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Aaron Strout

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Bring on the Content at SXSW 2012!

August 24, 2011 By Aaron Strout 6 Comments

The guts of this post were cross-posted from colleague, Meredith Owen’s, fabulous write up on the WCG blog. Big thanks to her for doing the heavy lifting on this.

If you hadn’t noticed, it’s that time of year again. Yes the time where all of your social media friends flood your Twitter stream and Facebook walls with pleas to vote for this panel or that panel at the grand daddy of all digital/social media conferences, South by Southwest (SXSW). While some people look at this as a nuisance, I take it as an opportunity to look at trends in the space. I also like to keep my eye out for new faces and voices in the world of digital/social.

To that end, a number of my colleagues at WCG have submitted panels this year. All of them look great on paper and having listened to most of them present, I can tell you that it would be worth your while to vote any/all of them through. I’ve also included my panel in the mix. In addition to the one I’ve submitted below, I am also lucky enough to be in the running with friends, Tim Walker, Kate Brodock and Troy Nalls for a panel titled, Down in Front! How to Control Bad Fans. While SXSW only allows panelists to sit on one session, I’m hedging my bets to increase my odds. I’d be thrilled to get the thumbs up on either of the two panels.

Without further ado, here are the eight panels submitted by us WCG-ers:

  • Ultimate Healthcare Reform – Reshaping Our World – Bob Pearson, WCG’s Chief Technology & Media Officer, sits down with Jeff Arnold, founder of WebMD and Sharecare, for an epic discussion on how the technology leaders at SXSW can take people from information to action to create healthier world.
  • Social Media…A Responsibility of WHICH Department? –Matt Snodgrass tackles the elephant in the room during this solo presentation that will dissect various industries and companies to examine where social media responsibility should lie.
  • Friending Pharma: Patients, Industry & New Media – Last Monday was a big day for pharma too. WCG Director Brian Reid joins a sundry team of health influencers including Pfizer VP Ray Kerins, Cancer Health Activist and Patient Expert Alicia Staley, and diabetes bloggers and patient advocates Kerri Sparling and Allison Blass as they examine the risks and benefits of connecting patients and biopharma companies online.
  • My Doctor Poked Me. Giggidy! – Anecdotal evidence suggests that health care providers’ use of social media is in the early stages of an explosion.  Social media analysts Andy Booth and Naimul Huq sit down with long-time MD and leading blogger Dr. Bryan Vartabedian to explore how social media is changing the future of the doctor-patient relationship.
  • Social Networks are Killing the Company Org Chart – Every company has an org chart – but we all know intuitively that work is done based on relationships and connections across the organization.  Mapping those connections can reveal a whole new world to smart corporations. Greg Matthews (a former HR exectutive) and Humana’s Director Learning Innovation Brian Foye explain how social media can map and measure the real corporation underneath the org chart.
  • Inside Out: Internal Social Media & Big Business – Industry leaders Brian Snyder, Jonathan Mast and Blair Klein join WCG Director Brad Mays to bring together the collective insight of some of the biggest corporate brands on best practices for using social media for internal collaboration and productivity.
  • Future of Location Marketing: Dummies Perspective – 2012 marks the three-year anniversary of Foursquare’s launch at SXSW.  Location-based gurus Aaron Strout and Mike Schneider will walk through the 5 golden rules of location-based marketing and how to leverage the “there” there.
  • Social Media Strategies of Top Tweeting Businesses – WCG’s Ricardo Guerrero understands the business of Twitter- if fact, he created most of Dell’s Twitter accounts, which generated $6.5M of revenue in their first 2.5 years.  During this panel Ricardo will examines the top 1,000 business Twitter accounts to analyze whether or not Twitter success translates across social media channels.
In addition to some of these potentially awesome panel submissions, I also have another seven I am excited to see. In no particular order, here they are:
  • The community revolving door: staying a step ahead – Welcome to the biggest challenge presented by community. From continuing to seek out new members, to finding the next evangelist, membership evolution can be an unexpected challenge, but so is content evolution and most importantly, strategy evolution (Heather Strout, Farland Group, Jim Storer, The Community Round Table, Mark Wallace, EDR and Mike Pascucci, Ektron).
  • Aristotle Shops @WalMart | CSR, Ethics & Community – Today, Aristotle would be a Wal-Mart greeter, or perhaps manage its online community. What happened? The company changed their vision when CEO H. Lee Scott Jr. launched a massive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) campaign to, in his words, “…create a better story”. (Kyle Flaherty, Breaking Point Systems & Alex Hahn, Vox Global)
  • The Facebook Customer Service Challenge for Brands – Managing customer service on a Facebook Page is a messy proposition, particularly for large businesses and brands. Increasingly impatient customers and fans are flocking to the Facebook Wall to fire off specific questions or complaints about product and service issues, with the expectation of receiving a rapid-fire satisfactory response and the threat of making a big stink across their social networks if they don’t.  (Bryan Person, David Berkowitz, 360i, Molly DeMaagd – AT&T, Eric Ludwig, Rosetta Stone).
  • No Wallet? No Problem. Enter Mobile Payments. – The days of having that lump of a wallet in your back pocket or forgetting your wallet at home are over. Consumers around the world could generate as much as $50 billion in sales through NFC-based mobile payments by 2014, according to Juniper Research. Google already has merchants like Macy’s and The Container Store are using Google Wallet, powered by NXP’s secure NFC chips, to increase engagement and offer deals to consumers (Allen Tsai, David Berkowitz, 360i, Rob von Behren, Google, Jeff Miles, NXP Semiconductors, David Messenger, American Express).
  • Will the social web build a world we want? – Social media is transforming politics, the Middle East, corporate behavior and social activism. But how far can it go? Can citizens and customers, armed with social media and connected by shared values, create the movement for change that our world needs? Or will political manipulation, corporate self-interest and consumer fatigue overwhelm them?  (Simon Mainwaring, We First)
  • Can growing a moustache change the world? –  Join Adam Garone, CEO/co-founder of Movember, as he discusses how Movember leveraged the support of a few daring partners and pockets of loyal fans to generate a global movement that saw 450,000 moustache growers in 2010. Learn how Movember captivated the attention of a demographic infamous for not discussing their health, converted them into evangelists by turning the brand over to them, and sent them off to build the campaign. (Adam Garone, Movember)
Did you submit a panel this year? Or is there one that you know of that should absolutely make it to the next round? If so, feel free to include the link in the comments along with a little plug.

