Her Story
About Mageida
I've been working in communications and digital marketing for over 10 years. I started my career in public relations and communications, and I was fortunate to be part of the generation that really understood the strong need for having a digital background as a communications expert. When I began, social media was the new shiny thing. Corporations weren't really on social media yet; it was a place for individuals. But as I went through my career, big companies began creating spaces where they could have direct conversations with their audiences. That became a huge focus early in my career and eventually landed me where I am right now as a social media manager.
This allowed me to have a full 360-degree perspective. I still have that PR and communications background, plus the additional digital marketing skill set I've acquired throughout my career. I don't have a social media manager degree, but it became a natural subset of everything I did within my work. I did PR, and that naturally became making sure we posted about it on social media, making sure we were advertising on there, and that was completely new too. That's how I really came to understand digital marketing as an expert.
In my day-to-day, I'm a social media manager at Insperity where I manage organic content for our digital spaces. On the side, I'm a marketing and communications consultant, and what that means is I provide content for my clients and recommendations on the best ways to communicate their mission, vision, and values. How do you show up in digital and media spaces in a way that controls the narrative, who you are, what you stand for, and why your organization exists? I get to guide people in who they want to be on these digital platforms and media audiences in general. It's very exciting work, and I have fun with it. There's a lot of responsibility that comes with it, being honest, showing up with integrity, and staying true to who you are, and that's a space I genuinely thrive in, both personally and professionally.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Mageida
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received was from a professor at my university, and it was specifically for people in the communications space. He said, don't take things personally. As creatives, we get a lot of redlining — whether that's in writing, graphic design, digital work, whatever it is. There are a lot of red marks when it comes to editing your work. It taught me that feedback and opinions are usually subjective to the work — not to me as a person. That really saved me a lot of personal strife early in my career, because there can be a lot of it. And as a woman, I think we can sometimes receive more of it than our counterparts. It was important for me to be in a space where I could take thoughts, opinions, and constructive feedback and apply them to my work to keep getting better — without letting it touch me personally.
I can still see myself in that room when he said it. I remember hearing it, writing it down, and thinking, that's a really interesting take on the industry. Because nobody had ever just said it plainly like that. Even in writing courses where there's constant redlining and feedback, nobody had ever simply said — don't take things personally.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
It's really important that you build yourself up and get your skill sets sharp. That goes a long way for your career, taking things one step at a time. For me right now, that's the professional development piece and this big conversation around AI. What are those first steps to get me there, to get me as the expert in that space, so that when meetings or projects happen, I can eloquently speak to those things with teammates or partners.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the things that's really true about our industry is that you always have to stay up to speed with the latest. Our space moves so fast that we have to move even faster as individuals to keep up. Right now, I'm really interested in the conversations around AI, specifically for marketing as an industry. I'm diving deep into what that means, getting educated and certified in that space, because you never know what the next big thing is. Continued learning, and having the mentality that education is the foundation of how you get better and do better, is really important to me.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
There's a lot of responsibility that comes with my work — being honest, showing up with integrity, and being authentic to who you are. In my personal life, I'm very passionate about activism, specifically around issues that impact women and children. That's been my focus for the last few years because I have nieces who are in public school, and the impact social issues have on their psychology and their emotional and physical well-being are so important to me.
When I worked with a breast cancer nonprofit, it was a very personal initiative to make sure women understood the resources available to them. Women in my community are suffering, and I wanted to make sure they had the information necessary to save their lives. People sometimes say we're not saving lives in social media and PR — but sometimes you are.
Continued learning is also really important to me, personally and professionally. You never know what the next big thing is, so having the mentality that education is the foundation of how you get better and do better — that's something I carry with me every day.
Keep Exploring
More Influential Women · New York
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.