Campus Update Ep. 46 | Juliana and Jenny
Published Tuesday, November 21, 2023
Description
On today's episode, Communications and Marketing Office Graduate Assistants, Juliana Villa and Jennifer Aguilar, give us an update on their responsibilities as content strategists for SMSU social media channels. Juliana, a native of Cali, Colombia, and Jenny from St. James, Minnesota, talk to us about their roles, the challenges they faced, and how they develop ideas for SMSU social media channels, specifically TikTok.
Additionally, they tell us a bit more about what brought them to work and study at SMSU, and what they enjoy most about working in the Communications and Marketing office.
Visit SMSU.edu for links to our social media accounts or search SMSUToday on any platform. SMSU social media accounts include: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Snapchat, and ZeeMee.
Episode Transcript
00:00:00 Josh Goblish
Welcome, Bill Mulso, the VP for Government Relations, Communications, and Marketing.
00:00:05 Josh Goblish
Bill, good morning.
00:00:06 Bill Mulso
Good morning, Josh
00:00:07 Josh Goblish
How are you doing today?
00:00:08 Bill Mulso
I'm great.
00:00:09 Josh Goblish
Well, that's good to hear. And today we are talking about TikTok, a social media platform you definitely enjoy, right?
00:00:14 Bill Mulso
Ohh, you know I'm an expert, but I have two greater experts here today.
00:00:18 Josh Goblish
Yeah. A couple of ladies who know a bit more about TikTok and social media than you do. We got Juliana Villa in her second year as a grad assistant, with an MBA, and graduating in May 2024. So that is coming up just around the corner. And then even sooner.
00:00:33 Josh Goblish
Jenny Aguilar, a senior in her last semester of undergrad, will start as a GA in January of 2024 upon graduating.
00:00:42 Bill Mulso
She's easing into it right now. There's the fall semester, so.
00:00:45 Josh Goblish
Ladies, good morning. How are you doing?
00:00:46 Jennifer Aguilar
Good morning.
00:00:47 Juliana Villa
Good morning.
00:00:48
Good morning. Good morning. Well, today we are talking about the whole.
00:00:52 Josh Goblish
Social media. All that fun stuff. But first, we're going to learn a little bit more about you. Tell us a little bit about yourselves.
00:00:59 Josh Goblish
And you know, kind of what you're doing at SMSU. Learned a little bit at the start. But tell us a little bit more.
00:01:04 Jennifer Aguilar
Sure. So I'm Jennifer Aguilar. This is my last semester. My undergrads are just finishing up here with my marketing minor. I'm majoring in communication studies, so I'm excited to start grad school and take on the GA spot here soon.
00:01:22 Josh Goblish
And what about you, Juliana?
00:01:24 Juliana Villa
Ohh, I'm in my second year of my MBA.
00:01:28 Josh Goblish
MHM.
00:01:30 Juliana Villa
No, no. I just, I’m really liking it mostly. I graduated with an undergrad in marketing two years ago from SMSU, too.
00:01:37 Josh Goblish
All right, let's go back a little bit. When you're a little bit younger, when you're trying to decide which college to go to, how did you decide SMSU is the place for me?
00:01:48 Jennifer Aguilar
Personally, I had teachers all through elementary and high school who went to SMSU, so it was talked about a lot. So, it's just a lot easier for me to be influenced, and I just toured SMSU.
00:02:02 Jennifer Aguilar
And it was the perfect size for me, so here I am.
00:02:05 Josh Goblish
Yeah, very cool.
00:02:06 Juliana Villa
Yeah, mine was completely different. I'm originally from Colombia, so I'm an international student. I was also an athlete, a swimmer, so I graduated from high school. I decided to come to the US to study.
00:02:20 Juliana Villa
I spent two years in Iowa.
00:02:24 Juliana Villa
And then I spent 8 years documenting and transferring here. It was like the best decision.
