Joining us today for our Expert Interview series is Kelsey Jones. Kelsey is the owner of MoxieDot, which helps clients around the world grow their social media, content, and search marketing presence. She has worked with Yelp, Gazelle, and HeyWire, as well as Search Engine Journal as a daily news writer and editor.
She was voted one of the top 100 marketers of the year by Invesp in 2009 and named a social media expert by Who’s Blogging What. Kelsey has been a social media columnist for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land since 2010 and enjoys consuming all kinds of content, both in digital and tattered paperback form.
7 Questions on Social Media With Kelsey Jones
1. How did you get your start in the industry?
My first freelance client ever was Yelp, as a Scout for Kansas City. I loved doing something extra on top of my full-time job and continued to look for freelance work until I was busy enough to do freelance full-time.
2. What is the biggest challenge facing your industry?
How to stand out without diluting the onslaught of information that our target audiences are already receiving. In order to be successful, you must care about the content that your audience actually wants to see. Users are smart; they can recognize when companies are disingenuous.
3. What is the method to your blogging success? What inspires your blogs?
I always keep a running list in the comment section of my twice-weekly blog post to do on ToDoist of ideas. Also, anytime I disagree with an article I read or ask myself “why” or “how” about something I read or I’m working on, I try to turn it into a blog post. I also read a ton– I use BlogLovin’ to keep up with blogs like Heidi Cohen, Copyblogger, and Social Media Examiner. Great writing inspires me to write well too!
4. What do you think is the future of social media?
Mobile will continue to be huge, more marketers will probably focus more on having a presence on Vine and Snapchat, and Pinterest will continue to grow its importance for organizations. I think video everything will become more and more important.
5. What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out?
Read everything you can. I would check out books from the library (I still do– I “read” about one non-fiction business/marketing audiobook a week), read industry blogs daily using email subscriptions or an RSS reader. Social media schedulers like Buffer or HootSuite are also worth the monthly subscription price.
Finally, you should always work toward making yourself uncomfortable. If you don’t know something, and someone asks you to do it, say OK and then learn how. If you are scared of something (like giving a speech or writing a ebook), that’s all the reason to do it!
6. Where can we find you on the web/on Twitter/Facebook/etc.?
Twitter
Facebook
Pinterest
LinkedIn
7. What do you think is the most important takeaway from your session?
That marketers need to start caring about their audience. Instead of writing an entire blog post that will allow them to “naturally” work in a link to one of their products, they should instead put the content first. (Always!)
You can hear from Kelsey and other great presenters at our virtual event from November 11th – 22nd. Please visit the #LEARNDigital page for more information. Click here to read more interviews from our presenters.