Mass communication is a field of study that deals with the collation of verifiable information and dispersing such information to a large heterogeneous number of people through print, electronic, and social media platforms.
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The most popular means of effectively spreading information to people include newspapers, television, magazines, blogs, websites, and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok among others.
The study of information dissemination is all-encompassing such that career opportunities for a degree holder in mass communication are many.
The business ideas mentioned that will be mentioned in this article are relevant to graduates of the following courses:
- Communication Arts
- Communication and Language Arts
- Yoruba and Communication
- Communication studies
- English language and communication studies
They can work as a content creator, correspondent for a news organization, public relations officer for a company, digital marketer, sound engineer, media spokesman, media assistant, and director of communication etc.
But finding a job as a graduate of mass communication doesn’t come easy in a country that faces a high unemployment rate.
So, in this article, we’ve come up with startup business ideas for mass communication graduates who couldn’t get a job after graduation.
In a world where Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking up several roles across disciplines, it is not advisable for fresh graduates to wait for job opportunities to come their way.
There are several ways to get themselves engaged in economic activities that will fetch them money.
If you have a degree in communication and the organizations you’ve submitted CV and cover letter to aren’t forthcoming, here are the unique startup business ideas for you:
Social media management
In today’s world, politicians, corporate organizations, and aspiring political office holders are seriously in search of capable social media managers to help them manage their social media activities and accounts.
They are busy, they need a hand in this regard.
Your role as the founder of a social media management agency is to bring onboard social media experts to help celebrities and politicians manage their social media accounts.
Starting as a one-man business is a good way to go in case you couldn’t raise the funds to establish an agency from the ground up.
Podcast production
Podcasting is another startup business idea for mass communication graduates. To be a successful podcaster, you have to pick a niche that aligns with your interest. It could be political analysis.
There are several platforms where you can host your podcasts.
Get a mic specifically designed for podcasting, you can improvise your room as a production room, editing tools, and data for uploading online…you’re good to go.
If you don’t have the financial capacity to start off as a podcasting company, you can start as a one-man podcaster.
Content creation
There are millions of private companies and individuals around the world that need creative content creators for their businesses.
For a mass communication graduate that majored in print journalism, the content creation business is lucrative and rewarding once you’re able to get the word out there about your capabilities and creativity.
You can earn $0.30 per word for content creation. The more orders you get, the more the need to expand as a content creation agency. There are also content creation platforms you can earn a living.
Editing service
Content creation isn’t the major problem of some organizations or bloggers, rather they need copy editors that will perfect the structure of their content.
A mass communication degree holder is usually seen as someone who commands grammar and knows where a word fits in.
If you have eyes for errors and your diction can hold readers spellbound, starting an editing service would be a means to rake in some dollars at the end of the month.
Media monitoring
Do you know that media monitoring is one of the startup business ideas for a mass communication degree holder?
Your role among other things includes: looking out for mentions for your employer; swiftly spurring your employer to take action against mentions that portray your employer in a bad light.
This business idea is closely related to public relations, but there is a distinction between the two.
Media buying
Ads placement in newspapers, magazines, on Twitter, Facebook, radio, and tv are part of the responsibilities of a media buyer.
To be a successful media buyer, you only need to add your service charge to the actual cost of ad placement.
Your responsibility here is to identify the most effective media channels for advertising campaigns and negotiate the best rates, and ensure that the targeted audience is reached.
Don’t inflate the price because your client can easily make direct contact with the channel where the ads will be placed.
Press release distribution service
One of the lucrative media entrepreneurship ideas is to help organizations and businesses distribute their press releases to media outlets and journalists for new products, services and events.
As a press release distributor, you will make money from service charges.
However, to succeed in this press release distributor, you must establish and maintain a strong relationship with media outlets, without them, your business will be in jeopardy.
Graphic design
Graphic design is another innovative business idea for Mass Communication graduates.
