Go-To Gal and Marketing Coordinator Sami Grady
Welcome to another Buffer Community Slack Live Chat recap. This week we talked to Sami Grady a self-described “ one-woman marketing department”.
Who is Sami Grady?
My Daily Grind
I am currently a one-woman marketing department and executive assistant at a B2B metal product manufacturing company. This is 100% as glamorous as it sounds. Little do you all know, I consider you my marketing colleagues! Thank you very much for being a wicked smart and collaborative group.
I do a little bit of everything: social media, events and tradeshows, press releases, website upkeep, Spanish translation, school tours, sponsorships, sales support, promotional item design, plus a ton of industry-related admin tasks that I won’t bore you with. I’m the go-to gal for just about anything (shout out to my fellow multi-hat-wearers).
I also just started driving for Uber for fun!
The Story of Sami Grady
I did my undergrad at Wisconsin in Marketing, International Business and Spanish. After finishing school and working in marketing for both my university and a kitchen appliance company, I packed my bags and moved to London, UK, to take a role as Global Events Specialist for Reuters News Agency. This experience largely shaped who I am, both personally and professionally. I learned a ton about communication, powerful content marketing, and working on globally dispersed teams. I also learned that what “good follow through” means to an American and what your British boss thinks it means when you write it on your mid-year review are two very different things.
When I returned home to Milwaukee, I began working at a tiny Chamber of Commerce doing tourism, events, marketing, and generally anything that requires the know-how of someone with minimal technological savvy (“fixing” computers and googling things). Some time there lead me to my current role.
What are you doing when you’re not at work?
I don’t spend much time at home just relaxing if I can help it. I love seeing live music and arts in general. I like cooking (on a Thai curry streak lately), brewing beer with my dad, and playing cards. I read, mostly memoirs and autobiographies of not particularly famous people. I try to get on an airplane at least once a month. I enjoy hot yoga and biking for fitness, and I am part of a Latin/African dance performance group.
A.M.A.? Why not an A.Y.A?
I wanted to start this chat off with a brainstorm since it is not often (or ever!) that I get to pose a question to so many brilliant marketing brains. Would it be okay if I turned this AMA into an A-You-A for about 10 minutes?
Back story: The president of my company said that in 1998 they created a company cookbook that everyone contributed recipes too, and they gave them to clients. He asked me to do this again. I told him that it’s 2016 and we have the internet now and what’s a cookbook? He understood my point of view. So, I am trying to come up with a new completely different project that will be as much of an internal team builder as it is a finished, shareable product/service/resource.
Brief Background on Sami’s Company:
I work at a B2B sheet metal manufacturing company. About 60% of what we make is for the automotive industry. We are a tier 2 supplier which means we make a piece, a bracket for a car speaker or an enclosure for a radio, and then it is sent to the speaker company or the radio company (tier 1 suppliers) who then sell it to the auto manufacturer (we work with buyers, supply chain folks, etc) the other 40% of our business is a mixed bag…. we make sonar buoys that get dropped in the ocean for naval and marine research, high-tech locker systems, air filtration units etc….(these are all things within view right now 😃 )
My question is this: What is something that we could build as a team that will unite everyone across offices in three location (two in Wisconsin, one in Mexico), and will also create a deliverable for our clients?
A few suggestions from our awesome community:
- A Calendar featuring employees and the products in various poses. — Stephen'Bern' Banham
- A competition to design unique cutlery that would be gifted to customers. — Stephen’Bern’ Banham
- Sheet Metal coasters designed by employees at the company. — Stephen’Bern’ Banham
- Keyring designs based on client’s specific industries. — Stephen’Bern’ Banham
- Video montages giving an inside look into the lives and families of company employees. — Alfred Lua
- A Brand and Culture book telling everyone who you are and why you do what you do. — Chris Keller
Now For The A.M.A
Social Media in a Business 2 Business Industry
I’ll kick off with a question 😊 how do your colleagues in other departments see the value of social in your industry? Do you feel understood or isolated? — Diogo Neves
I am very isolated. Even physically, I have a big office/cube at the end of a hallway with no traffic… everyone in leadership positions and many below have been here for 10+ years and to be honest, manufacturing is a sales driven industry, where marketing is a function of sales
Currently our “head of sales” is the president and the rest of our sales team are third party manufacturing reps with their own ways of doing things and connections that they use, I don’t get much feedback at all from them, except for the occasional request to modify our sales presentation. Marketing should really be helping create the sales pipeline from the beginning.
Also, they are geographically dispersed and I rarely have the opportunity to connect with them — this is something I am working on.
How do you go about justifying the social media (or marketing initiatives) in general? I worked for a manufacturer down the road from you a handful of years back, and it was a challenge to justify what we were doing (outside of warm leads). — Chris Keller
It is justified as a means for recruiting and branding. I am very lucky that the Prez is a biiiig advocate for brand. When I started here the marketing role had been empty for 5 months (!!!!!) but they luckily had a few pieces in place as far as brand strategy that kept them afloat, e.g. powerpoint templates and a general ‘look’ to things.
Social Media and Marketing Education and News
Do you have favorite sources to learn more about marketing in general and social media specifically? Do you follow any feeds etc 😊 — Diogo Neves
I’m into these learning platforms lately:
I think someone mentioned that Why We Post course in here actually. Which brings me to my next point…I think you all are a phenomenal resource
I also dabble in the Online Geniuses slack community.
And my housemate works at a marketing agency so we hash out marketing ideas pretty regularly :)
The Challenges of Marketing a B2B Manufacturing Company?
What is the biggest challenge(s) you find in B2B marketing, especially in manufacturing? (I assume the contracts are long etc) and how do you target your social efforts? 😊 — Diogo Neves
Social is a major area of opportunity for us — I would love to use it as a tool to spotlight different employees, especially since we just launched a new website that really tries to “humanize” who we are (i.e. lots of pictures of employees and taglines like “See how Jan can help you!”)
I am growing in this area currently…at any given time I am balancing all of our marketing responsibilities along with administrative and sales duties so I don’t have much time to dedicate to just our social strategy…I am thankful I found Buffer to at least help me get posts out on the regular!
I find B2B in this space very challenging because our potential clients don’t go on Facebook to look for us. The industry is heavily reliant on connections, it’s a ton of “who you know” and not what you put on your Facebook page…
The Challenge of Prioritizing The Many Hats You Wear
I’m super impressed by how you manage all the exec assistance duties and your marketing responsibilities! How do you prioritize them and decide which ones to work on or work on first? 😀 — Alfred Lua
Paper to do lists! 😁
No shame — I love making a to-do list at the end of the day…I have a good brain for remembering details and not letting things slip through the cracks.
I find making lists therapeutic ( you should see my grocery lists when I haven’t gone in awhile — ordered by department!)
I also keep a paper calendar/planner. I’m a visual/hands-on kind of person and I love actually writing it and seeing things on the calendar
What is your favorite kind of beer to make with your Dad, @samigrady? 🍻 — Lana Topham
My pops and I have been using kits, as opposed to coming up with recipes from scratch (maybe someday) we’ve made quite a variety and everything has turned out really great.
So hard to say if I have a fav! My favorite part is spending the time with my dad to be honest, I got into the idea because he used to brew with a friend when I was very little and he was in his early 20s…he still had the stuff so I got him back into…and new brew kits make for great gift ideas 😊.
Thanks so much for chatting with us today and hearing our ideas for your internal project, Sami Grady!
Want to get (even) better on social media with a like-minded and supportive community? Join us here!
