Jul
27
2010
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: Jun Loayza
Title: CMO
Employer: Viralogy.com
Who paid it forward: Dan Schawbel
Jun is the Chief Marketing Officer of Viralogy, a company that specializes in eCommerce Intelligence. They personalize the shopping experience for shoppers on ecommerce stores to increase average order value and conversion rates. Jun attended UCLA and earned a BA in Economics and Philosophy in 2007. It was during college that he met Co-founders Yu-kai Chou, Stephen Johnson, and Joseph Yi to bring Viralogy to where it is today. Jun has written for Dan Schawbel’s Personal Branding Blog as well as Mashable, and has presented at conferences such as Web 2.0, Social Media Strategies, and YPulse. Jun also ran Social Media Marketing and blogs at Young Successful Entrepreneur. Continue reading “Pay It Forward 2010 Profile: Jun Loayza” »
Jul
20
2010
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: DJ Waldow
Title: Director of Community
Employer: Blue Sky Factory
Who paid it forward: Amber Naslund
What Amber had to say about DJ: “DJ has an email background, but he’s fully grasping the potential and power of social media, and I already know he’s making a difference to his community.”
DJ graduated with a BBA from University of Michigan in 1998. Upon graduation, he worked as a business analyst for two years in Chicago and Kansas City. He then decided to pursue a Master of Education degree because he wanted to be a teacher. Upon earning that degree, he taught junior high American history for two years. Ready to get back into business world, he went back to North Carolina to work in business for another four years. A year ago, DJ earned his MBA from UNC Chapel Hill. Last summer, he became the Director of Community for Blue Sky Factory, a company that provides email marketing products and services. His role was actually written based on Amber’s job description – he manages the social media presence for the company, including writing and managing the company blog, The Thinking Inbox. DJ says that if he’s doing his job right, you’ll associate his name and his face with Blue Sky Factory and email marketing. Additionally, he writes a monthly article for MarketingProfs, a monthly column for the Email Insider, and blogs for himself at Social Butterfly Guy. Continue reading “Pay It Forward 2010 Profile: DJ Waldow” »
Jul
06
2010
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 Mann
Title: 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. Continue reading “Pay It Forward 2010 Profile: Kneale Mann” »
Jun
29
2010
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: Amanda Mooney
Title: Senior Social Media Strategist
Employer: Edelman
Who paid it forward: Steve Rubel
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:
Jun
22
2010
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: Laura Roeder
Title: Principal
Employer: LauraRoeder.com
Who paid it forward: Aliza Sherman
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” »