A Start in Online Marketing

This Baruch grad started a marketing business and scored a gig with TV Guide Online. Here's a typical day

by Rachelle Rubin

Rachelle Rubin
Founder of Holla! Productions, Inc.
Class of 2006
Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College

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After graduating with my BS in marketing management from Baruch College in New York City, the time had finally come for me to get my feet wet in the "real" world. Don't get me wrong, I had my share of solid work experience, considering I had worked full time at a nonprofit while attending school. But it still didn't make finding the right job for me any easier post-graduation. As soon as I got my diploma, I decided I had earned a break and did some traveling abroad for a few months, only to end up back home in Florida, stuck in a job that I just did not like (as a national salesman of private investigative services). I finally reached the point where I decided it was time for a change, and followed my dream of opening my own marketing company. In my previous marketing positions, I had always worked on doing something online, so I always had a really strong online presence.

I headed back to New York and registered Holla! Productions. The next step was finding work, and out came the Rolodex. I had a friend who worked at TV Guide and thought it could turn into a good opportunity. A new type of social online marketing was being integrated into the brand's overall marketing strategy, and they needed a person to do a long-term social networking campaign for them. So there it was: my first client, TV Guide Online. Currently, I'm under a six-month contract for TV Guide, and I'm working on a few smaller projects for several e-commerce sites during my free time.

Here's how a typical day is going.

7:00 a.m.—"Sun is shining, weather is sweet…" My Bob Marley ringtone alerts me that another morning is here, and I instinctively press snooze. I have never been a morning person and have always cherished my last few minutes of shut-eye. I wake up in a rush, hop in the shower before the roommate gets in, and start my day. I begin by running items through my head of what will happen during the day.

8:20 a.m.—Head to the streets of New York, swipe my card through the subway turnstile, and cram onto a packed train. No seats available, but a wall to lean on if you're lucky.

8:50 a.m.—Arrive at the TV Guide Online office inside the News Corp. (NWS) building. I swipe my badge and enter through the frosted glass panels that swish open.

9:00 a.m.—Go to my desk and gear up for the day. Open Outlook and run the daily report waiting in my in-box. This report tells us the search engine ranking for the top 10 keyword search referrals from the previous day. One of the best features of online marketing is the analytics are easily traced. There is more data available to interpret the metrics of the site and users' behavior, which in turn makes your efforts more effective.

9:15 a.m.—Dive into my e-mails and get a sense of what is going on for the day; important ones are flagged and used to make the agenda.

9:30 a.m.—Browse the Web site and determine the important items to spread virally through the social online news and bookmarking sites. Sharing these articles requires writing catchy headlines for an audience that reads one line to determine whether they like the article or not. With subject matter ranging from Grey's Anatomy to Britney Spears to the scariest movies of all time, the core of what I do is spread entertainment to the masses.

10:30 a.m.—Daily editorial meeting. Everyone gathers and shares a plan for what content will be included online and in the magazine. From these meetings I gather additional information on any cross-promotional opportunities between the magazine and online to utilize assets such as interviews for online purposes.