Citizen Marketer 2.1

Aaron Strout

It’s Truck Day

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Nearly two and a half years ago I announced that I was packing up my belongings and moving down to Austin from a place I had called home for most of my life. When I decided to head south, not only was I leaving a comfortable job as VP of social media at a company called Mzinga, I was also saying goodbye to most of my family and many of my friends that I had grown to know over the years.

Since then, I’ve had an amazing run that’s included meeting hundreds of new friends both here in Austin and all over the country; helping my company, Powered, acquire three other companies; working closely with two of my colleagues (and good friends), Joe Jaffe and Greg Verdino to launch and market their books; landing several great new clients; securing a book deal of my own with friend and co-author, Mike Schneider, to write Location Based Marketing for Dummies; and then ultimately getting acquired by social business consultancy, Dachis Group.

As you can imagine, getting acquired is not an insignificant thing. Throw in the fact that the company acquiring Powered is the largest social business consultancy in the world AND I happen to be friends with the managing director (Peter Kim) and CEO (Jeff), along with several other folks that work there and you have the potential for something pretty incredible. I tried to convey some of this excitement in the post I wrote on the day we announced the acquisition. To that end, I’m a huge believer in the power of social business design and I have been for years. But…

Yes, you knew there was a “but” coming, especially based on the title of this post (more on that in a minute). In spite of my respect for Jeff, Peter, Kate, April, Bryan and all my former Powered colleagues like Natanya Anderson, Kevin Tate, Greg Rau, Steve Kleinberg and Jen van der Meer, I’ve decided to once again pack up the bags and move my little old self over to another company called WCG. This time, the move requires a lot less distance and many fewer goodbyes. Fortunately for my family and me, WCG has one of their offices here in Austin so I’ll just be about four blocks down the street from my old office.

At the end of the day, this has zero to do with me leaving a great company with a ton of smart people and a winning game plan. Instead, it has everything to do with me joining another great company with a ton of smart people and a winning game plan… but with a personal mandate of focusing on location based marketing. And as I mentioned earlier when I mentioned my book deal, I’m very passionate about helping companies figure out how to tap into the power of mobile and location based services like foursquare, Gowalla, Whrrl, Where and Bizzy to deepen customer loyalty.

With perhaps the longest preamble in history… that brings us to the topic of Truck Day. For any of you that follow baseball closely, you might know that “Truck Day” is the day where Major League Baseball Teams pack up their trucks and head south to the likes of Florida and Arizona to kick off spring training. Any of you that follow me on Facebook or Twitter also know that I am a HUGE Red Sox fan so after a long, baseball-less winter, I get really excited about things like Truck day because it means that the season is just around the corner. Seeing that today is my first day in the office at WCG, I look at this as my “truck day” or my day to kick off what I expect will be an amazing journey.

Before I forget, however, I would like to take a minute to thank the Powered team with special shout outs to Natanya, Kathy, Ron, Ken and David. You took a chance on me two and a half years ago and as a result we all had the opportunity to hold on for what turned out to be a crazy yet fulfilling ride. In addition, I want to thank Jeff Dachis and Peter Kim for being such good friends, supporting my decision and helping me through the transition. And finally, to Bob Pearson and Jim Weiss for giving me this fantastic opportunity to join the WCG team (this is also where I give a big hat tip to my friend, Greg Matthews, for helping start up the conversation between Bob, Jim and myself). Oh, and of course my loving wife, Melanie, who has been nothing but supportive through the entire process.

Now it’s time to PLAY BALL!



image courtesy http://msmaggiemoo.blogspot.com/

Experts in the Industry: Mark Wallace (62 of 45)

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I’ve known Mark Wallace, VP of social media for EDR, for a few years now. He and I were part of the exec team at Shared Insights (along with Jim Storer) — a company that ultimately merged with Knowledge Planet to become Mzinga. The reason I mention this is that Mark and I have spend A LOT of time together… in a good way. From trips to Vegas (conference related) to attending Tool concerts together, we’ve had a chance to bond well beyond a tradititional business relationship.

What I appreciate about Mark (and have from the day I interviewed with him) is that he is a top shelf sales guy. Not the snake oil varietal but a guy that has worked his butt off building relationships, delivering value and ultimately trying to figure out how he can make his partners that much more successful. To that end, it’s not surprising that he ended up at Mzinga client, EDR, heading up their social and online community initiatives.
I could go on and on about Mark but for your sake, I’ll let his answers do the rest of the talking in the Experts in the Industry series:
In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you’re good at it.
I am building a community for environmental and property due diligence professionals for Environmental Data Resources called commonground and have succeeded and failed enough times over the years to recognize how to create a vibrant and valuable community.
How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?
I originally got involved in online communities back in 2001. I worked very closely with Jim Storer at DCI building online communities in support of our exposition, conference, and seminar business. I remember when we sold our first web seminar for crmcommunity.com members to Siebel Systems (will always be one of my favorite sales of all time) when web seminars were an emerging trend. I remember the high fives flying.
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?
I think I would invest in HubSpot. In addition to the fact that I really like their business model, I feel like they are a company that has truly embraced social media through all aspects of their business. And, I really find value in the products and services they deliver.
Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?
If I had to pick one, I would have to say Leonard Abess, Chairman and CEO, of City National Bancshares. What an amazing story. He succeeded where most other banks failed, distributed $60 million in bonuses to his current employees and former employees, and did not show up to take credit for the success when the bonuses were paid out. He is the true definition of a leader and team player. I would love the opportunity to meet him.
Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?
I don’t think I would join a toothpaste community although it certainly sounds appealing! What I would like to do is to spend time with the folks who manage that community. I suspect it would be a fairly challenging task. Imagine what we might learn!
Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.
Three of the most important things I have learned over the years are:

