Kayla and Taylor talk with Jackie about social media.
Guest: Jackie Blundell, Senior Marketing Communications Manager, Devo
On Twitter | https://x.com/devo_Inc
On LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquelineblundell/
Hosts: Kayla Williams
On ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/kayla-williams
Taylor Parsons
On ITSPmagazine | https://itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/taylor-parsons
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Episode Description
Jackie takes Kayla and Taylor down the social media and content creation process and why it is so important for security practitioners and building your own personal brand.
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Resources
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For more podcast stories from The Locked Down Podcast With Kayla Williams and Taylor Parsons: https://itspmagazine.com/locked-down-podcast
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Build Social Media Presence | A Conversation with Jackie Blundell | Locked Down Podcast With Kayla Williams and Taylor Parsons
Taylor: [00:00:00] Welcome to the latest episode of Lockdown with Kayla and Taylor. With cybersecurity encompassing so many facets of business and home life, it can easily become overwhelming and stressful. With our help, you'll be able to make sense of it all.
Now, this week, we are discussing a rather interesting and somewhat elusive topic. Building a personal brand through a social media presence while being in the security space and with us today to tackle this subject is Jackie Blundell, marketing comms, content, and social media extraordinaire. So welcome to the show, Jackie.
Jackie Blundell: Thank you guys for having me. I'm adding that to my LinkedIn header after we wrap this up. Absolutely. It's so true.
Kayla: Hashtag.
Taylor: Love it. Yeah.
Kayla: Let's dive right in, Jackie. The first and the most important question is how do people start to build a presence online in the security space?
Jackie Blundell: Yeah. That's a big hairy question. I think before we talk about posting to social media and starting to build up your presence, you really need to take a step back.[00:01:00]
And first think through what is your personal brand? You need to have an understanding of what that is. And then from there, decide how you want to approach your social media strategy. So one way I like to think about it is first understanding, what is your unique value proposition as a brand?
A person like what do you bring to the table either in your personal life or career? And how do you want to bring that forward and how you communicate who you are? And then who is your audience is the second part of that, who are you trying to communicate to? If you're posting on social media just to post on social media, you're probably not gonna be very effective So for me when I think about my unique value proposition just by way of example I like to think of Okay, I am a person who is exceptionally well at long term project planning and executing.
But on top of that, I like to infuse personality into my work and bring, a good energy and attitude to my work. So what I like to say [00:02:00] is that I'm an amazing project manager who comes to meetings with an agenda and a smile. That gives you a sense of who I am, right? But then on top of that, okay, I'm this amazing project manager, but what type of projects do I manage?
I manage marketing projects, not just marketing projects, social media, marketing projects, social media, marketing projects for SAS companies, for B2B SAS companies, for B2B cybersecurity companies. So now you have a really great sense of who I'm trying to talk to you and what I'm about and what type of insights I'm going to bring to the table.
So before you, Post social media or build your social media profiles. It's important to do that legwork and think about, okay, who am I? And what am I even trying to say on here?
Kayla: Yeah, that's a really good point. And I think people forget that even if you aren't security practitioner, you are still in the security space.
If you are working at a security company,
that sells a security tool or, is [00:03:00] some sort of security company that you are in the cybersecurity space and you are exposed to it. So your thoughts and. Your insights are going to be very valuable to an audience. People will want to learn from you. And I think that's a, that's actually a really good point.
So you talked about like what areas do people excel in and like what drives me and how that can help you to narrow down your target. audience. Is there like anything like a template or anything people should be using or is it like just a because you obviously you know this are there resources people could use?
Jackie Blundell: Yeah, I came up with my framework, honestly, just by searching personal branding best practices on Google. I did not make this up myself. There's tons of resources online. I have my own presentation and doc that I walked Our sales team through for building their social media presence, our social media experts and our spokespeople through at our organizations.
In terms of framework, though I use the three step down method. So start [00:04:00] broad. For example, when choosing your audience, you start with that broad marketing category, and then you push yourself to take it three steps lower to get more niche and more specific, and to really make sure you're getting at what you're trying to communicate to and what type of content you're trying to put together.
