The SocialMadeSimple Show – Trevor Cooper: Episode 6

SocialMadeSimple’s Business Development Associate, Ryan Chiasson, sits down with Content Specialist, Trevor Cooper, to chat about what it’s like being a content specialist at SocialMadeSimple, tips to posting social content, the SocialMadeSimple newsletter, and more! 

Ryan: All right welcome back to the SocialMadeSimple Show – this is episode 6! I am your MC, host, the man with the plan, Ryan Chiasson. Today, I’m joined by one of SocialMadeSimple’s content specialists, Trevor Cooper. Trevor, thanks for coming on the show today!

Transition: The SocialMadeSimple Show

Ryan: Last week, we had Matt on the show as one of our content leads so I’m definitely excited to get into – what was my former role at SocialMadeSimple – being a content specialist. I’m excited to just differentiate the two positions between content lead and content specialist. Before we do that, I would love to get more of a background on you: where you went to school, how you started at SocialMadeSimple, and how everything came to be.

Trevor: I’m originally from Connecticut and grew up there my whole life. I went to a boarding school in Avon, CT, and then from there, I went out west for college at the University of Colorado Boulder. I’m a big skier, so that was a big reason why I went out there. I then got an internship in the social media field, made my way back east where my parents live, and got into the SMS (SocialMadeSimple) gang.

 Transition: Adjusting to the Remote Work Life

Ryan: Our whole company has been remote up until this point, what would you say has been the perks about being at home and the disadvantages? Or just your opinion on it!

Trevor: Honestly, I love working from home! It’s probably my ideal situation; I think I’ve always really liked it. My old internship in college, before this job, was all remote so I kind of was used to it and really liked it. Before I just moved into a new place, I was by myself for a little while so that was tough, I think, when working remotely. Where you’re just kind of isolated and can’t do much but other than that, it’s absolutely ideal.

Ryan: I hear that! I go back and forth. I feel like there are some days I’m very grateful SocialMadeSimple has us working from home, but I think there are those days where there is a lack of being able to differentiate your space. Being able to differentiate your kitchen table, your desk, or your bedroom from being a workspace; whether or not you have an office space when you’re working from home. There are definitely some perks to it for sure!

Trevor: At my last place, it was a studio apartment and my office was in my living room so it was super tough to separate your work life from your personal life in there. So definitely agree!

Transition: Life of a Content Specialist at SocialMadeSimple

Ryan: With being a content specialist at SocialMadeSimple, what were your first impressions of starting at the company? Before we get into your day-to-day and responsibilities.

Trevor: When I first got to SMS (SocialMadeSimple), it was definitely different than we are now. We were just growing so fast, which has been awesome, but it was just a different pace from when I started. So yeah, it’s changed a lot but I think it’s getting better since I started. 

Ryan: Yeah, it’s been about a year and two months now since I started with the company, and you’ve been here a little longer than that. When we were first coming on it was huge for us, just in terms of growth, the number of accounts that were coming on each week. It is very crazy in a sense that going at scale with the number of different businesses that have come on board since then. It’s awesome – I feel like the gears are always turning at SMS.

Trevor: Yeah, it’s awesome to see where we’re going and where we’re headed. It’s cool!

Ryan: Like I said before, I had Matt on the show last week and we talked about some of the more content lead specific things. Matt and I started at the same time and we were both like, “who are these people, these content specialists that we’re now a part of”. So how would you describe your day-to-day and how would you differentiate yourself from your position to the lead position?

Trevor: Our days are really different like, for example, Mondays are different than the rest of the four days of the week. Monday is our curation day. We do a lot of research, find what’s going on in the trends in social media, and try to curate from there. That’s our day to get it in the library and get it ready for the week. Then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are usually just our scheduling days. So that’s a lot of writing, promotional content, advertisements for clients, and also scheduling out any other content for the week; whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, any of those. We schedule it for the month and I think it’s pretty cool! 

Ryan: Yeah – absolutely! For the scheduling days, you all work out of the platform, more so, than on a curation day. How would you say you’re able to use the platform to your advantage at scale. 

Trevor: From when I started, it’s a lot easier now, with the technology that we have, to get everything to scale. There are so many things within the platform that we can utilize to get everything to scale and actually make it easier for ourselves. 

So having multiple accounts and being able to put them out with great content is easy with the technology and the platform that we have.

Transition: Tips for Posting Organic Social Content

Ryan: What would you say are some of the most important things when posting, and even curating, organic content?

Trevor: So first, Monday is our curation day so usually we try to see who your target audience is, which is the biggest thing. This is so you can see what accounts are affected by the curation and then just go from there. Seeing what the audience likes, seeing the tone that you like for your audience, and finding out what they want to hear is really the biggest thing. It’s not going to be easy to get engagement if people can’t relate or can’t read it and enjoy it. 

Another huge thing is the timing of when to put those posts out. Over the last couple of years, we’ve compiled a ton of data and our platform actually does that for us and it takes a lot out of the guessing so it’s really cool!

Ryan: Yeah, I still remember being in the conference room from the old office and Corey was doing the walk-through of the platform for me and Matt and I was totally thrown back by the different features and parameters of the platform. Before I came to SocialMadeSimple, I was doing a lot of freelance social media management and using a lot of Hootsuite, Buffer, Later, any of those easy, license to use platforms for social media management. 

