Fall Semester 2010 Wrap-Up

Friday, October 29, 2010:

Just a few projects remaining and this semester is done! I can hardly believe it. I have at least one more agency visit coming up (Slingshot) for Media Directed Studies, plus research for a white paper on Social Media ROI (Return on Investment) in collaboration with Dr. Steve Edwards and Babar Bhatti, founder of Mutual Mind (a social media analysis platform). I also have a Communication Audit paper to complete with a partner for our Responsibility and Social Entrepreneurship class. We've selected Compassion International as our focus, which I'm familiar with and passionate about since I sponsor a child in India through the organization. And finally, a paid Facebook advertising campaign to run on the Gina Cooper Worship Project and one last presentation re: our social media work for that project to end Creating and Managing Interactive Content class. Everything will be completed by the first week of December, so only 5 five weeks and counting to complete all the projects and papers. Thankfully, no final exams this time around.

Tomorrow we'll be carving pumpkins with the kids. Sunday we'll be trick-or-treating as a family of pirates for Halloween. Just going around our neighborhood this year, no party to attend. Should be fun, I know the kids are amped up for it. Definitely will post some pics of us in our costumes!

Till then,

Alexandra Watson

Follow me on Twitter @abcwatson, or find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/alexandra.watson or on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/4alexandrawatson

Filling in the gaps: my New Media education & training

September 28, 2010

I can't believe it's been a month since my return to graduate school at SMU and since my last blog entry! The time seems to be flying by so quickly. How can Friday be the first day of October already?! Well, I've already completed the first six weeks of the fall semester. I have three classes this time around: Responsibility and Social Entrepreneurship; Creating & Managing Interactive Content; and a Media Directed Studies course (originally titled "Commercialization of Virtual Space"- but who knew what that meant?).

Brand Board for Gina Cooper Worship

The first course is basically a theory class on CSR. It's discussion-based, and focuses on case analysis studies from Harvard Business Review. It's the last of our "core" classes and the only one I have this semester with the entire cohort. The second class is a very hands-on practice, as its title would suggest, at "creating and managing interactive content". We're working in teams of two to create a social media strategy and launch a SM campaign for a local DFW area small business or non-profit. My partner, Rennie Gibb, and I are working on the launch of the Gina Cooper Worship Project. Gina is a female worship leader from Wylie, TX and she's starting an inter-church worship team that is available for booking at events, conferences, special services, etc. It's exciting to be a part of launching a new Contemporary Christian recording artist and her ministry. You can find out more on Gina at www.ginacooperworship.com or check out the Facebook Fan page that Rennie and I have launched for her recently at www.facebook.com/ginacooperworship. The final class is only myself, the professor, and one other student of New Media. We're doing a variety of things with our time, including sitting in on key sessions of an undergraduate course in Interactive Advertising; learning a bit of Adobe Flash programming; visiting local interactive advertising agencies; trying out a beta version of MutualMind's social media monitoring platform, etc.

I have only one semester of graduate school remaining. In the Spring we'll all be completing a Practicum (internship) of 20 hours per week with a local advertising agency, and taking a capstone Campaigns course in which we create a campaign for an actual client. I'll graduate in May 2011. So to date, I've learned to do thorough secondary research and situation analysis, walked through the basics of traditional media buys, put together a campaign plan book, wrote literature reviews, papers, and presentations on a variety of topics, dabbled in metrics and web analytics, and created and managed a social media campaign. All of which leads me to wonder.......WHAT ELSE should I know before looking for a job in advertising/new media? What am I missing? Should I learn HTML and try my hand at building a website? Do I need more hands-on experience in analytics and ROI?

I've updated my resume (I even created a PowerPoint version and put it out on Slideshare at Visual Resume Link). I've ordered business cards. I'm attending luncheons, trade association meetings, etc. to network. But am I employable? We'll see....... In the meantime, if you have any suggestions that would make me more valuable in the advertising/ new media field please let me know!

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter! See my Profile for details.