You know Danielle Hooks’ work, even if you’ve never had the pleasure of speaking with her.
Danielle is HII’s social media manager, a job that places her at the reins of our company’s brand voice on each of our social media platforms, for the benefit of followers with varied connections to HII and a wide array of interests, ranging from naval history and the art of welding, to artificial intelligence and robotics, to nuclear power and environmental remediation. And they are passionate too!
“I enjoy seeing how this community comes together to encourage one another and support the work we do for our customers,” Danielle said.
Since accepting the position in 2022 after previously working in television news, Danielle began to shift HII’s approach to social media. In addition to focusing on the process of shipbuilding, she began to highlight HII-built ships in action. After all, the ships we construct are in service for decades after they are commissioned by the U.S. Navy. You can now regularly find images of the ships we built in Mississippi and Virginia being used by warfighters across the globe.
Danielle is also intentional about simplifying how we talk about the complex products built by our Mission Technologies teams.
“There are times where I need to create a social media post about something I don’t know a lot about,” she said. “I take the time to talk to our experts to learn about the topic so I can create a post that our audience can connect with, even if they aren’t familiar either.”
HII uses social media on sites such as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram. Danielle understands our online communities better than anyone. She creates avenues for active duty sailors, veterans, shipbuilders and ship enthusiasts to discuss HII’s platforms. She highlights our company’s milestones in ways that recognize the work of our past workforce as well. And she ensures that HII’s social media channels amplify the voices of our leadership and subject matter experts in ways that are valuable to our brand voice.
“We are a team of individuals who are each the best in our respective fields,” she said. “I want to make sure I highlight that expertise, regardless of whether it is from our Unmanned Systems team at Mission Technologies or one of the presidents of our shipbuilding divisions.”
Danielle didn’t land in this role through happenstance. She comes from a military family. Her parents are U.S. Air Force veterans and she has extended family who have served in the U.S. Navy.
“I always wanted to do something that would help me exercise my creativity. I consider myself to be a writer. That’s how I’m most comfortable expressing myself,” she said. “This is how I know how to contribute to our mission.”
You can follow HII on social media by visiting any of our pages — on Facebook, X, Instagram and LinkedIn — during off-work hours.
