Social Media Spotlight - Dani Garget

Name: Dani Gargett

Job Title: Content and Communications Executive

Experience: 3 years - My move into marketing feels fairly recent as my background is in journalism. I spent around five years working in radio and online journalism at the BBC before moving into the world of social media. For the last year, I've been working at London Luton Airport specifically on creating content for their social media feeds which also then feeds into PR content.

What do you love most about social media: I love its ability to connect people and have a two-way conversation - in more "traditional" marketing it often feels like a company is just shouting at an audience.

Favourite social media platform: Personally I prefer Instagram because there is such a positive community feel to the platform and you can be so creative with Stories. But professionally Facebook is so important as the potential audience you can reach is huge.

Top tip: Always ask yourself: if you wouldn't stop scrolling, is it worth posting?

What does your day to day work consist of?: Lots of planning ahead and checking diaries to make sure I'm covering crucial events. Creating content, which is the biggest part of my day-to-day and can mean anything from creating graphics, taking photos, filming and lots of writing copy. I also ensure all assets are backed-up and catalogued as I go, as well as analysing each post across platforms.

What challenges do you face within your role?: Time always feels like the biggest challenge, I've become a master of prioritisation.

Are there any social media tools you use to make your job easier?: Currently, I use in-platform media studios although have the option to use Hootsuite as and when needed.

As there are so many changes to social media, how do you keep up to date with the latest information?: I tend to keep an eye on The Drum and Social Media Today but feel that following peers on LinkedIn are a much more interesting way to follow developments - it's great to see what like-minded professionals really think about the industry and where it's headed.

For someone looking to get into a social media role, where would you advise them to start?: I think the great thing about social media is that everyone is brought up with it now and can have such different and creative direction for it. It's not like more traditional roles where you must do certain courses.

What's been your best social media success story to date (Can be your own or client) and why?: A weird and wonderful social media film I created about two years ago was viewed by more than six million people and brought a great number of new followers and engagement to the page. It was a celebration of a very niche community activity - gymnasts performing their routines in mermaid swim-tails!

What has been your favourite social media campaign (Big or Small) this year so far and why?: It has to be a film about 95-year-old Gladys who went on her first-ever flight. Her care home contacted the airport saying she had added a note to their "wishing tree" to say she wished she'd been in an aeroplane, so we helped organise it and filmed the journey. It was such a pure and heart-warming moment.

Finally, what would you like the future of social media to be?: Less click-bait and more quality, community content.

Want to connect with Dani?

www.linkedin.com/in/dani-gargett-97239346

www.twitter.com/danicool