Who knew posting a six second Vine, tweeting something under 140 characters, or posting a picture on Instagram could be so important? For McKinney North High School alum Jessica Hansen, the increasingly popular social media app, Vine, opened a new window to a successful career in social media marketing.

“I didn’t really have a plan for after high school,” social media star Jessica Hansen said. “Originally, I took a lot of art classes, but I ended up at Texas Tech, majoring in nursing.”

Hansen was working as a nurse in the cardiovascular ICU at Baylor Medical Center when her Vine career took off.

“The first Vine that kind of blew up was a Vine titled ‘helping my dad and brother at the farm,’” Hansen said. “It got over 175,000 likes!”

Hansen’s newfound fame led to almost half a million followers across various social media sites and what was once just a hobby, evolved into a new career.

“I have a new job, I moved to New York City, and I’m working as a freelance artist, producer and doing social media associated things full time,” Hansen said.

Hansen made a career out of something that people of all ages do every day for fun as social media can now be a platform for economic advancement and marketing.

“Social media has changed the way business is done,” Principles of Business Marketing teacher Brandon Villarreal said. “Before, if you wanted to access a customer, you had to get them at your storefront, you had to send out flyers (which you never know got to the customer or not), you had to put up billboards, etc., but if it’s on social media and you post something that goes along with your business, you know for sure that hundreds, thousands, or millions of people are going to see it instantly and directly, and you can put the links to everything they need right at their fingertips.”

This worldwide exponential increase in social media as a business platform has led many people, just like Hansen, to pursue a career in online advertising.

“Social media is a great way to advertise,” Villarreal said. “Everything becomes a lot more accessible, and you’re directly getting to those customers, whereas before, you’re not exactly sure how effective your advertising was.”