How We Did It: 3 Social Media Success Stories

Savannah Young is a detail-oriented and results-driven communications professional, with a special interest in social media. She resides in Washington D.C. and serves as the Communications & Social Media Specialist at American Humane, leading strategy and content creation for several social media accounts for the organization including for its annual, nationwide Hero Dog Awards, inaugural feature documentary Escape From Extinction and general American Humane platforms. In her previous position, she developed and implemented public relations campaigns for a diverse set of clients in the privacy/security, threat intelligence, biometrics and public sector space.

Kirk Wilson is a communications & marketing, and advertising professional from Philadelphia, PA. He’s been running social media and content marketing strategy at Lincoln Financial Group for the last six years and has prior advertising and PR agency background working with clients in an array of fields such as TD Bank, Independence Blue Cross, Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers, NBC and Katharine McPhee. At Lincoln he has spent a lot of his time on campaigns that strive to drive business value whether that be connecting the consumer to a financial professional or educating a potential investor to drive them further down the funnel. As a part of Lincoln’s naming rights sponsorship with the Philadelphia Eagles, he has used social and digital to drive further national awareness and familiarity amongst football and Eagles fans nationwide of what Lincoln does to help Americans plan, protect and retire.

April Leonard serves as the social media manager for the City of Kansas City, Missouri (KCMO), where she manages the intranet website to disseminate information to city employees. She also manages the city's social media policy and of its social media pages for over 17 departments, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and Nextdoor. She trains all city employees and council aides on social media management. Most recently, she live-streamed POTUS in Kansas City regarding the latest Infrastructure bill passed to Build Back Better. Previously, she worked with NBC Universal, Viacom and Warner Bros. She has also served as a publicist for a celebrity public relations firm, a social media manager for a nonprofit and as the communications director for a fashion organization. As founder of consultancy firm April Communicates,  she brings eight years of social media experience and 12+ years of experience in communications, as well as a master's in communications and a bachelor's degree in political science with a minor in Africana Studies.  Follower her on Instagram  @AprilCommunicates.