SP Diaries #5: Saleh Ahmad, Paid Lead

When did you start working at SP?

I started working at Socially Powerful early-2023. 

What is your role?

Paid Lead.

What does that entail?

My job requires me to adopt a few different personas – the Account/Project Management part of me coordinates members of the team to develop effective creatives and strategy that are informed by competitive and consumer trends to help achieve client objectives. Providing oversight on client accounts and ensuring we produce the best work we can. The Operational part of me works on agency processes, making sure we’re as efficient as we can be as an agency, helping my team and others learn and develop skills, with one eye always looking at what shiny new product and process we can test.

What does an average week look like for you?

The week always starts off with laying out a plan for the week, evaluating resources and deadlines. I was always a fan of methodologically planning tasks (actually doing them is a different story). I enjoy evaluating data quite a bit so I try to incorporate agency process/hygiene tasks into my weekly workload. I’m usually working on a project that requires some Paid Social expertise so I work on creating some (not so beautiful) slides that can help the team and agency move forward. I work with a wonderful team so I’m usually supporting on account management and wider agency projects throughout the week.

Why did you choose SP/ want to work for them?

There’s a sense of collaboration in the air at SP, I quite enjoyed how everyone wanted to help out on the many projects SP works on. This was always my favourite part of working in agencies.

What do you like about working at SP?

People. It’s a little bit trite but the people at SP are great to work with, very helpful and quite clever.

What do you like about working within this industry?

I like how everything we do is connected, different job roles and specialisations always have a connection to another (seemingly unrelated) part of the industry.

What’s the most valuable thing you’ve learned across your career so far?

There’s always a solution or an alternative to the problem you’re having. It surprised me how specific some work can be and still have a million different paths to the finish line.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve overcome at SP?

I was born old (and still managed to be immature) and so keeping up with the kids (my age) and their immense creativity was difficult, especially with a background that was quite maths and science heavy.

How has your career path/vision changed over the years?

I always thought I’d enjoy the data and analytics side of my career more but working at SP has made me enjoy Influencer and Social marketing more and more. The impact it has on the wider social landscape and the future is immense. I think I might create one of those social accounts everyone talks about and give it a go.

What advice would you give to someone starting out in your role?

Learn as many verticals and specialisations as you can as early as you can, it’ll help kick start the growth phase of your career.