I put together strategic communication plans and any design and collateral that go with it for priority initiatives at the bank. I focus on internal communications.
I went to York University and graduated in 2009 with an honours bachelor of arts in communication studies. Later, I took the Canadian securities course at TD that was directly applicable to my role at the time, and then the social media marketing program through George Brown. Now I’m taking graphic design and video courses at George Brown as well.
After high school, proximity to home was important to me. My youngest brother has Down syndrome, so it was important to stay close. I wanted to make sure I could commute back and forth so I could see him. I loved the York program – it was a great foundation of communications. It focused more on theory than hands-on experience, but during university I was fortunate to do an internship at TD’s corporate and public affairs group. That’s when I really got to apply what I learned at York.
I love being able to communicate with our employees. We need them to stay engaged and happy in the workplace. Especially in an organization like TD that’s so large, it’s very important to keep employees apprised of what’s going on. I’ve been working at TD for nine years.
I took social media marketing to increase my breadth as a communicator and marketer. When I thought about future career growth and development, I found that the scope of communications is expanding: public relations, social media marketing, graphic design, multimedia creation and event planning. These skills are often complementary, but they’re separate fields of study. The trend is moving to the digital space. Whether you’re internal or external, marketers have to become savvier now about how to approach messaging and disseminating.
We have our own internal social media platform. In order to build buzz around a new campaign, I launched a contest using principles I learned in the Facebook, Twitter and SEO courses. I was able to create quality content that people cared about, and paired it with a great prize. I used a variety of tactics such as great design and catchy copy, took into account those who have influence in the network and implemented SEO principles in order to spread that word. The campaign was a tremendous success nothing like it had been done in the business.
My courses were more focused on external than internal work, but the material was transferable to some of the stuff I do internally. People think with social media you have to be quick and reactive, but you actually have to be very strategic and anticipate what kind of responses you’re going to get. Regardless of whether you’re working in a non-profit or corporate environment, the challenges are the same: how to deal with crisis management, how to make sure you know your audience ahead of time, putting together consumer profiles, preparing effective copy for Twitter and Facebook posts.
Studying online allowed me flexibility. In addition to my job, I volunteer, train for marathons and spend time with friends and family, and it’s difficult to make that investment in yourself and your education when you have competing priorities. What I liked about George Brown was that it gave me the flexibility to work at my own pace but at the same time kept me on pace. I had milestones to meet – assignments due or online discussions to participate in – but I had the leeway to do it whenever I wanted to.
You have to be able to think macro and micro and to connect the dots. If you’re zoning in on one tweet, you’re looking at the micro, but you need to understand how that one tweet contributes to the overall objective of the campaign as well. You have to have a good command of the English language and be adaptable and willing to think outside the box.
