A Day in the Life of myGwork’s George Wright

In this week’s ‘A Day in the Life of…’ interview, myGwork’s George Wright provides an insight into his role as Head of Social Media.

Hi George, can you tell us a bit about your role and how you got here?

In my role, I’m principally responsible for ensuring that our social channels are amplifying our content, as well as managing these channels. Whether it’s our campaigns, partner content, awareness days or news & events - if we want to reach our audience, I need to ensure we’re targeting the right people.

In terms of my story: I joined myGwork three and a half years ago as a student ambassador for the University of London (and more specifically my college, Royal Holloway) before working my way up to managing our global student engagement. After a period of doing this, an opportunity opened up to move into social media, and I took it enthusiastically as a chance to enhance my skills and understanding, as well as take a more active role in content production.

What does a typical day look like for you?

The first hour of my day is spent going through our daily news updates to prepare them for social media - scheduling them to our channels, turning them into Instagram stories, and so on. By 10am, I have a good idea of what the day is going to look like in terms of our social media, and I can focus on checking in every hour or so to respond to comments, double-check post formatting, and more. I’m also involved in some of our social media content production, such as producing our “Discover What It’s Like to Work at” series, where we interview staff at different companies about their work, LGBTQ+ networks, and more. This involves me taking calls with partners, fleshing out what topics we want to explore, and then ultimately recording these sessions and working with our wider content team to prep them for publishing. My day may also include working with our events manager to prep panellists for our events, writing articles, and exploring new ways we can reach our audiences.

What part of your role do you enjoy the most?

In my role I often get to meet a lot of our partners - whether it’s over Zoom to discuss opportunities, interviewing them for panels, or actually going to their offices to cover their events for our social channels. This is the work I love the most – getting to meet new people, sharing conversations and finding out more about what they do. People are, in my belief, fundamentally interesting and the ability to meet so many of them is a delight.

Which top three skills are vital for this role and why?

Attention to detail, first and foremost. Spellchecking posts, making sure links are working and in the right place, and that formatting is correct. In addition to this, time keeping – both day to day, and staying on top of our calendar – is vital to working efficiently in the role, and finally, a knack for copywriting comes in handy. Knowing what to caption posts with, how to phrase statements and more is a skill that simply builds up over time as you figure out what your audience responds best to.

What’s the most challenging aspect of your role?

It’s no secret that there are people on social media who are not supportive of the LGBTQ+ community, and some can go out of their way to be abusive. Part of my role is ensuring that their comments don’t stay on our pages, but having to go through first thing in the morning and read some of the comments – and sometimes the scale of them, during peak advertising seasons – can have an impact on how you start your day. You just have to remind yourself that these people are a fringe.

How do you help others feel like they belong in your team/promote inclusion?

My colleagues will attest I’m quite chatty – perhaps too much for my own good – but I view conversation as an art form in most respects. The art of knowing how to bring people into conversations, paying attention to people who perhaps aren’t contributing (for fact of awkwardness or not being addressed), and most of all inviting people to laugh together are vital for helping people to feel included. My philosophy is simple: I would never want to treat anyone in such a way as to suggest I had never met them before.

Which podcast/Youtube series would you recommend to someone interested in pursuing a career in this area to help develop their skills/prepare them for the role?

Latasha James has a fantastic Youtube series covering her journey, experiences, advice, and tips on how you can do what social media managers do with industry best practices. It’s a fantastic way to get into the mindset of what this job requires from a person.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I’m never particularly one for long-term bets or predictions, to be truthful. All I would hope is that I am still surrounded by colleagues I am close with, working for an organisation I love, and still trying to figure out what the best way to respond to a funny reply on Twitter is. If something makes you happy, then everything leading up to it has been worth it.

WORKFAIR 2022

If you are looking for a new role with an inclusive employer, don't forget to sign up to our free careers event WorkFair 2022 on October 19, here.