Victoria Greenwood is a professional digital copywriter who has been applying her expertise to the Translators without Borders (TWB) website content and search engine ranking with the goal of boosting our communications and creating awareness of TWB. TWB volunteer writer, Lorena, interviewed Victoria to get to know more about what it is she does to help TWB.
Q: How did you come to volunteer your time for Translators without Borders?
A: I have been writing and editing content for travel, educational and government websites for over ten years, and wanted to venture into helping a charity or non-profit organization. Big companies have plenty of budget for developing and refining their presence in the digital world, and I felt drawn to gift some of my time to an organization with a worthy cause to help improve their online presence.
After some digging around on Google, I came across Translators without Borders and sent over my CV.
Q: How would you describe your role with TWB?
A: Since July last year, I’ve been working on ad-hoc projects for TWB, with a particular focus on improving the usability of content. I’ve been involved with this newsletter as well but also reworking some of the most popular pages on the website to improve the calls to action and give them a good position in search engines. I occasionally do some proofreading too.
Q: How do you manage your work for TWB with the rest of your lifestyle?
A: Having spent most of the past few years traveling in Australia and South East Asia, I have quite a varied lifestyle. My plans revolve around my freelancing projects, but I also do other voluntary work and occasionally take on house or pet-sitting assignments. No month is the same! I do try to dedicate a few days a month to TWB. Fortunately, the team understands about other commitments, which means I can prioritize and move non-urgent content changes to another day.
Q: What do you see as the challenges ahead for TWB?
A: Online, a reader’s attention span lasts for only a few seconds, which makes it all the more important for messages to be concise and crystal clear. The big brands spend thousands on developing a consistent style and tone of voice and then applying that throughout their digital content. I’d like TWB to compete with those brands to share the good work of the organization and encourage even more people to get involved.
Q: You mentioned you have been traveling. Can you describe an interesting or fun thing you did last year?
A: That would have to be volunteering with the dolphins at Monkey Mia in Western Australia. Preparing the fish for the dolphins’ daily feeds wasn’t the most glamorous of jobs, but later I could stand in the water with them while they waited for their treats. Being so close to them each day was quite a magical experience.
Visit Victoria’s LinkedIn page to see what other work she has been doing or to hear more about her work with creating awareness online for TWB.
By Lorena Baudo, Translators without Borders volunteer