Marketing.

I have graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology with a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration and a major in New Media Marketing. In 2011, I had the unique opportunity to participate in the international Google Online Marketing Challenge as part of the first Search Engine Marketing & Analytics course offered at RIT giving me substantial experience in PPC, SEO, Social Media Marketing, and analytics and reporting. I have also completed a marketing plan for The College Driver that suggested a number of improvements to the business’s website that would be instrumental in driving traffic and interaction.

As a Communications and Public Relations Intern at the North American Soccer League for the 2010 and 2011 seasons, I was able to not only realize a personal dream of working in professional soccer but was also able to enhance my transferable skills of writing, graphic design, and public relations while gaining first-hand experience in the business world. I managed NASL’s Twitter account and interacted with a number of their 2,700 followers as well as wrote news stories and conducted interviews to provide a constant stream of new material.

Soccer.

As a career goalkeeper, I have learned how to become an effective leader on any team. In soccer, even if someone else on the team is wearing the captain’s armband, the goalkeeper has the most effective voice on the field. As the first line of attack and the last line of defense, all eyes are on me for significant amounts of time. My gaze must be firmly set forward and the goalkeeper is the one player that can see all of the action on the field and direct the rest of the team accordingly. The safety of the goal depends on the goalkeeper’s quick thinking, accurate assessment of the game, and ability to direct other players for the good of the whole team. My experience in this position affords me a unique way of viewing the business world.

Social Media.

I am  the co-founder of a successful international soccer blog, the Lion of Vienna Suite, which covers the Bolton Wanderers professional soccer team. The blog uses a custom, purpose-built CMS on the SB Nation network but I also have extensive experience with WordPress and Drupal, among others. As part of a campaign to raise the blog’s profile, I have conducted a number of search engine optimization initiatives as well as monitor the analytics provided in order to post stories at appropriate times. Even though Bolton Wanderers are an English soccer team, of our 4,500 visits since the blog was founded, the ratio of American to European visitors is nearly 2 to 1.

My knowledge of social media is second to none with a particular focus on Twitter. I currently manage two accounts, a personal account and one for the blog that I co-founded. My personal account has 1,225 followers while the blog has over 550 and is rapidly growing. I have a wealth of experience with Facebook and its page features which can be an extremely valuable business asset. My knowledge of social media also extends to Flickr, Foursquare, Tumblr, Google+, and a number of other platforms.