For the past two years, I’ve worked as a photographer for Auburn Campus Recreation, Eagle Eye TV, DEVENEY, and Village Photographers. I love the feel of my camera in my hands, and I enjoy the process of shooting and editing my pictures.

In the past year, I’ve grown as a videographer as well, leading Auburn Campus Recreation’s video team in planning and shooting a variety of videos.

Whether I’m outlining marketing plans or analyzing ways to communicate an organization’s message, I love using social media to connect with a brand’s audience. It’s faster, cheaper, and more effective than traditional advertising. And unlike press releases, you control the story.

That said, don’t forget to use strategy in your social media marketing. Targeting mid-40s suburban moms? Instagram won’t help much. Stick with Facebook and e-mail. Trying to draw young teens to your latest line of jeans? Meet them where they are, and consider advertising through influencers on YouTube and other platforms.

Who is your company? Who do your business partners, customers and fans think you are? That mental image in their heads? That’s your brand. And it’s what sets you apart. In competitive industries, brand differentiation is increasingly vital. The good news? Every company is different.

You love your company. It’s special. Brand management is the art of communicating that to the people who truly matter: your stakeholders.

Whether you have a well-defined, established brand or your company is dealing with an identity crisis, let me help you continue to grow through the careful use of created content, an established voice, differentiated aesthetic, and through audience engagement.

Like the website? I made it myself. Seriously, though, I’ve coded this website using HTML5 and CSS for one of my senior projects. I love customizing it, tweaking settings, adjusting blocks, and shaping the code to my vision. From the color schemes to the layout of images and text, I’ve crafted a digital resume that is like me: just a little different.

After I turned the project in, I remade the site, designing it in WordPress. It’s now faster, more responsive, and easy to work with. Since then I’ve worked as a freelancer, making websites for small businesses.

Does your website still look like it was built in 2005? The internet is full of content management systems that make web design even easier, including industry titans like WordPress and Squarespace. I’ve used both, and I’m well-prepared to help bring your website into the present.

Without data and research, PR and marketing specialists are blind. Are you reaching your audience effectively? Who’s seeing your material? What content is most likely to go viral? Research yields answers to these questions and more.

Through my Auburn classes and experience at Auburn Campus Recreation, I’ve learned about the importance of using data and metrics to develop marketing strategy. Simply put, if you aren’t using analytics to determine your social media success, you’re probably wasting your time. Never post just to post.

Create a concrete, research-based strategy and stick to it, ensuring that all posts work within that strategy. And then use numbers, competitor research, internal analysis, and industry trends to determine your ROI.

While press releases are not quite as vital to PR success as they were 20 years ago, they still represent an important aspect of the industry: media relations. By building relationships with the local media, we spread your message further. And, when stuff goes down, positive media relations may be the only way to get the benefit of the doubt when journalists swarm to report the story.