blog till you drop!

My buddy Adam recently decided to dedicate his blogroll to the bloggers of the future, an experiment which aims to give future PR/Digital pros extra visibility. On the back of this, he published an interview  with up and coming PR PRO Mikinzie Stuart, to give her some well-deserved exposure.

It’s now my turn to introduce you to my rising digital star, the lovely Claire Tayler. I had the opportunity to meet Claire last year, where she worked as my intern for a few months. Graduating in May this year, Claire already has and impressive CV, having worked in both advertising and PR.

Without further ado, here are Claire’s interview questions.

Q 1. You have established an impressive suite of online destinations / places to connect as you prepare for a life in Social Media / Digital Advertising / PR – for those who aren’t aware, what are some of the things you are doing and what is the rationale behind your strategy?

To work in digital media it seems obvious that you need to understand it.

The idea of ‘making contacts’ makes me cringe a bit – it’s always sounded a bit slimy.  I moved to a Media Studies degree from a Multimedia Technology course and it felt like a step down because it’s a new and untraditional subject.  I love the topic, but I’ve never been convinced of the real-life skills it provides (perhaps true of most degrees) and years of in-school talks have drilled it into my head that interning is a necessity, specifically for arts students.  Also how can you choose a career if you haven’t tried it?  To start with I interned to find out “what I wanted to be when I was older” -  I didn’t intentionally set out to gain contacts (although I’d call them lovely people rather than contacts) but it’s happened along the way which has been great.

In terms of social media I’ve always been a bit of a blogger and not joining simple sites like LinkedIn seemed a bit like shooting yourself in the foot, but in all honesty there wasn’t a massive rationale or strategy to ‘getting into media’, they’re just things I liked.

Before my first internship at Glue I’d been on Twitter quite unproductively for about four months and during the internship working in an ad agency gave perspective to it – it’s only after seeing it used properly and knowing great people on it that it’s become useful.  Over Summer I went to some Tweetups (Ale 2.0, Twestival, and Cozy Tweetup), which were fun, and again more for the experience than making contacts, which happened anyway.

There’s still a massive stigmatism around Twitter at Universities – an astounding number of final year media students say they “don’t see the point” or “don’t understand it” which I think is gobsmacking.  When I was first trying it out my friends didn’t use it which made it pretty limiting and more ego-based (you literally are talking to nobody) but it’s really useful and fun now I know the right people and I find instant dismissal of it really odd.

Some of the things I’m doing at the moment… I’ve just started interning with One Bird Records, I blog for a digital agency called (untitled), I write for Bitchbuzz.com and in December I started writing Bored of Brighton too, a Brighton version of @TiredofLondon.  Essentially in the last year my tweeting, blogging, YouTubing, and Flickring’s all gone up astronomically.  I was doing most of this already but being in industry’s just developed them or made them more appealing.  Something I would consider changing is a sandwich year instead of juggling university and work.

Q 2. Has it worked, i.e. met the objectives you set out?

I basically wrote a lot of eager letters, gushing about what I liked about digital media and what I wanted to do or learn about.  Being quite specific about what I wanted out of it, sounding human, and making a bad joke about tea in my covering letter seemed to win people over.  Glue took me on when I had a really limited amount of experience which was lovely of them (a product of an eager letter), and having a well-known name on a CV no doubt helped after that.  Importantly look for opportunities and ask even if they’re not advertised.  I’m currently working for a start-up which didn’t promote for intern, but could do with one anyway (me!).  I’ve phoned and emailed numerous companies regardless of whether they were asking, added agencies on Twitter and sent them a speedy message, and through this landed work at (untitled) and Cake this way.  It never hurts to ask.  Someone once told me never hit up a company more than three times.

Placements, and having ‘a good digital name’ have both helped propel me into other placements, and it’s landed me a bit of freelance work on the side.  It’s all been really useful.

Q3. What things have you learnt about Social Media / Digital Engagement that you weren’t aware of when you started down this path?

Before last year I’d never written to bloggers promoting a brand.  That was definitely a new experience, and it was definitely harder to do before I started getting pitched at myself which has no doubt helped.  I learnt how to use social media on behalf of a brand, which sounds simple but when it’s your one of your first jobs and it’s a high cost account the sudden responsibility is strange.  My own project, writing Bored of Brighton has actually been incredibly useful because I’ve had to do this for myself and start from scratch building up a fan base.  In the same vein, I’ve heard working for a start-up is one of the most useful things you can do because everything you do matters an incredible amount compared to large companies with interns on rotation every few weeks.

My favourite part was someone walking me around at Glue explaining how everyone fits into the team and how they all work with each other.  It sounds pretty simple, but it really helped my understanding of ad agencies.

Q4. You’ve now got a huge toolkit of skills that some of the most seasoned PR pros don’t know how to use yet. What’s your favourite tool for promotion? Your blog/Twitter/LinkedIn?

I find it baffling when traditional PR companies turning digital don’t understand Twitter or Bloggers.  I don’t intentionally go out to self-promote (beyond posting a couple of blog links up), more to enjoy using things.

For fun I’m a massive fan of Twitter because of the ease of saying Hi, and it acts as a Google Reader feeding me fads and news (my own Google Reader is too chock-a-block to touch with a stick).

I love blogging because it’s a bit of a scrap book of my life and things I like, and in terms of self-promotion shows that I’m aware of ads and events.  That said, I try hard to avoid writing solely writing about ads because whilst there’s nothing wrong with it, it feels a tad generic.  I try and write about myself more, and make sure I’m going to new exhibitions, seeing new things, learning things, etc.  There’s a bit of a trend that I haven’t given in to yet to use Posterous for ads to show that you’re down with what’s new, and keeping a personal blog for insightful longer entries.  Having said that, Andy Kinsella writes a good one at http://www.andykinsella.com

Flavors.me (http://flavors.me/getdancey) is a great way to keep everything together too, if you need a way to showcase every you’ve got in a quick link.

Q5. Finally, if you were a brand, which one would you like to be and why?

I’d be fickle and say Google.  There’s a lot of negative press around Google occasionally as YouTube videos circulate pointing out that they’re taking over the internet, the world, and even the physical cables that connect the two, but brand wise I’ve never really faulted them as a brand. They provide good services,  I haven’t loss respect over the Google Buzz privacy-failing launch, and a large part of this answer stems from the brilliant BBH work which incorporated mercury, knitting, catapults, things on sticks, and lots of handmade bits and bobs.  Whilst quite a faceless brand (compared to say, Microsoft) they haven’t elevated themselves too high.

The lovely Claire is currently looking for an internship in digital planning / PR in London. Witty, ambitious with an excellent  understanding social media, you should probably hire her before your competition does.