Hi! My name is Justin Horowitz and I am a senior majoring in Marketing, Business Information Systems and doing a certificate in Digital Media. This past summer I worked at RCA Records as a marketing intern where I created copy for various artists' social media accounts, including Kesha, Walk the Moon and SZA. It was an incredible experience, and I truly learned the importance of creating posts that are both professional and natural/effective. Furthermore, I currently work for Pitt Student Affairs as a marketing intern where I am in charge of creating content and copy for Pitt's Twitter, Instragram, and Facebook. This has been extremely interesting so far, as I am creating completely different content than what I did over the summer, and in a way have to learn how to sound even more professional.
I believe that the intersection between professionalism and social media is becoming ever more important and crucial for the success of a company or brand. I also wonder how important writing skills come in to play nowadays with social media, especially when the actual text is generally very short. My expectation for this class is to learn new skills and techniques that will make my social media use for RCA artists and Pitt more effective and professional and by the end of the semester, I hope to have a better understanding of the importance of professional social media techniques.
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This class has made me much more cognizant of my uses of social media both personally and professionally. Prior to the class, I was aware of basic rules and guidelines that had to be followed when posting on social in a professional environment and on my personal accounts. It has also allowed me to reflect and alter what I currently post at my internship in Student Affairs Marketing, and even talked to my boss about creating a social media policy for the department, as currently one doesn’t exist. What I’m learning in this class is, in my opinion, much more useful and applicable compared to other subjects that I’ve studied in college. I am very confident that I will apply these skills and techniques to whatever I end up doing out of college.
I believe that the aspects of this course that are helping me the most are the group discussions and interviews. I love hearing other classmates’ opinions and ideas and comparing them to my own. Also, the interview that I conducted earlier on was definitely one of the most eye-opening and informational parts of the process so far. I wish we did less group work as it often isn’t very effective or productive, and also there is a lot of reading to do throughout the course which I feel like I’m constantly falling behind on.
The most challenging aspect of the course so far is definitely remembering all of the different moving parts that come with successfully using social media in a professional environment. Although I’ve been trying to take notes and take it all in, I’m trying to figure out a way to utilize all of this new knowledge during my current internship and future positions. This has taught me that social media strategy isn’t necessarily has straightforward as I once though, which is helpful to recognize. My worry is that we will continue to learn even more which will make it that much more difficult to remember and implement in the real world.
I definitely feel connected to the course material, as I am able to apply it to what I’ve done in past and current internships. When we’re discussing different concepts or strategies I am able to immediately connect it to actually work that I have done, which is extremely helpful. I definitely feel stimulated by the learning environment and having in-depth discussions about concepts is definitely helpful. I think less group work, or maybe even combining groups for work could be helpful.
Here it is! After months of hard work, research, and planning, I am excited to introduce my final portfolio and strategy to help take Olivia Noelle to the next level through social media use. Here, I am presenting a plan that utilizes her down-to-earth, fun, and relatable personality to connect to her to fans and potential fans. It also includes a campaign that will help promote her latest single and generate fan-created content across various social media platforms.
I think that this campaign will be a huge turning point for Olivia and her career, as it’s the first major label push to help promote “High For Me,” which many think has the potential to be her breakout hit. Hopefully, if this campaign helps the single gain traction, her label will then invest more funding into promoting the single including a radio deal, television performances and paid online advertising.
Along will my strategy, you will find my process doc which includes the various research and analysis work I’ve completed throughout the semester, my opinion editorial article I wrote, reflections I’ve written throughout the semester, and more. I am extremely excited to take all that I have learned throughout the class and apply it to my future endeavors. In fact, I just found out that part of my interview process for Sony Music includes creating a digital marketing plan for an artist and I am excited to implement different aspects of this class to the plan.