Hey all!
Many of you may not know much about the workings of digital and interactive media, especially from a marketing standpoint. But don’t you let that get you down! The field, which is a fairly new one anyways, is being explored by BU’s Digital Media Club (BUDMC), where I serve as Treasurer.
The club gives students a chance to get hands on with bringing an idea from inception to completion in the digital space. Or in layman’s terms, to think of something cool and digital and then make it happen. Terrier Labs, the digital incubator side of the club, focuses on identifying brand problems, usually within BU, and then creating an innovative digital solution for them.
Perhaps you’re scared of code, and have never touched an HTML document in your life. Maybe you don’t want to learn the Adobe creative suite when you never really plan on working as an art director. Well that’s just fine. BUDMC brings together designers, developers and marketers to produce a product that is viable, useful, and innovative. So that means that even if you only feel cut out for the marketing and management side of digital, then there is a space for you. And best of all the work is done in a collaborative environment where you can pick up skills in coding and design from your coworkers.
But why is digital exciting? What’s so great about it that traditional media can’t provide? The answer is flexibility.
With a digital product designed right, a team can start extremely small, and test, evaluate and iterate on their idea until it is near perfect, using constant feedback from consumers who are trying the product out. The medium allows you to quickly change things that aren’t working, and then asses the quality of those changes.
The high speed nature of the field is exhilarating, but the most rewarding part is seeing something you’ve actually accomplished. Knowing that you started from an idea on pen-and-paper, and then ended with a physical (well, relatively) product that you can use is an incredibly rewarding feeling. I know that’s how everyone in the club who was involved with the BURoomSwap project, which created a tool to help students who are unhappy with their housing situation find someone to swap rooms with, felt when they saw users taking the site in stride and running with it, making plenty of postings and even some successful swaps along the way.
If you have even the slightest interest I can only highly recommend giving BUDMC a look. And make sure to keep your ear to the ground about upcoming DMC projects!
Until Next Time,
Jon
