For those of you who have gotten to know us since October last year you may not really know about SoPro Esther who’s actually been part of the Social Progress Team since 2015. She’s back after almost a year on Maternity Leave! Well, she’s actually been back over month now – how time flies!
She has been managing social media accounts and developing social media strategy plans for clients since she started here with us and was in at the deep end with 2 new clients to manage their social media accounts and social media strategy. Esther also delivered some of the social media Open Workshops at Social Progress HQ as well as 121 training sessions for various businesses before she became a new Mum, which she’ll be picking back up in the New Year.
We’ve asked Esther to write a blog about her experience being back in the office and here’s what she has to say…
Hello everyone! It’s good to be back in the swing of things at Social Progress HQ. To have a desk, space and grown-up conversations again is amazing!
It’s definitely been “in-at-the-deep-end” for me since returning at the end of September 2018. As mentioned above, I have some lovely new content management clients as well as a client who I managed social media for before I went on Maternity Leave. SoProMel did a fab job looking after these guys for the year – thanks Mel!
The biggest change for me coming back is now working with LOTS of people in the office. Long gone are the days of a 2 person office and here are the days of fighting for broadband! The great thing about the Social Progress Team now is that each member has a variety of skills to bring to the table – things that we couldn’t do (or didn’t have the time to develop) before. It’s great to bounce ideas off Rebecca, Luis, Alex (and Mel when she’s on good-old Skype!) It’s definitely a #TeamEffort here at Social Progress.
So, what changes have there been to the wonderful world of social media since I’ve been off? Well, there’s a few. All of the social media sites have been updated in some way (some more than others). Hootsuite has been streamlined and more tools/options added to the platform. You can now tag account users in an Instagram Video!! And Twitter has finally given us a larger character limit of 280 characters – hurrah!
But I’d say that the biggest social media related change I’ve had to get my head around the most is Facebook Advertising. Although I used to do Facebook Ads for clients before I went on Maternity Leave, and the principles of Facebook Advertising are the same, getting used to using Facebook Business Manager and client Facebook Ad Accounts is something which I will be getting to grips with more. Having a manager who’s a Facebook Accredited #SheMeansBusiness Trainer and in the same office as me is super helpful! After all, we need to keep up to speed with all things social media.
My biggest challenge overall is learning to do my role within 3 days a week and now as part of a team of 7 (including 2 boys!!) I originally came to work at Social Progress full-time and worked alongside Janet in the office – and not forgetting Mel working from France too! Now, I work 3 days a week as a Social Media Account Manager (plus I’m always a Mum!) and because time is much shorter now, I’m not networking quite as much as I used to but I’ll still be at #MYnetwokrHUD as much as I can!
Thanks to everyone who’s made me feel welcome back to the #SoProTeam since I’ve been back – it’s been lovely to touch base again. Here’s to the next chapter at Social Progress! Hopefully it’ll involve more cake…
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