Rachel Levy: Social Media & Marketing

One of the things that makes my days different from when I was working full time, is managing my diverse daily schedule. When I was working, sure, every hour was different, but I was at work, working on the same job. Now, my days are filled with networking meetings, emails, twitter, checking job listings, going to physical therapy, babysitting, consulting, and more. I find it great to have the variety, but also find it very tiring. So, here’s what my day looked like on Friday:

I met someone for coffee who wants to change careers and get into marketing. She also is very intrigued by the online space. I love sharing what I know, so had a great meeting, giving her some advice about marketing, they way I’m conducting my job search, what I’ve learned so far in social media, and where to look to learn more. Great meeting!

Next, I was off to a physical therapy appointment for my back. I have had back trouble for a long time, and finally found a great therapist. Feeling much better!

Then it was time for the Salty Legs Networking Group meeting. More on this group in a blog post to come. Anyway, this week’s meeting had Chris Brogan (social media god) as our guest speaker!! Very lucky to see him in person, with such a small group. Here are a few things he said:

• Everyone should read “Tribes” by Seth Godin – we are all in a Tribe, and should strive to be in multiple tribes
• Go after the 1,000 PASSIONATE people, versus 10,000 people
• Facebook and Twitter are different in that FB doesn’t allow you the opportunity to necessarily find like-minded people; Twitter does. (BE where the conversations are that you want to have)
• I asked him how can using Twitter help in a job search, when you don’t want to be “screaming” to people all the time telling them you’re looking for a job. His number one recommendation was to use Twitter Search. And learn how to use the OR function, so you can put in strings of words of what you are looking for and terms that would help you find a job. And then listen for the opportunity. And then contact those people. He gave a great example about an ISP company that did this and searched for “ISP is down”. Their sales rose due to this proactive approach.
• How does Chris manage 20,000+ contacts? Well, if you google “no I don’t sleep” he’s #1! (I googled it, and he wasn’t #1, but he was #5… pretty impressive (or scary depending on how you look at it!)
• Write strategically — Blog on the types of jobs you want. For example, if I want a job at a specific nonprofit doing marketing, I can blog about ideas I have for them.
• Comment on other people’s blogs — that’s the new way of networking
• 30% of online social media is the content; 70% of it is being the human around the content
• Chris’ Book “Trust Agents” – how to use the web to humanize business – is coming out in May
• When a brand talks back to you, it makes you feel good. For example, Chris was on a bad Northwest flight, and tweeted “I wish I was on JetBlue” and JetBlue wrote back saying they loved him too.

Chris is truly amazing, and I’m grateful I had the opportunity to hear him speak!

After the Salty Legs meeting, I went over to the JCC (my former employer) to meet with my programmer, and the webmaster there. I’m working on a website for them on a consulting basis. Summary of the meeting… we are very behind… the programmer has been slow, and I’m hoping we don’t launch more than one month late :-(

So, that was my day. A great variety of things, but I was exhausted by the end of it!