00:02:30 Josh Goblish
So you got a little taste of winter when you were in Iowa.
00:02:34 Juliana Villa
Yes
00:02:33 Josh Goblish
Is it still? Are you used to it yet?
00:02:36 Juliana Villa
No
00:02:38 Juliana Villa
I don't think you'll ever get used to it.
00:02:40 Bill Mulso
Didn't you see her cringing when you were reading that forecast? She's like, oh, shaking her head.
00:02:45 Josh Goblish
Do you mean the temperature can get all the way down to 30? What? Yeah. No, that's yeah, pretty.
00:02:49 Juliana Villa
Then it gets lower.
00:02:51 Jennifer Aguilar
Then, snow comes. Ohh goodness.
00:02:52 Josh Goblish
Yeah, no doubt. And so that's a little bit of background on you ladies. Now working in the communications and Marketing office at SMSU, what kind of work do you do?
00:03:03 Jennifer Aguilar
So, we often do some photography, but it's more about content creation. I focus on a lot of the TikTok creation, but anytime I have an idea or anybody else does, we join in and tackle it together. We also do Instagram together, but everyone in the office does Instagram as well.
00:03:23 Jennifer Aguilar
You know Facebook, but I mainly like TikTok.
00:03:28 Juliana Villa
Yeah, I would generally do more of the analyzing, like how things are doing, and find new trends and new stuff to do. I help a lot with the photography. You have a new photographer in the office, which is really nice, and it's nice to work with him
00:03:46 Juliana Villa
It gets a little bit together. I always like to do you like videos and stuff?
00:03:51 Josh Goblish
What are some of the more challenging parts of your job? Because I mean, content creation, that sounds like a lot of fun, but there's a lot of stuff that goes on, I'm assuming in the background that.
00:04:00 Josh Goblish
Most folks don't see.
00:04:01 Jennifer Aguilar
Yeah, I guess it's just trying to keep up with trends, d,s, and a lot of time. There are some very popular trends, but we can't use them because they're not really school-appropriate.
00:04:08 Jennifer Aguilar
So, we have to, like, twist those trends to fit what we are trying to market and who we're trying to market to. So, it's a lot of, you know, brainstorming that goes on before we even decide to.
00:04:21 Jennifer Aguilar
Create this TikTo, or a re,e,l or whatever it may be.
00:04:24 Josh Goblish
You face the same challenges.
00:04:26 Juliana Villa
Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's hard to be creative and try to adopt it because, as Jenny said, there are trends that just
00:04:34 Juliana Villa
Can't really work for what we're doing, and when we have great ideas, and we put them out there, it doesn't.
00:04:40 Juliana Villa
Give out the results expected.
00:04:44 Juliana Villa
Just random things, just the algorithm is.
00:04:48 Josh Goblish
Yeah. So when you come out with an idea for a video, you put it all together, and it gets a pretty big response. What's the feeling like?
00:04:58 Jennifer Aguilar
It feels great. I mean, you put so much time and effort into thinking about it, you know, recording it, editing it, what time it's going to go out, how it's going to go out, when it's going to go out. So, when we see that the retention is good and the analytics look good, then you know.
00:05:11 Jennifer Aguilar
We feel proud of ourselves. Yeah, that's great.
00:05:14 Josh Goblish
It's not like you're doing all this hard work, and nobody's seeing it. You're seeing that.
00:05:17 Juliana Villa
Right. You're seeing it, and so are people.
00:05:19 Jennifer
Yeah.
00:05:20 Josh Goblish
And now, when you are working with the SMSU official, TikTok, as you mentioned, you have to make sure everything's school-appropriate.
00:05:26 Jennifer Aguilar
Right
00:05:27 Juliana Villa
Yes.
00:05:27 Josh Goblish
Yes, but you still can have some fun with it. What kind of stuff are you guys working on?
00:05:31 Jennifer Aguilar
Yeah, I think we have too much f, un I think
00:05:34 Juliana Villa
Yeah, sometimes it’s the way people do things, even though they don't want to.
