Carina Johnson
Here’s the latest installment in our series on the “Day in the Life” of nonprofit communicators, where we ask you to describe your day in your own words.
Share your day with us! Don’t be shy – tell us what you do in a typical day as a nonprofit communications pro.
Carina began working with the Prince of Wales Hospital Foundation in August 2012 in the role of Administration Officer and is now managing communications and graphic design. Carina also manages the public relations, website, and social media marketing for the Foundation. She has a post-graduate certificate in Professional Sales from Charles Sturt University and is completing a certificate in PR and Event Management with Open Universities, Australia.
And this is her typical day:
Before 8:00 a.m. – It’s 7am, time to wake up, shake off the sleepiness, and go through my social feeds. It’s great for me to spend about 15 minutes catching up on the morning news, and then it’s coffee, something to eat, shower, dressed and out the door to be at work at 8:30am.
8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. – Now that I’m in, I go through all my morning emails. Delete all the spam and answer anything important.
Once this is out of the way, usually by 9:30am, I start thinking about the social content for the day. Usually planned out on a Monday, I schedule all necessary posts on Facebook, gather the extra content for Twitter, plan out some creative images for Instagram and so on.
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. – Do I need to follow up on any PR work? I edit or write my media releases, or I follow up on ones I sent the end of the previous week. This usually means a few emails or phone calls and writing or rewriting to get things right.
12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. – Usually by 12:30pm I’m getting a little peckish. Time to start thinking about lunch while I start gathering my to-do list for graphic design work!
Once I’ve made my list of what needs to be designed I go for a walk and grab something to eat. Time to refuel!
Then it’s back to work and time to get moving on some brochures for our upcoming appeal, some posters for events or some social media advertisements, and some banners for our website. Phew!
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. – The design work will usually take up a big chunk of my afternoon, lasting up until 4pm as there is practically a never ending list of things needing to be created!
If I find the time, I will try to do a piece of my assignment for a PR and event management course I am doing by correspondence. You can never stop learning and any education in this industry will always be an advantage.
After 4:00 p.m. – Home time is usually between 4:30pm and 5pm depending on the workload. Time to shut down and head off!
Before I do, I will usually write up my to-do list for the next morning if I have any unfinished business needing to be followed up on straight away.
Then it’s home for a good long walk or gym, then dinner, a movie, and bed!
Thanks for sharing your day, Carina!
Want to be featured in this series? Tell us what you do in a typical day as a nonprofit communications pro.
