Jul 06
Pay It Forward 2010 Profile: Kneale Mann
Published by Amybeth (@researchgoddess) at 7:00 am under Blogging,Social
These spotlights are opportunities for you to get to know some individuals who were recommended to me for the article I wrote for Mashable, 4 Essential Traits for Social Media Success in Your Career. The purpose of my project, detailed here, is to profile some social media professionals to keep an eye on in the coming year.
Spotlight: Kneale MannTitle: Marketing and Social Media Strategist (self employed)
Employer: YouIntegrate
Who paid it forward: Mitch Joel
What Mitch had to say about Kneale: “Kneale is smart, he really does connect, and he is from radio and knows that the world is changing.”
Kneale is a fantastically charismatic guy who lives in the Ottawa area. He works for himself helping clients with strategic and marketing planning, social media consultation and implementation, and personal and company branding as well as start-up launches. He has a unique background in that he comes from a very traditional media world, having worked in radio, print, and TV. He has been involved in media and marketing in some capacity for more than two decades and has a wealth of knowledge that he is now applying in the social media world. Kneale also blogs at One Mann’s Opinion.
Why Kneale believes Mitch recommended him: Kneale first met Mitch 15 yrs ago, and about three years ago he received a friend request from him on Facebook. Mitch remembered him from their prior interaction and invited him to a ‘geek dinner’. Obviously their interaction left an impact on Mitch and Kneale believes this is part of what led to his recommendation.
Some of Kneale’s thoughts on social media strategy: “Tactics before strategy is suicide.” Kneale believes that you cannot have a bias to any particular medium – he says you cannot focus on the brush, but instead you must focus on the painting. He also says that it is vitally important to have consistency, and that it takes time to develop a good strategy. In his own words, “No company is built on a campaign.”
Some of Kneale’s thoughts on reaching target audiences: Kneale says we tend to measure ourselves against something or someone else, when we should only be measuring against ourselves. There are 8 billion pieces of content uploaded on Facebook every week; we don’t need to reach everyone, just the people who need our product or our service. We put mountains in front of ourselves and compare ourselves to huge brands. Kneale’s advice is to be like YOU – don’t try to be like everyone else. He says some of the most important things to think about when building presence are content, context, and community. Understanding where your audience is in these three areas will help you be more focused in your outreach.
Where Kneale sees social media going in the future: Kneale says that today, there are even more people with their noses against the glass. He believes this curiosity will increase, because social media is not dead – it still has a long way to go. Kneale says that people will begin to realize that it is a tapestry you can choose – but when you choose a channel, it’s important to stick with it. He says that it is important to pay attention to human behavior, and that companies will be more selective of their presence once they pay more attention to this. He also says that there will be no shortage of failures because it’s a tactic, not a campaign. But failure is what is needed in order to discover what truly works.
A few people who have inspired Kneale:
- Chris Brogan – Kneale shared that Chris is a remarkably giving guy
- Danny Brown – Kneale was impressed with Danny’s 12for12k campaign
- Susan Murphy – a partner at Jester Creative Inc., she helps people discover and tell their stories in a variety of mediums, including video and new media – a tremendous collaborator
- Liz Strauss – Founder of SOBCon, thought provoker, über connector, and idea machine
- Mike Kujawski – a young marketing and social media strategist out of Ottawa; Kneale was impressed with his accomplishments at such a young age
- Lisa Hickey – Kneale mentioned The Good Men Project she works on, which is an online effort to build and sustain a national discussion about being a good father, son, husband, and worker in our society today
Connect with Kneale on:
