My day in the life of the social media pros

UBS posts pop up regularly on my social media feeds, but until recently I'd never realized how much effort and creativity goes into building them and our online communities. That all changed when I went behind the scenes with colleagues in the Communications & Branding unit responsible for getting people to, well, 'like' UBS.

Often I see our updates on my way to work. And the day that I'd spend shadowing the team was no different.

"Too old for age checks?" ran the Facebook post. "Age catches up on you faster than you think." Too true, I thought, which of course got me to click the link. And by the time I got to the office, I was a little more clued-up on what UBS could do for me when it came time to plan for retirement.

I was also excited to meet the team. And after a quick round of hellos, the first meeting got going.

When they aren't actually posting, the team is in constant discussion. There’s chat about new content and ideas, the types of production values we'd need to create visually captivating content, and which benchmarks to use to measure our content. Right down to possible responses to questions received on our channels.

I really admire the team for this last one. They all believe that answering these questions gives what may be a potential or actual client a positive social media experience. And this can have a significant impact on a client's relationship with us, as well as the world's perception of our brand.

Then came the most exciting part of the day – the chance for me to create my own post. There are specific guidelines to follow – everything from the aspect ratio of a photo to how many characters a link should have is set. Not only does the type of channel (Facebook, Instagram etc.) have a huge impact on how to structure the post, you have to consider the messaging of your campaign, the appropriateness to your target audience and even their location. But I was in good hands with the team and my post went out into the world. You might've even seen it on your way home from work!

Getting to work side by side with colleagues I otherwise wouldn't gave me a chance to see life at UBS from a whole different perspective. There are so many departments at UBS, so I’ll definitely be trying a mini-placement again.