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Whenever I tell people what I do for a living – communications specialist – I’m instantly hit with “and what is that?” which, fair enough. I usually respond with a standard “I write anything that needs to be written- from social media posts to web copy - to market clients across various industries including healthcare, government, education, financial, manufacturing, etc.” and hope they’ll leave it at that. If the person in question is especially nosy, I’ll run through a list of standard job duties until their eyes glaze over and they take the hint and leave me alone.
The truth is, as a communications specialist for a small marketing and advertising firm, I do a little bit of everything, but instead of boring you with everything I could do in a day, I’ll take you on a tour of what I did do in a day – Tuesday, September 3rd, to be exact.
5 a.m. – Wake up and exist: despite what this early wake up time would have you believe, I am not a morning person. I get up this early in order to be functional by the time I need to be functional.
5:30 – 7:20 a.m.– Get ready for the day: once I have sat and stared into the middle distance long enough to feel human, I can start acting like a human. I eat breakfast, drink coffee and read, this morning it was Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner. Then I get ready and drive into the office.
7:20 a.m. – Arrive at work, settle in, check emails, put together my to do list for the day: I am a big fan of lists. They’re the only way I stay organized and every morning I look at what needs to get done that day, that week and put together a rough outline of what I’ll tackle for the day. It’s not unusual for projects to pop up during the day that need to be completed quickly, so I try to leave room for unexpected deadlines, as well.
7:45 a.m. – This morning, I worked on the content for a September newsletter for a local political leader. They wanted to send it out later that week, so I worked on writing the content and looking for photos to go into the newsletter.
9-10:40 a.m. – Staff meeting: Every Tuesday we have a staff meeting to update the team on where our various projects are at. This staff meeting went a little longer than usual because we had just wrapped up a large project (The Hard Rock Rockford Casino grand opening!) and had a lot to discuss!
10:45 a.m. – I spent the rest of the morning working on a market pulse newsletter, a weekly newsletter I put together for a financial investment client. I also finished up the political newsletter, taking the content I wrote and laying it out in the template and sending it for internal and then client for review. I also reviewed a drone video from the casino opening and provided feedback.
12:00 – 1 p.m. - KMK Instagram engagement/lunch: I prefer to eat lunch at my desk and take my break later in the day. While I ate lunch, I worked on engaging with KMK’s Instagram followers around the time our post was scheduled. Engaging with followers before and after you post improves your chances of the algorithm showing your post to your followers. Free social media tip!
1 – 3 p.m. - I spent the afternoon working on postcard content edits for Four Rivers Sanitation Authority, typing up instructions on how to run Facebook ad campaigns (we can handle all social campaigns, but if a client wants to tackle the beast that is Facebook ads themselves, we can also assist with instructions!), and writing a press release for the Rockford Area Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. I was also emailing with a client and a photographer to coordinate an upcoming photoshoot.
3 – 3:30 p.m. – Break: I use my breaks to read. Still Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner.
3:45 – 4:45 p.m. – MRICL meeting: After my break, I had an impromptu meeting with my boss to discuss new campaigns for an existing client, the Medical Reserve Corps of Illinois.
4:45 – 5 p.m. – After the meeting I didn’t have much time left before the end of the day, so I checked my emails to make sure there was nothing urgent to respond to before I took off to pick up groceries and head to a birthday dinner for my partner!
As much as we say there is no “typical” day at KMK, this is as close to typical as we get - a little bit of everything!
-- Devin Mainville
