Meet Lucy, our new Content and experience designer
We are super excited to announce that this May, we’ll be welcoming Lucy Guest into the Pickle team as our new Content and experience designer!
Lucy (she/her) comes to us from the University of Reading as a creative social media and content specialist. With previous experience focusing on HE social media, campaigns and strategy, Lucy is going to be a fantastic addition to our team.
We asked Lucy to answer a few questions for you to get to know her a bit better.
Can you tell us a little bit about your career?
Sure! I'd describe myself as a social media and content specialist—I don't really think you can have one without the other. Over the past seven and a bit years, I've built extensive experience in digital marketing, community engagement and campaigns. The majority of this experience has been in the Higher Education sector, so I have a strong background in student recruitment marketing, research communications and reputational awareness activity. My main area of focus is engaging, accessible and inclusive content with people at its heart. Before joining Pickle Jar, I worked at the University of Reading leading their social media across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Reddit and YouTube to audiences over 300,000. With my approach, Reading's audiences grew by more than 30,000 and we saw a considerable rise in organic engagement. So whether you're looking to evaluate your digital and social strategies, develop a kick-ass campaign or supercharge your online content, I can help!
You've got a huge amount of experience in creative social media and content, what has been the most interesting project you have worked on?
I've been lucky enough to work on a lot of interesting projects, from announcing gravitational waves at Birmingham to being a key player in Reading's student recruitment. I think I'd have to go with the work I've been doing over the past year about Reading's llama herd. They've been involved in research to combat COVID-19 and over the summer, we put together a mini-campaign to share a bit more about their lives as animals in research. A large part of that was a Twitter "takeover" by one of our llamas, Arla, which involved writing in a whole new tone of voice!
What is the biggest goal you want to achieve at Pickle Jar?
To show people that accessibility is a basic requirement in content design, not an add-on extra.
What sort of content inspires you?
I love to see bold ideas, creative approaches and content that makes you feel. Each piece of content you produce should make someone feel something, whether that's something like curiosity, hope or nostalgia. That should underpin everything we do. For me, it's wonderful to see that play out. And yes, that will mean at some points taking a big risk, but that's what it's all about, right? As content creators and communications professionals, it's our role as experts to evaluate, then manage that risk.
What is something new you have learnt over the last year?
I've put a huge amount of work into learning more about TikTok and what makes the platform tick (pun fully intended). If you're not using it, or you're not using it properly, you're missing out on a fantastic opportunity. I launched Reading's presence in February 2021, and within a year it was ranked as one of the top 10 UK universities on the platform. Overall, it's been a massively rewarding experience.
Now for some quick, single-word answers…
Cats or dogs? Dogs 🐶
Mornings or evenings? Evenings
Favourite season? Winter
Favourite app? Spotify
Favourite food? Pad thai
Biggest pet peeve? Music on public transport without headphones
Job you wanted as a child? Probably artist/writer
Favourite font? Times New Roman. It's a classic.
Most used emoji? ✨ or 🥰
Lucy, welcome to Pickle Jar!
If you read this and you are eager to work with Lucy, let us know!
