In 2013, I moved in-house with Advance Digital, the digital strategy hub for a huge family of media corporations. I crafted high level social media strategies for a diverse conglomerate of national news hubs (al.com, nj.com, mlive, masslive.com, cleveland.com, and more). The role also included the creation of social media service offerings that were sold nationally from their many field offices. The social media activity at Advance was so massive and robust that they frequently outgrew enterprise-level service platforms. I drove long-term analytics strategy and was a key player in initiating organization-wide enterprise-level digital security.
I was tasked with being the organization’s primary “thought leader” for social media strategy. This was a tremendous opportunity, as it gave me the freedom to explore every aspect of the emerging technology market—from new Google products to wearable technology to invitation-only beta tests with Facebook and Twitter.
I constructed controlled experiments to measure audience responses to a variety of social media techniques. I performed market research and competitive analysis on hundreds of social media services, systems, and software offerings. As a social media authority, I was asked to blog, contribute articles, host webinars, give live presentations, and sit as an expert panelist at marketing functions.