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  • Looking Back on an Amazing Ride

    I can’t believe that it’s been four years. It’s been four crazy, unforgettable, and amazing years since I stepped onto this campus as a bushy-eyed freshman, ready to take on anything that the world threw at me. Like most other freshmen, I believed I had all of life’s questions answered and felt like I didn’t need any more guidance from people around me (especially professors.) What an idiot I was.
    I have learned so much since I entered into UNC-Wilmington. I started out as a business major but switched over to Communication Studies in the middle of sophomore year. I chose this major because I had taken a few COM classes in my freshman year and I really liked what I was learning. However I knew that I was in the right major as soon as I went to my first COM 105 class with Dr. Weber. In the first day of class Weber spoke about this major with so much passion that it inspired me. Seeing a man like Weber speaking so intensely about this department, motivated me to go deeper into Communication Studies and see what was intriguing about the discipline. It was definitely the right choice for me as I have always been able to communicate easily with others, especially in a professional setting. Not only does this major offer a variety of important classes that teach students valuable lessons, but it also offers great opportunities. The friends that I have made in my classes as well as all the information I was able to retain, have truly made college a genuine experience. Whether it be late night journeys to Cookout or a research group pulling an all-nighter, I wouldn’t change a thing about my time spent here in UNCW. Upon graduation this May I hope to get a career in the Public Relations field, the same subject that I completed an internship in this spring.uncw
    To conclude, I am glad to have had the opportunity to call Wilmington my home for the past four years. This place, and all the people I have met here, will forever hold a special place in my heart. My experience as a Communication major at the University of North Carolina Wilmington helped me to mature and grow. Not only did this university teach me how to be a professional, but it also taught me to be a man.

    -Michael Nunes

  • Reflections on Graduation

    When I first started my journey at UNCW, like many other freshmen I was disoriented, puzzled about my future and overwhelmed with what college had to offer.

    I have lived in Italy for 16 years and living with two cultures has always been part of my life. The quest I went on when I decided to move to the United States for college and apply to UNCW was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made in my life. I took more than one risk but I can honestly say that in the end I don’t have any regrets. If risks aren’t taken in life, then it’s truly not worth living. Overall the decision I had to make was not an easy, nor a quick one, but either way I knew that it would be a life changing one. For me, “personal success” is more than just maturing academically, and UNCW has allowed me to achieve this and beyond. I am proud of my dual citizenship and all the pros and cons that have come with it. My experiences and background have helped enhance my experience at UNCW, and it was well worth the journey.

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    I believe that my education is the first and most important building step towards achieving my life goals, and UNCW has allowed me to do just that. Classes like Capstone and many other I have taken in the Communication Studies Department have not only prepared me for the future but, most importantly, they have excited me about my future. As someone who has lived in the United States for less than five years, I can honestly say it is not only relieving, but also rewarding to know that I am one of the youngest graduates in my class and that I have successfully achieved the same level of academic recognition that people who have lived their whole lives here have.

    Throughout the years my family has allowed me to further shape myself into the person that I am now. My parents were in fact the ones that let me take on the most important experience that I’ve had so far in my life. I don’t see graduating from college as the successful termination of a chapter of my life, but rather the beginning of a new chapter in which I prove to my parents that all their support and everything they have done for me has allow me to successfully accomplish my dreams.

    The pressures to start my career and succeed in life are two things that have been more and more often on my mind, I’m sure like many others of my fellow college graduates as well. I could not go to the point of saying that UNCW guaranteed me success in my future career, but I can truthfully say that it has given me the confidence and preparation I need to leave the UNCW “nest” and enter the real world; and this is more than I could have ever asked for. Ultimately, part of the post-grad adventure is really trying to figure out who you are and what you value. As I said earlier, for me, graduating from college is the final move (or leap) into adulthood.

