Casie Shimansky

In her first few months on Cisco’s Talent Brand Social Team, Casie Shimansky developed a dedicated strategy for growing its brand-new Instagram channel. First, she grew it to 1,500 followers. By building relationships with employees to amplify their stories, she took the account to 5,000, 10,000 and now 15,000, all through organic growth.

However, any good social media manager knows that followers don’t matter without engagement, and Shimansky is a great social media manager. By strategizing the right hashtags, the right voice, and replying, the WeAreCisco Instagram channel exceeds industry engagement rates by 3X, sometimes as high 6X.

When Instagram Stories launched, she thought through her strategy and made sure that the content was unique to the channel. She made sure that the content wasn’t “Snapchat light,” but showcased employees through video, boomerangs and photos with her signature style.

She also led the social strategy for the biggest recruiting event of the year, the Grace Hopper Celebration, by taking over the WeAreCisco Snapchat to highlight the event. She also managed the contest that paired Snapchat and Instagram stories that led to two offers. Also, in 2016, she was instrumental in carrying out the logistics for the LoveWhereYouWork employee social activation, and she developed video-on-demand trainings for recruiters and employees to encourage best Instagram practices.