A new offering for our client base: meet our Principal Consultant for Social Media
Meet Jamilah Harris, our new Principal Consultant for Social Media. Here's how a night out in Hackney led to us offering low-cost social media support.
A few years ago, our Founder Director, Natasha Ereira-Guyer, went along to a popular poetry night in Hackney with a friend, with no expectations. The night was Jamilah's, and she had put it together from the marketing to the curation - and with MC’ing skills Natasha still takes inspiration from. Jamilah had built the kind of room where everyone who stood up could shine, including the nervous first-timers. Natasha sat there admiring the inclusive space and thinking about what our Togetherness Poetry Challenge could become if we did it with her.
That shared fondness for poetry became a partnership, with Jamilah leading projects on the Challenge (scroll to the bottom of the page for more about it). Now we welcome her to the team in a different capacity.
Jamilah's background
Jamilah has spent over ten years as a marketing strategist, creative director and photographer. L'Occitane. Unilever. The National Trust. Charity sector work with the FARA Foundation. Fast turnarounds, TV campaign work, the lot.
We are now delighted to say that Jamilah has joined us as our Principal Consultant for Social Media and will help build capacity around our marketing support offer. That means the charities and grassroots organisations we work with can benefit from all her expertise too.
Why we have created this role
This hasn't happened by chance. Right or wrong, we live in a world where social media and how you market yourself matter enormously.
Social media is one of a few things a small organisation can be genuinely brilliant at, without much budget behind them.
You already have what the platforms are starved of. Real stories. Interesting insights. Knowledge that many social media users lack. The stories, insights and impact that land in your inbox every single week are exactly what audiences want to see.
We have seen this at close range. Through building a co-productive social media campaign around Storytelling for Togetherness from the bottom-up, we have learned a heck of a lot about how smaller grassroots organisations can make the most of what they already have. We've supported grassroots leaders in Birkenhead, Middlesbrough, Rochdale, Burnley, Barking & Dagenham and beyond to co-create short films that tell their stories of hope and connection. All this at a time when divisive narratives dominate. These films are now going out as a national campaign.
Need some convincing? Wondering how smaller organisations can build a strong social media presence? Well, we’d encourage you to take a look at The Lantern Initiative, who we worked with on Muslim Mental Health Matters and who spoke at our event this week. Or Refugee Week, who we are proud to partner with - a small team, and their reach is nothing like small. Or Everyday Racism, who are doing some of the sharpest, most consistent work on social media of anyone in the sector, working creatively with tight resources.
A good following on social media changes what you are in the room. Funders come to you differently when they can see that people care. Volunteers arrive without being chased. You stop being the moth and you start being the flame.
Planned right, social media does not need to eat your week either. It needs setting up right, by someone who knows what they are doing.
What you can work on with Jamilah
There is no set package and no menu of prices. These are the things Jamilah can help you with, and we can devise a work plan and working arrangement especially for you.
Marketing strategy, audits and positioning
Social media management and content creation, including short and long form video
Content shoot days: planned, art directed, and delivered ready to use across campaigns, reports and socials
Creative direction for campaigns
Copywriting, website and landing pages
Email marketing, newsletters and automations
Local SEO and paid ads
We will shape it around your budget and what you actually need, at low cost. That's how we work with everyone: cheap but excellent.
"I've spent ten years helping businesses big and small grow, including work in the charity sector. Charities and grassroots organisations have powerful stories to tell, and when they're told well, the impact of that marketing can be huge. Most of all, I love helping people navigate the marketing challenges they face day to day, and making the journey to their goals an enjoyable one." Jamilah Harris
About Jamilah
Jamilah Harris is a marketing strategist, creative director and photographer, and the founder of Harris Marketing Solutions. She has led projects on our Togetherness Poetry Challenge and now joins us as our Principal Consultant for Social Media.
This is your invitation to have a conversation about it. Book a call, or email Jamilah directly at jamilah@harrismarketingsolutions.com.
About the Togetherness Poetry Challenge
Our work on 32 Steps to Togetherness is about building connection within communities and between them. Poetry turned out to be unreasonably good at it.
It helps you connect with yourself and process what you are carrying. It gives people a way to say bigger and more radical things than they could ever say plainly. And you can come at it actively or passively, writing or just listening, and still leave feeling more connected than when you arrived.
So in 2024 we launched the Togetherness Poetry Challenge and opened it up to anyone at all, under one theme: togetherness.
The range of what came back floored us, so in year two we stopped simply inviting people and started actively supporting them: workshops with elderly people, with people in recovery from drugs and alcohol, with students at SOAS, and the Poetry Summer School for Mums. Jamilah was part of all of it, and she is extraordinary at that work.
Around 2,000 poems later, we are still going. Our most recent event was the New Cockney Poetry Grand Slam with Michael Rosen on Sunday 4 October, 90 years to the day since the Battle of Cable Street. We are planning more for 2027, watch this space!