In fact, graphic design is one of the courses at the department of mass communication.
As a graphic designer, your responsibility will be to provide a wide range of visual communication and branding, print design, web design, advertising and marketing plan, packaging design etc.
Video production
If you’re good at conceptualizing and planning visual production, then video production is something that will fetch you a lot of money as a degree holder in Mass Communication.
There are several video edition tools at your disposal including iMovie, Freemake, Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, Lightworks, Shotcut etc.
You can get video editor gigs on LinkedIn, Freelancer and other platforms.
Influencer marketing
An influencer marketer is someone who helps brands and organizations connect with influencers on social media platforms in order to reach new audiences.
Most of the influencers have a large following and create content to resonate with their audience. All you need to do to be a successful influencer marketer is to identify influencers, negotiate partnerships, manage campaigns, and analyze and report.
Instead of just joining the barrage of social media users who use the handles to abuse or just for fun, start building a brand for your influencer marketing business. As a good communicator, you should be successful in this business idea.
Crisis management consulting
Crisis is part of human existence. In a community, organization and within family, there will always be crises.
Crisis means there are jobs for crisis managers, that’s where the communication prowess of mass communication graduates will be needed.
Apart from managing community crises, crisis management consulting also involves providing strategic guidance and support to organizations that are facing challenges that may threaten their operations.
Your job will be to help organizations manage and minimize crises and help them to come out stronger from their experience.
Blogging:
Some years ago, people had blogs just to share their personal experiences of a subject matter or write about what they know, but there is a slight change today.
Writers now have blogs not just for sharing experiences, but to also make a living from their efforts and content through monetization.
Whether it is news or creative writing, mass communication graduates can make hundreds of US dollars from their monetized content.
Blogging is a great business idea for mass communication graduates who can create helpful content, content that proffers solutions or answers to questions.
With less than $100, you can set up a blog. But remember, blogging doesn’t generate revenue immediately when it’s launched, it requires hard work and consistency to get something meaningful from blogging.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) service
Blogging has many other ways of generating revenue, one of them is by providing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services for other bloggers and brands for their products or content to be visible to search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo etc.
Organic traffic is one of the life wires of a website or blog, as such providing SEO service is another way mass communication graduates can be self-employed and generate money.
Booking agency
Through a booking agency, you can be the representative of artists to help them secure paid engagements and performances.
Your work will be to act as a liaison between the artists and the event organizer, negotiating fees and contract terms on behalf of the performer.
Event planning business
We have lots of mass communication degree holders that provide professional services in planning, organizing, and executing events for individuals and corporate bodies for service charge.
You will have to meet the goals of your client and exceed their expectations for you to have recurring customers and get new clients.
Market research firm
One of the beauties of journalism is investigation. Mass communication graduates can deploy their investigative skills to market research.
Your job will be to gather, and analyse data about a market so as to gather insight into customers’ needs and behavior so as to make informed decisions.
Photography service
Photography is one of the courses of the mass communication department which involves professionals capturing the memorable moment of your client aesthetically.
At weddings, house warming, naming ceremonies, end of the year parties, professional photographers are needed.
Setting up a professional photography studio or offering home service is a good way to be self-employed as a graduate of mass communication who just completed their degree.
Branding agency
Start this by helping organizations to develop their brand identity and ditch out the message effectively to the target audience.
Freelancing
Just like we recommend freelancing services for BA English Majors as one of the startup ideas, freelancing is a great startup business idea for mass communication graduates because it involves deploying your skills to earn a living.
Some of the services you can offer include some of the aforementioned business ideas e.g writing, graphic design, content creation, web development, SEO service, and social media management etc.
Conclusion:
Having a degree in the act of disseminating information doesn’t mean you should wait for a white-collar job, there are many things you can engage yourself with as highlighted in the above startup business ideas for mass communication graduates.
Most of the ideas in this article only require a small budget to get started; some of them that require huge capital can be started by offering home or online services.