Chris Lam

I’ll be heading out to Las Vegas tomorrow to attend the Social Media Strategies Summit (#SMSS) at the Mirage. Will you be attending?

I’m looking forward to the Legal track as my new job is stuck in a highly regulated industry. I’m also looking forward to a few marketing strategies and community engagement sessions.

The folks who are putting this on is GSMI and their Twitter handle is @gsmionline. Follow along as I tweet with #SMSS.

As you may know, I serve as a board member and blog editor for SMCLA (Social Media Club LA). I’ve written a number of posts at SMCLA’s blog, and I’ve got two more up for your reading pleasure. Both are spotlights on two of our speakers at our upcoming event on Tuesday, January 31 (I have one more speaker spotlight that’ll be published next week.)

If you’re in the LA area, I encourage you to join us for our Understanding the Mobile User and the Future of Mobile Tools event. It’ll be held at the ING Direct Cafe in Westwood, right on the corner of Santa Monica and Cotner. You can’t miss it.

Speakers scheduled include:

• David Teichner, CEO of Yowza!! - You may know it as the company that actor Greg Grunberg (of “Lost” and “Heroes” fame) co-founded a few years ago.
• Tim Street, VP of mDialog – These guys offer advertising via streaming on mobile devices. Tim also is a co-host of This Week in Media.
• Patrick Mahoney, VP of Biz Dev and Strategy of Mogreet – The company makes mobile apps and offers advertising via mobile. If you watch Pretty Little Liars, you can register your phone number to receive clues from “A.” That’s a Mogreet campaign. (Neat!)

RSVP here: http://mobilesmcla.eventbrite.com/

 

As some of you may know, I switched industries in December and have been working in-house for a financial services company, growing and managing their social media program. This is pretty much my first corporate job (*egads*), and it is a challenge. I’m used to being scrappy and nimble and not having any budget to implement campaigns. Now, I’ve got a budget (yay!), there are processes and infrastructure to build and a few layers of approvals to go through. So that’s the ‘meh’ news. The good news: it’s a challenge I haven’t had an opportunity to tackle in a for-profit before.

Here’s what I like about my new job and the way it’s set up so far:

1. The program is at level one, which means there’s nowhere to go but up!
2. I like my new team a lot. Each has a different function that I’ve tried to understand and learn where I could fit in and help and vice versa. On a sidenote: they’re all foodies and can find the best places to eat around the area. Plus!
3. So far, in my professional life, I’ve struck gold in landing jobs where my direct manager is terrific, supportive and helpful. I can’t believe my continued good luck.
4. I sit very close to the customer service team. There is precious real estate where my team sits, and so I was moved here. It would be a terrific experiment to place a few people from other departments in the vicinity, and vice versa. I believe there is a bit of learning through osmosis (or sitting near someone who’s not on your department).
5. Biggest challenge for me: Listening to what our customers are saying about us on social media. It’s been a learning experience, and I think part of the challenge is finding the right voice online. I’m a month in, and I’m still testing.
6. Second biggest challenge: Federal regulations, legal/compliance rules. This isn’t like a CPG where you can post anything you want on social media. There are some consumer-friendly topics I can’t touch, even if it’s indirect. This is where I struggle a little because I’m so off-the-cuff with my old clients (and it was ok with them).
7. Biggest challenge company-wide: Connecting the pieces for other departments. I want them to have the “ah ha!” moment. I’m in the process of creating a preso for the company (or those who want free lunch) on why social media is needed here, why I need their help and how we’re going to take this on. I think it’s important to show why I am and will be constantly in their face (customer service and direct marketing) so they understand my needs and how I can help them hit their own department goals. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve attached to everyone in the company with dotted lines.

Well, there you have it. I’ll revisit this in six months to report where I’ve been and whether I still feel the same about the new gig.

When in doubt, I always go back to conversations with my late mentor who always pushed me to try new things to challenge myself, to keep out of my comfort zone.

I haven’t been blogging much here because:

• I’ve been busy with SMCLA and its blog
• I’ve been writing on my personal blog
• I tweet more than I blog
• I recently switched industries and picked up a new job (same field though!)

One of my new year’s resolution is to write a blog post here regularly. It may continue to be once a month… or if I’m really ambitious, perhaps it’ll be once every two weeks or every week!

In the meantime, I wish you a happy new year!

 

Happy Halloween! With all the new smartphones and tablets out in the market, there are a ton of spooky and fun apps for your device. I’ve written a post covering some of them on the SMCLA blog. Check them out!

Of course, there’s always my favorite Angry Birds Seasons. It’s too bad the game makes me angry.

I just got the news that BlogWorld LA offering more discounts for registration!

Now, if you can’t afford that, but you want to check out the Expo (where I’ll be tabling), get 50% off your EXPO registration! Use the code: SMC50

The Expo pass includes:

• Access to exhibits during open hours
• Access to main event Keynote sessions (not Track Keynotes, those require a conference pass)
• Access to Saturday Networking Reception on Exhibit Floor
• Access to Official Evening Networking Parties & Mixers too!
• Includes PodCamp

You know about the 20% off CONFERENCE registration. Use the code: SMC20. The full conference pass includes:

• Access to all conference sessions on Thursday, Friday & Saturday
• Access to exclusive Social Media Business Summit 3-day conference track
• Access to ALL Keynote sessions
• Access to exhibits during open hours on Friday & Saturday
• Includes access to all Official Evening Parties & Mixers and Saturday Networking Reception on Exhibit Floor
• Includes FULL ACCESS BREAK AREA (includes lunch and snacks on all three days)
• Includes PodCamp

Follow #BWELA on tweetchat.com on November 3-5 to keep up with the conversation online.