Fresh Start – where to next?

Two. Two more classes. Two more summer classes separate me from completing my master’s degree in Emerging Media Studies. My program at Boston University began on Sept. 2, 2015 and it has been a whirlwind ever since. To think that I’m already graduating this Friday, May 13th, is both exciting and daunting! Have I learned everything I needed to learn to secure the kind of job placement I’m hoping for? The answer is no.

But the answer should be no. Why, you ask? Because I’m constantly learning new things every day. And that is precisely why I chose to study emerging media. The only constant in the media world is change…which is also daunting, but oh so very exciting.

Having worked for The Walt Disney Company, I have high expectations for my future workplace. I was and am very proud to have worked for the Mouse and it is still tough to think that I may not return to work there again anytime soon. BUT, for now, Boston is my home. I love it here and feel extremely lucky to call this my city. Soon, though, I will be a free agent, which means it’s time to really put myself out there and find my dream job. Or just a job. “Gotta start somewhere,” as they say, right? Well, kind of…

You see, after losing my Mom to pancreatic cancer and moving to MA to start anew, I decided that life is too short for mediocrity. I don’t want to just work anywhere. And, as corny as it sounds, I want to make a mark on this world we live in. I want to make an impact, a significant difference, wherever I do end up going.

I have more passion than I know what to do with. I love to know things and that will never change. I love to write, listen, create, think, brainstorm, fix things, problem-solve, tweet, snapchat, gram my life away and # EVERYTHING (but really, though). Most of all, I love to EXPLORE.

Before my graduate program, I considered myself a journalist. A writer. A social media enthusiast and a storyteller. But now, I know I’ve evolved way beyond that. I’m still far from an expert in big data analysis, manual coding, social strategy, SPSS, R, data science, HTML, CSS, Qualtrics, survey-making, etc., but I got my hands dirty in all of it. I’ve spent the better part of the last eight months doing a lot of things that once intimidated me. As someone who has never felt good with numbers (hey, how many communications majors actually do?), I never saw myself even touching most of this stuff. But I’m so glad I did.

Now, I just have to find my place — somewhere that I can put all of these skills to good use. I’ve worked for one of the largest, most well-known and respected brands in the world. I’ve also worked for small newspapers and magazine startups. I’ve been coordinating my program’s Facebook and Twitter since October and I love to dive into all things social. I may still be too young to have 10 years of experience in anything, but I am a hard worker.

So…the goal = stay in Boston. Find a job. But not just any job — find a new home. A place that I’m excited to go to day in and day out, because I do believe that exists and I won’t stop or give up until I find it.

If you’re reading this and you’re hiring in the Boston area, please connect with me (rforman@bu.edu)! Or even if you just have some advice to offer, leave or comment or let’s chat over coffee! I’m open to all opportunities, I’m excited and I’m ready to go!

2013 in review

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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,100 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 18 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Status update: Understanding Facebook’s IPO

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Image courtesy of: http://www.opinno.com/

Last week Facebook announced an IPO valued at $5 billion, a record for Internet companies.

But what does it all mean?

Firstly, an IPO stands for Initial Public Offering. It essentially means Facebook is changing its profile from private to public and allowing the public to buy stock in the company and own a piece of the pie.

“When going public you need to produce profits,” said Mikael Bergbrant, Ph.D. candidate in the department of finance in the College of Business. “When you’re a private company, many times you can leave out the possibility of future profits. But once the stockholders start having an input, then they usually want to see the bottom line really start increasing.”

Bergbrant said the impact this will have on the individual user relies on the stockholders.

One benefit of these new developments is the release of Facebook’s once private financial information.

Facebook is said to hold a value between $75 and $100 billion and it generated $3.71 billion in revenue in 2011.

It may surprise you that Zynga (the company responsible for your growing addiction to Words with Friends and all of the games that end in ‘Ville’) made up 12 percent of that 2011 revenue.

So how does all of this affect the 845 million monthly active users?

“If you have new money, you can introduce new applications, new programs,” said Erdem Ucar, who is also a Ph.D. candidate in the College of Business. “There are good things and bad things, but basically they go public because they need to raise funds.”

In the short term, the site will most likely not see many changes. Facebook might implement new site tactics when there is pressure to keep the shareholders happy. They could develop new ways of advertising, like making money off of private user data.

It will certainly be interesting to see how this affects Mark Zuckerberg, who will now make one dollar every year, and whether he will give up his position as CEO.

(Also posted on The Digital Bullpen – the news site of the USF School of Mass Communications)

Another site to OBSESS over (just what everyone needs)

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So. Just like any other twenty-something, procrastinating female, I spend WAY too much time on Tumblr. I even have two separate Tumblr pages. One is from when I blogged during my study abroad adventure in Ireland, and the other is just for reblogging eye candy.

This eye candy is anything I see on Tumblr that makes the happy neurons fire in my brain. Clothes, beautiful people, SHOES, stuff that makes me go awwwwwww and everything else over the {double} rainbow.

However, I always encounter a problem. I find so many things on Tumblr and have no way of keeping track of all the things I like (other than reblogging it or saving it to my computer).

Now, thanks to the wonders of the internet, my problems have been solved!

Enter: PINTEREST.

Pinterest is a black hole of everything good in the world and don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Pinterest is full of drool-inspiring recipes, amazing outfits you just have to have, DIY (that you can actually do yourself) and landscapes/interior designs that anyone would die for.

The best part of the site is you can like and re-pin whatever you want onto a virtual board. The boards keep track of everything you like! AKA someone finally got smart and indulged my OCD mind.

You can also follow your friend’s pins and make comments on what you find. It is never-ending and therefore never gets old. (Some items are repeated…but if you notice this, it just means you’ve been at the computer for WAY too long and are addicted like everyone else.)

So what are you waiting for? Come join me and start pinning down all of your interests on PINTEREST!

Principles of Public Relations: A Reflection

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This class has been one of the best in my college career. And, no, I’m not just saying that for grading purposes. The reason I think this class was helpful was because of its application to the REAL WORLD.

Every class we discussed something relevant to what is going on today in PR. Whether it was talking about current crises and how they’ve been cleaned up (or not), or which Presidential candidate has the best overall website, it took us outside of the textbook and gave us tools to make us more marketable.

Our textbook!

I learned about social media campaigns and how social media is not just about keeping up (aka stalking) your friend’s lives, but rather looking at it as a business STRATEGY.

One of the best parts about this class was our personal branding project. I’ve known for a while that I needed to build my own website and craft my own brand, but I was always putting it on the back burner. This class made it a priority and look – if you’re reading this post, I will consider myself successful!

This class also required me to volunteer for a local event (see previous post). Volunteering is another thing I often think about but often do not feel I have a platform to give me the support and opportunity to make it all happen. This class also helped me look at the volunteering experience more critically and look at the process from a variety of perspectives.

I’ve found that most PR students do not wish to be labeled as journalists and vice versa, but I knew even before this class that I want to learn how to incorporate both worlds into my future career. I do not see a reason why we have to choose one side over the other and I intend on working for a company who finds merit in having skills from both arenas.