As you’ve probably seen on TravelingNinjas.com we have relocated to Pacific Northwest, where the micro-brews, however gluten-filled, are abundant, and the college football teams loose in The Rose Bowl to The Ohio State University Buckeyes. GO BUCKS! The rain isn’t nearly as bad as some preconeived notions suggest, and music is as good as anticipated.

With the new location came a new job, and I am more than excited to announce that I have joined the ranks of Waggener Edstrom as a Project Manager. That means working less than 50 feet from THE Tac Anderson, who is by far one of the most interesting people in the space.  I’m lucky enough to be rubbing shoulders with none other than, Nathan Misner occasionally as well, and if you don’t know, he is one of those pepole who lead by example and follow by admiration.  But I have to admit the thing that excites me most about joining the WE team is that I get the inside scoop on Twendz Pro and if you know me at all, you know that this data is going to become my greatest distraction. 

Needless to say the new decade has begun with some great changes and I cannot express how excited I am to see what challenges and rewards come out of my new situation.

THIS SATURDAY IS TWESTIVAL LOCAL!!!!!

WHERE: Brooklyn Bowl – 61 Wythe Avenue between N. 11th & 12th streets Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York., New York ,NY

WHEN: September 2009 :: 6pm

BENEFITING: CampInteractive

amiando is handling ticket sales. GET YOURS NOW BY CLICKING BELOW!

LEARN MORE ABOUT CAMPINTERACTIVE BY CLICKING THEIR LOGO BELOW!

Ecstatic doesn’t begin to describe how excited I am to announce that I have accepted job at Fleishman Hillard working with David Bradfield’s digital team.  I am excited to be working with some social media rock stars. Everyone already knows how fond I am of Jackie Vettorino, who I have to give credit to. She is responsible for the introductions that led to this great opporutnity.

I’m pumped to learn from and bounce ideas of David Bradfield. His experience is coming from a different direction as my own and I think that will help to make solid approaches to the space. Besides if Constantin Basturea can’t speak highly enough about someone, then you know they are good pepole. I’m going to get the chance to work closely with Erin Enke, Kendra Bracken, and Paul Dalessio. The FH Digital team is chock full of heavy hitters, and this is just the team here in NYC.

At the top of the digital food chain is Brad Mays, and I’m sure that working with him is going to be a fun. I’m going to be under the same umbrella as Luke Armour, and after hearing Paull Young talk about him, I’m sure we are going to have a lot of things to talk about. The other FH locations have intense teams as well. Some of those I’m looking forward to meeting are Mike Sabatino, Jeff Weintraub, and last but obviously not least, Matt Dickman.

Let’s just hope I don’t let them down.

This morning I had a chance to catch up with Marybeth Berberich, who I met first at The University of Cincinnati.  We had not had a chance to really catch up in a while. What started as a polite “how have you been” conversation quickly moved to a comfortable conversation point for us, Marketing Theory. Marybeth and I worked together to prove theories on the future of communication for Proctor and Gamble.  What I would typically be a trip down memory lane was replaced with our thoughts on what generic grocery brands might do to stay current with their consumers, from a branding standpoint especially the  creative/design approaches they could take with their visual branding.

This conversation made me long for my college days, when I could spend afternoons debating theory about the future of marketing, branding, and advertising with super intelligent people. However, I quickly realized that I still get to have those conversations on a fairly regular basis,  with people just as smart and fun as Marybeth.

Living with Paull Young, I had a chance to debate the intricacies, and nuances of the social media landscape. Most commonly we would discuss the balance between the management of your online reputation and the transparency that our industry requires. In fact Paull’s insight into the topic has made me change my approach to my Facebook profile, as well as my twitter updates.

I feel as though everyone who knows of Paull Young, also knows that he is a thought leader, and that he knows as much about the space as our industry’s heavy hitters. I actually consider him to be one. However, the deep thought and theory that he has swirling around in his mind I have been privy to in a way I think most will only get if he publishes a book of random thoughts from down under one day. (SIDE NOTE: That book is complete speculation, but if for some reason it’s titled “Random Thoughts From Down Under” or some variation of that I want a share of the profit. No less than 55%, Youngie)
I have recently been able to bounce many ideas about social media’s future off of Jackie Vettorino.  We have discussed mobile, traditional PR’s role in new media, new media’s role in traditional PR, and so many other topics.  We agree on many things, and have agreed to disagree on even more.  J-Vet is one of the smartest people I know when it comes to social media and does more to carry her own around the space.

