How to Make Your Resume Stand Out: Five Steps to a Brand-Focused Resume

Resumes & Cover Letters

How to Make Your Resume Stand Out: Five Steps to a Brand-Focused Resume

Showcase your value—and differentiate yourself from other job seekers—with a retooled resume

Debra Wheatman is a certified professional resume writer and career strategist who has helped over 11,000 executives with personal branding and career positioning. She brings more than 20 years of corporate HR experience at companies including Condé Nast and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

3 min read • Originally published June 28, 2016 / Updated March 19, 2026

Debra Wheatman is a certified professional resume writer and career strategist who has helped over 11,000 executives with personal branding and career positioning. She brings more than 20 years of corporate HR experience at companies including Condé Nast and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

3 min read • Originally published June 28, 2016 / Updated March 19, 2026

Five Steps to a Brand New Resume was originally published by the American Marketing Association.

The best way to stand out from the competition is to show the unique value that you offer—in other words, your brand. A brand-focused resume will showcase your value relevant to the job opportunity and differentiate you from the other candidates who may have similar skills and experience.

Focus on these five elements to create a brand-relevant resume.

1. Headline

A headline on a resume is akin to a blog or newspaper headline. It is a brief five to seven-word statement that encapsulates your brand.

A great headline example is, “International Patent Attorney With Expertise in Pharmaceuticals.” A headline should be free of fluff. In other words, omit phrases such as “results-oriented,” “self-motivated” or “highly talented.” Save the valuable headline space for keywords that define your brand.

2. Profile

Also called a summary, a profile is a four- to six-line opening paragraph that puts your entire resume into context. The “no-fluff” rule applies to the profile area too.

Select your top skills and accomplishments to demonstrate your ability to excel in the target job. Consider adding an example in the profile to immediately engage your reader.

Want even more help on your resume? Get started with a FREE resume evaluation from Mediabistro’s Career Services. Our counselors and writers can help you update and upgrade your resume so you can confidently apply for the job you want.

3. Areas of Expertise

These are your top eight or 10 job proficiencies. Skip soft skills such as “communication skills” and “leadership” and list the major job functions in which you excel.

Examples may include: “regulatory compliance,” “contract negotiation” and “cross-border transactions.” These are the functional requirements you meet. Your areas of expertise help to define your brand and demonstrate your ability to perform in your target job.

4. Community Leadership

Showing your recent history of community leadership serves two functions. First, it proves your abilities in areas such as team leadership, budget control, fundraising, public relations and more. If your brand lacks leadership expertise in your paid professional experience, volunteer roles can fill that skills gap.

Second, the organizations you support tell a story of your personal passions and your dedication to charities, youth organizations or civic associations.

5. Appearance

Beyond content, the appearance of your resume says a lot about you. If you want a traditional image, select a font such as Garamond, Book Antiqua or Cambria and keep to a black and white format.

If you want to project a more creative image, use a bit of color in the heading, border or category breaks. Fonts that project a modern, sophisticated look include Verdana, Calibri and Trebuchet.

Debra Wheatman is president of Careers Done Write.

The American Marketing Association is the pre-eminent force in marketing for best and next practices, thought leadership and valued relationships, across the entire discipline of marketing. Its online publications include posts on industry trends, career advice and more.

Topics:

Get Hired, Resumes & Cover Letters

Journalism Advice

How to Write a Winning Holiday Pitch as a Freelance Writer

It’s Christmas in July for freelance writers angling to write end-of-the-year pieces

By Amanda Layman Low

@AmandaLaymanLow

Amanda Layman is a B2B tech content writer and strategist with over 15 years of experience creating content for startups and enterprise brands. She founded Tigris, a content agency serving leading tech companies, and authored The New Freelance: A Book for Writers.

4 min read • Originally published July 6, 2016 / Updated March 19, 2026

By Amanda Layman Low

@AmandaLaymanLow

Amanda Layman is a B2B tech content writer and strategist with over 15 years of experience creating content for startups and enterprise brands. She founded Tigris, a content agency serving leading tech companies, and authored The New Freelance: A Book for Writers.

4 min read • Originally published July 6, 2016 / Updated March 19, 2026

A well-timed holiday pitch can represent a major opportunity for you a freelance writer. Editors, both print and online, are often on the hunt for holiday story ideas that haven’t been done a million times before. A creative pitch could help you get your foot in the door at your dream publication.

If you’re thinking of pitching a holiday piece, there are few things you have to do. We conferred with three editors to get their take on how writers can land holiday pitches.

