real5 Faces

Meet the Real Face of Business

Becs Bate

Social Media Executive

Who are you?

Hi I’m Becs, A social media consultant. Uncommonly known….. for being the only female to drive a power boat around the Adriatic collecting anchovy eggs and rearing the first ever Anchovy in captivity! There’s not much use for commercial anchovy research in Warrington, so the obvious choice was to launch my business training people how to effectively market their companies through social media!

OK so it wasn’t a direct jump from Anchovies to Facebook, I’ve done a lot in-between!
For example I’ve co-presented on stage with the inventor Wilf Lunn, been out drinking with Aled Jones and cautioned a certain Coronation Street star (who will remain namesless) for unprofessional behaviour at one of my events.

I grew up on a small farm in the windy hills of Yorkshire, where you’d often find me bottle feeding our lambs in heavy snow.

But Warrington is definitely where I call my home now, following a heavy night out in Liverpool dressed as a Spice girl I broke my ankle and met my husband and I’ve been in Warrington ever since, that was over 20 years ago!

All essential skills for a social media trainer!

How did the business come about?

I’m actually an environmental consultant by trade and spent many years in the voluntary and public sectors engaging communities, schools and businesses to implement environmental initiatives that my teams had developed.

I finished my environmental career managing the Greater Manchester Energy Advice service, rolling out the multi million-pound Green Deal programme to schools, residents and businesses across the ten local authorities. How is this relevant to social media?

It’s actually very relevant, as I’ve spent my whole career building communities that work together towards a common goal. Community engagement on social media is critical for long term success.
Just before I launched Social Media Executive, I worked for Nomad Games (a video games developer), increasing their Social Media community from 400 to over 20,000 in the space of three years. Now this is not a huge increase, but it was highly targeted. They were fans that bought from us time and time again, interacted with our content, were loyal supporters of the brand and ended up testing our games for free (a huge saving as we’d always paid for testers).

I love showing companies how to get business from social media, which is why I launched Social Media Executive in 2018 – to teach you all how to do it in the right way!

Tell us one interesting thing about you that people might not know?

I’m actually in a video game that’s sold over 1.5 million units! I’m the Sage in Talisman: Digital Edition, you’ll find me in the cataclysm, lurking in the graveyard!

How long has your business been in existence?

1 year, 11 months, 27 days, 17 hours, 6 minutes, 32 seconds (can you implement a timer here so it’s accurate depending when people read it? ?)

Why Warrington?

I’d spent 20 years commuting into Manchester every day, need I say more!! #LoveWarrington

What job or achievement makes you most proud?

I’ve won a number of awards throughout my career, but the one that springs to mind is winning Networker of the year for Real5 last year. It was a real honour, particularly as my business was barely 18 months old.

Who are the people most important in life to you?

Along with my teddy bear, my fabulous husband who’s support has been invaluable whilst building my business, my kids who make me smile every day and the rest of my family who really do keep me sane.

What is your ‘get through lockdown tip’?

Apart from 3 Pugs Gin? Well I would say lots of fresh air and gardening.

And if you have kids get up early, do a couple of hours before the kids surface. Take them out for a walk before home schooling starts at 9am. That way everyone is refreshed and ready to start at a normal time and you’ve manged to sneak in a couple of hours work beforehand knowing there are going to be interruptions throughout the day.

Like a 1:1 with Becs?

Email:  Becs@SocialMediaExec.co.uk

GS Warrington.com
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