jamiemackenzie

[jamiemackenzie]

Final Networking Blog- All my learnings in one post.

When I learnt that in my second semester at GBC in my digital media marketing program, I would have to take a seminar series class I really had no clue what to expect. I knew that we would be having different speakers talk to our class each week, but I really underestimated just how much I would learn from all of these amazing speakers. Each speaker brought along such a diverse background and different experiences and lessons learnt. I thoroughly enjoyed every speaker that spoke to our class and I am so grateful to my professor Wendy Greenwood for setting this all up.

Part 1- What I Learned

After lots of hard thinking, it really was difficult for me to decide what the most important lesson I learnt was throughout the course. All of the speakers had such amazing and inspiring things to say to our class. Right after every speaker, I connected with them on LinkedIn. After hearing them give us so much guidance and advice, I really knew that it would be valuable to foster the relationship and connect with them on LinkedIn. These connections could really be valuable in my future.

From Cathy McKnight, I really learned about the importance of making sure that the company you work for really aligns with you culturally. She stated that as we begin our job search it's really important to take a step back and think about what values we want to exist in our future employer. I feel like we’re in a time where it's so difficult to find a job that we jump into the first one we’re offered. This can lead us to working for a company that we truly don’t align with at all. I have really taken this advice to heart and have truly thought about what type of company I want to work for culturally. I’m sure this will really benefit me in my future.

 I loved when Jennifer Stoll talked about working in the grey zone. There are many instances in marketing careers where nothing is going to be black and white. It’s really critical that we are able to adapt to this and thrive while working in the grey zone. I think that was really important advice for all of us to hear to help prepare us for working in the real world.

What Danielle Humilde had to say about networking really stuck out to me as well. Overall hearing Danielle talk was extremely inspiring as she was in my exact same shoes a year ago, so she knows what we’re going through. I loved what Danielle said about never being afraid to reach out to old contacts to expand your network. You truly never know where a new connection on LinkedIn can take you. Danielle also talked about attending online conferences and joining groups on LinkedIn to network. With Covid lockdowns we haven’t been able to attend any in person conferences, but there are many online ones offered now that can be very beneficial for us to attend.

Part 2- Network and Resources

Over the past year I have really learned so much about networking and truly expanded my network. I have networked with many people since I started at GBC. I have networked and built a relationship with a large majority of my fellow classmates and professors. Even though it was all online, I still feel so close to some of my classmates and really developed amazing friendships.

On LinkedIn I joined many groups. I joined the George Brown B413 group. I joined post-grad marketing groups. I also joined internship search groups. I really love the groups function on LinkedIn, and I think it's so important to take advantage of it.

I used LinkedIn for the majority of my job finding resources. On your LinkedIn newsfeed you will see many people talking about new job opportunities. Then when you actually go to the “Jobs” section on LinkedIn you will see a huge number of opportunities. You can specify exactly what you're looking for and in which city.

In January when I knew it was time to really start thinking about my co-op, I created an excel spreadsheet that truly became my best friend. On the spreadsheet I had three sections. The first section was where I put all of the roles, I seemed interested in from the GBC Careers portal. There I put the role, company, and the date we need to apply for. Once I applied, I would put the date that I applied and if I’ve heard anything since. The next section was job listings that I found on LinkedIn. Like the roles from GBC Careers, I would put in the role, company and date I need to apply by. Lastly, since I live in Ottawa and a majority of the GBC Career roles were from companies in Toronto, I did some Ottawa marketing research. I found six agencies that I would be interested in working for. I went onto their websites and I found employees that hold certain roles that I would like to hold. I connected with all of the employees on LinkedIn and messaged them all. On the spreadsheet I kept track of their responses and the next steps.

I will be doing my co-op at Uppwell. Uppwell is an eco-friendly online store. I will be working as a social media marketing intern which is exactly what I wanted to be doing and I am so excited. I got this position by applying through GBC careers.

Although I didn’t gain an opportunity by reaching out to the Ottawa agency workers, I truly think that was the smartest move I made. All of them replied and were extremely nice. Unfortunately, none of the agencies had positions available that aligned with what I was looking for, but they all connected with me on LinkedIn and said that they would be in touch if an opportunity pos up. I truly think these new connections will benefit me in the future. That is exactly why I think networking is so important. As the kids say now, “shoot your shot” and send out a message on LinkedIn. You really never know where it will take you.

[jamiemackenzie]

Danielle Humilde: GBC Alumni

Introduction

I have chosen to do my final eJournal on GBC alumni member, Danielle Humilde. I thoroughly have enjoyed hearing all of the speakers throughout the semester, but I feel like it's extra exciting to hear from alumni as they were exactly in my shoes not too long ago. Hearing Danielle speak to us was so inspiring, and truly got me excited for the future.

Danielle completed her undergrad at Western University and then turned to George Brown to complete the digital media marketing post-grad program that I am currently completing. Danielle was studying at GBC right when the pandemic started. I can’t even imagine how stressful it was finding an internship during those difficult times of everyone adjusting to working from home and online learning. Since then, Danielle has started her own marketing business, and truly had a lot of valuable insight to share with myself and my classmates.

