Meet Alyssa Aguilar

This month, we spoke with Alyssa Aguilar, Senior Social Media Manager at Hunter Douglas, who shared her thoughts on the future of AI, how her team leverages Effectiveness Rate in their strategy and more.

Tell us a bit about yourself:

I’m currently a Social Media Manager at Hunter Douglas, leading social executions for both Kirsch and Carole Fabrics — with a passion for creativity and innovation. With 9 years of experience in the industry, I’ve developed expertise in roles leading Social and Influencer Marketing at Nespresso and overseeing Influencer and Growth marketing at Uber.

As a marketing professional with a strong background in branding and digital strategy, I’m passionate about crafting compelling narratives that resonate with audiences and delivering engaging content. Outside of work, I find balance in running, as I’m training for my first marathon. I like to stay focused on driving impactful results for the brands I work with while continually pushing my own boundaries, both personally and professionally.

What do you love about working in social?

We, as marketers, are the lucky ones! We get to work in a space where almost everyone is hanging out. It’s exciting to discover new social media trends, best practices and turning creative ideas into real content that people appreciate. In addition, building lasting relationships with talented creators and leading content shoots is always a fun experience. Every day is different and that keeps things fresh and exciting.

What are your biggest social media manager ‘don’ts’?

Don’t be afraid to test and learn. There’s only a learning opportunity for new executions and you’ll never know unless you try. If you work at a company that allows you to roll out new ideas, go with it! What’s the worst that can happen? You now have a learning on what doesn’t work or you produce a viral video? ;)

Alyssa Aguilar

Senior Social Media Manager at Hunter Douglas

Tell us a time when you successfully turned lemons into lemonade?

When I began working at Hunter Douglas, I was tasked with creating a marketing presence for Kirsch, which meant that everything I was going to do was essentially a brand ‘first’. After creating an influencer strategy, I was responsible for sourcing influencers independently, whereas I’ve previously collaborated with influencers through agencies. I managed to develop an effective approach and all of my partnerships to date have been successful, which is a significant achievement. Now, I’m working on maintaining those relationships even after our partnerships end and looking to partner with new influencers interested in elevated design.

woman standing in living room — Image credit: @kirsch

What social campaign are you most proud of from your time with Hunter Douglas?

The Designer Showhouses I’ve partnered with at Kirsch have been the most rewarding. Being part of the design community has many advantages, including presenting our window treatments in an refined, elevated setting for visitors to experience, networking with talented designers and contributing to a greater cause.

cool toned neutral living room with black window fixtures — Image credit: @kirsch

Top tips on how to be a successful social media manager?

My three main tips for finding success as a social media manager are:

Build close relationships with each social platform’s account managers. They can assist in providing best practices and channel updates!
Save trends that are attainable and trends that are a bit of a challenge to create, as they can serve as valuable goals.
Always proofread.

What future social trend or feature excites you most?

I enjoy working closely with content teams during shoots, but I’m genuinely excited about the potential of AI to revolutionize photography, particularly with the capability to create images or even videos from a prompt (similar to what Photoshop does on a small scale) in the near future. Additionally, the integration of augmented reality in Experiential Marketing is something I find fascinating.

‍How does your team use metrics like Entertainment Score or Effectiveness Rate to communicate internally? Do you use them in any other creative ways?

When pulling data, our team leverages Effectiveness Rate to foster alignment, since the metric can be utilized across all platforms and is easy to translate to someone who doesn’t work on the social team. By analyzing this score, I can gauge how well our content resonated with audiences and adjust content output accordingly.