​DOMINIKA WHITE

Driven by the desire to support and empower people to have a voice in their community, I pursued and received a degree in communications, majoring in journalism. After some work as a freelance journalist I joined the national not-for-profit health organisation Quitline, where I managed their website and implemented a new internal communications plan. 

 

My passion for supporting people to express themselves in the community transferred to a relatively smaller community, those in the corporate environment. It was clear that communication was an important part in increasing happiness and enjoyment at work and by implementing an internal communications plan I helped increase employee engagement.

 

Through my love of technology I picked up new skills which were self-taught including Google Analytics, Search Engine Optimisation, CSS, HTML and website accessibility. I was able to apply these skills to Quitline's website where I worked with various CMS systems to keep content fresh and relevant. It was during this time that Quitline was a finalist for the 2013 Plain English Awards for online content. 

 

Quitline’s website then underwent redevelopment, here I was responsible for translating the Government's service requirements into a new website suitable for Quitline’s audience. I worked closely with external contactors to redevelop the website in tight timeframe of two months. After these improvements engagement of the website doubled. 

 

During redevelopment I was also responsible for day-to-day tasks and other projects, including social media management. This involved monitoring posts and creating content for Facebook and YouTube, some of the imagery was created using Photoshop and Illustrator. Juggling these tasks with big projects meant being flexible in a fast-paced environment where conflicting timeframes were inevitable. 

 

I am constantly looking for ways to improve communications techniques and have branched out as much as possible to incorporate online and offline communications in my skill set. This includes social media marketing and event management.  I believe that taking an integrated approach to communications can help create a really effective organisation by not only increasing sales directly through marketing campaigns but also through increasing productivity and happiness in the workplace.