We sat down with Jordania Nelson, Divining Points’ Digital Marketing Specialist and master of all things related to PR, social media and content. She shared a few tips for business owners and let us know what she loves most about working in Austin.

You’ve been in marketing for awhile now. Tell us what led you down this career path. 

Originally, I went to school to be a reporter and ultimately wanted to be a news anchor. I was working in the newsroom, and honestly I hated it. I was hired on as a reporter and was also on the assignment desk at the same time. I was getting a lot of press releases, so I had the chance to see both sides of it. I decided to focus on public relations and graduated with a Public Relations and Advertising degree.

So this was a better fit for you? 

I feel like going into PR and digital marketing was a better direction for me, and they were very much the same in many ways.

How has your experience prepared you for what you’re doing at Divining Point today? 

We manage public relations and write press releases for our clients, so having that background helped me with copywriting and content. Essentially, selling an idea.

So you understand what is newsworthy, and from the perspective of a marketer you’re able to translate that into what you’re doing for clients today? 

Exactly.

What do you see happening in digital marketing these days that excites you the most? 

The only constant in Marketing is change. Anticipating those changes at all times, diving into new trends in marketing, and researching new things every day. That’s exciting to me.

Do you see anything happening that is important for business owners to know today? 

Organic is diminishing, and it’s mostly all paid reach today. When I first started marketing you could still get quite a bit of reach with organic. Now there’s so much clutter, it’s not as powerful as it used to be.

How is that helpful for businesses in today’s market? 

I think it’s important for clients to know that social media is branding, and yes, you’re going to get organic traffic from it, but ultimately you need to pay to see real results. It’s just not the same these days without a budget behind it.

What’s one of the biggest mistakes you see businesses making with regard to their marketing?

Assuming that they’re going to get results right away. Sometimes businesses make the mistake of putting money in, not seeing immediate results, then cutting budget right away. It’s not a week’s process. It’s not even a month’s process. It takes six months to a year to see growth. My advice is to manage your expectations and be patient.

Let’s pivot to over to something more personal… You’re a bit of a travel nut, and you’ve had the chance to roam around the US a bit. Having lived in other cities, what do you enjoy most about working in Austin? 

The first thing that comes to mind is the food! We have amazing food here, and if I could have my dream job it would be to write about food all day!

Other than that, I think it’s the variety of people here in Austin. Whenever I go out the conversation usually starts with “Where are you from?”. If someone answers “Austin”, they’re a unicorn. I love the cultural mix here and learning about where everyone is from.

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to move here and maybe start a career in marketing? 

Since it is such a large tech hub, I would say get as much experience as you can before coming here. It’s pretty competitive. Do your research and learn as much as possible. If employers see that you are up to date, that will go a long way to getting hired quickly.

Okay, and for any business owner who might be reading this, what are a couple tips you would give them to step up their marketing?

Definitely hire experts! Don’t think you can do it alone… and maybe you can, but you shouldn’t, because it’s so time consuming to do it right and stay focused on your business. That’s a really big one.

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