    It is now 13 days until the day of my graduation and as I am writing this final blog post, looking back on where I was four years ago and where I’ve came from, I can honestly say that I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

    – Sasha De Vecchi

  • How to be the CEO of “ME” Incorporated: Personal Branding

    Every company understands the significance of branding and the role it plays in their success as a whole. Today, in the oh so competitive world of job searching and some of our, now, ambiguous futures we have to make ourselves a brand worth buying into. The thing we have to realize is that we are all worth the price that we “sell” ourselves for; each of us having different valuable brand qualities.

    The COM 400 Capstone course encourages students to write down and memorize an “elevator speech.” This is a 15-30 second rendition encompassing all of our greatest qualities that really sells ourselves to whomever we are talking with. That 30 seconds could move us from having zero job offers to having them lined up. However, in order to move forward in making this speech we must analyze ourselves and pinpoint our biggest strengths.

    This process can be started by, first, identifying all of the qualities and characteristics that make you distinctive from your competitors (a.k.a. people looking for the same job opportunities). What makes you stand out? In order to have success at self-branding you must find what makes you the zebra in a herd of horses, this is what is going to grab others attention. To start with, ask yourself: what work am I the most proud of? What do I value the most about my abilities? Etc. Asking yourself these types of questions will help you in evaluating your personal strengths and weaknesses or areas for improvement. Utilizing your strengths and highlighting them is a key component to making you stellar competition. Seth Godin states in a personal interview, “It’s all about how you can connect with people, how you can bring them up.” Your values are how you connect with others – it’s the difference of just being good to being great at what you do.

    An article from Fast Company says, “Don’t sell the steak, sell the sizzle…no matter how beefy your set of skills, no matter how tasty you have made your features – you still have to market the bejesus out of your brand – to customers, colleagues, and your virtual network of associates.” Every decision and every move you make counts. When you are branding your image people are watching your every move, just as they would in scrutiny of any other brand. Your values and character is being weighed the moment you start branding yourself. Word- of – Mouth marketing is one of the most important marketing assets you have; what people have to say about you makes all the difference.

    With that being said, once you have delivered your “Me” message and have gained the attention of others you have more than likely also obtained more confidence in yourself. This is good. However, you now have more power and more influence over others making you a leader to some. It is just as important to maintain and strengthen your brand as it is initially making it. Just as much as you are leading others, you are leading yourself. James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner report in their book, The Leadership Challenge, that followers expect four things from their leaders: honesty, competence, vision and inspiration. These are qualities that lay the foundation of your brand and make you the “CEO of Me Inc.” You have potential to make your brand known and maybe even famous. You have that power, how will you use it?

    -Katelyn Alston

  • Networking, Personal Branding, and Tumblr

     

    Personal Branding is an important tool in order to introduce and further promote one’s self to a target market in an effective and decisive manner. Industry guru, Colin Bates says, “A brand is a collection of perceptions in the mind of the consumer.” But the concept of “brand” does not apply – as we are often led to believe – just to companies, their products and their services, but also individuals, regardless of the profession they practice. 

    It is important to keep in mind that strategies for personal branding often revolve around three main tactics: 

     

    • Competence – analyze and improve the characteristics and attitudes of your own persona by producing value on the market.

     

    • Visibility – stand out from the crowd through communication strategies, which may be coordinated both online and offline.

     

    • Networking – be consistent with your own personality, while being open to dialogue and exchange in order to further broadcast yourself and create your own network of contacts with whom to interact.

     

    Ultimately, a personal brand that is strong and empathic is built by offering uniqueness and originality: it is necessary to orient your public and target audience towards values that are positive ​​and consistent at every level. In order to successfully accomplish this it is necessary to establish resources, along with a consistent and constructive dialogue with others. 

     

    Different social media outlets are ways to create one’s personal brand. Specifically, Tumblr offers a very unique way for people and brands to express themselves. It’s a relatively new type of blog that features all types of small niches; something for everyone to find. It’s a little bit like a more informal Pinterest.  One chooses to follow certain blogs, and only posts from those blog show up on one’s “dashboard”. It’s also quite interesting because unless you know someone’s Tumblr URL, there is no way to search for anyone specifically. One finds pages they like through tags and going to the pages of people they follow to find other people and tags. 

