As usual, if you’re looking out for a new position in the industry, check out Econsultancy’s jobs board.
Please describe your role, what do you do?
I am responsible for overseeing the newly-merged marketing and new business divisions of our organisation. Together we work to increase brand awareness and identify hot new business leads across the globe for Social Chain.
The overarching aim of this year however is to build brand awareness around our New York office, and to continue to work with fresh and exciting consumer brands such as Boohoo, STA Travel and Apple Music.
Whereabouts do you sit within the organisation? Who do you report to?
I sit as a director at Social Chain, working strategically across the company. We promote a non-hierarchical structure, and so whilst I will be involved in making key business decisions, equally I might be putting together our lovingly made client gift boxes or writing Christmas cards with the team.
I report into Steven Bartlett, the co-founder and CEO of Social Chain.
Lucy Clarke
Tell us about a typical working day…
Believe me when I say no two days are the same. Today I have been to meet with the BBC at MediaCity in Salford for a catch up and then this afternoon I’m working on a top secret product offering (all will be revealed later in the year).
Then later this week I am attending meetings in London with some big media names to speak about what we do here at Social Chain and to discuss the potential for future partnerships.
My focus currently is to make sure the team are set up and ready with their 2017 strategies across their specialisms, such as PR, content marketing, paid social and digital.
What do you love about your job? What sucks?
Where to even start? I absolutely love working with my team, they are all so creative, committed and just really great people.
Our campaigns genuinely interest all of us, so it is always a pleasure to push them to our target markets. The feedback we get is amazing, knowing we’re impacting SMEs through to huge brands is awesome.
But pitching to a boardroom of people that haven’t seen us before has to be one of my favourite jobs – watching peoples faces go from intrigue, to amusement, to sheer excitement about working with us is truly amazing.
What sucks is where time goes, everyone here says Social Chain seems to swallow up time – one minute it’s January, next minute we’re closing the year. It’s such a fast-paced agency that it is hard to stand still and take a minute to really relish our achievements!
What kind of goals do you have? What are the most useful metrics and KPIs for measuring success?
We have lots of KPIs – some hard and some soft. The really key KPIs are leads generated and sales achieved. These are broken down further by specialism i.e. paid search, SEO, leads from events etc.
However for us it’s all about generating top quality leads. Our style of marketing is exciting, fast paced and unafraid to challenge convention. Therefore the most effective partnerships are with clients that give us the creative space and freedom to push boundaries and break records.
Luckily for us, our clients welcome our crazy ideas and are always willing to be the first to trial new platform updates across social media.
Social Chain website
What are your favourite tools to help you to get the job done?
We use lots of different types of software to assist us on a variety of things. One key tool that we use is Salesforce, which helps us to ensure the sales and marketing teams work in perfect harmony.
Another vitally important tool is Lead Forensics, which helps us identify and reach out to businesses that have visited and engaged with our website.
Google Analytics has also been really fundamental in allowing us to measure the impact of our campaigns and the development of our new website and branding.
As a company we use Workplace, Facebook’s enterprise solution. It is great for the whole company to share creative ideas, discuss any industry news or swap inspiration for our clients. It also allows for very open and transparent communication between the entire company.
How did you get started in the digital industry, and where might you go from here?
Honestly, I completely fell into it when I moved from a tiny town in Wiltshire, to Manchester. I started at a really small agency in Cheshire and learned the basics about digital marketing – focusing mainly on SEO and web design and development.
I wanted to sink my teeth and be exposed to more blue-chip and consumer brands and so I then moved to a content marketing agency in the city centre and loved it.
I was watching the Gadget Show when they did a segment on this social media agency, called Social Chain. I am the nosiest person I know, so naturally I set up a meeting with CEO Steve, and here we are.
Which brands do you think are doing digital well?
I think ecommerce brands have a fantastic opportunity to capitalise on people regularly platform-hopping to follow them through their journey to conversion.
For example, I was looking at some shoes on Instagram but didn’t end up purchasing them. Then when I later visited Facebook I was reminded of the shoes in an ad – this retargeting technique led to me converting and buying the shoes in the end.
I think moving forward it is important for brands to not consider the website as the only place to convert. Instead, it is important to monopolise on where your audience is predominately spending their time and see how you can use the platform to convert these people.
Do you have any advice for people who want to work in the digital industry?
The industry is moving so quickly and is so changeable, for this reason there really are no rules. So my advice would be make your own rules – be ready to flex and learn hard and fast.
If you can come to terms with those things and learn to anticipate what’s next, then you’re on to a winner.
If you’re interested in learning more about social media, check out Econsultancy’s training courses.
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