This blog post was originally going to be about Dr. Gate's talk with our class, but unfortunately I had the flu last week and was unable to make it to class. I did get to see Appalachian alumna Sarah Casper come and speak to our class yesterday as part of the Spring Forward event, so this blog post will be about her.
Sarah Casper graduated from Appalachian in 2015 and is now the Social Media Specialist at Wyndham Capital Mortgage. She said she handles all of the Internet communication for them except for marketing emails, which a marketing team takes care of. She handles the Facebook Page, sends emails, and said that she wished she'd had this class when she was a student! She was surprised at the large amount of Electronic Media/Broadcasting majors in our class, but said that was good because her boss is constantly asking if they can make more videos. People don't want to read anymore, and videos are becoming more and more necessary to stay relevant, especially across social media. She explained how in this field you have to wear many "hats." Your job is going to involve covering a lot of bases, you may be doing video production and PR stuff on the same day, and you have to have an front you put up when you post on social media, as there are different things you can and can't say online. Posting things online requires being careful - she said the company actually posted an image they didn't own at one point and got fined $5,000. She also encouraged us to look into learning Hubspot Academy because her first week at her job was learning to do that. Sarah was very friendly and her talk was helpful! We got to ask questions about the jobs we want and have been applying for and she gave good advice, and said she even worked part time for a while before she landed her full time job which was a relief to hear. Her talk took some pressure off the search and was a valuable experience!