About a year ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Beth Davis as part of the Walmart Elevenmoms visit to the Walmart Home Office in Northwest Arkansas. As we built the Elevenmoms program, we had also reached out to a group of women that were participating in an insights community being run for Walmart Marketing by Communispace. We invited 5 of these women to join the Elevenmoms group on their trip to Walmart. I felt it was important to be include them on the trip so they could share their experiences with the Communispace group and the Elevenmoms alike.
Beth arrived late due to flight delays and various travel stuff and joined the Elevenmoms and Me hanging out in the lounge we had created at the hotel out of items from the Walmart Canopy™ line. It was late and Beth hadn’t eaten but the Hotel was very accommodating (thanks Embassy Suites) and got her some dinner. Beth began to get to know the other Communispace Moms and Elevenmoms groups alike.
I learned a very important lesson that day, participation and socialization are a critical component to success in social media. I will often quip that the technology doesn’t matter and I believe that. Twitter, Facebook, You Tube are just pipes without the people. Beth was not a blogger nor did she have a Twitter account when she arrived, she did when she left three days later. Encouraged by the Elevenmoms, Beth signed up for various social site and started her own blog, theplussizemommy.com.
Fast forward a year. Beth is a rising social media star, why you ask? Not because of her 6000 Twitter followers or site traffic that is going to break into the top 100K, it’s because she creates content people find interesting, helpful and that Beth connects with people on a personal level. She attends events, networks, provides feedback and comments for others and generally works very, very hard at learning about this medium and being the best she can be.
I am proud that the Elevenmoms program could help inspire Beth’s new venture. That amazing group of Moms created many opportunities for others and helped foster the conversation about how social media will play a role in the connection between consumer, brands and retailers. Congratulations to them all and good luck to Beth in her second year.
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