The Next Chapter In My Career: Mashable
As I sit here writing this, I’m less than 48 hours from an enormous life change. At noon on Saturday, I will jump on a Washington D.C. BoltBus en route to New York City. Around 4:30 PM, I will roll into the city and begin my next career adventure. On Monday, December 3, I will start at Mashable, where I will focus on social media strategy primarily for the company’s Tech and Business properties.
For those who know me well enough, you know how logical of a move this is for me. Ever since I was in college (I graduated from Ohio University in 2010), I have been a huge fan of Mashable. I am amazed by its growth in such a short time, and it is such an exciting opportunity to be able to contribute to further growth of the company.
For the past two years, I have lived in the District, working as a producer, reporter, and social media guy for U.S. News & World Report. Looking back two years, I think about the memories I have about joining U.S. News. I had previously come off an internship with The TODAY Show and the greatest summer of my life, AKA the MTV Twitter Jockey competition.
Images from the High Park Fire in Northern Colorado
This piece marks my first experience using Geofeedia. What I love about this tool is the ability to zero in on particular regions in the country — with this piece, I looked at Fort Collins, Colo. and Bellvue, Colo. — and being able to either include particular platforms in your search or remove them. Since I wanted to add more of a visual component to this, I only include Instagram and Flickr images in my search. If you’re looking for a simple, step-by-step introduction to Geofeedia, check out Buffy Andrew’s tutorial on using Geofeedia.
Life After Journalism School
I’ve been meaning to write this post for a long time. I went back to Ohio University in late January to be a part of E. W. Scripps School of Journalism’s Senior Saturday event. Fortunately for me, this was the second year I had the honor of keynoting the series of presentations–which are, obviously, geared toward senior journalism students who are looking for that “what to do after graduation” advice.
Last year, I talked about personal branding; about making a brand unavoidable. It worked for me–I had an unbelievable experience after graduation with MTV that turned into my current opportunity with U.S. News & World Report. But, honestly, this may not work for everyone. In college, I didn’t know what I wanted to do–so I bounced around in journalism, trying everything from online to print to broadcast and back to online again. I started blogging in general because I was bored, and started this blog early enough in college when I happened upon a post that discussed why you should own your own name.
While I will say talent got me somewhere, the fact is a lot of what I “achieved” during college and since graduation came out of luck and trying new things. Not everyone will or wants to do that and, you know, that’s OK. There are multiple ways to get to where you want to go — there’s no right way or wrong way.
And that was the theme of this year’s Senior Saturday event. I had the opportunity to partner with Meghan Louttit, a New York Times multimedia producer, on the keynote, and we were able to discuss life after journalism from different perspectives. Meghan is an incredibly talented journalist who has obviously seen great success early in her career, and she relied less on a blog and social media platforms to get her name out there. Through almost “old school” practices, Meghan built up a reputation at The Washington Post as a skilled producer who was willing to take on new challenges. Her reputation is so stellar, she landed a producer role at The Times before her five-year college graduation mark.
I share this background because it’s so drastically different than my own. I pushed the “own your name/kill it on social/network, network,network” package, but it’s so apparent, even in 2012, that a good work ethic, a willingness to learn, and a passion to be great can still put you on that path to success.
I’m sharing our presentation–LOLcats and all–so feel free to browse the slides and share your feedback.
Podcast: My Recent Branding Speech at Ohio University
A couple weeks ago, I shared my thoughts about a recent speech I gave at the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism‘s first annual “Alumni Bootcamp” at Ohio University. Called “Branding Yourself: The 201 Version,” I gave alumni of the journalism school advice on how to build their brand using on-line and off-line tactics.
Now, thanks to Dr. Robert Stewart, the director of the j-school, there is a podcast available for those interested in hearing my thoughts. Give it a listen, follow along with my slides, and let me know if you have any questions afterwards. I’m always happy to speak to those that are truly interested in building their brand. Also, if you have any feedback–how I can improve my presentation–that would be very beneficial. I’m always looking to improve my own brand!
Branding Yourself: The 201 Version
This past Saturday I spent the day at Ohio University‘s E. W. Scripps School of Journalism “Alumni Bootcamp.” In January, I had the pleasure of presenting “Personal Branding: What the @#$% Does That Mean” during the j-school’s Senior Saturday events. During that event, I discussed best practices for building a brand using social tools to seniors. This time around, I had the opportunity to speak to alumni ranging from recent grads to those that have been out of school for more than 30 years.
What was so interesting about presenting to such a diverse crowd was that there were varying ranges of knowledge in the social field. I really enjoyed the challenge of having to introduce new ideas and practices to alumni that have been very successful in journalism, but may not be so keen to the newest tools.
This is what I love about the new media of journalism. Although I’m only 23, I have had plenty of experiences in areas that those that are older in the field may not have had. This is such a unique time to be in the field because there is such a give and take among all journalists. There are so many practices that I hope to still learn from veterans in the industry, but I also know that there are things I can give back to these veterans.