Social Media Portfolio
To me, as a marketer and as someone who simply loves to communicate, Social Media represents a paradigm shift where messages are no longer controlled by the traditional gatekeepers. In this new world, I can share ideas, experience new things, meet new people and build a better world without having to depend on what traditional media channels feed me. This presents new opportunities and many new challenges for organizations.
Luckily, I have a decade of both personal and professional experience navigating these waters and can help organizations build pathways to success.
OVERVIEW OF MY SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERIENCE
I have been involved in Social Media Communications for more than 10 years. This experience began with online community relations in the late 1990’s. Since then, my experiences have grown to include into complete social media campaigns as well as consulting opportunities where I have trained clients on how to use tools such as Facebook, twitter, YouTube, and Foursquare to reach new audiences and engage customers online.
Since that time, I have worked with more than two-dozen organizations in a variety of industries ranging from high-tech to consumer products. I am highly skilled at adapting to new situations and learning nuances of an individual industry and population.
Today, I am a Social Media Marketing Manager at a Fortune 50 retailer in the Chicago area. In this role, I have had an opportunity to manage nation-wide social media campaigns including both paid and earned social media tactics as well as supporting channel growth for a Facebook community of more than 1 million people. In this role, I also manage blogger relations as a marketing channel.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT AND ENGAGEMENT
To be an effective online communicator, I believe it is essential to be skilled at engaging and communicating with people regardless of technology. As part of this effort to be a positive citizen, I have been active as a volunteer with local community groups and organizations.
Organizations that I have been involved with include: Elgin Symphony Orchestra, Boys & Girls Club of Elgin, American Diabetes Association’s Chicagoland Tour de Cure, and the following.
Elgin Area Chamber Ambassador (2008-2010):
In this role, I am responsible for engaging members of the local business community, as well as helping new members to fit in, answering questions about the chamber, and helping to bring issues to the attention of the VP of Membership.
Enhancing Elgin Committee (2009-2010):
The Enhancing Elgin Committee is a group of community leaders in Elgin. As part of this committee, I work to ensure that Social Media Strategies and Tactics are taken into consideration as they proceed through the re-branding process. In 2010, I was nominated and invited to create a sub-committee dedicated to helping the committee develop social media policies and social media campaigns to help support the new brand of “The City in The Suburbs”.
Social Media Portfolio Highlights!
Custom Online Network / Community
Client: F.Y.D.O.LAND
I developed an online community for the doggy daycare facility, F.Y.D.O.LAND where people could create profiles for their dogs, fill out brief information about the dogs including what food they liked, toys they preferred etc. It also included demographic information about the owners such as zip code, number of pets etc.
The site accomplished the following goals:
- Helped existing customers bond with the company
- Helped attract potential customers as they joined the community or browsed photos of other local dogs
- Improved customer service since the facility now knew more about the dog’s personality and traits.
Viral Video Contest and Social Media Consulting
Sears Chef Challenge - Flash Mob Content Seeding
As part of the kickoff for the Sears Chef Challenge, Sears Home Appliances organized a flash mob at Chicago's Navy Pier. As part of the social media team, our goal was to promote the video (and the event in general) by leveraging social media platforms including blogs, facebook, twitter, and video SEO.
Client: Arcade-in-a-Box
This was a viral video contest developed to help promote the concept of giving up your “old plastic gamepad” and trading it in for an arcade-style joystick from Arcade-in-a-Box. To help promote this we developed the idea that people should “smash” or destroy plastic gamepads in the most creative method possible and submit the video to Youtube.
The results were very positive, including several videos with thousands of views (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYnBxVKchR4) as well as many media clips.
In addition, the experience led the company to request that we re-design their company website as an online community where people can share videos, form groups, and discuss the product. This social media impact has since spilled over into Facebook, twitter and other social networks.
iPhone Game Development and Social Media Consulting
Client: Big Ol’ Trucker Energy Juice
In addition to consulting with them and presenting a social media marketing plan, we also developed a custom iPhone game for them to help create awareness of their brand.
Maze Craze Trucker was launched in the summer of 2009 and had 10’s of thousands of downloads as well as creating a social impact through Facebook connect, message boards, blogs, and review sites.
Blogging and Social Media Promotion
Client: Man Tripping & Chick Vacations
Man Tripping and Chick Vacations are travel blogs / online communities that my wife and I manage. In addition to producing content for them, we also rely heavily on twitter, Facebook, and other networks for marketing, content ideas, as well as peer-to-peer networking with other bloggers. Additionally, this experience has trained us to quickly develop content to attract targeted search traffic that convert into people who either subscribe or click on ads.
Through Man Tripping, I have also organized social media promotion with Stanley Tools, Tony's Pizza, and other consumer brands.
Social Media Marketing and Blogger Relations
Client: mhn PR & Internet Marketing
In addition to helping other companies benefit from social media, we also are active marketing ourselves. At the end of last year, we trashed our old blog and integrated it more closely into our main website so it could feed blog posts to our Facebook and twitter accounts. Additionally, I use my phone to capture videos and photos that I then upload to our Facebook page with the goal to show that we are active in the community, doing exciting stuff, as well as to encourage interaction involving our brand.
Client: Tidewater Inn and Chesapeake Bay Beach Club
As two fantastic wedding venues located on Maryland's Eastern Shore, they needed to reach beyond traditional advertising and engage young married couples through the Internet.
To increase social media exposure and leverage the prestige of its sister property, the Chesapeake Bay Beach Club (who I also worked with to enhance social media exposure), I created a new blog site, Maryland Shore Weddings (http://www.MarylandShoreWeddings.com).
Maryland Shore Weddings was designed to allow wedding vendors and newly married couples to submit media that would then be linked to both from the vendor’s blogs, but also the Facebook and twitter presences maintained by Chesapeake Bay Beach Club and Tidewater Inn. This was done to reduce traffic sent to other sites such as Knot.com and instead give additional opportunities for the brand to make positive impressions on engaged couples and their friends who are connected to the brand through various social media channels.
This campaign was also designed with SEO in mind to help capture long-tail search traffic and make a positive impression on people searching for wedding venues in the area.
More Social Media Consulting
The following is a non-inclusive list of businesses and organizations that I have worked with as a social media consultant. This social media portfolio list includes businesses and organizations for which I have provided social media services including consulting, social media optimization, social media training, or developed social media marketing plans for.
- American Diabetes Association / Tour de Cure (Chicago)
- Boys & Girls Club of Elgin
- Big Ol’ Trucker Energy Juice
- Arcade-in-a-Box
- Certified CIO
- Chesapeake Bay Beach Club
- Chick Vacations
- Enhancing Elgin
- Certified CIO
- Cook Memorial Public Library
- Elgin Area Chamber
- Elgin Symphony Orchestra
- Frost Ruttenburg & Rothblatt
- F.Y.D.O.LAND
- Jack Jentzen (Prudential Realtor)
- Jeanette Mihalec (Kane County Board Member)
- Kool Technologies
- Le Chocolat du Bouchard
- Man Tripping
- Michigan Therapeutic Recreation Association
- MKD Electric
- North Shore Ultimate Skin Care
- Telecom Business Services
- Tidewater Inn
- travelingmom.com
- WESA Automation