Final Speech for the students at UCI 2018

When Gail Schwartz and Karen Vallejo asked me to talk about Marketing Trends in 2018 for the Business English graduation the first thing that came up to my mind was: OMG!, why they are asking me that? Most of these people are natural born marketers. They are the video, streaming, picture, sharing, tagging, mobile, social media generation! Then, I thought: I do have some experience, I think I can contribute!

First of all: no matter what field you are in (Finance, HR, Product Development, Marketing) we, ourselves, are all a media company nowadays. So these are my marketing tips for you guys #marketingtrendsfor2018:

Number 1 : Market yourselves

Every accomplishment, every achievement and be consistent!

We can say we all are practically brands in the market nowadays, each one of us. So, show consistence in your posts on social media; in a job interview; in your relationships; in your network. Show your ideas! Companies will show more and more their points of view, what they stand for to be connected with their targets. And I am pretty sure the same way you identify yourselves with brands, companies will be identified with your style, your profile. And that’s the perfect match!, as we say in digital marketing.

Differentiate yourselves from others! You are different! And that is awesome!

Number 2: Have a LinkedIn account!

Come on! We said that before many times in our classes! For those who are starting a career or are old school like me, be professionally connected. There has never had a more perfect professional social media than LinkedIn. Don’t forget to put your accomplishments and connect with your colleagues and your teachers. Don’t forget to put UCI on your profile! Great institutions are only for great people. And when users read your profile, they will make the connection between what they think about UCI and your selves. By the way, THANK YOU, UCI!

Number 3: Practice storytelling every day.

Tell your story instead of telling people what you do. I am an Engineer and I have master’s in marketing and International Business. And if you ask me what the correlation between all these areas is, I will tell you a big story that you will conclude that is much more about the connections that our brains do, than titles. Yeah! Storytelling will keep rocking in Marketing! More than ever.

Finally!

You have all the tools in your hands or in your pockets. Richard Branson asked people once on LinkedIn: would you be able to run a company only using your smartphone? And the answer is: absolutely!

Google trends, google adwords, faceads, social media, hashtag: use them! In your jobs, to get a job! Companies are struggling and spending money more than ever to understand what to do with so much data. Yeah guys! Hashtag Big Data is the next big thing! If you don’t know what Big Data is, search it right know!

But don’t forget! Verify the information. Be curious. Always. Be entrepreneur: to your company, to the company you work for! 

Congratulations!

Mariana