July 3 2018

In conversation with...

by Aman Parhar

Jean Sebastien Chiasson - Social Media/AdWords/SEO manager here at Websolutions.ca
- talks about Facebook, bread, D&D and his addiction to hamburgers.

Jean-Sébastien Chiasson aka JS

So JS, how long have you been working for Websolutions?

“I started working here about a year ago - March 2017, roughly.”

What were you doing before?

“I worked as a photo editor for ~8 years for a local company - Dubel Photo, where I worked full time editing graduation photos. So I worked with the photographer and did the post-processing part of the workload. Prior to being a photo editor, I was teaching French as a second language.”

Weren’t you in Montreal for a while?

“Yes, I was! I primarily moved to Montreal to stay with my (now) wife, Erin Hennessy, during her studies at Concordia University. I kept teaching French through an online teaching program I helped set up before leaving Halifax. While I was there, I started getting really serious about photography and photo editing - taking classes and picking up small contracts.”

Isn’t that quite the change from what your current portfolio at Websolutions is?

“In a way, it matches it perfectly. In terms of roles, I wear a lot of different hats now. I do social media management and content creation for our social media clients. This means I manage their social media pages and social media presence - creating original

posts, engaging with fans, replying to reviews, etc. I also help out a lot with the Francophone content for websites - doing translation, editing or just writing content for our Francophone clients. When we have website launches, I’m able to take an active role in the QA process.

Apart from that, I'm also Google Ads certified; I create the ads you see when you search on Google as well as most visual ads you’ll see on websites or mobile apps. I create marketing campaigns, write proposals and meet with clients.”

In the middle of editing a photo for a Facebook post.

When in doubt, eat bread - @jeansebastiench/Instagram

Right, that’s a lot of work! What do you do to chill? We know you love making bread.

“I do love to make bread and pizza, even though I don't get to do it as often recently. Honestly, I am a Dad - that’s what I do. Otherwise, I love movies, video games and D&D!”

I want to go back to talking about Social Media Management. Considering you do this on a daily basis, why do you feel it’s necessary in today’s marketing landscape?

“If you own a business, you want your brand to be in front of your current and future customers. As an owner, your time is very precious,so it's most likely a good idea financially to work with a specialist. It's not just about creating posts; it's keeping up with the landscape, algorithm changes, platform

features, terms of services, etc. A big part of your social media strategy is testing. So we'll come up with a new idea, test it - if things aren’t working, we will tweak, stop or continue - and sometimes as a business owner you don’t have the time to analyze the content you put out there. For example, I see a ton of "Like & Share" contests on Facebook which often end up doing some real long term damage to a page.”

Could you break down what you do for a social media client?

“We help with either creating or enhancing your content. For example, we'll help a business owner who has taken a nice photo during the day and edit it, brand it with their logo, write bilingual content and then post it at the right time of the day. We use Facebook analytics to understand things like timing, interests and the way our posts perform.

Apart from that we also do content creation for some clients where we dig deeper to create personalized content. So you can think of us as content creators, writers, photographers, storytellers; making sure your business gets valuable content out there on social media frequently. That's one key thing for business owners: frequency. If your business is doing well and you're busy, you don't have time to post. The problem is: that's when you should be posting the most!”

Brainstorming social media content for the week

Creating content

So how many times a week do you post for a client?

“Well, it all depends on your needs as a business and what your objectives are. For some clients we create a piece of content every week, for others it is 3 times a week. We also have clients who we create content for 5-7 times a week. We’ll go from the regular daily posts, to the 15+ hours content pieces.”

Interesting! Alright so, as I’m asking you this, it's getting close to lunch time. Where is your favourite spot to eat in Bathurst?

“I'm a big fan of Cast & Crew Gastropub lately. I really like the Mushroom and Jack burger there, it's tasty stuff. I also love a good Danny burger at BigD or a Jobie Burger at Jobie's Mobile Kitchen. I think I might have a burger addiction.”

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