Working in an ambitious international charity and social enterprise, this role demands a flexible, strategic and proactive approach to producing communications across a range of channels and to a highly segmented variety of audiences.In my first year I developed a communications strategy and KPIs to deliver campaigns that drive engagement with our brand, create leads for income generation, inform about our projects and products, and advocate for disability inclusion. I've increased social media engagement and press coverage of the organisation, with a focus on building local media relationships. I've built our evaluation and monitoring tools for social media with limited budget and continue to learn more about managing Google Ads.I enjoy connecting with other organisations to partner in communications, including via pro-bono support, so that Motivation can reach new audiences with our mission and key messages. I'm proud to have been successful in applying for a public affairs pro-bono scheme and in nominating our Founder Director for a much-deserved national award.A core piece of work has been to develop new relationships with VIP supporters, particularly through digital channels, and I've been delighted to work with international athletes on the amplification of our messages and project awareness. I also manage all internal communications throughout the organisation globally, introducing a staff newsletter to share activities, achievements and events. I strive to increase the representation of overseas staff in order to develop the diversity of voices internally and externally. I also find it rewarding to establish new processes and systems for managing communications around the organisation: from gathering and recording consent to developing style guidelines and key messages.

In this fixed term role, I planned and implemented campaigns to promote a range of projects and publications to internal and external stakeholders. My creative instincts enabled me to identify opportunities for reaching new audiences or to talk to existing audiences in new ways when developing ways to engage varied audiences on issues like access and participation. This required swift understanding of complex policy areas and an ability to establish communications needs, while reconciling those with overall organisational goals and risks.The role allowed me to provide substantial input on social media planning, evaluation and strategy with the digital team, including the launch of a new Twitter account. I turned activities and policy into engaging copy, while developing organisational style and tone. Through monitoring and evaluating sentiment, engagement, reach and audience growth, we refined our approach and reported to senior staff. I also handled the development of a prestige stakeholder publication from concept to delivery, including commissioning content from high status stakeholders and managing timelines to ensure the publication was ready in time for a high profile event.In the last months of the role, I worked closely with the Internal Communications Manager to launch and develop a new intranet platform. I drafted, edited and shaped content in line with strategic goals during a difficult transition period that required delivery of complex and sensitive messages to staff. This was initially developed under a very tight timeline, requiring careful prioritising skills.

I first volunteered with Raleigh International in Costa Rica and Nicaragua on a three month project as a Communications Officer. The core focus of my role was to identify, research and write stories of the Raleigh experience that demonstrated the need and impact of its projects and develop blog content for the entire expedition. I created a strategic content plan and wrote story-led and brand-sensitive pieces based on research across a variety of sources and interviews with volunteers, as well as Spanish-speaking project partners and community members. I worked closely with a professional photographer to ensure delivery of attractive visual content to accompany written materials. I also took initiative in editing and adapting general marketing documents from the UK Head Office in order to better suit the country-specific context.On my return to the UK, I spent one day per week volunteering in the London Head Office in the busy communications team. Over a seven month period I wrote varied and inventive content for blogs, newsletters, advertorials and social media to interest Raleigh’s supporters, alumni, future investors and volunteers. I also gave input to social media brainstorms and the finalisation of strategic organisational documents.They asked me to return to the organisation in a consultancy capacity, during which time I developed publications for internal communications and continued to create content for use in recruitment, marketing and social media.

In this voluntary role I developed a multichannel social media strategy based on analytics, competitor and influencer behaviour. The plan reflected the resources, budgets and 5-year organisational goals of this small NGO and provided template documents and examples to enable swift change towards achieving on-brand, call-to-action social media activity. I also created a communications and marketing calendar to enable planning for internal and external events, as well as a media database that provided details of national and international contacts for promoting the activities and achievements of Awamaki.During my time with the organisation, I also provided consultancy to the Director on overall strategic goal-making. I provided advice and examples for reconfiguring organisational objectives to enhance clarity of actions required for achievement of goals, as well as accountability and assessment methods in order to evaluate efficacy of work towards objectives.

Working with the Head of Design and Editorial, I have provided copywriting, copyediting and proofreading expertise on multiple internal and external communications projects in a freelance capacity. I copyedited a high profile strategic document to achieve consistent tone, style and voice according to branding guidelines. I have also researched and written biographical material for ceremony programmes based on a specified stylistic and layout brief.

This short-term maternity contract provided an opportunity to manage and mentor a team of editors based in London and New York. During a time of organisational change, I was tasked with boosting performance and morale amongst the team internally, as well as transitioning long-established partnerships with high profile organisations (e.g. UN, IMF, World Bank) into a new commercial model that required complex contract renegotiations. I was also responsible for sourcing new authors and publishing partners in order to commission innovative and market-sensitive content, providing these stakeholders with creative and editorial insight at different stages of the publication process, including development of initial ideas and structural advice. My ability to quickly understand new subject areas in order to write effective marketing copy and speak knowledgeably with experts about their field was integral to my success in the role. Responding to the increasing digitisation of publishing, the position also required an understanding of the role of SEO for discoverability and the ability to seamlessly write key, searchable terms in all marketing and publicity copy. I was also responsible for championing a department-wide social media strategy, creating a logistical plan for co-management of the Twitter account amongst the global economics team, and initiating brainstorms for content creation planning.

Moving into a start-up environment gave me the opportunity to develop skills beyond an editorial remit as part of a small team developing a new brand and business in a fast-changing industry. A substantial part of this role involved the creation of a persuasive and consistent brand story - delivered across numerous platforms - in order to convince new clients to work with an unknown company in a crowded market. I took initiative in honing the website content strategy, including development of new pages, writing new copy and briefing developers to build efficient user experiences along brand guidelines. Part of this also involved writing a comprehensive set of online guidelines to help authors understand academic publishing processes. I played a strong part in co-developing the social media strategy across various platforms, too, rapidly building a Twitter following across two accounts, as well as writing, commissioning and editing weekly blogs.I created a content development strategy based on careful research of international markets to swiftly assimilate knowledge of trends and identify opportunities for commissioning a portfolio of successful book projects. This also required giving creative and editorial consultancy to authors at various stages of development as well as working closely with think tank publishing partners. I regularly travelled to network with internal and external stakeholders and rapidly built strong and sustainable working relationships. A key part of being successful in this role involved coordinating a varied team of internal and external colleagues and freelancers – in the UK and the US – to ensure projects would be delivered on time and to budget. I regularly analysed sales and marketing data to inform future content commissioning plans and managed multiple cost-effective budgets for individual projects, new publishing models and travel plans.