Experts in the Industry: Jason Falls (20 of 45)

I first met Jason Falls, "social media explorer" and director of social media for Doe Anderson -- last year at SXSW (shocking, I know). Not only is Jason a cool guy to hang out with, he's also an avid blogger (something he's been doing since the 90's) and savvy social media-ist. Some of the things he's doing with Doe Anderson clients, Jim Beam and Louisville Slugger are downright impressive (ping him on Twitter and he'll be happy to give you details).

Here's how Jason answered the five questions from the Experts in the Industry: 45 Interviews in 45 Days series:

In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you're good at it.

I'm good at having and managing conversations, both written and verbal, because I'm a social butterfly, a good writer and a fast thinker.

 

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?

Besides always being fascinated with computers, I wrote a newspaper column for my hometown rag a few years back and wanted to find a way to publish it online so my non-hometown friends could read it. That evolved into a personal blog. Also, I grew up in a small town and have a genuine love and interest in the folks I grew up with. When social networks started popping up and I realized I could find my old friends and keep up with them, even peripherally, I jumped on it. I only regret taking 6-7 years to figure out I could make money doing it.

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of "social," which company would it be and why?

Apple. Because there is real community and conversation everywhere about Apple despite the fact they barely use social media at all. They just make good stuff. People talk about good stuff. But to be fair and answer the question posed, I'd say Dell. Elevating the social media platform to the collaboration level with customers is groundbreaking stuff.

 

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?

 Jon Bon Jovi because he surrounds himself with his family and friends, is loyal to them first and foremost, contributes a great deal back to the community and, oh yeah, rocks. [Aaron's Note: I love this answer btw]

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?

No. I find nothing compelling or engaging about toothpaste. I might comment on a company's site that I don't want them to change the flavor, but join a community? Nah. 

Freeform – here's where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.

My grandmother once told me I should never do anything I couldn't tell my grandmother. For a while, I thought it was sage advice. Then I realized she was just trying to get me to admit to doing something sinister. From that point on, I told her everything. She regretted the advice after that. I'm not sure if that's a pearl of wisdom, but if you tell your grandmother (or mother for that matter) everything there is to tell, they don't nag you as much. 

Experts in the Industry: Patrick Moran (19 of 45)

Patrick Moran, CMO of Mzinga, is not only a friend, he's my former manager (for a couple of months anyway). Upon first meeting Patrick, I liked him immediately, mainly because he and I have a similar sense of humor (check out his Twitter stream to see what I'm talking about). While Patrick is self-admittedly not a prolific blogger, he's a madman on Facebook and Twitter and can throw down a blog comment like nobodies business.

While Patrick qualifies as one of the pithiest interviewees in the Experts in the Industry: 45 Interviews in 45 Days, the "quality" of his comments easily made up for what he lacked in "quantity":

In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you’re good at it.

I am an accountable story teller with persuasive intent.  (Aka marketer) 

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?

I am an introvert by nature, so participating in online activity is a safe way to be social.  Turns out I am not alone.  I left “traditional” marketing to help turn social media into… traditional marketing.  I’ve been in the collaboration world at WebEx and Cisco, which is  actually relevant to this space – sharing and communicating online.

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of “social,” which company would it be and why?

My old stomping ground -- Cisco – A+ for effort, C- for execution, but the point of this space is experimentation, right?

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?

Barack Obama. He built a massive brand in record time.

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?

No, and I still refer people to your post about it here - some of your best thinking.

Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.

Social media is a fishbowl that needs to be shattered so all us little fish can mingle with the rest of the marketing fish.  Let’s stop eating each other’s algae and go take over the ocean!  I can hardly breathe in here!

Experts in the Industry: Laura Fitton (18 of 45)

Laura Fitton, principal of Pistachio Consulting, is not only a close friend but she's also one of the original "stars" of Twitter. One of the things I like most about Laura was that she came from a background -- not of social media -- but helping executives make their presentation "suck less." Since then, she and I have hung out at SXSW, been on panels together with friend Scott Monty and even teamed up in Jim Storer's annual all day scavenger hunt along with friends Shannon DiGregorio and Dmitri Gunn.

But enough about us, onto the questions from the Experts in the Industry: 45 Interviews in 45 Days series.

In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you're good at it. 

I see things. I connect things. And I try to explain it all in useful ways. I only work with things I really believe in and I'm not afraid to let my passion and enthusiasm show. My overwhelming focus is helping people make full use of the business, personal and even cultural value of Twitter and things like it, what I call microsharing. These tools will become more powerful than we've already experienced, in more ways than many have imagined.

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing? 

Honestly? It got into me. It's been life in a (wonderful) tractor beam ever since I got started. It's been a pretty wild ride and I'm just so grateful for and humbled by the journey and the transformative effect it's had on my life. I want to see as many people as humanly possible benefit from the kinds of opportunities social media can create. This cuts WAY deeper than "marketing" -- it's about fundamentally new ways to organize, coordinate and collaborate efforts and lives.

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of "social," which company would it be and why?

