Develop and execute communication and engagement strategies; facilitate public relations; ensure consistent brand messaging; curate and maintain user-generated content; share community stories through blogs and social media posts; create written content and blogs; edit copy and videos; build and maintain strong customer relationships; gather feedback from customers and share with rest of team; support initiatives to enhance customer retention and engagement; work closely with marketing, sales, and customer support teams to drive customer loyalty and foster long-term relationships; identify and engage potential partners (affiliates, influencers, practitioners, professionals, non-profits, etc.).https://www.instagram.com/ggequine/https://www.tiktok.com/@gg_equine_https://youtube.com/ggequineofficial

From 2017-2024, I did everything imaginable as far as marketing and social media and SEO goes for GG Equine. I redesigned the website from scratch in a month at the start of 2023. I did an SEO audit and overhaul of the website in 2017-18. I did all social media from April 2018-April 2024. I did graphic design for website, social, and print advertising. I did customer service. I learned how to do video editing. I wrote copy for magazine articles. I pioneered GG Equine's industry-leading customer outreach and customer relations and developed relationships with non-profits. I more or less was the marketing department of GG Equine for 6 years, including during our switch to all-online during the first year and a half of pandemic. We grew every single year through a mostly organic social, organic SEO strategy that prioritized and privileged customer experiences and authentic customer stories.

Self-taught artist working in acrylic paint, ceramics, pencil, photography, digital processing, collage, and charcoal.Sold 50+ prints of my work over the course of four exhibitions in Durham, NC, from 2011-present. I also create work on commission!Designed cover art for Skapocalypse Meow, "1996" (2020), a benefit for One Fair Wage:https://skapocalypsemeow.bandcamp.com/album/1996-2Designed cover art for Skapocalypse Meow, "1997" (2020), a benefit for Accordion Club:https://skapocalypsemeow.bandcamp.com/album/1997Designed cover art for Sweden - Band's debut album, "Folk" (2015):https://play.spotify.com/album/3Rids9s2Bx6lhx8uUiiOPuOnline art shop: https://www.redbubble.com/people/kittenryMost recent artwork can be found here:https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/artmelvin/400+ art pieces in my own self-developed method combining pencil sketches, digital processing techniques, and finishing in Photoshop. Finished pieces often incorporate digital photography.Exhibition History:Dollyweird Art Show, Durham, NC, Sept 2023“we [don't] care,” Pop Box Gallery, Durham, NC, May 2023Social Games and Brews, Feb-Mar 2020The Carrack Modern Art Community Art Show, Durham, NC, Sept 2019The Carrack Modern Art Community Art Show, Jan 2019The Carrack Modern Art Community Art Show, Jan 2018The Carrack Modern Art Community Art Show, Jun 2017The Carrack Modern Art Community Art Show, Jan 2017The Carrack Modern Art Community Art Show, Jun 2016The Carrack Modern Art Community Art Show, Jan 2016Joe Van Gogh coffeehouse, Durham, NC, Oct - Dec 2015The Carrack Modern Art Community Art Show, Jun 2015The Carrack Modern Art Community Art Show, Jan 2015The Carrack Modern Art Community Art Show, Jun 2014Joe Van Gogh coffeehouse, May 2013Francesca's Dessert Cafe, Durham, NC, Mar - Dec 2012Francesca's Dessert Cafe, Jan - Feb 2011

I managed all posting and social media on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for Durham's artist-run social-singing collective, Flash Chorus. I advise the management team on best practices and social media strategies for email list curation and administration, Facebook group and page planning and posting, and other online outreach strategies. In my first four months, Flash Chorus's Twitter following alone grew from 300+ to 500+, with similar follower gains on Instagram, and a 75+ increase on Facebook.Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/flashchorus/Twitter account: https://twitter.com/flashchorusFacebook account: https://www.facebook.com/FlashChorus/YouTube account: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHfTQWKUGPeHEnYeUTqf4Qg

Once I began doing promotion for the Pinhook's monthly (sometimes bi-monthly) karaoke night, the event experienced phenomenal growth and popularity. After being a free event for years, we went to a small cover in late 2016, with no loss of attendance or revenue. I also ran campaigns for Indy Week's "Best of the Triangle" where Pinhook won "Best Karaoke" 2011-2013, 2015-2017, 2019-2020, and 2022. I recruited and managed KJ staff (karaoke jockeys). I created all of the social media promotion, often being alerted to a new event by management only a few days in advance. I ran marketing for it across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and designed the official logo that was used from 2015-2020.During the height of pandemic, I more or less had to manage the whole thing myself and keep Pinhook Karaoke alive from 2020-2022, when we won our last "Indy Week" award.

Manage the depalletizer at Ponysaurus and ensure that any faults in the canning line are resolved so that beer can be canned effeciently. Basically, I shepherd a testy giant robot for Indy Week's "Best Brewery in the Triangle 2018" in Durham, NC. Other roles include occasional keg washing and managing concessions for special events.

Migrate press releases and press clippings from old CMS to Drupal-based system ahead of new site launch for MomsRising.com.

Created advertisements for online and physical distribution, wrote copy for some 120 posts across 3 social media channels in 90 days. Took over the position when the campaign's social manager bailed suddenly. I helped get message out for the final drive, ending in Dave Hall's first election win in 2018.

