Rebecca Broad - Freelance Writer & Social Media Manager

14/04/2023

So you’ve got your business: services, logistics, finances, management, HR, IT, marketing, and more.

And within marketing — imagine we’re zooming in here — you’ve got product, price, place, promotion.

And within each of those, especially place and promotion — we’re zooming in again — you’ve got social media.

Now, I’m not saying that what I do for organisations on socials isn’t important.
(It is! Pay me!)

But if you come to me for social media work, and I strongly suspect you might first need to zoom out and look at any of the other areas of marketing or business… well, I’ll say that.

And honestly? I think that’s the right thing to do for both of us 🤗

📸 Mooie Fee Photography
📍 POT & VESSEL

02/09/2022

Here’s what I’m up to right now:
👩‍💻 Managing social media for clients in a variety of industries, from voice technology to local government

🎋 Posing with the plants of my tattoos when I see them

📊 Consulting charities, social enterprises, and sole traders on their organic content

🏖 Doing the whole thing with my partner, who’s also freelance — since April we’ve lived in Leicester, Bristol, Penwith, Devon, Château Coliving & Coworking, and Margate

📝 Writing my creative newsletter, 95 words, every week-ish: https://buttondown.email/RebeccaBroad

🦡 Leading Devon Wildlife Trust as a trustee (a voluntary director on the board responsible for governing a charity)

👀 Toying with a fiction book idea

🎉 Working out how to celebrate my upcoming seventh (?!) business birthday

Any ideas on that last one? So far I have: go for a seven course meal, and sign out of all social media for seven days, so any inspiration is welcome 😅

03/03/2022

I . Please join me in donating to the appeal launched today by Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC): https://donation.dec.org.uk/ukraine-humanitarian-appeal. Donations will be doubled by the U.K. government up to £20m.

💙💛

There will always be differing approaches to using social media, especially during crisis. I believe the following to be facts: people will do what they can based on their values, business/work situ, and personal connection. And everyone will have an opinion on how others approach it.

Personally, I’m finding it impossible (possibly given I’m a social media manager) to disengage. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine isn’t a sad news story. It’s an unforgivable attack that started years ago. War crimes are being committed. A humanitarian crisis is unfolding.

What I’ve realised over the past few days is that doing what I can doesn’t have to lessen my ability to look after myself or work on other societal and environmental issues. I’m still managing social media for my anti-VAWG client. I’m still attending board meetings for the charity I’m trustee of. I’m still doing things for me. That’s when I know I have the balance right.

There‘ll probably be people who judge this post as virtue signalling or centring my voice or whatever. Maybe you’re one of those people. And that’s okay. I’m less scared by what others think these days. I’m trying to place more importance on taking action in ways I have been asked to by those suffering, and in ways that align with my values.

I commit to supporting others, staying informed, amplifying voices. I commit to doing what I can to address this and future crises.

🇺🇦

15/02/2022

From April we are going roving as full-time digital nomads! We were fortunate enough to try remote working via three small trips in 2021 (Harrogate, Croyde, Bedford) and they all went well, so when our landlady chose to sell up, we opted to get planning.

We start with a few months around the U.K. (Leicester, Bristol, Pendeen) and then hop the channel to Château Coliving & Coworking 🇫🇷

After that… no idea! Head over to Instagram for all the behind-the-scenes on our prep, plans, and the travels themselves: https://www.instagram.com/rebeccacomms/?hl=en

Image descriptions: a close-up photo of a white flower bud on some wet grass. Overlaid in green writing on a white box is the word ROVING, above a screenshot from Chateau Coliving thanking me for my booking. / Bex, a white woman with curly ginger hair, blue eyes, and a colourful scarf smiles into the camera next to Joe, a white man with a ginger beard. Both are wearing woolly hats and coats.

29/01/2022

(Psst! This photo is a cross post - hey, we all do them sometimes - from Instagram. Head over to https://www.instagram.com/rebeccacomms for all of my business behind-the-scenes).

At first, freelancing was mostly for fun. I fell into it while studying a biology degree and loved the creative outlet of writing, events, and social media.

After a few years, freelancing became a big part of my identity. Whatever life threw at me I found comfort in the fact I had A Thing that I liked and was good at. Business became a vehicle for self-actualisation.

When I finally feckin graduated (2018) freelancing became a lifeline. I grasped onto it as my future — the only form of earning that felt feasible given my health. I simply had to make it work.

So I did! And soon, freelancing wasn’t just a life raft I clung to for survival — it was a career. So I focused on making it better. Higher earning. More sustainable. Which brings me to now.

In this seventh year of self-employment (🤯) I want to make freelancing mean more… and less.

More? Freelancing will become a true enabler, a foundation of flexibility and freedom.

Less? I’m nearly ready to not spend most of my time and energy on it. The world is so, so much bigger than the internet and the pixels I place upon it.

First and foremost I am me. Someone with a lot of feelings and a talent for spotting far away dogs. I’m a friend, partner, sister, daughter, writer, citizen, trustee. And nestled neatly, somewhere in that mix of roles, is freelancer.

🌿🕊💚

Image Description: Bex is a white woman with curly brown hair, who sits at a desk wearing a green dress and looking down at her MacBook. There’s a green plant behind her, a glass of water beside her, and a green tinge to the photo. 📸 Mitchell Searle Photography

23/11/2021

New client! 🥳 I'm managing Safer Central Exeter's social media to help communicate with a range of audiences. Working with public sector partnerships is something I'd presumed was reserved for agencies or in-house teams, so I'm extra excited to wave the freelance flag!

