the ins and outs of my 9-5
I’ve come to realize that transparency is a core part of how I approach my life and work, but especially in the way I use social media.
I realised this recently because I was thinking about how the way we post to social media shapes the way others see us and what that says about the life we’re actually living.
Social media is a highly curated museum of self. - Sydney Joseph
A recent experience brought this to mind. About a month ago, while running errands with my mom, we were doing a walkthrough of an event space for an expo she was taking part in. The person giving the walkthrough seemed so familiar. After a while, I realized I knew them from Instagram, a fun by-product of being as chronically online as I am. From their profile, you’d think they’re a full-time entrepreneur with massive wins in their business. But the reality is closer to the idea that they’re running their business on the side while holding a full-time job.
Do I think there’s anything wrong with running your business on the side? Absolutely not! I myself started my business while I was a full-time employee and it took me about four years before I eventually got far enough along that my business was able to support me fully. Then, I recently moved back into full-time corporate employment.
Now, seeing how different online impressions can be from reality reminded me of my own goal to be more open. I’ve mentioned my day job here and there but I haven’t shared much detail. So let’s fix that.
I first spoke about my 9 to 5 in a life update. You can read it here if you’d like, but I figure let’s start from the beginning.
At the start of December 2023, I started working at the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday as their Associate Editor - Digital. In that email I explained, The Newsday is one of the three major newspapers of Trinidad and Tobago. My role has me heading up their digital department, planning their strategy for the website, social media and alternative forms of digital coverage.
But let’s dive deeper into what that actually looks like.
If I had to describe it, I’d say that my job there falls into three parts.
Management
Planning and
Execution
Management
As the Associate Editor - Digital, I manage Newsday’s Digital Desk. That consists of a team of three full-time Assistant Digital Co-ordinators. Managing a team of three means there’s a handful of administrative-type stuff to do like building rosters for the team, filling out leave paperwork, planning around vacations, sick days, emergency leave and other boring stuff like that 😂. Right now, we’re actually hiring to fill one of the positions as one of the team moved to another company to explore new opportunities. (If you’ve got a love for all things digital, you might consider checking it out here.)
Managing teams is not new to me in the slightest because when I freelanced on large projects, I’d often bring on a team of sub-contractors to complete deliverables. What’s been a new experience for me is balancing the interests of both sides - the people above me and my team, but it’s an experience I’m happy to be learning from.
Planning
There’s a lot that goes into heading up a digital department and Newsday is no exception. A giant part of what I do is setting a strategic direction for our digital spaces and that involves lots of back-and-forth.
Typically it starts with brainstorming ideas and then building out the proposals and submitting them for internal approval—usually by making the case for how each plan will impact both our brand and our audience.
Some days, that means I’m crafting strategies to boost engagement across our platforms, outlining new ways we can tell stories in digital spaces or trying to improve the digital offering we already have. Other times, it’s diving into analytics and pulling together data to make recommendations for tweaking a current plan or rethinking our approach.
If you know me, you know that I love using the behind-the-scenes stats to build a data-driven approach to improvements. So I’m constantly pulling data on how our strategies are performing, analyzing what’s working and figuring out what we can learn, (In fact, the first week of every month is stats week) or I might be poring over social media metrics, web traffic stats, or broader industry trends to build plans backed by real insights.
The goal is always the same—making sure that our digital strategy isn’t just about “what’s next” but also “what works.”
Execution
Then, of course, there’s the actual execution, and no two days look the same. Sometimes, the execution is just more planning or management, like creating a content calendar or refining a brand guideline for one of our newer platforms. Other times, it’s all hands on deck, with everyone in the team focused on different parts of a project. Execution is all about turning our plans into reality, whether that means working with my team to bring a concept to life or oftentimes rolling up my sleeves and handling some design elements or strategic tweaks myself.
It’s a team effort, so I’m also doing a lot of assigning tasks, setting deadlines, and keeping things moving forward. I might ask one team member to focus on a specific social media campaign while another tracks the analytics and keeps an eye on what’s resonating with our audience.
Execution is where everything comes together, and as much as we can plan, we have to stay adaptable and ready to adjust on the fly. Every day, there’s something new to bring to life. That’s one of my favorite parts of digital marketing as an industry so it brings me great joy to have that carry across into my 9 to 5.
So, that’s a bit more of what goes on behind the scenes in my day job.
If you’re curious about what it’s like managing the digital department of a newspaper, juggling strategy, or balancing creativity with analytics, I’d love to hear from you!
If you hit reply with any questions you have, whether its about the world of digital media or anything else on your mind, they’ll come straight to my inbox. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Sending love from your Chronically Online Friend,
Sydney ✨💖