That three step framework can really challenge you into thinking about, What exactly do I excel at and exactly who would benefit from my area of expertise?
Taylor: See, I struggle with that, right? It's hard.
Jackie Blundell: It's a hard exercise. It is.
Taylor: Because being present in social media is like, The exact opposite construct of security, right?
And it's I need to reduce my presence. I don't need to be Googleable. But also at the same time, like your reputation and being reputable speaks volumes in the industry.
So having that presence is actually very important to building your career, building your brand. And so like there, there's almost like contradictions in building [00:05:00] security profile and a social media presence at the same time.
Jackie Blundell: Yeah. It's interesting too, because as you're progressing your career, oftentimes the companies you work for, et cetera, they want you to be more active on social, but then as a security person, you're like, I don't know if I should be putting all this information out there. So I think there are definitely some best practices for making sure you're not airing out too much personal information.
While also, sharing best practices and showing yourself off as a thought leader. For example, if you're trying to show who you are as a person, but also trying to, talk about the latest security breach example. et cetera, and are drawing parallels between your personal life and whatever's happening in the security space.
Maybe you don't share the name of your dog because maybe someone will use that to crack a password or something. I don't know. But maybe keep those details intimate, don't share the names of your children, et cetera, or lack too much personal information [00:06:00] out. So that way, as security people, you guys are more, this is more top of mind for you than me, but there are ways to share who you are without a password.
Letting out those intimate details so that way you don't. Expose yourself.
Kayla: Yeah, and I do that on social media. I have like hashtag S1 for my oldest and hashtag S2 for my youngest because their names start with that.
Jackie Blundell: Everyone should be doing that, outside of the security space or not, like the amount of personal information that people share, especially when it comes to like their family and children, et cetera.
I'm like, you don't work in security, you probably shouldn't be doing that.
Taylor: Yeah. General best practices on how not to, get pwned. But I mean that like that, like you bring up a lot of good points, right? Growing and being present and drawing personal parallels. It almost thinks of, makes me think of split personalities, right?
Is your social media presence playing to the personal side? Is it playing to the professional side, which is drawing more attention. And I think that, that, that really helps beg the [00:07:00] question of should you start your social media presence and building your brand through. Through a corporate entity, such as your job or organizations you're aligned to, or should it be something that is personal and unique to you that incorporates the things that you are associated with either by trade craft or by career choice?
Jackie Blundell: Yeah, for me, I, even though I am like in the corporate communications profession, and obviously I work really closely with our spokespeople in the broader organization on social media, I really think appreciate and value when the spokesperson themselves or the person I'm working with has a vested interest in their own social media presence.
And they're just not taking canned content that I'm teeing up for them, because it's not going to resonate. Like it has to be driven by you to some degree, because You're bringing the unique perspective to the table and the unique insights to the table that people want to hear. And only your unique voice can draw that type of attention and engagement if you've gone and done the prep [00:08:00] work and thought through what you're trying to communicate and say.
So I believe that whether or not you are an official spokesperson of your business or not, You should be building your social media presence. I think in today's world, whether in security or not, personal brand drives so much value and it's an opportunity for you to showcase your expertise. Now, with that said, remember that if you are taking this journey and are going to build your personal brand, your own, and you do have aspirations to step into leadership positions some days, or be in positions that are more visible at businesses in the future, What you're saying and posting online now will be reviewed and considered in the future and there will be some forward looking Businesses that again appreciate having someone who's vocal who's sharing an opinion Who's taking a provocative stance and is truly a thought leader, but at the same time it has to be done respectfully, right?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think [00:09:00] that goes with the saying like that. We've heard a lot lately about Maybe past five years or so, or, you can have an opinion. You can say whatever you want, but you are not free from the consequences of what you've said. So I think that's very pointed and it's something that is a good reminder.
