JESSICA GAYLORD

I am a seasoned social strategist and leader with a constant pulse on culture and how social media shapes it. My decade plus of experience managing high-profile brands’ social media accounts with millions of followers has made me incredibly detail-oriented, creatively quick on my feet, and given me an in-depth understanding of how brands should behave and function across major platforms (and which emerging ones are worth exploring). I’m a results-driven problem solver, insight miner, and enthusiastic cross functional team collaborator.

EXPERIENCE

SOCIAL STRATEGY DIRECTOR | Mekanism | San Francisco, CA
April 2022 - Present
Clients: Dropbox, Slack, Cricket Wireless, Harmless Harvest, CommonSpirit Health, Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, Atmos Rewards, Alaska Airlines, new business

  • Acting as bi-coastal, cross-functional social lead for clients and new business efforts, helping brands with organic narrative building, building authentic community, generating awareness/buzz/earned media, and meaningful engagement.

  • Building comprehensive social media strategies that define brand positioning across channel ecosystems; leveraging social intelligence and sentiment analysis to inform executive-level decision-making, proactive storytelling, and cross-functional teams.

  • Leading the strategic launch of @WhatsUpWithHate, building a mission-driven community of 210K+ from zero; prioritized community-centric messaging and authentic dialogue to drive 2.2M+ engagements, shifting the cultural conversation around contentious social issues.

ASSOCIATE SOCIAL STRATEGY DIRECTOR | Mekanism | San Francisco, CA
February 2021 - March 2022
Clients: Stitch Fix, Amazon, Alaska Airlines, DripDrop, Charles Schwab, Dropbox, Weber Grills, new business

  • Developed and implemented comprehensive social media strategies and playbooks, including social creative guidelines, community engagement approaches, content pillars, reporting frameworks, KPI identification, and performance analysis.

  • Supported brand strategy, creative, media, influencer and production teams to create social-first content and campaigns by crafting social media briefs in addition to sharing best practices, platform-specific strategies, social trends, and insights.

  • Led the strategy, community engagement approach, and reporting for Stitch Fix’s first-ever GTM campaign for men across social, which resulted in 8.1M video views and 74K engagements. 

ASSOCIATE SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR | Tombras | Knoxville, TN
June 2019 - January 2021
Clients: Zaxby’s, Chevron, Ent Credit Union, Nutrisystem, South Beach Diet, Krusteaz, Tractor Supply Co, new business

  • Helped manage and mentor team of a dozen community managers and social strategists. This also included working with VP of Social to develop roadmap for forming a fully integrated organic and paid social media team

  • Collaborated with creative, account and PR teams to build holistic social campaigns, activations and launches that are social-first in nature

  • Created and oversaw implementation of social media playbooks, campaign strategies, social creative recommendations and optimizations, and owned + competitive audits

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIST | MUH-TAY-ZIK / HOF-FER | San Francisco, CA
March 2019 - May 2019
Client: Audi USA

  • Developed planned and proactive social media briefs; briefed in creative teams

  • Crafted, executed and reported on success of channel and campaign strategies

  • Educated agency and clients by presenting the latest social trends and their implications, social creative inspiration and channel POVs

COMMUNITY MANAGER – MUH-TAY-ZIK / HOF-FER | San Francisco, CA
July 2017 - February 2019
Client: Audi USA

  • Social media management, including publishing content, responding to fans, and proactively identifying opportunities to elevate the brand’s status as an icon

  • Worked closely with social strategist to find social-specific insights within Audi’s community to inform briefs and authentically engage fans

  • Provided strategic community perspective for creatives, producers, and clients during live events, brand activations and campaigns

SKILLS

TOOLS: Brandwatch, Hootsuite, Sprout, Meltwater, Infegy, Sprinklr, Keynote, G Suite, Excel, Native Channel Insights
COMMS: Vendor Relationships, Client and Executive-Level Communication & Presentations, New Business, Cross-Functional Team Management 
SOCIAL & CULTURE: Social Strategy Development, Consumer & Community Insights, Social Listening, Campaign & Content Reporting, Live Event Coverage, Crisis Planning & Management, Trend Forecasting

EDUCATION

THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL
Dual Bachelor’s Degree in Advertising and Communications

REFERENCES

Available upon request