20A- Growing Your Social Capital

Tommy LeMoine—Currently works at Walgreens. He works in a new position, the first of its type. His job is to use data and logistics to implement stronger asset protection policies. His industry isn’t media, but his market is innovation. I thought at first this is a bit off, but Tommy really understands creative logistics, so I chose him for the “market expert” Tommy is actually my Uncle, so I just called him. We talked about how important policy and quality workers are to sustaining a creative business. I changed his air filter in his car so he’d get lunch with me to talk lol. Having Tommy in my network will help me understand the formalities and logistics of the policies I'm trying to implement to make a quality information source.

The second contact is Anthony Black, who works in advertising for the University of Illinois housing department. I chose him as my supplier. Although he works for U of I currently, he actually is employed by a marketing agency that targets college students. Since he works with my target demographic and markets, I see him as a valuable contact. I met Anthony through Tommy actually. We went to a bar in Chicago together and Tommy was able to introduce us. Anthony and I haven’t had a formal exchange, but we had good social contact and played darts, so the nature of exchange hasn’t been declared. Anthony is a pivotal piece of my network because he has experience selling to my target audience. He knows about my audience and knows how to sell to them.

My final contact was Olivia Salem, a UF Journalism student. She works as a student journalist currently. I chose her as my “industry expert” because she writes for my target audience. Although she doesn’t own a business, she works in the industry I'm trying to break into, and she works to serve the same audience I want to, so I thought she was perfect. I was able to contact her via a Reddit post. I went on the UF subreddit and was able to network with students there. We agreed she could proofread over some concept pieces of mine, and that I could tutor her in her statistics course. Having Olivia in my network will help me write better quality pieces of my audience, as she knows exactly who we’re writing for. She could potentially even end up working directly on this project with me.

I really liked this assignment, It put a lot of really valuable resources in my hands. I thought of networking as a stupid thing business majors did so they could boost their “money moves” but it was actually a really rewarding experience. I’ll definitely be looking to expand my contacts in a targeted manner in the future.