Originally from Seattle, Sam Wempe came to UBC in 2007 and has been able to successfully use social media to shape a digital identity he can be proud of. Because of the positive online presence he created for himself, he now works as an Account Coordinator at Invoke Media, a digital innovation agency in Gastown, famous for their development of the social media dashboard HootSuite. Sam was nice enough to answer a couple of questions about his social media strategies that we all can undoubtedly learn from!
1. Have you used any social media strategies? What were they? What did you find worked best for you?
Ha! Have I ever. Again, it sounds corny but the best strategies for social media are authentic, you’ve got to actually care about your product/mission/community. You can’t fake it with social media, which is why traditional marketers are so worried – because they actually have to produce something of value for their fans. I’ve always found what works best is just listening, find out who your key influencers are (people sharing and engaging the most around your topic) and study what they do. Look for competitors or peers around the world, what are the most popular ones doing that you are not? It’s different for every field, but that’s a great place to start. This is where being authentic comes in again, even if you screw up, acknowledge it! If people know you’re a real person they’ll forgive you and usually help you out.
Some great resources for this are the hootsuite blog (look for ANYTHING written by “Dave Hoots” – this guy wrote the book on social media engagement and is a kung-fu master at community management) or anything on the invoke media blog by Lima or about community management.
2. How important do you think is establishing a digital identity for yourself to your professional life/career?
No one our age (20-somethings) in my field actually uses business cards – they just do a google search for you. So managing your online identity is crucial to your future. CRUCIAL. Know what comes up when someone searches your name. I cannot emphasize this enough. I’ve seen people get hired or not purely based on their digital presence.
3. What do you think is different about the job market today from the job market maybe 10 or so years ago? How can we use this to our advantage?
We can set the tone ourselves! Once we know how to maintain an online identity WE have the power. Make a website – look at free options like about.me or make something more elaborate 😉 , get a twitter or linkedin account, anything to help you put your best digital foot forward. If you put in the extra mile, it shows.
Another great way is to start engaging online with the companies you may be interested in working for. Say Hi. Send a tweet. Make an intelligent comment on something they share. Make them know who you are before you ever try to send them a resume – if you’ve made an impact, chances are they’ve already looked you up. This has the added benefit of giving you a better idea of what the company has been up to when it does come time for an interview. They’re practically giving you the interview notes right there!
4. Any other comments/advice?
DO NOT WAIT TO FINISH UNIVERSITY BEFORE YOU START THIS. Seriously. Get your hands dirty as much as possible while you’re in university, try lots of cool things and try to build a portfolio. Especially in the industry I’m in, what degree you have or what classes you took have little to no affect on if you get the job – employers want to see results. What projects did you work on? What did this accomplish? Being in university is awesome for this. If you make something cool, you get treated with respect, but if you totally screw up, “you’re just a student.” Best of both worlds. Start building your portfolio of extracurricular, personal and work related projects now!
That’s not to say your education does not matter, because it absolutely does. But a good education won’t count for anything if you leave university and haven’t tried to do anything with it.
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