Building the first volunteer program at Smarketers Hub

Written By Etashe (Linto) Okpola

“This program, the community, and my team lead have been incredible contributors to my career journey this year. Beyond having the community, I think having a leader who gives you the opportunity to grow, make mistakes, and learn while allowing you to own things and guide you is a gift every career-focused person needs and this program gave me that. My heart is full.”

Judy Okposio, Social Media volunteer team


There’s something about endings that makes you want to look back in time for the elements that shaped an experience. Maybe it’s the sadness attached to the finality of something good. Maybe it’s the visible impact that injects you with a feeling of pride. What I do know is that reflections can reveal more than we know, help us identify loopholes to close in the future, and even serve as inspiration or a learning board for someone else.

Three months ago, we announced our volunteer program, which we designed to help early-stage marketers gain practical experience in a marketing field and expand their portfolio. A month later, we onboarded the first cohort and worked with eleven smart marketers for three months before saying our goodbyes in July. 

It was a first for us, one filled with too rich an experience to keep to ourselves. So, this article is my reflection on the program. My way of looking back in time to ponder the good, the bad, and the in-between. I'll reveal everything from planning our first cohort to expectations for the next cohort. And in the end, I hope we both leave with a sense of clarity and a desire to take leaps in our careers and projects.

Everything included

First, the team

Planning

We get messages like this all the time:

We’ve had to decline such requests for reasons around resources. But in 2023, Gift had an idea for a program that allows early-stage marketers to work closely with us to gain hands-on experience. A ground for folks to build a specific skill and expand their portfolio.

“Our vision has always been to help marketers thrive and build a global mindset,” says Gift. “Initially, we shared global job opportunities, but many community members felt they lacked the skills to apply. We then shared various courses to help them level up, but the challenge remained—employers were looking for experience they didn’t yet have. To address this, we started a Contributing Writers program, allowing members to contribute to our content and diversify their portfolios. This had a noticeable impact, with some of their work, like Giigi’s marketing newsletter article, even ranking on page one for its primary keyword.”

She sat with it for a while, brought it to our meetings, and proceeded to draw up a plan for what eventually became our volunteer program.

“The idea for the Volunteer program didn’t come to me all at once—it was the result of listening to our community over time,” Gift adds. As we continued to receive requests for opportunities to work with us, it became clear that 2024 was the right time to launch a program focused on training and setting marketers up for success. The Volunteer program was the proactive solution we needed to bridge the gap between skill acquisition and real-world experience.”

The plan included roles for three teams: Community & Resource, Social media, and Content & Newsletter. It also accommodated two cohorts per year, an idea we’ve since scrapped after learning from our first cohort.

Timeline was another big area of question.

“Initially, I looked at other volunteer programs and noticed that many didn’t have a set start or end time,” says Gift. I knew that wouldn’t work for us or our volunteers. We needed an intensive, short-term program where marketers could fully commit, knowing they would come out stronger.”

We’d considered a six-month program but decided on three months because, for an unpaid program, it made better sense to give people ample time to learn without demanding too much of their year. This was also our first rodeo, and three months was a good window to weigh its impact on our team.

Three months eventually morphed into four months because there was so much to teach, and each volunteer came in with different levels of experience. It’s challenging to focus on 11 people with the same intensity in just three months.

We announced the program in March and received 110 applications, which was rather unexpected and left us with the tough work of choosing the first cohort members.

Selection

We had three stages in our selection process: Application review, first interview, and second interview.

Stage 1: Application review

While reviewing applications, we looked out for what applicants had done, their motivation for the program, and the strength of their questions.

  • Experience: We wanted to work with self-starters. People who, even without exposure to the workforce, had created projects that showed their thinking and curiosity about their preferred marketing field.

  • Motivation: Was the applicant interested in people and career growth? These two elements are at the heart of our work at The Hub, so they were non-negotiable. Did the applicant understand our work? We are a marketing community focused on career growth, and we assessed how well the applicant cared about this theme. Does the applicant know what they want— does it align with our work and can we give it to them? The program isn’t about us alone. So, we wanted to work with people who had clear goals that matched our available resources. Beyond these, applicants who showed honesty and provided details in their responses were easy choices for the second stage.

  • Questions: Our application form featured a column that allowed applicants to ask us questions. This was a deliberate addition that helped us evaluate how attentive applicants were to the details of the program. We got questions on things we never mentioned in the announcement (e.g., mentorship) and had noted we couldn’t provide (e.g., stipends). But we also got some great questions that inquired about the roles and how we approach work at The Hub.

