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Aaron Strout

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What Do Facebook, The Social Network, Guy Fieri and Scott Monty Have in Common?

July 19, 2010 By Aaron Strout 15 Comments

The title of this post is hands down the longest title in the history of this blog (I think). But I couldn’t think of a better way to respond to my friend over at Ford Motor Company, Scott Monty’s, blog post today. If you haven’t seen it, he riffs off the new movie, The Social Network which parodies Facebook and their march toward 500 million members.

As part of the fun, Scott decided that he would pick a few of us out of the social media marketing crowd (some more prominent than others, ahem, Seth Godin) that could possibly appear in the movie. And if we did, who would play us in the movie? I got a kick out of my dopplerganger and Food Network star, Guy Fieri, who ironically, I met last summer in New York City. Some folks including my darling wife thought better comparisons for me might be Ben Affleck, Billy Ray Cyrus or even Bruce Springsteen (Stephanie Agresta insists I am his long lost brother).

But that’s why I’m writing this post… instead, my goal is to continue with the meme that Scott started. In his post, he asks…

If they were holding open casting calls for extras and you were going to be featured, what famous person, dead or alive, would play you in the movie? Leave a comment below or reply with a post on your own blog with a link back to this post.

So I’m adding a few stars of my own. What do you think?

David Armano, sr. vice president, Edelman Digital / John Leguizamo [updated 7/20]

Maria Ogneva, social media director, Attensity360 / Scarlett Johansen

Brett Petersel, business development and events lead, Mashable / Christian Bale

Shannon DiGregorio, social media marketing, The CR / Angelina Jolie



Adam Cohen, partner at digital agency, Rosetta / Rob Thomas

And last but not least…

Kyle Flaherty, director of marketing, BreakingPoint Systems / Jack Black

[updated 7/20] And apparently, I look much more like Josh Beckett in this pic than any of my other dopplergangers above… (thank you Kyle)


Experts in the Industry: Scott Monty (46 of 45)

March 13, 2009 By Aaron Strout Leave a Comment

Scott Monty, head of social media at Ford Motor Company is usually the exception to the rule. Today is no different as he’s the first person to run past the “45” initial goal I set for the Experts in the Industry series. But Scott should be okay with that because he rarely plays by the rules (right Scott?).

I’ve known Scott for close to two years now and I can honestly say, he’s not only a great friend but a true inspiration for the rest of the business world, showing us how a Fortune10 company is slowly but surely turning the battle ship around by embracing its customers (and prospects). Scott’s intitiatives at Ford are too many to count but a few impressive forays have included inviting a number of well-known bloggers to Detroit to test drive some of Ford’s latest and greatest, a live Twitter interview with Ford’s CEO at CEO and of course, providing the wheels (Ford Escape) for the #iroadtrip with pirates, Colin Browning, Jim Storer, John Johansen and Jeff Cutler.
But before I give Scott too big a head, here are his answer to THE five questions:

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?
I’ve been writing a blog since 2003. So when I was working at a boutiqueB2B advertising & marketing agency, I was reading a lot of marketing blogs. I began hearing about B2C uses of social media and I made it my focus to start investigating how social media could be used for the B2B marketer. I started my blog in 2006 after attending an Ad Club symposium where Dave Balter (BzzAgent), Diane Hessan (Communispace) and Joseph Jaffe spoke. I was hooked.

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?
Ford, of course! Because who wouldn’t like to have $10 million added to their social mediabudget? Seriously, though – there are already a number of great social media initiatives under way, yet we have a limited budget to work with as a company. While there’s a natural tendency to throw stones at large companies for their marketing and communications spending, I’ve seen a lot of smart initiatives at Ford that I only wish we had more to work with.

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?
Sorry to be so narrowly focused, but Alan Mulally, the president & CEO of Ford, is one of my heroes. He’s an outsider who came to Ford from Boeing; he’s pushing the limits of the company to turn it around (without government assistance, I might add); he’s a fan of sustainability in transportation; and he has the tenets of social media / community in his blood.

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?
Smile when you say that. I suppose it depends on why the community was set up. Do I want to be part of a group just to talk about toothpaste with other people? No. But if it were focused on stories that we had to tell or recommendations we could make, perhaps as it related to oral hygeine, then I’d consider it. It would have to add value to my already busy life to really compel me to join.

Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.
I’m looking forward to connecting with old friends at SXSW – many of whom I met at my first SXSW last year – and meeting new people. I’ll be giving rides to people around town in the Ford Flex with TheFordStory.com plastered on the side. Feel free to hop in or send me an @ reply (@FordDriveOne) during the festival. And if anyone wants to pitch me, it’ll have to be in the Flex. 🙂

Auto Industry’s Use of Social Webcast Trended!

February 11, 2009 By Aaron Strout Leave a Comment

The other day, I did a webcast with some big brained folks like Scott Monty (@scottmonty) of Ford, Christopher Barger (@cbarger) of GM and Sylvia Marino (@sylmarino) of Edmunds. The focus was how the auto industry is using “social” to innovative and fight off the general perception that they are stodgy and unresponsive.
You can listen to the webcast here  or see the Twitter activity from the event, here.

What thrilled me the most was that the webcast actually trended (code for “it was one of the most talked about things on Twitter for the hour that it was running”). W00t!


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