As part of my assignment, I conducted an interview with Gissell Vera, a social media professional for the hispanic initiatives at American Federation for Children. It was interesting to hear about the work she does and learning more about social media postings. Below is a recap of the interview:
Gissell increases awareness and vocalizes hispanic stories of people who are beneficiaries of school choice on social media. A typical day for her includes translating stories, checking the grammar of them, researching social media, creating and preparing content before posting on a set schedule. This schedule varies week to week.
She got this position by first being a fellow to learn all about school choice and all the necessary background on everything. She made sure she knew the brand and what it stands for well, before being able to both promote it on social media, and voice the story of its audiences properly.
To Gissell, the best part of her job is the flexibility she gets and the creative aspect of it all. She uses social media in her personal life often, so she enjoys the fact that she can incorporate her learnings into her work. She explores trends and makes a note of what others do to boost engagement.
When it comes to the social media platforms she posts on, Gissell mostly utilizes TikTok and Instagram. She noted that her personal favorite is using TikTok, as it is a new platform. She states that although it takes her a few tries to get the perfect TikTok done, it is always interesting to learn more about it with each try.
Additionally, I made sure to ask Gissell questions in relation to some of the content we learned in class. I found that a lot of what we learned is utilized in all social media postings. For instance, I asked Gissell about who AFC's audience is for all her posts. She replied that there are several, but that the main audience she focuses on in her role specifically is parents and students who are either unaware of school choice or are direct beneficiaries of it. Because she knows the audience of her content, Gissell ensures to target her messages in a way in which the audience understands. This way, all the content she posts follows the same voice and tone in Spanish.
Another question I asked in relation to our class content was how she measures success. Gissell replied that to her, success was measured by engagement and posting on time. A big part of success is having everything ready when it has to be posted. Secondly, the engagement aspect matters too. To her, this means receiving views, likes, and comments to ensure people are seeing all that is posted. Finally, for her specific role, success is also measured in receiving more stories sent by audiences. This generates even more content.
I made sure to ask what advice Gissell would give to students looking to get in this field. What she suggested is for students to do what she did. In other words, familiarize yourself with the company or brand. Become an intern or a fellow in the brand so that you know all there is to know about it. Background is necessary for social media postings, as you need to know the specific voice, audience and content. Most importantly, she suggested doing research on all platforms. This allows you to understand what content works best for which platform, and how to adjust content based on the platform it will be posted to.
All in all, it was interesting to learn more about being a social media professional through someone who has first hand experience. This experience also allowed me to see what I learned being played out. I can’t wait to keep learning more!
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