Vision engineer

FRANKLIN SHEFFIELD

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If a picture is worth one thousand words, and a video is ten thousand pictures, is there better way to communicate? Using cutting edge techniques and software, I can produce channel live stream environments that allow audience participation and engagement across multiple social platforms at once.

• 10 proven tips tha make marketing like a pro easy

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"Our only job is to help each other"I believe in humanity. What inspires me most in this world is having a chance to leave it better off than it was without me. Despite our downfalls, we are noble, beautiful creatures.
I am a huge advocate of service. I'm a NAVY veteran who has the honor of serving veterans with PTSD. One day I hope to be a part of the solution to longer, happier lives for everyone though using technology to privatize food in a renewable manner.I'm a dreamer, but a practical one. This is why I choose to get a Bachelors in Marketing because the cure to cancer means nothing if no one knows about it. In the information age attention has taken the place of money as the most influential resource for change. I aim to learn to use this power for the good of the people, and the earth.Although art is my first and truest love, my strongest skills reside in computer science and security. Having served as an IT and a background with Microsoft combine with my extensive knowledge of computer languages makes me dangerously good with technology in general.

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IntroductionNo matter your profession, your passion, or good idea, if you need other people to make it work then marketing should matter to you. When you put yourself out there in a way that is considerate of who or what you aim to find you are more likely to get it. Good marketing always starts with the self. In the business we call this the personal brand. All your public accounts. Photos, personal interactions and choices add up to define how others think about you on many levels. As scary as all that sounds, imagine having no control or idea of where or how any of that information shows back up in your life? Most employers include social media vetting among other screenings and references during a hiring process. Employing personal marketing is taking control of how the world sees you. Now as promised, 10 ways to make marketing like a pro are easy.1)Identify Your Expertise
What are the marketable skills of your personal brand? If you have never listed your professional skills, but have written a resume then that may be a good place to start. What you want to identify are things you should get paid to do because you are that good. If you have a large list, consider grouping them into categories or professional umbrellas. Include things you are taking steps to become, for example academic degrees you are actively pursuing or hobbies you practice. Any good brand has a touch of uniformity and a dash of familiarity, your expertises and aspirations should be among the top things your personal brand aligns with. Values are another headliner in any good brand. What are your personal values? Just remember to stay genuine. We all can tell when someone is presenting an idea of themselves that is not who they are, online or in person. Besides, your genuineness will help define the unique quality of your identity.2) Social Media
Hopefully by now most of us are aware of how damaging the wrong information can be on social media so I will be brief about it. Try to keep in mind that people you never meet or possibly worse, people you will meet have access to anything you post. Be smart and remember to align with your personal brand. There is no such thing as private social media and because of this you must treat each one professionally including your “personal accounts”. Like any good brand you may consider what social media platforms fit you well. If your skills are in film, you would want a platform that supports that like youtube or vimeo. Consider how best to support your expertise and values through content. What kind of content are you willing and able to find and make? No matter where you are in your career, making content about your profession can authenticate your skills while growing your portfolio. Skills and proof are the cornerstones of a good personal brand.3) Blogging
Blogs are a lot more important than they may seem at first glance. To write a successful blog requires a level of organization and dedication that builds trust. A blog requires a level of time management to maintain release schedules and development time. Once you get the hang of it though, having a blog opens up worlds of opportunity for cross promotions. Imagine embedding your own youtube video into your blog about a skill you are demonstrating. In this blog are hyperlinks to your linkedin/resume and products/services you may have. Next you post a link to that blog on your facebook, instagram, and twitter accounts. A blog can act as the bridge between accounts and authenticating digital assets. These bridges will also help you Search Engine optimization or SEO.4) SEO
Every second the internet grows by more than all the data you will consume in your lifetime. The internet is a large place that is getting larger at a faster pace the longer it exists. If you want to be found by people for any reason on the internet it takes some effort. The key to SEO is in keywords and phrases, Google holds the lock to the biggest treasure room. To conduct keyword research I like to use ahrefs.com. 80% plus of the words used to conduct online searches in the US will use less than 9% of the english language. Knowing what words people will use to find you makes all the difference. It is completely free to modify the already existing google search results for websites you own to include multiple hyperlinks and even a wikipedia page you can write yourself. To see an example of good use for free ad space, Google “Apple”. If you do nothing else for SEO, create synergy. All of your accounts should have similar if not identical names, profile pictures, and messaging. Whenever afforded opportunity they should link together. The best way to do this is through pointing all public accounts to a personal website.5) Personal Website
