Three years ago, when I was a junior in college, I went to my advisor and told her I was
going to take on marketing as a double major. A devout English professor, she was
supportive but wary. After all, a business career can be rigid and overly regulated — the
kind of environment where creative writing won’t flourish.
Her advice was sound, but not applicable. My job at BINJE is anything but rigid or overly
regulated. In fact, my biggest challenge has been handling all the freedom.
My first day at BINJE was fast-paced, just as they all have been. I hopped on a call with
Editor Tom Bergeron and Managing Editor Linda Lindner at 9, and by 10, I was creating
content for the company’s LinkedIn and Instagram pages. It was up to me to determine what was posted.
I had never worked at a media outlet before. Actually, I’d never worked anywhere full-
time before. This was new territory, and it intimidated me. So what did I do? I looked at
the social pages for other news sites. One by one, I took inspiration from their formatting
and how they promoted their articles. And then I got to work — posting twice that day.
My first post on LinkedIn was, “Capacity brings on Shatabdi Sharma as CIO to lead its
global tech strategy, signaling a major push into next-gen logistics innovation.”
Major yawn.
Yes, it was informative, but missing a unique voice — a hook to draw people in. By day
three, I got the wake-up call I needed. Tom said I needed to start making the role my
own. “The amount of content is good, but the captions are a little … dull,” he said
politely. Talk about a rude awakening.
Now, as an English major, I have always loved experimenting with my writing.
Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t, but it was never dull. I realized I had let my
nerves guide me and fell into the very trap my advisor warned me about.
I started over, taking the articles I read and transforming their content into captions that
reflected the stories — and my own take on them. I started experimenting with puns like
“Soup there it is!” and “Nothing to schmear at!” Best of all, I got to create visuals — fun
images and videos — editing together BINJE events and moments into reflections of
our company’s creativity.
Each day, I post at least five times on LinkedIn and Twitter and a couple of times on
Facebook and Instagram. I create and edit images, play around with video content and
write short, punchy headlines. Canva’s my new best friend and mortal enemy. In short, I
have a job that’s the perfect combination of English and marketing.
And I get to have fun.
This week, Tom called me again and asked for a story about my experience as the new
kid — the fresh-out-of-college hire who is sculpting her own social media role. The idea
came to me as a pun: Style and error.
