EDUCATION MARKETING SOLUTIONS

Employee Spotlight: Austin Spaulding

Meet Austin Spaulding, who plays a dual role as image.works’ Social Media Specialist and one of our talented copywriters. Originally from Bloomington, Illinois, he spends as much time as he can going to hear live music; his other favorite pastimes include movies, video games and camping. Read on for more interesting tidbits, including the fact that he actually enjoys doing what most people say is their number one fear!

Describe what you do on a day-to-day basis.

I started as a general copywriter, but now I specialize in social media copywriting and have grown into managing our social media program—creating content calendars, researching social media trends, learning what's working for other organizations and finding ways to change our program to be more effective. This has led me to reworking image.work’s social media program to reduce the number of steps and get each client's team more involved. It’s all about helping our clients get better results with posts that are tailored to their branding and more closely linked to their current promotions.

Tell us about your work background and what brought you to image.works.

In college I studied advertising and did social media for a radio station; after graduation I moved to Madison and freelanced while I was looking for a permanent copywriting job. My role at image.works has been both a great fit and a great opportunity: it plays to my strength of writing for shorter, newer media and has also helped me get better at writing longer content.

Any interesting work-related success stories?

I wanted to expand image.works’ own social media strategy to include videos; an added benefit of reworking our social media program's process was that it freed up the time that I needed to do videos. I worked with the copywriter who produces our internal marketing to create a plan that used some of my ideas while staying true to our brand. As for its success: after our first few months of videos, our social media engagement increased more than 100%. I knew videos were a good idea, but I never would have guessed that they’d improve our analytics so much.

What is your biggest achievement to date, personal or professional?

To refresh the image.works Idea Book [catalog] each year, our copywriters and designers pair up to create a new concept. Of course only one team's concept can win, and it’s a really big deal to have yours chosen. I’ve submitted concepts two years, and they’ve been chosen both times! I’m proud of working with our amazing designers to come up with compelling and effective ideas. 

What’s your secret talent or something about you that would surprise people?

I love public speaking! I’ve performed a few improv shows at The Second City in Chicago, and I made the semifinals at the National Speech and Debate Association tournament in high school.

Describe yourself in three words.

Eager, jovial and caffeinated.  

Do you have any weird or irrational fears?

Being stranded in open ocean. I’ve lived in the Midwest my whole life so I’ve never had to worry about it, but being in a Castaway-type situation is terrifying to me. 

Name the most “Wisconsin” thing about you.

There are two: my love for cheese and my disdain for Illinois drivers.  

Favorite place to travel to in Wisconsin?

Devil’s Lake. Some friends and I do a camping trip there every year, it’s a beautiful place to visit. 

What activities are you involved in outside of work?

I’ve been playing volleyball with a group of friends for two years. We’re not good, but it’s fun to have that every week!

Read more fun fact about Austin here!

Posted by Tanya Langdon - October 17, 2024