Celebrating our colleagues: Neil Soriano
Neil Soriano, Social Media Officer
I’ve been working at the uni for almost a year-and-a-half now, but I’ve got a bit of history here, having graduated in 2022 with a Bachelor of Media and Journalism.
I still remember seeing the job ad for a Social Media Officer and being, like “I have to get that job!”. So I spent a lot of time getting my application perfect: I worked on it right up until the deadline and then the very next day got a call asking me to come in for an interview.
I remember coming back to campus for it and, even though it was a very hot day, I was so keen to make a good impression that I dressed in a full suit. I was sweating before I arrived, and so flustered with the heat that I was sure I had tanked the questions, but then I got a call the next day and was formally offered the role. It was so exciting for me.
I had about a year of full-time professional experience under my belt, having worked in marketing and tourism, but the University was a whole different ball game… honestly, it’s a completely different world here! There are so many different stakeholders, divisions and, oh my god, teams within teams within teams. For example, I’m in the Social Media team, which is part of the Brand and Reputation team, which is part of the Marketing team, which is a team within the Division of External Engagement. So as a newcomer, it was pretty overwhelming and complex. There were many times I spent looking at the org charts trying to figure out who to go to for what.
There are currently seven of us in the Brand and Reputation team, spread across areas that look after brand, research, rankings, and social media. We all work closely together, yet with a certain degree of independence and leeway for creativity, which is really important for social media.
It’s really rewarding when the hard work that we put into crafting a post or sharing a story does well and has lots of engagement. My favourite time of year to post content is during graduations, because there are so many inspiring stories from our graduates, and people are really keen to celebrate their achievements.
Last year we were nominated for an Australian Marketing Institute Award, which is a fairly prestigious national award for marketers. It was the first major award the team had been nominated for and it was so exciting to get to travel to Sydney for the event. After a comedic line-up of flight delays, Sydney peak hour traffic, and missing luggage, we eventually got to the awards night a bit late, and sat through the entire event without getting a win.
Feeling quite defeated at this point, one of us went to speak to the event organisers that we found out that we were actually the very first award announced of the evening and we had missed being there to accept it!
2023 AMI Excellence Awards: Anita Head, Geena Lamb, Neil Soriano and Nick Drivas
So we won the 2023 Australian Marketing Institute award for Content Marketing for our TikTok content creator program. This program grew to 1.8 million views of content with 9,000 followers in its first year – all with a very low budget. We literally went viral in our first year. It was so validating to win the award. We were also recognised as a finalist in the Social Media Marketing, Small Budget Marketing and Brand Revitalisation categories of the awards, so it turned into a big celebration. We were all thrilled to have our creativity and hard work recognised on a national stage.
This year is going to be a big one for us, with so many big things happening. We’ll be at the 150th events and activations, and I’m looking forward to sharing some exciting stories and getting on campus and getting involved with people. I think my experience in this role has given me a good eye for content, and I stay on top of trends really well. Trust me, if I catch wind of some promising content, I'm all over it!
I’m really grateful to be working here because it’s given me an opportunity to showcase and develop my skills. In a short amount of time I feel like I’ve been able to make a big impact, but also the University has made a big impact on my career progression. There are so many cool things that people are doing here and it’s just great to be able to share them on our social platforms.
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