And yeah. Keep it clean, folks. Let's just keep it clean. Potential employers Google
Jackie Blundell: you. Yeah, and security folks are not shy of sharing their opinions either, which is amazing. That's what makes for good social content but has to be done in a way where, of course, you're not, Sometimes too mean , so
then sometimes
Jackie Blundell: I guess I, I like a spicy opinion. I use, so Hootsuite is a social media company. They have a hot chili pepper that they use. It's like the spiciness of your post, and it's like the spicier it is the more likely it is to get engagement. Oh, nice. I buy away from spiciness. If everyone's saying the same thing, we're just sitting in an echo chamber.
But. Yeah, [00:10:00] you got to toe the line a little bit.
Kayla: So with that being said then, Jackie, like all of that, that was just a lot to cover. Is it better to start through the company that you work at or to do it on your own? What are your thoughts there?
Jackie Blundell: I think it's, I think it's good to start on your own, especially if you're not in a position right now that you're not in a leadership position where you're going to get hooked up with someone like me helping you manage your social media presence.
I think it's a good thing to start, especially early on in your career. There's a lot of security practitioners that are gaining traction and momentum on platforms like LinkedIn. I don't think you have to wait to have a senior title to start working on your personal branding. I think it's something you should be thinking throughout your entire career.
That said, welcome the support. If it's available to you from your business, hopefully you get someone who understands that, I'm not going to be asking you to exclusively be posting blog posts from the company blog and pushing whatever product we're trying to push. That's not good. That's just not good social media [00:11:00] strategy or management or personal brand building.
But I think it's something that folks should prioritize in their personal time and regardless of where you are in your security career journey, starting now and identifying what platforms you're really comfortable with and what types of mediums of content you're comfortable with is a good way to just get started and you can do it in stages.
Like you don't have to all of a sudden be a content creator on day one. You can start by commenting on people's posts and sharing your opinions that way. And as you get more comfortable with kind of the two way dialogue that happens, then maybe step into Publishing your own post and setting goals for publishing once or twice a week or whatever it may be just to get you started
Kayla: Starting a podcast.
Jackie Blundell: Yeah
Kayla: yeah, what's what are your thoughts then? In our security space here, tic tac, no tic tac what are your thoughts there? Because that is a spicy. It's a
Jackie Blundell: controversial
Kayla: one.
Jackie Blundell: It's a controversial one. I do not have it. I will say I don't have it. I know. I tried to send you a tic tac the other day and you couldn't watch it.
So I [00:12:00] screen recorded it for Kayla. And then I sent it to her because the content was just too relatable. And I was like, be reckless, get on tic tac with me. So I actually, so tic tac. Funny. I'm on Tik TOK. I don't post a Tik TOK super frequently. I actually ended up privating my account because I blew up on Tik TOK and I had 150 K views of a hidden room that I found in my last apartment.
Funny side story. And then I have, I was like a hosting, like a Q and a series. I was having a lot of fun. Then I was like, I need to shut this down. Was that in Boston? It was my last apartment yeah. Not where I'm currently residing, but in my last place as I was moving out, I found a board in my closet, and then I pulled back the board, and there was a whole other room back there.
It was a lot of fun. Was
Taylor: there a mattress and a lamp? Yeah,
Jackie Blundell: right? No. Just, there was some there was a lot of woods and a birdcage. It's a whole thing,
Kayla: a birdcage? Someone lived in that room? Sorry, we're totally going off on a tangent here, Jackie. We're going to talk about that
Jackie Blundell: another time.
That might be another episode. I can show you the [00:13:00] content privately, one to one.
Anyways,
the security space. There are people who are very against TikTok. Obviously for, the global geopolitical landscape and everything happening, and oh my god, China's spying on all of us. I'm like, China has my information.
It's done, so I'm keeping TikTok. But there are a growing number of junior practitioners on TikTok or like entry level to like mid level practitioners. And, we do some focus groups as part of our like marketing, planning, and trying to figure out where people are getting their information from particularly as we're looking at the SOC practitioner.
