Hello Class,
Part of my conference project is to interview influential, young professionals that are in my network. I came up with some questions with Collette in conference. I recently interviewed one connection of mine. Please see interview below. The next interview will be with my career mentor this Wednesday!
Dominique Fluker
Sarah Lawrence College “YouAreWhatYouTweet” Research Project
When did you start your career in communications and marketing? How did your profession change over the years?
I started my career in marketing after graduating college. I accepted an internship with a technology startup and 18 months later, I’m still here.
In the past 18 months, I’ve transitioned from executing strategy as an intern and Event Coordinator to setting strategy and managing projects as Field Marketing Manager. I’ve seen the marketing profession change as marketing automation has become better integrated with other software and a stronger tool. This paired with greater social media visibility has been the greatest change to marketing I’ve seen in my work.
Do you think that social media has impacted the marketing and public relations field? If so/not, why?
Absolutely! Marketers are now responsible for presenting and updating the corporate imagery and information on the various social media platforms. Social media is now utilized for brand awareness, advocacy and demand generation. In the ever-changing digital landscape, marketers must adapt to the new social media platforms and optimize these efforts. For example, one can no longer just post content or information on their corporate website – marketers must also post this on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
What is effective or not effective about social media, in relation to marketing?
Social media allows marketers to reach more individuals with low-cost techniques, which can be more entertaining than informative content. We can reach new people through shared connections and content, which has greatly enhanced marketing’s reach. However, this also leads to problems, as marketers are now responsible for curating, monitoring and responding to the company’s presence on social media. Another difficulty is to stand out, or not “get lost in the crowd.” Another downside
What are successful social media campaigns you have participated in or spearheaded?
We don’t use targeted social media campaigns due to limited corporate bandwidth. What we use social media for is to assist promoting other marketing campaigns.
We did have a successful social media campaign to raise awareness for our user conference by creating a competition for contacts to tweet their favorite visualization of our company’s product to win a free pass to our conference.
Where does customized advertising fit into the picture?
Most emails we send need to be customized in order to incentivize contacts to actually open the email. My personal opinion is that the digitization of marketing has completely changed the landscape. Marketers are required to always find new ways to get similar messages across to contacts using a variety of techniques like custom content. Customized advertising is essential in getting the right message to the right audience.