So you’re the digital one-person communications / marketing / outreach / insert-project-here department. Now what?
By Abigail (Abby) Alger, the Director of Digital Training at the Leadership Institute, which offers more than 40 types of training in-person and online.
Congratulations! This is an exciting, fun, and rewarding role – and many people won’t believe the array of responsibilities you take on. But it does come with challenges, like:
- You have to do a lot of things well. Yes, you take great photos, get tons of social media engagement on a new video, write a high-performing email for your organization’s next event, and get a major print publication out the door … while responding to reporters, drafting talking points, and attending important meetings, too. That’s just a normal day in the office for you.
- You have to keep up with rapid change. If a “dog year” is equivalent to seven human years, then surely an “internet year” crams 15 years of change and transformation into one calendar year. That means the tools, tactics, and techniques you rely on today will be different in a year … and may change as soon as tomorrow (looking at you, social media algorithms).
- You have to learn new skills on the job … while you do your job, too. It would be wonderful to hit a “pause” button on your to-do list so you can learn new skills, but it’s not possible with all that you’re responsible for. That means you’re often learning new skills in between all your other priorities, and that often looks like reading then re-reading or watching then re-watching online tutorials in between important questions or requests from your colleagues.
Fortunately, there are resources that can help you learn, grow, and greatly enjoy your work as a one-person digital communications team. This “toolkit” article is a start: a combination of practical, tactical tools and lessons you can apply right away, based on the most common questions I’ve received.
Each section will include additional resources. To start, here are some comprehensive guides that may be helpful to keep on-hand:
- The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing from Growth Lab
- Digital Marketing Guide from HubSpot
- What to Post on Each Social Media Platform from Buffer
- Leadership Institute digital trainings
Sections in this toolkit:
Video, Photography, and Design
Reporting
Digital Communications Pitfalls to Avoid
Keeping Up with the Ever-Changing Digital Times