What It’s Like To Work In Social Media: An Interview With Amanda Gaines
- Kelly Guidry
- Apr 24, 2019
- 8 min read
Ever wondered what it actually takes to work in social media? Same. Lucky for you, I got the opportunity to chat with Amanda Gaines, the Audience Development Assistant at Well + Good, where I learned the ins and outs of working in social media and why it just might be beneficial to your mental health to turn off those ‘like’ notifications on Instagram. For more exclusives on having a career that lives and breathes social, keep reading below.
Introduction
Name: Amanda Gaines Job Title: Audience Development Assistant Company: Well + Good Number of months/years in this job: 1 year
The Interview
Q: When did you get your start in social media? A: I went to the University of Maryland for undergrad and while there, I did a bunch of internships in the editorial industry because I thought I wanted to write for a publication after college. When I graduated, I ended up doing an internship at Well + Good where I was their Social Media intern and then I eventually got hired full-time as part of their Audience Development team.
Q: What are your daily activities at Well + Good?
A: A lot of social media. Everyday, I’ll come in and we have a ‘growth goals’ document. We update it daily so we can see how we’re pacing for our monthly and yearly goals [by] seeing the numbers broken down, how much traffic we drove in for each story … it’s basically a big timer where you can see trends and what’s resonating with our audience.
I [also] handle Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. I channel out [and schedule] our new content onto those platforms. Well + Good [also] has a food Instagram where I manage all of that. I’ll organize takeovers for people to do on the food account [and] I’ll plan the content schedule. We also just launched a cookbook so we’ve had a big initiative with promoting all of that across our social channels. It really depends on what time of the year it is, but right now we’re in full on cookbook mode because it just launched on Tuesday [April 16, 2019].
Q: How do you approach your job as Audience Development Assistant? A: It’s a lot of trial and error. You have to be really creative with your strategy because social media is always changing. You have to be on the edge of the latest trends. You have to be up to date and it’s not just the scheduling, but knowing what people are talking about and knowing your audience – their personality and the content that will resonate. We’re a well-respected brand when it comes to wellness health and news, but [we also] make fun out of it.
“We’re not just talking to one certain demographic, we’re talking to everyone.”
Q: How would you describe Well + Good’s audience? A: We definitely cover a wide span of people, but we’re [more] focused towards women. People who go on Well + Good are aware [that] healthy eating and exercising is good for you, that you should be exercising 3-5 times per week so we’re a little bit above the basics when it comes to health and wellness. [Our readers] want to know what’s the next best thing – what the next best workout is, how to eat for you – everyone has a different story, has a different body, so we’re putting out content to help everyone. We’re not just talking to one certain demographic, we’re talking to everyone. We’re definitely trying to reach a broader audience because the wellness scene is very heavy in NYC and LA; so we’re trying to branch out into those smaller towns in the Midwest and the South [to] teach them what it means to live a holistically well life.
Q: Do you have different strategies depending on the social media platform? A: With social media, a big thing is knowing how to cater your content for each specific platform so for example, Pinterest is very service-y, so we do a lot of How-to’s and DIY’s. Instagram is very visual; you want to make sure you’re posting the prettiest food images, motivational quotes or funny memes [that] people will share. Honestly, Facebook isn’t as popular as it used to be, but we try to use our voice there where we can so we’ll put out all of our new content in the hopes that someone will share it and like it and comment.
Q: What is your favorite part about the job? A: I love that I get to go to work in leggings. Everyone is very chill here. I love that we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Obviously, we want to put out content that is fact checked and correct. [But,] we definitely have more personality because we’re not necessarily hard news, we are the articles that you would share with your best friends like ‘Hey, let’s try this matcha recipe this weekend’ and we’re very friendly. That’s what I like about Well + Good, we’re very relatable.
“I [thought], ‘oh my gosh, what am I going to do if everyone leaves social media?'”
Q: What do you least like about the job? A: It’s hard to know what the next move is. Do you remember a few weeks ago where Instagram and Facebook were shut down for six hours? I was thinking, oh my gosh, what am I going to do if everyone leaves social media? [People are] in this age where they want to disconnect and I’m like, please don’t disconnect or else I won’t have a job. [I’m] just hoping that people will still use social media in a positive way. A lot of people have so many negative things to say about it, but I hope that social media can continue being a driving factor in creating communities for people where they can feel good about themselves and not tear each other down.
