Our Social Media & Communications Coordinator, Alex, has been with us for just over two years. Alex has seen two roles in her time at Doqaru, starting as Executive Assistant to our Directors, Sarah and Yekemi, to now being part of the marketing team.
We decided to chat with Alex to learn more about her career journey, internal communications role, and more. Read the interview below.
Alex, you’ve been with us for two years now. Can you tell us a little about your career journey at Doqaru?
How time flies! I started my time here as an Executive Assistant to our Directors, Yekemi and Sarah, in 2021. It was my first job out of my hospitality and retail background that I had during university. With my only experience being the marketing and computer skills, I had picked up throughout my education, I felt pretty out of my depth when I began my role. Starting a new job is always a bit daunting, but the support I was given by Yekemi, Sarah and the whole team was phenomenal. It made a huge difference in the first few weeks of starting at Doqaru. This role had me organising the diaries of our Directors, booking team meetings and liaising with clients.
Though I really enjoyed it, the EA position was only a six-month placement, leading me into my current Social Media & Communications Coordinator role. I was enthusiastic about the move as it meant I would work more closely with different team members and see the work that went into managing our social media channels. Since then, I’ve been working closely with our Marketing Team Lead, Sarah Gardyne, to coordinate campaigns, create content and produce some of our favourite pieces of marketing work!
You mentioned that you made a move from Exec Assistant over to the marketing team. What do you enjoy most about marketing?
I’ve always been interested in the marketing side of business, whether in a music sense or sales enablement sense! (If you don’t know already, I studied Music at Edinburgh Napier University and am a singer-songwriter). I would say what I enjoy most about marketing is seeing the results of my efforts. It feels great to see all the work you have put in for a campaign or a series of social media posts get engagement and feedback – especially when it’s positive. Another thing that I love is how creative you can be. Writing is one of my favourite things to do, and I enjoy being able to write whatever comes to my mind, edit it and edit again. There isn’t just one way to create content; adding other creatives’ inputs makes it even more inspiring.
You’ve been leading the internal communications for over a year. Why did Doqaru start an internal newsletter?
When I started as EA, one of my jobs was to improve communication across the teams and between management and the team. When I moved to marketing, I took on the role of closing any communication gaps so that we could be even more effective and productive as a business. The weekly meetings that we already had in place helped, but it’s easy for things to fall through the cracks, especially if you miss a meeting for any reason.
One idea was to create a monthly roundup with team updates, company wins and content news to bring us all on the same page. From there, we launched our internal newsletter. In addition to the meetings, our newsletter is a more structured article that we can save and reference. The newsletter is an excellent way of keeping the team in the loop with any updates or changes. Even in small teams like ours, I think they’re really valuable.
What is the importance of internal communications?
Internal comms is the act of sharing information among a team within the same organisation. According to a Forbes article, “Internal communications is important because it puts everyone on the same page. Everyone’s marching toward the same goal, which in turn creates a more cohesive strategy and reduces confusion and inefficiencies. When everyone understands the common goal, they are working towards, motivation and engagement also grow.
Effective internal communications fosters harmony and synergy by preventing conflicting ideas from arising. It is essential to promote a culture that embraces diverse ideas and opinions, while also ensuring clarity on decision-making authority. Harnessing the power of internal comms enables you to steer clear of misunderstandings that may lead to missed deadlines and conflicting external messaging, thereby safeguarding the success and growth of your business.
Communication, in any sense, is important. We communicate in our personal friendships and relationships to maintain them, so why should communication in our professional life fall behind? Communication requires effort and constant nourishment. Put in the effort and you will watch your team’s enthusiasm thrive.
How do you think good communication bonds teams and improves culture?
Effective internal communications fosters open dialogue among team members. It promotes transparency, trust, and psychological safety. Good communication has several benefits, such as:
- Eliminating the barriers to collaboration
- Encouraging sharing of insights and perspectives
- Creating a positive and engaging work atmosphere
Communication is essential for understanding client needs, building comprehension, and strengthening team bonds. Thanks to the work we’ve done around communication, we have a thriving staff culture at Doqaru.
Could you give us some tips about starting an internal newsletter?
Ask questions
Ask your team what they would like to see in the newsletter. The more suggestions the better. You’re building a newsletter for your team, so find out what they want to know.
Check-in
Consider checking in with the team individually around a week before each newsletter launches to gather any information that is worth noting in the newsletter.
Keep it simple
Don’t add too much jargon. Keep it concise! People love to skim read as it takes less time out of their busy day.
Upbeat and fun
Keep it light-hearted if that’s your thing! Use gifs where appropriate or add a small task at the end of the newsletter:
- “If you’ve read this far, respond with your favourite animal.”
- Add a fun team photo and write “caption this”!
- You could even add trivia and reveal the answer in the following newsletter as an incentive to keep reading.