When it comes to social media and online marketing, we think it’s safe to say that it’s more than a full-time job. That’s why we caught up with one woman who is taking the social media marketing world by storm to get her insight into what the industry might be lacking – and what she’s doing about it.
In the business world, it’s always exciting to see women pioneering new business ventures.
We sat down with Colleen O’Flynn, VP of Product of SocialChimp – a social media automation platform that leverages AI to help local business owners and professionals deliver engaging and relevant content to their audiences. Below is a look into the questions we asked her.
How did you get into this field?
I started working in the advertising field straight out of college, after graduating from the University of Connecticut with a Communication degree. While studying marketing and advertising, I always loved the challenge of assignments that would force us to think of the box in order to reach audiences, which led me to my first position in an advertising agency outside of New York City. I’ve worked across an extreme variety of verticals within the marketing and advertising industry and watched social media blow up as an imperative part of the landscape. Seeing the lack of post automation options available in conjunction with paid marketing efforts, SocialChimp was a no-brainer.
How has the industry changed since you’ve been working?
When I began working in the ad space, clients focused much more heavily on traditional media, with more of a supplement of digital media, which mostly consisted of banner ads or homepage takeovers. Social Media advertising was barely even a thought at that time — I didn’t even have an Instagram! It’s amazing to see a complete shift not only in the digital space but to see the shift from TV and radio buying to platforms like Hulu and Spotify. And I’ve only been working in the field for less than 10 years, to see the drastic change and explosion of social media in such a short amount of time has been incredible.
How does the type of client you’re working with affect your day-to-day?
The type of client will dictate what goal you are trying to reach. It forces me to change the way I am thinking almost instantly. Are we focusing on sales? Driving traffic to a site? Getting people to sign up for a subscription? Are we trying to simply introduce users to a brand? Each client has and will challenge me to think out of the box, or simply think with a different mindset than I was earlier in the day. I’ve always liked math because after putting in all of the work and thinking of ways to create a solution, there was always a concrete answer and the satisfaction of coming to that answer. While there’s definitely not always a concrete answer in the world of advertising, the satisfaction of finding a solution to the range of client requests we receive is one of the my favorite parts of the job.
What are some things you don’t like about social media?
As a consumer, I hate how engrossed we’ve all become in social media, and I’m no exception. I could spend a mindless hour clicking through Instagram stories. I hear younger generations talk about Instagram photo themes, editing and photoshopping to make themselves look a certain way, only posting what they think is worthy, taking posts down because they didn’t get enough likes or retweets — our society has become obsessed with social media. But as an advertiser, I love knowing social media is a place we can target users of all ages and genders both effectively and efficiently.
How has being a woman affected your professional life?
Unfortunately, I’d be lying if I said I haven’t experienced sexism within my professional life. I’ve been stereotyped as a young, blonde woman, so I obviously couldn’t be smart, hardworking or driven, right? Wrong. Knowing this type of sexism happens day in and day out, and at a much larger degree for others, it makes me sick. However, it has made work harder and has been a source of encouragement to prove people wrong and break those stereotypes. I’m proud to say I think women have taken huge strides over the past few years and are pushing each other to break through that glass ceiling.
What is SocialChimp?
SocialChimp is a platform to help business owners, both large and small, automate their social posts in order to focus on growing their businesses. We use AI to gather the most engaging content across Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to keep our client’s audiences engaged. We work across a variety of verticals, with a focus on real estate, dental services, wealth management, beauty and spa, and home services, and are always willing to use our technology to expand, as well.
Aside from automating social posts for business owners, we also help grow their audience by giving them the option to also allow us to manage paid social media campaigns, focusing on page likes and follows. SocialChimp has an experienced team of marketers that specialize in growing audiences. Between producing steady, engaging content for business owners and investing as little as $25 a month to increase social media audiences, we are setting up our clients for nothing but success.
How is SocialChimp different from competitors?
Our goal when creating SocialChimp was to make this process as easy as possible, for all ranges of marketing knowledge and experience. We noticed that most competitors offered their services at a very high cost when we knew we could offer a more affordable price. We also wanted the user to have an affordable advertising option as well. Business owners can spend as little as $25 a month or $5,000 a month to elevate their social media following, and it is all in their hands. We do not force memberships or contracts – with SocialChimp, what you see is what you get, with no hidden fees or subscriptions.
Why is there a need for this type of service?
As more and more people are starting to realize how important social media is for a business, they don’t realize how much time it takes to create that presence. Between coming up with the content, to creating the content, editing photos and ad copy, to scheduling out the posts, it takes hours out of each day. SocialChimp is here to give business owners those hours back and focus on the business itself. We noticed that there were a lack of these automated platforms within the industry that were available at both an affordable price as well as options to include paid advertising efforts across social platforms.
If you’d like to learn more about SocialChimp, click here.
Lauren is the Marketing Communications Director for SocialChimp.
