Connie Bensen

Last week I tweeted this photo of my car being loaded on a truck destined for my next social engagement.

On Monday, August 29th, I will start the next chapter in my career. I will be joining forces with Bill Johnston and the global community team at Dell in a new role as Sr. Manager, Community Strategy and Execution. Needless to say, I am very excited to be joining a team and company that is committed to becoming a social business.

In looking back, this appears to be a natural next step. Long ago (around 2008) I had a conversation with Sean McDonald and we pondered how to evolve the benefits of the community manager role in terms of a social business. Essentially, how does an organization scale it. Since then I kept tabs on their progress. I also participated in their Customer Advisory Panel (#DellCAP) for the past two years and attended the launch of Dell’s Social Media Command Center last December. It’s incredible that Dell’s internal University has trained over 5000 people and certified over 2000 and they have established an unprecedented listening center that plugs the company into the social sphere. I have watched their progress and look forward to joining the innovative efforts at Dell!

My journey to this point has been guided by amazing people and great experiences. I have thoroughly enjoyed working in the social media monitoring world with Techrigy and post-acquisition with Alterian. As a result I am blessed with friends around the world. I have loved working with such dedicated people.

This evolution of my career includes a huge change and everyone is asking … Are you moving to Austin? Many know that I moved south to the Minneapolis area last year (to be near an international airport). I will be joining my car on Monday when I start at Dell’s corporate headquarters.

Stay tuned as the journey continues!

Last year was filled with change. I took my life and tipped it upside down.

           I left the only way of life that I had known and stepped into the unknown.

Humans are resilient and change is good. It promotes & fosters learning.

This is what life taught me in 2010:

• urban life offers everything within walking distance which was a huge contrast to having lived 60 miles from Starbucks (I’m turning over the rural advocacy to @BeckyMcCray)
• I took online shopping to a new level by finding my house on the web & knew that I would buy it before setting foot in it (how’s that for marketing?)
• buying a house and getting settled takes a lot of time & energy
• I can now pack without thinking after having traveled 3 weeks per month (and I only take what I need and can carry)
• being open to new experiences is amazing – my trip to India was incredible!

Some have asked what I’ve been up to and why my blog has been quiet. I rarely write about my personal life, but I thought I would share a glimpse. Last year I got divorced, moved twice, experienced new cultures, made many new friends and reunited with old ones. I wrote a series of 10 white papers on social media monitoring and ROI, did some speaking and a lot of traveling. It was a year of incredible growth in many aspects.

Most importantly I have found a much needed balance. I am reclaiming some of the things that I loved to do. They aren’t related to the online world and it’s quite refreshing.

• I planted over 100 tulips last fall and am ready for spring which is my favorite season
• My house provides me with a great place to work and requires my time in a good way

Now that  I have reestablished a grounding, it’s time to put many of the things that fell by the wayside back in place. So here come the new year’s resolutions. Putting them here will cause people to remind me to stick to them:

• exercise (the shiny new treadmill needs to get broken in)
• more time for reading and learning
• blogging more frequently – I enjoy writing & miss it
• interacting with my friends and reading their thoughts – Twitter has it’s place but it doesn’t replace blogs
• attending more in-person events in the MSP area & giving back  – it’s great to a be a part of this community!

What are you doing this year to have a more balanced life and what steps are you taking towards it?

I’m very excited to announce that Warren Sukernek and team are joining me at Alterian! I have known Warren since 2007 when I met him at the first conference I spoke at. It was in Seattle on the topic of Facebook. Life has changed a lot since then for both of us! We have both aspired to evolve best practices in social media strategies and sharing those with others.

Warren is now with John Song at Intrepid. I met John a year ago when they started using SM2. Their focus has been helping their clients to identify new markets, develop new products and services, and create meaningful customer experiences. Clients include brands such as GE, Dell, Microsoft, Nintendo, Dunkin Donuts, and Tesco.

The acquisition is the result of the demands of the market. A little over a year ago Alterian acquired Techrigy which added SM2, a social media monitoring tool to Alterian’s suite of marketing tools. Our customers and partners are requesting services around social media to maximize the value of our marketing offerings. Intrepid is a recognized leader in providing social media analytics and market research strategy. That insight and experience will allow our partners and customers to get the most value across all of Alterian’s products ranging from email, campaign management, web content management, and behavior analytics.

The addition of Intrepid to the Alterian family means that our global presence will continue to expand! We will add offices in Seattle, London and Vietnam. Alterian’s corporate headquarters are located in Bristol, UK along with two other locations, but to date there wasn’t an office in London. And the office in Vietnam expands our presence in the AsiaPAC in addition to India, Australia and Singapore. It also brings us additional language resources as we evolve SM2. At present SM2 offers the most languages in the market.

A very warm welcome from the Alterian family to Warren, John, and team! We look forward to expanding horizons together!

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’.