Gina Deen is director of social & influencer at Ponderosa, a Leeds-based brand and communications agency.
Deen joined the agency in August from WongDoody, where she was the marketing lead. Prior to this, she held senior roles at Smarts and MSL and has worked with a number of global brands including PUMA UK, Gucci and Rimmel.
She is also the youngest board member at OK Mention, a non-for-profit organisation that helps females across the world launch their careers.
Now at Ponderosa, she is developing its social and influencer services and is overseeing its integration into the wider agency.
Here, she shares her career journey and words of advice…
How did you first get into your industry?
Dare I say I fell into it… but it was a little bit by luck. I knew PR was an area that interested me, but doing a placement year at university was what really threw me into the industry.
I was hired as an account executive by a film marketing and PR agency, Grapevine Digital, and loved it so much I begged for a job back there once I’d graduated. Had I not have had that experience, I’d have struggled knowing where to channel my creativity.
Disclaimer: I’m not getting commission for university placement sign-ups, but I couldn’t recommend going down this route more.
Before the year rolls round, reach out to companies you love to see if it’s an initiative they run and throw your name into the ring early doors.
Be strategic when thinking about who you want to work for. Though big and famous agencies appear shiny, you’ll likely be exposed to and learn much more from a smaller, independent agency.
What do you love about your job?
Every day is a school day. Social is a constantly evolving landscape, so if like me you’re always eager to learn, it’s the perfect place. You have to constantly be on top of trends (despite feeling too old to understand some of them), keep up to date with new features on existing (and emerging) platforms and keep track of what success looks like.
It’s a creative playground. Working in social is a petridish of insight and creativity, two areas which have been (and likely always will be!) what keeps my cup full. Budgets also sit on a huge spectrum, so one day you could be ideating for triple figure integrated project, and the next you’re stretching your thinking to push the pounds as far as they can go.
I’m better together. Maybe it’s just how I work and what I’ve personally experienced, but social is one of (if not the) most collaborative teams within an agency. More often than not, it’s baked into every corner of the business, which means working with lots of different people, all of the time. I bounce off others (aka, a yapper), so having that face time keeps me happy.
Who – or what – has inspired you in your career?
A multi-faceted university degree. One thing I’d always recommend to someone starting out is to not pigeonhole themselves by taking a degree with limited flexibility. I studied Multimedia English which spanned journalism, literature, production, design, marketing and PR. It allowed me to dip my toe into so many areas and identify those I wanted to explore more.
A name drop—Katie Hunter. When I joined the PR team at Karmarama, one of the first things to catch my attention was the powerhouse that is Katie Hunter. Her role spanned social and strategy and as soon as I’d spent an hour with her, I knew it was something I really wanted to do. At the time, social strategy wasn’t a huge focus for brands, so it felt like I was on the cusp of something really exciting (turns out, I was right!).
What are the biggest challenges about your job?
Not to sound like a broken record, but as much as it’s something I love, the frequency at which social shifts also poses a big challenge. It’s a fun challenge, though, not knowing what new trend or platform update might crop up next week always keeps you on your toes.
Secondary to that, and I think probably attributed to my age, but I suffer massively with imposter syndrome. I often think people are underestimating me, which makes me underestimate myself. It looks different day-to-day, but the struggle to remain confident and back my own abilities is a hazy constant. Helpfully, my mentor (who heads up influencers at Amazon) says it never gets any easier, so there’s that to look forward to(!)
And finally, a more personal one, but I’m a massive empath. Managing a team comes with making difficult decisions and it’s humans you’re making those decisions on behalf of, so it’s tricky to not feel impacted by that.
What skills have been the most crucial to you succeeding in your career so far?
A good friend and old manager once told me it’s better to be the jack of all trades, master of some, than silo yourself. Especially for social, where you’ll be working on a super-integrated bases, there’s huge benefit to be able to speak on many different topics to many different people.
Though maybe not something you can train, having a creative eye and knowing what works well from a design standpoint is super beneficial. To up your creds, think about completing Adobe Suite training and getting yourself familiar with the likes of Canva.
Social is… social. Being a people person and getting to know the humans behind the work will not only help your confidence, but also play a massive part in building a strong that you can leverage as you progress.
What was your first salary and what could someone getting into the industry expect to earn nowadays?
Discounting my placement year (£16k—how I survived off this in London, I’ll never know!) my first salary at Grapevine Digital as an account executive was £22k.
Starting out now, I’d say a junior should be looking at somewhere between £25-27k, depending on sector, in-house/agency and location.
What education or training would be most useful for someone looking to follow your career path?
For social, it’s pretty easy to upskill yourself with online research and resources, rather than spending a load of money on courses. That said, if you’re looking to train in certain development areas (e.g. line management), then Future Learn is a great place to start.
One hill that I am always willing to die on is advocating for mentorship.
A shameless plug, but I’ve been volunteering as marcomms Director at Ok Mentor, a free platform designed to get female creatives into the industry, for just over two years and I’ve met so many incredible women, been exposed to a vast array of skillsets and had free reign to develop my creativity as a result.
During that time, I’ve also been mentored myself and having that unbiased view from someone you admire in the industry is second-to-none. I like to think of it as career therapy.
What advice would you have for someone looking to follow your path?
Stay curious — sign-up to industry newsletters to keep you well-informed without having to do a ton of research. My favourites are Social Media Today and Hey Orca.
Network — this one’s a daunting one, but you’ll reap the rewards long-term. Especially for influencer, work that’s based on relationship-building, you never know who you’ll meet that’ll be able to help you out with an idea or a campaign later down the line.
Keep track of everything you do (creatively and crucially, financially too)—building a strong portfolio that showcases how you think and what results you’ve generated will not only help with internal discussions around your development, but for future opportunities too.
Get a mentor — you won’t regret it.
