Lawyer and social media manager Yolanda Floro

Mum of two Yolanda Floro is a film, television and digital media lawyer, mature master’s student and Community and Social Media Manager for Australian website Leaders in Heels. She chats to us about her work on Leaders in Heels and how social media is changing the law.

How did Leaders in Heels get started?

The site was started by Kasia Gospos in 2011. It initially began life as a blog, but over time it evolved into a website. At the time, Kasia couldn’t find any good resources for professional women. Men in professional roles don’t have same sort of expectations on them that women do, and while there were lots of good resources like Business Review, there was nothing with a female perspective. So she wanted to create something for women. Don’t get more wrong, there’s a lot guys can take out of the site, but it’s predominantly geared towards professional women.

What kind of content do you have?

We have a really wide range of content – from articles about leadership, communication, marketing and technology, to style editorial and interviews with amazing women such as Microsoft Managing Director Pip Marlow and Ogilvy PR CEO Kieran Moore.

Our aim is to help professional women keep on trend and up-to-date with the latest business and career developments, including technology, fitness and lifestyle tips. Basically we’re here to curate lots of great ideas and content that are out there, and present the best, most relevant information from a feminine perspective.

We also want to show that it’s okay for a professional woman to be interested in fashion. Just because you’re in a senior role, doesn’t mean you have to wear a black suit – you can still be stylish!

Who is Leaders in Heels aimed at?

Our core demographic is professional women aged 25-54. And although our site is based in Australia, most of our articles are relevant to, and read by, women in workplaces all over the world. It’s popular with small business owners and consultants in senior roles, but a woman starting out in her career can get a lot out of it too.

What does your role on the site involve?

I’m responsible for getting our content out there and managing our online communities. I schedule our articles on Twitter, update Facebook and Google+, manage our Pinterest account and initiate and manage discussions on LinkedIn.

We generally upload around three new pieces of content a week to the site, and I promote these articles, plus existing ones that people may not have seen, but are still relevant and useful. I also handle our partnership tweets.

How did you become involved with Leaders in Heels?

I was reading the site and Kasia put on Twitter that she was looking for a social media person. I was doing a little bit of social media – I was working in media law and am now studying for a part time Masters’s in Law, Media and Journalism, which takes into account social media. The course focuses on the new digital media world, which I find really exciting. And the best way to really understand the subject is to be working in the area. Some people on my course are writing blogs just to get that experience, whereas I’m actually doing it. I’m not just studying about the things that are impacting on people – I’m doing it for real.

The interesting thing to me is that people seem to think that the digital or internet world is a lawless state and they can do whatever they like, but it’s not. Laws do exist, and are being changed all the time to adapt to the ever-evolving social media environment.

For example, we recently had elections in Australia, and couple of days before polling day there’s always a media blackout. However, this time the political parties were sponsoring posts on Facebook and paying for huge, full screen pop-ups on news websites. I thought it couldn’t be legal, but went through the legislation and discovered that nothing had been written to cover social media and online advertising like this. They’d discovered a legal loophole that will probably soon now be closed.

Have you ever had to deal with cyber bullying?

Sometimes I come across criticisms of something on the site, or we may get the odd person stalking the site that has a bone to pick, but generally we get positive feedback. I’ve no time for cyber bullying, and find that if someone decides to have a go but gets no reaction they usually go away.

How do you balance your work around your family?

I’m not really sure, to be honest – I think my husband and I must have been circus jugglers in previous lives. I’m naturally very organised, and book in after school care for my younger child if my older one can’t collect her. I’m trying to find ‘me’ time again. I’ve only been to the gym once for half an hour in the past two months, and would love to get to bed before 10:30pm! Technological innovations have helped too – being able to conduct business via a laptop or smartphone and Wi-Fi is fantastic!

And finally, do you have any social media tips to share?

My big tip is hashtags. Not only do they help people find your content, but if someone is scanning a page, it helps your key words to stand out (especially if they’re accessing Facebook on their mobile). So think about what from your update might draw someone to your link, and hashtag the word.

You can find lots of great articles on business and your career from a feminine perspective on Leaders in Heels.