    This makes me think of the book, “The Filter Bubble” by Eli Pariser. In this book he talks about how people have “click signals” when they use the Internet. For instance, everything that shows up on one’s Facebook news feed is due to their click signal, as well as all of the advertisements. Facebook saves information from what one clicks on, to what one likes, to how long one is on a certain page, and uses this info to create one’s Facebook home page. Meaning one only sees information that is filtered for them; only information click signals believe they will like.  This creates one to be more close-minded due to the fact that they only see things they prefer to see, and not things people with different opinions post. I believe Tumblr somewhat breaks the filter bubble though, because even though one chooses which blogs to see, there are very few blogs that only post one specific subject. Most blogs have a variety of different types of posts, from movies and music, to science and politics, even adult entertainment. Unlike Pinterest, there aren’t specific boards one can choose to follow on another’s page; instead it shows everything that user posts. So even though one follows a blog because they see a post they like, chances are they are going to see a variety of other things as well. 

    Although Tumblr is still gaining awareness and users, it is still a fun, new way to express one’s personality on the Internet in a truly unique way from the rest.

     

    – Jay Reilly

  • Creating an Online Portfolio

    The end of the semester is near and graduation is right around the corner! Seniors are now pressured to lock down future plans for the next chapter of their lives. Whether your goal is starting a career, an internship, or graduate school, this is a very important time to mold your brand and prove your worth. The image you portray is vital, you need to market yourself in a way that is unique and shows that you will be an important asset to the team.  Thanks to our Communication Capstone course, students can prepare and shape their resume and artifacts for their portfolios. Why not make an online portfolio? In this day and age, in almost every field an online presence is essential. I am going to show some advantages of making your own online portfolio.

    As we all know, the moment an employer decides someone is worth hiring, they Google the prospect to gather as much information as possible. Facebook, Twitter and other social media is a great way for an employer to size someone up. But, if your online portfolio is the first thing the employer sees this can be beneficial to you by making you appear professional while showcasing your work. It shows employers you have taken the time and initiative to collect artifacts such as past articles, blogs, projects and presentations. Online portfolios give you the opportunity to show the steps and improvements you have made within projects. Including future goals is something that employers would like to see as well.

    The ability to personalize the layout and design gives you the opportunity to perfect your brand image exactly how you would like to present yourself.  Maggie O’Briant’s article, 5 Great Online Portfolio Hosting Websites, claims that carbonmade, behance, photoshelter, dripbook, and viewbook are all great opinions when choosing the host site that is right for you. Maggie also describes the details of each of these listed sites in her article if you would like more information.

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    An online portfolio is the ideal tool to create brand coherence for yourself.  In the book Branded Nation, James B. Twitchell defines brand coherence as “a sense of coherence, a sense that nothing was out of place, a sense of a center”. This will give your audience a clear image and a centered sense of who you are. The best part is you have the ability to control your image, by editing your portfolio at anytime. Twitchell also states that a brand tells a story. Creating this profile offers you a platform to display the story of YOU, how you have evolved, and where you would like to go.

    – Kelsey Raskob

  • Building Your Brand

    As the semester comes to an end, it is vital, especially for those of us graduating, to be thinking about what our social media pages and profiles say about us. We’ve all heard that what we post on the Internet is out there for the world to see, including future employers. It is not difficult for employers to Google your name and get an easy first impression. Clearly, it is important to remove any content, pictures, statuses, etc., that could be inappropriate or misinterpreted. But why not go beyond just the clean up stage and make your social media sites really promote you? This video by graphic designer Jacob Cass tells his story of the importance of using social media to promote your personal brand.

