Senior Manager Social Media Marketing at Webtrends
A couple of weeks ago I shared that I wanted to work directly with a local company. Since then many people have been asking me about my next steps. I am pleased to share today that I will be starting June 9th as Senior Manager Social Media Marketing at Webtrends. In that role, I will be working on the following:
- Developing a baseline program – Specify a structured program built on proven social media strategies, like blogging, that will deliver measurable value. Program definition includes infrastructure, business processes, and staff training.
- Campaign support – Assist the rest of the marketing team to support campaigns using the baseline program. Develop strategies to support camapaigns outside of the baseline program using knowledge and experience gained through R&D.
- Research and Development – Systematic evaluation of new tools, services, and networks to vet new strategies for application in the baseline program, campaigns, and further R&D.
- Subject Matter Expert – Assist management with the development of policies, tools, materials, and training for the global organization. Provide Subject Matter Expert support to consulting services, engineering, and product teams on social media mechanics.
We discussed the job description and title for quite a bit before selecting Senior Manager Social Media Marketing. At the end of the day, I work for the marketing department so my success is measured in terms of branding and lead generation. I was reluctant to use Social Media Marketing because there are so many people out there giving that title a bad name. It’s got a bit of a smarmy reputation for overly aggressive sales tactics and Big Brother style stalking of customers. We considered the title Community Manager, but that role is really about caring for a community owned by the company, such as a developer’s forum or a support community. So, we decided to call a spade a spade because trying to call the position anything else felt like an attempt to skirt around the negative connotations.
Social media marketing is in it’s infancy and struggling with reputation problems akin to the early days of email marketing and direct marketing before that. My goal is to help bring respect to the title by demonstrating that companies and customers can have a harmonious interaction through social media that helps both parties happily exchange value (fair money for desired products/services). My lofty goal is to show that social media is currently the best venue to achieve and scale truly consensual value exchanges. My experience tells me that informed consent is the most sustainable business model. I believe that consensual value exchange is the result of good communication and that it provides the optimal outcome for both parties.
I’m super excited to take on this challenge along side an energized Webtrends team. Wish us luck! 
Comments
Congrats dude, that’s awesome. Looking forward to seeing what you do over there! You and I have shared a lot of knowledge and perspective back and forth with each other over the last 15 years – I look forward to learning more from this next stage of your work life.
Congrats! Sounds like an excellent and wonderful time. Wish I were there too!
Marshall, you are one of the smartest if not *the* smartest person I know. I hope I always have the pleasure of sharing with you!
Thanks, Amber! There are many amazing things in your future. I already tell people I know you and that we talk and stuff
Woo Hoo! Congrats! We’re super thrilled to have you on the team.
Congrats, Justin! I’m excited that you were able to find a home in Portland to share your knowledge. Keep it real–there is no hiding from me.
Congrats Justin….sounds right up your alley. Glad to have you nearby, and I’ll be watching your chops
So excited for you and Webtrends. (So excited I’m typing this comment on my iPhone.)
I thought it was great to have Webtrends re-engaging with the Portland tech community. This news makes me umpteen times more excited. That’s right. I said “umpteen.”
Fantastic news, Justin! Congratulations!
good luck, justin, i know you’ll do good things with webtrends.
Thanks, Michele. I’m thrilled to be a part of the team!
Katie, your powers of cyber-stalking proceed you.
Hit me up when you’re in town.
Thanks, David! We’ll have to get together soon and catch up.
Rick, you said “umpteen”, huh huh, huh huh.
Heck yeah, Doug! We’re going to get our Compendium on!!
I appreciate that, Mike! Looks like Voce is representing well at Wordcamp SF today. I look forward to watching you guys continue to rock
Congrats dude.
Kinda goes without saying but welcome! I personally have learned a ton from you over the past few months and am thrilled to have the opportunity to get to know you better and have some fun doing work along the way. – jascha
From Reminder: Lunch 2.0 this Thursday at Webtrends | Silicon Florist on May 31st, 2009 at 11:10 am
[...] and Blog founder and all-around nice guy Justin Kistner will be joining their ranks on June 9 as Senior Manager Social Media Marketing. I can’t say if Justin will make it to Lunch 2.0 on Thursday, but if he does, you can [...]
Congrats Justin! That’s great. I will watch and learn.
Congrats Justin – WebTrends is lucky to have you!
Awesome! Good for you!
Congrats Justin — looking forward to learning through your experiences. Let me know when I can help!
Congrats Justin. You are joining a great team over at Webtrends.
Dude, “consensual value exchanges”…such a hilariously perfect description…vast majority of industrial-era biz models are zero-sum, “i win, you win a little bit, but mostly lose”.
“Consensual” is also great because it implies: visibility into “why X business needs to charge me for this”.
I could go on about this forever…point is, few people are questioning the real fundamental questions, like “why do businesses exist”…your knack for intuitively knowing the core/central issue at hand is pretty amazing…have fun at the new gig, fella!
From Webtrends, Radian6, Salesforce start seeing each other socially | Oregon Startup Blog on June 25th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
[...] become a gracious host for events like CloudCamp PDX and WordCamp Portland. And, of course, they hired Justin Kistner, founder of Beer and [...]