Simon and I were invited to Northumbria University this week to talk to some students taking a module on Web Usability.  We were asked to talk to them about how we have applied what we learned at university and on our placements, into our work, and also give them a little information on the importance of Search Engine Optimisation and Social Media.

The experience was a lot more rewarding than I had anticipated; we found that we actually had a lot we could engage them with. One of the things that stood out was giving them the heads up on the importance of social media. It’s not just a fun way to chat to your friends over the internet, but also a fantastic marketing tool, for your employer, business and even yourself, with the best thing being that it’s free! If they manage to gain a strong grasp on how to manipulate social media to generate online noise around themselves and their interests, they stand a much greater chance of being noticed in a remarkably saturated industry, hopefully leading to landing a job. Also touching on CMS’s and how effective they can be at streamlining operations for you and your clients, and the importance of SEO to make sure that after you are finished with a project, it actually works.

Overall it was great to see their reactions on what we consider second nature in our work, hopefully giving them a competitive edge for when they graduate.