Artist & Founder / Marketing Manager of CHI.media & CHI.social
Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I’m Alëna Olasyuk. I was born in Russia, raised in Ukraine, and developed professionally in China.
I’ve been living in Beijing for 11 years. Initially I came here to study Chinese. Then I graduated from the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology where I majored in Fashion Media.
I have two passions in my life - art and marketing. As an artist, I work in a minimalistic style using Chinese ink.
Two years ago I started CHI.media, which is an online magazine about art and brand/company collaborations. We also represent artists for collaborations and give talks and lectures about it. At the end of last year, I started CHI.social, a social media marketing agency.
You are an Artist and the Founder of CHI.media and more recently CHI.social. How do you manage all of these projects at once?
I have help from my team with CHI media. And it is easier to manage these projects when you are single and mixing friendship with work.
What inspired you to create CHI.social?
A combination of seeing a gap in the market and my own personal interest in growing in marketing.
After working for an interior design company as a marketing manager, I recognized that there are a lot of companies, small and medium-size, that don’t want to hire a marketing specialist to run their social media. They usually delegate this job to office administrators or interns. As a result, the company’s social media doesn’t look good or special. One of the services that we offer is the Social Media Marketing Guidebook. We design the company's WeChat account (or other social media) with samples of content, content categories, and a guidebook on how to use it all. Then the company can work on social media by themselves, without extra spending, but developing much better content.
We also offer a social media marketing strategy for companies who want to create or improve their content strategy and make themselves different in the market. I wish more companies would focus less on their products and start to deliver more value to us - their customers. This would create more diversity in the market and bring them a bigger audience and possibilities for business growth.
I love marketing and always wanted to grow and develop myself in this field, but I don’t have a classic education in marketing. I learned it by DOING it. I was starting companies and projects and having to do the branding and marketing, I also read tons of books. Every time I worked in a company I pushed ideas that would help me to improve my skills in marketing. And starting my own agency is another way for me to develop in this industry.
What type of online content should people be using in their business?
Valuable, engaging, and interesting content! But every company should define for themselves what that is exactly. They need to base this on what they do, what they want, what their audience wants, and what they can do!
How can people tap into their own creativity?
Give up on fear.
Most people are unable to start on or open themselves up to new ideas due to fear. Fear of failure, looking stupid (that’s mine), what their parents will say, what their colleagues will say, what if they won’t earn millions and so on and so forth.
Focusing on interests and ideas instead of fear will open up a whole universe of creativity.
What advice would you give to someone wanting to start their own business?
Just start.
If you would like to find out more about CHI. media or CHI.social you can find them at:
Instagram:
olasyuk_a
Email: