How I Made it in Social, featuring Nicolle Lopez, Senior Social Manager at Amtrak
From a PR agency to getting poached 24 hours before starting a new job, here's Nicolle's social journey.
Welcome to Make It Go Viral’s weekly interview series, How I Made It In Social. Every Wednesday, Pennant Digital Social Media Director Anna Fogel talks to the best and brightest people working in social media about their career journey.
Next up: Nicolle Lopez, who started her career at a PR agency in 2013 only to be poached by Amtrak right before she was set to start a new job 😏. Nicolle shares what has changed since her career started, valuable lessons she's learned, and how she landed her current job. If this edition resonated with you, please share it with someone you love.
What was your first job in social? And what year did you start?
I got my start in 2013 at a boutique PR agency. Social for brands was still pretty fresh at the time, so the agency asked me to dabble in creating Facebook and Instagram pages for clients as added value and to experiment with a new potential scope of work.
What has changed about the industry since then?
Brand social went from an experiment to a necessity! It speaks volumes that I started working in PR and media planning, where social weaved in and out at the start, and now I've built a whole career around it.
First piece of content you ever hit publish on?
As a professional, I want to say I published a Facebook event for a nonprofit group. Personally, I can't remember if it was a MySpace or hi5 Post?
What was the most valuable thing you learned early on in your career?
Learn as much as possible about the entire marketing ecosystem. I cut my teeth agency-side at the start of my career, I've worked in so many different parts of marketing/comms . That experience is invaluable, even as I specialize in Social now.
How did you showcase your body of social media work?
I've always said that your feed is your résumé. Whether it be the social profiles of the brands/clients you represent or your personal brand, you should feel confident in sending connections and recruiters to those pages to see your work in real time. I kept the publicist habit of clipping/screenshotting my work, but my career has evolved, and I do need to build a portfolio to house all of these records. Let this interview be my public commitment to rolling one out in 2025 😅.
What is your current role?
I was recently promoted to Senior Social Manager at Amtrak!
Where did you initially find this opportunity?
LinkedIn!
What do you think was the key factor in getting a foot in the door to your new role?
Funny story, ~six years ago, I was poached by Amtrak 24 hours before I was set to start a new social job at an agency. I think the recruiter kept championing my application, even though I told him I already accepted another offer, because I was very diligent and transparent when following-up about the opportunity. I think what helped me in the interview was that I was so relaxed and candid. I had another job offer ready, so I gave my honest opinion about the state of the brand's social pages and how they could improve.
Did your own social media habits or ‘personal brand’ help (or hurt) your job search? Do you think brand building is something social pros should set aside time for?
You should absolutely set aside time for your personal brand. Social moves so quickly and can be all consuming, you need to make the time for yourself. I think many job and speaking opportunities come my way because of my personal brand. You probably would not have invited me to this newsletter were it not for my presence on LinkedIn haha. None of this would be possible without carving out time weekly and monthly to work on it.
Favorite piece of content you’ve ever created?
Our anime conductor is close to my heart. This is a character we built from scratch and has evolved to be included in so many incredible pieces of content since then.
So we first introduced him as standalone art.
He instantly became a fan favorite, so we decided to build a manga in a similar art style.
Then we included him in a viral Beyoncé thread.
Which was featured in an incredible soundbite by NPR, a top-tier clip of my career.
All the way through to a real investigation to find out if this conductor is a real person (he's not, but I guess now he is?):
And we've got more in the pipeline :)