Citizen Marketer 2.1

Aaron Strout

Movember Time, Austin Style!

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Some of you may remember that last year, a bunch of us Austinites teamed up against some of my former Bostonians to raise awareness and help fight prostate and testicular cancer during the month of November. The end result of our Movember campaign was a 50 person team with over $18,000 in donations. This year, we’re hoping to make it bigger… five times bigger to be exact. We have big plans to incorporate corporate donations, scavenger hunts, famous sports figures and lots more.

What’s fun about this fund raising effort is that not only focused on encouraging people to donate money but more importantly, it’s about team building and creating awareness so that blockheads like me who at least one point in time in their lives thought they were invincible, do something about getting regular checkups. Oh yeah, we also get to grow mustaches (or if you’re female, you get to Photoshop on a mustache). In fact, the pictures you see here are some of our late stage “mo’s” that team Austin grew last year.

Most importantly, you’re probably asking yourself how you get involved. Well, I’m happy you brought it up. First and foremost, we’d like you to sign up. Don’t worry, there isn’t any hazing (well, not that we can speak of anyway). We have about 30 people 56 people on the team now with another 20+ that have verbally committed. That means we have 170 more to go. So get your friends, family and colleagues to sign up too.

Note – if you want an easy way to pass colleagues along to this post, you can use shortened URLs:

The second way you can help is to donate. Now I won’t lie to you, if we’re going to get close to $100,000 this year, we need people to donate. But if I had my druthers, I’d rather have you sign up for the team and not donate a penny than the other way around. With that said, I know many folks are pressed for time (or don’t want to grow a mustache) so if this is your thing, far be it from me to stop you.

Finally, we will be spilling the fun over to Facebook and a central touch-base site that my man, Wesley Faulkner will be running. Stay tuned for details on that front.

[NOTE: You (and others) can also now pledge $$ using tweets. Find out more details here on the Help Attack! blog. Or contact Sarah Vela and/or David Neff for details.]

I’ll also be keeping a running list of new team members below. Let me know if I’ve missed you:

  1. Joseph Jaffe
  2. Aaron Bramley
  3. Aaron De Lucia
  4. Aaron Strout
  5. Albert Morales
  6. Alex Stivers
  7. Amanda Adams
  8. Amanda Wagner
  9. Andrea Lipizzi
  10. Andrea Schulle
  11. Andrew Stidvent
  12. Art Thompson
  13. Avan Allen
  14. Bacon Ator
  15. Becky Parker
  16. Beez “the dog” Chen (our first canine on the team)
  17. Beth Gwazdosky
  18. Bill Gillespie
  19. Bob Dilly
  20. Brandon Herrin
  21. Brandon Sockwell
  22. Bret Cunningham
  23. Brett Agnew
  24. Brian Kotlyar
  25. Britt McMillan
  26. Brittany Oster
  27. Bryan Chaney
  28. Bryan Menell
  29. Bryan Person
  30. Carlos Urreta
  31. Charlie Browning
  32. Chino Monteleon
  33. Chris Bailey
  34. Chris Dienna
  35. Christopher Uhland
  36. Colin Alsheimer
  37. Corey Pudhorodsky
  38. Cuyler Owens
  39. D’Ann Faught
  40. Dara Quackenbush
  41. Darin Kirschner
  42. David Breshears
  43. David McCarl
  44. David J. Neff
  45. Dennis Hall
  46. Dennis Kristensen
  47. Denver Bronco
  48. Doni Wilson
  49. Doug Wick
  50. Dustin Wyatt
  51. Dylan Spurgin
  52. Edgar Dapremont
  53. Ehren Foss
  54. Elijah May
  55. Elmer Boutin
  56. Emily Babb
  57. Eric Weiss
  58. Erik McMillan
  59. Evan Sanders
  60. Felicia Adams
  61. Fernando Labastida
  62. Gard Mayer
  63. Glenn Banton
  64. Greg Ackerman
  65. Greg Matthews
  66. Greg Verdino
  67. Haley Odom
  68. Hawk Mendenhall
  69. Ian Greenleigh
  70. J Noel Kvale
  71. Jacob Burns
  72. Jacqueline Hughes
  73. Jake Sussman
  74. James Young
  75. Jared Haas
  76. Jason Kapler
  77. Jason Stoddard
  78. Jason Vogen
  79. Jeff Rousel
  80. Jen Orr
  81. Jennie Chen
  82. Jennie Loev
  83. Jeremy Brooks
  84. Jill McFarland
  85. Jim Bean
  86. Jim Cochrun
  87. Jim Keeler
  88. Joanie Pechenik
  89. Joe Cohen
  90. Joey McGirr
  91. John Cartwright
  92. John Johansen
  93. John Knox
  94. Jon Dunn
  95. Jonathan Gesinger
  96. Jonathan Weldon
  97. Jordan Viator
  98. Justin Crandall
  99. Justin Edwards
  100. Caitlin Pesl
  101. Karen Pascoe
  102. Kate Buck
  103. Kendall Schmidt
  104. Kenneth Cho
  105. Kevin Koym
  106. Kevin O’Brien
  107. Kim Hollenshead
  108. Kimbria Andreassen
  109. Kyle Flaherty
  110. Laura Beck
  111. Lee Baker
  112. Lee Parker
  113. Lisa Maxwell
  114. Mark Couvillion
  115. Mark Young
  116. Martin Montero
  117. Matt Curtin
  118. Matt Harris
  119. Matt McDougall
  120. Matt McGinnis
  121. Max Chirkov
  122. Melissa Reiss
  123. Merton Young
  124. Michael Adams
  125. Michael Yockey
  126. Mike Hamilton
  127. Mike Neumann
  128. Mitch Wilson
  129. Morgan Brown
  130. Paul Bonser
  131. Paul Walhus
  132. Peter Poulin
  133. Peter Bramley
  134. Rachelle King
  135. Ray Grill
  136. Ricardo Guerrero
  137. Ricardo Sanchez
  138. Rick Vlaha
  139. Robert Gilbreath
  140. Russ Somers
  141. Sam Eder
  142. Sarah Vela
  143. Saurabh Das
  144. Scott Hanson
  145. Scott Metler
  146. Sean Bell
  147. Sean Claes
  148. Sethho Sulser
  149. Shaine Mata
  150. Sherry Lowry
  151. Siam Saechew
  152. Simon Salt
  153. Sonny Johns
  154. Stacy Libby
  155. Sydney Owen
  156. Talmadge Boyd
  157. Tamar Weinberg
  158. Texas Stars Hockey
  159. Tim Hayden
  160. Tim Walker
  161. Tom Niemeyer
  162. Tom Trantham
  163. Tracy Trevino
  164. Travis Kenney
  165. Trey Swain
  166. Wesley Faulkner
  167. Will Staney
  168. William Kelleher
  169. William Mitschke
  170. William Morrow
  171. Yvette Leroux

