Andrew Hutchinson

About

Of all the things I do now, and have done in the past, I believe my key skill (apart from an aptitude for writing) lies in perspective. Now that might sound odd, that’s not a tangible business skill or buzzword-friendly search term. But perspective, and all it encompasses, is actually the key thing you need in communications and marketing. For example, I’ve learned the media perspective, starting out in media monitoring, where I listened to radio and TV news programs for 8 hours every day. In that entry level role, I learned how stories are communicated, how the media translates issues, what resonates with audiences. I’ve learned the management perspective – I moved on from that initial role to become the National Broadcast Monitoring Manager at Rehame, then the Territory Operations Manager in Canberra for Media Monitors, then the Broadcast Monitoring Manager for Australia and New Zealand at iSentia, responsible for hundreds of staff. From this, I’ve learned to understand the business imperatives of getting the job done, how to maximize human resources to do this, and of the power of effective communication in all aspects. And I’ve learned the reader perspective through content creation and fiction writing. My first novel was published in 2006 - and you don’t get a novel published without understanding the audience. I’ve further refined that in my current role as the Content and Social Media Manager at Social Media Today. If you want to succeed with content, the key is to publish good stuff, to understand what your readers want, and to meet their expectations, consistently, across all platforms. In all of this, perspective remains key - being able to understand the various perspectives and cater to them to maximize the outcome, whatever that may be. The objectives may differ, but my key skill is in pinpointing the desired goal and delivering, through understanding what people want. And that generates results.