Change, RSS Style

If you’re like me, you often rush through your RSS feeds skimming for the best stuff. Recently, I’ve found that more and more, I’m simply marking everything ‘read’ and moving on. Realizing this probably isnt the best use of my time, I’ve decided today to cut many things.

What I’ve found to be the least useful are tech updates – I usually see many of these via Twitter. Therefore, there’s really no reason for me to maintain them in my feed. Also, I tend to gloss over items from Mashable due to following them on Twitter.

Google Reader has a ‘Trends’ report section that allows you to see not only how often posts come through, but how often you read them. Looking through my report, I deleted anything that I read 5% of the time or less. That cut 4-5 blogs right there! Of course there are the obligatory feeds that I have to maintain from university accounts, but just being able to sort through them this way and cut them knowing what I tend to not read was phenomenally helpful.

I also created new folders – this way, I dont miss out on content I actually want to read. I tend to get caught up in wanting my reader at ‘zero’, so often things I’d like to read get tossed. Yes, I could recall them if needed, but really, once they’re marked ‘read’ I rarely go back to hunt through them.

After a cleanup, I’m at 59 subscriptions, which is manageable. To share, my reader folders are as follows:

Analytics
Career
Content Marketing
Fun
Higher Ed Marketing
SEO
Suffolk
Tech & New Media
Web Design/Development

Do you use folders and trends? How many blogs do you subscribe to? How often do you purge without reading or otherwise handle getting through them all?