New Year, New Me?
Sometimes in life, it’s just time for something new.
I’ve had the extreme pleasure of building the About.com Social Media Team from a theory in mid-2013 to one of the best on the Internet as I start 2017. I’m really proud of all of the work we’ve accomplished in the last 3 1/2 years and very excited about the direction that About.com is going as a company.
But, two weeks from now will be my final day at About.com after spending more than 7 years of my career here in two different runs. And I feel like I couldn’t be leaving at more of a good time, and for a unique and awesome challenge that I felt like at this point in my life that I just couldn’t pass up.
One of the core tenets in my life is wanting to help people using technology. And looking back, I think it’s the one universal theme in my career i’m most proud of. It’s manifested itself in a mix of helping customers of airlines, visitors to media companies of all sizes, students and staff at universities, and inviting people to share in my own personal quest - helping people to understand and make social media careers more plausible.
So, what’s next?
In keeping with that theme, on January 30th, I’ll be joining Samsung as their Social Customer Experience Lead, as part of a new Digital Customer Engagement team based out of their awesome 837 Washington space in New York City. The team’s goal — to provide exceptional digital experiences to customers across web, email, chat, mobile and social channels for the entire suite of Samsung products in the United States. Yes, Samsung had a challenging 2016. But, it’s my hope that we can offer Samsung customers great service and support using social media channels and to develop some new solutions for connecting customers to the answers they need — and make a few friends and fans in the process. After all, the real growth in life comes from challenges; tough times eventually lead to the good ones.
It’s no secret I’ve been inspired by the efforts of:
- My former colleagues at JetBlue (whose social team started with two of us on Blackberries — hi Morgan!) and is lead by the excellent Laurie Meacham,
- Buffer’s efforts to deliver happiness to their customers, led by the exceptional Carolyn Kopprasch,
- The excellent Chipotle social media team consisting of Joe Stupp, Rusty Partch, Myra Ryder and Shane Adams.
- And, of course, the witty and excellent brand responses from people like Wendy’s Amy Brown.
Helping people as much as possible is always a good marketing strategy, and I am excited to take on this new, and huge challenge.
Thanks to the About.com team from CEO Neil Vogel, on down and all of the great folks I’ve worked with over the last 3 1/2 years. It’s been a pleasure having the chance to reinvent a big part of the Internet with you. A special thanks to my team, Emily Faherty, Astrid Taran, Rebecca Woodward and Bianca Bello for making every day working together an awesome one.
It’s going to be a crazy, new adventure. Here’s to what lies in store.
Onward.
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