In this Meet the Team feature, we’ve caught up with our Senior Content Editor - Nikki Sherret.
Hear from Nikki about her career journey, what a content editor role at VisitScotland involves, and the exciting work she's currently focused on. Plus find out Nikki's favourite places to visit in Scotland!
I’ve worked in the Content Team at VisitScotland for over 15 years now. I began working on our regional print guides and campaign websites, putting my journalism training to good use by proofreading copy and creating inspirational features.
Alongside a variety of colleagues, I’ve had the honour of rebuilding and launching our consumer website multiple times, hopefully creating a more engaging and inspiring version every time.
I’ve always been passionate about what a great country Scotland is, and after writing about the incredible great outdoors and evolving cities, I don’t think I could do anything else now – it just can’t be beaten!
My current role as Senior Content Editor has me working on both our consumer website and our business-facing websites. I work closely with a number of colleagues across the organisation to ensure our websites deliver for industry, business and our visitors, and carry the right messages to support Scotland’s people, communities and our environment.
This can mean my day-to-day ranges from looking at the bigger picture – ensuring we have the right content on each website to deliver on the vision, purpose and direction; and looking at the detail – creating guidelines and processes to ensure every single page of content is easy to understand, engaging and helps someone take their next step.
Read more about our focus on business and experience developmentI’m currently looking at ways to raise awareness of all our great Business Support Programme activity, making sure everyone knows that we have webinars and workshops (live and catch-up recordings), case studies and a tailored email programme for tourism businesses and events.
I’m constantly looking for ways to improve the information we offer online through user testing and business feedback, and for new content ideas to highlight the great work going on across Scotland through case studies and expert interviews.
At the same time, I’m also working on our consumer website, visitscotland.com as we look to evolve and improve our content to bring more inspiring ideas to future visitors when they are considering and planning a trip.
Visit the Business Support Hub
I love how we always strive for continuous improvement. Our websites are never finished – there’s always something more we can add, remove or improve.
The digital world and the tourism market change all the time, so we need to be ready to pivot to new trends or respond to new research and insights on how best to deliver our messages.
There’s always something new for me to learn as well, from finding a new business to talk about (for visitors or as a peer-to-peer case study) to understanding a new part of the wider industry (such as events delivery or travel distribution).
I enjoy the variety as well - I started working on our new Business Support Programme a year ago for the launch of the Business Support Hub website.
It’s been a great experience to learn more about the businesses I’ve been promoting on the consumer website over the years, and give something back to them by providing simple and useful advice to help them grow and develop.
In recent years, I’ve enjoyed several “hobby holidays or hobbidays!" as I’m a keen artist in my spare time and a big believer in the positive impact that arts, crafts and other activities can have on your wellbeing.
We’re spoilt for choice in Scotland with art schools, print studios and one-off experiences – I’ve spent many a lovely week in Edinburgh and East Lothian, sitting outside, sketching the trees, harbours or coastlines of Scotland.
Scotland is a great place for artists given the beauty of our landscapes and nature, and there’s a huge selection of courses to choose from including boat trips on the west coast to printmaking in Moray Speyside.