Together, these three elements helped us move applicants into the first round of interviews.

Stage 2: First interviews (skills-based)

By the end of our review, we’d whittled down the list from 110 to 40 applicants, who we spoke with for our skill-based interviews. 40 is a lot, I know. While we’ll be working with fewer numbers in the future, speaking with that many applicants helped give a chance to those who showed promise in their application even though they didn’t meet all three requirements in the review stage. Some of such applicants ended up as good fits for a team different from the one they’d applied to.

We assessed applicants for their skills at this stage, using Calendly to manage scheduling.

Stage 3: Second interviews (values-based)

For the value-based interview, we assessed applicants for how their values aligned with ours, which include: 

  • Community: We believe in the power of collective action.

  • Empathy: We care about understanding the feelings of our community and each other.

  • Curiosity: We pursue knowledge, creativity, and growth with an open mind.

  • Honesty: We act with integrity and sincerity in all our communications and actions.

  • Competence: We strive for excellence in everything we do, through skillful and effective action.

We asked all 15 applicants who made it to this stage questions like: 

  1. When was the last time you received negative feedback on your work with a team? Can you tell us all about that experience?

  2. Have you ever had to handle a project that you knew nothing or very little about, which meant you had to learn a new skill? Can you tell us what that experience was like?

  3. What are you currently curious about outside marketing?

  4. Tell me about a time you had to consider someone else's perspective to achieve a common goal.

  5. What's the most thoughtful thing someone's ever done for you and what's the most thoughtful thing you've ever done for someone?

Work is a big part of the human experience. It gets exhausting but can also enrich us if we enjoy it and do it with the right people. So, it mattered that we had shared values.

By the end of this stage, we had chosen 11 exceptional marketers for our first cohort.

I should add that we experienced our share of no-shows during both interview stages, and some candidates dropped from the running at different stages, even a month after starting the program. We also kept candidates informed about the status of their applications at each stage. Looking back, this was another stretch for us as a small team. But, in line with our value of honesty, we decided early on to remove the uncertainty factor that’s often a norm in job applications.

Also, we moved applicants to different roles based on their strengths. For instance, Blessing initially applied for the content role. But after speaking with her, we saw a depth of love for and curiosity of people that made her a better fit for the community team. She was open to the move, and so were Titi (content to community) and Eniola and Judy (content to social). 

Hiring well requires observation of the unwritten skills of an applicant. I regard these role switches as one of our best hiring decisions, for their impact on our community and the cohort members who made the switch.

“One of my favorite parts of moving from content to community management for this program is the way that being a community manager forces you to take initiative. As a content writer, most times you’ll have to wait for the head of content or content manager to assign topics, and briefs and even provide you with data on your content performance. In this role, I got the creative freedom and access to as many resources that empowered me to give my best, and even contribute to the growth of the community after the program ends. The role made me a better collaborator, manager, and lover of data.”

— Blessing Onyegbula

Onboarding

To welcome our marketers, we held two onboarding meetings and created a Notion wiki that included a volunteer dashboard, welcome kits, and workstations.

The meetings were floors for introductions and sharing expectations. For the first meeting, volunteers got to meet and share their goals for the program with each other in a casual setting. The next day, they had a second onboarding call with Aisha, in which she detailed the program and our work at The Hub. These meetings set the tone for how we communicated and worked with each other.

The volunteer dashboard allowed volunteers to learn more about each other. It contained each volunteer’s profile, including short bios and their three goals for the program. Each team member got to fill out their profiles individually, which we recommended to instill a culture of ownership. This dashboard was instrumental in how we managed growth for volunteers. We duplicated a copy for the core team and used that to document volunteers’ progress and plans to help them achieve their goals.

The welcome kits introduced our volunteers to their roles. We wanted them to have clarity about working with us from the get-go. So, we made three kits for the different teams that included welcome notes, our core mission and values, details about the role, our strategy docs for different verticals, tools and key resources they’ll use for their role, our style and brand guides, work and meeting schedules, their first assignment, how they can get support from the core team, and some FAQs.

I like to describe the first assignments we gave as get-to-know tasks. They covered activities that involved familiarizing themselves with their onboarding materials and the team. Adding action steps like these removes uncertainty and allows new team members to slowly get involved, which in turn builds momentum early on.

We built workstations to help us collaborate well as a team. I’m a big fan of making things accessible and eliminating the constant back-and-forth that comes with finding work docs in a team with extensive documentation. Teams work better and faster when they have easy access to the tools they need. So, we ensured that each workstation contained relevant work materials. 

