From MySpace Lover to Marketing Specialist
It all began a decade ago when I opened my MySpace.com account. No joke, friends. I got my start in the digital marketing realm on MySpace. Here’s my story of how I went from MySpace Lover to Marketing Specialist. :)
When I joined MySpace, I was instantly obsessed with the ability we all had to customize our profiles visually and make our dream look + feel (and I naturally was drawn to the pink, glittery HTML customizations!). It was a no brainer! Back in the day, there were no “easy profiles” with pretty designs - you had to create everything from scratch with no drag + drop functionality.
Fast forward to 2019 and this is no longer a requirement. We have sites like Squarespace (my one true love!) that allow us to create modern, clear, beautiful websites with a few clicks of our mouse, and social media platforms that encourage us to share videos and photos of what we’re doing that very moment instantaneously.
It’s kind of like the moment when a younger person tells you they don’t remember dial-up Internet or cassette/VHS tapes!
Gen Z has no concept of dial-up, but much less MySpace and the HTML coding that it took to truly embrace the platform. Like any generation, they will have their own battles and journeys online.
Once MySpace was beginning to fade out and Facebook was released to the general public, soon enough we were all using it, regardless of whether or not we found it to be aesthetically lacking. I still remember what the old “Events” calendar function looked like, eek…
Along came Twitter. Do you remember the Lisa Nova video “Twitter Whore” all about the platform? I knew I’d be hooked from that moment on, so much so that I was on the waitlist before they even launched the platform! Twitter started out as a place where you could tell your friends what you had for breakfast and has now transformed into a full-fledged media source with politicians and news sources sharing their two cents. It has made professionals and activists out of everyday people - and that’s pretty dang cool.
The ebb and flow of popularity among these platforms is a fantastic reminder to us of the gentle nature of the Internet and trending topics, and how important it is for us digital marketers to always stay on top of the ever-changing landscape.
It’s human nature: Everyone has an opinion about everyone and everything.
I started my interest in the content sharing realm of the Internet when I launched my very first blog at 13 years old. This was a diary-like space for me, great for sharing the progress I made in my figure skating class that day, and my online homeschooling I was participating in. I had zero idea that there was such a thing as “writing for your audience” or “content marketing”. I followed people like Karen Cheng who built an empire around simply sharing her daily life thoughts, her hardships and her wins.
Nowadays, we utilize our blogs to connect to ideal clients as business owners.
Audience-centered content is now king.
Regardless if you’re writing for a lifestyle or business blog, you better know your target demographic or you’ll lose your audience before you even start. Every blog is synced up to a Google Analytics (GA) account and you bet your bottom dollar that it is monitored on a regular basis!
By the time I was finishing my sophomore year in college, I recognized just how much I adored digital content production and was starting to open my eyes to the option of marketing as a career path. I had been studying in the psychology (social and positive) paths up until this point and was fascinated by the ways in which the human mind makes decisions.
I opted to partake in two, two-quarter internships in college, one at a local children’s museum and another at our local tourism bureau. Meanwhile, I served on a Board of Directors for a local LGBTQ+ nonprofit, managing their social media accounts and serving as secretary. Once I built up this experience, I decided to take a business class to really solidify my aspirations.
I don’t think I ever truly thought I would end up as a business owner, the uncertainty of it all always worried me and I forever thought I would choose a stable, 9-5 desk job to ensure my career and financial stability. But, joke’s on me! During my business class, I discovered my mentor Jennifer based in San Diego, running her own digital marketing agency. We were tasked in finding individuals who were pursuing business ideas we were inspired by and Jen was certainly mine.
The rest is herstory.
After corresponding with Jen for a week or so, she offered me the opportunity to join her team as a sub-contractor through my own business license if I wished to. At this point in time, I didn’t have a business license but I figured since I was taking a business class to eventually get there, now would be the ideal time to get started building a client base. Midway through my business class quarter, I was officially a business owner.
By way of natural networking that I navigated in my early years of business and the connections I made throughout my internships and work with Jen, I was hired by both places of internship and was able to build up enough of a reputation around town that folks started reaching out for their marketing needs. Connections truly are EVERYTHING and I am forever in debt to the original people who believed in me and my abilities.
These days, it’s crucial that I continue my education and make sure to always be learning of the latest techniques when it comes to content marketing. This is the way that I show up for all of my clients and constantly improve the business owner that I am 4 years later (and a decade+ into my experience).
