One of the main components to the SIWJ program is networking, making connections and learning from industry professionals through guest lectures. In April, we were thrilled to host Nisha Chittal, an amazing young women who is working in social media and setting a standard for Gen Y workers to follow. She visited our class to talk about getting your foot in the door at the job of your dreams and more importantly, personal branding.
I met Nisha, a very talented recent college grad, about a year ago through an organization called Social Media Club, here in Washington, DC. She’s actively involved in the social media sphere through her work with New Media Strategies, a prominent social media firm located in Northern Virginia, and personally through her politics blog and guest writing in other digital arenas.
Advice To Students
Her advice to students today? Secure your own personal brand.
First, she talked with students about the concept of personal branding, which is essential to journalism and media students today. As more and more publications and organizations begin to downsize, staff positions will become more competitive to secure. The best way to get ahead? Become someone recognizable. If organizations know you are skilled in X, have a passion in Y and have shown through your digital conversations that you are eager to join the communications field, you are going to have a better chance at landing your dream journalism job.
Set A Game Plan
- Determine Your Goals
- Grow Your Personality
- Become Digitally Active
- Start Something New or Unique
- Be Authentic
Determing Your Goals
What do you hope to accomplish? Do you want to network and meet people? or are you more interested in finding a mentor? Perhaps you are looking to get a job or internship. Whatever it is, social media can get you to that goal. That is, if you have a game plan and a strategy to reach those goals.
Grow Your Personality and Become Digitally Active
Before you can build an empire, you need to know your strengths and weaknesses. When you do, start listening to what others are saying about that topic. Consider starting a blog, joining Twitter or commenting on websites. Start conversations with personalities you admire or link your blog to theirs, pick their brains and ask questions. As long as you are adding value to a conversation people will respect you and want to connect with you online. A caution from one Gen Yer to the next though, as part of Gen Y, students today have grown up using the internet, and as you build your brand its important to clean out your existing digital profiles and make them professional. (That means checking your Facebook privacy settings and removing photos of your freshman days!)Its a good idea to also take your brand offline, by going to events and joining organizations. Need a place to start? Nisha suggested the network Brazen Careerist and I second that advice.
Start Something New or Unique
Take a look at PRSarahEvans, who started the weekly Chat #JournChat on Twitter. Its a conversation that happens between journalists, PR professionals, educators and students each week. She built this from the ground up and now has famous guest hosts and participants. Take an idea like this and make it your own, for example, by starting a collaborative photoblog if you are interested in photography. Be different, be new and be unique.
Authenticity
The last piece of personal branding is all about being you. In an era when anyone and anything is goggleable its not worth acting or being fake online. Employers will find out. You want to present yourself as who you really are, allowing potential employers to get a glimpse of your personality and your professionalism.
Photo By: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryan_rancatore/ / CC BY 2.0
As the summer winds down and students pack up to move out of DC, its a good time to look back at all that was accomplished over the semester. Thrughout the next few weeks students will decide how to add all this great “stuff” to a student portfolio in an effort to jump start their careers.