Key Learnings

I learned a lot about the post-grad world hearing Danielle discuss what she has achieved since graduating from George Brown. One of the key things Danielle stressed was to never be afraid to reach out to old contacts to expand your network. Another way to network is attending online conferences and joining groups on LinkedIn. This can assist you as you look for potential employers. Another key thing I learnt from Danielle was that it’s okay to change your mind. I feel like so often we feel tied down to things whether that be a career path or other commitments. If you're not happy with where you are, it is completely fine to change your mind.

How this changes my approach while starting my career

Hearing Danielle speak really gave me a sign of relief when thinking about starting my career. We are living in such difficult times right now and that has always stressed me out while thinking about my future. I really feel that if I put a large effort into networking it will definitely benefit for my future. I’ve also really had to think hard lately about my future career. At the moment, I am extremely passionate about social media marketing and want to embark on a career in that field. My co-op this summer is a social media marketing role, and I am so excited. But, if after the summer I realize that it's not for me and I'd rather pursue another field, that’s okay. It’s okay to change my mind and I’m never permanently stuck anywhere.

Questions for the speakers

I didn’t have anything prepared to ask Danielle, but I really loved how she replied to one of my classmates’ questions. Danielle was asked what the hardest part about running your own marketing business was compared to working at a big agency. Danielle explained that it's difficult holding yourself accountable for everything. Whereas at a larger agency you're reporting to a manager or boss. But the experience is very rewarding and she’s learning a lot of skills that will help her in her future.

Final Thoughts

A key point that almost every speaker this semester has expressed is the importance of networking! You never know where one connection could get you. Attend as many virtual events as possible and really just put yourself out there.

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the speakers this semester and I would like to thank my prof Wendy Greenwood for setting them all up!

[jamiemackenzie]

Jennifer Stoll: The Digital Marketing Strategist Genius

This is my second eJournal from the speaker series in my Digital Media Marketing seminar series at George Brown college. I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to every single speaker so far. Each speaker has come from very different and diverse backgrounds and has a lot of knowledge to share with myself and my classmates.

Jennifer Stoll was an extremely interesting speaker to listen to. Jennifer has a wide background of many different marketing roles and over twenty years of experience. These include digital marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, SEO marketing and the list goes on. She’s worked for many companies including General Mills, Iris, and isobar.

She currently holds the role of the Director of Digital Strategy at Valtech. Jennifer works with clients to develop a digital “ecosystem”. Digital marketing strategists hold extremely important roles. They have to answer very difficult questions for the company they're working for. These questions are:

·      Where to go?

·      Where not to go?

·      Where does the customer want to go?

These questions are very important to answer before developing the marketing strategy.

There are two main steps you take to create a marketing strategy. These steps are as follows:

1.     Discovery and prioritization

-       Here is where you identify where you are today and where you would like to be

-       Important step to map out company requirements and target audience needs

2.     Development and delivery  

-       This is where you define and align your goals to get to your optimal future state

-       Identify the recommended structure, process and workflow for your content strategy management and execution

Both of these steps are essential to create a marketing strategy. The two steps work together to ensure you are creating the most efficient and successful strategy for your company.

I find this career extremely interesting, but personally it doesn’t appeal to me. Creating marketing strategies is essential for businesses but I am more interested in the creative end of marketing. The strategies will be beneficial for me to follow but I would like to be creating the content that goes along with it.

Jennifer expressed the importance of being able to work in the grey area. When working as a marketing strategist not everything is black and white, and it is very critical that you are comfortable working in this area.

Jennifer also explained that joining groups on LinkedIn can help you with networking but also increase your marketing knowledge. Jennifer also suggested reading up on marketing resources to be in the know about industry trends. These resources were:

·      Harvard Business Review

·      Bloomberg Weekly

·      The Hidden Brain Podcast by Shankar Vedantam

All of us B413 students are at a very critical point in our lives. We are almost done with our program and will be thrust into the real world and the post-grad job market. It is a time where we will be needing to do a lot of reaching out and networking. Jennifer gave us some advice that most times, people want to help us! We shouldn’t feel afraid to reach out as in the end it will only benefit us!

[jamiemackenzie]

Cathy McKnight: The Content Marketing Queen

When I read Cathy McKnight’s bio before our class in week three, I was so excited! During Cathy’s career she has held a large magnitude of different roles and has a huge amount of content marketing experience, which is a career path that I am very interested in! I was so intrigued while listening to what Cathy had to say about all of her different jobs. It was extremely interesting to hear about all of the different pros and cons associated with each job she held.

The questions I had prepared before Cathy’s talk were:

1.     What was the hardest thing you found about starting your job search after university?

2.     What was your favorite role you have held and why?

3.     What is something you wish you could tell 25-year-old Cathy, career wise?

4.     What is your favorite part about your job?

I learned a lot about the differences between working for the private vs public sector. In the private sector you have a lot more room for growth and creative input. But the private sector is also driven by profit, and if you are not producing to their standards you could easily risk losing your job. In the public sector, job security is a priority, and it is less intense.