We also added notes on our mission and specific goals at The Hub. Our thinking was that if people know what they’re working towards, then they’ll stay motivated. This is especially important for an unpaid role.

The workstation also included a dashboard that detailed deliverables for each month of the program.  I’ll share how we used the workstation in the next section.

Assigning tasks

What’s the most productive way to assign tasks? 

That was a big question we had to answer when it came to assigning tasks. We have ambitious goals at The Hub, but we understood that this program wasn’t just about what we could achieve with the input of our volunteers. It was a partnership in many ways, and it was important for us to design deliverables that helped volunteers achieve their goals for the program. 

We assigned tasks by pairing volunteers’ goals with our needs as a brand. We also wanted volunteers to have a clear sense of direction at the start of each month. So, we took a monthly, rather than a weekly approach to sharing deliverables. Providing a monthly view of tasks gives teams the space to understand their responsibilities and the flexibility to approach their tasks more strategically.

How can we accelerate learning on the job?

That was our second big question, and we found the answer in one word: ownership.

We don’t micromanage at The Hub. We find that giving people room to own their work helps them learn faster. It also improves their output quality and productivity level. Any smart person is more willing to deliver on something for which they feel responsible. 

We rotated ownership among volunteers, using a weekly cadence for the social media team and a monthly cadence for the content and community teams. We also wanted volunteers to collaborate on ownership. So, channels like our Viral Loop newsletter often had co-owners.

Ownership meant being responsible for the sustenance of a channel. Here’s what that looked like for Marketers Room, our Slack community channel: 

“I had the exciting opportunity to own a platform each week. This meant rotating between Instagram, Instagram Stories, LinkedIn, and Twitter. It was like a social media experiment, testing my skills across different disciplines. It was a valuable learning opportunity. It taught me the importance of versatility in social media management and the unique strengths and challenges of each platform.”

— Morayo Odunsi

But we also provided extensive support. We created a collection of docs to help guide and simplify the team’s process. These included content guidelines, writing workflows, content audit sheets, blog outline templates, research checklists, guidelines for moderating discussions in the community, best practices doc for developing resources, our existing content calendar, and so much more, extending these guides to video walkthroughs on Loom.

“As a fresh content writer who didn’t have prior experience with a lot of things, the checklist and guides gave me a clear direction about where to start and what to do first. It helped me stay organized and also saved me a lot of time asking a variety of questions. I was also able to focus on creativity and deliver high-quality content.”

— Alade Elizabeth Bukola

We used Slack as our primary communication channel and brought the teams together in pre-scheduled weekly meetings, where we discussed projects and prepared for the coming week. The teams worked on a variety of projects, ranging from creation to strategy, giving them a well-rounded marketing experience.

Management

I’ve managed teams of peer volunteers in the past. But none of that prepared me for the work involved in managing a more junior team. In one of our meetings, I told Aisha that the experience felt like being a parent. I’m not even a parent, but I often found my mind occupied by the individuals on my team, pondering ways I could help them grow. 

I felt a deep sense of responsibility for the volunteers on my team, so did Gift, and because we put empathy at the heart of our work at The Hub, we decided to take a human-centered approach to team management. This meant paying attention to what was going on with team members outside work, listening to their experiences, asking good questions about projects and life, and learning to stay patient even when things went askew.

“Gift’s intentionality was truly inspiring. I’ve learned so much from her, not just about creating content, but also about leadership, kindness, and the power of effective communication.”

— Eniola Adeyeye, Social media team.

Beyond taking a human-centered approach, we held monthly 1:1 meetings through which we had extensive discussions about projects and ways we could better support volunteers.

“The 1:1s allowed me to ask for more details about the tasks I worked on. It was a good way to follow up on my journey in the program, regarding the goals I set at the start. I felt more committed after each session.”

— Titilola Shittu, Community & Resource team

We also provided learning resources in Slack and the workstations to help volunteers improve specific skills.

Roadblocks

What’s a team without hurdles to cross?

Throughout the program, we encountered several significant roadblocks that impacted our productivity and progress. Due to the remote nature of our teams, issues like ill health, slow internet connectivity, and frequent electrical power outages (hello Nigeria) hampered our ability to maintain consistent output. These challenges necessitated pushing deliverables from one month to the next, adjusting timelines, and making numerous accommodations to meet our goals.

