Kicking off #IamSocial 2015

nick.cavanagh

Having overcome the Northern line, London’s rental market and 9.30am starts, we made it! Four weeks in and Alexi, Meghan and I already feel like part of the We Are Social furniture. As the shiny new grads, we’ve been treated pretty well so far; everything from social media office visits to our very-own bespoke rotation scheme.

We kicked off the month by visiting Twitter, where we had a tour of the offices; we learned 6,000 tweets are sent per second and how Madonna’s Brits-slip exploded on the twittersphere. Our second visit was to LinkedIn HQ, where they demonstrated the importance of personal branding. Not only do we want to show the world how great We Are Social is but, also, that we are top notch grads, so having a 1-2-1 tutorial was an invaluable experience.

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Facebook lived up to the hype you’d expect, showcasing its new developments and social insights – I’d love to tell you all about but it’s top-secret, sorry. We also enjoyed our time in Facebook’s free sweet shop, as you can see from the picture below.

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We concluded our social tour at YouTube and Google, by delving into the analytics tools they offer and checking out some best-practice campaigns.

Not many people are privileged enough to visit these social giants, so we feel it’s necessary to share the insights we learnt. Therefore, I have ranked our visits by quality of snacks:

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Our three-month rotations
My mornings are kept busy working within the Editorial team, aka The Secret Society of Words, who I will ultimately join once the rotations are complete.  Each day begins with Newsroom; an opportunity to discuss recent developments in the news, from sports to economics, and how they could be relevant to our clients. Not only is this the most time-efficient way of learning what’s going on in the world, it also enables We Are Social to become reactive with our content. As the chief reporter of ‘weird news’, I’ve covered breaking stories that have swept the world off its feet, everything from racing pugs to alien jellyfish.

Another aspect of my role is to undertake the role of Social Media Community Manager for one of Britain’s most-adored food brands. This covers everything from brainstorming with the creative team on campaign structure to creating engaging content. Great content is the backbone of a successful campaign and rest assured this is no easy feat, but I’ve found it interesting learning how tone of voice and channel approach can differ.

In addition to spending time with our ‘home’ departments, we also get to work with the agency’s other teams. My first rotation was with the Research & Insight team, focussing on a ‘Luxury Fashion Brand’ new business pitch. I’m not going to lie, I was slightly concerned that my time in R&I would consist of number crunching and regurgitating graphs – knowledge that is safely tucked away amongst other useful GCSE topics.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. The team were eager to get my take on the fashion industry… luckily they’re still unaware that I stand by socks and sandals.  Throughout my two weeks, I began to understand the capabilities of R&I and the insight it brings in creating a social strategy. Training on analytic and social listening tools meant I was able to code conversations, develop a social audit review and create a final brief around the fashion-giant, leaving me feeling like this:

But that’s enough about me. Alexi has been working with the Creative department, transforming creative briefs into big ideas. An important role of the team is brainstorming angles and approaches for pitches and campaigns. Alexi also got involved at all the different stages of a live creative concept, from playing around with platypus hands in pre-production meetings, getting lost in a warehouse in North Acton sourcing kitschy props and even dabbled in casting actors.

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Meghan has been working with the Production team as part of her rotation and now considers herself to be a modern day Spielberg. We Are Social’s production team takes creative ideas and brings them to life, across various social channels. Meghan even had the opportunity to go on an actual client shoot but this is currently all hush-hush so I can’t divulge into the specifics. However, I can disclose that there was a dog and a concrete mixer, which Meghan has assured me breached no health and safety guidelines.

But wait, there’s more…
Life at We Are Social definitely varies from day-to-day. For example, on day four, Alexi and I signed-up (were coerced) to the annual inter-agency 5k run (not to forget, Meghan; chief cheerleader and head-paparazzo) with team We Are Sprinting. What we lacked in physical ability, we made up in enthusiasm.

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Just when we thought we had to mastered who sits where, We Are Social decided to upgrade to a snazzy new office. The old HQ was no longer big enough to accommodate us so it was time to take We Are Social to a new home in Finsbury Square. We are now privy to London’s first cycle-in office, a rooftop terrace and sparkling water on tap, literally on tap.

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And to sum up a pretty awesome grad scheme, we are even going on the company Ski Trip in January – you can’t make this stuff up!

Stay tuned to hear next month from the more glamorous grad, Meghan, to find out what our second month holds.