And there are one of, in some of the focus groups you've hosted, I'm like, where are you getting your information? What are your, what's in your daily social media rotation? And someone said TikTok, and I was shocked. I was like, really? Because [00:14:00] as an organization that also works with The public sector, like that's a big no.
That's a huge no, no. It's blocked in some government, offices. So it's a mixed bag really. I think if you are early on in your career as a lot of folks who are doing like a day in the life of a soft person and like showing the ins and outs of the roles or responsibilities what they're doing, sharing like a day in the life, that's super common content.
And then there are folks. Who are in the YouTube space that are posting clips on TikTok and teasing their content out on TikTok. So I don't think it's off the table. I think we'll see what shakes up with this maybe TikTok ban that's happening. Yeah. For security reasons. But there's definitely a hard line in the sand.
I think you got to know where you play in the security space and whether or not that's, A no for the vertical you're in, a no for the type of security that you're in. So
Kayla: yeah,
Jackie Blundell: again, it's important knowing your [00:15:00] audience, right? Go back, do that prep work, figure out who you're trying to talk to.
And if your people are not on TikTok or do not look at TikTok finally, don't go on it.
Kayla: Yeah, I think that's actually a really good point. Like making sure that you are aware of what you're doing and maybe even getting your legal team's approval, depending on What type of content you're posting and what your tenure is at your company and your status is, that might be worthwhile.
It's hey, this is my plan. Am I authorized to do this? Yeah. That's actually a good point too.
Jackie Blundell: Yeah, for the people doing like the Day in the Life content, I have to wonder. I'm like, imagine if your HR sees that. I don't know how that goes over. Yeah. Clean desk. It's really common across security and other places.
Kayla: Clean screen, clean desk. Oh my God.
Taylor: Yeah. Kayla, can I see you in my office, please? I
Kayla: know. I can just see it now. Oh my God. I'll stick to LinkedIn and Twitter or Axe, whatever, for now. No, I
Taylor: mean, it is. And I think that, Jackie, to [00:16:00] your point, though, it's also like social media evolution and like the what are they?
Gen Z ers? Is that what they are? Like the ones below us, Kayla, Gen Z?
Jackie Blundell: Yes, Gen Z. I think, Jackie, you're Gen Z, aren't you? I'm a, I clear it. I'm a baby millennial. Okay.
Taylor: Like three days.
Jackie Blundell: A few years between me and the Gen Zers.
Taylor: I think because even with that like I see that a lot of Gen Zers and, younger people, including like my teenagers and things like that, like they, They welcome the sharing of certain information that,
as our careers were progressing or as we were coming up in corporate, it was like, those are almost like trade secrets or tribal knowledges that you have to go through like the lessons learned and like the hardships to, develop the thick skin to deal with some of those situations.
Like I, [00:17:00] I've seen tech talks about, how to deal with feedback and how to deal with Incident management, incident response. And for me, it's wow, like that was a lesson learned. I had to go through an actual incident and play it out and get the feedback, like very raw and very emotional because it was in the moment of Hey, I.
You shouldn't have done that.
Jackie Blundell: Yeah, I actually
Kayla: endured the trauma. Yeah, right? No, Taylor, that's actually a really good point. The newer generations are so much more open and communicative than prior generations are, which is why I think you see a lot of discourse in the security space, a lot, with the executives and the, The folks who've been around for a little bit longer in, in those roles, not adapting and wanting to fit those new marketing communication strategies and want, don't want to be spokesperson.
Don't want to be the face of a brand or a product. They look at their own brand of knowing the people that they've [00:18:00] known when they would actually literally pick up a phone and put a number.
Jackie Blundell: Yeah. They're also too, they're like, I also don't want to make myself a target by going out there and posturing myself as a security expert.
I think there was that list that got published last year of the top CISOs in North America or something like that. I think Forbes did it. Fact check me.
There was a, there was one list that Forbes did and the list that the other, I was not on the Forbes list, but I was on another one.
Yeah. You were top, you were one of the top CISOs to follow.
I know what that is. There was like top CISOs in the U S based on their organization security posture. Yes,
Kayla: that's right.
