branding — Maddie Kjosa

Originally published for the October edition of PRoclaimer, the monthly e-newsletter of the Florida Public Relations Association—Orlando Area Chapter. Read it here.

Social aptitude (almost) looks better than a resume.

For anyone in the Communications/PR field, having a strong social presence goes a long way in establishing yourself as a professional. It indicates dedication to digital, adaptability, creativity, and ability to tell a story through something other than press releases or news articles. Having a strong presence also eliminates the struggle that many college students or fresh graduates face in getting a job with no prior experience.

With dedication and creativity, you can enter an interview with skills in content creation, analytics, SEO, CMS, and more, all without interning or spending money on courses/conferences.

This is something I’ve seen clearly in my time as a Communications student at the University of Central Florida. Across campus, I see students of every major focus more on their digital presence, whether it be via blogging, vlogging, becoming a micro-influencer, or having Instagram photoshoots with friends. Call it a trait of our generation.

Yet regardless of how old you are or how much you know, it is never too late or less important to have a strong social media presence. This is a field new to everyone. Therefore, it is paramount that we as communications professionals know how to use it, and moreover, use it well.

So, whether you’re fresh out of college or years into a career, here are some tips to get you started on using your personal social for professional growth:

Find what you love. It’s much easier to focus on one or two major aspects of your life in creating a digital presence.
Find the medium that best serves telling the story of that love. It can be slightly depressing to see people who seem to do it all, but there’s always one platform they do the best. Determine what “the best” is for you; videos, writing, photography, etc. After doing this, mainly use that medium in your social media to continue improving your skills.
Get a support network. Some of the best communications professionals got their start by connecting with others of similar goals. Being in FPRA is a HUGE start, but also seek locals or friends who love what you love and create content together!
Learn about social media tools by using them on your personal accounts. Interested in social analytics? Sign up for a free Hootsuite account and connect your accounts to it. You can also browse the in-program analytics offered by Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to see what metrics matter on each platform.
What about website analytics? Create a free Google Analytics account and connect it to your website like I did for metrics like bounce rate, user data, and more.
Take advantage of mobile apps! The App Store is filled with a variety of apps that social media professionals use to create content. Some of my favorites are Canva, Unfold, Adobe Spark Post, Adobe Lightroom and PicPlayPost. Tip: I always test apps out on my personal social before using them professionally.

While more exist, these are all really easy and beneficial ways to start improving your professional social media skills with personal accounts. For all of my fellow UCF students who plan to attend any job fairs, remember that any skill you learn personally can and should be on your resume, portfolio and mentioned to employers. For example, explaining how you used Instagram Analytics and engagement tactics to increase your following by 500 accounts in six months. It doesn’t have to come from a job to be valid experience!

Due to the nature of social media itself, I offer one final word of advice: stay current. You never know when the next big thing will hit, and staying current will ensure that your social strategy is too.

I hope you enjoyed my latest blog post! Remember to hit the "subscribe" button and never miss another #BeyondWords blog again.

Check back each week for a new blog on social media tips, life, food and more. Oh, and of course...

CONNECT WITH ME:

Instagram: @maddiekjosa

Twitter: @Hey_ItsMaddie31

Snapchat: @Heyitsmaddie97

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~This is My Story~

Ah, Twitter.

Years ago, it was the hottest social platform for brands to attract and grow an audience. The real-time, constantly-updating feed that Twitter offers allows brands to ‘tweet’ often without overwhelming their audience. This is unlike Instagram, which recommends posting a max of 1-2 times per day.

But because of Instagram and it’s ever-growing audience, more brands are choosing to divert their efforts away from Twitter. Not exactly the best decision. Sure, Instagram is gaining in popularity, but there’s still millions of people to reach on Twitter. Cutting it out of your social strategy means losing a potentially-strong audience.

Another key reason to keep Twitter lies in how flexible it is for creating platform-specific and varied content! Lacking on inspo and tweets for your content calendar? Check out 20 of my most-successful ways to use it:

1. Post a GIF that relates to a brand topic (and ask your audience to reply with a GIF of their own!). For example, "Comment a GIF that describes your first day of school."

2. Start a Twitter thread of images, links that relate to the tweet topic (ex: “We get it fam: Dorm eating isn’t easy. Check out this thread for some easy, cheap options that you can make in your dorm!") or quotes.

3. Create a Twitter poll to gauge audience thinking, or to ask an engaging question.

4. Share an article created by your brand, influencer, or industry expert. You can find these by following relevant accounts and subscribing to weekly emails from experts/bloggers.

5. Utilize the ‘heart’ and ‘retweet’ features to have your audience pick between two options.

6. Scan the Trending Hastags section of Twitter for relevant topics to include and Tweet about.

7. Re-purpose videos that fit the time limit and file format and share with your audience.

8. Go “Live” at events, Twitter Q&A sessions, and even Twitter takeovers.

9. Post a photo collage of something brand-related. It makes your Tweet more eye-catching than one photo, plus it gives the audience something extra to tap on. Another option for this is to try the "Tap to Expand" trick where you post a vertical image and have a surprise in it that can only be seen by tapping.

10. Ask your audience a question and direct them to answer in the comments (or better yet, say that the first # of people to comment/RT win something!).

11. Get creative with emojis! Post an emoji riddle, create a picture with emojis, or use them to communicate a mood.

12. Tweet using a daily theme like #MotivationMonday, #ThrowbackThursday or #FridayFeeling. You can also invent a daily theme that relates to your brand, like #FootballFriday or #StudyBreakSaturday. You can find a full list of daily hashtags on ThriveHive.

13. Retweet and/or quote User-Generated Content (UGC). This content can be spontaneous things you see, or the direct result of a campaign. Always ask for permission if you are sharing it in a separate tweet, and encourage users to tag you in their own tweets, too!

14. Directly tweet (@‘ing) another brand. Maybe you’re trying to add humor, or maybe it’s a collab, but either way doing this allows for cross-engagement on both of your accounts. You can also tag other accounts in your photos for an indirect tag!

15. Quote an old Tweet that did really well to re-purpose content without digging into your other channels. Look at tweets you made for past trending hashtags, events or holidays as a starting point. You can use Twitter’s FREE in-program analytics tool to find these high-performing tweets.

16. Do a Twitter scavenger hunt! Hide an item somewhere, and say that the first person to find it and tweet the photo/tag you wins a prize.

17. Create short videos/daily images and countdown to an event/announcement.

18. Have your audience enter a contest by asking them to tweet a specific statement, including a hashtag to measure audience entries.

19. Create your OWN GIFs using Giphy (but you need to be a verified account) and share them on Twitter, encouraging your audience to use them and tag you.

20. Share inspirational graphics/quotes. A great resource to find images for these is the website Unsplash. You can find more resources for creating/editing social media graphics and images in this blog post.