Career Advice

Anybody work 100% in-office? 🙋🏻My company is big on in-office *and* I work in a cube in the middle of a busy office floor. During our standard office hours, everyone is buzzing.Pro: The high-energy vibe is great for keeping my head in the game and my creativity well full.Con: Sometimes, I just can’t focus on deep work.My fix: Come in early. I wake up 45 minutes earlier to get to the office an hour before everyone else and...it’s like a breath of fresh air. It’s quiet and calm, and I find that I get so much more done in that hour than any other time during the day.

Earlier this year, I found myself feeling overwhelmed and easily distracted by an endless list of tasks, especially on social media, where things can seem never-ending. While I’ve always been good at time management, I realized I needed a better way to feel accomplished at the end of the day and set realistic expectations for myself.That’s when I discovered Todoist and Pomofocus—two apps that have been game-changers for organizing tasks and managing time. They pair perfectly with the Pomodoro Technique, a productivity method designed to keep you focused and energized.Here’s how it works:Pick a task and set a timer for 25 minutes. Work solely on that task until the timer goes off. Take a 5-minute break to reset. Repeat the cycle, and after about 2 hours, take a longer break.This technique breaks tasks into manageable chunks, making them feel less daunting. If you're cu

Time blocking is a must, especially where I’m in office and distractions can (and do) happen easily. But the number one thing that helps me is a hand written to-do list (because nothing feels better than physically crossing something off) and I color code it either by priority or batched tasks. 

Complete agree with robbie.schneider. It’s be such a game changer for me putting on my google calendar focus times for reporting periods, video edits etc. If I have a particular heavy meeting day, I always make sure I block 1-2 hours of time to get through my Asana tasks. 

Take about 30 minutes to an hour on Monday morning (before your meetings begin!) to plan out your week. Then throughout the week, I find the pomodoro method to be super helpful in keeping me on track to finish my tasks. By the end of the week, my to-do list is complete! 

Write it down! I saw someone mention this, but since having kids, my brain is a sieve. I have to write it down or I forget it. To-do lists are also key, but that goes for every aspect of life, no? 

To-do lists are hands down my top productivity hack. They keep me focused, help me remember what to circle back to, and make prioritizing a breeze. Honestly, I’m even one of those people who adds something I’ve already done just to check it off—there’s nothing like that little boost of accomplishment! 😁 It’s such a simple habit, but it keeps my day on track and my mind a little less cluttered.

As a fully remote employee, it can be easy to get locked in. But it can also be hard to stay motivated. Something that helps me stay productive is changing up my location! Sitting outside in the nice weather, standing at the kitchen counter, heading to a coffee shop, or bringing out the walking pad all make for great changes of pace.I’ve found that even moving my work location for an hour helps expand my mind and increase motivation. 

My top productivity tip is to block time off in my calendar for tasks that need to be completed!  -Rachel Pittman

My best productivity tip is finding the environment that works best for you. Some people thrive in collaborative spaces, while others are more productive working from home. I find a balance to be the best for my happiness, but can really dig in and get a lot of work done when I’m working from home. 

Hi everyone,I'm exploring the intersection of social media and education and would love some career advice. What skills or experiences have you found most valuable in this niche? How can one effectively build a career focused on educational content through social media?Any tips or insights from your own journey would be greatly appreciated!

Hi everyone,My name is Anna and I’m a recent college graduate working in my first full-time job as a social media specialist. As I create more social media content, I’m wondering whether I should put together a portfolio of my work to share with future employers or if that’s only helpful for freelancers. If it is beneficial for me, then what should a portfolio look like, and how should I go about sharing one if it’s not specifically requested by the employer?If you have portfolios, I’d love to hear what you include in yours! Thanks!

Hi everyone!  I’ve got second round task-based interview which is quite punchy, so I’m looking for some community help.  “demonstrating your strategic approach to growing a younger demographic audience for stocks and shares ISA, pension schemes considering the latest innovations and testing and budget.  consider a budget of <£150 for short term wins, and £500-£800k for mid-long term growth opportunities” So, this will be across paid media but could be good to add organic into the mix too. It’s the “capturing the younger demographic” though. I feel like there has to be other avenues other than TikTok. OOH advertising at Unis etc?  Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! If you want to connect on LinkedIn to have a chat, let me know :)

Hey fellow SMMs, Sr. Social Strategists & Global Social Media Directors:  I have led Riskonnect’s Global Social Media program for a full year now and have a team of 3 direct reports that we call our ‘Social Team’ but since we’ve never seen social media as a stand-alone role at Riskonnect, I still have the title ‘Digital Marketing Manager’ even after a recent raise in 2024. I’m up against the fact that there really has not been a social media career path at Riskonnect, since I’m the first SMM to truly lead a team there and to have more of a focus solely on social media (also serve as a project manager for our Digital Marketing team and I manage our email newsletter as well). My director is wonderful -- truly -- the best -- but doesn’t see any need to change my title since title changes are typically a fledged out thing with an actual promotion affiliated with that update.  For me it feels like ‘Digital Marketing Manager’ really

Does anyone know of a recruiter that specializes in social media business development and leadership positions? Thank you!

Does anyone know of a recruiter that specializes in social media business development and leadership positions? Thank you!

For some context, the company I work for is a small business and all of our clients are small businesses as well. There’s generally a very limited margin for their marketing budget, which limits the amount of growth we can achieve using pure organic social with barely enough time to plan, create content, and post. This puts us in a little bit of a pickle, as we are faced with the task of proving our worth using data that shows the contrary. So I’m calling on the seasoned SMM’s of Arboretum! How would you advocate for the potential of growth without a portfolio to show that strategy works?

So often, we are constantly adding things to the task list as SMM.  What tasks will you either hand off to a Social Team member, or remove from your program for 2024?  I will be handing off Hiring posts, writing emails, and creating LinkedIn events for our program in 2024 to another member of our social team in order to make space for the new tasks I’m taking on. 

This year my social media journey “offically” took a turn to a full time position.  I have worked as a photographer for myself for over 12 years and my talents got recognized.  It was a wonderful accomplishment to be recognized for my years of work by an outside company.  It is exciting to get to put my skills to work in this new position.