Six Things I've Learned and/or Relearned Since Grad School
When I saw this tweet about the 2011 Elon iMedia class a few months ago, it got me thinking. I couldn’t believe I graduated from Elon iMedia grad program more than a year ago. I started asking myself question after question:
- What had I done since?
- What had I learned from it?
- How has it impacted me?
What I’ve Done
I landed a job as the Online Communications Manager for The Arc, a national nonprofit that advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It took some searching and more than a handful of interviews, but I was happy to find a role that lets me do a bit of everything: strategy, design, code, social media and more. Since then I have:
- launched a new blog.
- led the organization’s website through a rebranding effort.
- launched a federally-funded grant project on autism.
- grown the organization’s Facebook fans by 75 percent and its Twitter followers 60 percent.
What I’ve Learned
I can’t think of a week where I don’t learn something new. Sometimes you don’t learn anything new, but rediscover lessons from the past. My first year since iMedia has been a good mix. Here are the top nuggets:
- Listen. Always listen. It fuels the success of any project.
- It starts with content. No website can be truly great without it.
- Website statistics mean nothing, but the trends in them do.
- It doesn’t matter how popular you are in social media or how many pageviews you get if you do not know your message.
- Teamwork. Nothing else needs to be said.
- Shortcuts are dangerous. Standards are the road less traveled. Know them and follow them.
The above may sound like common sense, but it never hurts to be reminded of where you’ve been.