Digital Marketing Creating Connections: Students meet Professionals

Shelter-in-place orders, work-from-home arrangements, and social distancing has changed the way that we work. While businesses around the world are feeling these effects, it is remarkable how experiences we previously took for granted are completely different for so many in all areas of life. In education, events like graduations--that right of passage where you walk across a stage and receive your diploma as a transition into the next level, whether from Pre-K to Middle School, Middle to High School, High School to College, or College to life, has been suspended. On a smaller scale, normal processes like meeting for group work, holding office hours and working together, have all had to adapt. 

As an online professor for the Northern Illinois University Digital Marketing program, I was prepared to be online for my courses. This is how the class is set up. This is how I work. I function in a mostly digital environment. Although I had planned to come on campus once in a while to interact with students and peers, I knew for many I would exist in a digital environment. My office hours are held in Zoom chat rooms, and my fastest way of communicating is via text. 

What I wasn’t prepared for was working with a class of students, many of whom lived and worked on campus, but were suddenly thrust into a digital world. They weren’t necessarily prepared for this kind of work and had to adjust extremely quickly. While each educator did amazing things to bring their traditional class environment into a digital landscape, there is still so much that can be missed outside of the classroom. 

One of the things that students would lose was the ability to interact with professionals on a regular basis. The NIU College of Business, like most universities, offers regular opportunities for students to ask questions and network with industry professionals. But, how do you do that when a campus is closed? 

In my other life, I run a digital marketing agency that focuses on supporting businesses and brands primarily in the promotional products industry. Within that space I have the opportunity to be a “Chef” for PromoKitchen, a non-profit organization focused on mentorship and education of the community. Each week we host a forum on twitter called #promochat where people from the industry collaborate and interact digitally with each other. We have attendees from all over the country and many different categories of profession. In the promotional products industry, many are constantly looking for ways to interact with the next generation of professionals. This seemed like a natural fit. 

We invited the students of NIU to attend the virtual forum where questions were asked such as what advice professionals had, what jobs students were looking for, and many more. We had participation from several students from the college of business, and they asked perceptive, fantastic questions. The students got to interact with industry professionals, and the professionals were able to support the students. The fact that we weren’t physically in Barsema Hall didn’t limit our ability to share experiences and advice. It was an example of adaptability, and showed that the future has no boundaries.