Sara LeHoullier has had a diverse background in working both in the states and abroad. She has earned an undergraduate degree is in English and graduate degree from the SIT Graduate Institute in International Development. She is an accomplished author who has also written advertisements for Living Social. She is currently located in Seattle, Washington and working for OPTYVA creating new possibilities for future generations.
I would like to thank you for taking time today to talk about your experiences in marketing and public relations. I am excited to hear more about your new position as Senior Business Optimization Consultant at OPTYVA.
Sara before we get started, can you share a little about OPTYVA?
Sure, the mission statement is to support a network of change leaders who are creating new possibilities for future generations. Through our initiatives, we strive to amplify the voices and efforts of our fellow OPTyvists by providing consulting, media, education and community engagement. As business ecosystems continue to adapt to a new social and environmental reality, we can work together to illuminate and accelerate the promise of a more sustainable and balanced life for all.
That about says it all! We’re working to build an online platform that supports collaboration between individuals, businesses and nonprofits and co-creation of amazing resources for the whole network.
What is your role with OPTYVA and what background or experiences helped prepare you for this job?
I’m what they call a ‘Senior Business Optimization Consultant’, but none of the team members have a fixed job description. I do some client work, mainly with Microsoft, around communications, project management, launch readiness and technical writing. The other half of my job is helping to build a wider community of like-minded individuals and entities working towards a more sustainable, happy world. A part of that is working on communications and marketing strategy and relationship-building.
How much time per week does your company spend promoting itself on and off line?
I’d say probably about 20 hours per week offline – our website hasn’t launched yet and we haven’t finalized our social media strategy yet, so online presence is sparse.
What social media outlets have you found to be the most effective for promoting your business and turning leads into clients?
Through my research, I’ve found that LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest are the most effective promotional platforms, and I’ve included all of those in my strategy.
In your opinion, how important is it for start-ups to get involved in Social Media and have a presence on the web?
It is incredibly important if the business is planning to reach beyond a local audience or gain national or international recognition. There is no other way – people depend on social media for reviews and information, and it is also a very cost-effective way to do marketing.
If you could provide one word of advice for a new entrepreneur in regards to marketing, what would it be?
Get into all of the platforms and experiment with them – keep up to date on trends, but before signing up for something, read up a little bit on how people are using it (if it’s something fleeting it’s not worth your time). Only do what you’re comfortable with, and make sure your messaging is consistent. Separate your own personal opinions from your business persona (if that’s appropriate – sometimes people’s businesses are built on their personal opinions!).
Thank you for your time, I appreciated learning about your background, experiences with OPTYVA. To find out more check out Sara at: http://www.optyva.com/.
