Putting the Social Back into Social Media

Janet Gershen-Siegel is the Director of Social Media and Public Relations for Neuron Robotics, LLC. In addition, she is a Social Media Specialist based in Boston, with over seven and a half years of experience as a Community Manager, a law degree and a flair for training and making presentations. She has special expertise in Hyperion/Brio, Stratum, Excel and Access, yet is also an avid blogger, tweeter and social networker. She is admitted to the New York Bar.

Social Media Marketing

Janet's social media knowledge springs from somewhat unconventional roots. After all, in her resume you'll discover a cross-functional background in law, data analysis, publishing, financial services, insurance and voice recognition. Exactly how many people can say that?

The biography is eclectic, but her starting points to social media and inbound marketing bring not only uniqueness to the table, but also a richness of experience. She can analyze data and make reports, including from Google Analytics and Alexa, or from your own systems, using SQL. She can read legalese, and even write it. She can make presentations to any size audience, with no fear of public speaking whatsoever. She can blog and tweet. She can train. She can grow an online community from scratch, and can manage that community. She can manage personnel remotely. She can motivate volunteers. And her weight loss journey should prove beyond all doubt: she can make a commitment and really stick to it.

Philosophy and Strategy

Social media marketing is about more than just social networking and shiny new platforms. Twitter and Facebook are fun, to be sure. Blogs are helpful, too. But there should be more to inbound marketing than getting your company's name or product represented in these places. It's about authenticity. It's about setting aside a good chunk of the old marketing playbook, and embracing new ideas. It's about ROI, and measuring results so that you know what's really working -- or isn't. It's about customer engagement. It's about bringing the customer and the company together in new and different ways. Unconventional ones, if you will.

Social media marketing is about a two-way conversation, and that means that companies and customers should be not only talking but also listening to one another. When a customer says a product is bad, or a service stinks, how does the company react? Damage control? Cover up? Fear? Hope that it just goes away somehow?

How about facing the problem head on? How about ... apologizing? How about listening to the customer and really getting to the root of the issue? How about having a ... conversation?

A community arises when more than two people talk about something. It can be small and ad hoc, or it can be sprawling. It doesn't have to be forums, although community management is certainly a part of it. It can be a Facebook group or even a Twitter list or a blogger and his or her followers and commenters. Its formality is up to the company, but also up to its members. Because sometimes -- perhaps often -- the members can take the community in directions that the company never dreamed of. And that can end up being a very good thing indeed.

Social Media Services

So, what can Janet Gershen-Siegel do for you as a Social Media Specialist, apart from create a community from scratch, manage it and report on it? She can use business intelligence to learn how to better interact with your customers, and to measure and increase ROI. She can help to market your product or service through natural, dynamic conversations with your customers and your potential customers. She can write blog and Twitter copy, and polish prose. She can shape your community's growth through off-topic (yes, off-topic!) discussions, for they are the cornerstone of any community truly getting legs. She can train your company how to interact in this new environment. She can confidently and professionally present findings to your Board. And she is more organized than most people you'll ever meet. She is online at the crack of dawn because she likes it. It's the best time to engage in Community Management. For her, this is love. This is what she truly, madly, deeply loves.

This is passion.

Community Management and Social Networking are in her blood. What kind of unconventional heights will you be able to climb today?