Building websites gets easier each day and I’d personally wager it stays that way as long as the internet exists. For the cost of a domain, which is less than a dollar a month, most web building websites like Wix, Wordpress, or Carrd will let you use their codeless website assembly tools. Often you can try them for free so there is no real reason not to try and build one yourself. As your web presence expands into new social platforms and professional environments, your website is the net that catches all the people who take interest in you across all of cyberspace. Much like neurons in the brain, the more bridges that are connected to a single web source the easier it is for the whole internet to find and get information from that source. Other accounts and websites may restrict you in many ways; what/if you can sell products or services, what you can say or advertise, and they can shut you down if they feel you break one of their rules. When it’s your website it's your rules, within law. It can be easy to overdue, or miss key elements so I suggest starting by finding industry leaders in your profession(s) and reproducing what you like about their personal websites. If you are trying to monetize in any way from the internet, make sure to include contact information.6) Automation
Perhaps my favorite quality of technology is how it can do things for us without our help so long as we teach it correctly. When used efficiently automation can do the bulk of the work. There is a principle from business theory called the 80/20 rule. This rule dictates 80% of the results will come from 20% of the work. With automation, you can focus on the top priority tasks that are going to drive success while easing work load! Ok, so what kinds of automations are there in terms of personal marketing? Let's start with calendars. Calendars hosted through social media like Facebook's Meta Business suite will allow you to build release schedules for your content. Apply a little research and you can release during peak active times for any given social media without lifting a finger. To take it a step further, you can use an app like If This Then That, (IFTTT) to create rerelease automation across platforms. Then there is “multi-streaming”, a powerful crowd building tool where you stream live in several locations at once.
I know not everyone loves the idea of being live in front of a camera, but let me paint a picture. When I want to go live, I flip on OBS and set it to stream to retream.io. At restream, I’ve already input up to 30 destinations, youtube, instagram, twitch, all of them. In my OBS software I’ve set it to manage all my comments across all accounts into a single feed to make engagement easy. When I finish making my 3 minute video IFTTT kicks in and automatically logs the video, generates a report, and emails it to me. I may then repost the video wherever and wherever I pre-programmed. Automation is amazing, but it’s only the gateway drug to AI, automation without limits.7) AI
I sincerely hope by now most people are aware of some of the power we are creating as AI becomes more accessible. Perhaps if requested I can deep dive into AI, but for now let's skim the surface on AI that can be useful for personal marketing. Chat and Image AI are great at helping with blog and social content production and there are tons of options. If SEO seems like something you don’t want to manage, no problem, task Content at Scale to do it for you. If talking to a camera is a daunting task, ok, build yourself a co-host to talk to who knows everything. A chat bot built into your website can answer questions before they get to you. If someone does email you you can guarantee swift and friendly responses and text notification. If any part of your professional process exists in the digital world, it can be managed by AI if you want it to.8) Content
I’m not here to tell you what to post, but how to post. If you're having trouble imagining or making content, ask the robots for help. The way I see it there are 3 golden rules of content. The first rule of content, consistency is king. You don't need to post every day, but if you post tuesday at 5PM, you should post every tuesday at 5PM. The second rule of content, apply value. This is two fold; apply value in your content with rich delivery of good information, and apply your personal values. The last golden rule, engage your audience. Best practice for this is to set aside some time every day, 10 minutes, and drop some genuine comments and likes. If you do this after you post something you may even get some recommendations on your own stuff. The social media algorithms love it when you re-engage on your own post with other people.9) Ads’s
Not all ads are created equal. Some advertisements for you already exist in places like Google. If you haven't in a while, google yourself, what do you find? When you have a website you get to decide what comes up in google when people search for you. Search engine ads are created automatically but are easy to change and customize. This is important because search engines are a cold audience funnel so first impressions are everything. When you get a bit of a following you can advertise yourself for free with call to action posts and content. Ad’s are a good way to generate income, but also data. After a few ads you may find one or two in particular worked well for you. When a free ad works well it’s a great candidate for paid advertising. You may be surprised how far 20 dollars will go on a platform like instagram or facebook. Ad’s will help you get to know and grow your audience by giving you insight into large databases that will help you filter and adjust as you discover what works well or not.10) Time Management
Time is the master of all who have not taken the time to master it. Average Americans take close to 60 days to establish new habits. Until then it takes diligent effort to bring action to new ideas. I can not recommend enough that if you are one of the 80% of people who is not managing time at all outside a work schedule that you download the calendar app of your choice and start today. Keep yourself informed on what's going on in your own life. Use notifications to remind yourself with a responsible amount of time to prepare for these tasks. To become efficient with time is to become efficient itself. I saved this for last because it is the glue that would hold any other advice I’ve given here together. If you take anything from this article take this: 15 minutes a day in a calendar app managing time will change your life no matter what you are doing. All successful people do it, it’s not that hard, you can do it too.

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