Jackie Blundell: That's correct. Everyone had, it was like, Oh my God, you basically just put out a list. That said, try me. Yeah. That was
Kayla: a hit list. We were calling it a hit list in the CISO spaces. Yeah.
CISO hit list. Yeah.
Jackie Blundell: Oh, I understand the apprehension for sure. If you're going out there and saying, I am this expert that's delving out all these best practices. Like I understand the thought that could put a target on my back, [00:19:00] but I think there's strength in more people doing it and more people sharing the information and we can't be afraid to share information and share best practices.
These are the bad guys because who knows what forms they're in and conversations that they're having doing the same thing just on The other side. Yeah, that's,
Kayla: that's actually an excellent point too. So many good points are being made.
Taylor: I know. I love it. We're all proud of you. I just, I remember getting yelled at for Googling a stack trace error one time.
Coming up with the right answer.
Yeah, but
because I Googled it, they were like,
Kayla: times have changed. Taylor. We're old now. We are old. I am listen in the world, I'm creep up on 40.
Jackie Blundell: Googling is the least defense that you can do with this sport. .
Taylor: Yeah. But there, but to that point, it was like, there used to be, I'm trying to all the, like the tech blog site.
I stumbled upon it one time and I was like, Oh, there's really good information here. And there's like a PowerShell query of something I was trying to do. I was trying to like remotely get logs for something. [00:20:00] And I was like, Oh yeah, that's why this isn't working. And they were like, I can't believe you Googled that.
You just got to try until you get it right. And I'm like, but now it's like you go on. X or TikTok and they're like, Oh, do you want to see me break down PowerShell and
Kayla: that's working smarter, not harder. And those social media content creators are doing us all a favor because then you're able to focus on other things.
I think, I think that's awesome. And growing up like, and as like a woman in security and like a woman in tech, I started in financial services in that space. A lot of the stuff that was like pushed to me was building your own brand. How do you become a CEO or how do you become a big, a senior executive?
You have to build a brand and that's not just a social media brand, but it's also what you like how you compose yourself in the office as well. It's all a big package that can really, to your point earlier, Jackie, it's who you are, who your audience is. Are you trying to impress your executive team for a promotion?
Are you trying to impress customers, [00:21:00] prospects are you trying to educate people in those same spaces? Like how you present yourself? It's a whole bundle. It's not just one component. But circling back to what you were saying before where does one start with content creation?
I know you'd said you don't have to dive all in. At once, you can take it really slowly. Is it building a presence? Like I was challenged with 20 new LinkedIn connections a week. Start there, build your audience and then go. So what do you do in that, for that space?
Jackie Blundell: Yeah. I say start small and scale, start with a small goal.
To challenge yourself to post once a week to start. Once you get in that rhythm, change it to twice a week. Do what's manageable for you, especially if, you're just getting started and you're not even really sure what to post. I am, I describe myself as the, in social media and marketing, we use a string of emojis to describe ourselves.
[00:22:00] I'm with the flower, the disco ball, the lady dancing and like the writing. And then there are other marketers who are like the hard graphs and the numbers and the et cetera. So I don't necessarily hold myself to really strict benchmarks on like the reach and engagement side. I have ranges that I think are good generally for setting benchmarks and just like keeping an eye on your content metrics within Whatever analytics are available in whatever platform you're deciding to invest your time into but I think it's important to understand, what medium of content you're most comfortable with.
Platforms like LinkedIn, Mastodon, Reddit, Discord, whatever it may be. Those are obviously text heavy, so if writing comes naturally to you and that's what you're most comfortable with, go with that and challenge yourself to post once a week to start and then ramp up from there. But if you are someone that's comfortable with video and maybe is more comfortable talking through your points or [00:23:00] sharing your points verbally, maybe a YouTube channel is the best way for you to get started and maybe it's not the written content.
Maybe your grammar sucks and it's not for you. Maybe you're just better at talking and that's okay and then you can clip it and put it on TikTok and maybe challenge yourself to edit one video a month to start and go from there. I think it's, thinking about where you're most comfortable, where you present best and what's your strengths and starting with those small goals and scaling and seeing what type of feedback you're getting to inform your strategy going forward.