Know the Editorial Calendar

Consult a publication’s editorial calendar to learn its lead time. Lindsay Lambert Day, a freelance travel writer and editor, recommends looking online for a media kit. “Most magazines or websites will have a link somewhere to an electronic media kit. Some will break down the editorial calendar section by section, others will just do one for the whole issue.” Sometimes, what you’re looking for will be labeled as a press kit or PR kit.

There are often specific deadlines for submissions for each issue. For instance, Christmas articles slated to run in December may have a submission deadline in the summer prior to that holiday season. For online publications, the lead time is much shorter.

Amanda Cargill, food content director at The Latin Kitchen, says that pitching online only requires about six weeks’ lead time. “Four could work, but the writer has to be able to write it in that time, and promote it.”

The more time you give an editor, the better. Lambert Day recalls a time she thought of a great holiday pitch at the beginning of December. “I knew in the back of my mind it was probably too late, but I sent it [anyway]. I got answers back that it was a great idea, but they either had a staff editor or someone else working on it. It was nice to get validation that it was a good idea, but I had a ‘shame on me’ moment—I should have pitched that two months ago.”

Hannah Agran, senior food editor of Midwest Living, warns against relying too heavily on editorial calendars for pitching. She explains that within the Midwest Living editorial calendar, “the stories on it have already been thoroughly conceived, and we’ll likely already have writers in mind for them.” Still, it never hurts to use the calendar as a general reference for how far out a magazine might publish stories for a particular holiday. It can even serve as inspiration to help you generate story ideas.

Use Your Expertise

It’s tempting to gravitate toward pitching general ideas. However, these are almost always covered by staff or someone from that magazine’s existing stable of freelance writers.

You’ll have better luck pitching a holiday story infused with your expertise. What can you offer that no other writer can offer? It may be your insider perspective to a particular travel destination, or your close friendship with a famous chef. Maybe you’re an expert craftsperson or artisan.

Whatever your expertise, think of how you could translate it into something interesting and useful for readers. “I think it’s best when you can look at something that’s unusual but not so esoteric or strange that it’s going to miss the mark,” says Lambert Day.

Balance Tradition With Innovation

One of the biggest challenges with holiday stories for many magazines is generating ideas that adhere to a holiday’s traditions, but also that haven’t been done to death.

“Readers want tradition,” Agran says. “They want cookies, and pretty snowy scenery. So our challenge is to hit those key visual and topical notes without repeating the same stories we did two years ago.”

As a freelancer, it’s your job to fill this void without losing sight of the brand’s traditions. Nailing down what that publication is all about by researching holiday stories from the last two years. Consult the stories on their website, and make sure you’re filling a gap.

“Don’t be afraid to be very specific,” says Cargill. “There are so many stories on the Web, readers have never-ending options. Think like a reader and imagine what would catch your eye.”

Lambert Day shares an example of a successful holiday pitch she received from a writer, in her work as editor of Northshore Magazine: “The piece was about what chef Frank McClelland makes and serves to his own family for Christmas brunch on their farm. Lots of readers like that behind-the-scenes kind of storytelling. The story was successful because it gave readers that insider’s perspective, but it also provided recipes that they could use themselves.”

Hone Your Pitching Skills

Pitching best practices never take a holiday: Keep it succinct, pique the reader’s interest through word economy, direct your pitch to the right editor and brush up on what that magazine is looking for.

And never forget the value of a strong headline: “It’s the difference between ‘5 Christmas desserts’ and ‘5 Christmas desserts you can make without an oven.’ The second is catchy, optimized for SEO, and arrives at an actual function,” says Cargill.

As with all good stories, a holiday pitch shouldn’t just cover a topic; it should have a crux. “If you can really encapsulate what the story’s about inside of the title and have it be fun and playful, it’s tremendously helpful,” says Cargill. “Our editors are creative people, but show me exactly what you’re going to do.”

Topics:

Go Freelance, Journalism Advice

Marketing Terms You Need to Know for Your Next Job

By Molly Folse

@MollyFolse

Molly Folse is a marketing leader with 20 years of experience in content strategy and social media, currently serving as Director of Content and Creative at Protective Life. She has led award-winning content and digital campaigns across financial services, higher education, travel, and consumer brands.

5 min read • Originally published July 12, 2016 / Updated March 19, 2026

By Molly Folse

@MollyFolse

Molly Folse is a marketing leader with 20 years of experience in content strategy and social media, currently serving as Director of Content and Creative at Protective Life. She has led award-winning content and digital campaigns across financial services, higher education, travel, and consumer brands.

5 min read • Originally published July 12, 2016 / Updated March 19, 2026

As you face interviews or settle into a new job, you’re going to hear words and phrases you’ve never heard before. Or maybe you’ve heard them, but still don’t know what they mean.