00:05:38 Bill Mulso
It's amazing what they can get people to do.
00:05:40 Jennifer Aguilar
Yeah. Next week we'll be uploading a TikTok with Bill, so make sure to go to the SMSU official and check that out cause you won't want to miss it.
00:05:51 Josh Goblish
Are you doing, like, a trendy TikTok dance, or not that crazy?
00:05:54 Bill Mulso
I got jazz hands involved, and you know, there might be a little singing. You never know.
00:05:59 Jennifer Aguilar
Mariah Carey. That's all you gotta know.
00:06:01 Josh Goblish
Well, that's right. Yeah, you did give me a little teaser about Mariah Carey. Looking forward to that. Definitely looking forward to that. Now I just saw TikTok that you ladies are working on, or is it? Is it all social media accounts?
00:06:11 Josh Goblish
How does that work?
00:06:13 Jennifer Aguilar
So I mainly work on TikTok, but I also do some photography for our Instagram and Facebook pages. Juliana does more. She's been there longer, so she knows a little more about what goes on.
00:06:24 Juliana Villa
Yeah.
00:06:26 Juliana Villa
I also like Maddy's design work, and I try to do the covers and graphic design.
00:06:36 Juliana Villa
Yeah, I do a lot of photography and like Facebook and Instagram, and I think we'll always try.
00:06:41 Juliana Villa
To have all our channels in synchrony, one of them is very far away. We're all talking about the same thing.
00:06:50 Josh Goblish
Cohesion.
00:06:50 Bill Mulso
You've got to ask Juliana about one of her favorite projects at a football game, too.
00:06:55 Juliana Villa
Ohh.
00:06:57 Josh Goblish
Well, tell me more. Tell me more.
00:07:00 Juliana Villa
Well, we need to do photography for our database. Basically, horse riding is intimidating.
00:07:10 Juliana Villa
Getting in the middle of the football field with a horse and like 100 guys running to you and not stopping
00:07:16 Bill Mulso
She did a bang-up job, though she held her own, and nobody ran her over.
00:07:21 Josh Goblish
I was going to say, I mean. You're still here.
00:07:24 Bill Mulso
They just ran right by her. The football players were nice and went around her.
00:07:26 Josh Goblish
You're not wearing a cast or anything, so everything seems to be going OK.
00:07:30 Juliana Villa
It's quite scary the first time. The second time was, yeah, it's like just don't hit me.
00:07:36 Josh Goblish
Now, do you have a favorite TikTok that you've created for SMSU?
00:07:40 Juliana Villa
Yeah. I think last year, when I was working with Anika, we did a TikTok.
00:07:48 Juliana Villa
Involved a professor, I think.
00:07:50 Jennifer Aguilar
Oh. Mark Fokken. Yeah, yeah, that's funny.
00:07:51 Juliana Villa
And it's just hilarious. It's the Taylor Swift trend audio. It's like, it's my anti-hero.
00:07:59 Juliana Villa
It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me related to like finals coming up. Yeah, saying was kind of.
00:08:03 Josh Goblish
Gotcha gotcha
00:08:05 Jennifer Aguilar
The professor was giving out too much homework dur0:08:08 Jennifer Aguilar
At any time, make him up. So it was really funny. It's pinned on our page because it just got a lot of views, they got a lot of likes
00:08:14 Juliana Villa
Yeah. Yeah, like 15 thousand views.
00:08:19 Juliana Villa
Give or take
00:08:20 Josh Goblish
That's bigger than the city of Marshall. I'm just saying. That's everybody in the city of Marshall, and then some, who have seen that.
00:08:26 Josh Goblish EssentiallylEssentiallysprettwildzpretty wild6 Juliana Villa
Yeah. So it was, it was really funny. And it was short. So retention was good
00:08:33 Josh Goblish
Now, when you are doing this content creation, you'll start working on something and then.
