Alexa Parker is the leading lady of social media at KontrolFreek, a developer of accessories that give gamers the control to crush their competition. Whether Parker is handling HootSuite, leading a meeting, or shredding the XBox for a chance to win the coveted KF Trophy, she’s just living another day of her dream job.
Hear how this Marketing Coordinator gets her game on from morning Vinyasa to end-of-day tweets in another edition of Hype’s “Day in the Life of a Startup” Series.
Picture your perfect job. When I say “video game,” “social media” or “fast-growing company,” do you start to get excited? Well, put it all together, and you’ve basically got a dream job – my dream job, to be exact.
Sure, social media manager for a gaming startup sounds amazing, but there’s a lot more that goes into the day-to-day than you’d think. Lucky for you, I’ll let you tag along on my usual Wednesday routine to see what it’s like!
6:00 a.m.: Good morning! First thing when I wake up, I check for updates on anything I missed (a girl’s gotta sleep at some point!). I take a few minutes to look for any late-night gems that we can RT or respond to (tweets, tagged photos, snaps, etc.) or any email fires I need to put out ASAP.
6:15 a.m.: Roll out of bed and onto my yoga mat for an early morning vinyasa.
7:15 a.m.: First thing’s first – snap on my Apple Watch so I don’t miss anything during the day. All calendar and social media alerts, texts and phone calls go straight to my wrist so I can react quickly when something pops up.
8:30 a.m.: For breakfast, I’m thinking a shake today. I also steep some hot tea, then head out to battle ATL traffic to get to our offices on Tech Square.
9:00 a.m.: When I get to the office, I read through more emails and log into HootSuite to check in and manage some responses from my desktop. HootSuite is the tool we use to monitor and respond to mentions, messages, snaps and tags on Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram.
10:00 a.m.: I hop on a quick call with our Spanish intern to go over our editorial calendar for our new @KontrolFreekES Twitter channel launching on Monday! (Hopefully, those 8 years of high school/college Spanish come in handy for me. ☺)
10:30 a.m.: We hold a weekly promo meeting every Wednesday with the marketing team to recap our company initiatives, including social media. This week, I run through upcoming promotions and recap our current #ShieldShowdown design contest – over 100 entries. Check! Up next, the whole marketing team pops their thinking caps on to plot out our April promotions strategy, and we close the meeting discussing an idea for some user generated content videos for our next product launch. 
12:00 p.m.: Listen, we’re a gaming company. We gotta game. Every Wednesday the office orders pizza and plays a new video game, competing bracket-style on the Xbox in hopes of winning the coveted KF trophy. I’ve only won once – Just Dance is my jam!
1:00 p.m.: After Gaming Wednesday, I check up on social media activity. This basically entails me making sure all scheduled posts are publishing on time, our ads and graphics are approved and firing away, and checking again for content we need to respond to.
2:00 p.m.: Coffee time!
3:00 p.m.: While I’ve got some time at my desk, I look at the marketing calendar and previous weeks of the social media editorial calendar to map out the content topics for next week. We’re testing out a six-week paid Facebook advertising strategy right now, so I incorporate that into the calendar. Looking to up our Snapchat game with some KF Karaoke, too.
4:00 p.m.: Time for my weekly meeting with the Social Media Team to discuss content for next week and get their ideas on other topics. We use the time to run through updates on paid Facebook campaigns, brainstorm new Snapchat ideas and discuss how we can activate our Twitter audience.
5:00 p.m.: Almost closing time. I wind down and wrap up anything left on my trusty dry erase board to-do list: check in with creative to make sure social graphics are on their calendar, read through our summer intern responsibilities and make some edits, confirm that all tweets and posts are scheduled for the evening.
6:00 p.m.: Head out for dinner and drinks on the patio with my girls.
10:00 p.m.: One last email and Twitter check of the day, remove the Apple Watch and go to bed.
