Author: Rholene

My journey has taken a couple of interesting turns and the occasional plot twists have always kept me on my toes. It all started when I discovered my love for brands, marketing and all things Social Media.

After school I decided to study Psychology, soon after completion I realised that being a psychologist wasn’t meant for me and certainly not fit for my personality. That just goes to show you really shouldn’t trust a 17 year old to make big decisions like that.

I studied part time and worked full time in our local Craft shop as I always loved arts & crafts and anything creative, I guess you can say I was born for multi-media. After Psychology I opted for my MBA since I decided I wanted to own my own craft-shop & coffee shop one day.

While studying for my MBA, I worked at a lodge called Intundla. There, my marketing career started. I soon became the Marketing Manager and soon after the Marketing Manager for Ndlovu Lodge too. Being able to use my psychology skills, my MBA skills and my creative side all at once turned me into a lean, mean marketing machine. If you think about it – Marketing is simply psychology in reverse, people don’t tell you want they want or want to see – you have to tell them, and convince them! I call this the Dischem tactic. One doesn’t simply go to Dischem knowing what they want, Dischem tells you what you want.

It was during these years that I started touching on Social Media and the power thereof.

I got head-hunted by Elite Online Solutions and was the Head Social Media Manager and Content Coordinator. I spent a couple of years there expanding my skills and learning more and more about our industry and how social media has changed consumers behaviour.

It was during my time at Elite that one of my personal posts went viral, that’s when iLEAD et al head hunted me. My digital career sky-rocketed. I had the opportunity to learn even more about Digital Marketing.

I became the Head Of Department for the Social Media team and for 4 years I worked closely with the HOD of Sales & Marketing & HOD of the Google team, this is where my love for Digital Marketing strategies began. I realised that there was a massive gap between the agency’s departments when it came to client’s campaign. I started working on ways to ensure that our email marketing, design, website, google, seo, blogs, ppc campaigns all worked together to create a super-sonic campaign to knock our results out of the park.

From there our KPI’s, Goals and results sky-rocketed, and that’s when I knew this was my destiny.

Through all the years I managed to build design, web development, Social Media, Paid Media, Campaign, SEO and PPC skills and that’s how we got here.

A complete break-down of my previous Roles and Responsibilities as the Digital Strategist at iLEAD et al.

Digital Strategist

Herewith the roles and responsibilities of the Digital Strategist (hereinafter referred to as the “DS”) as set out by iLEAD et al (hereinafter referred to as the “Company”).

GENERAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Manage projects and clients in collaboration with the relevant team members to ensure that the goals and targets, as set by the Company’s management, are reached.
• Facilitate problem-solving and collaboration.
• Ensure that discussions and decisions lead to the closing of sales.
• Encourage creativity and constant improvement.
• Maintain an expert knowledge base of all digital marketing platforms, and the latest social media trends and features.
• Identify new business opportunities that could benefit clients.
• Notify the relevant team members of any immediate/future threats on a specific campaign and flag any potential issues as soon as possible.
• Social events: Partake and be present, if needed, at the relevant social events of the client and/or the Company.
• Assist with research and budgeting where necessary.
• Attend meetings along with team members when necessary.
• Communicate with clients via email or telephone when necessary.

CLIENT COMMUNICATION, RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT, & REPORTING

• Communicate with clients if and when necessary.
• Evaluate the monthly website performance report, identify areas that need improvement, and communicate the suggested improvements with each client and relevant team members.
• Generate and provide each client with monthly website performance reports via the relevant tools.
• Report statistics to the relevant team members and client.
• Participate in client and prospective client presentations to deliver search strategies and, upon request, the scope of work and pricing estimates.
• Interact with the Digital Campaign Architects (DCA) to understand the clients’ business objectives and user goals.
• Research and develop campaign opportunities and educate the client and relevant staff members in the Company.
• Attend meetings when necessary or requested.

SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES

• Create a social media strategy for the client as per the specifications in the Social Media Brief.
• Perform the necessary foundation steps/protocols with regards to clients’ social media pages:
  • Create the necessary social media pages on the relevant social media platforms as set out in the contract agreement of the client and per the Social Media Brief.
  • Set up the needed foundation for all the social media platforms as set out in the Social Media Foundation checklist.

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

• Continuously develop skills, which have to be up to date with current developments within the industry, by way of research.
• Write and pass all the necessary Google exams, such as Analytics and so on.
• Write and pass all the necessary social media exams.
• Do regular short courses and/or read useful skill enhancement articles and White Papers.

ADMINISTRATION

• Attend team meetings as required.
• Attend training sessions as required.
• Prepare relevant feedback report(s) to management.
• Perform additional required admin functions, for example:
  • Update and maintain the client sheets.
  • Update and maintain the commission and incentive sheets.
  • Check copy invoices.

ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Do research for potential clients, along with suggestions of budgets and so forth.
• Perform admin functions, such as updating the client sheets.
• Assist the New Business Representative (NBR) with analyses on new prospective clients.
• Give training to relevant team members as per schedule.

AD HOC RESPONSIBILITIES

The following roles and responsibilities won’t necessarily be the DS’s main responsibilities, but requested on an ad hoc basis:

• Social Media Paid Campaign Set-Up and Data Accuracy (Social Media Buying):
  • Check that campaigns are approved and active.
  • Check monthly budget spending and ensure that any over- or underspending is reported to relevant parties.

• Google Ads:
  • Ensure that all assigned clients’ Google Ads campaigns are performing and exceed normal standards.
  • Take initiative and provide suggestions as to how to improve campaigns.
  • Perform keyword and industry research.
  • Follow Google best practices to ensure that the campaigns are up to standard.