A little over a year ago, I was just a guy heading up marketing for an online address book company seeking to reinvent itself. Plaxo was not yet a player in the super-hot world of social networking, and I was a VP of Marketing trying to figure out the rapidly evolving world of social media. So, what did I do? I started blogging.
At first, I wasn’t sure of my voice or how to do it right. Over time, I figured out what sort of topics were well suited to my perspective (and which ones I should pass on). More than a few times, I felt a conflict between being a marketer with information “under embargo” and being a blogger who wanted to clue my audience in.
Looking back over the past year, as I prepare to head out on vacation, I am really excited to see how my traffic has risen over time. Sure, it’s a Bigfoot press conference post that’s causing the radical surge of the last day or so (thanks, TechCrunch!), but that’s okay. Social media is a boiling cauldron, a magical potion that transforms everything it touches. And, yes, I know total traffic is really tiny. But I focus on whether I am growing it!
Should Chief Marketing Officers plunge as deeply into social media as I have — or is it better to delegate “community” efforts to others? It probably depends on a variety of factors, but I can say for sure that I have enjoyed my own swim in this pool, and am happy to share that the water is warm. So if you are sitting on the sidelines, now is a good time to come on in.
And to everyone who has been a part of taking me from “a tree falling in the forest” to a contributor to the global social media conversation, I say, “Thank you!” Let’s take this to the next level together.
The Real McCrea 