Episode 12 - Social Media Marketer/Webmaster

Today we interview Ashley Hyde, a social media marketer and webmaster. We learn about technology, planning, and more.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello! Welcome to the careers4kids podcast for kids learn careers! This is Maxwell Valencia

(00:09):
and this is Henry Morrison and today we have Ashley Hyde from the marketing and communications
team. Wow guys, thanks so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here today. Thank
you for spending your time to be on careers for kids a lot. It's really nice of you and
we hope we have a great interview. Now let's get started! I'm ready. So I'll put the quiz

(00:29):
in question. Tell us what you currently do right now. Currently I am the social media
lead and webmaster at the Westport Library. That's really cool. Thanks. So yeah, tell
us more about your career and how you got to this position. Yeah, that's a great question.
So I used to work in music a few years ago and yeah so my instrument is the computer,

(00:52):
right? So I'm kind of the person that brings the music like to the public online. So I
worked with a band and I had to help them distribute their message to the world and
so I got really good at social media. That's how I got started. That's really cool. Yeah.
So what part of your job do you enjoy the most and like not really like the most? So

(01:14):
the part of the job I like the most is that I get to make really fun videos like I get
to like you know kind of just have fun. You've seen the Westport Public Library. You've seen
our guys social media. Yeah. So we get to make a little bit of comedy and I think that's
my favorite part. My least favorite part is that social media can be a little bit of a
tough place for your mental health. You know no matter what comes on the screen you have

(01:35):
to protect yourself from you know so that's my least favorite part. There's some like
people who are not really nice. There's a lot of cyber bullying. I mean is the internet
advances advances? There's definitely gonna be more people using it for bad things. Yeah
so was this like the dream job you imagined yourself doing when you were a kid? That's

(01:56):
a great question. I don't think I imagined myself like as a social media person but I
always imagined myself as a creator you know. I kind of wanted to either be like TV or I
wanted to be in movies or I wanted to just kind of be a candid person. So I feel like
social media is my way of being able to really do that. That's really nice. Yeah. I kind
of like social media too. Do you? I started my own YouTube channel but I kind of stopped

(02:19):
playing using it because I realized it could be more productive things. Yeah but you know
you're gonna make a lot of money on YouTube. Yeah. You're gonna make cars. Yeah. You skipped
the question. Okay. Alright let's do it. Oh nevermind. Nevermind. Bye. Alright. You're
weird. Sorry about that. It's just kind of. We're having fun. Yeah we're having fun.

(02:40):
That's how it matters. Bro you're having fun. You were your main idol when you were young.
Like how inspired. Just enough to be like a marketer. Just enough to be when you were
little. I mean actually kind of more directed towards that. So you know it's a good question.
I think one person that really stands out to me is Jane Goodall. I don't know if you guys
know who she is. I feel like the nature person. Yeah so she basically is one of the leading

(03:01):
anthropologists that works with like chimpanzees and you know primates and what I love about
her is that she started her PhD at like I think it was like 42 or something. Very late
in life and she's still a legend so it's never too late to do something incredible you know.
Yeah. I kind of like I kind of like PhD at 42 that's really nice. Yeah Maxwell's always

(03:23):
talking about how he wants to like get a hand on his cover year and stuff. You're gonna
get your PhD by the time you're 15 my friend. So why did you pick this job? Like what made
you do this? I mean I know you wanted to like to connect with people and just be kind of
out there like you said but like go a little bit deeper into that. Sure. I'm really good

(03:44):
with technology. I happen to have a really good skill set with computers and with graphics
and video editing so social media is a really good way for me to have all these skills in
one job right. Like I can edit videos, I can take photos, I can make them into posts, I
can put them online, I can do digital advertising so I can manage my you know all that. I code
websites so I can do all that stuff you know so yeah it's the whole bag in one job. Yeah

(04:08):
I mean even with our website I think we even mentioned this in the last episode but I had
to like code the backbone of our website and I don't know I self taught myself. Me too.
I'm good pretty good with computers or at least I think so but I'm more of like a hardware
person when it comes to that. That's how you get started though it's like you just start

