How I Spend My Work Day.
I have had a lot of people, both at work and in my personal life, tell me they don't really understand how I spend my day at work.
"What do you do at work all day exactly?" asked The Husband.
I can understand his curiosity... He spends all day meeting with CFOs from companies and staring at excel charts building financial models... My work day is certainly way more fun than his. But recently, even people in my company are curious as to how I spend my day.
"There's a saying," one co-worker said to me, "that the person who goofs off the most in the company is probably the person least likely to get fired. This is because they are also the person who usually brings in the most of whatever that business needs. (Money, Traffic, Etc...)"
So as you guessed it... I am the one in the office who is cracking the jokes. I also am a bit quirky and will ask random questions out loud to anyone listening. But really, I am a master of multi-tasking. And I don't think people realize that. So here's some insight into how I spend my day lately:
I also think some of them forget that there is only one person doing search marketing. I do both the paid search and the organic search. So I am kind of all over the place and may not seems as devoted to one area or as busy. (But that's far from the truth!) And I have to be really, really good at multi-tasking. I have about eight active things going on at once.
At most other companies, there is one person who focuses on the organic search and one person who focuses on the paid search. I LOVE doing both. And I refuse to have it any other way. But I have finally admitted to my boss that yes, I do need another creative person in here helping me. Hopefully that will happen soon.
One of my co-workers thinks that I am actually a "super genius" who can do things very fast... And that's why I seem unstressed and relaxed all the time. I appreciate the "super genius" award... But truly, my job isn't hard. There's just a lot of components to it. And there are a lot of things that are just out of my hands.
I affect change where I can. And I try to keep the workday fun and full of laughter. Hopefully they all appreciate it.
If they don't though... They should just tell me to "shut the hell up."
"What do you do at work all day exactly?" asked The Husband.
I can understand his curiosity... He spends all day meeting with CFOs from companies and staring at excel charts building financial models... My work day is certainly way more fun than his. But recently, even people in my company are curious as to how I spend my day.
"There's a saying," one co-worker said to me, "that the person who goofs off the most in the company is probably the person least likely to get fired. This is because they are also the person who usually brings in the most of whatever that business needs. (Money, Traffic, Etc...)"
So as you guessed it... I am the one in the office who is cracking the jokes. I also am a bit quirky and will ask random questions out loud to anyone listening. But really, I am a master of multi-tasking. And I don't think people realize that. So here's some insight into how I spend my day lately:
- Get into work. Start computer. Wait five to 10 minutes for it to warm up and log into everything.
- Pull paid search reports for previous day.
- Check all paid search engines.
- Pull revenue and traffic numbers.
- Project what spend and traffic will be for the rest of the week and rest of the month.
- Analyze keyword traffic for previous day. Adjust bids or day-part as needed.
- Pull organic search traffic and revenue numbers for previous day.
- Organize by engine and top keyword data.
- Project traffic and revenue numbers for the rest of the week and the rest of the month.
- Run organic search rankings reports.
- Run ranking tool. (And it takes FOREVER to run.)
- Organize data and will in tracking sheet. (Also takes forever... Tracking sheet lives on a remote server that takes about five minutes to open and five minutes to save each time.)
- Analyze data to see if there are any immediate concerns or opportunities, and brain storm solutions.
- Put together feed for something SEO-related
- This has been taking a lot of time lately. It should be off my list of things to do next week, as it will be done.
- Attend meetings on search growth
- These are exciting. But I have quite a few of them lately, and they prevent me from getting things done sometimes.
- Check-in with co-workers on what they are doing.
- See if there's anything I can help them with or that they can help me with.
- Uncover problems with site or metrics.
I also think some of them forget that there is only one person doing search marketing. I do both the paid search and the organic search. So I am kind of all over the place and may not seems as devoted to one area or as busy. (But that's far from the truth!) And I have to be really, really good at multi-tasking. I have about eight active things going on at once.
At most other companies, there is one person who focuses on the organic search and one person who focuses on the paid search. I LOVE doing both. And I refuse to have it any other way. But I have finally admitted to my boss that yes, I do need another creative person in here helping me. Hopefully that will happen soon.
One of my co-workers thinks that I am actually a "super genius" who can do things very fast... And that's why I seem unstressed and relaxed all the time. I appreciate the "super genius" award... But truly, my job isn't hard. There's just a lot of components to it. And there are a lot of things that are just out of my hands.
I affect change where I can. And I try to keep the workday fun and full of laughter. Hopefully they all appreciate it.
If they don't though... They should just tell me to "shut the hell up."
Comments
It ended up being a job for a "marketing campaign analyst." I had never worked in marketing before. I was a writer. But it turns out, this type of marketing (search engine marketing and search engine optimization) are exactly my type of career.
The rest is history.