    Personal branding is “the process by which we market ourselves to others.” In the competitive job market, it is important to stand out. According to John Doherty, truly building a personal brand can take time, but he lists ways in which to build it: by writing what you know, by what others say about you, by having a strong voice, and by using consistency across many platforms. The words that people associate with you are part of your brand, so it is important to use all available platforms to promote what you want to be identified with. As college students prepare to join “the real world,” an obvious platform to examine first is Facebook.

    According to the Huffington Post, out of the hiring managers who screen applications using social media, 65% of them use Facebook as their primary source. Therefore, your Facebook page can be an extension of your résumé. Just like you determine what goes on your résumé, you determine what goes on your Facebook page. So, you might want to consider changing your privacy settings to where photos tagged of you by others do not appear on your page.

    Now, the obvious place to start is the clean up stage, which means going through your page, including photos, posts, and the information section, with a fine tooth comb and deleting anything that is not going to make you positively stand out. Next, update your profile picture and cover picture with your audience (aka possible future employer) in mind. Hiring managers will look at profiles to see if applicants look professional and appear to fit the company’s culture. In relation to Walther’s Social Information Processing Theory, computer-mediated communication, such as content on a Facebook page, can give the reader an impression of that person, which gives them an idea of who that person is. Therefore market yourself further, update the “About” section, including the work and education sections as well as the contact information. While all of this information will be on your résumé, it needs to be updated and maintained on your social media sites as well. It can be a place to add additional accomplishments and qualifications. Once your page is in order, do not neglect to post insightful and productive status updates. Do not ruin the brand you are building by posting careless statuses.

    Using your Facebook page to build and present your personal brand is a simple yet effective place to start. Through Facebook, you can link viewers to your other social media sites and blogs further promoting yourself. Begin thinking about the image you want others to have about you and start tailoring your available platforms to match it.

    –Laura Tippett

  • The Transparency Angle

    What’s even real these days? It may or may not be a question that’s crossed your mind recently, but it is causing a stir in companies and ad agencies.  Transparency and authenticity are in, and flashy propaganda is on its way out.  It’s no surprise that businesses continue to refine the concept of authenticity for the purpose of marketing strategy.  What could be more lucrative than to convince consumers that a product can bridge the disconnect between modern civilization and reality, especially in a society constantly seeking meaning?

    Chick-fil-A is one company that is now taking the advertising approach of transparency, inviting customers for behind-the-counter tours at all of their locations.  This blazes the path for their upcoming menu improvements, such as salads with more nutrient-rich ingredients focused on harnessing the concept of authenticity in their food offerings.

    However, restaurant chains aren’t the only ones using this strategy.  Dove, a brand owned by Unilever, started the “real beauty” campaign in 2004 in the hopes of expanding the definition of beauty and promoting self-esteem in women of all shapes and sizes.  This week the company released a video to tell women “you’re more beautiful than you think” by comparing how women view their own beauty with how strangers view them.  This type of advertising goes beyond showing the consumer how authentic a product is; it makes the audience consider the authenticity behind their own self-image.

    The Authenticity Hoax, a book by Andrew Potter, takes apart the ideal of the “authenticity” that we’re all striving for.  He looks at the areas of our lives where we feel connected to experiences, the world, and nature, and how society has lost the true meaning of authenticity in the process of seeking it out.  In his conclusion he says, “we are trying to find at least one sliver of the world, one fragment of experience, that is innocent, spontaneous, genuine, and creative, and not tainted by commercialization, calculation, and self-interest.”

    The minute authenticity became a brand in and of itself, people wanted to have it, and companies are more than happy to sell it.  Dove may highlight the reality of the average woman versus the size zero models in many other ads, but that doesn’t mean they’re not capitalizing on some other ideal.  Authenticity is the new thing to have.  The problem is, just as Potter points out, authenticity is pretty much a false goal.  Chick-fil-A can show its customers where they make the food, but that doesn’t mean anyone’s life is more real because they ate a chicken sandwich that wasn’t frozen.

    – Ally Walton