Kapatid Grocery
Social Media 2019 to 2024
After years in advertising, content management, and sales I decided to buy a small home lighting studio and start a scrappy social media career. I built up from working for a Chicago Filipino cornerstore to working with one of the largest names in entertainment, Epic Games. I've even dabbled at the director level which I enjoyed teaching but didn't like the lack of creativity in the role.
Kapatid Grocery Social Media Manager
Where my professional Social Media career began. From 2019 to 2020 I led the Social Media Marketing and content ceation for Kapatid, a Filipino grocery store based in Chicago. from the pandemic to 2022, I consulted for them.
1. My wife worked here most of her life and asked me to help boost the store's foot print.
2. I consulted with her frequently to ensure the Filipino viewpoint was kept intact even with me running the page.
3. My goal was to give a unique feel to a grocery page. I also brought along new ideas like bringing in props, recipe stories, and promoting beyond what they sold to support the local Filipino community.
4. I produced new content (wrote copy and took product photos), strategized what to post, and built a social calendar to follow.
Below you'll find some examples from my time there.
Pinoy Product Placement
Promoting wonderful products from an amazing community made this work some of my favorite. Pictures all by me.
Working with the Best Talent
Along with writing all the captions, I took all the pictures for the page. Including pics of some of the most talented "people," I've ever worked with. If you look at the timelines I'm pretty sure I can prove I started the trend in Chicago of using toys in product shots! 😊
Feeding the Community in More Ways Than One...
I created two recurring posts whose purpose was to engage the Filipino community... Story Recipes and "Pinoy Supporting Pinoy." One we'd cook recipes on stories using ingredients from the store and then post finished dishes on the feed. The other way was by promoting local Pinoy creatives and businesses to build a community, get them excited, and get organic cross-promotion back.
Kapatid!
I mainly consulted the last two years there as their budget for marketing lowered during the pandemic. I stepped away in 2022 but I'm still part of the family and that's what matters.
Shaker Recruitment Marketing: Director of Content and Social Media
For a short time in 2023, I developed a team of 10 social media and community managers. I worked with clients such as PlayStation and Fontainebleau Las Vegas on social media recruitment marketing strategies. I also had the chance to develop creatives in the early stages of their careers. The people development was extremely fulfilling and I excelled at it. The work leaned heavily on sales for a role in a creative department and due to the restructuring of the company's social media department, it led to an unexpected early split.
