Working in social media is one of the fastest moving and liveliest professions around – and one De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) graduate has found herself doing exactly that for one of the world’s biggest brands.
Hollie at BBC headquarters in London - spot Doctor Who's TARDIS in the background!
Hollie Copas, 21, graduated with a 2:1 in Media and Communication this summer and has just started working as a Social Media Coordinator for BBC Recruitment.
Hollie gained vital experience by working for De Montfort Student Union's Demon FM radio station under the pioneering Frontrunners internship scheme which places students on high quality paid work experience opportunities to help them become more employable. She promoted Demon FM through different social media platforms.
Hollie said: “It has been really good so far – a bit of an information overload for my first week, but things have really clicked and it is an amazing opportunity.
“I am working mainly with BBC Recruitment to find the best use of social media to get people to apply to the BBC, increase reputation and to encourage current employees to spread the word.
“A lot of it involves creating strategy, finding and directing content and then finding a way to give it to the people who will click on it. I’m the youngest, so I’m the baby of the team, but a few of my older colleagues don’t know about social media and treat me like I’m some sort of wizard!”
The application process for the job meant that Hollie’s skills, taught by DMU’s industry-oriented courses, were on show from the start. “It was really weird actually,” she said.
“I had to send a tweet in to say why I was great for the job in 140 characters which is always difficult, and then received a direct message asking for a CV. I was one of four people to get through to the interview stage on the Thursday and I had to hold a presentation at New Broadcasting House in London of what I would do differently with the BBC social media strategy and explain what I thought was important.”
After an anxious weekend of waiting, Hollie got the call on the next Tuesday that she had got the job. Originally from Thatcham, near Reading, she now works between New Broadcasting House in London, a base in Birmingham, and another in Maidenhead. She said: “I’m at all three places most weeks so it’s a bit mad but I’m really enjoying it.”
And Hollie is grateful to DMU for both the skills it has given her and for the student experience with Demon Media, the university’s award-winning student-led media strand. “You have to react so quickly at the BBC as we get so many questions. My course taught me to think about audiences a lot, and to think about what appeals to different groups of people and how to talk to who you want to reach.
“Social media is something that I did as part of Demon Media and having that on my CV was imperative – they offered me the job on that. Demon isn’t just the radio station and there are so many different platforms so my phone was always going mad, but it was such good practice.”
Hollie also won the chance to work on social media with Nile Rodgers and Rudimental in her final year of study and said that the experience really helped her get her dream job.
“My time at DMU was really enriching because I have ended up with something that I love so soon after graduating, and the university gave me the platform to do that.
“It’s been so much fun and I have met so many people – I was never just sat at home.”
Posted on Wednesday 12 August 2015