Behind the Business

Six months in the life of a Social Media Manager

12/10/2022 - Written by Jordan Saycell

Name: Jordan, or by now… The guy off TikTok! 📲

Company: EVERYTHING®

Occupation: Social Media & Community Lead

Hobbies: Live streaming, weightlifting, sport & exercise, photography

Unusual Skills: I’m immune to the cold and can serve up a mean dolphin shrill 🐬

Hey, I’m Jordan! I coordinate EVERYTHING’s Social Media and Marketing efforts. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s go back to where this all started (Inserts mystical music 🎶)

Fun fact… Just over a year ago, I worked as a till operator in my local retail clothing store. Want another? Most of my adult life was spent studying at University to become a Sport Psychologist. Well, I accomplished that challenge, so how did I end up here?

I’m not a man of superstition, but I truly believe that EVERYTHING® happened for a reason. Prior to landing this role, I was at a crossroads in my life. My head was telling me to take the logical path toward pursuing a PHD in Sport Psych, but my heart longed for purpose and creativity.

The art of talking to an invisible audience 🎙️

In my desperate attempt to fill the void, I’d begun live streaming video games on Twitch. What a nerd, right? Not quite! That immediate taste of brand building, community and creative freedom kickstarted my passion for social. To grow my presence online, I knew I’d have to dip my toes at the deep end. I was uploading to Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. If the platform existed, I was most likely utilising it to promote my stream… Axon_Potential (Shameless plug!)

I soon realised that content is king! 👑 I honed my time, effort and energy to master the Adobe Suite, and with that newfound knowledge, collated all my best streaming moments and edited an action-packed highlight reel. I had it all figured out… or so I thought.

This was all fun and literal games, but it was more a passion project than a career. I was permanently in my overdraft, and edging ever closer to the dreaded big 30.

I put on my big boy pants and got to work. First things first, I needed a Social Media portfolio. Secondly, I needed a place to share it - Indeed! I didn’t just casually blurt out that word, Indeed is the job searching website I used to upload my CV and portfolio.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to look too far. EVERYTHING came to me (ish) - I was scouted by a recruiter! Quite frankly, this entire story is owed to her for believing in me, for not cringing at my Twitch highlight reel, and for landing me a first, second and third interview with both Adam and Michael, two of the founders.

Our best laid plans 📅

Me: Granny! I got the job!

Granny: Oh, wonderful!

We can skip the day-to-day’s and get straight into the meat of what we’ve achieved across a six-month span. From day zero, it was imperative that as a company with ambition to reward the social generation, we’d need to have an authentic, physical presence in UK culture and society 🇬🇧

We’d agreed to prioritise short-form video content for both TikTok and Instagram, as that’s where our target Gen-Z audience would predominantly hang out. At about a month in, we took to the streets, Go Pro in hand, and began to interview strangers throughout the UK. Initially, we hadn’t refined a strategy, but we knew that a hook was necessary to generate interest in our content. We started with “I’ll give you this £5 if you can”, which has since been finespun to “for a fiver” 💷

A few videos in, our views, watch time and engagement were in the thousands, and we knew we were onto a winner. We’ve reiterated the formula for our videos on several occasions, mostly in trying to contextually incorporate our product, the EVERYTHING card, so as to convert viewers to sign up to our waitlist and join the app.

To do so meant scaling our vision. What started with a fiver evolved into using the EVERYTHING card to pay for strangers fuel, coffee and train tickets. Fortunately, our gamble paid off, and our number of waitlist sign-ups started to eclipse that of our social following. We’ve just surpassed the 50k followers threshold on TikTok and have accrued 30,000 Waitlist sign-ups, entirely from organic traffic! More importantly, we now have reputable brand recognition throughout UK cities, and many of our fans have become our in-app friends.

Instagram’s still a mystery… and the rest is up to history! But for real, the journey will always be more impactful than the destination. Success is the sum of small daily efforts. I don’t consider myself an expert, and am continuously striving to learn, but my takeaway to budding content creators, social media managers and creatives - trust your intuition, don’t be afraid to express yourself through your work, and use setbacks as a lesson rather than a failure 💪

What’s next on the social front? 📱

We’re going back to where it all started for myself - Twitch. Our ambition is to provide a live community hangout for our Waitlist members to ask any support queries, discover the latest app updates as they’re released, and ultimately, make new friends to invite into their Squads once the app goes public.

Extending from that, I’d personally like to reach out and partner with other live streamers, creators and influencers to spread EVERYTHING’s influence via word-of-mouth 👄

Last but not least, since early doors, we’ve discussed throwing a lavish community meet-up for investors, staff, app members and our waitlist. Combine this with a viral city campaign and I’d be more than contented to take an early retirement!

All that’s left to say is… If you need anything, keep your eyes peeled and look for EVERYTHING!