Today’s Day in the Life comes from Tug agency and Emily Knox. Hear about daily ‘newsroom’ meetings, her current favourite campaigns from Ikea and Nike, as well as advice for anybody starting out.
And if you want to be part of this feature, get in touch.
Hi Emily. Please describe your job: What do you do?
Emily Knox: I am the Head of Social & Content at Tug, a digital performance agency. I run the Social & Content department – managing the design and copywriting teams as well as the social media management and influencer team.
My roles include developing social media, content and influencer strategies for our clients, overseeing implementation and production. I work with the new business team on pitches and with the marketing team by giving presentations about social media, content and influencer marketing at industry events.
Whereabouts do you sit within the organisation? Who do you report to?
Emily Knox: I am Head of Department or Director level – I report into the CEO and COO.
What kind of skills do you need to be effective in your role?
Emily Knox: My role requires a good balance of strategic and creative thinking – definitely both sides of the brain need to be engaged! I also need some management, organisational and production skills to manage the team and the workloads, plus presentation and public speaking ability.
Tell us about a typical working day….
Emily Knox: I try and get to the office early to plan my own and the rest of the teams’ day – usually at about 9am. We have a whole-team news room every morning where we bring trends, news stories, social platform news and great pieces of content we’ve seen overnight or that morning. The day is spent creating content strategies, running creative brainstorms, meeting clients and chatting to partners. The day generally finishes by catching up with the creative and management teams about how their day has gone, reviewing content and planning out resource for the following day.
What do you love about your job? What sucks?
Emily Knox: I love how varied and creative the work can be – one day you’re working with an influencer to develop content at a Lamborghini event at Silverstone and the next you’re brainstorming Instagram Stories to celebrate Emoji Day for a brand.
What sucks? In social and content, timelines and budgets can be tight – but of course that can always boost creative thinking too!
What kind of goals do you have? What are the most useful metrics and KPIs for measuring success?
Emily Knox: Goals can vary depending on client and project – some campaigns are very much conversion based and others are judged with metrics which are much more ‘top of funnel’ and focussed on awareness. Coming from a performance agency, it’s of utmost importance to understand at the outset which KPIs are the most crucial for my client’s business and focus on them when developing content. We review and discuss these client-focussed KPIs on a weekly basis in our Tuesday directors meeting.
What are your favourite tools to help you to get the job done?
Emily Knox: We use WhatsApp and Slack to chat internally and with clients on-the-go. WhatsApp is particularly useful for all the weekend and out-of-hours posting, monitoring and approvals we need to process.
We love Synthesio for gleaning real-time social media intelligence – whether for a regular report or to deal with an unfolding brand crisis.
Google Docs is also great for sharing information with our international offices and with client teams in real time.
How did you end up at Tug, and where might you go from here?
Emily Knox: Since moving to London almost six years ago I have been Head of Conversation at HeyHuman and then Editorial Director at VCCP Kin after starting out in Sydney as a social media strategist at a digital agency called Deepend.
My focus for the next few years is to continue growing the Social & Content department at Tug with a focus on delivering performance content.
Which content has impressed you most lately?
Emily Knox: I noticed that Ikea has transitioned its print catalogue to an interactive shoppable, searchable Pinterest catalogue which seems a perfect use of the platform.
In the ‘real world’ Nike’s plus-size mannequin which launched in their London flagship store was a great move for creating discussion and positive sentiment online (okay, there were plenty of trolls in that conversation as well). And I loved the East West Supermarket in Vancouver’s hilarious embarrassing plastic bags campaign which ended up going viral – and then having the opposite effect they intended!
Do you have any advice for new marketers in social and content roles?
Emily Knox: Stay hungry! Read everything, keep on top of social media platform updates, know what brands and individuals are doing, saying, discussing and creating. It’s such a fast-moving world and those with their finger on the pulse are always a step ahead.
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