In high school, when you graduate, you sign yearbooks and swear to stay in touch. In college, when you graduate, you shake hands and wish your classmates good luck. After college graduation, it’s all about finding a job. This is the job that sets your career path ablaze. You begin learning what you’re good at, what you’re not and what you’re most passionate about. These are the moments where life changes and you begin to grow into yourself. Then, the time comes where you move on to other opportunities that give you the same, if not more. You work out your two weeks, celebrate with your coworkers, then pack your desk up and leave with a teary goodbye. For me, that time is now.
As I write this, on my last day at Voxus PR, I find myself looking back and reminiscing over the things I’ve learned and how I’ve grown. It’s been a year and four months since I began working with the wonderful people at Voxus PR and I’m grateful for everything I’ve learned while flying under their wings. Now that this Alabama girl is moving on, I’d like to leave a tribute to all the wonderful people that have taught me so much. So, here are two things I’ve learned while at Voxus PR and two things that I will never forget:
I’ve learned that building media lists isn’t just busy work
When I first started at Voxus as the intern, my job mainly consisted of creating, editing and maintaining media lists. At first, I thought this was because I was the intern and interns typically do the work no one else wants to do. While creating media lists falls into that category, I had yet to realize how important those lists are. Each contact on the lists I was creating was vital to the work Voxus does. While the journalist may say “No” to one story, he or she might say, “Yes! Send me the info….” to 10 others. Landing the story for the client is one of the biggest parts of our jobs as public relations pros. So, while it seems like busy work, it’s setting the building blocks for success.
I’ve learned that a “Social Media Program” isn’t as easy as posting a status
In a generation where social media is a place for life updates and staying in touch with distant friends and relatives, it’s also an excellent place to promote a brand. However, contrary to popular belief, that isn’t as easy as posting a status about what’s new in the biz. Since I started working on social media programs for clients at Voxus, I have learned that an extensive amount of planning and strategy goes into creating an effective social media program. Finding relevant and timely content to post, writing original content, learning how many hashtags to use on which platforms, researching the best times to post content and the way to pull metrics at the end of the month…it’s a lot of work. But, for millennials like me, when your job involves surfing social media all day, it’s not so bad.
I’ll never forget that Google is my friend
One of my favorite pieces of advice a colleague gave me is that Google is your friend. This was said to more out of, “Quit asking me questions that you can easily Google and find the answer to” than, “Here’s some sound advice for your day.” However, it still stuck with me in a positive way. In this field, people are busy. Like, really busy. So there’s no need to interrupt someone’s thinking process to answer a question that is easily found by a simple Google search.
I’ll never forget the people
Typical, I know. But, it’s true! The people at Voxus are kind, funny and smart. I’ve always felt appreciated, I laugh a lot more than not and I’ve learned so much. As my last day comes to end, I find myself happy for a new beginning in a field that I’ve grown to love and enjoy more than any job I’ve ever had, but sad to leave behind such an amazing team of professionals. I’m grateful for all they’ve taught me.
So, as I “graduate” and move on, cheers to the good times, team Voxus.🍻
I’ll never forget you.