I had the pleasure of being an intern at a Santa Cruz PR firm a few years ago with then senior account manager Mike Kelly, who came in as our seventh speaker of this quarter. I always knew him as a master of the phones who understood the technology industry and the major players in it. And although two years ago I was exposed to him on a near daily basis, the endless daily to-do’s limited him from fully imparting his knowledge. He came into the PIE and spoke to our group of students to give them valuable advice to market themselves, whether it be as the face of a company or in an interview for a job. By the end of our discussion our students had learned a great deal about the new face of social media and I finally got to learn what I wish I had while interning with Mike.
Mike shared with us the strategy for not only becoming seen as a leader in a market, but also for knowing where to look for trends and movers and shakers in an industry. He emphasized the use of twitter as a means of connecting with the technology influencers. It was interesting to hear how he develops relationships and how we could leverage such relationships to put us a step ahead in our businesses and careers.
He then discussed how every day we are selling ourselves. In his occupation he has to sell himself to clients but he emphasized that the same selling techniques that he uses could be utilized by the PIE students.
In the end we all learned from an enlightening discussion about the tech world and social networking. We learned how to understand the key people to follow, key blogs to read and key concepts to understand in an industry that undergoes daily change.