You may see him hanging out on his the lounge or crunching numbers. You may even know him by the name of “Tony.” Ben Wax, sophomore in the Kogod School of Business, is Treasurer of the AU Social Media Club, VP of Advocacy for AU RHA and an intern at Green Buzz Agency here in DC. We got the chance to talk to him about his social media background, business and how to network without networking.
1) Tell us about yourself.
Hm, where do I start? Hi, I’m Ben, a business student here at AU. I come from Pennsylvania, outside of Philly (so original), and when I’m not studying or working I like to help out in the Social Media Club and RHA.
2) How did you get into Social Media Club?
As for working with social media, I’ve always found it an interesting field. Social netowrking is incredibly huge and popular, yet its implications are so unexplored. There are brands that don’t use social media at all, there are companies that can build themselves from the ground up just by having poeple share their products, etc. I want to work in that field, interact in a fun, modern way, and just kind of explore all the possibilities.
3) What is your role in AU Social Media Club?
In the Social Media Club, I’m the treasurer, so my main responsibility is working with our budget and purchases. However, Social Media is a very open and free club, so I also play a pretty big role in just helping brainstorm and set up the various events we put on to promote social media usage among faculty and students.
4) What do you do for your internship at Green Buzz Agency?
I’m a Marketing and Social Media Intern for Green Buzz. Every intern has a different project, and mine is to run the Twitter handles for the Green Buzz Agency and its sister company, What’s Next DC. Green Buzz is B2B (Business-to-Business) video production company while What’s Next DC is a series of business conferences aimed at consumers, so it’s interesting running two Twitter handles aimed at separate audiences with different types of content. But overall, it’s a really fun internship, and I’m glad to have it.
5) How did find out about the company?
It’s actually pretty funny how I found out and got involved with the Green Buzz Agency. In the Social Media Club, our vice president is an intern at Green Buzz, and one time she got Tod, the head, to speak on a panel at an event after another speaker canceled. He was a really great speaker, but I was (and still am) terrible at networking so I didn’t really speak to him or the other panelists. However, one of my friends from RHA, Jenna, did network and later had coffee with Tod, where he told her an opening at the agency – she couldn’t fill the role, so she told me, and here I am now! In a sense, I got really lucky that the situation worked out the way it did.
6) What also organzation are you involved in on campus?
Besides the Social Media Club, I’m also a member of the Residence Hall Association, or RHA. I’m actually the Vice President of Advocacy of McDowell Hall, meaning I go around looking for problems and work to improve the general life of residents. Despite not being very business-related, it’s still a fun position to have, and I really like helping out people in need. I also help out in the planning of events held in McDowell Hall, including our big North Side Prom being held in April, so stay tuned for more details with that!
7) What did you see yourself doing after college with your degree?
Hm, this is a tough question. I mean, I really like business, specifically marketing, so I’d like to do some kind of job working with that. As for specifics, there’s no particular company that I’ve set my mind on, so I’m going to play by ear and see what companies look good as I learn more about marketing. All in all, I’ll be pretty happy with any sort of marketing or social media position outside of college.