Taylor: I should definitely tell my daughter that because her TikToks draft folder is like 380. Oh
Jackie Blundell: my goodness.
Taylor: Post something like just post one of them. You don't have to
Jackie Blundell: search for perfection as you're getting started. And I think almost like the imperfect post to begin with is really what starts to build your audience.
It doesn't have to be overly polished. Like I almost have to unpolish us a little bit on the brand side when I'm [00:24:00] working from like my corporate position. Cause I'm like, No person talks like this. No person posts like this. No one's posting, people are posting really cool content, don't get me wrong, and I'm sure there are influencers and creators that have a whole editing team behind them, but as you're getting started, don't feel like you have to compete with the folks that have an editing team and are putting these really squashy things together That's huge.
You don't you can still do it, and it doesn't have to be an incredibly polished shop to get going. I
Taylor: think that's where I struggle, right? I have an ex, I have a LinkedIn I have opinions, right? I want to I
Jackie Blundell: have the opinions!
Taylor: I want to get them out there, but then it's I start typing and it's like like when you get gun shy almost or, trigger shy.
Jackie Blundell: What if someone comments disagreeing? Then what am I going to say? I don't want to be, I don't want
Kayla: anything controversial.
Taylor: Yeah. Oh, I'm not afraid of that. I'm afraid of like the tone in which it's interpreted.
Kayla: Yeah. But to that point though, you can't, [00:25:00] you are not responsible for how people interpret what you're saying.
Like totally off track here, but I watched an episode of modern family the other day and they were like making up. They were, Phil had been talking to an old girlfriend from high school and his wife was putting like a certain tone to his messages to her and making it like salacious when he wasn't being that way at all.
But then the girl ended up doing it the same thing when they met in person. He's like, why is everyone putting a tone? There's no tone here. I think it's a good point. We can't control how people will interpret what we say. I've been a victim of it where I upset someone because I made comments about someone wearing glasses and I got some really negative feedback about that.
I wear glasses. I have three pairs of glasses over to my right. Like I wear them. Yeah.
Taylor: She just can't find them because she's not wearing any of them.
Kayla: Exactly. That's my problem. And I will not touch my eyeballs, but anyway. It
Jackie Blundell: doesn't always have the full context [00:26:00] and sometimes you might have to explain or elaborate on that context and that's okay.
Taylor: It's just security is a very hot topic anyways. If you're, if someone has put something out there and either you're agreeing or disagreeing and you're just making a statement as you would like in a regular conversation oh, I actually think you should probably think about this way.
It oftentimes feel like, oh, you think, oh, you should think about it this way. It's no, like I was just Like just human interaction. It's
Jackie Blundell: Imagine I said it to you verbally, right?
Taylor: And that's where I've seen and another thing is the use of the L. O. L. and the emojis and like using softening tones.
All of those are, very important things to help lead to that. But I know that, we're really coming up on time here. I guess really like Jackie social media hot take to wrap us up with all of the things that we've learned today or maybe just in general it can't be Tik Tok related [00:27:00] because,
Jackie Blundell: is that, when X became X we were Wondering what was going to be the tech space platform that the security community gravitated to. I Mastodon, but. I think at the end of the day, the winner was really LinkedIn. And I don't think people should be sleeping on LinkedIn and looking at it, only a place to find jobs.
I think it is the place to be building your personal brand right now in the security space too, don't sleep on it. That's my hot take.
Taylor: I appreciate that. Kayla, Jackie, wonderful talking to you guys today. I really appreciate the time and can't wait for Kayla, our next episode and Jackie, the next time you come on and give us another, social media roundup or help guide lockdown with Kayla and Taylor.
Marketing that's needed.
Jackie Blundell: Awesome.
Thank you guys for having
Kayla: me. Yeah. Thanks, Jackie. Thank you, Taylor.
Taylor: Appreciate it.
Speaker 7: Bye, everyone.