Then going into our platform and seeing the Facebook data w4e’ve been able to compile, and once the account information is in there, we’re able to auto-schedule based on their account, the data we’ve gathered, and the data gathered from their page.

Trevor: Yeah, my major in college was data analytics, and the big thing for my last job in social media was just compiling the data ourselves, putting it into Excel sheets, and doing all that type of stuff; so it’s so cool to see how our platform does it in a second. Definitely a lot easier for us!

Ryan: Absolutely! So you also have another guest in your room right now that used to be around the office and provided a lot of smiles! I don’t know if he wants to make an appearance but I have to try.

Trevor: This is Farley! He(Trevor’s dog) does not want to be on-camera right now.

Ryan: That’s okay we all get a little camera shy!

Transition: The SocialMadeSimple Newsletter

Ryan: A great thing about SocialMadeSimple is that we’re all able to have our hands in different areas of the company. Whether it’s side projects, having responsibilities that differ from the day-to-day, and the norm. Trevor actually started our newsletter and started the initiative to get it kicked off; so definitely just want to give you a plug there just to talk about it! What made you want to start it, and what value do you think it adds to our customer base and with trying to reach new clients?

Trevor: I’ve been super interested in email marketing for a long time and I think when I first got to the company, that was something I had talked to Corey about a lot. I said, “I really want to get into the email marketing and see what that has to do. The newsletter isn’t an advertisement or anything; it’s really just an informational newsletter about what we’re doing and what’s going on. It’s really just to tell current clients, potential clients, or anyone with any interest in us about what’s really going on. It’s cool and I think it adds value because, also, if anyone is interested in the sales cycle, or anything like that, and they see it, it can kind of give them a picture of what’s going on and if they could maybe fit in with our company. It’s been awesome! 

Ryan: I think there’s a lot of value there. Specifically coming from a standpoint of the customer base that we already have, where they are able to get a glimpse into what we’re working on and it’s not just, “Hey, we’re SocialMaddeSimple, we’re a vendor that you utilize for social media marketing and advertising efforts. It’s more like, “Hey, we’re people too, we’re humans, and there are faces behind the services we provide. I think it’s really cool that they are able to see the new features we have, any new services we’re providing, any new promotions that we’re offering.

I think it really provides that human connection so clients can see and think, “this is a company that we’ve partnered with but these are also people that I can learn about from the company and about what they do”. So I think it’s awesome! Even just from a sales perspective, we’ve definitely seen a lot of leads come through with the newsletter. And also just getting a lot more brand awareness from companies that may not have always viewed our typical sales cycle or our typical day-to-day on the business development side of things. 

Trevor: Yeah, it’s definitely really cool to see it being successful. It’s a cool feeling!

Ryan: I feel like I have to say this, that Trevor is an Eagles fan and I don’t really like him for it, but I still like him as a person and co-worker. What are you excited about with the NFL season starting last night? Are you excited about fantasy football, are you excited for the season, are you nervous about the season?

Trevor: I don’t know, I think this is going to be a crazy season. I’m super excited! I think the Eagles are going to be good, but I don’t want to speak too soon. They’ve got Miles Sanders who’s going to be killing it for us, but we’ll see. I’m honestly looking forward to seeing the Buccaneers play this year with Gronk and Tom Brady.

Ryan: I think it’s going to be hard to watch him in a different uniform. And, of course, to that watches this: If you didn’t know, SocialMadeSimple is based out of Boston, Massachusetts, so the majority of us are New England Patriots fans. You can absolutely hate us for it, but it’s fine because we have six rings to back it up… just saying!

Transition: My Favorite Thing About Being a Content Specialist

Ryan: To go back to the content specialist side of things, what would say are your favorite things about the job?

Trevor: Honestly, I love just having the creativity to make content. It’s really cool to be able to make something that someone actually enjoys. Especially because with a lot of the concierge accounts that we have now, we’re creating graphics for them. It’s been really fun to get into the graphics, working on their content, and if they’re happy with it, it’s even better. It’s truly an awesome feeling when a client is happy with a piece of content that you’ve worked hard on. I think that’s my favorite part of the job!

Ryan: Yeah! Which programs are you guys working out of right now, in terms of content creation?

Trevor: Usually we do Canva. That’s the big customization for graphics and it’s super easy so it’s been really helpful. We do that for a lot of our social media too, so it’s great!

Ryan: Yeah, I think it’s crazy how we’ve really tried to make almost a triple threat effort with our social media going forward. With doing these shows, adding content through the platform, doing a lot more creation with our content as a whole, etc. So it’s really been great to see in that respect. 

To wrap things up, where would you like to see SocialMadeSimple in the next couple of years, five years, let’s say. Just in terms of your position, where you would like to see the company as a whole, any thoughts there!

Trevor: It would be cool to see teams based off of franchises. It’s tough to actually see, but it would definitely be super helpful to have multiple teams that are specifically focused on one franchise or multiple concierge accounts.

Ryan: So basically designated teams for multi-location. Yeah, that would be pretty crazy! I think it’s exciting that more franchises are partnering with us. I know I’ve also talked about this with a handful of people in the company, but it would be great to see SocialMadeSimple as a big player when it comes to a social media marketing vendor for the franchise world. 

Trevor: Definitely!

Ryan: Super exciting! I think that’s all the time we have for today, until next time! Go check us out at www.SocialMadeSimple.com and follow us on social channels. Thank you, Trevor!

Until then, we will see you next time!