MadWoman of the Month: Morgan Hay-Chapman

First, tell us a little about yourself: Name, Title, Company, How you got there. We want to know your story.

Hi there. I'm Morgan Hay-Chapman, a Senior Strategist, Social Engagement at space150. Essentially I work with brands to develop engaging social strategies spanning everything from on-platform engagement and content marketing to paid social and analytics/reporting and, of course, aligning all of the above with business objectives.
I'm originally from Madison, WI, but moved to the cities to attend the U of M for college. After a few PR internships during school, including the Guthrie and the Science Museum of Minnesota, I landed an internship at space150. Digital has changed so much in our industry and totally blurred the lines between PR and advertising – so I knew I wanted to be part of a place where creating digital experiences was the priority.

What is your personal definition of what makes a 'MPLS MadWoman' and how do you strive to embody that in both your professional and personal life?

To me, a MadWoman is someone who builds our community through confidence and passion for both her craft and the people she interacts with. I love that the MPLS MadWomen mission includes 'igniting conversations.' That's been so important for me personally as I navigate my career. Just being honest and having conversations about confidence (and sometimes'¦lack there of), emotions, relationships, conflicts and wins; honesty defines us more than anything.

You started as an intern at space150 and have advanced quite quickly'¦ you're on your fourth title! What have been the keys to your advancement?

I'm endlessly curious – whether it's creating a new structure for social reporting or learning how to run national paid search campaigns. Being open to anything that comes across my plate has helped me to learn so much in a short period of time, and I'm really fortunate to be able to turn around and apply these cross-discipline learnings to social strategies for brands. My advancement is also in large part due to the fact that social is constantly changing and evolving and there's opportunity to establish leadership if you're willing to adapt and work hard to stay up to date on the most recent developments.

Where would you like to see yourself in 3 to 5 years?

I'm still figuring this one out. What I can say is that right now I'm fascinated by distributed content and the idea that in five years communication will likely exist entirely in native environments where a one-to-many model just doesn't cut it. So given that, I would love to be working in content and social for a brand, agency or media company that embraces this mindset. I'm fortunate enough that space150 is always willing to try new things and that we have conversations daily about things like distributed content, dark social and emerging platforms.

Tell us about a mentor of yours and how she or he has helped you along the way?

I'm lucky to have extraordinary role models both within space150 and throughout the Minneapolis community. Lisa Grimm has been a critical member of my mentorship circle. Even before she was my boss at space150, she inspired me as a leader in the Minneapolis social media community. She helped me navigate everything from making a game plan for my first salary negotiation to being a sounding board for ideas about what my career path could look like. It's invaluable to have someone you trust and that you feel comfortable enough with to be honest about the questions you don't have answers to and ideas that aren't fully formed yet.

If you could give advice to your 2012-self, as you started at space150, what would you say?

Find opportunities to collaborate with people outside your department. Working in an agency environment gives you access to so much digital talent – from UX to copywriters. It took me a while to gain the confidence to approach people I admired in other departments if I wasn't directly working with them on a project. I missed out on so many learning opportunities and now make a concerted effort to connect with people I respect across other disciplines.

What's the most memorable experience you've had in your career so far?

This isn't a single moment, but it’s been so fun and truly fascinating to watch the social team and social capability expand at space150. This agency has always been poised for smart social work but the growth in our social accounts coupled with hires like Greg Swan and Talia Wischmann have changed our social work so much in the past year. I’ve learned so much helping to determine what we want 'social' at space150 to be in the future and beyond.