Sage U Fireside Chat: Lauren Neff

Sage is an organization filled with outstanding communications professionals who bring a diverse background of experience and expertise. We leverage this depth of knowledge through our Sage U program, an all-learn, all-teach model, to assist our team’s continued growth.

Our latest Sage U Fireside Chat Q&A series features Lauren Neff, PR Senior Account Executive, at Sage Communications, who discussed her career journey and the lessons she’s learned along the way.

Q&A highlights:

How did you get into the field of PR?

I took an intro to Public Relations class at George Mason with Professor Suzanne Mims, and I hated it.

I didn't really know much about PR and going into it I thought “This is kind of boring and it's not really my thing.” As we moved through the course, we started talking about crisis communication and that really piqued my interest. It's fast paced, its rapid response, it's in the moment, and things are always changing. I found it really interesting.

My goal the rest of freshman year was to become the president’s press secretary. That was my dream. Of course, in 2016, everything happening with the administration was crazy to witness. To see what the press secretary was going through and just the amount of press secretaries that the President was going through, it seemed like an interesting job.

When I graduated in December 2019, I had a post grad internship with Edelman on their technology in federal sectors team. At the time, I didn't know anything about federal or technology. I got to work with clients like Juniper and Adobe Education, and then the United States Preventative Services Task Force, which basically handles a lot of the scientific research behind what gets covered by insurance. It was very interesting! After that I worked for a government IT contractor and got a crash course on contracting language, project management, and what went into working with the government.

Then Professor Mims reached out to me and asked if I was looking for a job. And I said yes, and she connected me with Julie Murphy. I submitted an application to Sage, took an interview and the rest is history. I've been here for a little over three years now, which is crazy to think about.

As mentioned, you've been at Sage for three years now, so looking back at that time, what were some moments that have just stood out to you?

When I first joined, a couple of months afterwards, we started the transition to Microsoft Teams. For me, it was so exciting because I had worked with Teams previously, and I knew how much of a benefit it was to be able to communicate with people, especially when you're working from home. I was super excited about that. So, in my mind it is a big milestone for Sage and my time here.

I also got quickly involved with social media. When I started working at Sage, I was put on the AT&T Federal Team account, which we still work with today, and I didn't know that working on social media was an option for PR people. I really, really enjoyed it.

Something that I'm proud about is the work that we've done on one social account that we started a little over a year ago. It started at about 200 followers and now they have over 2,000 followers. It's been really awesome to be a part of that growth and work with the team and strategize about how you can get their message across without being too “sales-ey”.

Another thing I'm proud of is the social media advisory team, we've been working behind the scenes to build out an employee advocacy program, and I'm super excited about what's to come.

What is it about social media that you like that you love and what stands out to you about that type of work?

There are a couple things. The first thing is that I really love working with the numbers side of social media. I think for a lot of people the numbers are needed to really solidify the work that we put in. They might not understand the nuances of publishing times and messaging and so on, but almost everyone understands when you say “Hey, last month your following bumped up by 150 people.” So, then they know that we are doing something right. It's also getting their messaging out there or expanding their reach; that's a really cool part of it for me.

A goofier thing is I also love to tell people that I'm a professional ghostwriter. A lot of people when I try to explain my job get really confused. So, I say I just write a bunch of stuff for people, just no one knows that it's me. Because usually when I say that I work for a PR agency, everyone just goes “OK” and they don't know what I'm saying.

When you jump from a more government focused account to an account that has shorter form writing, do you have advice you would give to people when they're writing?

Personally, it takes me a little bit to get into the mindset. The most helpful thing is looking back at their previous posts and what we've already done for them. If you haven't already done content for them, then take a look at their website, see how they talk about their own capabilities and then try to match the language and energy in the content you're writing for the executive.

Ultimately the executive is just a talking piece for the company. They're not spitting out a different message. They're not trying to direct people in a different way, they're trying to direct people to the company. So, I would say reuse that and try to trick your brain into saying, “These are the phrases that I'm seeing a lot of. How can we use this to talk about this in a more natural way that's directing people to this product or this company?”

What is something surprising that we might not know about you?

I feel like everyone thinks they're a boring person when you ask that question. One of the more recent things that my husband and I have been working on is transforming the dining room in our tiny apartment into a coffee bar area. We really love coffee, and that journey has kind of taken off, it's expanded a lot since we got married almost three years ago. It started off with a $100 espresso machine that we got off of our wedding registry and it's just really grown from there. Now I have a whole area dedicated to that. Just personally I enjoy the process of making the coffee. So, I think my fun fact is that I really love coffee.

Lauren is a PR Senior Account Executive at Sage Communications.