Meet Roberto Quinn of Quinn Social Media Management in Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Roberto Quinn.

Roberto, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Growing up internationally, being an outgoing person, and having been raised by a mother who instilled in me the importance of travel, I’ve always been fascinated by the power of connectivity. This sparked my interest in learning and testing all the tools that could help keep me connected to friends and family around the world. From social platforms like Friendster, LiveJournal, and Myspace to messengers like AIM, MSN, and ICQ, I was an early adopter and fan of them all. It wasn’t until college that I began to see a major transformation in communication tools like these, and a shift in how people were using them. They were no longer just for keeping in touch with immediate connections, but about meeting new people outside your personal network.

During my first year at the University of Texas at Austin, I met several business owners and managers of popular venues as well as many creative individuals, both in-person and online. After that first year, I was approached on Myspace by a band who had seen the size of my following and had heard of me from various people around the city. They asked if I could help them reach my personal network, book gigs, and grow their fanbase. I began to consult with them and reach out to people online that I knew enjoyed their genre of music. After a few months, I had significantly grown their audience. It was then that I realized how much I enjoyed using what we know now to be social media to help connect clients to a wider audience and reach new levels of success. From my off-campus apartment, I started a small public relations and entertainment consulting business that worked with various clients throughout my college years.

A few years later, with many unique work experiences under my belt, a great lawyer and friend, David Ortez, put me in touch with Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee, who was up for re-election. We worked very well together, creating a candid, transparent, and approachable digital presence which nobody else was really doing at the time. It truly set her apart from other politicians, which lead to her being re-elected. Through that experience, many doors opened and my client roster quickly expanded. However, after a couple of years, I took some time to reflect on my life, career, and where I really wanted to be. As far back as I can remember, I had always been captivated and enamored by the entertainment industry. I knew that I had to give Hollywood a shot. So I made a plan, set a date, saved up enough to cover three months of expenses, and moved out to Los Angeles with a dream and everything that could fit into my car.

The first three months in Los Angeles were rough. Luckily, before funds ran dry, I was hired on my first Hollywood job, TMZ, where I was asked to fulfill various roles. Determined and dedicated, I put in the long hours and quickly worked my way up through the company. I recognized an opportunity to expand and improve their digital and social media presence, so I spoke with my supervisors as well as Harvey Levin himself, and they presented me with a chance to prove my worth. It wasn’t long before they were seeing a massive growth in followers and engagement. Shortly after, I became their head of social media. Working there for three years was such an enthralling experience. It lifted the glitzy curtain of Hollywood to reveal the true inner workings of the industry, taught me a lot about myself, and what I did and did not want for my career moving forward. It motivated me to pursue other endeavors and fueled the drive to make a name for myself both in this city as well as in the entertainment and digital media industries. Riding high on a new wave of motivation, I left TMZ and shortly after started Quinn Social Media Management.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
As with any path in life, entrepreneurship comes with its own set of speed bumps. You have to sacrifice job security and stability. There will always be lulls in business, sometimes it’s weeks, sometimes months. However, the reward has definitely proven greater than the risk. It was incredibly difficult at first. There is only so much you can learn about running a business from classes and research, the rest is all trial by fire.

Something that’s often said to me, which I always find funny is, “It must feel great being your own boss!” I often joke back, “Yeah, I wish that were the case, owning your own business means every client becomes another boss!” In Quinn Social Media Management’s infancy, I found myself taking on any paying client to expand the company’s roster and experience. We’ve worked with so many types of clients and I find that every project we take on teaches us something new. One of the biggest, and perhaps most important, lessons I’ve learned is never to compromise or change who you are and what you believe in for any project or client. Working in this industry and in Los Angeles in general, it can be easy to lose sight of what’s important.

Allow me to provide an example. As a naturally outgoing and friendly person, I’ve always been incredibly approachable and enjoy building a respectful rapport with the clients and talent I work with. Talent’s trust and comfort are key for digital and social media content to truly be authentic. Oftentimes this means that great friendships will blossom from projects. There was once a particular situation where someone I worked with, to an entire team of executives, accusatorially suggested I was orchestrating some sort of backroom deals because I was “always getting too close with talent.” It was one of the most surprising, humiliating, and hurtful moments of my career. Because I pour my heart into everything I do, even work becomes personal for me, so it became a rough event to recover from emotionally. I could have cowered and allowed that moment to forever change how I conducted business but, I stayed true to who I am.

A few months following the incident, I received a call from a supervising producer at a major network, who has since become good friend. He said, “I’ve heard great things about you, in particular that you’re exceptional at building trust and making talent immediately feel comfortable.” Sometimes life has a funny way of validating you when you need it the most. After that call, I was asked to be the consulting ‘Talent Social Media Producer’ for Lip Sync Battle. It has been one of the most fun projects I’ve ever taken on and I’m even more thankful that it comes with the privilege of working with an incredible team of compassionate professionals.

Thankfully, we’ve now reached a point where Quinn Social Media Management can be selective about who we choose to work with. Moral of the story: always be respectful, put your heart into everything you do, but persevere and be unapologetically you!

Please tell us about Quinn Social Media Management.
Quinn Social Media Management establishes clients’ online voice, creates engaging quality content, and dominates the digital landscape. We’ve crafted winning social strategies for various clients that span from celebrities, politicians, and musicians to billion dollar networks, films, and Emmy nominated television shows. I take enormous pride in the quality of our work, our creativity, and our proven track record of success. As digital and social media continue to evolve, so do we.

It continues to be a truly fascinating and ever-changing journey. What that means for us as a company is that we’re constantly facing and taking on new challenges while adding to our repertoire of experience. We now offer so much more than just digital production services. In the past year alone, we’ve worked with various networks to re-structure and increase efficiency within their digital departments, hosted private digital training classes for celebrities, and have produced several successful digital shows. Currently we’re also serving as consulting creative directors for one of the largest Facebook and Instagram advertising companies in the world, AdvertiseMint.

I’m so grateful that I get to do what I love: consulting with an incredibly diverse portfolio of clients, exploring a range of exciting opportunities within digital and social media, and helping people achieve their goals.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least about our city?
Los Angeles is hands down one of my favorite cities in the world. I’m lucky to call it home. Earthquakes aside, I love living here. The city is so incredibly diverse and culturally captivating. There’s no way you can be bored here as there is something going on every minute of every day in each of the neighborhoods in and around L.A.

However, when you first move here it can be quite difficult to acclimate and even more difficult to find a good group of friends. There are positive ways to channel ambition and negative ways. Unfortunately, one of the negative ways it can manifest is through people’s interactions; what may seem genuine and friendly at first can often end up being merely transactional. If you’re not careful, it’s easy to lose your way here, especially if you’re not completely focused. In the almost nine years I’ve lived here, I’ve seen so many people pack up and call it quits, either because their priorities changed or the city broke their spirits.

Thankfully, over the years I developed a thick skin and became an excellent judge of character and that’s helped me grow my L.A. family. I now have an amazing support system and great group of friends. To anyone reading this that’s thinking of moving here, do it. Set a plan, prepare yourself, and feverishly chase your dreams.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.quinnsocial.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: instagram.com/RobertoQuinn

Image Credit:
Elise Conway, Roberto Quinn, Dancing with the Stars: All Access

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