Deirdre and her equally passionate partner-in-crime, Valerie Simon, run #PRstudchat - a weekly Twitter chat that connects professional communicators with students.
With that in mind, I ran an idea past Deirdre that I thought might be worth sharing more widely...and here it is...
A different way to land your dream social media job...
There's an unwritten rule that exists in the world of communications; the best way to establish yourself as a thought-leader is to set up a blog about social media / PR and share your knowledge (yes, guilty as charged).
If I had my time again, I'd do it differently, and for students wishing to make a leap into this world, you might want to consider taking a different approach.
The approach? Get vertical.
- Establish a blog about motorcycles (perfect for the Harley Davidson Press Office)
- Become a gadget reviewer / expert (Apple would luuuurve you)
- Focus purely on fashion (Diesel...not a bad gig)
- Create a consumer focused blog, call it the CONSUMER corner! (any brand you like)
- Write about the travel industry and what trends are developing (airlines, hotels etc)
If I was looking to hire someone tomorrow, I'd take it as a given that you 'get' communications (it's really not that complicated).
But, let's say a brief lands on my desk from a prospect in the travel sector?
If you had spent that last 12 months blogging about travel, being an area you were clearly passionate about, the chances of you being hired sky-rocket.
Why?
You'd know which blogs within the sector were influential.
You'd know who drives conversations about travel on Twitter.
You'd have contacts that would be priceless.
You'd know what would work and what wouldn't for brands interested in infiltrating that space.
Changing it up...
So, why are you still blogging about blogging?
Why are you still blogging about social media?
I'm asking myself that very question as I type this post - as I said up top, if I could turn back the hands of time I'd probably take a different route.
You can still show you 'get' social media without blogging specifically about it as a discipline - in effect you are talking about talking or how to talk...is that really THAT useful?
Take the leap and be different.
Talk about something that doesn't talk about talking!
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