Last but not least, here is our Flickr collection from THIS YEAR. I’ll be swapping this out for this year’s once we start to get our Mo on.


TeamAUS Movember 2010 - View this group's photos on Flickriver

NOTE: Weekly team conference calls every Friday at 11 AM CT. Number is: 888-693-8686 / 2053266

Experts in the Industry: Connie Reece (67 of 45)

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Is there a more colorful person in the socialsphere than Connie Reece? I got to find out in person for the first time a few weeks ago at my first Social Media Club, Austin meeting where Connie and I were able to connect in person after following each other on Twitter for a while.

In addition to colorful, Connie is also charming, funny and stoic. If you haven’t met Connie yet, she’s a co-founder & advisory board of the Social Media Club and founder of Every Dot Connects.

So how did such a cool and wonderful person answer the Experts in the Industry questions? Let’s find out:

In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you’re good at it.
I teach companies how to communicate conversationally and how to use social technologies to leverage those conversational skills into relationship building with constituents–both internally and externally. I’m a naturally gifted teacher and lifelong learner who is passionate about using my knowledge to connect people, ideas and causes. (Okay, that was two sentences. Go ahead and count off, but I didn’t want to risk writing a run-on sentence and having the grammar police come after me.)

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?
I’m a “seasoned citizen,” not one of the so-called digital natives who grew up in the personal computer era. So before there was such a thing as the World Wide Web, I was using online tools for research as well as connecting with others. My old 300-baud dial-up modem should be in a museum somewhere, along with my Kaypro II suitcase computer (26 pounds) that I lugged self-importantly to clients’ offices to demonstrate my prowess with technology.

My experience as a professional writer and communicator, along with a background in direct marketing and direct mail fund-raising with a bit of PR thrown in, made it easy for me to transition into the world of social media and community building. My skill set is all about connections through communication. Emerging technologies have simply enabled those connections to be made much faster and to a greater scale.

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of “social,” which company would it be and why?
Twitter, or another microblogging/presence app I thought had the potential to knock Twitter out of its number one position. I was an early adopter (January 2007) and have watched as users tried out each new service that came along–Pownce, Jaiku, Plurk–and then came right back to Twitter because of its simplicity and because that’s where they have built their network.

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?
I won’t single one out, but I have a great respect for entrepreneurs. They work hard, take great risks to turn dreams into reality, and they create jobs that fuel the economy. Most of them are overtaxed and underappreciated.

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?
Yes, if it were a specialty toothpaste. I have Sjogren’s Syndrome, which causes extreme dryness. So I have done a lot of online research and even participated in forums where people discuss various products that help relieve dry eyes and dry mouth. I’ve used about every artificial tear product on the market, and even special toothpastes and chewing gums. So if a toothpaste company built a community that created value for me in terms of information, product sourcing, and cost savings, I’d join.

Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.
If you guzzle the social media Kool-Aid rather than taking small sips, you’ll contract a bad case of Shiny Object Syndrome and become totally ineffective. Remember that it’s not about the technology, it’s about people. Develop your people skills first, then master the social media tools.

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