From Designing Buildings to Designing Social Media Content
Audrey Yustom, Tokopedia’s Social Media Associate shares her story
Nowadays, companies are competing to interact with their audiences through social media. A brand’s identity is now seen from the quality of the products or services offered by the brand and how they represent themselves on social media to the wider community.
As the role of social media becomes increasingly prominent, similarly, the need for someone with expertise in managing social media continues to grow. That’s why a new type of job emerged. It’s a role that you might never have imagined would exist in the 1970s when social media was still a newsletter: Social Media Specialist.
Tokopedia is in the trend. As a technology company with millions of followers on various social media platforms, Tokopedia has a special team that manages its social media, one of which is Audrey Yustom, a Social Media Associate who manages the Instagram account @ Inside Tokopedia.
An Architecture Graduate Who Fell in Love with Social Media
Someone who works in social media is usually known for their background in Communication or Marketing. However, this did not apply to Audrey, who took Architecture as her undergraduate major.
“When I was in college, my assignments were piling up! Well, the only way I got rid of stress was to visit cafes. From there, I fell in love with taking pictures and sharing them on my social media account!” she said.
Over time, Audrey found her passion for social media and actively managed her Instagram until she gained more and more followers. Departing from this, Audrey’s curiosity about social media grew. Finally, as she felt the urge to learn more about social media, she decided to do an internship with Tokopedia’s Social Media team and left the Architecture field she previously worked for.
“Even though as an Intern I knew I had to learn about how to professionally manage social media from 0, I believed that it’s never too late to start. What is important is your willingness to try and never give up,” said Audrey.
Building Inside Tokopedia
Thanks to her hard work throughout her internship, Audrey was offered the opportunity to become a full-time employee. At the end of her internship, Audrey was given a final assignment to make a proposal for Tokopedia’s Inside Tokopedia account, which aimed to show the behind-the-scenes stories of our Nakama (Tokopedia employees) every day.
“When building a social media account, the first thing we must know is the goals and expectations or hopes for the future. From this basic information, we can start looking for references which we can combine into a complete plan,” she explained.
Content Creation Process
Although some people often consider it simple, managing social media actually requires a process, and it cannot be arbitrary. According to Audrey, there are at least six stages that must be done until the public can enjoy the content.
The first is research on current issues so that the uploaded content is following the current topic of conversation. If the topic has been chosen, the next step is the ideation stage, where we think about packaging the topic into an interesting piece of content. If the initial idea already exists, then proceed to the next step, namely creating the content both in terms of copy or text, and visuals for the post. When it is ready, we can finally upload the content by adding a caption.
“I’m not handling Inside Tokopedia alone, but I am also supported by the Creative, Studio, Employer Branding and Corporate Communications teams. Together, we go through every stage of the content creation process,” said Audrey.
Considering the process is not arbitrary, someone who works in social media is required to have high creativity and ability to create interesting content for the public. In addition, other competencies that Audrey thinks are important include basic skills in copywriting and storytelling, and high curiosity so that they can always relate to the audience.
If the above qualities have been met, then the next skill that is equally important is the ability to analyze data using special analytical tools to assess social media performance, like Social Baker. This is important in order to find out what the audience prefers in terms of topic or content format.
“As long as we have the above qualities, anyone with any educational background can become an expert in the field of social media,” concluded Audrey.
***
