Cathy Druce talks to us in depth about the role of a community manager and why Pinterest will be the next big thing.
Name: Cathy Druce
Company: Tangent Snowball
Job Role: Community Management, Creative and Planning Executive
Twitter: All ‘twittered’ out
What is a usual day for you?
I cycle into our offices on Great Portland Street in central London for about 8.45 and get a cup of tea and a piece of toast before starting anything!
First things first, I’ll log into our clients’ Twitter and Facebook accounts to check if any messages or comments need seeing to urgently, have a look at what’s trending and what people are talking about. I’m the Community Manager on one of our clients’ accounts, so throughout the day I’ll be browsing blogs and news websites for interesting and relevant stories to share, or posting exclusive content and promos from the client. Really it’s a nice job; a lot of the time I’m just being paid to chat with the client’s customers on social media, making sure our community stays happy and engaged.
I also work on social media strategy, so when I’m not chatting on Facebook or posting on Twitter, I’m coming up with ideas to knit social media into campaigns or researching what’s new in social media marketing.
How did you get your role as Community Manager at Tangent Snowball?
I had just graduated and finished an internship at Ogilvy and Mather and I thought I was going to take some time off, maybe take a holiday. But I was browsing the ‘It’s Nice That’ jobsboard for creative jobs out of interest more than anything, and I saw the ad for this role – and I thought that it looked too good to be true really. I emailed my CV with a covering letter over to the creative director on a Sunday afternoon, and by Monday afternoon I had been invited to an interview the following Friday.
How does Tangent Snowball try to be ‘different’?
We don’t really have a contrived plan to be ‘different’. Maybe I’m biased, but I really think Tangent Snowball as an agency, (maybe because the agency is a hybrid of different companies that came together over the last couple of years), has such a variety of different personalities within it with such a broad range of expertise, that we design and deliver campaigns that other agencies just can’t do. We’ve essentially got an expert on everything marketing related under one roof.
What do you think is the next big thing in social media?
At the moment I’d be tempted to say Pinterest! I really like Pinterest and I think the idea of being able to click a button and share images you like takes out the obstacle that some people see, having to write down your thoughts or observations for say, Twitter or Facebook. I think that could be a really powerful branding and message-spreading tool for brands and I also kind of like that it’s making brands step-up their ‘look’- like Pinterest is just as much about how the pins look as what they are about.
But as you know, social media moves pretty quick, so I imagine my answer would be totally different by next week!
What advice do you have for people wanting to follow in your career path?
As I see it, a lot of Community Management is about creating personality through content and about using social media in new ways to keep your audience engaged. So try to stay up to date with social media news on sites like Mashable. If you read about the new stuff regularly, you’ll naturally pick up the ways brands use social media and develop your own ideas too and that kind of knowledge of the industry is totally invaluable to agencies. Also I would suggest trying to get some experience copy writing, either from writing you own blog or working on student newspapers or something.
To find out more about Cathy you can reach her on her linkedin.
I previously interviewed Pippa Stennet , assistant marketing manager for The Harlequin Shopping Centre and she told me:
- About why social commerce may well become a big part of shopping online
- How important social media is to a shopping centre
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