The Beginnings: How I Got Into Social Media Marketing

You can compare the work shown here with my work with the "La Roche University Men's Soccer - Social Media" on the home page! https://denalinicholas.com/dnicholas 

My journey with Marketing did not start in 2020 when I switched my major, or even in 2018 when I began college, but on a small home desktop setup in 2014.

It started with a Facebook page for a scrappy middle school soccer team in the Virgin Islands. At the time, I had just transferred to Elena Christian Junior High from the private school I had attended since the 1st grade. At the time, I hated that I had to leave, but looking back, it was not the best environment for my growth as a person.

I did not have the best grades in my classes, was bullied for many things by my peers, and got into either trouble or some drama every other week. My parents said "enough" and got me out of there at the end of the first quarter of the second half of the school year.

When I transferred to Elena, I quickly got accustomed to the environment by mostly sticking with a small group of friends I made and just focusing on my classes. One of those friends, Chris, played soccer for the team and asked if I was playing for the season. I was hesitant because I would eventually have to play against my old school, but I had more opportunities and game time with this team than at the other school. I joined the team and quickly made a great impression on my coach and teammates. Practices had already started, and I was anxious to start the season.

In March, the soccer season started. I was talking to Chris, and promoting the soccer team came up. We instantly agreed to create a Facebook page and post pictures and scores after the games. We were confused about how we would create content without a camera. At that time, for something like this (especially sports), we would need a "good camera." Chris had a small Nikon Coolpix camera, which we used to take pictures. I always remember Chris walking with his computer on the bus with a wireless hotspot so we could post on the way to any away games. It's wild looking back now.

I created the page, content, and "graphics" while he took the pictures on the side before or after the games. Graphics for me at that time was using an online photo editor called PicMonkey. I would take the pictures Chris sent, and then add a lot of overlays and flashy things to the image to make it look good for Facebook. I actually found one of the pictures after looking through my archives. I'm wearing number 7. You could barely see me, but it did its thing in the end. Throughout that time, I had fun learning how to run a Facebook page without any real backlash from it. Looking back now, I wish I saved the page to see how cringy we were back in 2013, but I had a better idea coming into high school. 

But that's for another post…

RIP Jeremie.