Digi-champ: Ray Pastoors from Origin Energy

ntegrity loves to feature digital champions, who day in, day out are kicking digital butt. Digital from the outside can look glossy and flawless, but what really goes on behind the scenes? We’re here to get the scoop you’ve always wanted. And may these features act as your learning ground so you can also go forth and prosper!

First up is Ray Pastoors, a budding entrepreneur at age 7 and currently the Social Media Marketing Lead at Origin Energy. ntegrity sat down to drink ice chocolate soup and ask Ray the deep and personal things about digital at Origin, as well as the mundane, fascinating and cool things about his job. Here’s the best hits…

Meet Ray, the budding entrepreneur at age 7 and now Social Media Marketing Lead at Origin…

When I was about 7 years old, I had a fierce interest in business. My first business venture was selling stickers for the Koala Foundation, and that then evolved into having a shop in my room, importing products from Hong Kong and building websites for friends and family using MatMice and freewebs.com. The world of online marketing became my playground.

From Call Centre beginnings to transforming digital at Origin Energy

I started at Origin far from digital. But it was because of this experience in understanding the processes and nuances of customer care that I landed a role as Digital Community Management. I knew exactly what customers were saying, because I’d actually talked to them, and I brought this ‘new’ information into the team.

We embedded these key learnings into all of our social media processes for handling challenges, complaints and all those quick-to-flare issues, and in turn made social at Origin a space where we can provide a better customer experience.

Why boring processes are actually business-changing

One of my first projects as Community Manager was setting up a new process. I hear you, process is boring, but when it fills a gap it’s business-altering. We created ‘specialised contacts’ in every main department. These people still had their main jobs and responsibilities but were trained in responding to the the ‘social media customer’, a very different kind of customer. As part of this we developed digital training tools to upskill each department in everything from what social media means, what customers expect to see on social, and how to manage the guts out of issues.

A true lover of data from way back

It’s through data that we’ve been able to identify trends in social media comments from customers and stakeholders in response to product issues and make improvements. I love that through data you can shape and move conversations online, convince others in the business to make better changes, and in the process create better content and reinforce great ideas like sustainable energy! This is all about us being responsive, rather than just reactive.

Collaboration is THE best

Our Social Media Marketing team of six works in collaboration, and though we’ve each got our specific roles there’s a lot of crossover and teamwork on projects. It keeps us agile, it allows us to workshop and improve ideas and plan ahead of time. I work across many different areas, from dealing with frontline issues, to planning long-term goals, to optimising content, to writing blogs. And while my job can be stressful at times (even after so many years of it) I still get a kick out of the breadth and width of the role.

Next level digital: #OriginGameOn

My proudest moment at Origin was our #nextlevel response to the rise of a popular augmented reality game. We hatched a plan to catch them all (fans) with our #OriginGameOn: where our team handed out over 800 free portable phone chargers across 3 nights to re-energise gamers, at the State Library in Melbourne.

During the day, our whole floor was charging mobile powerbanks at their desk, and at night our team were the ones handing them out. Our goal was simply for reach and engagement with millennials and across social media with the #OriginGameOn hashtag going out. It was a small spend, and a great exercise in testing and learning.

Ray’s brand crushes include…

I love realestate.com.au. It’s snappy, funny and vibrant. I also really love the Orangutan Project. I’m pretty biased though because I love orangutans. That just goes to show that the important thing with any content is that it resonates with its audience.

Also I’m a big supporter of ‘Train for Thought’ and I’m the 2017 event manager for the annual event! It’s one large group fitness session at Melbourne High’s oval raising money for Headspace – mental health for youth. Keep an eye out for the 2017 event here!

It’s been a blast having Ray share his insight into digital at Origin with us. Leave a comment (or two) for him and make sure you catch up on all Ray is up to now on Twitter (@LYFsolutions).