Introduction to My Journey in Social Media

Let me be honest—I never thought I’d work in social media. When I was studying PR and communications, I had a feeling my future roles might include some aspects of social media management, but I never imagined I’d be tasked with helping build a brand during its initial stages. Over a few years of working in my chosen industry in comms, I realized I wanted to take on this challenge. And that’s when I found Wrk.

Starting Out and Facing Impostor Syndrome

One of my first tasks when I started as Social Media & Content Coordinator was to build a new, overarching social media strategy. As imposter syndrome rolled in, I pored over that presentation for weeks. I practiced it several times and even recorded myself to anticipate where I’d stumble over my words on presentation day. After talking my team through my plan for the upcoming year, I came to what was a shocking realization for me—I can do this.

Growth and New Initiatives

Fast forward to just over a year later and I got to watch my organization grow, lead our social efforts as we closed our Series A with over $55 million in funding, launch new platforms and initiatives, and even lead a Lunch & Learn session for my team about the importance of employee advocacy on social media.

Employee Advocacy and Social Media

Social media has a big role to play when it comes to telling a brand story or building brand recognition. In fact, studies show that a whopping 90% of people buy from brands they follow on social media and 79% of job seekers use social media when conducting their job search.

So it’s vital that if we are active on social media, we’re able to articulate our brand story in a way that is authentic, impactful, and positive. And that’s where employee advocacy comes in.

When it comes to employee advocacy and engagement in general, company culture builds from the outside in. Employees are ultimately the biggest advocates for their brands and positive engagement is, in a word, contagious. Since it’s currently a “job seekers” market and terms like “the great resignation” are in flux, job seekers are looking for companies with great cultures and a mission, vision, and value they can truly get behind.

It’s vital to always remember that the voice of your team is powerful and impactful, but it’s also important to note that social media isn’t for everyone. And some team members may not be sure of best practices to amplify your brand on social media. In this sense, proper training is paramount.

While this is a work in progress for us at Wrk—and something that will change and evolve as we continue to grow—the first step was leading a workshop for our team, as noted above. Because transparency is a core pillar at Wrk, I started by providing the team with an overview of our social media strategy, the platforms we’re currently active on and planned future launches, and how we actually plan our content sharing efforts in our Marketing team.

Then I went into how personalizing reshares of posts can go a long way towards fostering engagement and painting an overall picture for brands. And finally, I explained our marketing messaging. By offering the right type of training, you can ensure you don’t lose control over your message and that it doesn’t get diluted.

Ultimately, if you manage social media for your organization, you must consistently remind your team that you’re there to offer support when it comes to helping them become more active and engaged on social media.

Evolve and Evaluate

While the concept of social media infiltrated the internet with platforms like SixDegrees.com, Friendster, and of course, MySpace, it really took off by 2005 as Facebook gained traction. Today, we have an influx of platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, the infamous Tik Tok, and more.

It’s no surprise that social media is constantly evolving, and as social media professionals, we must evolve with it.

But we must also be mindful of where our target audiences are and what our goals and metrics are for each platform. I often get asked why we aren’t on Tik Tok. In a nutshell, it doesn’t make sense for us right now. But who knows? Maybe a year from now, it will. So I never say never. And that’s why that evaluation piece is crucial when it comes to social media management.

Social Media Management, Never-Ending Learning

I still don’t consider myself an expert in social media. I don’t think any person working in social media ever should. Why? Because as I said, it’s always changing. New platforms emerge, algorithms change, and user behaviours change. So as much as I’d like to say I know all there is to know, I never will, because there will always be more to know. And to me, that’s what makes working in social media management so exciting.

But what I do know is that I joined the Wrk team for its unique growth potential and strong company culture. You can learn more about it and our awesome team by checking out our company culture blogs!

Featured image: Rawpixel.com