The marketing industry is one of the worst offenders when it comes to buzzwords. So how do you separate terms you’ll carry with you from what’s just trendy at the moment? Here are a few words you’ll hear over and over and absolutely need to know, and samples of how you’d use it in a sentence.

1. Conversion Rate: The percentage of users who take the action you want them to take, like signing up for your craft beer newsletter or buying a pair of stylin’ new kicks.

Sample Sentence: “Our website, MakeBeerAtHome.com, had 10,000 visitors last week, and 1,000 purchases of our home brew kits, making the conversion rate 10%. Cheers!”

2. CRM: Customer relationship management, or the practices, strategies and technologies used to manage and analyze interactions and data to respond to customer needs and wants. If a customer tells a sales rep they think a product is too expensive, that may trigger an email with a discount code for their next purchase.

Sample Sentence: “Through customer feedback, we’re seeing our customers find our jars of honey too difficult to open, so—as a CRM tactic—we’re going to start including a jar opener with each order along with a note that reads, “don’t feel bad, we can’t open ’em either!”

3. Earned Media: Consumers, press or other members of the public who share your content voluntarily. For example, when a news station features a new dating app on a morning show or a blogger writes about the best pair of jeans they’ve ever bought just because they love them so much.

Sample Sentence: “Traffic to the company’s blog last month exploded thanks to earned media—the cat video got 300 shares on Facebook and 700 retweets!”

4. KPI: Key performance indicator, a metric that’s been identified as most important for your company. While key performance indicators are metrics, all metrics are not KPIs. And KPIs are different based on your business objectives.

Sample Sentence: “Since we’re such a new business, we should make social media follower growth a KPI, and maybe even measure the cups of coffee our social media manager drinks…since the numbers seem to correlate.”

5. Metric: Numeric data that allow marketers to evaluate performance of lead generating efforts and effectiveness of a channel or content. Some examples include cost per lead, click-through-rate, and site visits. Keeping track of these not only helps you make better decisions, but can also help prove your worth and validate what you’re doing.

Sample Sentence: “Using metrics like bounce rate and session length, we realized having a video of our CEO on our homepage giving his ‘why I do what I do’ speech was actually turning customers away.”

6. NPS: Net promoter score, a way to measure how people feel about your brand and the likelihood that they’d tell others about you.

Customers and prospects fill out a survey and choose on a scale of 1 to 10 to gauge how likely they are to recommend your product or service. The score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of customers who choose 0 to 6 (would not recommend), from the percentage who chose 9 to 10 (would recommend).

Sample Sentence: “Looking at the NPS, it seems users like our brand’s makeover and would recommend our product to friends. Phew!”

7. Owned Media: Platforms you manage and control, such as a company blog or Facebook page.

Sample Sentence: “With our social team tackling Facebook and Twitter, and our content team rocking the blog, we are OWNING our owned media!”

8. Paid Media: Paying to leverage a third-party channel through sponsorships or advertising. This includes traditional advertising like a TV spot, direct mail, or magazine ad, as well as PPC ads, Facebook ads or sponsored blog posts.

Sample Sentence: “We’ve gotta free up some of the marketing budget; the brand knows paid media will be very important when they launch a new product since no one has ever heard of it before.”

9. PPC: Pay-per-click, an online advertising method used to direct traffic to websites. You only pay when the ad is clicked. PPC ads complement other search engine optimization efforts and are great for promoting sales, seasonal promotions, or the launch of a new product.

Sample Sentence: “Make some time in your afternoon: The marketing director wants to revisit the messaging for a PPC ad since the click-through rate is lower than other ads based on the same keywords.”

10. Persona: A profile of a representative customer that describes purchase behavior, goals, skills, attitudes and other details that make the target consumer more realistic for the marketing team. Everyone from media planners to designers refer to personas when making decisions about their work.

Sample Sentence: “Our persona of a young woman who loves food and photography inspired a series of blog posts and videos about how to take better pictures of your food photos without annoying your hungry dining companions.”

11. Remarketing: Also called retargeting, this is an online marketing tactic that allows marketers to reach out via other channels to visitors who have previously visited their website.

Sample Sentence: “Hey, online sales increased by 30 percent last month; looks like remarketing to customers who’d left without buying a pair of shoes was a good call.”

13. ROI: Return on investment. Basically, this is how you tell if something was worth the time, resources and money spent. In cases where efforts may not be directly tied to sales, especially with content marketing and social media, you may have to evaluate non-monetary gains such as awareness or consumer insights.

Sample Sentence: “Sure, social media is expensive, but when you consider the value of the brand exposure, and the insights gleaned from customer feedback, the ROI is a no-brainer.”

