Speaker: Amy Ortega, Director, Social Media Marketing
What have you enjoyed most about your membership in SocialMedia.org?
Amy Ortega: Hi, my name is Amy Ortega. I'm a Director of Social Media and Board Chair at SocialMedia.org. What I've really enjoyed most about our membership, first and foremost, is that real-time, support for the needs or challenges that my company might be facing or my team might be facing. And when I go to the community, I can immediately get support. I also really enjoy the way we can stay ahead of the game. So by being connected with all of these other leaders across many other incredible brands and industries, I get insight into what others are working on or doing, and then it helps me and my team to always be ahead of the game and think about what we could be implementing or some new strategic opportunities as well. I also really enjoy the fact that we can get support when something unexpected arises. I think we've all seen, especially in these past few years, time and time again, when something happens, whether it's globally or nationally, companies and brands are impacted, and how they respond on social media or even don't respond can speak volumes. So when something comes up, the fact that we can get on these urgent calls together, we can all discuss, you know, take quick polls just to kind of see how everyone's thinking of approaching this incident. It just really helps, because then I can take that back to my own leadership. It really gives us this great insight that we would not have otherwise.
Could you describe a time when the community helped you?
Amy Ortega: So I have many examples, but I will stick to just one. So recently there's a new initiative that my company was looking into, and I went directly to the SocialMedia.org community. I searched to see any past community conversations that had occurred on this topic. I also even got to listen to a phone recording from the past where other members were on a call discussing this very thing. So right away I was able to get immediate research, immediate answers for what I was exploring. And then I was able to also, from those calls, identify a couple of vendors I was interested in speaking to, and I reached out to our SocialMedia.org Membership Director, and she connected me with a few of the leaders from these different brands that were also members of SocialMedia.org. I was able to hop on a call with them, one-on-one, talk through those vendors a little bit more, get their full unsolicited feedback, and then used that to further our own research and determine what our next steps would be. And it was so great because I, you know, if I didn't have SocialMedia.org, I would have had to probably more likely rely on the vendor themselves and have a demo call, have multiple meetings, and then ask them to also speak to other clients. So it was really great, because I was able to do all of this before I had even spoken with the vendor. So I really feel like they saved us a lot of time.
What sets SocialMedia.org apart from other organizations?
Amy Ortega: I've worked in the social media industry for over a decade, and I've never seen a company like SocialMedia.org. What I really love is the fact that it truly is this confidential community full of leaders at other big brands, top brands that truly just want to learn, grow, and help and support each other. And that has just been an invaluable asset. When we first became members, it was because the industry was moving so fast, and I was just trying to get get answers and learn and just make sure I was always doing what was best for my company and best for my team. And I really have just seen since being a member, I believe it's been for three years now, how much this community has supported me, and really just how much great success I've seen from the membership and how we've moved forward, whether it's a current challenge we're experiencing today or a future strategy that we're putting together for tomorrow. And so it's just been such a great resource, and I truly just recommend this community to anyone who might be kind of puzzled, scratching their head of just, you know, what to do next. This community really has your back. It's been phenomenal to be a Board Chair for SocialMedia.org.
