L.A. Zoo Social Media Manager
I managed organic and paid content, digital marketing, and community engagement for the Los Angeles Zoo from August 2016 to February 2019. In this position I was invited to guest lecture about social media marketing at UCLA, attended Social Media Week Los Angeles, and presented best practices and successful case studies at the Association of Zoos & Aquariums annual conferences. I was a member of the Southern California Museums Digital Marketing subcommittee, and have had posts featured in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Forbes, LAist, Patch, and more. In 2019, I received the PRism Award for the Best Campaign on a Shoestring Budget from the Public Relations Society of America, Los Angeles Chapter, and in 2020 the same campaign earned the Poppy Award for Best Social Media from Visit California.
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube
2020 Poppy Award Winner for Best Social Media Campaign from Visit California, for the campaign I conceived and executed, “K-Pop Mania Comes to the L.A. Zoo with the Naming of its Newborn Pudu.”
#HeatWaveLA: A Twitter thread I created caused a locally-trending topic to spread nationwide, and was even included in a New York Times article.
Meet the Reindeer Keepers: Using the best resources at our disposal, the cuteness of the animals and the personalities of the people who care for them, to show the heart of our Zoo.
Katherine the Koala’s Travel Day: Having the chance to accompany a koala and a zoo keeper on part of their cross-country journey to document it was just one part of the storytelling process involved in this project. Additionally, working together with another zoo and a major airline was a great opportunity.
Community Connections: This exchange was just one beautiful example of how social media community management can help segments of the local public to connect with their own histories through our institution.
![National Zoo Keeper Week 2017: Working with the animal care staff was an extremely satisfying way to facilitate our keepers' participation in the nationwide Zoo Keeper Week event. [see posts]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a10b7c88fd4d26a4eed4f84/1512338643066-XKMQ61OLI19VE4IAOWKW/20229104_10159069146610273_875973943128077268_n.jpg)
National Zoo Keeper Week 2017: Working with the animal care staff was an extremely satisfying way to facilitate our keepers' participation in the nationwide Zoo Keeper Week event. [see posts]
2019 PRism Award winner for Best Campaign on a Shoestring Budget from the Public Relations Society of America, Los Angeles Chapter, for the campaign I conceived and executed, “K-Pop Mania Comes to the L.A. Zoo with the Naming of its Newborn Pudu.”
Zoo Animals Pick My Makeup: Working with James Charles—one the YouTube generation’s biggest influencers—to produce this video gave me the opportunity to spread an educational message to a huge segment of an audience underserved by our traditional marketing tactics. To date, the video has over 11.5M views.
Gratitude Week 2017: A massive undertaking, #GratitudeWeek is representative of one of my main goals in representing the Zoo on social media: to show the heart and humanity of the people who work in various capacities for the ultimate goal of sharing a love of wildlife with our local community. [read more]
Yule Hog: Sometimes what the world needs is a bit of gentle pun-based humor. Hence, a 1-hour loop of porcine footage: the Yule Hog.
K-Pop Mania Comes to the L.A. Zoo: A conservation fundraiser to name a newborn southern pudu fawn after singer Haechan from the K-pop group NCT went viral, with the goal being met in just over two hours, and media coverage including the Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Forbes, Billboard, Yahoo! Entertainment, Reddit, and AllKPop.
What Zoos Do: This post was written as a way of highlighting the collaboration between in situ conservation organizations and AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums.
G.O.A.T. Superlatives: A back-and-forth with the Oregon Zoo on Twitter made print and TV news as a bit of lighthearted punning during a heavy news cycle.
Special Needs Orangutan’s Physical Therapy: Putting together this video was very rewarding, getting to highlight the hard work of so many departments to prioritize the care of one individual, Eloise the orangutan.
Remembering Pandora: It was an emotional and an editorial challenge to eulogize such a significant member of our community in a way that was appropriate for social media. The loving and supportive responses from the commenters was a testament to the effectiveness of the announcement. [read more]
#CuteAnimalTweetOff: "I got here as fast as I could..." I was interviewed for Photoshelter's Libris blog about the success of this trending topic which sprang up organically during a time when many Internet denizens could use a bit of cheering up. This post is featured in the National Geographic Kids Almanac 2019. [read more]
Climate Change: Representing a member institution of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, it is a responsibility and an honor to educate our followers about climate change and other factors threatening wildlife species. LAist reported: "Badlands National Park might have had to delete their super scary factual science tweets (what a world!), but the Los Angeles Zoo Twitter account has their back, and has been dropping straight climate change knowledge all afternoon." [view tweets]
A Tribute to Jonathan Gold: It was a bittersweet honor to share, upon his passing, of the love that L.A.’s iconic food critic had for meerkats. [read more]
When comedian Rob Delaney teased the zoo with a bit of trolling on Twitter, it was an excellent opportunity to respond in kind, showing a lighthearted and savvy brand identity, which was ultimately retweeted and received extremely well by the public. Eventually, a decision was made by a team member to delete the response, despite tens of thousands of impressions with positive sentiment.
World Series 2017: Throughout the 2017 MLB World Series, it was a lot of fun to combine archival photo & video with newly-produced video and engagement with the L.A. community. The highlight of the series was a "bet" with the Houston Zoo that elevated both institutions' conservation success stories. [read more]
Gorilla Brew at the L.A. Zoo: Filming at a local microbrewery was a much different experience than producing typical Zoo video content, and a lot of fun!
Remembering Randa: When this Indian rhinoceros, the oldest of her species, passed away, all who cared for her came together to remember a special creature who survived cancer and touched the lives of so many.
L.A. Zoo’s Baby North American Porcupine Predicts Super Bowl LI: Having a friend who works for ESPN Radio provide the voice-over for this video really took it to the next level!