(04:28):
exploring your skill set and before you know it. Yeah and what was the biggest highlight
of your career? Like how did you entire career, which one did you like like the most? Like
what was amazing? Oh such a good question. So the band that I was working with got nominated
for a Grammy, we did not win but they were on the Grammy red carpet and that was a huge
highlight for me. Yeah it was really rad and so and being able to take them from like their

(04:51):
first music video all the way to a Grammy nomination it's like seeing something through
from start to finish really cool. I like that. Thanks. And yeah back to the technology thing
both of me and Amy were really interested in technology like we said from the last episode.
Yeah he's more with like the software stuff. I mean I made our website like pretty much

(05:13):
from scratch. Awesome. What did you use? Do you know did you use WordPress or Wix or Gris
Figgs? We used Wix but we got some like I don't even remember what it was. We got some
sort of deal to think where I actually had to do a bit of coding. Wow. So cool. I kind
of soft taught myself. Maxwell takes classes I believe. Oh no. He's gonna. Yeah I might

(05:34):
take classes like both me and him we know some coding. Yeah. Especially him. I'll tell
you the more savvy you are with a computer the further you can get because everyone always
needs somebody to help them with technology so often my job is hey Ashley can you help
me with this on my computer? Exactly. So when you're that person you're always gonna have

(05:55):
a job. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah especially like technology is becoming more frequent. Yeah
and just like becoming a bigger part of our lives even now like. All day. It's been like
even since probably I'd say like especially like as like the Macintosh came out in like
what 84 or something. As that like more like consumer computers started to come around

(06:20):
more mainstream stuff. Absolutely I mean I'm wearing wearable technology. It's been more
like into our lives since then it's not just like things that are used by like governments
and stuff like that anymore. Yeah and then with the rollout of an artificial intelligence
your generation is gonna see some very incredible things. Yeah our last generation I mean sorry

(06:41):
our last episode was literally an artificial intelligence and engineering. Alright. Yeah
what are the biggest challenges that you think you can be solved by like our generation that
you would want us to solve for? I need you guys to solve climate change. Yeah. You got
that one in the back. Yeah you gotta do it man. It's the future it's the most important
thing that we can do for ourselves for our planet. Yeah you gotta take control of the

(07:04):
technology and stuff we have nowadays and use it for that. Yeah we always have to think
about resources and we also have to think about hunger. Global hunger should not be a
reason that we should not have global hunger at all whatsoever. So the fact that we still
have that confuses me. So yeah those two things guys I think you can do it. Like some people
they have lots and lots of money like not to be rude but they have lots and lots of

(07:28):
money and they can buy lots of food. They could do a whole bunch more couldn't they?
Yeah they could do so much but there's some people who sadly like can't get a job and
they're suffering. It's just like just getting food is so grateful for them. Some other people
them having food is just like a norm. You know we take things for granted when our table
is full but when our table is empty we're you know grateful for what we have. One like

(07:51):
for what I heard is that you only see the true importance of things if they're not there
anymore. I get that. If someone wants to follow in your footsteps in your careers what would
you tell him or her? I would tell them to diversify your skill set right? Make sure

(08:12):
you're good with your camera, you're good with your computer, you're good with your
video editing software, you're good with your audio podcasting stuff. You have a whole little
gamut of stuff so that way when you say you're a social media person you can do it from you
know all the way from I take pictures to I edit videos to I can do the advertising. You
want to be able to do all of it. I'm going to do some good editing skills. I literally
did a documentary for my own national history day. Have you heard of national history day?

(08:35):
No. It's like this competition that you enter this year with like a turning point in history
or something and you did a website I did a documentary and you had to kind of like show
why that was a turning point in history and give a bunch of substantial evidence for that
and you like move on because it goes regional, states, nationals. We both made it into states.