Q: How do you measure your success? Is it based on engagement/clicks or something else? A: It’s a different amount of things. We definitely look at numbers [where] we use Google Analytics and a bunch of other analytical sites. When it comes to engagement, we want people commenting and liking. But, there’s also people who will go out of their way to email editors [and say] if a story really spoke to them so it’s a combination of both. On a more day-to-day basis, we look at numbers.
Q: What tools do you prefer to use? Do you use a scheduling app for your content? A: We definitely have to use scheduling tools or else we would be on our phones all the time. For different platforms, we have different schedulers that we use. For Facebook, they have their own scheduling system within the platform, so we don’t have to pay for anything for that. We use Tweetdeck for Twitter. We use Tailwind for Pinterest; we used to use Buffer, but we recently switched a few months ago. We also use for our main Instagram account, Later.com.
Q: For the Instagram page, how do you decide which type of content gets posted for that day? A: We have a huge editorial team (writers, video team, audience development team, which is what social falls under) and we all work together to make sure we’re aware of what content is going out there. With social, it’s very much experimenting on a day-to-day basis to see what works and what doesn’t. Once you realize how your audience reacts to what you’re putting out there, you can gauge a better idea of what content performs well. With all of our content, we want to drive traffic back to our website so we’ll do a lot of ‘link in bios’ whether they be regrams about the content or it could be a custom graphic that’s made by our design team.
Q: Your Instagram content ranges from videos to quotes to lifestyle photos, have you noticed which type of content resonates the most with your followers? A: Well + Good obviously loves their motivational quotes, so we’ll be sure to throw those in. Horoscope stuff does well so on Monday’s, you will always see a horoscope post.
I'd much rather be post-bubble bath, sitting in my towel, staring at the wall, and avoiding real clothes at all costs…in case you were wondering. — Well+Good (@iamwellandgood) April 24, 2019
Q: Your Twitter feed ranges from article tweets to more informal, relatable content. What made you decide to have a more conversational type of account? A: We’ve revamped our Twitter to make a new personality behind it. We definitely want to implement a lot of wellness humor because it’s very easy to take everything so seriously, but we’re not about that. Wellness is this journey that everyone is on and sometimes it’s harder for other people so [we make] light of what can be a very straightforward industry where people think there’s a right and a wrong.
Q: With social media constantly changing, where do you see these platforms going in the next few years? A: Facebook is the platform for our parents so I think our generation [is] moving further away from Facebook. Now, there’s even news of Instagram removing its likes so it won’t really affect us [everyday people], but with the age of influencers, I’m not going to be surprised if people start going back to Twitter. Especially [since] we’re in a time where everyone is super vocal about what’s going on in the government and everyone is so passionate – we all have that one cause we’re fighting for and want to share with others – so I think Twitter is the place to share that voice.
Q: Do you think there will ever be another “major” social media platform like Twitter, Instagram or Facebook? A: It’s hard to tell. I think people are now interested in longer-form video, which surprises me because I feel like I don’t have enough time in the day to sit down and watch videos, but people do. That is something our video team is definitely working on; to come out with more niche topics for people. When it comes to Youtube, you have to be super specific, so that’s why we’re launching all these mini-series. [We have] You vs. Food, which is [a] debunking of food myths. We have The Avocado Show, where we interview celebrities and wellness influencers. [However,] I can’t think of a specific app that hasn’t been created that we [may need], but we shall wait and see.
Q: Do you use the same social media tactics for Well + Good with your own personal accounts? A: Honestly, no. We’re in the age where people are like ‘ugh I didn’t get enough likes on my post / why didn’t it do well’ and we always ask our friends what the best filter is or caption. Obviously you’re building a brand, but I’m not trying to become an influencer or anything. I’ve turned off my notifications for when I get likes because I’ve learned it stresses me out. So while at work, I’m very focused on the numbers of likes and comments and engagement; for me, that’s not really the case. I don’t take my social media too seriously, I just do what makes me happy because at the end of the day, that’s what matters most. You put out a picture you like; it doesn’t really matter how many likes I get because it’s not like I’m generating revenue or traffic to my life, it’s just me living it.
Q: Any last comments you would like to add? A: Yes. Whether you end up in social media or something in the media business, just make sure you do something that you wake up and are happy to do everyday. I may not make the most money out of my friends, but I am definitely the happiest when it comes to going to work everyday. I’m not the one complaining about going to my 9-5. You have to go after what makes you happy at the end of the day.
To learn more about Amanda Gaines and her adventures at Well + Good, you can follow her Instagram here and her Twitter here.
Opening image by Laura Olsen via Unsplash
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