Cathy discussed how part of her role consists of working on content and marketing/communication objectives with other companies. I can imagine the struggles Cathy would have gone through working with these other companies and trying to change their behaviours. Many companies would have preconceived notions of what content strategies work best for them and they would feel comfortable sticking with these methods. Cathy held an important role to help bridge these companies into unknown content territories. To do so, it would have been critical for Cathy to highlight the success that these new strategies can bring as well as detailed steps on how they’ll reach these goals.

Cathy discussed the differences between working at a larger agency versus a smaller boutique agency. Cathy started at a start-up tech firm called Parsons. She then went on to work at many big companies including PWC and IBM- she really experienced the best of both worlds. At these large agencies it was a very competitive environment which could be difficult at times. It was very long hours, and you would be working extremely hard to grow within the company. But working at these larger agencies also brought along a sense of stability within your job. At the boutique agencies there was a stronger sense of community and teamwork. There were many mentorship roles at these agencies. But, along with a smaller company there is obviously less stability within the role. Cathy stated the most important thing to think about when considering where you want to work is to make sure that you share a purpose and are aligned culturally with the company.

That statement Cathy made about aligning culturally with the company you work for really stuck with me. As we begin networking and our job search, I think it is really important to take a moment to think about what values you would like to exist within the company you’re working for. I feel like so many young professionals can just jump into the job search and apply for every single role they find and accept whichever offer they receive first. This can lead to you working for a company that you don’t align with at all. As I begin my job search and start networking, I am going to ensure that it is with companies that I align with.

[jamiemackenzie]

A 23 Year Old’s Day on her Phone in Lockdown

My New Year’s Resolution at the start of 2021 was to stop using my phone as much. Specifically, I made a goal to not touch my phone at all for the first hour that I’m awake. Unfortunately… that resolution has not been very successful yet, but I’m working on it!

On a typical weekday, my alarm will wake me up at 8:00 am. Of the 75 apps on my phone the ones I check first in the morning are always my texts, Instagram, Snapchat and the weather.

Throughout the rest of the day, I balance my time between school (online classes, and working on assignments) and my personal life (working out, hanging out with my roommates, checking social media, etc.).  

During COVID times, I have a newfound appreciation for going on long walks. I go on a 5km walk almost every single day. During that time, I LOVE listening to podcasts on Spotify. Below are some of my favourite podcasts.

I love ending my day with watching some sort of video content- whether that be on Netflix or YouTube. I go to bed and repeat it all again the next day!

Since I decided on my New Year’s resolution, I’ve been tracking my screen time on my phone a lot. Here is a visual of my daily usage:

Those are the five apps I use the most, but I definitely wouldn’t say those are my top five favourite apps on my phone. It’s an extremely hard choice, but if I had to pick my top five favourite apps, they would be:

1.     TikTok

2.     Instagram

3.     Snapchat

4.     Spotify

5.     Pinterest

In the past year, TikTok has quickly topped my list of favourite apps. I downloaded it at the start of quarantine last month, and before I knew it, I was addicted! From practicing all the dances on it, to trying out new recipes I’ve seen on the app, and purchasing clothes I saw people doing hauls of- I was truly hooked! I often find myself turning to TikTok in times of boredom. But there are many apps I turn to during the day when I experience different micro-moments.

I want to know: Quite often during the day, I want to know the progress of my rings on my Apple watch. I’ll go to my fitness app and there I can see how I’m progressing with my calorie goal, stand goal and exercise goal! After checking my rings, I often feel very motivated to do a workout, which leads me to my next micro-moment…

I want to do: After I check my fitness rings, I realize I want (need) to do some sort of workout. During lockdown I’ve been loving doing YouTube workouts! Some of my favourite trainers are Heather Robertson, and Sami Clarke. I always feel so good after I get my body moving and complete a workout!

I want to buy: Every time I check my emails, I find some new reason to buy something online. Whether it be a discount code I can use at my favourite store, or an email notifying me about the new Spring line being dropped at a store I haven’t ordered from yet. My willpower is very low, and every time I check my emails, I end up wanting to buy something. I’ll then go on safari and search whatever store I want to shop at. Since Covid, I find myself doing so much more online shopping then ever before! Sometimes I regret the purchases, as I realize I have nowhere to wear all of these new clothes currently, but after the lockdowns over my new wardrobe will be amazing!

As marketers, it is really important to think like a consumer! It is important to be aware of how the consumers are interacting with our different platforms and if they are positive or negative interactions. It is important to note that the consumers are constantly scrolling on their phones and reaching many different micro-moments throughout the day. The marketer needs to think like a consumer and meet them at these micro-moments. We need to provide the user with whatever it is they’re looking for, whether it’s wanting to buy, to know, to go, or to do. It is our goal to give the consumer what they’re searching for or else they’ll go somewhere else!

So that’s my mobile day as a 23-year-old in lockdown! It might be quite similar to others or it might be very different, but I am almost positive there is one common trend among people my age:

We spend wayyyyyyyy too much time on our phones.