Topics:

How to Create a Spelling Style Sheet for Consistent Writing

Make your work as professional as possible with the power of the style sheet

By Marisa J. Carroll

Marisa J. Carroll is a copy editor, writer, and grammar instructor based in New York

3 min read • Originally published July 27, 2016 / Updated March 19, 2026

By Marisa J. Carroll

Marisa J. Carroll is a copy editor, writer, and grammar instructor based in New York

3 min read • Originally published July 27, 2016 / Updated March 19, 2026

So you’ve just finished a piece of writing—a cover letter, maybe, or a blog post. You have checked the spelling and grammar, corrected the typos, and removed any extra spaces. Good job! But you still have one more element to keep in mind: consistency.

While not mistakes in and of themselves, inconsistencies in your copy (for example, spelling the color gray with an a in some spots but with an e in others) can look messy and feel jarring to your readers, distracting them from your sparkling prose.

To keep articles as consistent as possible, copy editors use a tool called a style sheet. A style sheet is a running document of all the stylistic choices you make regarding capitalization, numbers, punctuation, spelling, display type (e.g., headlines and subheads) and more.

Say you’ve started a comprehensive blog about your favorite television show of all time, The Sopranos (congratulations on your good—if not necessarily timely— taste!) and will give your take on every episode from the beginning of the series. Here are just a few stylistic choices you’d need to make in order to maintain consistency from recap to recap.

Characters: Will you refer to characters by first and last name? First only? Are nicknames acceptable? If yes, for which characters?

Episodes: Will you list episodes by their title (“College”)? Or by their season and episode number (Season 1, Episode 5)? Or perhaps a shorthand code (S1, E5)?

Foreign terms Will you italicize unfamiliar foreign terms, most likely Italian in this case? Or leave them in regular type (aka roman type)?

Profanity If quoting dialogue that contains profanity, will you spell out those terms completely? Or block out letters instead? If you decide to block out letters, will you use dashes as a substitution (f- – – ) or asterisks (f***)? If you pick asterisks, will you substitute just one letter (f*ck)? Or every letter in the word besides the first (f***)?

Slang terms How will you spell the Sopranos’ dialectal word pronunciations? Will capicola, a deli meat popular with Tony and his crew, appear as gabbagool? Or cappa col?

However you decide to answer these questions is up to you. No matter what you decide, it’s crucial to document each decision on your style sheet (providing examples when helpful and noting exceptions when necessary) and to follow those decisions consistently.

Although maintaining a style sheet may seem tedious and time-consuming, you’ll end up helping your readers and yourself. Your readers will be treated to smoother copy—and will be more likely to stick with it.

Your work will look more professional—and you won’t have to rely on memory, or research the same questions again and again, or scroll through old posts to find out how you had styled something in the past.

You’ll also be assisting anyone who works on your site in the future, be it a guest blogger or a copy editor or a proofreader. A style sheet ensures you’ll all be operating by the same set of rules, which will save time, energy, and trouble in the long run. Holla!

Take your copyediting and proofreading skills to the next level with a Mediabistro Online Copyediting Course.

Topics:

Interview Tips

Five Common Interview Mistakes That Could Cost You the Job

Debra Wheatman is a certified professional resume writer and career strategist who has helped over 11,000 executives with personal branding and career positioning. She brings more than 20 years of corporate HR experience at companies including Condé Nast and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

3 min read • Originally published August 8, 2016 / Updated March 19, 2026

Debra Wheatman is a certified professional resume writer and career strategist who has helped over 11,000 executives with personal branding and career positioning. She brings more than 20 years of corporate HR experience at companies including Condé Nast and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

3 min read • Originally published August 8, 2016 / Updated March 19, 2026

Five Ways to Fail an Interview was originally published by the American Marketing Association.

Congratulations on your invitation to interview for the perfect job!

You have diligently researched the employer. You studied interview questions and practiced for all types of interview scenarios.

As qualified and prepared as you may be, you will fail the interview if you make one of these behavior mistakes.

Demanding Pre-interview Behavior

To stay in the game, go with the flow. Try your best to be available for the interview date offered. Don’t push too much about your needs, such as parking or limited time for the meeting. When you arrive, don’t be tempted to ask for your coffee prepared in a special way. Instead, simply accept a glass of water. Hiring managers know that if you are a demanding person during the selection process, you will be a problem employee if hired.

Want even more help on your interview preparation? The counselors with Mediabistro’s Career Services can help you refine your interview skills in a one-on-one session.

Challenging or Disputing the Interviewer

An interview is not your chance to stump the interviewer. If you notice an inaccuracy in what the interviewer says, don’t jump to correct him. Only offer your correction or opinion if asked. The hiring manager is seeking a knowledgeable employee, not a know-it-all who might be difficult and present a challenge to what is otherwise a collegial environment.