00:08:40 Josh Goblish
You'll look up at the clock and realize you've spent two or three hours working on this project. How do you balance, you know, the content creation with all of your other responsibilities?
00:08:50 Jennifer Aguilar
Let's decide when we want the specific video or when it is released. So we should decide quickly, one day, at least, and now the actual taping process, which takes 5 minutes, because it might be like 20 seconds long. But we took like.
00:09minutes 'causeguilar
30-minute library, filling the 1st 2 seconds of our video and then the last portion. We had to look for someone to help us. And you know, there are just other little things that come along with it. But I think it's just a lot of time management, knowing what things are priorities and what things aren't. So we had free time yesterday.
00:09:27 Josh Goblish
Yeah, free time.
00:09:29 Bill Mulso
You have lots of free time, don’t you?
00:09:30 Josh Goblish
Yeah, all the time. Yeah. Yeah, I wish.
00:09:33 Josh Goblish
Uh, let's see here. Also, I want to know.
00:09:36 Josh Goblish
Like, what are you working on outside of?
00:09:40 Josh Goblish
Your TikTok and all this other stuff that you're working on,n like actual stuff.
00:09:46 Josh Goblish
Actual, tangible stuff. Stuff that's not like on the Internet.
00:09:49 Jennifer Aguilar
So yeah.
00:09:51 Josh Goblish
That's what I mean.
00:09:52 Jennifer Aguilar
Yeah. So we're both in AMA, the American Marketing Association.
00:09:56 Jennifer Aguilar
Club I'm also in the Latin X Club, so I'm pretty busy with, you know, a little bit of both. There's a competition conference in New Orleans for AMA. So we're getting ready for that: the case competition and whatnot. And Juliana was the president a couple of years ago, so she knows what's going on.
00:10:14 Josh Goblish
All right, Juliana, tell us what's going on.
00:10:16 Juliana Villa
Well, now I'm just like a student advisor, but basically, the case competition is the AMA. Give us a case and create a marketing plan with all the budgeting strategies, goals, and communications plan, and everything.
00:10:34 Juliana Villa
And to get that, think it's like 300 schools around the country compete on, it's really nice because.
00:10:44 Juliana Villa
Normally, you don't get to have so much hate on experience in some of the classes, so you bring it all together, and the guys are great.
00:10:53
So.
00:10:53
Yeah.
00:10:54 Josh Goblish
I mean, that sounds like a fun thing to do, but also very, very challenging. Time-consuming. Yeah. How tough a challenge is that?
00:11:03 Jennifer Aguilar
It's not too bad, just because there are about 12 members in AMA, so we try to break it up among all of us. We set a day and try to, you know, work together. So that way it's not such a workload for just one person. But yeah, I mean, it's not.
00:11:16 Jennifer Aguilar
It's not too bad.
00:11:18 Josh Goblish
Very cool. Now let's go back to the social media, cause you might as well plug it since you're here, what are all the socials to, you know, basically stay connected with SMSU?
00:11:28 Juliana Villa
I mean, we have pretty much everything. We have X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
00:11:36
TikTok.
00:11:37 Juliana Villa
LinkedIn.
00:11:37 Juliana Villa
Snapchat
00:11:42 Josh Goblish
Snapchat. Can't forget about Snapchat.
00:11:42 Juliana Villa
Ohh, I forgot.
00:11:44 Bill Mulso
Just a little voice in.
00:11:45 Bill Mulso
The back.
00:11:47 Juliana Villa
So yeah, we have pretty much everything, and we have links in each of the social media ones. So you have access to all of them and like important links and stuff. So yeah.
00:11:59 Bill Mulso
And most of them are under SMSU today.
00:12:01
Yeah.
00:12:02 Juliana Villa
Yep.
00:12:03 Juliana Villa
SMSU Today SMSU official, and they're really easy to find. You can also find them at the end of our website.
