by Erin Erickson,
Chicago Chapter Vice President
I recently wrote the following column for the website I work for, FoodProcessing.com. I receive a lot of questions about what my job is like, so I thought I’d take to the web to explain. The original column can be found at FoodProcessing.com.
I have been the digital editor for FoodProcessing.com for one year now. Before working for FP, I was a print editor. In the journalism world, that’s known as going to the dark side. I’m an Online Alpha Geek who lingers about the Internet all day. It’s a fun job and I’m really glad I get to do it.
I doubt many of you get to spend as much time as I on the web … but I also suspect there are few people left in the food & beverage business who don’t spend at least some time each day searching the Internet for answers. It’s you I have in mind as I build FoodProcessing.com each day.
Aside from being a repository of the stories from each month’s magazine, there are lots of little functionalities built into FoodProcessing.com; things that we think may make your job easier; things that keep me working on the web all day.
Do I really get to “play” online all day? You be the judge:
5:30 a.m. Wake up in south suburban Chicago home. Check e-mail; scan RSS feeds for news items.
7:30 a.m. Arrive in suburban Chicago office. Dust off road rage; find caffeine.
8:00 a.m. Begin sorting through e-mails from Editor, Publisher and press release senders; begin a daily to-do list.
8:30 a.m. Check LinkedIn Group for any new requests to join and updated discussion items.
9:00 a.m. Check Twitter for any mentions, say hello to followers and check for breaking news.
9:15 a.m. Create upcoming e-newsletters for the week. Search all of FoodProcessing.com for the perfect articles for readers.
10 a.m. Post products for our online product database; post relevant news items or articles.
11 a.m. Check in on Twitter folks again. Ask @juiceherald if they mind that I mention them in this column.
11:15 a.m. Ask and answer internal e-mails about social media, social networking and where to go for lunch.
11:30 a.m. Check site statistics to make sure people are still coming to our site and what they’re looking at when they’re there.
11:45 a.m. Check to make sure Job Boards have relevant job postings.
12:00 p.m. Post more products and news items or articles; mumble something incoherent under my breath about content management system used to post products and articles.
1:00 p.m. Post events that have been forwarded to me for our events calendar.
2:00 p.m. Check LinkedIn Group again.
2:30 p.m. Scan RSS feeds and news briefs for article leads and trends.
2:45 p.m. Remember that I forgot to eat lunch.
3:00 p.m. Post whitepapers to whitepaper library.
3:15 p.m. Make sure I’ve answered daily e-mails, received reviews on e-newsletters and set them up to deploy the next morning.
3:30 p.m. Strategize on ways to improve the user experience for the FoodProcessing.com community.
7:00 p.m. Back at home, post-processed food dinner, logging on one last time to check e-mails, Twitter and LinkedIn Group.
This is reprinted with permission from FoodProcessing.com, where it first appeared. Erin Erickson is the Senior Digital Editor for FoodProcessing.com, owned by Itasca, Ill.-based Putman Media.