Almost three years ago, I took my love of Social Media to the people, and started a little ‘ole company by the name of Dialogue. It was early 2009. Wall Street was melting. I thought to myself, “Hey, it’s the worst recession of our time, I have a family, house and lots of bills, why not start a company?!?” And I did.
I bought myself a Macbook, set up a website (thank you wordpress) and started knockin’ on doors. The first call was the Apple Store on Bolyston street here in Boston. “Do you have anyone teaching your customers and businesses social media?” “No.” “ Will you?” And I did.
And then the clients starting coming in. Harvard, IDG, Novartis, This Old House, Kaspersky, Compete, Merrell, Chaco, Vibram, and lots more. I set up an Advisory Board to learn from the really smart people. People like Aaron Strout, Chris Brogan, Stephen DiMarco, and Christine Perkett. I put together a bunch of social media events, my favorite one being “Eat, Drink and Be Social”- a mashup of social media types and foodies. Cue Dennis Crowley, SchneiderMike, Alexa from Foodspotting, and many more….
It’s been loads of fun. I’ve been lucky enough to learn and teach Social Media in Boston and NY and I’ve been fortunate enough to spend some time in Vegas, Austin, SF, Moscow and Dubai- all for the love of social media.
A while ago, however, I starting asking myself some simple questions. Am I “scaleable”? Is this business model sustainable? What is my experience and skill set worth on the open market? My wife asked (urged!) me to start testing the waters. And I did…
And here I am. I’m thrilled to announce that I am the Director of Social Media at Acsys Interactive . For you Boston/NY types, I hadn’t heard of them either, but they are easily the best digital marketing agency located in between our two towns (They’re in Farmington, CT). They’ve quietly assembled a top notch team of digital marketers from Boston and NY and have a terrific roster of clients – The Hartford, TIAA-CREF, Sikorksy, Tufts, Timex, Swiss Army Victorinox, and more.
For all of my Boston friends who secretly hope I move closer to NY Yankee/Giants territory, that’s not in the cards:-). I’ll be spending some time in Hartford for sure, but will stay in their new Boston office, where I will grow the social media practice, and bring on new clients and members to the team.
So, contact info remains exactly the same- you can find me her and on Twitter @goodridge and obviously here on Facebook.
NOTE: This is a repost of yesterday’s blog post over at Compete.com, my client, and the best event planner (Kristen) and Moderator (Stephen) I know.
Does content drive transactions? It’s complicated right?
We asked ourselves the same question last week at tastybytes, our ongoing (and traveling) luncheon series bringing together lunch, digital marketers and lively conversation.
At The MODERN at the MoMa, We were joined by Digital and Social luminaries Mason Nelder (Verizon Wireless), Colin Hynes (RueLaLa), David Schreibstein (Ogilvy) and Steve Rappaport (Advertising Research Foundation).
After a brief introduction by Stephen Dimarco (@sdimarco) the panelists agreed that indeed conversation does drive conversion, but after that, it gets a little tricky. Here are a few “bytes” of conversation from last week.
“Content is anything that is a catalyst for conversation” @masonnelder
“Authenticity is paramount. Brands need to be careful with ‘advertorials’. Users know when they’re being sold something” @colinhynes18
“When reviewing content on user-review sites like Yelp, Zagat and more, pay attention to the content and where it’s ranked on a 1-5 scale. Look closely at the ’3′s and the ’4′ s (not the 1’s and 5’s) to see what they’re saying and why they are saying it. The ’3′s and the ’4′s are usually the most well thought out answers that drive understanding” @steverappaport
“Mobile content is a new way to engage, but brands are still thinking through what can be said and done on a much smaller device” @dschreib
“Mobile content is a new frontier, but at the end of the day, brands still need to know more about you to make it relevant. Tricky to do via a smartphone” @masonnelder
The tastybytes conversation continues. If you’re interested in learning more, head on over to our Linkedin Group or follow the hashtag #tastybytes from time to time as we’ll be coming to a city near you in 2012.
NOTE: for a quick look at Compete’s last TastyBytes event in Boston, take a look here.
Yesterday a social media friend, Jeff Cutler ,broke a story on Uscapeit- a terrific new technology just launched from here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts- Newton to be precise. Basically, Uscape.it is like Google’s “streetview” but for the inside. It allows you, with your trusty iphone, to take panaromic videos of a restaurant, hotel, your back yard, Fenway Park- you name it- and share with the rest of the world.
But isn’t this just another iPhone App? And what the heck does it have to do with Social Media and/or Marketing? Read on. I’ll break down what I like about it, and er, some “opportunities for improvement”. Here goes.
Why it is important to you as a marketer
- You can trust the technology. This isn’t their first rodeo. This is basically their consumer-focused brand for their existing technology for businesses- Everyscape. Everyscape creates visual guides for local search- popular with restaurant’s, hotels, and more. Plus they already have a good relationship with Bing (see @scottkirsner’s article here)
- For smaller retail establishments without big budgets- this is perfect- scan your shop, restaurant, salon and bingo- you have a virtual video of your establishment
- Real Estate Agents- No brainer. Uscape.it should try and partner with some big brands- Coldwell Banker, Century 21, et al. Gone are the days of hiring an overpriced film crew
- Location Based Marketing. Wow- opportunities are endless here. There’s a reason that Ebay just purchased WHERE and Groupon just purchased Whrrl. The ability to tap into group buying, hyper -local marketing, and mobile are endless. There is an easy tie-in here with any of the big LBS companies out there.
- Hospitality/Travel. Another opportunity here for some bigger brands like TripAdvisor to partner up. What if consumers simply shared videos of the ugly bathroom or the beautiful beach over at TripAdvisor.
What I’d love to see Uscape.it do
- Ability to embed videos on a website. Maybe this is the premium service, but would have loved to show everyone a video of how this works below- instead I will settle for a link from Jeff’s site- see below
- Ability to customize URL’s (sure this is on radar screen?)
- Make landing page social friendly as well, and don’t forget there are other platforms besides Facebook… Wouldn’t it be nice to integrate a video on a company’s Linkedin Page to show people inside views of their offices?
- For those in love with Flickr, YouTube, and Vimeo- share with them as well. Would PixelPipe help be the third-party here with all of the technical translation?
Ok, those are my knee jerk reactions so far- what do you think?
