- An award-winning digital media professional, focusing on content and social media strategy, Tabitha Sukhai’s journey began at Time Inc., the world’s leading magazine publisher at the time, with iconic titles such as TIME, People, Fortune, and Real Simple. Here, she earned a reputation as an “intrapreneur” and strategic innovator, creating digital content marketing strategies that continue to be relevant in her consulting work today. Despite the decline of legacy print magazines as primary content distribution vehicles, Tabitha’s work at Time Inc. offered valuable lessons in digital transformation, including how to be agile enough to create high-impact campaigns with “lean” budgets. Still, with the in-house resources available to her at Time Inc., Tabitha was able to build a remarkable skill set that she now shares with targeted audiences on the brand level.
- The advent of digital platforms (particularly social media channels) democratized content marketing and PR. That democratization of content creation was further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and while Tabitha has always focused her efforts on amplifying the voices of women and BIPOC communities, this became a larger priority for more companies after the historic social justice events in 2020. Early in her career, promoting inclusion and equality felt like shouting into a void, but now people are listening. It has become easier to amplify her extensive and ongoing work with GirlUp and the United Nations Foundation, where Tabitha has advocated for women of color in tech and business, girls’ STEM education, and for the rights of women globally in her lobbying for the Girls Count Act of 2015 (S.802 – Girls Count Act of 2015 114th Congress).
- Tabitha’s expertise as an empathic, data-driven digital marketer continues to be in high demand, covering all aspects of earned and paid media, website management, content marketing, email marketing, and much more. With the luxury of being able to carefully choose the companies and brands she partners with, Tabitha has a personal investment in crafting tailored strategies and messages for each cause-driven organization.
- Tabitha’s particular strength lies in identifying current best practices, patterns and trends, and using data to implement real-time optimization to campaigns and promotions. The key is to maximize use of immediate feedback loops to ensure low-impact efforts are identified quickly and optimized or disabled, while high-impact efforts are identified for boosting and amplification (more investment). Many marketers “set it and forget it” without taking the time to thoughtfully analyze short- and long-term performance in tandem with analysis of general industry trends; Tabitha has learned that factoring in current events and global trends, along with the needs of target users can really lead to impressive results.
A Passion for Content and Community
Empathy and inclusion have always been at the core of Tabitha’s values. Growing up, magazines were her portal to the world, and she devoured teen publications, including YM and Seventeen. By her senior year of high school, Tabitha was already working with Teen People magazine, a spin-off of People magazine at Time Inc., as a Trend Spotter and intern in various departments. It was during this time that she realized the immense power of curated content and content marketing not only to entertain and inform, but also to forecast and even influence trends. She also observed how people rallied around certain topics and ideas, forming niche communities and networks of “brand loyalists.”
As Tabitha’s career progressed, she honed her focus on creating and sharing high-quality, useful content both in print and online, while prioritizing inclusion and representation in whatever she was producing. As a young person, she noted a lack of representation in magazines, and she felt that in order to effect change, she had to become part of the system creating the messages. Tabitha didn’t know anyone who worked in publishing, so she made it a goal to break into the industry and start a career generating useful content that was inclusive in terms of representation.
- Adapting to a Changing Media Landscape and Fostering Digital Innovation
- Tabitha’s journey from intern to “Editor-in-Chief” of her own digital property at Time Inc. has been marked by her efforts to adapt to the changing media landscape. She embraced the rise of social media as a distribution channel for content and partnered with “Big Social” platforms to create brand pages on Facebook. Eventually, Tabitha worked to launch Time Inc.’s first digital microsite, TheSnug, which targeted millennials with repackaged and user-generated content. The site was sponsored by IKEA at launch and boasted impressive organic performance. This effort laid the foundation for Meredith Corporation’s content marketing studio after the merger of Time Inc. with Meredith in 2018. Although TheSnug eventually shuttered with her departure from Time Inc., Tabitha learned valuable lessons about innovation and digital community building. Now, she has taken these lessons into private practice to support BIPOC-owned and women-owned businesses. As a consultant, Tabitha focuses on creating and sharing good, useful content while amplifying messages for underserved and underrepresented audiences.
