Marketing Club Career Panel
Posted on by Jamillah Boyd

Defining Marketing and Earning Your Career

Marketing Club Career Panel
Image via Jennifer Clemente’s Twitter Account @jlcqn5

Marketing panels and networking socials have become a hot destination for both college students and professionals, as demonstrated from the UMSL Marketing Club’s full house event “The Reinvention of Marketing: what it is, where it is headed, future trends” on September 25th. Whether you’re a business major or planning to change the world through viral video, nothing helps more than getting the commentary and insight from the professionals that do it best. The panel was comprised of local industry experts representing both local, national, and global brands:

  • Fleishman Hillard – Matt Coble , Senior Vice President and Partner of Creative Digital
  • Purina – Lisa Keller, Managing Editor of the Social Media Community Management Team
  • Momentum Worldwide – Amber Fox, HR Associate of Talent Acquistion
  • Creative Circle – Dana Biermann, Recruiter
  • Save-A-Lot – Carlos Gil, Head of Social Media and Digital
  • Condé Nast – Dan Stubbs, Research and Analytics Director
  • Famous Footwear – Christine Brennan, Social Strategy and Content Specialist
  • Scottrade – Kim Wells, CMO
  • American Marketing Association – Wes Morgan, Past Chair
  • United Way – Emily McNew, Digital Marketing Manager

With such a wide variety of expertise and experience, the panel provided a multitude of helpful and enlightening takeaways and insights for the students. Below are the main highlights from the panel discussion.

How do industry experts define marketing today?

Well, marketing is constantly changing with the emergence of social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.  With so much change, it is essential to keep up with the current trends and topics happening every day. The consensus was that an exact definition of marketing could not be given because of the ever-evolving ways companies and people are using different medias to connect.

Helpful tips from the panel on scoring a career in your dream field:

  • Stay active with industry trends; blogs and trade journals are key
  • Pay attention to the brands you shop and favor, and see what are they doing right
  • Keep your social media skills savvy for not only yourself, but perspective clients and workplaces
  • Use data already available to you, don’t waste resources. Twitter has personal analytics now!
  • Leverage and polish your writing skills, don’t waste content
  • Give thought to the agency vs. client side of things; experience both if possible
  • Gain experience, express your thoughts, and don’t be afraid to take risks!

Above All: Create Your Personal Brand

Breaking through the noise of social media and the internet is now one of the most important things while searching for a career. Starting now and brainstorming what you personally would like to achieve on the agency or client side of marketing is a great way to draw future employers. Define your personal brand and use it to establish yourself away from the crowd. With so much disruption, there’s not a clear-cut ‘MLA guide’ to these decisions. Get creative, find avenues to show what you offer, and as the panelists kindly stated “never refer to yourself as a guru or ninja… ever”.
Check out these tweets from the reinvention of marketing panel discussion for more takeaways:

Authors

This article was written by University of Missouri – St. Louis Undergraduate students Chase Kohler and Ari Goldstein.