In addition to these logistical setbacks, we faced the departure of one volunteer after a month and a half due to personal challenges. This change was unexpected, and it required us to redistribute tasks and reassess our project timelines. Communication also posed challenges at times, with some volunteers struggling to keep us updated. To address this, we implemented regular reminders and conducted one-on-one meetings to ensure everyone was aligned and fully supported.

We also met some hurdles on the management side. The constant need to manage our day-to-day jobs alongside our commitments to the volunteers at The Hub often left us feeling overwhelmed and exhausted.

To cope with this, we relied heavily on the systems we’d initially set up. They provided some much-needed structure. As the program progressed, we found it necessary to pace ourselves better. We spaced out tasks like reviewing the team's work, adjusting meeting schedules, and even canceling meetings when there wasn't much to discuss. Instead, we’d ask volunteers to provide updates on their progress via Slack.

These adjustments helped us maintain a sustainable pace, avoid burnout, and continue supporting the volunteer team effectively.

“At Smarketers Hub, our approach to challenges is rooted in empathy, resilience, and adaptability. We focus on understanding the issue first, then finding creative solutions. Flexibility is key—we adapt and learn from every setback, ultimately strengthening our team and bringing us closer to our goals.”

— Aisha Owolabi. Founder, Smarketers Hub

Impact

Three months seems like a short time frame for achieving defining results, especially in an industry like ours where SEO takes time to yield fruit, community building is a long-term game, and career growth materializes at an undefined pace.

But this program showed us the depth and breadth of what we could achieve in a short time frame, with the right structure. 

Impact on our volunteer team

Over the course of the program, our volunteer team not only contributed significantly to our projects but also experienced growth on a personal level. Their involvement allowed them to hone their skills, take on new challenges, and gain valuable experience in areas like content creation, community management, and project coordination. 

Feedback from the team has been overwhelmingly positive, with many expressing how the program helped them develop confidence in their abilities and clarity in their career paths.

Here’s feedback from our volunteers:

  • This program, the community, and my team lead have been an incredible contributor to my career journey this year. Beyond having the community, I think having a leader/mentor who gives you the opportunity to grow, make mistakes, and learn while allowing you to own things and guide you is a gift every career-focused person needs and this program gave me that. My heart is full.

  • Volunteering for Smarketers Hub has been a career-defining experience for me in many ways. For one, the program has helped me come out of my shell a bit more because I just have to interact with the team leads and my teammates. This was easy because our managers made us feel valuable, smart, and capable of great ideas. So, I learned to be more open and communicative.

    Another huge benefit is the confidence boost. I came into the program with a lot of self-doubt but the amazing support I got from Etashe helped me trust myself more. In all, it's been a remarkable experience and I'm really glad I got to interact with the amazing people I did.

  • I'm truly grateful for the experience and growth I've experienced in my writing career. One of my biggest achievements was redesigning the contributor's program. Working closely with my team lead — Etashe was a great one. I learned about collaboration, effective communication, using new tools, creativity, and also thinking forward about any creative ideas. I'm excited to continue growing as a content writer and marketer because this has laid a strong foundation for me in my career.

  • I’ve learned a lot of valuable things about marketing from the program. The first one is copywriting, I understand how to put my words together in a better way now. I also enjoyed collaborating with other volunteers, it’s something I looked forward to doing before the start of the program. This program has also given me an opportunity to try out community management and I enjoyed every part of it. I had a great experience and worked with amazing people.

  • Every moment during this volunteer program was a learning moment for me. From the first few weeks of creating weekly posts, which Etashe had to review to ensure I was consistent with the brand’s tone, to subsequent weeks with different tasks that helped me unlock my unique skillset, to the weekly meetings, which forced me to learn something new about community management ahead of time, it was a rewarding experience for me.

  • As someone who hadn't directly had team leads or mentors who were accessible in marketing, this was a dream come true. I had to learn, unlearn, and relearn so many times. This program exposed me to the intricacies of working with a team, a well-structured one at that. It was amazing that I got to learn a lot, grow, and even make new friends over the past 4 months! I think just working with Gift has raised my standards so much. From the feedback to the follow-ups and recommendations, I really became a better marketer, true and true.

