I, Christine, was a little late to watching the Emily in Paris series on Netflix. Truth be told, I don’t watch a lot of television. But when my boss, Arlea, mentioned it to me, I knew I needed to check it out. Not only is the story itself really cute, especially with the love interests, but I eagerly await Emily’s next marketing and social media ideas for her clients! We all know this is just a show since typically 9 out of 10 ideas that real marketers come up with end up on the editing room floor. It is always just that one idea that sticks. But I do enjoy hearing about her successes and why they worked. I’ve read so many social media posts about how someone has a client and is wondering why their social media isn’t like Emily’s client’s networks and how they can grow theirs like they do on the show? So I thought it would be fun to discuss if working in the same industry as Emily is realistic and if anything relates back to the real world? Let’s take a dive into working like Emily in Paris. 

Every Idea Won’t Be a Success

Clients know their business and usually have an idea of what they want. Emily’s clients just let her usually do whatever. Plus, she is in a very niche market. Now, that is not to say there aren’t agencies that just work with clients in the same industry, but our agency works with various industries. We like the different strategies and the different clients we work with. 

But it just blows my mind how Emily’s ideas just fall into her lap. Sure, we all have awesome ideas every now and then. It is likely that is why we have a job! But some of her ideas are just so off the wall and I really don’t ever see them really working in the real world, especially when a majority of the time she has to get it done in less than 24 hours. Which leads me to approvals.

No Approval Chain of Command

Besides the client and Slyvie, it doesn’t seem like anyone else ever has to approve any of the ideas. In the real world, there are usually a lot of other people that need to give their approval, provide their edits and then the last person in the chain of command has to bring all of those ideas together into one cohesive plan. It takes longer than 24 hours to do all of this. 

It is good to have an approval chain of command. Mostly so other people can tell you if there is a mistake, or if after editing the same footage for hours on end you missed something. But also because we all do our own jobs. Where I work, we have photographers, videographers, content creators, designers and web developers. We all are specialized in our job, but all have to work together to ensure the client’s project gets done. Emily is basically a one-woman-band, doing all of the work herself. And we never see her actually putting together the work. It just magically appears!

This Isn’t a Real Career Scenario

But oh how we all wish it was! I am based in the U.S., so maybe working in Paris is like this. I wouldn’t mind the “everyone starts late and takes a long lunch” work schedule. But we all have to remember this is a show. It is an unrealistic look at the industry and doesn’t give a fair perspective to high school or college age people who are thinking about a career in this field. It doesn’t provide us with the fine details of everything that is hard with social media. Everything just comes easy to these clients of Emily’s, whether she is with the Gilbert Group or the  French fashion firm, Savoir.

Plus, Emily started out with like 48 followers. After posting a couple of selfies, she gained upwards of 20,000 followers in what seemed like 3 weeks. Nah – that isn’t real life. That just doesn’t happen unless you are somebody. I wish I knew Damar Hamlin’s social media numbers before his unfortunate accident on the football field. Now everyone knows who he is! No one really knows who Emily is!

Emily’s Clients Have Huge Budgets

Some clients do have really big budgets. And there are agencies who specifically will only work with clients that have huge budgets. But in the real world, marketing is one of the first things to get cut from a budget. So we have to work with the funds we are given and magically come up with a strategy that will work and hopefully meet the client’s needs and expectations. 

There is So Much More to Social Media Than Likes, Shares, Comments and Followers

With marketing comes strategy and that strategy branches out to advertising, videos, podcasts, blogs, etc.  They all should work cohesively and integrated. Social media isn’t just about one post on Facebook. It is about making sure that post also reaches clients on whatever other social networks they have. And it isn’t just about numbers. It doesn’t matter how many people like a post. Did those people buy into whatever the post was about? Did they click a link that you included in the post? What was the call to action?