Connie Bensen

Last week marked the one year anniversary of the acquisition of Techrigy SM2 by Alterian. It’s been a busy year and a lot of changes have occurred.

Allow me a quick walk down memory lane… Aaron Newman invited me to join in Oct 2008. My goals were to build brand visibility and scale customer interactions. There was a huge learning curve for the nascent social media monitoring space. Jim Reynolds joined to sell and we intertwined our skills. We grew the business 840% in 9 months which us to the acquisition in July 2009. We had less than a dozen people as we joined the Alterian family.

Ironically my tenure with Alterian is at one year (longer than the startup stint!), but the time has flown by. Alterian offers products for marketers and realized the necessity of integrating social media into a marketer’s repertoire. In addition to SM2 for social media monitoring, we have web analytics, web content management, email, and a database.

In addition to acquiring a social tool, Alterian needed to walk the talk. So we have integrated social media marketing techniques. We utilize our own products and solutions and that provides our customers and partners with the confidence that they are well suited for their needs too.

My role continues to evolve. Initially I spent considerable time on knowledge transfer. The startup environment requires everyone to be familiar with many functions of the organization. The shift into a corporate environment transferred these into the various parts of the business.

Over the course of the year I have written six white papers on the ROI of social media monitoring. Each one addresses a specific use case:

1. Defining a Social Media Strategy: Breathing new life into Corporate Marketing content and collateral
2. First Priority for a Social Media Strategy: A Brand Audit using a Social Media Monitoring Tool
3. Customers in Control: The ROI of Listening to your Customers’ Needs
4. 7 Ways to Increase the ROI of your Lead Gen Efforts with Social Media Monitoring
5. 4 Ways to Take your Search Marketing to a New Level with Social Media Monitoring
6. Soon to be published

My time now is shifting towards what I love to do: teaching and empowering my colleagues. Many of them are actively involved in social networks and we are continually moving in that direction. My role is unique and it continues to evolve.

SM2 is evolving too. Awhile ago I had blogged about Alterian SM2 growing up (it will always be my baby). Aaron Newman, SM2’s founder, has donned a jacket and explains how it has evolved. I like how he has adopted my phrase ‘meat & potatoes’.

Life is about change. As Community Managers working in this fast paced online world we know that change is inevitable. Frequently we are driving that very change.

On Sunday as I was driving back from the weekend I saw the Minneapolis skyline and said to myself, “I’m almost home”. It made me realize that I have adapted to my huge transition. Many of you know how rooted I was to rural Minnesota. After forty some years of living the good life on a farm, I moved to the bright city lights of Minneapolis.

There are some stark contrasts. I went from being sixty miles from Starbucks to a short two block walk! And instead of driving for an hour plus to get to the airport, I now have a twenty minute taxi ride. Flying out of MSP has also eliminated the extra regional flight to a hub like Denver, MSP or Chicago. I am enjoying being able to fly direct.

One of the most surprising things is that I enjoy having everything within walking distance. Having Chipotle half a block away is a bit too convenient! No thanks to my sister for that addiction.

And then there is the driving! Before 2010 I had no experience driving in the metro. I learned to drive on multi-lane roads (meaning 3 or more) in the metropolis of Fargo, ND, but that’s not much more than an intersection of two interstates.

I couldn’t live without my GPS and who would’ve known how much I appreciate the word ‘recalculating’?! After a couple of months I’m starting to get my bearings and am not relying on the GPS as much. I’m starting to unplug it now as the roads become familiar. But I still experience a sense of fear mixed with exhilaration when driving in 5 lanes of fast moving traffic. And I have learned to speed up at yellow lights. My sister tried to explain that one, but I am learning. Up north they only put traffic lights in 30 mph zones and they meant stop. I am so thankful that we have Minnesota nice happening here! Overall the drivers are pretty easy-going and don’t exercise their horns like in NYC.

I have finally been in town for a social media breakfast. It was fun to reconnect with my many friends that I’ve known for a couple of years now. It’s nice to not be in the back channel anymore!

Photo credit: http://www.aquaticnet.com

Not too long ago I was at the Techrigy home offices & posted posted photos. I thought it was only fair that I share a photo of my space. I am parked in my living room.                    

Initially I had been downstairs because I had read that it’s best to not work in the main living space. Something about distractions. But it seems that I thrive on distractions so I moved upstairs. (The floor was cold down there in the winter anyway). 

So this is it. Now you’ll know I’m geeky (if you didn’t think so before).

My husband made the table out of a black ash tree that had blown down by our lake.

The two 20” monitors take up a bit of space, but I’d be hard pressed to work  with only one. The monitor on the stool conveniently turns 180 degrees to watch Netflix movies on the couch.

The two laptops on the left aren’t used on a regular basis. The larger laptop has files I haven’t transferred to the new Dell tower, because … well, you know.

And the mini netbook has a video camera & microphone in it. It’s really my traveling computer, but sometimes I video Skype with it.

Then there are the headsets: 2 usb headsets for voip, a headset for the landline phone, a bluetooth headset for the cell phone.

And my 3 in 1 printer is by my feet along with a blanket that I share with my cats. For background noise, I have a 52” flat panel tv. When it’s my choice I have the Food Network on, but I can pretty easily tune whatever is on out. And it’s muted whenever I’m on calls.

I have a lovely view of my lake. That trail going across is made by deer (which may sound nice…). But there’s a lot of cursing when they prune my lilacs when they’re blooming.

Now it’s your turn to share. What does your home office look like?

This week one of the anchors from Good Morning America was in Finland. She said that they have winter from October to April. How interesting! That’s exactly how long we have winter here in Minnesota too. Scandinavians settled here because it reminded them of home.

On that note I wanted to share photos of our blizzard this week. It snowed all day Monday, then on Tuesday that continued along with 40 mph winds. Blizzards are cozy when you don’t have to go anywhere & have plenty of food.

Our porch is almost 3 feet off the ground & the drift engulfed our steps.

We received almost a foot of snow in two days. We generally get a good storm in March. Last year the last one was in April.

It’s warm when it snows. Well relatively speaking. Thirty degrees is warm! Then on Wednesday the temp dropped to minus fifteen. I went out to take photos for you without a hat on. BIG mistake! My husband’s new snowblower takes a 90 inch cut. The snow was a foot thick so he only took a half pass at a time.

The view from behind (while my ears froze).

Our driveway thru the woods was passable by truck. I miss making tracks in new snow when I would go to work. It was always enjoyable to know when to accelerate & when to slow down to avoid ummm getting stuck.

Winter doesn’t bother me, but I’m looking forward to the snow melting in a month or so. Spring is my favorite season when my flowers come back to life.