My food & drink job: Danielle Taylor, senior social media exec, Quorn

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Danielle Taylor - Quorn Foods

Name: Danielle Taylor

Age: 25

Job title: Senior social media executive

Company & location: Quorn Foods, Leeds

Education: BA Management with Marketing at University of Leeds

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? I’ve always been a creative person, and I actually wanted to be a graphic designer, which is related to parts of my role now.

Why did you decide to go for a career in food & drink? I am a huge foodie. One of my biggest interests is cooking and I love hosting dinner parties for my friends at the weekends. When I’m not hosting at home, I love to eat out too, trying new and exciting foods.

I’m always searching on socials for new food and drink launches so working in fmcg is such a dream. I love the fast-paced environment! Nothing beats seeing one of our products going from plans to plates and then hearing how much consumers love them on our social channels.

Explain your job to us in a sentence (or two): All things social media! My day to day includes managing and creating Quorn brand content and boosting presence across all our social media platforms, while keeping up with trends and consumer interests to make sure we’re pushing the best content.

“We’ve just launched our Cheesy Nacho Nuggs and are having lots of fun on socials with our new Nacho character”

What does a typical day look like for you? We all know how fast-paced social media can be, so no two days are the same. My day usually starts with a social media deep dive, checking in on any engagements, analysing the content plans for the day ahead and scouring feeds to get the latest updates.

Influencer liaison is a huge part of my role. We’ve been lucky enough to work with some exciting on-trend influencers, so I’ll be catching up with our team and agencies on any ongoing or upcoming collabs we have in the pipeline. We’re always looking to reward our followers on Quorn socials, so we regularly team up with other brands on exclusive giveaways. My day to day involves sourcing appropriate brands for these partnerships and building relationships, then creating the content to support.

Nacho Nuggs tacos with pack_1x1

Content planning is one of my biggest priorities. From product launches to promotions and ad hoc trends, this makes up a huge part of my role, alongside the analysis of post performance. Social media is such a strong communications tool to be able to feed back on all areas of the business, and offers a convenient gateway for shoppers to communicate with us.

Tell us how you went about applying for your job: I originally saw the job advertised on social media (of course) and knew it was the perfect role for me after I’d graduated. There were three stages in total. After checking out my CV, I was invited to join a remote interview to discuss the position further. I knew I had the experience and passion to land this position and upon our first meeting the team put me right at ease.

I then had a face to face interview, where I had to complete a task and deliver a presentation. I really enjoyed this and all of the prep work involved, as it gave me a chance to really show off my skills. The task involved planning for different events in the marketing calendar from an earned, owned and paid media perspective, which was really useful and very relevant. It was a fantastic learning experience, and I felt so grateful to have been successful.

What’s the best part about working for a food & drink company? Getting to work for a well-known and loved brand is one of the best parts. Quorn’s vision and values align with my own too, so that’s a special benefit. I also love having the opportunity to get involved in lots of exciting campaigns and projects. We’ve just launched our Cheesy Nacho Nuggs and are having lots of fun on socials with our new Nacho character.

And what’s the biggest misconception people have about working in food & drink? From my experience, I think there are a lot of assumptions that brands in the food and drink industry don’t really care about their impact on people, or the environment. It couldn’t be further from the truth, especially at Quorn Foods. Quorn is always striving to achieve its sustainability goals, and giving back to the planet and its people is at the heart of everything we do – something that is also important to me personally.

What advice would you give to other young people looking to get into the food & drink industry? Firstly, it’s obviously beneficial to have a keen interest in food and drink and the particular sector of the market you’re looking at roles for. I’d also say you need to have an understanding of industry trends and competitors. The market is constantly changing and so are your consumers’ wants and needs, so it’s useful to keep your eye on things as they develop.

It’s also really important to think about how you can stand out from the crowd. I actually had my own foodie Instagram account which I managed in my spare time at uni, something I know set me apart from other candidates when applying for my job at Quorn.

What’s your ultimate career dream? I’d love to further grow the social team at Quorn and, as part of that, be able to lead and nurture someone new to the industry. Being a manager is something I’m striving towards within the next few years.