I'm currently writing this from a hotel room in Pennsylvania; the glamorous life of social media!

It was a fast week and I can't believe September is next week! Fall is so close I could taste the Pumpkin Spice Lattes; we even got a taste of fall weather this week in NYC. It was glorious!

I am ready for fall clothes, drinks, food, and weather. I'm over the summer and ready for candles and cozy blankets. I am just so much more of myself in the fall!

Anyways, I don't really have much else to say because my mind is lost in Pennsylvania but here are the links for this week!

PS: I was published again on The Haute Mess. Check it out!

Credit

• I can't wait for this Too Faced collection!
• Going back to school was the best in the 2000s
• I will read anything about beauty & this is included
• Here's how to stay cool in 100 degree weather!

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I've been wanting to write this post for over a year, ever since I got my job as a social media coordinator.

Social Media is a new job that a lot of older people don't get. I feel like I need to explain myself whenever I say what my job is: "You know, Instagram, Twitter & Facebook-- I manage all of the accounts."

It's also a job I know a lot of younger people want, because in all honesty, we're all qualified to run social media accounts (I mean, we run our own!). I wanted to write this post to give insight to college students (or post grads) who want to learn how to get into social media, or what that even requires.

I was a journalism major in college and I knew I wanted to get into magazine/features journalism, but I also knew that writing jobs were few and far in between. When I started my blog, and started getting into brands and the entire media industry, I saw that social media was very up & coming; I figured I'd be able to do that and it was something that really interested me.

Journalism and social media are very related if you think about it; journalism is giving people the news they need to live, and now we get our news from social media. It involves writing and organization and giving people what they need to know, just in a shorter form.

When I realized I could consider social media as a job, I decided to get serious. I read a lot of career books, I cleaned up my social media, and looked up the qualifications/duties of social media coordinators everywhere.

I never held a social media internship while I was in college but all of my journalism internships required me to share all my articles across my own social media. This DEFINITELY helped me learn how to get my point across in short characters, and how to form my personal brand.

Knowing how to talk about your personal brand is important for knowing how to talk about other people's brands.




When I graduated, I joined social media job groups, applied for any job I could get my hands on (that I was qualified for and what I thought I would like) and a lot of these jobs wanted to know how I ran my own social media accounts.

Showing employers that I could run my blog, and my own social media accounts with a personal brand; also knowing how to talk about social media, helps a lot.

I took a part time job at Likeable Media as an Associate Content Strategist, where I created written content for a variety of brands. There, I learned how to juggle multiple brand voices, and learned what our clients were looking for.

Know how to identify a brand voice. The quicker you catch on, the easier your job will be. A brand voice will become your voice; it's important to know exactly who you are talking too.

I learned a lot at Likeable; how to talk to your audience, how to measure analytics, how to define a brand voice, and how to brainstorm ideas. From there, I went to my current job at a major beauty brand as a Social Media Coordinator.

I got the job by joining Social Media Jobs on Facebook -- the job was posted in this group. I HIGHLY recommend joining this group if you're interested in a job.

You know what I learned from my current job and what I'm still learning?

Social Media isn't always easy. I learned my brand voice pretty quickly, but forming yourself to a company's structure is not a piece of cake. I learned how to take the right picture, what our audience responds too, how to make sure I'm speaking to every single customer and not alienating anyone.

I juggle between Marketing, Sales, QVC, and E-commerce wants & needs, while sticking to a schedule I create 2-3 months in advance. I travel and take photos and stay up for 30 hours every 4 months at QVC. I help with customer service, in addition to running & creating content for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, and Youtube. I help on photoshoots, I create moodboards, I work on projects for my boss, and I create report after report.

I keep track of bloggers & influencers, and have to be up to date on everything in the beauty industry, while also keeping tabs on where we are mentioned so I'm one step ahead of the game.

I am not complaining, but it's not as easy as some may think. It's not just posting a quick tweet to Twitter. It's fast paced and changes constantly. It's exciting and fun-- my job is NOT boring, and it's easy for me because I know what I'm doing, because I love what I do.

It's a very interesting world, and it's interesting to see how people respond to social media.

My advice to you? If you want to be in social media, try to get an internship helping a social media coordinator, clean up your own social media accounts, and try to plan things out for your own social media. Planning and executing is a huge part of my job.

Also, read Leave Your Mark-- this is the best social media book ever.You will learn a lot.

If you have any other questions, feel free to email me at briana@royallypink.com & we can chat about all your social media dreams!