Too many nights of social drinking have turned into conversations about the tech space or what is worth paying attention to and what isn’t.  Our friends are nice enough to let us geek out and stand with blank looks on their face as we discuss the pros and cons of wordpress vs. tumbler, or debate weather the G1 is the iPhone killer or if one of Blackberry’s new offerings is the assassin.

In reading my bloglines, I find that a-lot of the excitement is being replaced with criticism of companies who are not approaching the space properly, or boutique agencies who have made mistakes with campaigns.  I know there is a need for influential bloggers to speak about the reasons why campaigns have not generated the amount of buzz their clients anticipated, but part of me is not ready to stop talking about the possibilities in our industry’s future.

With people like the ones I’ve mentioned above, I think we have an opportunity to really take the social media game in a successful direction. And to be honest not matter how the economy is doing, I believe, companies should be spending more money in this space, but they should be doing it more wisely. The trick is determining who is playing in the space effectively, by taking a look at the agency’s strategy, and the people hired to execute it.

My Commute Home

Paul Borgese of EyeCatcher Interactive and marketing/international business teacher at NYU, Pace, and Baruch College, CUNY will be speaking about his work with the Associate Press Digital Division.

If you’re and early bird you should definitely come. If your not, do your best to wake up and join us. Check out what you missed last year.

Schedule:

8:00-8:30: Coffee Talk and Breakfast
8:30-9:30: Presentation, Q&A
9:30-10:00: More Coffee Talk

FREE Breakfast, courtesy of LiveWorld.

I spend about 30% of my day working with Facebook. I manage content on my clients fan pages. I work very hard at acquiring more fans and friends or boosting videos and photos views. I have no idea how much time I have spent on generating or replying to comments and wall posts. These are the new metrics for clients and this is how I, as a social media slave, am judge on my ideas and efforts. I understand and embrace that. I enjoy my job and take pride when I get the result I am looking for, but I cannot help but think that as drones of the internet, we are missing the true values of Facebook.

Getting Ready for The Glass

This past weekend I was in Maine wakeboarding with an old college buddy. We reconnected with each other using facebook. We planned this trip by creating a facebook event and exchanging facebook messages. We introduced each other to friends who were going to be attending by sharing facebook profiles. And now we are sharing pictures and videos of the weekend with each other using facebook.

Panoramic of Dock - "great place to dock start"

As someone who was addicted to the second generation of facebook (post Ivy league generation) I remember when facebook was it’s most useful. When it was most simple. It was just a “degree of seperation” algarythm, that incorporated photos. It was a simple webspace that allowed you to stalk your college friends and their friends. We knew all we needed to know. How many friends we all had and how many of them were mutual. We also knew if that cute girl in your Global Marketing class had a boyfriend and if she partied as hard as you did.

I understand the new facebook. I appreciate the need for Mark Zuckerburg to monetize the brilliance. I just hope we can hold on to it’s original convenience.

Settled In To My New Hood

I profusely apologize to my readers. I”M SO SORRY! I have set a goal of writing at least 3 posts a week. They may not be the freshest content but it’s going to be mine. I’ve felt like my contributions were minimal and that I wasn’t actually adding anything to the conversation, but I’ve been reborn blog-style. MORE TO COME

- dentonmd

I’m a relative newbie to PodCamping it. I know the rules, I LOVE the format, and I enjoy speaking/attending. The upcoming PodCamp Ohio is in my home state and it’s been held in my college town. Needless to say I am EXCITED for this one. Speaking list is stacked with great friends of mine and people I will be meeting for the first time. People I’m excited to see include:

Luke Armour

Debba Haupert

Cliff Ravenscraft

Kait Swanson

If you want to see a full list of who is scheduled you can go to – http://www.podcampohio.com/sessions/

To register visit – http://www.podcampohio.com/participate/registration/

I haven’t been back to the Buckeye State in almost a year. What a great excuse to return! I hope to see you there.