00:12:10 Josh Goblish
There you go. So you can find everything on the website. If you search SMSU today on pretty much any social media page, you'll probably find the m, and then there you go. You can enjoy all the content.
00:12:20 Bill Mulso
And sit for an hour, enjoying their TikTok.
00:12:24 Josh Goblish
Just keep scrolling through those videos. Don't forget to hit that like button too.
00:12:25 Bill Mulso
Don't forget to like them, right? Like and share.
00:12:226 Josh Goblish
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So, ladies, do we have any posts?
00:12:30 Josh Goblish
Graduation plans. What? What's up next?
00:12:33 Jennifer Aguilar
Well, I mean, I'm barely starting my, you know, grad school. But I do have plans to be like a marketing manager of some sort. So I'm excited to take on the GA role because it will help me a lot with the marketing management role. So hopefully this counts as my two years of experience that everyone looks for.
00:12:53 Josh Goblish
I'll tell Mr. Tellr Zimmer that his job is in trouble. That's his job. What about you?
00:12:59 Juliana Villa
I am about to graduate here in May, so I'll be going down to Indiana.
00:13:06 Juliana Villa
And hopefully I'll.
00:13:08 Josh Goblish
Ohh.
00:13:09 Juliana Villa
I'll.
00:13:12 Juliana Villa
I'll get a job down there, hopefully as a marketing manager, probably in a different industry. There's like a big city down where, where, where I'm going to be. So it's going to be more like a corporate job, yeah.
00:13:24 Josh Goblish
So if you're gonna be done here soon, I mean, how many projects do you have?
00:13:28 Josh Goblish
You have left before you.
00:13:30 Josh Goblish
Submit your final TikTok video for SMSU today.
00:13:34 Juliana Villa
Many.
00:13:35 Jennifer Aguilar
Many.
00:13:36 Juliana Villa
There are always new things to do each break, so it's really nice that you have to be creative that week and figure out how best to promote different messages.
00:13:47 Jennifer Aguilar
So I mean, we have creative freedom, so it's.
00:13:52 Jennifer Aguilar
It's not too bad. That's great.
00:13:52 Josh Goblish
To a degree, right to a degree.
00:13:55 Jennifer Aguilar
To a degree, of course.
00:13:56 Juliana Villa
I mean, there are some regulations and stuff we need to.
00:13:57 Bill Mulso
The great thing is they're both very professional. They know what the parameters are.
00:14:03 Bill Mulso
They’re proud of the work they do.
00:14:04 Josh Goblish
No doubt, ladies, we do appreciate the time here this morning, and good luck down.
00:14:08 Josh Goblish
The road.
00:14:09 Juliana Villa & Jennifer Aguilar
Thank you.
00:14:09 Josh Goblish
That is, Juliana and Jenny, two students on the communication, marketing,g and social media team. As we kick it back over to Mr. Bill Mulso, you've got a list of events.
00:14:19 Josh Goblish
All sorts of fun stuff are happening down the road.
00:14:21 Bill Mulso
Just a couple of things. You know, we're heading into the Thanksgiving break here, so there won't be a lot of activity through the weekend, but coming up on Monday, women's basketball has a non-conference match. They'll be back home at 0. They'll be hosting Bethany Lutheran, nd then, Tuesday night, the Marshall Community is very fortunate to have Hmong author Kao Kalia Yan.
00:14:41 Bill Mulso
She will be in the community. She's going to be doing a reading at the middle school, actually hosting the South.
00:14:48 Bill Mulso
View the entire student population, and then she'll be on campus at 7:00 in the Fine Arts theater, doing a reading of one of her children's books with a very prominent American author. She's actually done some theater production as well, so that's coming up Tuesday night.
00:15:05 Josh Goblish
Very cool, Bill. Thanks for the update, and we'll talk to you again next week.
00:15:08 Bill Mulso
Thank you, Josh. Have a happy Thanksgiving.
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