A day in the life as a content and social media executive

September marks the start of a new term, which means new beginnings maybe you, your family members or your friends are starting a new college course, A-levels, GCSE’s, Degree’s or new jobs.

My main responsibility at HookedOnMedia is to provide clients with quality content that they can post on their websites or on other websites to promote them. I also provide them with content that they can share through their social networking channels such as facebook, twitter, Google + and LinkedIn. The goal is to help drive more traffic to their websites through blog content and by sharing it across social networking sites. There is no point in creating content if no one knows it exists otherwise it won’t get read.

The role demands for me to be self motivated, disciplined, enthusiastic, positive and pro active.

In this line of work it’s important to remember that no 2 days are the same, however this is what a typical day would involve:

• 7.30am: Leave the house having all ready walked the dog. Drive to the park and ride just outside Truro. I usually arrive between 8am and 8.20am depending on how bad the traffic is.

• 8.45am: I would usually arrive in the office before 9am. I usually have the PC fired up and ready and starting to wade through my emails and work plan as I organise my day.

• 11am: If I have calls to make I like to get them in before lunch if possible. If I don’t have any calls to make, I aim to get at least one 400 word article written and proof read.

• 1pm: At this point I’ll stop for a well earned lunch either taking a quick break at my desk by catching up on the industry news and updates and post to hootsuite accounts or walk around town for some fresh air.

• 3pm: At this time usually any afternoon calls scheduled usually take place around this time and if I don’t have any calls to make I would normally be writing articles with around 3 articles finished by this time.

• 5pm: At this stage I’m wondering where the day went and taking another look at that ‘to do’ list to see how much I managed to scrub off and what needs to carry over for the next day. I always plan tomorrow before the end of each day.

• 5.30pm: At this time I’ll be heading to the bus stop which takes around 10 minutes to walk to. I will usually be in time for the 5.45pm bus or if I miss this I would get on the 5.55pm bus which gets me back to the park and ride by 6.20pm. It then takes between 25 minutes to half hour to get home.

Advantages of being a content and social media executive

I enjoy working with clients and colleagues to create content which is unique to my clients businesses. Content is changing on a daily basis and is one of the most talked about things on the internet. One of the most rewarding things for me personally is seeing my articles or competitions go live on sites such as Female First, Men’s Health, Men’s and Women’s Fitness, Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire. When the content is shared via social networking channels that’s when you know that your content is quality and people are reading and sharing it.

Disadvantages

Like all jobs, this may sound glamorous but one of the things that I dislike about my job is being stuck a desk all day staring at a screen.

My advice for any of you aspiring content and social media executives is to make sure that you do as much work experience before deciding on whether this is the right career path for you. I spent a number of years in temporary roles because I didn’t have enough experience and I didn’t a clue what I wanted to do until I landed myself a job at a digital agency just before I turned thirty.