A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on my personal blog about what I would be looking for in a consultant if I were seeking to hire someone to guide my brand into the social media space.
Here’s the main point of what I had to say:
“I would want someone who has significant personal experience with specific online communities. If the potential hire is a motorcycle enthusiast, I’d want him/her to have been an active member of a well-established community (message board, email list, etc) for motorcycle enthusiasts. If she’s a mom, I’d want to know who her favorite mom-bloggers are, and why. Whom does she read daily? Where does she leave the most comments? If he or she is all about fly-fishing, I’d ask to see that fantastic and well-visited hobby blog they run just for the love of the topic. I would want to know what the blog’s traffic is, what analytic tool is used, and hear the blogger’s enthusiastic explanation for how she built it up to that level.”
In other words, as a business owner or manager, while I would obviously want to know the details of a potential social media consultant’s directly relevant professional experience in this emerging field, I would also want to hear examples of personal social media participation, beyond use of the medium as simply a business or marketing tool. The answer to my inquiry would tell me a lot about whether a social media consultant really had the tangible passion for the medium that I would want in someone guiding my brand’s strategy.
So what if a client or potential client were to ask me this question about my own participation in online networks? What would my answer be? Well, I would share how my interest in social media was initially sparked via the highly personal path of motherhood. My first forays into online conversation came in the mid-1990s, when I connected with other mothers on the then-very popular AOL pregnancy message boards. As a young mom-to-be, I had lots of questions, and I was thrilled to find a group of online friends (many of whom I’ve since met in person) who had plenty of valuable answers. As a writer and journalist, I was immediately fascinated by the powerful and infinite possibilities inherent in this revolutionary new way for human beings to communicate with and relate to one another.
My interest and activity with online community grew from there, eventually generating tremendously rewarding professional opportunities, starting with my experience at the height of the first Internet bubble as one of the first Online Producers (a position which included a crash course in effective online community management) with the Oxygen Cable Network, now owned by NBC. My early professional social media path also included seeing an essay I wrote on virtual relationships among moms published in one of the first mass-audience books about online community. I went on to spend four years as the Online Producer at a top-rated Gannett/NBC affiliate, helping to develop a newsroom culture of online engagement. That was followed by my position as Project Manager with the highly innovative E.W. Scripps Interactive Newspaper Group.
These have all been gratifying professional growth opportunities from which I’ve had the chance to develop authentic skills in online media planning, implementation and measurement. But again, my professional career in interactive strategy really started with my personal participation. And even though I am now lucky enough to have a career helping clients with their own successful online endeavors, I am still very engaged on a personal level with the online community of parents where I began as a “just” a participant.
Outside of my work-related online projects, I joined the amateur ranks of what are now called “mommy bloggers” back in 2002, and I have now been blogging continuously at my site, “MamaPundit” since that time. My personal blog has served as my own, very useful social media bootcamp-slash-sandbox, as I’ve learned in a very hands-on way how to build and sustain a measurable audience, including best practices in blog promotion and content. Because it’s a personal project/passion, I’ve also had the freedom to learn by making some mistakes along the way, allowing me to gain valuable insights I am now able to put to use in my social media work for others.
In 2008, I was tapped to become one of the featured, front-page bloggers at Babble.com. My Babble blog is called “Home/Work,” and it focuses specifically on my life as a working mother. With a growing audience of Babble readers, I’ve honed my blog content, community development and promotion skills further, even as I continue to have a great time simply having great conversations with other moms — just as I always have. I was really pleased to learn today that Babble has been identified by the Nielsen “Power Mom 50″ list as one of the highest-influence parenting blogs and portals, alongside powerhouses like Dooce and FinSlippy. It’s really gratifying to have the opportunity to bring together everything I’ve learned about social media, both on the job and through personal participation, and to see my blogging efforts play a role in a site’s success at that level.
So, back to the question I suggested at the very beginning of my post; what if a client were to ask me what my personal engagement with “this social media thing” has been? Well, now you know what my answer would be (appropriately edited for the brevity of verbal expression, bien sur!). Of course, I would share examples of the meaningful professional skills and experience I deploy on behalf of Ackermann clients each day, but I would also explain how it was – and still is – my engagement in online communities as “just another mom” that perhaps says the most about my excitement and passion for the potential of this rapidly evolving medium. And it’s that excitement that I bring to the table every day, for every project, and with each and every client.
Can you tell that I love what I do? I hope so.