Interrupting Others

Allow the interviewer to complete his question or statement. Don’t step on his words or finish his statement. If you do it mistakenly, apologize and don’t repeat the mistake. To be safe always wait a couple of seconds before you respond to a question.

Crossing the Line With Humor

It takes time to build rapport before humor is well-received. An initial interview is not the time to test your latest one-liners. It is never appropriate to joke about politics, race or religion—even if the hiring manager initiates the joke. In fact, stay away from those topics entirely. Cross the line, and you can bet that your interview is a fail.

Parking Lot Faux Pas

The interview is not over when you leave the conference room. It is over when you are out of the parking area and completely off campus. Hiring managers and staff members will notice your behavior.

If you are seen in an unprofessional manner outside the building, it will work against you. Things such as scarfing down snacks, smoking, talking loudly on your phone or removing your tie will make a bad impression. Wait until you are completely off campus for these things. The same applies to behavior in your car or the lobby before the interview.

Even the brightest and most qualified candidates can fail an interview if their conduct is inappropriate. Interviews are as much about proving you will fit in with others as it is about proving you are qualified. Let your expertise and aptitude shine through by taking care to exhibit your best behavior.

Debra Wheatman is a certified resume writer and certified career coach.

The American Marketing Association is the pre-eminent force in marketing for best and next practices, thought leadership and valued relationships, across the entire discipline of marketing. Its online publications include posts on industry trends, career advice and more.

Topics:

Get Hired, Interview Tips

Climb the Ladder

Why Every College Student Should Intern at a Startup

By Jess Focht

@jessfocht

Jess Focht is a writer and content strategist with 6+ years of experience in media, publishing, and brand storytelling. She has contributed to Insider, Grammarly, and The Creative Independent.

5 min read • Originally published August 9, 2016 / Updated March 19, 2026

By Jess Focht

@jessfocht

Jess Focht is a writer and content strategist with 6+ years of experience in media, publishing, and brand storytelling. She has contributed to Insider, Grammarly, and The Creative Independent.

5 min read • Originally published August 9, 2016 / Updated March 19, 2026

8409314268_15d14d5d5c_b If you’re an undergrad looking to get valuable work experience, the startup world might be the place for you.

The statistics are pretty clear: if you want a job after you graduate from college, you should get one or more internships under your belt first. Before you start hyperventilating and drafting cover letters to all of the Forbes 500 corporations, I’d like to ask you to consider the road less travelled.

Consider startups — those scrappy, casual, exciting companies you see on shows like Shark Tank and Silicon Valley. Startups are perpetually in need of good talent, and many offer summer or part-time internships for undergrads. I worked at Scouted (the awesome startup hosting this blog) the summer after my junior year, and it was an invaluable experience for me, helping me figure out what I wanted to do, and teaching me how to be a vital contributor to a small company.

So, if you’re looking for an internship that will be challenging, fun and make you more employable after graduation, an internship at a startup might be right for you. Here’s why.

It’s not as hard to get an internship at a startup as you might think.

Google-searching “startup internships” will overwhelm you with a jumbled catalogue of black hole job postings, but fear not: there are many databases (such as, AngelList ) that can help you sort through the vast number of internship opportunities out there.

And there are even startups that will help you work at startups (meta, I know). Scouted, is one of them. You can apply to jobs through Scouted here.

If those options don’t get you anywhere, talk to your friends, fellow students, and recent grads from your school. Chances are at least one of them has or has had a job in the startup world, and can get you connected to the right people.

And if you’re worried about the pay, you’re not alone — there’s a whole slew of questions on Quora about how much startups pay undergrads. Many startups pay their interns competitively, while some only offer unpaid internships Don’t panic, your school may also have grants in place to help you out so check out your career services website.

You can also check out this directory of grants from Harvard. And make sure to search for grants and scholarships specific to you and your field — places like Brown and Caldwell offer scholarships to students focusing on the environment, and BA Rudolph gives scholarships to women working unpaid internships in public service and science. If you want to work abroad, you can get funding from places like LIVFund, International Internships, the scholarships listed here, and many other places.

You’ll do real work on real projects that matter to the company.

Startups have tons of critical work to do, so they need their interns to contribute to business-critical projects.

My friend Matt, who just graduated from college with a full-time job offer, said this about his summer internship at a startup as a software-engineering intern:

“Interning at a startup is like running a sprint for 10 weeks straight. You have to be able to become an effective engineer, not just an intern, very quickly and drive projects to completion in short periods of time, which is why it’s such a rewarding learning experience.”

