I began my social media consulting business out of something that was NOT on my radar until a few months ago, but as this career came to fruition, I realized that I had done A LOT of social media work on my own (or for others) over MANY years! I’m excited to share my passion and abilities with you as we build your brand and fan base.
My history with social media started back in the dark ages of the 1990s when all there was to connect with people was email and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) boards. I remember how fun it was sitting on the floor of my apartment, with this ANCIENT computer I literally found, connecting with people from all over the city and the world. It seems I got the bug then, but I had NO idea how it would turn out.
Fast forward a few years, as I was in college full-time, we had to do research on many topics so “searching the web” was what there was to do instead of going to the library to study. From there, I found one of my favorite musical artists, Prince, was ahead of the times (per usual) and started an online store, bulletin board and interactive website. I still remember it. Due to following him for most of my life and was “aware” of social media, I then came across MySpace. This was when things REALLY started to take off in the social media realm. There were other sites before that, but nothing like MySpace. The site not only connected friends and family, but musicians and other artists, comedians and entrepreneurs. We got to hear about budding artists in London, LA or anywhere in the world! Comedians hopped on, actors, the list was endless. All of us who were part of this social train realized the power of the internet (specifically social media) and how it could build a BRAND. Traditional marketing always focused on brand, but now, there was immediacy in information, customers being able to comment real-time and TV ads were becoming secondary. Due to my interest in social media, understanding the power of it and truly enjoying the connection, I began, even then, to see how I could help others, musicians and comics, to increase their brand awareness and bring them more fans.
A friend and I eagerly started MySpace Fan Pages for these folks. I learned basic HTML to build the sites and create them the way our clients wanted them. MySpace was GREAT that way, as there was extreme control in how your site looked, without ads, and freedom to express yourself the way you wanted with music and pictures. As my friend and I continued to build our customers brands, I started connecting with even more with followers from our client’s pages. We then became friends, and in a way, this is a bit how Twitter was born! However, before that, Facebook got smart and took on a lot of what MySpace offered but created connections a bit differently.
My start with Facebook was before it went public. I worked at a music college and a colleague was curious with how we could use the power of Facebook to our advantage. Although we worked at the brick and mortar college, we were advisors for the online school. The idea was to attract on-campus students to try an online class. This would then broaden our reach and allow students to complete their work faster, but also bring in the college more money. I was against it at first. He bugged me and asked several times as he needed an ally and wanted to only use those of us in the office for a beta test. I reluctantly got on (remember I was an avid MySpace user at the time), but then, started to see what Facebook had to offer. I still loved MySpace as I had created credibility and was still building and overseeing fan sites for clients. I also saw Facebook as hearkening back to the old IRC chats, but looked a bit slicker. I had no idea at that time that Facebook would become the number one social media platform in the United States just a few years later! Remember, when I got on, it wasn’t even available to the public. As it started growing, though, I saw the power of social media even more and what was possible.
From there, the rest is history, as they say. I hopped on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat. I became a blogger in a few areas (motherhood, music and life) and now here I am as a professional social media consultant!
As I said earlier, this career was not on my radar when I was in college, before I became a mom or even within the last year! But all I had to do was to look at where my passions lied. Where was my heart leading me and what could I do to help others? Then the answer was clear. I could marry so many things that I loved within this type of career–I could help hundreds women, I could grow musician’s and other artist’s fan bases, I complete behind the scenes details for entrepreneurs to grow their business while they actually used their time to WORK their passion!
It’s definitely freeing when life shows you what you can do and it all makes sense. What I learned, though, is that it was all right there in front of me. All I had to do was look with new eyes and listen to my heart.
Recent Comments