  • Getting into the program was a dream come true. I have always admired Gift, and the work being done on Smarketers Hub socials. My key highlights were with my teammates - Lola and Blessing. Never a dull moment with them even when I kept to myself. They were invested in my participation and growth as much as theirs. Etashe’s leadership, management, planning, and corrections have shaped me. I am hopeful that the relationships and insights gained will continue to inform and enhance my future pursuits. Santé! 🧡

  • This program has been a challenging and insightful experience for me. I've learned so much and I cannot wait to do great things with all I've learned from the team. From the first interview, I knew I was in the right place. So, if you’re thinking about joining the next cohort, I 100% recommend you do. The one soft skill I have built during this program is consistency and I’ve seen that it yields results. I cannot wait to apply it to other aspects of my career.

  • These last three months have been nothing short of amazing, and I'm beyond grateful to everyone I've had the privilege of working with. Gift’s intentionality was truly inspiring. I've learned so much from her, not just about creating content, but also about leadership, kindness, and the power of effective communication. This experience has opened my eyes to the global possibilities in marketing, and I can't wait to apply everything I've learned.

  • One thing I wanted when I applied for the program was to gain ownership of my work and I was able to get this. The last three months have been a wholesome experience for me. From learning to use tools such as Notion to using Squarespace and conducting a content audit, I can say for sure I am a much better content marketer.

Our volunteers now have working portfolios and quantifiable CVs. Here’s a collection of some of them:

Impact on the community

Thanks to the hard work of volunteers behind the scenes, we saw a significant increase in community engagement. The projects they managed brought fresh energy and initiatives that resonated with our members, resulting in more active participation and a stronger sense of community. The engagement levels during this period were some of the highest we’ve seen since launching the Slack community group in February.

A casual discussion initiated by a volunteer on the community team

Feedback from a community member on a newsletter edition of Viral Loop created by the volunteer content team

Impact on the team's capabilities

From a team perspective, the volunteers significantly enhanced our capacity to achieve our goals. Their support allowed us to host our first in-person community event and pursue and launch new partnerships (with Cleva, Talentpoel, and Earna), which would have taken much longer to bring to fruition. 

Their involvement allowed us to focus on strategic initiatives and launch key projects. It also led to faster turnaround times on deliverables and more robust planning, making the overall team more efficient and effective.

General impact

In barely 4 months, the volunteer program achieved results that would typically take much longer to accomplish.

We shared 96 posts, gained 335 new followers, and reached 93.23% engagement across our social media channels. We gained 136 new subscribers on Viral Loop, our monthly newsletter. We created eight new blog articles, reached nearly 2000 website visits and over 5k page views, and achieved so much more.

Another key highlight of this program was expanding the core team. Anthonia, who brought her A-game to the content team, will be joining us in September as a content manager. Her addition fills a critical need within the team but also underscores the value of the program to both the volunteers and The Hub.

📑 ALSO READ: Lessons learned managing a community for three months

The end

As the volunteer program came to a close, we held a final all-hands meeting to wrap up the work and share one last moment of team bonding. This meeting was not just about signing off on deliverables; it was a heartfelt experience where we reflected on the journey, shared warm conversations, and exchanged great feedback. 

The atmosphere was incredibly supportive and uplifting, making it a perfect way to conclude our collaborative efforts. The team left the meeting with a sense of accomplishment and a stronger connection to one another.

We then celebrated the volunteers’ achievements with a special graduation ceremony, bringing together not just the volunteers and core team members, but also our wider community from Slack. 

We spotlighted projects and shared certificates of service during the ceremony to recognize the hard work and dedication of each volunteer. This event was a fitting and warm conclusion to the program, leaving everyone involved with lasting memories and a sense of fulfillment.

Next cohort

Looking ahead, we’ll be launching the next cohort of our volunteer program in 2025. Unlike this year, we’ll be working with fewer people, so it’s going to be a highly focused and more manageable experience. 

We’ll share more details and make the official announcement as we get closer to the start date. So, keep an eye out in Marketers Room (they get early info) and social media channels (Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn)

If you’re interested in joining the next cohort or want to stay updated, you can join the waitlist. You’ll be the first to know when applications open.

We’re looking forward to building on the successes of this year’s program and making the next cohort even more impactful.

“Reflecting on our first volunteer program, I’m filled with pride and optimism. This initiative has not only demonstrated the power of collective effort but also reinforced our commitment to creating meaningful opportunities for marketers at every stage of their careers. The growth and accomplishments of our volunteers are a testament to what can be achieved when passion meets purpose, and structure meets support. As we move forward, the lessons learned here will continue to inspire us and drive our mission of building a thriving, global community of marketers.”

— Aisha Owolabi, Founder, Smarketers Hub.

Etashe (Linto) Okpola

Community Lead, Smarketers Hub

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