When I worked at Scouted, I took on responsibilities I never imagined I’d have as an intern. I helped out with the pitch deck Scouted used to get investors, had a say in naming the company, and helped redefine the way Scouted evaluated and presented candidates to companies looking to make new hires. I worked harder and cared more about the company because I was given all that responsibility, and I was able to take ownership of projects I can now put on my resume.

You’ll be doing things far outside your job description.

Anya, another friend of mine, told me this about being a startup intern at Birchbox last summer:

“I think startups give you a more well rounded experience since you’re often required to step outside your designated role. You learn to become a team player and ditch the “that’s not my job” attitude.”

At a startup, you’ll be exposed to every rung of the ladder and have the opportunity to contribute to every branch of the company.

By trying out different kinds of work, you can discover what you’re good at and what you really want to do. Here’s Anya, again:

“Even though I was a software developer, I got to work closely with product managers. Birchbox exposed me to the role, and by doing so, it helped me realize [being a product manager is] what I wanted to do.”

You can sparkle the way only you know how

Most startup internships don’t follow the same strict formulas corporate internships follow. If you like to work late into the night and sleep in, you can find a startup that will accommodate that. If you hate dressing up, you can work at a startup that lets you wear t-shirts to work. And, if you want to try your hand at social media marketing, coding and design and/or data analytics, you can find a startup that will let you do all of those things as an intern.

Your family and friends might be worried when you tell them you’re interning at a startup. Many worry that interning at a startup and gaining a less traditional experience means sacrificing the name recognition you might get by having an established corporation on your resume. But maybe the predictable, highly structured, tried-and-true internship programs those corporations offer just isn’t for you. Interning at a startup instead of a corporation won’t make it harder for you to get another internship or full time job later on. Like any job, it all depends on what you make of it.

But, best of all, after interning at a startup….

You will be extremely employable

After interning at a startup, you’ll have compelling stories to tell potential employers. You’ll be the expert on what your company does, and you’ll have taken ownership of business-critical projects. You’ll also have built vital connections to the startup world, which will make it easier if you ever want to work at a start up again. You may even fall in love with the hustle and try to make a career out of it.

#startup4life

Topics:

Candidates, Climb the Ladder

Essential Social Media Skills Every Media Professional Needs

Media industry leaders tell what you need to know to up your social skills and stay in demand

By John Lombard

John Lombard is a content strategist and writer with over a decade of experience creating interactive and video content for brands like Apple, IBM, and Samsung. He previously worked at Mediabistro and now serves as a Client Strategist at Ceros.

5 min read • Originally published August 10, 2016 / Updated March 19, 2026

By John Lombard

John Lombard is a content strategist and writer with over a decade of experience creating interactive and video content for brands like Apple, IBM, and Samsung. He previously worked at Mediabistro and now serves as a Client Strategist at Ceros.

5 min read • Originally published August 10, 2016 / Updated March 19, 2026

It seems almost every day a new Twitter-like platform or social feature emerges, causing all of us to Google, “How do I Periscope?” or “What’s Meerkat?”

To find out what media pros really need to know to be considered up-to-date with social media skills, we talked with industry experts to get the scoop on what you need to know.

So whether you’re a social media professional, a job-seeker searching for a social media job or a media professional looking to leverage social—look no further, we’ve got you covered.

1. Live Engagement

Like it or not, the next big push in social media is live engagement. Think Facebook Live, Snapchat and Periscope. Unlike produced video, where you create brand-approved content before sharing with an audience, live is a whole different can of worms.

“These platforms and others like them differ from what we’ve seen in the past because they disallow excessive refinement and call on brands or celebrities to portray reality as it truly is,” says Brady Donnelly, managing director of digital agency Hungry.

What does this mean for social media professionals? For one, rather than spending time crafting the perfect piece of content, you’ll be finding sources that can safely broadcast messaging to an audience, all while upholding a brand’s image and voice.

2. Social Commerce

As marketers continue to blur the line between content and advertising, it’s important to not only have a strong understanding of social commerce—measurable interaction taken on a social media platform that can influence the purchasing decisions of a consumer, such as clicking a “buy” button on a paid social ad—as it currently stands, but also best practices.

Paul Hughes, director of social media and public relations at The Brandon Agency, says it’s important for social media pros to understand the balance between content and advertising, as well as the need for authenticity. “The audience will quickly get turned off if you just sell sell sell. There are lots of ‘rules’ out there on what that balance should be, but generally, 80% of the time you should NOT be selling, but engaging.”

3. Video Editing

Depending on the size of the social team, video editing and production sometimes becomes partly the job of the social media pro. And as video continues to dominate social, the need for this skill will only grow.

