Clever Octopus Social Media Manager
Resume
Managed 3 AmeriCorps VISTA staff members and one college intern.
Increased Instagram reach to non-followers by 65% over a year with lots of ups and downs (read more below.)
Top reel received 15,273 views and 672 likes.
Managed the company’s public social media accounts during a unionization drive and during store closures.
Made an awesome recycling king for an Instagram reel out of a bike helmet visor, bent comb spiral binding strip, a red folder, and a pen.
About
An arts and crafts wonderland, Clever Octopus was a creative reuse thrift store in South Salt Lake. I worked there from April 2022 to just before the store permanently closed in April 2023. There were a variety of craft supplies, from ballet slippers to yarn to fabric. The center also operated volunteer programs, such as warm rice and lavender hearts sewn by volunteers and delivered to patients in hospice care. Other collaborations included arts enrichment in public charter schools and special needs adult work opportunities.
My work often included filming a variety of Reels for Instagram. My favorite featured a button display and a Kardashian audio. Sadly, the store has closed forever and so has their Instagram. Goodbye, Clever Octopus videos that now belong to the giant garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean made into a digital cloud of all our forgotten social medias 🙏
I managed to find one from around the holidays featuring fabulous fanny packs. Enjoy below!
It was certainly a challenging time. There was a Unionization drive and almost all of the staff quit. Navigating emotions and values in often hostile close conditions about the organization left me with a backbone during intense negotiations. Yet I had to depart from the organization for my mental health before the final curtain fell.
I am proud of my work at Clever Octopus, featured below. The accounts remained active because of my work and generated likes, comments, and shares even during times of temporary store closure. The style guide for Clever called for a lot of Octopus-like wiggles and clues we are a little funky. As you would expect from a vintage and craft thrift store named after a cephalopod. I liked to mix a bit of whimsy with realism in the posts because we helped save the planet one recycled pom-pom at a time.
