POPPY'S PEOPLE: Islander shares secrets to social media success

Sunday 03 April 2022

An islander who has been retweeted by Kim Kardashian and had her work approved by The Office of George W. Bush has shared advice for anyone looking for a career in social media.

Social Media Executive Emma Harley has worked for 21st Century Fox, Disney and the BBC, where she won an award for her work on the Line of Duty media campaign.

“The primary objective of my role is to drive audiences, particularly younger audiences, to the BBC Sounds and BBC iPlayer platforms,” she said.

“In order to do that, you have to build a rapport with your audience, be aware of current trends and be aware of how content is shared.”

Pictured: Emma Harley with her Promax UK award for best on-air campaign. 

Miss Harley studied drama at university before attaining a master’s degree in media and public relations.

“I had an internship at a company called Pickle Jar Communications which then turned into a full-time job. My first role was doing digital communications for the education sector. I then moved onto a role doing social media for films for 21st Century Fox, as it was at the time, including Kingsman: The Golden Circle and Independence Day: Resurgence,” she said.

Miss Harley then worked as a social media coordinator for Disney for the princess and Mickey Mouse franchises including collaborations with Cath Kidston and Pandora.

She then moved to a role at the BBC where she was part of a team of three who were recognised with a Promax UK award for best on-air campaign.

“The Line of Duty social campaign was an absolute joy and, for me personally, it was a great opportunity to show what I could do creatively with reactionary, organic social content,” she said.

“The campaign came during a point in lockdown where things were bleak and work was really the only thing I could focus on, so I felt blessed to be put on a campaign that was so fun.”

Pictured: Miss Harley worked on the Line of Duty campaign during the covid lockdown. 

Miss Harley came up with a series of memes for the campaign.

“I was sent an episode and then had to pick out parts which would be appropriate for memes and gifs,” she said.

“A key part of my job is to always be keeping in the loop of what the public is finding funny; I mostly do this by seeing what is trending online and what is being featured on TikTok. We were also sent a weekly meme newsletter at work to help up keep on top of what was popular.”

Mr Harley said that she enjoyed working for the show’s campaign because it had an established fan base.

“It is important to make content that is relatable to our audience; I do that through drawing on my personal experience as well as trends,” she said.

“Within the team we could spot who had created what meme because often mine would come from my experiences of being sad and single, while other people posted content that would be relatable to people with families.”

Pictured: Miss Harley said it can be "overwhelming" to think that her content is seen by millions of people. 

Miss Harley’s work has been seen and shared by millions of people worldwide.

“I once created a promotional video for a documentary called 9/11: Inside the President's War Room. That video was signed off by The Office of George W. Bush and was seen by millions of people. That has certainly been the jewel in my career crown,” she said.

Miss Harley also experienced success on her personal social media account.

“For Halloween last year I dressed as Kim Kardashian in her Met Gala outfit. I tagged Kim Kardashian in my post, not expecting her to ever see it, but then she retweeted it. I couldn’t believe it,” she said.

“I then received a message from my friend asking if I had seen Kim’s Instagram story and she had shared my photo on there as well.”

Pictured: One of the memes Miss Harley created for the Line of Duty social media campaign. 

Miss Harley said it felt “surreal” when the public react to and share her work.

“It’s really cool when something I’ve created starts to pop off. It’s quite easy in this job to forget the reach my work out and the volume of followers who see it. I love seeing comments from people who’ve found it funny or have tagged their friends because it something that they can relate to,” she said.

“It can be quite overwhelming at times and you have to be able to deal with dents to your ego because, undoubtedly, there will also be people who respond negatively to content; it can be a very tricky industry.”

Pictured: Kim Kardashian shared this image of Emma Harley dressed as her for Halloween.

Miss Harley shared advice to islanders who might be interested in a similar career.

“The thing I would stress is that experience is key. You don’t necessarily need to go to university, but you do need to have experience with Photoshop, Premier Pro and Final Cut,” she said.

“It would be fantastic if you can get experience running a social media account, even for a small business or a charity, whatever it is, the experience will be extremely useful.”