We recently connected with Maria Pedone and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Maria thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

Most people think of social media marketing as simply the content that gets posted to a brand’s account. And that is true — there’s a great deal of thought and effort that should go into planning and creating engaging Reels videos or scroll-worthy graphic carousels. But where my company differentiates itself is within the internal details and orchestrating how a team goes about strategizing and producing content; not just focused on the finished product itself.

I believe that strong, simple systems open up a way for creative flexibility and brainstorming that otherwise isn’t possible when your time is spent hunting for image files, tracing back paper trails of approval conversations, and deciphering what hashtags and mentions to include on posts. So while the content that gets posted is what’s going to grow your audience and engage ambassadors and drive brand awareness, it’s also the behind-the-scenes operations of how it all gets done that produces the best results (with the happiest team members). Plus, that emphasis on communication will translate to your external moderation and community management efforts on social; which will also build trusting relationships with your audience.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Of course! My name is Maria Pedone, and I’ve been helping global brands like Time, Inc., American Express, Tripadvisor, Miro, Afterpay and more grow their digital marketing efforts for the last 13+ years. Originally an English major in college, I was excited to dive into the world of publishing at Travel + Leisure after graduation; a few days after being hired, the head social media manager for the magazine quit and I was given the reigns to Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and more — and I haven’t looked back since!

I love all thing social media and content strategy; the way that these platforms change and shape the way we share, communicate and connect with loved ones as well as total strangers around specific topics, it’s incredible to watch and be a part of. My roles have always straddled the in-between of creative execution and operations/project management. It’s given me a taste for what will resonate with audiences, as well as a knack for creating order out of chaos. My biggest joy now is seeing the relief for clients when there’s complete transparency, no games of telephone and a system to track and report on all of the efforts they’re putting forth.

My social media strategy firm, Well Pleased Consulting, plays into that. We have creative powerhouses on our team that can edit videos, write compelling captions and keep processes organized to a T. We offer full-scale social media management (content creation, community management, strategy, reporting, influencer partnerships), as well as project-based audit and strategy packages that allow us to go deep and unearth what’s working, what’s not, how a brand stacks up to competitors; and envisioning and laying out a plan for the way forward. We’ve spoken at tradeshows on how business owners can reach their niche audiences and grow their businesses on social media; and have trained internal teams on how to take a strategy and run with it on their own.

Our clients have used words such as thoughtful, refreshing, reliable and kind to describe our team and the way we approach marketing and growth on social media.

What we’re most recently proud of? We’ve tapped into speaking engagements to educate audiences on the power of social media for their brands and businesses; and recently gave a talk during Hidden Doorways’ New York City roadshow. We spoke to travel advisors on how they can use social media both to reach their target audience and market their business, and also as a value-add to their services (ie communicating and collaborating directly via social media DM or shared boards/spaces with their clients, which offers an extra level of access to their expertise). While the presentation went fabulous and we’re already getting inbounds from it, what I’m personally most proud of is my team member Kendall. She’s a creative powerhouse who’s been working with me for the past year, and recently graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design with a BFA in Social Media Strategy and Management. There was no hesitation when I told her we’d do the speaking gig together — and let’s just say when you have a Millennial AND a Gen Z-er gushing about social to a crowd, it makes it that much more fun and insightful to listen to. She stepped up to design our deck, add humor and use her real-world experience on social to explain where the future is headed. I loved seeing her shine up there, and the feedback we received from the audience proved that they felt the good vibes (and were grateful for the action-oriented tips), too.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Professional communities aren’t just an incredible means of support for me as an entrepreneur, but they’ve also been a great source of client referrals. I joined The Upside when I first started my business (a community for consultants and service-based businesses across industries) and within six months had landed my biggest client from a referral. While that’s not the goal of the communities that I’m a part of (including private Slack channels and email lists), I find that the authentic networking and peer-to-peer support keeps us all more open to sharing referrals or roles that we see or hear of. We’re all power-networkers, always looking to connect with other smart, kind people; and that naturally expands the pool of potential clients and opportunities you’ll come across.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I had been working in corporate for five years — first at Time Inc. and then at American Express — both in social media/digital marketing/content roles, and had incredible team members that I still keep in touch with today. However at one point, I recognized that there was an itch to do something different. I didn’t quite know what it was, but I knew I needed space to figure it out. So I made the bold move to quit my job with nothing lined up, and no plans (note that I would never necessarily recommend this to someone! It just happened to be my path). For the first time, I asked myself what did I want to be doing at work? A list of eclectic answers arose in my mind: I wanted to be able to travel (not like, to Las Vegas for conferences but to travel the world as part of my creative work); I wanted the opportunity to write more; I also wanted to lean into team-building and creating company culture — even though at that point I only had volunteer experience leading larger teams and understanding how culture impacts an organization. These desires seemed disparate and I couldn’t imagine a role that would allow me to do all of them, but I have faith in God and so surrendered it to Him.

As I started reaching back out to my former colleagues and bosses for coffee chats to tell them where I was, I discovered that a former colleague of mine had recently started a social media agency and was in need of help. Her and I had tried to meet up in the past, but timing was difficult with career schedules and family obligations. Then I saw her name pop up on my phone — I didn’t even realize she still had my number, as we hadn’t spoken in years. She offered me a role (her first full-time hire) that would allow me to observe everything she did to grow the business; and guess what? Throughout the course of the next five years working together, I would get to travel the world — producing photo and videoshoots in Saint Lucia, Switzerland, Amsterdam and Paris; I wrote reviews on properties in Guadeloupe as well as newsletters and tons of social and ad copy for skincare, lifestyle, fashion, fintech and other brands; and I spearheaded the agency’s internal operations, processes and company culture to recruit and train new employees; build out our client on-boarding process and ensure culture and morale remained high even during the tough years of COVID.

It was a pivot and training ground that would lead me straight into entrepreneurship — thanks to a little bit of courage and a whole lot of faith.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wellpleased.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wellpleased.co/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-pedone/