Hello! My name is Thanh Le. I’m 21. I’m a senior in Western Washington University and currently pursuing my undergraduate degree in Marketing and International Business. I come from Vietnam. I am fluent in English and Vietnamese. My long-term career objective is becoming a specialized expert in International Marketing and devote myself in contributing to sustainable development of my country. I am a passionate, highly self-motivated, ambitious and always optimistic person. My favorite  quote is: “Our attitude toward life determines life’s attitude towards us”. (John N. Mitchell). I strongly believe that we can’t control whether good things or bad things come to us, but we can always be happy by controlling the right attitude facing with it. I enjoy outdoor activities like hiking, traveling, and kayaking. I can play five musical instruments, such as piano, keyboard, ukulele, Vietnamese plucked zither, and Vietnamese bamboo xylophone.  

Why I am taking the course?

Nowadays, technology is a powerful tool which helps to develop economy and globalization progress. Digital platform play an important role in driving the business, especially in social media marketing and in customer service. I am lack of using digital platforms experiences. I have not used Twitter, LinkedIn and WordPress before reading the syllabus. I have learned about coding website by myself. However, I conceived that I need to  learn more about Digital program which supports for my future business career. This class provides me opportunities to have deeper knowledge about Digital Marketing, such as Web Analytic, Inbound Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Coding, Google Adwords, Mobile Marketing and etc. That is the reason why I decide to take this class as an elective Marketing class.

What do I want to learn?

Honestly, I have no idea how Web Analytics, HOOTSUITE, Google Adwords, Mobile Marketing and Search Engine Marketing work. Therefore, I want to gain knowledge in these areas, so I can apply it to my job in the future. I am very exciting to learn in this class, because all things are new to me. I believe that I will gain a huge valuable experience and knowledge after this class.

Digital Marketing Articles

Knowledge and Skill Requirements for Marketing Jobs in the 21st Century reflects the reality today. Most of students are not well prepared to work. It is not surprised that some companies just hire students from their referenced universities. Usually, the famous universities have a lot of funds, so they can invest in purchasing new technology, latest database, or latest technological program for students to practice. Students who study in big universities or private universities are more well prepared in skills rather students from small universities. For example, in my country, Vietnam, marketing students do not even have chances to study Digital Marketing class, or learning how to use SPSS, Qualtrics, and other programs to integrate and analyze the data. Therefore, they face to a lot of difficulties to find a job and adapt to working environment. In contrast, companies also struggle to find a good skilled labor.  Truly, technical skills are very important for all kinds of jobs. Especially, it is more crucial in marketing, because in marketing, we do a lot of researches about customer behavior, and data analysis. If we do not know how to use the technology to integrate the information, and interpret the data, we cannot success in the market. “The US Interactive Marketing Forecast from 2011-2016” article provides the trend of US Interactive Marketing and deeper insights how organization adapt to the changes. Digital platform is a great tool which helps the company interact with the customers fast and widely. As a successful marketers, besides knowing how to use digital platform proficiently, but we need to use it efficiently and effectively. It is a huge calculating from what the messages should we deliver to customers are, to which method should we use to sent the message is, and to when should we do it. A marketer in Comscore company told me an experience that the trend of customer using Digital Platform is they use Mobile in the morning, use laptop or desktop during the day, and use tablets in the evening. Their job is calculating the time they do advertising on devices, so it can save budget and maximize advertising efficiency. From that story, it can be seen that digital platform plays a vital role which brings the success to the company. That is the reason why students should be more well training and prepared to proficient in using Digital Marketing program. Not only does it help student find a good job, but it also helps student succeed in the job and brings the success to the company. “The State of Digital Marketing Talent” emphasizes the Digital Marketing Talent Gap issue. The inadequate digital marketing talent and skill limit the digital marketing team performance. The companies have difficulties in finding a good marketer who is also good at digital. To me, as a senior students, I also feel that I am not well prepared enough to find a job. Most of the jobs require a lot of working experiences, and digital skills. My friend who works at ComScore had a tough time to adapt to ComScore working environment in the beginning. Even though, she had learned SPSS in Western Washington University, she struggled when interacting with the real database from her client. She had to overcome the painful internship for three months until she is hired. She admitted that there was a huge gap between knowledge from college and the working experience. Therefore, it is great to have class as Digital Marketing class which helps marketing student enhance their digital skills.