 

Are You Our Next Digital Producer?

May 18, 2011 By Aaron Strout 1 Comment

As some of you know, I work for a company called WCG. We are a global communications company that empowers clients to connect with audiences in ways that are both meaningful and relevant. Our fully integrated communications, creative and interactive services bring our clients messages to customers – wherever they are.

As you might have guessed from the title of this post, we are looking for someone to join our interactive team to help lead digital marketing initiatives for our clients. Ideally this person will take point on many of our digital projects, interacting directly with clients on a day-to-day basis and coordinating with the internal creative and technical teams. This position will be primarily focused on managing website development efforts, but a working knowledge of other digital services (search, social media, mobile, online advertising) is a big plus.

Requirements:

  • 5-10 years marketing (healthcare experience is a plus), product or brand management or other equivalent business experience
  • Experience in consulting, corporate strategy, business development and/or new product development is preferred with deep agency history
  • 4+ years of agency experience leading Web development projects and managing client interaction
  • Solid command of information design and architecture and how it supports the user experience; must have experience creating site maps and wireframes
  • Organized and capable of directing multiple projects simultaneously
  • Excellent communication skills – verbal and written.
  • Thorough understanding of custom application and content management system development
  • Experience working within a content management system environment
  • Familiarity with search and website usage analytics
  • Working knowledge of HTML, DHTML, CSS, Flash Development, .NET, PHP, Java, ActionScript, Cold Fusion, and other Web technologies
  • Experience with launching mobile applications for iOS/Android and websites

    Responsibilities

    • Lead Web development projects, assist account staff in managing client relationships, and collaborate with design and development staff
    • Organize and manage resources, schedules, and documentation to keep projects on time and budget
    • Work with Technical lead and vendors to create development strategy and project requirements
    • Create site maps, use cases, and wireframes
    • Work with technical groups to write project documents including scoping, testing, QA, and service plans that can be delivered to the client
    • Communicate with creative, technical, account, and management effectively
    • Work with New Business team to develop budgets, schedule, and staffing plan for new projects

    So what do you think? Is this you or someone you know? If you are interested, please e-mail me at astrout AT wcgworld DOT com. Or If you follow me on Twitter, feel free to ping me there.

    Brimming with Pride

    April 29, 2011 By Aaron Strout Leave a Comment

    A couple of notes before I get to my point here…
    1) Don’t worry, this blog isn’t intentionally going video even though I’ve done more video posts recently than normal. That’s just the way the cards got dealt.
    2) I am not an informercial kind of guy. Any of you that have ever read me or follow my Twitter feed know that. But I will warn you up front that this video is all about my company.

    But with that said, when I first saw this video at our internal creative summit on Tuesday, I was blown away. First of all, the office you see here is our San Francisco office. And all the people you see are my colleagues. The reason I felt such strong feelings about this video is I think it does a great job demonstrating what we do. I also love the fact that WE DID IT! Well, not me but some of the folks on our creative team. So before I bore you to tears by waxing too poetic, I want to share it.

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sij93-iK9vg]

     

    Let me know what you think in the comments. Maybe I’m too close to this.

    It’s Truck Day

    March 9, 2011 By Aaron Strout 1 Comment

    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/

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