This one is SO obviously "Twitter" for me I feel like I should come up with a #2 instead. I'm going to say Cisco. My gut tells me they will be among the first to really tap into the value of microsharing for presence, collaboration and improving real business results. They have great leadership and innovative technology. I love how their CTO Padmasree Warrior (@padmasree) uses Twitter and the smart questions she asks about it as a collaboration tool. I just hope they can synthesize it all together, remain open to "new ways" of doing things and turn around and demonstrate to the world "what now becomes possible." 

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?

I'm really curious about what makes Richard Branson (@richardbranson) tick. That mashup of bravado, brains and yet a fanatical devotion to customer experience and businesses that bring fun, lively things into the world. The willingness to go to extremes both in business and in seizing the possibilities of life. 

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why? 

Oddly enough I would. When I see Tom's of Maine in someone's bathroom right away there's a bunch we might have in common simply because we have those values and made that choice. But I'd want the community integrated into the everyday flow of my life, just the way real life communities are. It's a real estate fundamental - build where the people already are, put it conveniently in their flow and make it easy to integrate. I'm a big skeptic about community as "destination."

Freeform – here's where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.

I don't think microsharing can change the world because just because I happen to have a lot of readers on Twitter. I think microsharing can change the world because it can. People don't have to be alone anymore. Barriers to opportunity don't have to be so high and people don't have to work in conflict and isolation. This isn't something I started saying because I want sell people something or because of the weird increased visibility thing that's happened to me on Twitter, it's something I started saying after just a few weeks using it. That ability to gather your social network around you wherever you go, and reach out to them easily and inobtrusively in order to give into, take out of or share ideas and social currency with a social network on-the-go, that's amazing. That changes lives.

Thanks kindly for inviting me Aaron. [My pleasure Laura!]

Auto Industry's Use of Social Webcast Trended!

The other day, I did a webcast with some big brained folks like Scott Monty (@scottmonty) of Ford, Christopher Barger (@cbarger) of GM and Sylvia Marino (@sylmarino) of Edmunds. The focus was how the auto industry is using "social" to innovative and fight off the general perception that they are stodgy and unresponsive.

You can listen to the webcast here  or see the Twitter activity from the event, here.

What thrilled me the most was that the webcast actually trended (code for "it was one of the most talked about things on Twitter for the hour that it was running"). W00t!

Experts in the Industry: Rachel Happe (17 of 45)

Rachel Happe, Social Media/Product Guru and former IDC Analyst focused on social technologies, is not only a former colleague, she's also a great friend. I've known Rachel for a year and a half and am more and more impressed with her every time I spend time with her. Not only is she funny but she's also an "outside the box" thinker. At the same time, she's not full of herself and always willing to share (if you happen to be looking for a rock star product leader with hard core social experience, she's your gal).

Let's see how she answer the five questions from the Experts in the Industry: 45 Interviews in 45 Days series...

In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you’re good at it.

I solve application and organizational problems well because I am adept at synthesizing a lot of disparate information together with human intent which leads to the uncovering of an issue's structural root.

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?

I started working with social media and online communities while at a startup in Silicon Valley in 2003. There we used blogs internally and externally for content management. I helped to build a social networking site for independent music (before we called them social networks) where we tried solving the content surfacing and recommendation issue in a variety of ways. It was a great way to cut my teeth on the problem of content abundance and filtering through social connections and recommendations (virtual mixed tape anyone?!?).

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of “social,” which company would it be and why?

SAP because it understands the fundamental shift happening in markets and are moving aggressively toward a networked model of doing business. While they have not incorporated much in the way of 'social' tools into their own products I believe they are making SAP as a company much stronger because of their ecosystem approach to their markets.

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?

John Chambers because he understands that 'social' is more than a new way to communicate but also a fundamental shift in the way we do business. Under his leadership, he is dramatically reorganizing Cisco to make it a stronger, network-drive business that is not so dependent on its senior management team. He has the courage to not only believe it is not about him but also to, in effect, make his role less important to the long term success of Cisco which is a dramatic new approach to CEO succession planning.

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?

Not likely unless some toothpaste manufacturer decided to give away toothpaste to foodbanks and shelters in exchange for discussing organizational and system dynamics in its web community...which is really very unlikely so I guess that means No :)

Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.

I am passionate about social media and community because the most fulfilling thing to me is enabling people to reach their full potential - both in terms of productivity and happiness. I think rigidity and control keep people from exploring their passions because rigid structures disincentives that behavior. In those environments people turn off their passion and curiosity. I think as organizations we can do better. The transparency brought on by social media is shining a light on the gap between motivations and execution and driving toward an environment where those two things are better aligned. I believe that alignment will enable people to find their 'tribe' (to use one of Laura Fitton's terms) and the increase in productivity and personal fulfillment that will result will be good for individuals *and* for businesses.

I want to help change the world because I see a better way to work - its both achingly simple and extraordinarily complex.

NEW FEATURE: I'm going to start adding in Twitter handles for any of the folks I interview. Rachel's is @rhappe