TJ WALKER - THE HABIT INFLUENCER - Personal Development | LIVE STREAM

I'm here with Nando Rodriguez from Ogilvy. He'll be here to discuss about the role of social media as well as public relations with the Latino community as well as just in general. Nando, thank you for joining our show. What would you say are some of the pitfalls of public relations? Maybe, you know, just dealing with companies and different firms every day.

Some of the pitfalls?

Well, pitfalls being like not having a proper tool, using the proper tools of public relations and social media.

Well, when it comes to, when it comes to personal wise as well, I mean, I think that's what I focus on because I am, I'm a recruiter for social media at, at Ogilvy and Mather. And so one of the things that I find is that when people are looking for a new position, they still haven't gotten. They still haven't gotten it yet, which is people will be looking at your own social media profiles to make that next, should we call this person in for an interview or should we not? Sometimes as a recruiter, if you're looking to be hired in my division, which is a social media division, I need to see, are you using social media the right way? Do you know how to use it? And so one of the things I look for is, for example, I would go onto your Twitter page and I would be seeing, you know, what is he tweeting about? I'm not so much trying to make a judgment call as to why disagree with, you know, if you're tweeting about Karina Kapoor all day long, right. But it's just like, how is he doing it? Are people retweeting him? Right. So I want to see the engagement. So my, my number one, the pitfall in personal social media when it comes to looking for a new job, I would say is not being aware that people are looking at your social media profiles and just be aware of how you're using social media. If you are looking for a new.

Role, what would be some ways to improve your own personal, you know, your social network tools and Twitter pages as well as Facebook, how would be some great ways to improve those tools?

So if you are in the job, if you are in the market for a new job, Right. The first thing that I would say is update your LinkedIn profile because that is like something that as a recruiter, that's our first, you know, tackle of offense that we go to. So we will look at your LinkedIn profile and check out what is it that you're doing, what is it that you've Done, you know, where it's basically your cv, your resume online, right? So if it's not filled out properly, if it's not robust, if it's not full of all this information, I may pass you over because you may be the best great strategist that you know that ever, ever lived, but if you don't know how to communicate that or if it's not posted on LinkedIn, I'm not going to find you. So that's number one. Number two is what can you do on Twitter is, you know, I'm a big social media person to begin with anyway, so I use it in my personal life. So if you want to get into social media, you have to be using the social media tools. If you're not in social media and you're trying to get a position, you know, outside of PR or what have you, I would just say, you know, beware again, that there are going to be some eyes all over your profiles. So be aware of what you're tweeting and what your status updates are on, you know, on Facebook.

And how important is it to catch on at trending topics or just to be involved within the topics that are trending or very popular amongst, you know, communities and different users out there in the social network?

So, again, well, I would say it depends on what you're trying to use social media for, right? So, for example, I have a blog outside of work and it's dating and relationships. So, you know, if there's a big conference going on in Miami that's all about dating and relationships, I want to be involved in that because I want to be in that community. So I would want to learn how to use a hashtag. I would want to learn, are there any Twitter chats going on that I can participate in? So it's basically, how do you involve yourself in trends? It's what's the purpose of you being on social media? Is it just for fun? Is it you're trying to promote yourself, your blog, or you're trying to get a job? Right. So knowing what you're on social media platforms for is the number one thing that you have to do. And number two is, you know, like you said, learn the trends, what are the trends so you could stay on top of them.

And how would a firm decide what kind of candidate would be the right fit for the, you know, like such a larger firm decide would be a right fit for a social media strategist or a public relations strategist.

So, you know, every firm will vary interview process, right? And so I know for Ogilvy, you know, the first thing is we screen the candidates. We want to make sure that we're speaking to the right people. And then the great thing about when you're doing the hiring process is it doesn't rely on just one person, right? So the person will actually interview. The candidate will interview with around three to four, possibly five people. And then those people will all get together, trade feedback, and be like, is this the person? Is this the right person for the role? You know, and that's great because, you know, who wants to have your career lie solely on one person? So as for us, that's how it goes, right? So it's like three to four people involved. We make a decision, and then we hire or we don't hire.

And how would you say that social media has affected Latin American communities, or just Latin communities in general, especially communicating within the United States?

Well, as we just learned from the panel. Great, great panel with Jasmine Chavez and Leila Rivas, who is from Ogilvy as well, and Layla. Sorry. And Jasmine is a social activist. What they presented to us was that we're actually, the Latino community is actually produc a lot of content on the Internet. You know, that's something I myself didn't know. I was not aware of that. You know, so that, you know, somewhere in there, my blog got counted in there because I'm producing content as well. But a big thing is how much. How much buying power we have. I was also unaware of how much that was. So that's really big, you know, to. For the Latin community to stand up and say, we need to be heard and we want to be recognized because we have major purchase power.

And how would you say it's affected the image of a Latino in America, especially with some of the biggest followings being for celebrities like George Lopez, Eva Longoria, even Carmelo Anthony embracing he's a Latin American, which you normally wouldn't see many times with athletes of mixed race. How do you think that's affected, you know, positively for the Latin image?

I think that it's a great thing that these celebrities are coming out there using social media, getting on social media, using it the proper way. Because what it's doing is that, yeah, in a sense, they're out there because they want. They want to expand their reach. Right. So Eva Longoria is not doing it just because out of the goodness of her heart, like, I love you, Eva. But we all know that she's on there because, you know, there's another reason, whether that reason is to help raise money for a charity, or whether it's just to say, hey, this is the final season of Desperate Housewives. You guys, please tune in. You know, there's a reason behind it, whatever it is. She's out there, so is George. And we just. I think it's a great thing because it shows us, you know, the little Latin community population that's coming up behind us, that we are a voice and we are a force to be reckoned with.

And how do you think the long term future looks for social media? And, you know, it's a very trending topic and issue, but how do you think some of the long term strategies will affect it and where do you see it in the foreseen future?

Well, I think for a while people. People thought that social media was gonna go away like a bunch of bad roaches, right? And what they're discovering is that it's not gonna go away. It's just. It's a lifestyle now, right? Everywhere you go, people have a mobile, a smartphone. Everywhere you go, people have their laptops, their iPads, and it's just like technology is catching up to a lifestyle that we've come accustomed to. So social media, I don't think it's gonna go away. The thing that we have to be looking for is what is gonna be the next big thing thing, right? Facebook right now is definitely on top. It's number one with Twitter right there behind it. And every day, every day, literally, there's new social media platforms coming out. Pinterest, you know, Avenue, there's just so many. And it's just like, what's interesting is, like, what we as humans gravitate towards. Why did we eventually just fall off of Facebook and we. Sorry, MySpace, and then I'll climb onto Facebook, like, why? What happened there? You know, so eventually social media is just going to continue, but to what extent, we have no idea.

All right, thank you very much for your time and your brain about, you know, social media and how it's really improving within the human race and, you know, bringing communities in to touch with, with, you know, issues that probably would have never been discussed before or just bring in a larger culture, especially with the global communities.

Yeah, well, thank you, guys. I think you're doing a great job and I look forward to seeing more of your stuff. Thank you.