Social Media Champions - Ginevra Kirkland

From today I am going to be starting a new section of the site called Social Media Champions. My plan is to interview people in the 'Social Media business' and find out what they do, what their favourite sites are, the Social Media tools they use, top tips for Social Media and much more.

I am pleased to say that the first person I have invited to answer these questions is Ginevra Kirkland, Community Manager for Six Apart which, in their words, "provides award-winning blogging software and services that change the way millions of individuals, organizations, and corporations connect and communicate around the world every day." The company provides the Movable Type social publishing platform, the TypePad premier hosted blogging service, Vox, a free blogging service. Founded in 2001, Six Apart is a global company with its headquarters in San Francisco.

According to Ginevra, "my take on Six Apart is that it's a family. I've been with the company in various capacities since 2004, and I really think it's the smartest crew of people I've ever had the good fortune to know, much less work with." 

I hope you enjoy the 'interview' - I think you will!

How has blogging changed over the years? 

Wow, blogging has really changed a lot over the years ­ I think mostly in how it¹s become ubiquitous to the point that it¹s almost invisible. Newspapers run their entire operations on blogging software. People who are leaving Facebook status updates are bloggers, really. Everyone wants to find a way to express themselves on the web.

What is your favourite blog? For business? For pleasure? 

I've got several depending on the mood I'm in, but I love reading my friends' and coworkers'blogs the most still. Having people I adore in different cities and countries means I can stay connected with them and their world no matter the time zone, and that's hugely important to me. 

My colleague Anil Dash's dashes.com was one of the first blogs I read, along with Alex Balk's now defunct The Minor Fall, The Major Lift (he's now at alexbalk.tumblr.com, theawl.com) and I still love their writing. There's the usual suspects, like Jezebel and Go Fug Yourself, and there's a few others that fall into specific interests I have: 

News blog: SF Appeal 

Photoblog: Sexpigeon 

Tumblog: Hello, I'm Rachel 

Cooking: 101 Cookbooks 

Politics: Fafblog 

Biking: Bikes and the city  

I also really love writing the featured blogs for Everything TypePad, cos I get to read such interesting stuff to find them. 

As far as business goes, Steve Rubel from Micropersuasion and Seth Godin both have the best business blogs, bar none. And I love reading Blogger Buzz and the Twitter blog ­ they always have such interesting things to say about the industry. Oh, and Gaping Void. And I have to stop before I list every blog on the internet!

I notice that Six Apart 'listen to the Twittersphere'. How does it go about doing this? 

Anil and I started listening to customer comments on Twitter about a year ago, and it¹s blossomed from there. Now our tech support team are involved to help answer support questions, and our media team and David Recordon also contribute. 

Basically, anyone can contribute to the public Twitter stream as long as it keeps with the spirit of @sixapart: being relevant, funny, and interesting to the folks who are kind enough to follow us. That¹s a tall order, but we really strive for it. We¹re a blogging company, so we want to lead by example as to how all of our social networky goodness can be be tied back to our blog as a home base for our online presence. 

From a business and marketing perspective, it¹s just the right thing to do in the new economy. People have said they want a company to hear them, to participate in the transaction. I blogged about this a bit here. I could go on and on about this one.

What Social Media tools do you use within the business?

We use Twitter and Facebook primarily, but definitely have a lookout in all sorts of channels. I use Icerocket to find blog posts about certain topics, and like to answer questions on LinkedIn when I can.

Have you got any great blogging stories?

I think Sweetney with Mamapop has a great story, as does Heather Armstrong with Dooce. I could write chapters about both of them, but as a female in the tech world, it¹s really inspiring to see women taking such a strong role in the creation of how we see blogging and the vision for the future. Connecting to other people is really what being a human is all about, and helping people to do that is incredibly rewarding.

Can any business use Social Media?

As long as they have someone who "gets it" at the helm, then, absolutely. The fear of using social media to market to customers is still strong with a lot of companies, but as long as you have someone competent at the controls, whose DNA implicitly understands how to talk to people, you can make it work. 

Don't be afraid of mistakes. Be afraid of stagnation, if you must be afraid of something. But really, it's not that scary. I've been a bartender, though, which I think lends me a good perspective on people and how to interact with them. I think your ideal community manager is someone who has what one of our bloggers calls "the service heart".  

Any people in Social Media you think we should be following? 

Mmm - most folks you should be following you probably already are! I enjoy Gary Vee a lot, because he's so positive. And David Armano for his way of putting social media to use for the betterment of all of us, and his great insight.

Barack Obama used Six Apart's Movable Type for his campaign. How did his team use it effectively? 
He won, didn't he? ;) [ask a silly question!]

For a business starting to use Social media, what tips would you give them? 
Be positive, but don't back down from a challenge. Be aware that people are already talking about your brand - social media is a way to listen and respond. I'd rather know about a challenge, problem, complaint, or compliment than to NOT know. 

If you're looking to succeed in social media, don't just hire a kid with a lot of friends on Facebook. That "get it" part I referred to earlier? A lot of companies make the mistake of not doing their research and just hiring someone who knows a lot of buzzwords. Does your community manager have passion, a positive attitude, and a driving motivation to make others happy? (the service heart again.) That's both unteachable and essential. The technology and product and whatever else can be learned. 

As a company, you may make mistakes, but as long as you have a great product and learn from those mishaps, you're going to be awesome.