As fellow storytellers, the staff writers at HCUBC believe in the importance of using social media and words as tools to express and extend the knowledge and messages that we wish to share. This week’s Profile features Zafira Rajan, the founder of Her Campus’ UBC Chapter, and currently the Marketing and Communications Coordinator at UBC Vantage College. She shares with us her detailed and insightful thoughts on digital storytelling, social media and Her Campus, pinpointing the effects of each experience on her current career and love for writing.
What is your favorite place in Vancouver to go to for storytelling inspiration?
Living near to Kitsilano Beach is a great source of inspiration. Whether it’s just observing how people interact or overhearing snippets of stories and conversations, sitting on a bench in a park or by the water has always been a great place for me to just listen and weave all those elements into a piece.
What made you want to tell stories through the Her Campus UBC Chapter?
At the time, I was looking for an outlet that didn’t fit the typical mold of a student newspaper and catered to all kinds of women at UBC. When I stumbled across Her Campus, it felt like a perfect fit. Being able to share the personas, spaces and opinions on campus through one platform felt like it spoke well to the entire student experience. I think it gave me the opportunity I wanted to dig deeper into personalities on campus that weren’t necessarily the faces of big programs or groups, but just regular students.
What is the most valuable lesson you have gained through storytelling?
I’ve learned that I can’t control the story. Initially, I thought this was a really negative thing because it wasn’t ‘the assignment’ – but over time, I realized that it was really the beauty of writing and giving voice to others. When your interview veers off course, or the intention you set for your pitch morphs into something else, it’s for a good reason. Sometimes, it’s because maybe that’s the real story that needs to be told.
How did you get interested in social media coordinating?
The spark of social media for me actually began with Her Campus UBC! Starting it from the ground up, I was our editor, social media manager, responsible for PR… You name it, I wore that hat. In combination with a great Work Learn job in UBC Student Communications at the time, I got my hands dirty for the first time with managing multiple social media accounts, and I found that my skills for crafting good content played so well into that digital sphere. It wasn’t necessarily something I had envisioned pursuing, but I ended up enjoying it so much that it’s shaped much more for me than I had anticipated!
What are your personal favorite social media platforms?
I am a big fan of Instagram. As any social media manager knows, visual content is your key to success – and Instagram evidently speaks to that. Unlike platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, visually curated content takes a level of precision and creativity that I really admire, and I don’t feel like it ‘clutters’ my experience. There’s a lot of noise out there in social media, but Instagram is my go-to in order to get an experience that I feel like I’ve chosen. While that’s changing with Instagram ads coming into play, the way it’s designed doesn’t feel as disruptive, and I think bigger things are to come.
What is your favorite thing about working for Vantage College?
Currently, my favorite thing is having a certain level of flexibility and creativity to map out my visions moving forward, which you don’t always find in a workplace. Working for Vantage in particular is especially exciting because it almost functions like a start-up, since it’s such a young program. That means the sky is the limit, and it’s exciting to be a part of a program that has so much ahead of it.
What is some advice you would give to writers who are just starting out?
- Volunteer your skills wherever you can. For me, it was first at The Ubyssey, and it really gave me the confidence to take on writing seriously. Write for online magazines, your student paper, start your own blog – whatever you can do to get going and start gaining experience writing and interviewing to start building your portfolio.
- Don’t say no to assignments. You may get assigned topics you’ve never covered before or that are totally out of your comfort zone – but that’s exactly the kind of article that will allow you to grow or give you exposure in ways you may have never anticipated. Take on as much diversity in your writing as you can.
- Learn proper interviewing etiquette. Talk to editors about how they conduct their interviews, and you’ll always find nuggets of wisdom that will help you along. The first piece of advice I received was to always ask ‘is there anything else?’ at the end of your interview – you’d be shocked to learn how many times that yielded most of the actual piece for me!
- Know your own voice. When you write for someone else, it can be easy to lose part of what your original voice was starting out – I think that’s why having an outlet that’s solely your own (such as a personal blog) is really great in order to maintain that. It’s something I’ve definitely struggled with – especially since managing so many social media accounts requires different voices as well. I’ve since recognized this and tried to work on it.
If you were to write a letter to your undergraduate self, what would you include in it?
Where to begin? There are so many things. I would probably tell myself to get out of my dorm room more in first year, that taking calculus was not a good idea (I was always destined for an English Literature major, not Economics…) and not to wait till my third year to get really involved on campus. Once I got started, I realized how little time I had left – you can really use all your years at UBC to make a significant impact, and I wish I had gotten out of my shell a little earlier. But it wouldn’t be entirely critical – I’d probably at least high-five myself for going on exchange abroad, because it was definitely the highlight of my whole university experience!
What are some of your personal future plans?
Besides working with Vantage College, I own my own social media and communications consulting company. I love working with different clients and my ultimate goal is to be able to run my own business full-time. That being said, social media is changing everyday, so I can only hope to continue keeping up – let’s see where it takes me!