ResearchGoddess

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:

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. Continue reading “Pay It Forward 2010 Profile: Kneale Mann” »

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:

What Steve had to say about Amanda: “Amanda is an astute trendwatcher and uses these insights to advise some of the biggest companies in the world, all at a very young age.”

Amanda is a graduate of Emerson College in Boston. She earned her degree in Integrated Marketing and has worked in roles utilizing social technologies from the very start of her professional career. She joined Edelman in 2008 and has quickly made a name for herself there. Currently she works as a Senior Social Media Strategist supporting account teams in digital practice. She consults with clients about what people are saying about their brand and helps keep them culturally relevant. Amanda also blogs at We Are The Digital Kids.

How college impacted her interest in social media: Emerson did a great job of making social media part of the curriculum from the start. During her sophomore year, Amanda went to a PRSSA conference where Richard Edelman was speaking on digital and how it is changing business in general, let alone PR. For next two years she immersed herself in learning about digital and how it could change a company’s daily activities. During this time, she continued to hear about social media from professors and business speakers at school. She learned that getting involved in this world would give her the opportunity to be at forefront of a company and still grow and learn on a daily basis.

How making personal connections impacted Amanda’s career: When Amanda first started blogging, Rick Murray, President of Edelman Digital, reached out to her via Twitter. He proved that he is a digital native in the sense that he plays and lives in the space and it is as much a part of his life as it is his work. Rick gave Amanda encouragement to speak up in meetings and do the same things online. As well, Amanda reached out to Richard Edelman right before she went to the PRSSA conference and he responded and stayed in touch while she completed school. He has continued to be supportive of her whole career with Edelman.

Some of Amanda’s thoughts on social media and GenY: Amanda believes there is a misconception that young ‘’digital kids” should be advising companies and digital experts from the start. She says that digital kids come in all age ranges – not just GenY. Digital native status is more dependent on how one lives their life as opposed to when one was born.

Where Amanda sees social media going in the future: One of the most exciting things for Amanda is seeing how what’s happening in digital is not just a skin companies can put on their current activity – it has to be engrained in traditional business operations. Companies will have to adjust many processes to adapt to how social media and digital have changed how business is done. She gives an example of Dell and how they have gotten into social media from a campaign standpoint, but more importantly that they are changing customer service in a radical way by making customers feel they are truly collaborating with the company. She says that 800 numbers are not as important any more for younger generations; they want to be able to reach customer service on Twitter , Facebook, and so forth. Amanda believes that companies need to pay attention to these desires in order to stay relevant and that we will see many more companies embracing this method of outreach in the coming months.

Connect with Amanda on:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Blog

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:

What Aliza had to say about Laura: “Laura is excellent at branding and marketing herself…this gal is a powerhouse, incredibly smart and seeing her moderate a panel recently made me realize how insightful she is.”

Laura attended the University of Texas – Austin and earned a BS in Advertising. As a self employed individual, she teaches small businesses how to market using social media through her company, LauraRoeder.com. She is also the creator of the Creating Fame Classroom and Your Backstage Pass to Twitter. Continue reading “Pay It Forward 2010 Profile: Laura Roeder” »

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:

What Peter had to say about Jessica: “Jessica is smart, smart, smart. She’s very good at the Social Media world, getting great ideas and running with them.”

Jessica has traversed the United States and has settled recently in New York City. She attended the University of Alabama to study Public Relations and Advertising and graduated from the University of Alabama – Birmingham. She began her career in public relations with Publicis Consultants | PR in Seattle, focusing on food/nutrition and health/wellness accounts. Earlier this year, she moved to the East Coast to become a Senior Associate with Digitas, where she focuses on consumer accounts and agency strategy. She blogs at JessicaRandazza.com as well. Continue reading “Pay It Forward 2010 Profile: Jessica Randazza” »

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:

What David had to say about Daniel: “Daniel previously worked at the Chicago Tribune activating “Colonel Tribune” as a character based of the Tribune’s history which gained a large following on Twitter. Since then, Daniel has [been]… doing some interesting work with storystreaming (telling stories through lifestreaming tools such as Posterous).”

Daniel attended SUNY Buffalo where he earned his undergraduate degree in Anthropology. He then attended Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and earned his Masters degree in Journalism. Daniel started his career in newspaper and was a Social Media Strategy Coordinator at the Chicago Tribune, and then the social media lead with Tribune Interactive. He eventually wound up working at Weber Shandwick as a Digital Communications Supervisor, and recently joined Sears Home Electronics as a Social Media Manager. He also blogs at Old Media New Tricks and the3six5 Project, with he runs in collaboration with Len Kendall.

What interested Daniel in social media: As a reporter, he saw how digital was becoming an important part of the mix. Daniel looks to brands like Zappos, which has created tons of supporters that go out and promote for the company. If the conversation is good on a site, people will go back several times per day to continue to engage in the discussions. He says that authentic conversation starts advocacy.

Some of Daniel’s thoughts on the importance of branding through social media: “In social media, there are a lot of people who understand the space but don’t have ‘tread on the tire’ when it comes to working with brand. It’s important to know how to brand yourself! Using social media with brands, facing real challenges; it’s exciting but difficult. You have to convince your clients as well as your company stakeholders of its importance. You can have the most impact by building up client relationships and coming up with solutions that make sense.”

Some of Daniel’s thoughts on journalism and social media: Daniel believes that it is important to look for different story-telling formats, but he also believes that the long-form article won’t disappear entirely – it has to exist. For example, he says to take a look at The New Yorker and The Atlantic – not all journalism can happen in 140 characters. Journalism is journalism – whether in 5,000 characters or in 140 characters.

Where Daniel sees social media going in the future: Over the next 12 months, Daniel thinks that lifestreaming will play a major role in the progression of social media. With this, he believes that Tumblr & Posterous will help people manage their social media presence. Using tools like these as ‘hub-and-spoke’ modeling for managing your social media presence can help to center your digital activities and give others a more aggregated view of your on- and offline activities.

Connect with Daniel on:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Blog

photo credit: Chris Brogan