We really enjoyed our interview with Lydia Sullivan, author of  Snoburbia, a blog that makes gentle fun of overachievers living in the wealthy suburbs.  Talked about in many DC metro circles, Snoburbia has received press coverage from the Washington Post, Bethesda Magazine and NBC4 in Washington, DC.  With upwards of 750- 1000 blog visitors per day, Snoburbia also has very active communities on Facebook and Twitter.

Listen to Lydia Sullivan speak about her successful blog and how businesses can use blogging to build their brand online.  When you’re done listening, go buy one of her hilarious Snoburbia t-shirts!  The OBX tee is our favorite!

Listen to our interview with first time author,Tracye McQuirter.  Thanks to social media, Tracye’s book By Any Greens Necessary is a national best-seller.  Listen to tips on how to integrate offline and online marketing, and learn Tracye’s secrets for using Twitter to sell more books.

To learn more about Tracye and her book visit the By Any Greens Necessary Blog.

Can you imagine being laid off the day after Christmas?  This is what happened to Forrest Graves in 2008.  Fortunately, Forrest decided that being laid off wasn’t going to be the end of the story.  Listen to Forrest speak about how making a $600 investment and jumping social media helped him rebuild his future.

Connect with Forrest Graves at Jumping Goat Coffee:

Jumping Goat Coffee – website

Jumping Goat Coffee on Facebook

Jumping Goat Coffee on  Twitter

As information sharing increases via blogs, videos and tweets, small businesses  are increasingly competing against each other for the attention of potential customers.   Listen to Brent Leary,  small-business technology analyst, speak about how small businesses can penetrate the stagnant “Attention” economy.

Visit Brent Leary’s award-winning blog at http://brentleary.com or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/brentleary.

Gwen Peake is an extraordinary women.  A communications and marketing professional whose career spans a number of industries, including publishing, education, automotive, fashion, television, stage, film, and communications,  Gwen holds a BBA in Information Technology and dual-Masters degrees in Journalism/Mass Communications and  Television/Film Production.

Her work in the digital space has directly influenced over thirty million social media impressions. Throughout her career, she has coordinated numerous social media integrations and brand alliances, most notably with the Martha Stewart Show and the Steve Harvey Morning Show. Additionally, her work has been featured on blackweb20.com – one of the world’s leading multicultural technology websites – and her expertise in the field has been sought out and quoted in the December 2009 issue of Black Enterprise Magazine.

Currently on the corporate communications staff with Ford Motor Company, Gwen holds the title of Global Digital Communications Manager and helps head up the social media team for the Fortune 10 company. She is part of the strategic advisory team on all corporate social media and digital communications activities.

I recently spoke to Gwen about Ford’s digital communication initiatives, why Ford has decided to house social media in the communications department and how the Fortune 500 company is using the social web to change and shape public perception.

Connect with Gwen on Twitter

Visit Gwen’s Blog

Enjoy!

If you are a social media marketer, this is an interview you don’t want to miss!  Listen to Joe Pulizzi, author of Get Content. Get Customers, speak about the importance of content marketing and how businesses can position themselves as trusted advisers in their industry by creating compelling, relevant and consistent content.

Listen to my interview with Dev Patnaik, co-author of Wired to Care , as he talks about what happens when businesses create widespread empathy and how social media marketing initiatives affect an organization’s ability to flex their empathetic muscles in the marketplace.

Listen to our interview with Sandy Carter, author of The New Language of Marketing 2.0.  From tips on how to use Twitter, to strategies for leveraging Facebook, to solid advice on how to get started, Sandy provides some great information on how small businesses can leverage social technology.

“When faced with a totally new situation, we tend always to attach ourselves to the objects, to the flavor of the most recent past.   We look at the present through a rear-view mirror.  We march backwards into the future. . .”

The Medium is the Message, Marshall McLuhan

The Social Media Voices (SMV) Project exists to prepare small business owners for the age of new media marketing.  Our goal is to educate small business owners about:

• The fundamental shifts in marketing and buyer behavior

• How and why emerging technology, web 2.0 and digital media are evolving as communication mediums

• How business practices will be influenced by new media marketing

Our goal is to equip small business owners with a futuristic approach to new media marketing as opposed to a “rear-view mirror” understanding of their changing environment.

The SMV Project focuses on leveraging the voices of thought leadership with the intent of sifting through the noise, tackling concrete concepts, and providing fresh and clear perspectives on adapting the use of emerging technology.

2009 Fall Lineup of Voices:

Sandy Carter, author of The New Language of Marketing 2.0

Tamar Weinberg, author of The New Community Rules: Marketing in the Social Web

Dev Patnaik, co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy

Joe Pulizzi, author of Get Content, Get Customers

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