Why yes… yes it can! (In my Kat Williams voice) As I embark upon my four year anniversary with my company, I had no clue there were going to be some major changes that I was going to take part in.
As a Sales Coordinator for an Alternative Weekly Newspaper your tasks on a week to week basis are pretty consistent. After four years of doing the same thing over and over again with minor modifications you tend to do it with your eyes closed, one hand behind your back, and standing on one leg hopping! Okay maybe I’m exaggerating a bit but, you get really proficient at what you do. I also assist the Web Director with certain areas of our company website, I handle all local tickets & event promotions, and I’m a back up for the Classified Dept. Don’t get me wrong there are moments when things can get crazy, but that’s usually when we’re doing a special publication. Well, I am the queen of multi tasking and scheduling. I always have a set time do a specific task and usually I’m doing more than one thing at a time to keep my sanity. That could also be my ADD!
Last year I started blogging, joined some GREAT online groups, forums and started to network. I also joined the Twitter movement and Facebook. As time progressed within the last year TweetDeck is always minimized on my desktop so I can stay “In the Know†God forbid I miss something important in my Twitter stream! I also jump on Facebook and blog hop when time permits and that became apart of my daily routine in between tasks to refresh my brain. I did get really self conscious about it when I saw myself needing to break away from what I was doing to tweet, drop a comment on a blog or jump on Facebook and “you know at those particular moment it’s when your supervisor or co worker strolls by and glances over at your computer screen … but, if they had walked by half a second earlier you would have been doing something work related.†I’ve had tons of moments like that! However, I do my job and felt if my superiors had a problem with it they would’ve definitely mentioned it to me. Then I would’ve had to confess, I’m addicted to blogging, Twitter & social media networking!
So, last week my General Manager and publisher of our newspaper attended an AAN (Association of Alternative News Weeklies) Convention which is somewhat similar to blog conferences. Its a few days full of seminars on how alternative newspapers can enhance their print & online products. There were two things that stuck out to my boss at this particular conference (1.) Marketing Your Paper. (2.) How To Best Use the Staff You Have. Side Note: Some of these seminar speakers were bloggers. I think that’s AWESOME! These two particular seminars started a world wind of thoughts for my boss and when they came back from the conference they were ready to make some necessary changes. There were some really important meetings that took place for a few days and then I was called into the office! As I sat there listening about the conference and everything that had transpired I was excited for us as a paper! Our conversation was a very positive one and to make a long story short… I was offered a new position within the company to become the Marketing Coordinator! This would entail going to lots of events to network and market our online and print publication along with promoting special events. I will be trained using some of the methods and techniques learned at the AAN Conference to push our online journalism and I get to do additional social media networking, Tweeting and Facebook. (For the company)
I’ve never been more excited to be a Twitterholic, Facebook Addicted, and Social Networking Butterfly! Like they say… Everything happens for a reason! I loved my job before, but I love it even more now AND it rocks to work for such a great company. Happy Anniversary to me!