Over 2015-16, my top 8 most-viewed pieces for Dogster.com alone delivered over 2 million pageviews.I wrote articles on an increasingly vast array of subjects to maximize exposure for search engine optimization on Dogster.com (Belvoir Media). I also wrote several feature articles for the "Dogster" print magazine. As of the April/May 2017 issue, I had an ongoing column, entitled "Why Do Dogs..."For the website, I utilized keyword analytics to determine topics, themes, and terms that a large number of people search for monthly. My writing incorporated manipulation of metadata, tagging, and art labeling to raise the search profile of Dogster articles in search engines. The key was incorporating my own unique voice into what would otherwise be dry copy so that people read, share, and interact with the information being presented. I worked very hard to bring humor and the scope of my education and interests to bear on the material I wrote about. I also migrated and manually reconstructed 350+ individual breed pages between servers in February-March 2014. You can view my work for Dogster at http://www.dogster.com/author/melvin-pena

Part of a small, but dedicated nationwide marketing team, I was responsible for posting and outreach across HEAL Clinics' social media networks: including, but not limited to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest. I helped create the social media guidelines for the company, and provided advice and support for non-social-media specialists who interacted on behalf of the company on social networks. I also filmed a monthly live stream event on Facebook.I was responsible for event promotion, created the majority of Instagram graphics, and the majority of messaging text on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. I also distribute pre-crafted messaging by our Marketing Director as well as pre-crafted graphics and video by her designers and videographers. I created a comprehensive SEO guide to inspire and fuel article and video content creation for the next several years.

I wrote articles on a vast array of subjects to maximize exposure for search engine optimization on Catster.com (Say Media, I-5 Media, Belvoir Media).I utilized keyword analytics to determine topics, themes, and terms that a large number of people search for monthly. On the basis of numbers and competition rankings, I pitched ideas for articles that satisfy shortages of information.The key was incorporating my own unique voice into what would otherwise be dry copy so that people read, share, and interact with the information being presented. I worked very hard to bring humor and the scope of my education and interests to bear on the material I wrote about.I also migrated and manually reconstructed ~70 individual breed pages between servers in April-May 2014.My work was featured online by The Mary Sue (http://www.themarysue.com/cats-that-look-like-peter-capaldi/) and BBC America (http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2016/05/doctor-whos-day-roundup-to-the-fifth-century-and-beyond).

Researched and wrote unique profiles for roughly 400 dog and cat breeds. 125 words each including size, type, personality, and health characteristics.

Duties included providing excellent customer service during closing shifts at a local, independently owned and operated coffee house. Responsibilities included ensuring customer satisfaction, running reports and preparing daily cash deposits, stocking, cleaning, and general shop preparedness for morning shift, setting alarms and locking doors, light equipment and wi-fi connectivity maintenance, and supervision of junior coworkers.

Completely designed and conducted five university English courses, which included lecturing, guiding discussions, grading and providing feedback for student essays. Oversaw up to fifteen undergraduates for three nine-week quarters each year. Served as a teaching assistant for senior-level academics in twenty courses (undergraduate and graduate level), leading weekly discussion sections and evaluating essays and exams for as many as fifty students per quarter.

Assistant to the Editor, "Eighteenth-Century Studies" (Johns Hopkins University Press), Volume 36, Number 2 (Winter 2003) through Volume 38, Number 1 (Fall 2004).Provided primary assistance and support for the interdisciplinary flagship journal of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Assumed a steadily-growing number of duties and responsibilities upon developing the necessary skills for and familiarity with the many facets of quarterly journal publication. Created and maintained submission database in Filemaker Pro.Coordinated correspondence between the editor (Professor Bernadette Fort), publisher, editorial board, peer-reviewers, and manuscript authors.http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/eighteenth-century_studies/

Duties included providing excellent customer service during closing shifts at a local, independently owned and operated coffee house, first during a year off from my doctoral program, and then part-time over the two years following. Responsibilities included ensuring customer satisfaction, running reports and preparing daily cash deposits, stocking, cleaning, and general shop preparedness for morning shift, setting alarms and locking doors, light equipment and wi-fi connectivity maintenance, and supervision of junior coworkers.

Copyedited the main text of Professor Janet Afary's "Sexual Politics in Modern Iran" (Cambridge University Press, 2009). Edited drafts, entered corrections, offered suggestions for clarity and precision, and performed fact-checking and cross-referencing on citations. Ensured quality and readability across a wide range of incorporated source materials and content styles, including politics, women's health issues, literature, philosophy, critical theory, and anecdotal accounts.Contributed substantively in an editorial capacity to a finished book that was extremely well-received in reviews featured in The New York Times, Feminist Review, Contemporary Sociology, The New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy magazine, and The Middle East Journal.http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/middle-east-history/sexual-politics-modern-iran

Co-compiler of "Spenser Bibliography Update" in "The Spenser Review" 33.3, Autumn 2002 (The International Spenser Society, The University of Notre Dame), under the editorship of Professor Theresa Krier.Responsible for editing, researching, fact-checking, and cross-referencing all relevant scholarship on Edmund Spenser and any related resources in the Early Modern period published between 1999 and 2001.http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/spenseronline/review/

Provided grading, student assessment, and occasional lecturing assistance for four courses of 25 students each over two years while pursuing a Masters degree.