I often get asked by marketers in transition or recent graduates how they should navigate the job market as a digital marketer. Whether you are looking for more ways to make yourself more marketable (pun intended!), gain more experience, or yield more influence in digital and social media, I believe the solution is one and the same, and the answer to the problem is often staring you right in the face!
[03:21] My Advice to Fresh Graduates Who Want to Enter the Business
[04:33] How to Gain Experience?
[06:14] How to Build Core Skills
[07:38] The Other Way to Build Track Record
[09:16] Reaching Out To Local Marketing Agency
[10:41] My Instagram Giveaway
[11:18] Summary
Notable Quotes
I think social media marketing, digital media, influencer marketing a little bit different, but it's easier to be seen, so long as you are trying to build more influence yourself.
And what I say to that is there is no better experience than experience right? And what I mean by that is, you need to be able to practice what you learned.
You can build case studies, you can take data, and that data you can use when you go into an interview, or if you're trying to pitch a new client. So always starting with your own brand with your own business.
But there's nothing like putting this into action. There's nothing like OJT on the job training. You're nothing until you do this. And you have your unique experiences, your unique perspectives, you build your own unique processes. That's when you develop expertise that other companies would want to pay for.
That's when you go into an interview. And even though you might not have that work experience that others have, you have a tremendous amount of experience that you can speak to that I guarantee you anyone hiring would be very interested in.
So there's a lot of things you can be doing. And when you get those experiences, that's what helps you in fact, if you were to start working for an organization or an agency and they really like what you do, there's a chance that they're going to want to keep working with you.
Are you looking to gain more invaluable experience for your digital and social media marketing? Are you perhaps in between jobs or recently graduated or know someone who recently graduated? Who's looking for a job in social or digital media marketing, perhaps you have a lot of experience, but you want to see what else is out there. You want to start your own business, you want to go somewhere new, and you want to be seen as someone that has a lot of experience, expertise and influence in the industry? If you answered yes to any one of these, you're gonna want to stick around for today's episode of the maximize your social influence podcast. Welcome to the maximize your social influence podcast with Neal Schaffer, where I help marketers, entrepreneurs and business owners grow their businesses using innovative marketing techniques, leveraging the concept of digital influence throughout digital and social media. Hey, everybody, this is Neal Schaffer. Welcome to episode number 171. Of the maximize your social influence podcast. Hopefully, my voice sounds a little bit different today. If you have a podcast, you know that your podcast editor is, well, your hero, your Sage, your mentor, the person that's going to guide you to be able to create the best audio content that you can. So finally, I caved in, I upgraded my microphone, I went from condenser mic to dynamic mic, I went from no headphones to headphones. And you know what, I think I sound better. But you're gonna have to be the judge, you're gonna have to let me know. If you think I sound better. When you're listening to this podcast, please let me know, drop me a line in social media comment on Apple podcasts, wherever you hear this, I'd love to hear if you hear the difference. And then well, I'll be able to recommend the microphone to all of you budding podcasters, as well. So we are obviously well into 2020. And with the pandemic, there is another side that we don't talk a lot about on this podcast. But it is the marketers, the business owners, the entrepreneurs that are looking to do something new, maybe looking for a new side hustle, a new job. Or maybe it's someone that just recently graduated from university, where the jobs would be plentiful in a normal economy like it was last year. But they just aren't there today. I know friends that are in marketing, even at successful influencer marketing agencies that have been left off recently. So I recently got a LinkedIn message from someone that went to the same university in Taiwan that I went to I spent the summer at it's called Dolarhyde. Dasha, it's in Taiwan in Taiwan, for those of you that speak some Chinese, but she reached out to me as being an alumni. And it's a great thing to do especially because on her profile, she talks about she's into social media marketing and digital marketing and influencer marketing. So she said, Neil, I'd love to hear your advice on what do you think about the industry during this pandemic situation? And what advice would you give for fresh grads like me who want to enter this business? Now, I have actually been asked a very similar question on podcast recently. So what I'm going to tell you have also been mentioning, in other interviews, but I think what it comes down to is, obviously, you know, looking for a job, you need to have a track record. I think social media marketing, digital media, influencer marketing a little bit different, but it's easier to be seen, so long as you are trying to build more influence yourself. In other words, you might be trying to apply for a job like everybody else, you might be directly contacting potential employers seeing if they have any positions. Or you can be building a track record. You could be gaining experience, you could be sharing that experience. And in doing so, you just might attract your target company, your target employer, and if not, the Art of Doing this gives you something to talk about, should you get an interview or in a pitch. So let me explain what I'm talking about here. I get asked this a lot, Neil, how do you gain experience? How do you gain experience that's invaluable that will make UBC more as an expert maybe will make you more visible in the market. And what I say to that is there is no better experience than experience right? And what I mean by that is, you need to be able to practice what you learned. You need to be able to basically If you were interviewed, talk about how you've already done this before. Now, you might be thinking, Neil, if I've never done this before, how do I do it? Well, you know, I hadn't done this before either. My background is more b2b sales and bizdev, than marketing. But I started by doing. And the easiest way to start is with your own brand, right? If you think Facebook ads are essential to being successful in social media marketing, but you don't have a client to work with on them, we can do them for yourself. You can build case studies, you can take data, and that data you can use when you go into an interview, or if you're trying to pitch a new client. So always starting with your own brand with your own business. I have always thought of my own business as an experimental testbed for my own PDCA social, right. You know, if you want to advise clients on things that you're