(08:58):
Really? That's rad. Which points in history did you guys pick to talk about? Mine was
technology based, it was the transistor. And mine was 9-11. Definitely a bit of a darker
topic. Sometimes we have to explore those to grow you know. Yeah. See I really like
my topic was also really interesting. They connected my topic before like being the transistors

(09:19):
and computer chips and before like they had like a computer that take like two of these
like in giant rooms. Could you imagine walking into rooms of computers instead of just this
little. I just want to have a grind. Yeah. I've always wanted a library and here I am
working in one so you never know you're going to end up with that. I'm so bad that you got

(09:42):
all that stuff out the makerspace. I had a couple projects going on in there. Did you?
Some old stuff. Okay. Well we still have our 3D printers going so. But they removed it
all for some reason. The guy that was working there that he introduced me to the place left
a couple months earlier and I guess he took all the donated stuff with him for some reason.

(10:04):
That's true. The library removed it or something. So like it's pretty much empty in there now.
Well we'll have to make sure that we report back that you guys want more makerspace stuff.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm a volunteer there. Are you? I haven't been there in a while. Right cool.
Well I can tell you guys are builders. Yeah. The coping on technologies like what I said

(10:25):
before used to have an entire room then became like our desk like a desk top to our laptops
and our lap. Now it's kind of a big laptop. Yeah. Then we came all the way to things we
hold. Yeah. Like a phone and then your watch. It's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Even on your Apple
watch that probably that thing's probably faster than like a full-fledged computer that takes up

(10:51):
like a whole room. Exactly. Processing power is pretty incredible. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. What else
we got? What is your main life advice for kids listening to this podcast? Life advice? Life advice. Whoa.
All right. Try lots of things. Even if you know in your heart of hearts you want to be a surgeon.

(11:15):
Yeah. Still go try to do something different just to see what's out there you know because
I've wanted to be so many different things in life you know and so you asked me one day I wanted
to be a flying trapeze artist. What? Like I'm very you know physically active because of that so that's
one part of my life. I wanted to be an ER surgeon at one point and I got my EMT license you know but

(11:36):
here and I got an anthropology degree because I liked to I liked the idea of maybe going to scrape
fossils and go dig one day so you can do many things you don't have to just be one thing so
that would be my advice to your kids. What do you want to be? Actually I know this but you know.
I want to be a businessman. Oh businessman. Yeah I'm gonna invest in like I was able to get over

(11:56):
600 percent of my stock. Okay so you like growth you like to see the double and you're finding
your compounding interest. Yeah. All right. I want to be like a computer engineer technological
engineer stuff like that. Cool you guys have some really amazing goals. Yeah I'm definitely
gonna look into more stuff even after that kind of like. Yeah try try as much as you can guys.

(12:18):
I wanted to be a hockey player. See that's what I'm saying I tried hockey and I got my finger
run over by an ice skate. Oh. See that little pinky thing. Exactly. You just travel hockey.
Well see. I realized that um that not to be mean to hockey players but there's some jobs that you
can do like it's not all about your not not all about like your your muscles and your brain.

(12:42):
It's also your brain. Yeah I mean I mean a lot of them have to make up like strategies and
like tactics in their head to like play off the game. It's not just all about like. Wrong. Yeah
it's not about like running at each other. And nowadays I would say that athletes have to be
businessmen and if they're not businessmen then they're probably not going to spend their money

(13:06):
right. They might not make good investment decisions. They might not choose the right team.
So just like how you want to be a businessman you got to encourage your friends who are athletes to
be businessmen too. Yeah like this person Kiyogi Mbappe. He's one of the best soccer players in
the world. Yeah Mbappe. Yeah he got he got he got like 200 million dollars once and he spent it
round like he spent like on a private check. See those things happen so if you don't have good

(13:30):
financial advice especially as a kid and I think that might be something that you guys should also
talk about on your podcast. When you're gonna have a career you gotta know what to do once you start
rolling in the money right. So then you gotta be financially smart right. Yep. Cool. Love it.
That's a wrap. That's a wrap. Yeah. Thanks guys.
Thank you guys for allowing us to interview you. I'm sure more kids will be inspired by this

(13:52):
interview. All day long. To whoever is listening thanks for listening to the careers for kids
podcast. We hope you enjoyed the episode and we'll see you in the next episode. Bye.
Bye. Guys high fives. You rock.