Being Cheryl: Social Media Marketing Strategist from Columbus, Ohio.

Cheryl: What got you into this whole social media biz-nass?

Rachel: In 2006, I was laid off from my job as the Director of Marketing at the JCCs of Greater Boston. I had been working in Marketing for the past 8 years, mostly in consumer products at companies such as Kraft Foods and Jim Beam Brands. When I lost my job, it was right before the economy crashed. I started using the traditional means of looking for a job (Monster, networking, etc), but then went to a conference on social media, and realized it would be a great way to job search. Using Twitter to meet new people, to network and find a job.

Rachel: So, that’s how it started. But, then I quickly realized that I believed social media was going to change the way we did marketing, so I immersed myself in it even more, to learn about it for marketing purposes. I read articles, met with people, read case studies, etc. And, then started picking up clients to do work on the side for, while I was looking for a job!

Cheryl: You have a pretty traditional marketing background – what makes social media so different from that type of marketing?

Rachel: Well, the biggest difference is that it’s 2-way communication. That’s how I define it actually… traditional marketing is one-way, and social media is 2-way. So, with social media, you can’t just put a message out there, and sit back hoping people will go buy your product. You have to build a relationship with potential customers.

Cheryl: Do you get tired of all these social media buzzwords?

Rachel: Ha ha, yes. I do. Especially when people call themselves ninjas or gurus.

Cheryl: You forgot mavens. And rockstars.

Rachel: Right, yes add those to the list

Cheryl: Why the heck does everyone involved with social media live in Boston? Is there something in the water that makes people need to tweet?

Rachel: I don’t know… it’s great though. We’re lucky to have to many social media “rockstars” living here

Cheryl: Yeah yeah, so you can all sit around and talk about how to maximize the customer experience, driving engagement and bringing the brand alive and stuff

Rachel:

Cheryl: So your new project - webinarlistings.com - just in case the URL isn’t obvious enough, what IS webinar listings?

Rachel: WebinarListings is a calendar of upcoming webinars in many areas of interest.

Rachel: Webinar hosts post their webinars, and people come to the site to find out about good webinars. We broadly define webinar as anything virtual and scheduled, so that includes teleseminars and radio shows too

Rachel: It’s a great way to bring together webinar hosts and people who want to watch webinars. Sort of like a matchmaking service.

Cheryl: Except I won’t get creepy sexual messages from overly-flirtatious webinars. Nifty. Free to post/find webinars?

Rachel: It’s free for webinar hosts to post on the site, and that gets them listed on the calendar, and searchable based on category or topic. But, they can upgrade for a fee, which gets them more visibility. We promote them on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, our newsletter, they get priority on the calendar, and more.

Cheryl: Awesome. You just hit 1,000 webinars posted or something, right? You DM’d me about it last week but my attention span is about 8 minutes, thanks to Twitter.

Rachel: Yes, we launched in March, and just hit 1,000 webinars on Friday!

Rachel: We typically have about 250 webinars listed on the site at any given time. The topics range, but the 6 most popular areas are: Marketing, Social Media, Technology, Non-profit…

Rachel: Spacing on the 6th…

Cheryl: I glanced at that and thought it said “spaceships,” and I was really excited that there were so many spaceship webinars, lol

Rachel: Well, you’d be surprised what I see! How to raise chickens. How to do anaesthesia. There are webinars for everything! 6th area is leadership.

Cheryl: I am totally going to capitalize on the spaceship market.

Rachel: ha ha, let me know, and i’ll give you a discount

Cheryl: SWEET

Cheryl: Who is your favorite person to follow on Twitter?

Rachel: Oh boy, i don’t think i have a favorite!

Cheryl: You mean you don’t a favorite besides me, right? RIGHT?!

Rachel: Exactly the words i was searching for

Rachel: I really enjoy following @unmarketing. He always has good information to share, something funny to say, and he really tries to respond to people!

Cheryl: Speaking of Twitter, every time I see you pop up on my Twitter feed – Boston Marketer. I crave chicken.

Rachel: Hysterical. I HAVE had the confusion a couple of times. Particularly hysterical was when I tweeted a photo of some vegetable soup I had just made… I was all proud of myself.

Rachel: And next thing I know, some woman is telling me that it must have a ton of sodium in in.

Rachel: I went and checked the stewed tomatoes can, and confirmed that it didn’t. She conceded, and said, well, all of my other soups are LOADED with sodium. I had NO idea what she was talking about

Rachel: Thankfully, someone saw this conversation and stepped in to clarify that I am a marketer living in Boston, not Boston Market, the restaurant

Rachel: I really like the name. Yes, occasionally it causes confusion, but it describes what I do. And, I think it has helped get me consulting business. When people try to tihnk of who they know in marketing, my name pops up, because they see it all the time. You don’t have to click on my profile to remember what I do.

Cheryl: What are some of your favorite sites to keep up on social media and marketing trends? Don’t say Mashable.

Rachel: Search Engine Land, Social Media Examiner, ProBlogger, SmartBrief Social Media, Mashable…

Cheryl: Damnit woman, I said don’t say Mashable!

Rachel: Also Read Write Web and Hubspot (but I’d deny that)

Cheryl: Wait wait wait, why would you deny Hubspot?! I love their blog.

Rachel: It’s not that I would deny it, I guess. I just don’t tweet about it much, because it’s like Mashable – everyone reads it.

Rachel: But the one criticism I have of some (not all) of the Hubspot posts is that they’re surface level. The rais the issues, and give good things to think about, but often don’t delve deep enough.

Cheryl: True. But it’s the type of content people love to share, so they’re winning at their game.

Rachel: Yes, they are. They are great at that, and content IS king on their site. They produce content like nobody’s business

Cheryl: I have content envy, fo’ sho’. By the way, do you use Google Reader to keep up with all this stuff? Do people who DON’T use Google Reader blow your mind? I was just talking with someone about this.

Rachel: Yes, I do use Google Reader. I can’t imagine my life without it.

Rachel: I actually started using it as part of my job search back in 2006. Subscribing to sites like Monster that way instead of email allowed me to keep better track of what I’d seen and hadn’t.

Rachel: Now, it’s indispensable with blogs. But, the percent of people in the US who use it, or even know what RSS is, is dismal.

Cheryl: Some people just prefer to crowdsource for content - read the (presumably) good stuff that comes through their Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook networks. It’s interesting. I desperately need another cup of coffee. I honestly don’t believe I am capable of functioning before 11am without it.

Rachel: Haha, me neither. I did a detox in october, and gave it up for a week. That was tough. I ate veggies and 3 fruits per day for the whole week. No caffeine. Nothing else.

Cheryl: That sounds horrible.