What It's Like Working in Social at an Agency
Featuring an interview with Omolara Dada —Marketing Communications Specialist at Earnipay.
First 'Noticing Africa Newsletter' of 2022, with Omolara Dada, Marketing Communications Specialist at Earnipay!
To long-time readers thank you for always supporting. To first-time readers a warm welcome.
This week, we talked to Omolara! She probably knows how to do branded social media in Africa better than most ever will. With over 3 years worth of experience as a social media manager, she speaks with confidence about the power of social media — and her esteemed background proves that in her hands, it changes lives, businesses and culture. She was a Team Lead at Anakle and has worked with brands Sterling Bank, Singleton, Baileys, Autocheck Nigeria, Devon Kings Oil, Appzone…
Omolara Dada opened up on her career, tips for rising social media managers, and what she thinks of social media in 2022. This full conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
World meet Omolara.
Omolara meets the world.
Miss. Omolara I presume. Welcome to Noticing Africa. First ‘obligatory’ question: Who are you, and what do you do to pay the bills?
My name is Omolara Dada. I am a marketing communications specialist at Earnipay.
What’s your backstory? How did you discover that marketing was what you wanted to do?
I studied agricultural engineering in school. But during my penultimate year, I realised that I wasn't really interested in the course as I thought I was. Also I've always been immensely fascinated about social media stuff — Instagram was so hot at the time. And a lot of social platforms were being created. So when I found out that social media is a real and professional career, I started taking online courses in marketing, social media and branding. They were really more interesting than most courses I took in school. And before I knew any better I’d built an entire life and career path out of it.
Interesting. From agricultural engineering to Marcomms! How did you land your first role in social media?
In my final year, I saw an IG post about a career fair that was happening at Covenant Christian centre. I discussed it with my friend and we decided to go experience what career fairs are like. So we left Ogun State for Lagos for the career fair.
Prior, I'd worked as a writer with a media house on campus and I knew the basics of social media. So that experience and my IT experience were all I had on my CV.
Then all I did at the career fair was literally push my resume into the hands of anyone who would take it. I can't remember the number of companies I gave my resume to, but only one invited me for an interview, and I landed a job. It wasn't really easy because she asked if I could come in for an interview the next day after the career fair. I was happy but I didn't plan to sleep in Lagos that day. So I travelled back to Ogun State that particular day and I left for Lagos the second day for the interview. It was really hectic. But since I got the internship — social media intern for Pollit Analytics Limited. It was all worth the stress.
I think you're really high on going for what you want. So how has your career progressed since you got the internship?
Yeah, I agree with you. I've always sort of lived by this quote — "life doesn't give you what you deserve but what you demand". So I was at Pollit Analytics Limited for a year because it was my NYSC year.
Towards the end of my National Youths Service Corps, I started planning my next move. I asked myself questions like "What do I want next?" " What did I learn here?" "How can I learn more?" "Where should I look for opportunities?" "What do I need to do next to become an expert in this field". My answers to these questions really helped me plan my next move. So I started researching places where I could work. I found out that there are agencies that solely offer social media services to clients. I documented the names and info I got on these agencies and sent cold emails to practically all of them. But Anakle was topping the list.
So I decided to follow some key people working at Anakle. On the day of my passing out parade, I did something that changed my life. I took to Twitter to shoot my shot at Anakle's Founder — Editi Effiong. The Twitter post blew up and trended. It was really overwhelming. Thankfully, the Founder saw the tweet, replied, and invited me for an interview.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Would you say your shot at Editi on Twitter gave you some sort of advantage over other potentials that interviewed for the role? Were they recruiting?
Anakle wasn't actively recruiting at the time, actually. And my tweet didn't get me the role, it just gave me the visibility I needed and also got my foot in the door — maybe I wouldn't have had access unless they were actively recruiting. I was interviewed and I wrote an assessment test before I was employed.
Oh! You are a badass! Does someone's ability to navigate through social media accounts qualify them as a social media manager?
