My entry into the world of social media was inauspicious.
My boss as the British Tourist Board New York office, hoping to swing me a company-sponsored trip to the UK, appointed me “Social Media Champion” of our operation. I had set up a social profile during the swinging heyday of Friendster, and set up an account on Facebook, but I was skeptical of the idea of using social media for marketing purposes. I had seen too many dumb ap ideas cooked up by major corporations that seemed straight out of an outmoded idea of what marketing should do.
But I poked around, did my research. Social media, it seemed to me, was less a new outlet for marketing, but a complete groundshift in the way consumers interact with brands. After a while I was hooked. At work, I proposed and initiated a cross-departmental “Social Media Working Group,” which involved everyone from the PR department to call center reps. We did more research, tried things, bounced ideas around.
Then I was hired by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. I learned what it was like to play around with a brand with a tremendous sense of prestige, history, and public affinity. All these factors made it possible for me to quadruple our Facebook fan base in four months, launch a successful blog and try out all sorts of different applications of social media.
At this point, social media is a tremendously exciting, emerging field. This site is my way of sharing some of my experiments and ideas. Self-proclaimed social media “experts” are everywhere these days, and I don’t want to call myself that.
I’m just a gal with a passion for what’s possible in the social media world who wants to share it. With new ideas, intel and applications coming down the pike every day, there’s lots to talk about.
And I never did get that trip to the UK.
