If you follow me on twitter, you know a lot about me. You know I have a sense of humor, you know I love the Phillies, you know I love my job, you see campaigns I am working on for clients, and you know my dad's been battling cancer.

There are things I don't share on twitter and keep to myself, but for the most part, I like to keep my social media...social. I try to only follow people who do the same. We don't do business with a company, we do business with people who work for the company, don't we? I buy from and tune in to people I know and like. I think many people do that. Isn't that what word-of-mouth is all about?

Social media isn't the cure for the cancer that is killing big pieces of traditional media. It also isn't the enigma that so many people may think it is. Social media, is just another media channel. A few years ago, my colleagues and I at Red Tettemer illustrated what that channel looks like:



And yes, this channel works a little differently, so did TV when it was introduced.

It's going to be ok.

More than 3 years ago, my friend Chris Heuer shared something the CEO of iProspect said, which I've never forgotten: "The Brand with the best storytellers wins." I love that. That, is the secret to social media - not much of a secret; it's something that advertising and PR have known for years.

The opportunity with social media, for creative advertising agencies, is enormous. No longer is creative chained to :15 or :30 or :60. We aren't limited by 1/4 page or 1/2 page or double trucks. We can create content and tell our stories to massive global audiences and immediately hear back from them, what they think. It's like being in everyone's living room when a tv spot airs - exciting and scary, isn't it? We can launch unfinished content, and let the customer tell us how they want it to end. We can engage our audience and give them option to buy DIRECTLY FROM OUR CREATIVE WITHOUT EVER LEAVING THEIR COUCH. That may make some advertising execs shiver, it gives me goosebumps from excitement.

I see a shift happening within the social media channel. Initially, PR seemed to dominate integration of this channel in their work, naturally, because it connected them quickly and widely with global audiences - press and consumers alike. The channel didn't have that many features and that was ok for PR because they just wanted to tell their stories.

Today and in the future, the channel has bells and whistles. And while PR will continue to work in the channel, telling stories, advertising creatives have the opportunity to stretch the functionality of the channel, create new features with their partners in interactive, and tell the stories with mind blowing creative showcasing new products and services like we've never experienced before.

You want the secret to making social media work for a brand? It's all about integration. A holistic approach to social media in your overall marketing plan, great storytellers and oh...creative that gives you goosebumps.

This is a VERY IMPORTANT blog post.

Please watch the embedded digital short created/produced by colleagues at Red Tettemer. It's not often in the world of consumer marketing/advertising that we have an opportunity to work on campaign that is so important, so meaningful, to so many people.

It is my honor and my privilege to be a part of this educational, technologically-groundbreaking campaign.



PS - If you liked this and want to see more, go to RedTettemer.com and click the "droppy" on the home page. Then click thru the icons at the bottom of the next page to see all the interactive fun.

Hey there!

Several weeks ago on twitter, I tweeted about the Red Tettemer retreat. We were given several challenging pre-retreat assignments that we had to complete pre-retreat and were scheduled for review at the retreat, which was held over several days at the Gatsby-esque Shawnee Inn. Being relatively new at the agency, my only knowledge of what to expect at the retreat were the *many* legendary tales I was told of past retreats and my own awareness of the enormous collective of top talent under the roof at 1 S. Broad St. The word "nervous" doesn't cover what I was feeling leading up to the retreat.

One of our several assignments, as provided by our iconic and much-loved leader, Prez Steve Red, was to bring something that represented our badass selves. Whatever concept/form that may be.

Of course, a ton of the representations blew my concept away. What do you expect, we're an ad agency, with effing awesome creatives;)

Some of my friends on twitter, asked me to post my "badass self" assignment when I could, so here it is.

This is what I see/hear when I think of myself as a baddass.



If you want to see some of the other "badass" submissions, you can go here: RT on Youtube. Sorry it's not better organized on You Tube for you. We'll work on that;)

I started my new job with advertising/interactive agency Red Tettemer 5 days ago. Prior to that, I took a few days to decompress and rest up, which included leaving my computer behind. Just my handheld for contact, I checked in with Twitter and text and otherwise unplugged. Not surprisingly, my carpel tunnel faded and I was able to sleep well at length.

My first week at RT has exceeded my expectations, the agency is an even more seemless fit for how I work than I anticipated. The staff is enormously creative and strategic, which makes work days even more fun as we cook up new ways for our clients to connect with customers.

When I get a chance, I have a few social media items to discuss here. For now, I just want to plug Twitter Karma, the tool many of us on Twitter have been eagerly asking/waiting for! This service shows you who u follow and who follows you or more importantly, who you don't follow and who doesn't follow you! Very helpful, if like me, you view Twitter as a dialogue platform.

Oh! I can't believe I almost forgot this! I'm on the cover of PRWeek this week with my esteemed GPTMC colleagues for our work with new/social media & uwishunu to promote Philly. Very exciting stuff. PRWeek has always been the bible for my industry and it's a thrill for our work to be recognized by the publication and so prominently.

I have some news.

I've decided to make a change professionally; I will be leaving Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp and joining Red Tettemer in a similar social media position.

This move offers the best of both worlds to me; RT is an advertising agency of record for GPTMC and as such, I will still have opportunity to work on the Philadelphia "brand" that I am passionate about, including our insider-y Philadelphia campaign that includes the community blog uwishunu. I'll just be working on them from 3 blocks away.

I'll also have the pleasure of working with a collection of many of the most creative people I've had the pleasure of meeting. These are the people who brought you iMate just a few weeks ago, just for fun, and yes, those are their REAL employees.

It's been an educational and exciting year and a half working for GPTMC, the only non-profit organization I've known that is so teeming with talent and smarts that they are marketing on the same high level of Fortune 500 companies with 10x the budget.

I'll be at GPTMC for another week and then I'm taking some time off before joining RT on March 13th. Expect to see big things from Red Tettemer in the near future. I am going in with social media gunz a-blazing and we are going to make a lot of noise in the SM space.

BTW, I've been playing around with some ideas for my new title. Digital Revolutionary (Viva La Revolucion!)? Connections Strategist? Or Community Evangelist? I'm open to ideas! Bring it!