Tell us what you do in one sentence.
I sort out clients' social media marketing so they can increase awareness, improve perception in the market, make more money and get back time in the day.
Best day in the history of your career?
I’ve had so many best days! When I was offered a Seasonal Academic role at Edith Cowan University, our first Grill The Marketer event, earning my Certified Practicing Marketer certification, and having my business acquired by So Media Group… but my favourite recent best day is yesterday, when I found out I've been accepted to be on the WA branch of the Australian Marketing Institute committee.
Worst day in the history of your career?
Wow, tough to talk about. Probably when I was made redundant from a social media marketing role at an agency, two weeks after my house had settled and a month to the day before Christmas. I was devastated that I wouldn’t be able to pay my mortgage.
Turned out to be an awesome turning point for my career and my health, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.
What’s your professional motto?
I don’t know if I have a motto as such, but there’s a couple of values I prioritise: being authentic and being practical.
The authenticity is important to me, because I can’t pretend I’m anyone else – even if I wanted to (which I don’t). I have whatever the opposite of poker face is…
And being practical means I can’t tick off a list of services at the end of the month unless they make sense for the client (not because they were sold a package). Or, I won’t write a 40 page strategy for a business who will save it in their Marketing folder and never implement any of it; I’d rather help them with their workflows and give them an effective, living strategy they will actually implement.
What advice would you give your younger self, just starting out?
Don't be intimidated by people who have the marketing jargon down pat. They aren’t necessarily smarter or better. Just because you prefer to speak in human words, not lingo!
Carma Levene is Head of Social at So Media Group, a Perth-based social media and content agency. She is also an Australian Marketing Institute Certified Practising Marketer (CPM), a seasonal academic at Edith Cowan University and co-founder of The Marketer, a blog, podcast and event series catering to marketers.