Robert Carnes
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.
We need more stories! Don’t be shy – tell us what you do in a typical day as a nonprofit communications pro.
Robert Carnes is the marketing & communications manager at Make-A-Wish Georgia. He also volunteers as the social media lead at his local church and contributes to a number of blogs. In his spare time, he’s an avid reader, sports fan, and trivia buff.
And this is his typical day:
Before 8:00 a.m. – I typically wake up between 6:30 and 7 AM. That gives me plenty of time to get ready and eat breakfast before getting out the door by 7:30. Then, I make the grueling four-mile commute to the office.
8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m – The first thing I do upon getting to the office is check my email. Thankfully, I rarely have more than a dozen or so messages. I respond to those emails that can be taken care of quickly and save the rest for later.
Because I’m usually one of the first people into the office every morning, it’s relatively quiet and I’m able to be fairly productive to start my day.
Then, I make any necessary updates to our chapter website based on our year-long content calendar.
From there, I’ll open up our social media accounts for any new messages or developments. If there are any good trending hashtags, I’ll try to create a post that can be spun towards our mission.
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. – Lunch is typically eaten at my desk while working. I usually spend this time checking my RSS feed and local media sources for any good blog articles. If they’re applicable, I’ll share the link out on our social media accounts or add to my growing list of evergreen content to be shared later.
This is also a good time to check our national organization intranet for any new information.
About once a week, I’ll have lunch off-site to meet with a co-worker or as a networking opportunity with a potential community partner.
12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. – After lunch, I’ll spend time making progress on any on-going projects and content creation. This means designing collateral materials or online graphics, and writing/editing blog articles or press releases.
If we have any current projects, I’ll follow up with our print vendors to check on the production progress.
Every Friday, I export data from our website and social media accounts and log into a metrics spreadsheet. This allows us to track our growth, engagement and ROI across the digital platforms.
2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. – Every Monday, we have a weekly marketing department meeting to touch base. This meeting runs 90 minutes and allows us to check-in on all current projects and brainstorm some strategic approaches to upcoming projects.
After the meeting, I’ll take the time to update my task list on any new assignments or ideas.
After 4:00 p.m. – Before heading out for the day, I jot down a few items that I need to take care of the following day. This allows me to carry over the momentum from the previous day and miss fewer tasks.
I leave the office right around 5 PM, depending on the flow of the day.
Once home, I can still check email and social media from my phone, but try to maintain strong work-life boundaries.
We do have the occasional off-site events that require night and weekend work; however, those are always enjoyable enough to be well worth it!
Thanks for sharing your day, Robert!
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