  1. Communication happens in three ways – face to face, over the phone, and online. Ignore that as part of your social media strategy and you are doomed to fail.
  2. Members, partners, and the community owner, need to receive value. If they do, they will participate and even spend money. 
  3. It is important to make time. Find a way.
You can also follow Mark on Twitter at @MWallComm

Experts in the Industry: Patrick Moran (19 of 45)

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Patrick Moran, CMO of Mzinga, is not only a friend, he’s my former manager (for a couple of months anyway). Upon first meeting Patrick, I liked him immediately, mainly because he and I have a similar sense of humor (check out his Twitter stream to see what I’m talking about). While Patrick is self-admittedly not a prolific blogger, he’s a madman on Facebook and Twitter and can throw down a blog comment like nobodies business.

While Patrick qualifies as one of the pithiest interviewees in the Experts in the Industry: 45 Interviews in 45 Days, the “quality” of his comments easily made up for what he lacked in “quantity”:
In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you’re good at it.
I am an accountable story teller with persuasive intent.  (Aka marketer) 
How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?
I am an introvert by nature, so participating in online activity is a safe way to be social.  Turns out I am not alone.  I left “traditional” marketing to help turn social media into… traditional marketing.  I’ve been in the collaboration world at WebEx and Cisco, which is  actually relevant to this space – sharing and communicating online.
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?
My old stomping ground — Cisco – A+ for effort, C- for execution, but the point of this space is experimentation, right?
Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?
Barack Obama. He built a massive brand in record time.
Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?
No, and I still refer people to your post about it here – some of your best thinking.
Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.
Social media is a fishbowl that needs to be shattered so all us little fish can mingle with the rest of the marketing fish.  Let’s stop eating each other’s algae and go take over the ocean!  I can hardly breathe in here!

Experts in the Industry: Rachel Happe (17 of 45)

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Rachel Happe, Social Media/Product Guru and former IDC Analyst focused on social technologies, is not only a former colleague, she’s also a great friend. I’ve known Rachel for a year and a half and am more and more impressed with her every time I spend time with her. Not only is she funny but she’s also an “outside the box” thinker. At the same time, she’s not full of herself and always willing to share (if you happen to be looking for a rock star product leader with hard core social experience, she’s your gal).
Let’s see how she answer the five questions from the Experts in the Industry: 45 Interviews in 45 Days series…
In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you’re good at it.
I solve application and organizational problems well because I am adept at synthesizing a lot of disparate information together with human intent which leads to the uncovering of an issue’s structural root.
How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?
I started working with social media and online communities while at a startup in Silicon Valley in 2003. There we used blogs internally and externally for content management. I helped to build a social networking site for independent music (before we called them social networks) where we tried solving the content surfacing and recommendation issue in a variety of ways. It was a great way to cut my teeth on the problem of content abundance and filtering through social connections and recommendations (virtual mixed tape anyone?!?).
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?
SAP because it understands the fundamental shift happening in markets and are moving aggressively toward a networked model of doing business. While they have not incorporated much in the way of ‘social’ tools into their own products I believe they are making SAP as a company much stronger because of their ecosystem approach to their markets.
Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?
John Chambers because he understands that ‘social’ is more than a new way to communicate but also a fundamental shift in the way we do business. Under his leadership, he is dramatically reorganizing Cisco to make it a stronger, network-drive business that is not so dependent on its senior management team. He has the courage to not only believe it is not about him but also to, in effect, make his role less important to the long term success of Cisco which is a dramatic new approach to CEO succession planning.
Not likely unless some toothpaste manufacturer decided to give away toothpaste to foodbanks and shelters in exchange for discussing organizational and system dynamics in its web community…which is really very unlikely so I guess that means No 🙂
Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.
I am passionate about social media and community because the most fulfilling thing to me is enabling people to reach their full potential – both in terms of productivity and happiness. I think rigidity and control keep people from exploring their passions because rigid structures disincentives that behavior. In those environments people turn off their passion and curiosity. I think as organizations we can do better. The transparency brought on by social media is shining a light on the gap between motivations and execution and driving toward an environment where those two things are better aligned. I believe that alignment will enable people to find their ‘tribe’ (to use one of Laura Fitton’s terms) and the increase in productivity and personal fulfillment that will result will be good for individuals *and* for businesses.
I want to help change the world because I see a better way to work – its both achingly simple and extraordinarily complex.
NEW FEATURE: I’m going to start adding in Twitter handles for any of the folks I interview. Rachel’s is @rhappe

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