Connie Bensen

I’m organizing a tweetup for dinner tomorrow night in Rochester with some of my Twitter friends. I look forward to meeting AuctionDirectchucksimmins, markfrisk AaronCU95 and everyone else that wants to join us for dinner. It’s always great to meet in person.

Ands speaking of meeting in person, I’m making my first trip to the Techrigy offices. Aaron Newman asked me to do some contract work last fall & that evolved into a full time job. Many people are surprised (& shocked) that I haven’t met the Techrigy gang in person, but it’s our reality. We have been building a great team & it underlines my stance on working remote.

Over the past few months we’ve built relationships & gotten to know each other using IM, Skype, Twitter & of course email. (There may be an avoidance of the phone. ). I do firmly believe in the value of meeting in person & bridging that final step.

I’ll be back into my usual  routine on Thursday. Home office visit means lots of socializing in addition to office hours & I tend to go offline. But the Techrigy team is a true web 2.0 group, so maybe you’ll be seeing some craziness from us online. I don’t know?! I’m hoping to get over to meet the Digsby gang too. That’s one of my favorite app’s that I can’t live without!

Not long ago I wrote about the importance of creating opportunities for yourself. And this is true whether you’re seeking a job or not. And each day should include some learning to increase your value to an employer.

Periodically I get a note from someone saying that they’ve asked their new hire to read the resources here. That is humbling in itself. On Saturday someone sent me a message on Twitter saying that they had gotten a job thanks to my blog. I asked Rachel to share her story. Reading it reminded me of my goals of teaching & sharing. Getting feedback like this is incredibly motivating. Thank you Rachel for sharing your story with my readers.

I wanted to write you and tell you what role you played in me landing a community manager role. This whole thing has actually been very serendipitous…I’ll tell you whole long story and you can cut out whatever you want…
I had been unemployed for about six months. I had previously been laid off from my job in magazine publishing in Northern California and decided to move back home to Seattle. Because my basic needs were being taken care of, I felt like I could really take my time finding a job that I really liked. Print media is over and knew that I wouldn’t be finding anything in that field, especially in Seattle.

In January I went to my first blogger’s meetup (I use Tumblr and absolutely love the community there). There was a guy at the meetup in town from New York, who uses Tumblr and was tagging along. He had worked for Amazon and Etsy, and was now in the midst of his own start-up. We hit it off and exchanged contact information.
The next morning I got a call from this guy saying he was meeting with the manager of a well known Seattle retailer that he knows who wanted advice on social media marketing and things like that. He suggested that I go with him because, he thought, maybe there’s a job in it, and after all, I know about this stuff and he lives in New York, and I live here. We came up with five principles of conversational marketing to talk to them about:

1. It’s a conversation.
2. Be human.
3. Create more value than you take.
4. Grow your community.
5. Always on, always active.

At the meeting, I ended up doing most of the talking. I talked to the manager about Twitter and how blogging has changed since say, 2002. We all exchanged business cards and contact information.
The next thing I knew this retailer was using Twitter and following me, including the owner of this company. I got a direct message one day from the manager saying that she had been talking me up to the owner and that he wanted to meet with me. I wasn’t exactly sure what this guy was expecting from me, if he was even looking to hire or what. They already had someone in the traditional PR role, but apparently not doing this kind of work. When I inititally met with the owner, I had just presented a few ideas on a scratch piece of paper. He had said he really liked me and my ideas and wanted to fit me in somewhere, but just didn’t know exactly where. He told me to think about it and come back next week with a solid proposal.

Most of the week was spent flipping out because I had no idea what to do. I couldn’t just walk in and say "I can do that PR job better." I called up the guy in New York and asked him for some advice, and that’s when he told me about the role of Community Manager. I had seen job postings for this type of position and thought it was an excellent idea.

I googled "community manager job description" and found the BEST information on your website. I printed off any information that seemed relevant to what I was proposing. Since this company is a retailer and not an internet startup, I knew not everything about the more corporate community manager role would apply. So I printed a lot of information from your site and a few others (but mostly yours). I highlighted the stuff I wanted to emphasize. Then I printed out some job postings I  found for community manager so that the owner of this company could see that this is a "real" job that people are hiring for. Then I wrote my own outline of how all this info translates into what specifically I would do for him. And finally, I wrote a fun "about me/FAQ" section instead of including a traditional resume (he has still not seen my resume).

I put all of that information in a binder and paged through it with him at our meeting. I had no idea if this is what he was looking for, but I thought I did a pretty good job putting this together and thought if he didn’t go for it, I could shop myself around to other companies. I definitely wasn’t expecting an answer that day. I told him he could keep the binder and think about things, have another meeting, etc…
But after he paged through it, he said he loved it, that he needs this, that he didn’t want to lose me, and asked me how much money I want. I was hired on the spot and I start in about a week.
So, I just wanted to say THANK YOU for being such a great resource! If I can do this (in the midst of a recession), I’m sure it’s possible for others as well.