Personal and Professional Success
Tabitha’s success in both her personal and professional lives can be attributed to her mastery of empathic agility. She understands the importance of knowing when to speak up for change and when to put her head down and “do the work.” Although topics of racism, inclusion, and equality can be challenging to address in homogeneous environments, Tabitha approaches these conversations with finesse. Tabitha is known for identifying seamless opportunities for advocating on behalf of unprecedented approaches to diversification, and this is essential in these times.
Tabitha recognizes that an empathetic and agile approach to digital marketing can be difficult to achieve in some organizations, but her process yields astounding returns and her values are weaved into the fabric of her work. She considers herself fortunate to have had the opportunity to experiment with and establish her methods while working at a well-resourced company, and now she enjoys bringing tried-and-tested methodologies to an array of cause-driven organizations. Tabitha’s professional agility is demonstrated in her decision to shift her focus to digital when the print business landscape became volatile. She was also among the first editorial early adopters to use Facebook user profiles as distribution channels for magazine titles and their Web content. Her early efforts within Time Inc. in partnership with Facebook led to the development of Brand Pages as we know them today. Meanwhile, it’s worth noting that the flexibility afforded by a digital profession enables her to prioritize her family, which is also of great importance to her.
Embracing Inclusion, Empathy, and Data-Driven Thinking in Digital Marketing
The Internet has brought people closer together, making it essential to approach communication with an open mind and sensitivity towards cultural competency. Demonstrating empathy, self-awareness, and generosity of spirit in a “global community” makes Tabitha a strong communicator and an excellent colleague, manager and mentor. True self-awareness enables leaders to identify their own strengths and weaknesses so that they can find the resources they need to be truly successful; this is something Tabitha excels at daily, according to her many clients, colleagues, and peers.
In Tabitha’s digital marketing processes, innovative thinking is essential. There is a constant need to level up skills related to individual platforms and their algorithms. It’s also important to be attuned to the audience at every part of the journey and respect the fact that user profiles are diverse and nuanced. For Tabitha, empathy is a critical component of innovation, especially when trying to reach a global audience (or diverse populations in metropolitan areas) in a meaningful way.
An Unconventional Path
Tabitha has observed various organizational structures throughout her career and has never been a proponent of the traditional corporate hierarchy. This is one of the reasons why she chose to become a consultant instead of striving to climb the corporate ladder within large companies. In most models, executive leadership can limit one’s ability to truly innovate or keep a working practical knowledge of platforms and new technology. In the tech industry, there is often a focus on the charismatic leader or quirky founder, but oftentimes, true innovation comes from the hardworking and inquisitive “worker bees” who have the bandwidth to think deeply and execute effectively. With the right guidance and support, these “shining stars” can emerge to make a significant impact through their work. Tabitha recognizes that it takes individuals with different personalities to achieve success, and she has mentored young professionals across a wide range of personalities and disciplines. Past mentees now work for Netflix, Buzzfeed, Meredith Corporation, and more. Inspired by her success, many of Tabitha’s young mentees have also opted to be freelancers or independent contractors in tech and digital marketing.
Ensuring Positive Impact Through Digital Content
On a day-to-day basis, Tabitha is responsible for ensuring that complex digital ecosystems remain in balance, with a holistic 365-degree approach to brand marketing. It has always been essential for her to know that the messages being amplified and the stories being told have a positive impact on the people seeing them. The internet is already awash with low-quality information and content, and with the emergence of AI tools, there’s a risk of an even greater flood of questionable and inaccurate content surfacing across the Internet. The most rewarding part of her job is knowing that her work is a positive contribution to what can often be a very negative space; nothing beats seeing the tangible effects of a carefully planned campaign and knowing that her team has contributed to improving someone’s life through the content they’ve created.
Advice for Budding Visionaries: Stay Agile and Flexible
Tabitha advises emerging leaders to remain agile so that they can learn to pivot quickly when necessary. Given the ever-changing nature of tech and digital industries, it is essential to be flexible in both approach and thinking, as the ability to “bend rather than break” is sure to foster a long and rewarding career.
Written by Steve Sanchez.
