You’ve seen the ads on the job boards: social media specialist, social media strategist, digital communications expert. Major corporations and organizations can see the value of social media, so they’re creating new positions to fill this role.
For the freelancers and consultants, social media is a perfect niche field for you to start or grow your freelancing practice. But don’t stand on the sidelines for too long: social media is super hot right now, but it’s only a matter of time before it grows beyond the purview of specialists and becomes just another ubiquitous subset of communications that every communicator is forced to master.
In lieu of a photograph, I snagged this recent video interview of today’s TDMJ subject Ged Carroll. This London-based PR man is the head of digital strategy for the UK office of Ruder Finn Public Relations. In the above interview with Econsultancy, Finn gives us a few social media best practices. Below in TDMJ, he tells what it’s like to work in the UK and in the digital department of a top global public relations agency.
Name: Ged Carroll, 38
Current City: London, England
Company: Ruder Finn, 40+ people UK and 600+ worldwide. Prior to this he helped found Waggener Edstrom‘s digital office and worked in house at Yahoo!
Job Title: Director, Digital Strategies
Mopwater: What made you get into public relations? What do you like best about the field? GC: I got into PR through wanting to work in an agency environment following completing a degree in marketing. I had previously worked part-time marketing club nights, DJ’ing and working in the oil industry as a plant process operator. PR as a career has been good to me; I have managed to travel internationally and meet some interesting people.
Mopwater: What aspects of the industry are you currently most excited about? GC: Probably the most exciting bit about the industry at the present time is the change that it is undergoing, which I think that the recession will accelerate. This change will be structural as marketing communications disciplines mesh together and the opportunities opening up as the Gordian knot of how to measure PR is finally broken!
Mopwater: Describe a typical work day including your typical work hours. GC: There is no typical work day in digital. The other day I went from dealing with lice shampoo to semiconductors in the space of half an hour. My role involves doing web research, conducting online outreach, designing online campaigns, working with internal designers, developers and third parties to build websites, providing advice to teams and clients, running external training programmes and speaking at conferences. Sometimes it can be long hours, but on the up side the firm is pretty flexible and efforts are appreciated. Read the full story