We are a partnership: a wonderful collection of public services and community groups working together to make Exeter safer. Our partners include Exeter City Council, Devon & Cornwall Police, The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall, InExeter, Unlimited, DACCWA - Devon and Cornwall Community Watch Association, and Exeter Businesses Against Crime.

We look forward to telling you more about their roles - and the project's different work strands - in the coming weeks!

28/10/2021

I joined the board of Devon Wildlife Trust as a 22-year-old part-time disabled student. I was not your typical trustee - only 36% of us are women, and less than 3% are under 30 🤯 We need more diverse boards for a huge (and obvious) range of reasons.

Which is why I’m INCREDIBLY excited to be speaking on a Trustees Week panel, Tuesday 6-7pm!

I’ll be sharing my experiences alongside other people from underrepresented groups at the Getting On Board event “Is trusteeship for people like me?” in the hope of encouraging others to consider charitable governance.

Come along! 💚🦡 https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/is-trusteeship-for-people-like-me-tickets-170523474302

Image Description: Bex, a white woman with short brown curly hair, sits at a desk in front of her laptop with a plant in the foreground. She’s wearing a green dress and smiling slightly. 📷 Mitchell Searle Photography

01/09/2021

Seven days until TechExeter's 2021 Conference! I’m speaking about accessibility regarding social media content. If you don't know your alt text from your CamelCase, grab a ticket at the event's website: https://conference.techexeter.uk/

[Image Description: A text-based promo graphic from Tech Exeter in pastel, yellow, monotone, and turquoise colours. Bex’s circular black and white headshot is top right above the Tech Exeter and Digital Exeter logos and the event website and name (All About Access). Text on the image reads, in order: “Rebecca Broad / How to create accessible social media content. Annual conference. 8th Sept 2021. 10:00-16:00 BST.”]

16/04/2021

What is my thing, though? What do I DO? I ask myself this question all the time. (Other people ask me it, too.) The truth is, I do many different things and I care a lot about each of them.

I’m a Digital Marketing Executive for V***n Labs; I care a lot about ethical applications of innovative technology.

I’m a Trustee of Devon Wildlife Trust; I care a lot about conservation and young leadership.

I’m South West Mutual’s Social Media Manager; I care a lot about financial inclusion and regional banking.

I’m a Lived Experience Advisor to Devon and Cornwall Police; I care a lot about reducing violence.

I’m a freelance writer, a charity subsidiary company director, a postgrad diploma student, a partner and a sister and a friend and a person who enjoys eating chips and swimming in the sea and trying to stay well with mental and physical diagnoses.

Walt Whitman’s poem ‘Song of Myself’ may not have gone down amazingly in the 1800s, but one line rings true for many of us who exist in digital spaces with a fair bit of angst:

“Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)”

🐢

This post is shared from Instagram, where I hang out a lot more!

05/03/2021

These beautiful illustrations we recently commissioned are incredible - even more so when all Lucy had to go on was our words of the year! Can you guess what those words were? 🥰

01/02/2021

This time last year feels like a different age, so reflecting on the (unintentional) start of my business nearly six years ago was a challenge!

https://www.rebeccabroad.com/blog/i-didnt-mean-to-become-a-freelancer

In 2015 I became a freelancer. I didn't know what that meant, and I didn't envision my future as a full-time freelancer. Here's how it all started...

18/12/2020

Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset business leaders - you're up!

One small action to help build a sustainable regional bank:

We want to ensure that any future South West banking services meet customers' needs! Could you help us find out what they are?

https://survey.opiniumresearch.co.uk/p?qif=f0b9c4ec-d1bf-4024-9afe-a76c659dee6d&qsid=cbaf7c61-677e-448c-a18e-0ae92ea15a9c&Qlang=2

05/06/2020

I'm proud to work with clients like South West Mutual who take a stand, take action, and are committed to creating a fairer society. Black Lives Matter.

29/05/2020

It's always exciting to bring out a new type of content for a client - and a video chat for South West Mutual is no exception!

We discuss 3 timely questions from our audience: 1) What could the Bank of England and Treasury do to make it easier for organisations like South West Mutual...

20/05/2020

Check out next week's Like Minds Lockdown Business Festival (the May edition). Learn from and network with industry leaders in creativity, change management, business strategy and more, powered by Amaiz: https://wearelikeminds.com/the-online-like-minds-lockdown-business-festival-may-25th-29th/

(Disclosure: I'm helping with some of the social media content, but I don't get a ticket commission - I just want as many people as possible to hear about it!)

13/05/2020

I knew this article would become a time capsule. "We haven’t even reached the much-touted peak yet," I wrote. The edition's theme (overcoming adversity) felt ridiculous, because I was living in a world which was falling apart. And yet... the act of writing was transformational.

For me, the weaving of letters into words into sentences creates new thoughts and ideas and realities; it is through writing that I find myself, time and again. I know that others find that magic in painting, dancing, meditating, even sky-diving - any manner of coming back to self.

That's what I'm attempting to do again, right now, as I prepare to write my June article.

I hope today, tomorrow, and whenever you can - you find a little bit of magic in whatever brings you back to yourself ✨🌿

"Long after the last Nightingale Hospital has been demolished, this crisis will continue to echo for generations. The impacts of lives and livelihoods lost. But in another way, just by being, by showing up to live our lives, we overcome a multitude of smaller adversities."

A big thank you, as always, to the Grow team for the platform and encouragement to share my voice.

https://grow-media.co.uk/business-news/exeter-business-new/digital-edition-may-2020/

15/02/2020

Super excited to be speaking at THE tech conference in the South West! Early bird tickets end 23rd February: https://futuresync.co.uk/