Hughes says basic photography and video editing should be a part of any social media pro’s toolkit. After that, it takes an eye for good production quality. “Not all video or images are created equal. That’s not to say it has to be studio quality video or professional pictures, but that it has to be appropriate and authentic to the audience,” says Hughes.

For Lauren Marfoe, director of digital strategy at Creative Media Marketing, communication and collaboration reign supreme. “It’s more important to have a strong creative vision that you can easily express to others and be willing to work collaboratively with experts in design and editing to help achieve your vision,” says Marfoe.

4. Automation

While automation itself is not a new skill, the act of using it with caution is.

“Automation in social media is a double-edged sword,” says Hughes. While there are times when automation is beneficial, Hughes says most of the time it leaves the user with a less-than-human feeling.

The other automation risk comes when you schedule your posts with a set it and forget mentality. One example Hughes gives is when a hotel schedules a post about great beach weather and it ends up raining on the day of the automated post.

With these common pitfalls becoming more apparent to both users and social media professionals, the challenge now is to continue leveraging automation when possible while working hard to keep the human element intact.

5. Project Management

It wasn’t too long ago that brands simply handed the task of social media to their copywriter. Now, a lot more goes into posts and campaigns.

Aimee Cicero, an agency communication manager at Brownstein Group, says because social has become a primary advertising vehicle, it takes a team to successfully execute a social media strategy.

“You need a team that can handle strategy, creative, copywriting, listening and media buying. Whether you have a team in-house or leverage an agency partner, the ability to project manage becomes paramount,” says Cicero.

6. Budgeting

Just like with any creative campaign, one of the most important skills is understanding how to spend your limited budget in the most effective ways possible.

“Social media professionals need to understand how to manage social budgets to better affect the longevity and targeting of the campaign,” says Adam Baliban, senior digital specialist at CooperKatz & Company, Inc. “They also need to take into account that social media campaigns aren’t an exact science, and you may decide to tweak optimizations mid-campaign depending on how it is performing.”

7. Passion

In a field that’s ever-changing—and that never sleeps—it’s important social media professionals have a true passion for creating the best content, as well as learning how the field is evolving.

And while it may feel as if we can create less-than-stellar content since everything moves so quickly from one trending topic to the next, because nothing ever leaves the internet, “you better really be passionate about what you’re putting out there and making sure it’s the best and most creative work you can do,” Marfoe reminds.

For Chris Dessi, CEO of SilverBack Social and author of Remarkable You, working in this field requires a certain level of social media obsession: “[I]f you’re not fully obsessed with social media, and continuing to learn about this ever-changing landscape, you’ll die. Obsolescence abounds. Platforms, tools, even social networks pop up and disappear. You must be at the tip of the spear at all times.”

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Data Storytelling: How to Present Metrics That Actually Matter

Keep these key points in mind when sharing performance numbers with the powers that be

By Christopher White

3 min read • Originally published August 16, 2016 / Updated March 19, 2026

By Christopher White

3 min read • Originally published August 16, 2016 / Updated March 19, 2026

If you manage your company’s website or are looking for a job in digital media, you can expect that someday soon, an executive will ask to see some data on how the site is doing.

Because there are many different ways to measure success and failure for a website—and because the person collecting the data is usually not the one presenting it—it can be difficult to articulate what’s actually happening and why it matters.

Here are a few tips to help you translate the data into a compelling story that is sure to impress the higher-ups:

Give Context to Your Metrics

When you’re working with your analytics tool every day, you become an expert in the language of metrics and reports. You know what the difference between a unique visitor and a session is, and you see the daily, weekly and monthly trends.

A report that seems self-explanatory to you may be very confusing or even misleading to someone that isn’t familiar with web analytics. It is your duty to break down the reports you share and explain what is, and what isn’t, included in each view. This includes any filters, segments or anomalies that affect the data.

Clearly define what each metric means and how they relate to each other. Then give context as to what each report means, so that leadership is tracking with you.

Focus Less on the “What” and More on the “So What”

When sharing insights from a report, quantify what has changed. If this information is interesting, your manager will want a short sound bite to share with leadership, and it’s much easier to recall a specific number than it is to relay a lot of contextual information.

But contextual information is equally important. For anyone who is not a subject matter expert in analytics, it will help them understand your story if you couple the quantitative data with the qualitative information.

For example, your company’s website has had a 20% increase in monthly visitors for the past two months, which sounds like great news. But you know that your conversion rate has tanked, and can presume that this new traffic isn’t quality traffic. When you share this data, you’ll need to help management understand what’s actually happening.

Tie Performance to the Bottom Line

Some of the most interesting website data isn’t always headline worthy. Metrics like bounce rate, pages per session and session duration don’t always resonate with management. They can be perceived as the “inside baseball” of website analytics.