not experienced in, how do you do it? Now, I know there's some people that say fake it till you make it. And to some extent that might work for some clients, you might potentially lose long term relationships, because you went for a short term game. So I am very honest with my clients, if they're asking me for expertise that's out of my wheelhouse, I will recommend the no others, right. But if you want to build up core skills, there is no better time than now. Because as we are becoming digital first and everything, there is more people looking for your ideas, looking for your experience, looking for your expertise. The question is, are you sharing it? So you start with gaining that experience, working for your own brand is one easy way to do this. But there are other ways have always said there are nonprofits around you that would love to have your expertise? Have you reached out to nonprofits around you, and ask them if you can help. There are professional organizations, there's Social Media Club, my good friend, Ali Akbar, in Bahrain, in the Middle East is an example of an organization that we'd love to have you volunteer for them. If you want to gain experience with social media. There's the American Marketing Association, another nonprofit that would love to have your help, perhaps you can contact your local university or college to see if they would like somebody to help them. There are no lack of organizations or nonprofits where if you were to reach out saying, I want to help you for free, I'm sure that you are going to get a lot of interesting people. And that's where you can build a track record. And you can build that track record without having to use your own money. Because, yes, when you do it for your own brand, there is that chance where you are using your own money. And if you don't have the capital invest, then you'll want to find a nonprofit that might have or an organization that's willing to give you that responsibility. So the other way to do it. And a lot of consultants, I know a lot of social media consultants that start out this way as well is I will do a 30 day project for you, or a 90 day project for you for free. In exchange that you'll write me a recommendation, and that I can write a case study for the work that I did for you. This is a classic example of a win win, you're getting the experience, they're getting the results of your work. If it works, well, that 90 Day internship may turn out to be a full time job. It may turn out to be an interesting long term collaboration. But once again, this gives you the ability to build experience to test things out. If you're listening to this podcast, I assume you listen to a lot of podcasts. I mean, I have 10 podcasts that I listened to, I'm going to drop it in the show notes, my list of recommended Social Media Marketing podcasts that I listened to. So if you're listening to me, you're listening to a few podcasts. And you're probably reading blog posts. But there's nothing like putting this into action. There's nothing like OJT on the job training. You're nothing until you do this. And you have your unique experiences, your unique perspectives, you build your own unique processes. That's when you develop expertise that other companies would want to pay for. That's when you go into an interview. And even though you might not have that work experience that others have, you have a tremendous amount of experience that you can speak to that I guarantee you anyone hiring would be very interested in. The other option is to reach out to a local marketing agency. And the funny thing is with the pandemic, they don't have to be local. It could be a marketing agency, throughout the country, right or throughout the world, for that matter. Hey, do you have any spots for internships, you can go onto Craigslist and say, looking for looking to do a 30 day internship will work for minimum wage to get the experience. So there's a lot of things you can be doing. And when you get those experiences, that's what helps you in fact, if you were to start working for an organization or an agency and they really like what you do, there's a chance that they're going to want to keep working with you. Right, it would make sense to do so. So the best experience is doing and if you're not doing you're missing out on An opportunity because the opportunities for doing are out there, you just have to look for them. So, with that in mind, this is a short but sweet solo episode, I really wanted to answer my friend in a very, very relevant way, but also offer this advice to anyone else that might need it. I often will podcast based on questions. So if you have a question you'd like me to answer, feel free to ping me and Neal Schaffer everywhere on social media, you can comment in the podcast, you can come over to my website, you can send me an email, Neal at Neal Schaffer calm. And I would love to hear from you. So hope you're surviving the pandemic, for those of you that are looking for some great books to read during the pandemic. Another reminder that my giveaway that's going on on my Instagram profile is still in full swing. At the time of me recording this podcast, you have an almost 100% chance of winning a free book, if you live in the United States. And if you don't live in the United States, you have a 100% chance of getting a sweet freebie offer from my sponsors, Fresh Books, and social be. So you'll want to make sure you check that out. Also, we have another great round of podcasts coming up some great interviews, I've mentioned these before, you're going to make sure that you hit that subscribe button so you don't miss out on them. And as always, I really am appreciative that you chose this podcast over others, I know that if you search for podcasts, there's a lot of podcasts out there, I really try to stay focused on this subject of Digital Influence and maximizing your social influence. And in that way, you know, let me summarize my advice here. By doing this, you are creating more Digital Influence for you once you start creating content around those experiences. That's how you begin to build influence and to build thought leadership. So if you've already been doing this, and you have lots of experience, until you start creating YouTube videos, podcast, episodes, blog posts, the world is missing out on your expertise, and you are missing out on the potential influence that you can gain. And if you're a business, helping people with your products and services, you also miss out by not providing the advice that you would give your customers to people outside of your customer base. It's like I could have responded to my friend from Taiwan on this LinkedIn message. Or I could have gone out of my way to record this podcast to help even more people, and in doing so create more Digital Influence for myself and for this podcast. So hopefully that gives you some food for thoughts. I know sometimes these episodes don't seem like they're directly related to that topic of Digital Influence. In my mind, they are and I just I just want to make sure that I connected the dots for you. So anyways, we'll be back at you again next week with a interview episode. But until then, wherever you are in the world, please please stay home. Stay safe and make it a great virtual social Day. Bye Bye, everybody.