Every time the semester comes to a close, I like to look back and reflect on everything I’ve learned.
Luckily, I have had a good education throughout my tenure at the University of South Florida.
This is truly a blessing, and not something I take for granted as I have always loved the idea of school since I was child - hence going to a university.
In the middle of last semester, I fell very ill halfway through. I ended up having to drop three of my four classes resulting in me getting an F.
It wasn’t my proudest moment, but between midterms, applying to internships and getting promoted to an assistant manager position at my job, I became overwhelmed and bed-ridden. Therefore, this is the second time I’ve taken Digital Media with Professor Ritter.
Although I am not content with what happened last semester, I like to look at the silver lining of things and see that I was able to refresh my knowledge in the course.
My professor is extremely knowledgeable about the material. He is the CEO of Digital Neighbor, has a masters degree and runs his own podcast.
He knows digital marketing like the back of his hand. All of his presentations were filled with real-world, present-day information that is important towards the field we are going to.
Not only that, but he has great connections in the Tampa Bay area.
It’s cool to see a little bit behind the scenes of Professor Ritter’s life - like who he worked with ten years ago and his friends who went to the same wedding as him.
Professor Ritter brought two guest speakers into the classroom. One was a previous colleague who spoke to us about UX design and a previous student who just gave us advice on post-college endeavors.
Along with the guest lecturers, we also took two field trips to digital marketing firms. One was Modern Media Group (MMG) in Ybor, and Bake More Pies in West Tampa. I enjoyed both field trips a lot, and learned so much from the employees there.
Although MMG was great - a lot more youthful and interpersonal - Bake More Pies’ field trip was rich with modern information regarding the digital media world.
I was in awe at how they built a company from the ground up and knew so much about the ins and outs of getting the best promotional campaigns for your online business. They had many partners and even won the Small Business of the Year award in 2023, which was well deserved!
In the class, though, my favorite lecture had to be about the digital strategy. Professor Ritter went in-depth about the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT), which I had never heard of, and the communications framework.
I have never thought of a comms framework, but realized it makes a huge difference in planning content for your brand.
It displays the five different stages of awareness, and organizes your message by defining It is about, what channel you will use and what content you will make for it.
It’s rare to hear this from a student, but I even enjoyed the final project for this class. Although it was a lot of work, it felt like a real-world exercise that reflected the expectations of an agency.
Digital marketing is all around us and is going to be with us long into the future. As someone who is going in this field, this class encompassed all the necessary elements to help me succeed.
The course was well-rounded, and challenging enough to match the standard of real industry projects. I would recommend it to others looking to build a strong foundation in digital media and marketing.
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