To help management understand and celebrate increases in these metrics, talk about the bottom line.

If you know a reduced bounce rate has a direct relationship to conversions, explain that relationship in a way that management would understand. Show the decreased bounce rate alongside the conversion report to demonstrate the relationship visually. You know that all of these small changes snowball into bigger trends that directly impact the business’s bottom line—so help bring that story to light.

Helping management and executive leadership understand what’s happening with the company’s website can both bolster your credibility, and give transparency into your department’s hard work. Take the time to analyze what’s actually happening, then give management the context needed to make decisions and adjust strategies.

Christopher White is a Mediabistro industry expert instructor and director of marketing at MBO Partners.

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7 Digital Marketing Skills You Need to Land a High-Paying Job

Kill it in SEO, email, social media and writing skills for starters

By Avi Levine

4 min read • Originally published August 22, 2016 / Updated March 19, 2026

By Avi Levine

4 min read • Originally published August 22, 2016 / Updated March 19, 2026

Seven Skills You Need to Land a High-Paying Digital Marketing Job originally published in the AMA’s Marketing News.

There’s a talent gap right now in digital marketing. According to “The Future-Proof Marketer,” a white paper by digital technology training company Grovo, 90% of marketers report suffering from a shortage of digital skills, and only 8% of surveyed companies feel strong in the area of digital marketing.

Here are seven of the most important skills that you need to make yourself a desirable candidate for a digital marketing job:

1. Search engine optimization: Of the companies we looked at for our Digital Professional Institute study, for which my colleagues and I analyzed hundreds of job postings for digital talent, 14% cited SEO as a required skill.

To compete as a candidate for a high-paying digital marketing job, you must have technical SEO skills, including server-side settings, sitemaps and server response codes. Moreover, competitive candidates should have experience using Moz, SEMRush and other tools to identify customers’ search behaviors and the competitive landscape.

2. Pay-per-click: Seven percent of the companies that we looked at in the study listed search engine marketing (SEM) as a required skill for their organizations, and one of the most important and growing facets of SEM is pay-per-click (PPC). In order to demonstrate your abilities in this area, you need to show that you have the research and analytical skills required to create and execute a strong PPC plan that aligns with an overarching marketing strategy.

3. Mobile: To demonstrate value in this area, you need to understand how mobile marketing differs from desktop marketing and communicate why that matters to the rest of the business. Moreover, a digital marketer should have a general familiarity with mobile development in order to best communicate with the design team and create a cohesive mobile marketing strategy that aligns with other online and offline efforts. Get familiar with its vocabulary, including things like SMS marketing and responsive design.

4. Email marketing: You need to be able to do more than send out regular communication. You must be able to optimize your email marketing by crafting a compelling strategy, testing relentlessly and refining content based on what works best. It’s also essential that today’s marketers understand the best ways to develop distribution lists and use email nurturing to create more business opportunities.

5. Social media: Ten percent of the businesses that we looked at in the Digital Professional Institute study cite social media experience as a requirement for applicants, and that doesn’t just mean that they want someone with an active personal Twitter account. Digital marketers need to understand how to develop a strong social media presence to help bolster their brands and further their marketing goals.

6. Content management: SEO, email marketing and social media skills are useless if you don’t back up your technical skills with excellent writing for multiple platforms. The ability to flow easily between writing emails, press releases, website copy, proposals, social posts and even code is key to success in today’s digital marketing field. Make sure that you demonstrate your ability to write across media, and to guide and polish the content of others on your team.

7. Analytics: In our study, a whopping 13% of businesses listed analytics experience as a required skill in their job descriptions. In order to be a truly great digital marketer, you’ll need to not only implement strong inbound and outbound digital strategies but also analyze them regularly and use those insights to constantly improve. If you want to make it in a high-paying digital marketing job, it’s time to make ROI your middle name.

Key Takeaways

To compete as a candidate for a high-paying digital marketing job, you must have technical SEO skills, including server-side settings, sitemaps and server response codes.
SEO, email marketing and social media skills are useless if you don’t back up your technical skills with excellent writing for multiple platforms.
In order to be a truly great digital marketer, you’ll need to not only implement strong inbound and outbound digital strategies, but also analyze them regularly and use those insights to constantly improve.

For a quick introduction to various digital skills, consider the following Mediabistro online courses:

Avi Levine is executive director of the Chicago-based Digital Professional Institute, a training facility for digital marketing professionals.

The American Marketing Association is the pre-eminent force in marketing for best and next practices, thought leadership and valued relationships, across the entire discipline of marketing. Its online publications include posts on industry trends, career advice and more.

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