No it doesn't. There are some skill sets you need. You work with different professionals just to ensure things are executed properly. You need to understand the platform, the people using them, content, strategy, algorithms and so many things about social media. So knowing your way around social media platforms doesn't qualify you to be a social media manager. I learnt so many things on the job, and they're constantly changing. New platforms are coming up, algorithms change. So many things are changing. You've to keep learning.
A lot of people out there actually think it's just about opening an account and posting content everywhere! So what helped you improve as a social media manager? Was it more about experience or changing your mindset?
Learning and Applying. Loving social media wasn't enough to be a social media professional. It wasn't enough to say I had what it takes to be a social media manager. I had to learn. This happened as a result of changing my mindset. Getting to apply also greatly helped me improve. I was working with brands across industry verticals which also helped me understand what works and what doesn't.
Let's talk about what a typical day looks like for you!
Typical day... Roll into work early. Check email to see if there are things I need to respond to. Then make a to-do list for the day — create a calendar, research, check social media for trends, come up with ideas, argue about unnecessary client changes, make changes anyway, attend meetings.
Before you know it, your day is gone!
Hahahaha! So much work! So what are the best things about your job? Why do you love social media?
It's dynamic. There's barely any day that is the same. There's always something exciting going on. And you can also see the immediate impact of your work. If you posted something that resonates with people, you can easily see it from the engagement you get. This sort of validates all the hard work I put into what I do.
What’s the worst?
Being stuck. There are days when you'd need to come up with an idea for a campaign, a few lines of copy or something. As soon as possible. But you're blank inside. Then your inner critic starts saying things to you. "You're finally exposed as the fraud you're."
That's the worst feeling ever. It's a point black horror show.
Such days suck!
I just randomly remembered one social media manager who used the Guinness Nigeria Twitter account to abuse Jonathan, former president of Nigeria! It was terrible day for the agency. I think they lost the account because of that singular mistake — the handler forgot to switch accounts. Screenshots were everywhere. Ever had any bad experience with social media? Maybe you or the people you've managed directly.
This can happen to anyone. I've made a lot of mistakes but just never made any as grievous as this one. I've mistakenly posted content on pages they weren't meant for. But the good thing was spotting the mistakes almost immediately after posting. So whenever this happened, I'd take down the post and do the right thing. But I was always nervous about it — someone could have seen it and took a screenshot.
My colleague's experience was the worst. He made a mistake and didn't notice. The client saw it, took a screenshot and all hell broke loose.
So most of the time, you need to take precautions. But we are only human. Mistakes happen sometimes!
Can we quickly touch on some of the brands you've managed and the best social moment for you?
I've managed brands across industry verticals and product categories. I used to manage brands like Sterling Bank, Singleton, Baileys, Autocheck Nigeria, Devon Kings Oil, Appzone.
The biggest for me was handling Sterling Bank Accounts between 2019 — 2021. The personality of the brand allowed me to do a lot of creative work. All the banter and intelligent wit you see across Sterling Bank social media accounts, I was part of the team behind it.
The best moment for me was when Gtbank made an error on Twitter and Sterling Bank capitalised on it and then it trended on social media. It was really a hilariously cringe social media moment. I always cringe when I remember it.
It was really fun working on the account.
Wow! Sterling Bank was really a pain in the arse of other banks! What problems do social media professionals often face?
Most clients don't often give their social media team the freedom they need to do their thing. They don't trust you to deliver! For example, a client can insist you do something that you know will affect the client's image or something that obviously won't fly. After going back and forth, they still insist you do what they want, not what's best for the brand.
When this happens, the social media team often does what the client wants. Then when it backfires, you'd still be the one to clear the mess for them.
Also, people don't see social media managers as professionals compared to other marketing roles. Some even say it isn't a real job. Even from the hiring stage, you see people mistaking what a social media manager should be doing with what a digital marketer should be doing. You see some job descriptions and they jam all of these roles together. They want you to be the graphics designer, run paid ads, do social, run email marketing, they want you to be the strategist. Everyone makes that mistake.
Also there are a few social media managers that are earning what they're worth. For some weird reason, people still say what they are doing isn't so special. People say things like "I can do it, I'm just busy with other things". This needs to change.