Cheers from a gainfully employed person,
Rachel Gabrielle 

I hope that provides you with ideas if you’re job hunting & inspires you to be creative. What if you took your knowledge & skills & went cold calling? Sell yourself to an organization that needs your skills. And if they don’t know it yet, then explain to them why they do! What do you have to lose?

  Rachel said that she always like new friends, so connect with her on Twitter. (Welcome our newest comm mgr!)

Not too long ago, I was asked what my thoughts were on the difference between a thought leader and an influencer. This person is researching the topic, so I thought I’d do some surveying of my network.

It’s an interesting question & I knew my opinion so I asked my Twitterverse. It was exciting to see the conversation go on into the next day. And it stimulated a blog post along with the need for more twitter crowdsourcing.

Here are the responses:

barbchamberlain: @cbensen Not sure I can distinguish (quickly) between thought leader & influencer. Somehow 1st feels–more clean? Not as goal-oriented?

ariherzog: @cbensen Answering your question, @kenburbary considers me a thought leader but @adrielhampton considers me an influencer. Beats me, though.

jnswanson: @cbensen thought leaders? out front. Influencers? along side. Both are necessary.

conniecrosby: @cbensen A thought leader pulls together disparate ideas to find new thinking & directions, communicates it out to others (influencers) 1/2

conniecrosby: @cbensen Influencers are those who help to spread the new ideas, whether from the thought leaders or others. Could be same person, tho. 2/2

heatherrast: @cbensen An influencer can draw a crowd to hear his opinion. A thought leader inspires a crowd to listen, follow, adopt, discuss his work.

SocialMtgExpert: @cbensen …a thought leader be comfortable with their own way (even alone) whereas an influencer is desiring to bring others to their POV?

KTMacOnline: @cbensen a thought leader’s influence may be delayed until people get up to speed that she is on to something. Influencers’ power is now.

juliadalton: @cbensen Thought leader moves things forward and pushes innovation. An influencer, in my opinion, helps make innovations mainstream.

hyermish: @cbensen difference is thought leader has new ideas, influencer spreads ideas. Influencers can be thought leaders, but not always.

lucasclements: @cbensen Thought leaders are not dependent on crowds, influencers require them

missysisk: @cbensen to me, the distinction of an influencer is one that ignites discussion amongst a niche community.

JonBurg: @cbensen thought leaders guide/inform perception. Influencers inspire action. One person can be both, or one or the other.

skyhawke: @cbensen That’s easy. Influencers are akin to secondary research. Thought leaders are akin to primary research

JonBurg: @cbensen you can be a thought leader with readership but no social echo. Influencers generate echo.

This caused us to decide that we should categorize the types of influencers. But I agree that we should let the Twitterverse do it.

JonBurg was inspired to write a blog post on the topic & offers some categories to get us started.

Let us know your thoughts. We will continue to gather the results in a Twitter-tifically method. @AriHerzog & @RyanStephens have offered to help.

Two weeks ago Jen McClure called & told me the most wonderful news! I have been named a 2009 Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research (http://www.sncr.org). It’s truly an honor to be joining the research efforts of those that have provided so much leadership for online communications. I’m very excited to have an opportunity to extend my teaching to this level. I know that working with the other Fellows will also serve as a great learning experience.

It’s truly my pleasure to join the Society’s existing group of business leaders, scholars, professional communicators, members of the media, futurists and technologists from around the globe (http://sncr.org/fellows/). These people have provided the foundation for this world I work in now. Some of the Senior Fellows & past Fellows are: Shel Israel, Shel Holtz, Katie Paine, Brian Solis, Paul Gillin, Joseph Jaffe, & Francois Gossieaux. And our own Albert Maruggi from Minnesota. You can see the complete list here. Other 2009 Fellows are my friends from Twitter, Geoff Livingston (@GeoffLiving) & Laura Fitton (@Pistachio)

The Society’s Fellows collaborate on original research and educational programs focused on the advanced study of emerging trends and developments in media and communications, and their effect on business, professional communications, media and society.

During 2009, my research project will focus on how organizations are using social media monitoring, the related metrics and best practices and standards. This will be part of a larger collaboration project with the Web Analytics Association.

“We are delighted that Connie has joined the Society for New Communications Research as a Fellow to lend us her expertise, and are confident we will benefit greatly as a result of Connie’s participation,” stated Jen McClure, executive director of the Society for New Communications Research.

About the Society for New Communications Research

The Society for New Communications Research is a global nonprofit 501(c)(3) think tank dedicated to the advanced study of the latest developments in new media and communications, and their effect on traditional media and business models, communications, culture and society. SNCR is dedicated to creating a bridge between the academic and theoretical pursuit of these topics and the pragmatic implementation of new media and communications tools and methodologies. The Society’s Fellows include a leading group of futurists, scholars, business leaders, professional communicators, members of the media and technologists from around the globe – all collaborating together on research initiatives, educational offerings and the establishment of best practices. For more information, visit http://sncr.org or call 877-304-SNCR.

Some tweets that I have to share:

My friend, Mykl, from Mpls was singing on Twitter:

And yes, the secret is out – MN will soon rule (it’s just a matter of organizing it!   ) I love the attitude, Mike! You sound like me!