Suggestions
Michelle Walkden
Communication is more than just words
Professional Background
Michelle Walkden is a seasoned communication and marketing professional with an extensive background in both traditional and digital media. She currently serves as an Account Manager for Marketing and Communication at Cairns Regional Council, where she plays a critical role in promoting and enhancing the Council's public image and communication strategies. Michelle's experience spans various sectors, which has endowed her with a versatile skill set in communication and public relations.
Prior to her role at Cairns Regional Council, Michelle owned and operated her own communications consultancy, MichCommunication, where she successfully provided strategic communication services to a diverse clientele. This entrepreneurial venture allowed her to harness her expertise in crafting compelling narratives and communication strategies, ultimately enabling businesses to connect more effectively with their target audiences.
Michelle's journey began in the realm of journalism, where she honed her skills as a court reporter at Cairns Post, covering high-stakes legal cases and public affairs. She then progressed to the role of Senior Reporter at The Bendigo Advertiser, focusing on police and court reporting. Her background in journalism has equipped her with exceptional writing and storytelling skills, which she continues to utilize in her current ventures.
Further enriching her career, Michelle served as a Communication Consultant at JG Communication, where she provided expert advice on communication strategies tailored to meet clients' needs. She also held the position of Internal, digital and social communicator at SEB within the Wholesale Segment. In these roles, she demonstrated her capacity to navigate complex communication challenges and effectively engage internal and external stakeholders.
Education and Achievements
Michelle Walkden is committed to continuous learning and professional development, evidenced by her diverse range of experiences and roles throughout her career. While specific educational details are not provided, her impressive professional trajectory speaks to a foundation of knowledge and expertise in communication, media, and public relations.
Throughout her career, Michelle has achieved numerous accolades, which highlight her dedication and skill in the field of communication. By successfully managing high-profile accounts and navigating challenging communication scenarios, she has established herself as a trusted expert in her field. Her ability to integrate traditional public relations with digital communication strategies showcases her adaptability to evolving communication landscapes.
Achievements
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Account Management at Cairns Regional Council: As an Account Manager, Michelle has significantly contributed to the Council's communication efforts, ensuring effective engagement with the public and stakeholders through innovative marketing strategies.
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Entrepreneurial Success with MichCommunication: Successfully launching and managing her own consultancy, Michelle demonstrated her prowess in creating tailored communication strategies that met the unique needs of various clients.
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Journalistic Excellence: Michelle's background as a Senior Reporter has allowed her to uncover critical stories and articulate them with clarity, boosting public understanding of complex judicial matters. Her work as a court reporter has built a strong reputation within the media community.
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Diverse Communication Roles: In her previous positions, Michelle has excelled in both external and internal communication roles, showcasing her ability to tailor messages for different audiences effectively.
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Digital Communication Expertise: At SEB, Michelle was instrumental in enhancing digital and social communication efforts within the Wholesale Segment, underlining her ability to adapt to the digital age and innovate communication practices.
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Reputation Building: Throughout her career, she has successfully built and managed the reputations of the organizations she has been a part of, ensuring they maintain a positive public perception.
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Strategic Communication Frameworks: Michelle has developed frameworks for strategic communication that help organizations align their communication efforts with overall business objectives, contributing to increased operational efficiency and stakeholder engagement.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
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Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
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Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
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