Social media managers are very important. They hold your brand reputation in the palm of their fingers. Imagine you had built a reputable brand online and your social media manager decided to do the most ridiculous thing on your pages... That singular act can have a huge negative impact on the reputation you've built over time.
So people need to respect social media managers more. And this should reflect in the way they're treated and paid.
In this part of the world, people who actually know the job rarely have time to share what they know. I was really happy when I read about the book you wrote on social media. Can you tell us about the book? Who it's for and more!
Right, right. That's one of the issues social media managers have to deal with. There are social media managers who have built many brands to great following and engagement. But you check their own personal pages, and they have five followers, they don't post.
At some point in my career, I wanted to reclaim that. I had to focus on building my brand while building for others.
When I started taking social media seriously, especially LinkedIn, I was putting out posts targeted at social media managers. I realised I knew so much already. That was how I got the idea of putting everything I've learned into a book. I couldn't stop thinking about it and then I started working on it. That was how "The ultimate guide to social media management" was born. It took me weeks, but it was easy writing the book.
The book contains all of the things that you'd encounter as a social media manager — from defining who a social media manager is, to helping you understand your job description, to helping you understand how to create content for social media, where to source for content ideas, to help you understand the ABC of social media strategy because a lot of people just post without any strategy and tactics.
You'd also learn how to do analysis, how to prepare a report, how to make sense of the report you've prepared and so much more. And I ended the book with relevant courses you can take to help you in your journey.
The book is on Selar for N5,000 only. You can grab a copy here.
We had a very successful book launch. And over 100 people have bought it since it was released.
This is so valuable. I wish I had access to this when I was starting out in marketing. I'd still grab a copy though! What tips do you have for aspiring social media managers who don’t yet understand the craft?
I'd advise you to grab a copy of my book. That will give you an understanding of what you're getting into and what you need to do.
Also learn as much as you can. Then apply. If you don't have a client, tell everyone you know what you can do for them. Try to get jobs from friends of friends and family, sometimes really cheap gigs just to apply everything you've learned, get connections and a little word of mouth.
And if you can, try to work in an agency because you'd get to work on different accounts across different industries.
I was actually about to ask what side you'd advise someone getting into social media to pick — agency or client side. Thanks for touching on that. What excites you outside of your role?
I enjoy spending time with my friends and listening to podcasts. I also love watching movies. I watch them a lot. I am also always on social media to get perspective on what people are thinking and doing.
What's up for social media in 2022?
1. TikTok usage will continue to grow. And it will be massive. Because short form videos are such a big thing now, and will keep getting bigger and better. Also, more brands will use Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts to tell short stories that can convert watchers into consumers.
2. Influencer Marketing will keep skyrocketing. More brands will use influencers to put their products/services in front of their target audience.
3. As metaverse continues to grow and gain adoption, more brands will hop on the train.
Yay, I'm super excited in the long run. Let's see what becomes mainstream at the end of the year. So now that you're a marketing comms specialist at Earnipay, what's changed about your job? I'm sure the scope of your work would have expanded.
I’m not just doing social media. Now I'm overseeing all of the communications channels. I'm doing a lot of product marketing, content marketing, and social media!
Name two products you can’t do without and tell me why.
My phone.
My laptop.
For obvious reasons! I'm always working and I always have to be connected to the internet!
Pick a random pic from your camera roll and tell me about it.
This was my last day at Anakle (physically). A very memorable day for me and I took a picture with some members of my team!
Nice! Some awwwhhh to take into your new job! Before I remove the shackles, make up your own question, answer it and tell me whatever you want to get off your chest.
Q: Why did you choose Earnipay?
A: I believe in the future of the company, we are building a product that would revolutionise the way salary is paid in Nigeria. Imagine being able to access your salary before payday and not be bound by the 'Month-end' shackle.
Watch out for Earnipay!
Tell me where people can find you online.
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/larryvvip/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/dadaomolara194
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/omolara-dada/
That's a wrap! Thank you Omolara for making this interview possible! Wish you the very best in your new role.
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Thanks!
This is daring and inspiring...
Great reading your exploit! Keep at it