How I Use Social Media to Do My Job: Social@Ogilvy's Scott Smith

How I Use Social Media to Do My Job: Ogilvy’s Scott SmithInterview by Tracy Samantha Schmidt, Crain’s Social

Media Group

A. I am an account director within Ogilvy Social, a social media-driven group within Ogilvy & Mather, a marketing and advertising firm.

Q. What do you do for a living?

Crain’s Social Media Group | CrainsSocial.com

A. Professionally, I'm involved in planning and executing social media strategy for our clients. Everything from larger strategic annual planning to campaign-level work to helping other team members respond to inquiries from fans on the pages we manage. And then I pay attention to what's going on in the larger industry to look for opportunities for clients and generally keep up with what's happening. My background is in media so I also keep up with trends there as well as the line between what publishers and agencies are doing for clients and advertisers is getting blurred.

Q. How do you use social media as part of your daily routine at work?


A. I post throughout the day but am heaviest at night and in the morning. Some days if work is busy I won't post much at all during the day. I've tried to be a more consistent blogger but find unless I make a huge effort - and ignore other evening pursuits like reading or TV - I can only do it 2-3 times a week. It's the first thing to fall off when I get really busy. I read during the day but it's mostly skimming. Anything that needs a longread or some analysis I push until later.

Q. What's your typical weekday schedule like? When do you post to your social profiles? How do you balance your personal life, work life and posting/commenting regularly online?


Scott’s iPhone

A. I don't have rules on timing, but I try to strike a mix between the personal and professional on Twitter. Facebook leans more toward the personal. I tend not to swear on Twitter, which is not the case offline. Outside of mentioning my neighborhood, I'm also pretty careful about location data. I don't use it on tweets, rarely on Facebook, especially when it comes to home. I've started using Foursquare again to see what changes they've made but limit my friends there to people I know well.

Q. Do you have any personal limits or boundaries with sharing online? Like you won't post at a certain time, you won't write about a certain subject, etc.


A. I wish I made more time to blog. But then there's something else I'd do less of.

Q. Regarding social media, what is one thing you wish you did better?


Q. What websites do you read to keep up with trends in your industry? What people or brands do you follow on Twitter to do the same?

A. It's all a mishmash and often hard to distinguish whether I'm keeping up with a website, a brand or a personality. Ad Age, Digiday, NY Times media reporters Brian Stelter and David Carr, Nieman Lab, Poynter, Felix Salmon, Jay Rosen, GigaOm/Mathew Ingram, Lost Remote and MediaShift are the ones that come immediately to mind. Many of those might seem more news-focused but there's more crossover now than ever before. I've been watching what Gawker and Buzzfeed are doing with content as harbingers of where other brands might go in the future.


Q. What apps do you use to manage how you consume and repost content?

A. Personally, I use Tweetdeck's web client on desktop and the Twitter client on mobile. I'll occasionally use Hootsuite on mobile to schedule posts when I'm commuting to space out my tweets. I read and post via Instagram and Facebook's apps. I mostly read Tumblr now though I've stopped posting there. I use Evernote to keep track of various projects and things I find interesting. For reading, I use apps from the Atlantic, Slate, Readability and Instapaper. I get local news via Twitter, the WGN TV and WBEZ-FM apps. I blog through Wordpress and shorten via bit.ly. I listen to a lot of Spotify, Pandora and podcasts. I used to use Zite and Flipboard but rarely do now.


http://bit.ly/

App: The Atlantic Digital Magazine

App: Slate

App: Readibility

App: Instapaper

App: WGN-TV Weather

App: WBEZ 91.5

App: Zite

App: Flipboard

Q. Who should I ask next to tell me about their personal social media strategy?

A. Heidi Moore, the Guardian's US Finance editor. She's got a great Twitter presence. I learn a ton from her and she has plenty of personality.


To reach Scott directly, please visit his website

OurManInChicago.net.

Have someone we should interview next?Reach me at @TracySamantha.

How I Use Social Media to Do My Job: Social@Ogilvy's Scott Smith

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