I am a passionate entrepreneur, digital strategist, social scientist and farmhand / vineyard cultivator.
13 Jul
One of the projects that I have been working on recently is the Content Grid. First established as a back-of-the-napkin idea for my friend / mentor / client Joe Chernov to evolve his role from Global Communications and Social Media Director to Director of Content at Eloqua, the JESS3 team helped further flesh out the concepts behind the graphic and the visual representation itself.

So what is this thing? Some great posts to check out on the subject:
12 Jul
To Jesse. Happy Valentine’s Day, in July. Regina captured my thoughts years ago about the color you have brought / bring to my life. And now, she does it again.
15 May
A big thanks to the Nonick organizers for hosting JESS3 in Bilbao, Spain for their second annual conference. A great recap of this morning’s keynote by Jen Preston (Social Media Editor at The New York Times) and JESS3 (my partner in crime Jesse Thomas and me) is now up on EITB. Our presentation about how social media is changing the way we think about the web and web design is embedded below:
How Social Media is Changing Design
View more presentations from JESS3.
Live on stage:
14 Jan
I will be joining a good friend and colleague, Andre Blackman of Pulse + Signal, as a presenter on social media and sexual health at Sex::Tech in San Francisco February 26th and 27th.
For those of you who know me (well), you know that I am passionate about sexual health and education, equality and expression (yes, I just linked a picture of… well… just click on the link). At any rate, I have drafted my initial (brief) abstract and thought I’d share it below (confined to <150 words was like big kid Twitter… but still challenging for a verbose gal like me). I am also passionate about social technologies. So when you combine the two — sex and technology — in a single conference… <<<mind blown>>>
DRAFT - ABSTRACT:
Working Title: How and Why Social Media Will Impact the Sex Education Policy Debate
Social media has shown that it is effective at helping cover and break news (cf. downed plane in the Hudson River), raise awareness and funds for charitable causes (cf. Twestival) and unite passionate voices, no matter their origins (cf. Iran Election). In short: social media is helping people connect in seconds, not hours or days and build movements in hours, not weeks or months. Transaction costs are lower. Barriers to entry, nearly eliminated. Social media, while still requiring expertise and investment, is an imperative tool that every advocate, activist and educator needs in their tool belt as they look to recruit supporters, engage the media and influence policy in 2010 and beyond. In her presentation, Leslie will review award-winning “DIY recipes for success” and share her own case study from 2009, where she challenged The Heritage Foundation’s stance on sex education through a variety of social media tactics.
+++
I have plenty of caveats and nuances that I hope to shed light on in the deck I am building… so stay tuned! And, if you are in San Francisco the weekend of 2/26 - 2/27, consider checking it out.
24 Dec
Merry Christmas Eve. To celebrate, my mom and I have been going over some of her family’s relics, while we sew and use the computer. Here is one particularily special item she shared with me that I feel proud to be connected to in name and in blood…
+++
Who: My great-grandfather (grandfather of my mom, Mary Ellen Baskett)
When: Born October 10, 1893; died September 19, 1959
Where: Grangeville / Nezperce, Idaho
Married: Mamie Espya Stellmon, June 13, 1918 (she was born August 2, 1894 in Lapwai, Idaho and died July 27, 1976 in Cottonwood, Idaho)
Honored: Leslie was a music teacher at Nezperce High School. The 1960 annual (Nezperce High School Warrior) was dedicated to him with this statement:
“Seldom, indeed, does one find in the life of a single person both diversity and superiority in services to mankind - in professional, civic, and religious fields. And to such achievements an exemplary character - honest, just, moral, tolerant and understanding - and one has the essential ingredients of greatness. Embodying all of those qualities, Leslie A. Baskett gave to Nezperce Public Schools two decades of the best years of his life in the outstanding instruction of music. The memory of Leslie Baskett will ever be enshrined in the hearts of those who knew him. We the students of Nezperce High School, proudly and lovingly dedicate this book as our memorial to a distinguished teacher, a true friend and a dignified and great man.”
12 Nov
I’ve just returned from “Trends in Agriculture,” which was hosted by National Agri-Marketers Association in Kansas City, Missouri. At TIA, I presented my a case study of how my family is using social media to tell the Bradshaw Vineyards story, engage with the winery who buys our grapes (King Estate | @KingEstate) and connect with pinot noir wine lovers everywhere.
Full presentation embedded below, 6 follow-up thoughts included after the jump.
It was an incredible experience, and here are 6 reasons why:
1 - FARMERS ARE ON THE CUTTING EDGE. I was impressed, but not surprised to find out how many farmers are using digital technology to create efficiencies, consume and store commodity information and connect with consumers. Mobile is leading the way, but social is not far behind. This makes complete sense to me, knowing how my dad and mom always look for new tools to help him better operate our farm, ranch and vineyard operations over the years in Oregon and Wyoming. I was especially impressed with my co-panelists Joe Grigsby (Director, Emerging Media at VML) and Joel Jaeger (who founded Commodity Update with his family, in addition to farming in Eastern Colorado and Belize), as well as Sara, Brad and Bryan from Paulsen Marketing (”the ag and rural lifestyle specialists”). They interviewed me for their blog “On the Road” (video below).
2 - FIRM HANDSHAKES, BIG HEARTS, PRODUCTIVITY. It was nice to be with a group of people who were unequivocally genuine, hard working and solid.3 - CONNECTING WITH THE SUCCESSFUL FARMING CREW. New Media Strategies is owned by Meredith Publishing. So is Successful Farming. It was like meeting a sibling you didn’t know you had years after the fact and realizing you have so much in common. Curt Blades is the one who made the initial connection after seeing NMS in my bio on the NAMA website; he then introduced me to John Walter (Executive Editor of Successful Farming), Scott Mortimer (Publisher of Successful Farming), Tom Davis (VP / Group Publisher for Meredith) and Janelle Buxton. Was really impressed to learn they were leveraging Ning to build a community for young farmers: Farmers for the Future.4 - MEETING “AG WIRED” CHUCK ZIMMERMAN IRL. He does a great job with blogging, video, photo (Flickr + TwitPic) on his site www.AgWired.com | @AgriBlogger (and also publishes www.DomesticFuel.com, www.WorldDairyDiary.com, www.PrecisionPays.com and www.AgNewsWire.com). We were able to get a podcast interview in; he also did some great tweeting and TwitPic’ing of / for me during my presentation (see below).
5 - STEVE MERCER ROCKS. So a big and special thanks to Trends in Agriculture Chair, Steve Mercer (who serves in a full time capacity as the Director of Communications at U.S. Wheat Associates | @USWheatAssoc out in Washington, DC); Steve first introduced me to NAMA back in May / June 2009, when Alex Redmond and I spoke to the DC Ag Communicators.
6 - FARMING IS IN MY BLOOD, GROUNDS ME AS MY ROOTS. As I share in slides 3 & 4 of my presentation, I have had farming in my blood for at least 5 generations (and likely / obviously well before that the more I think about it). To be able to continue this tradition in a modern context, blending the land and the technology in such a fruitful way, is truly the most meaningful thing I could imagine doing with my time.
6 Nov
This afternoon I was on a panel with the talented Danielle Brigida of the National Wildlife Federation and the illustrious Dan Riehl of RiehlWorldView at Direct Marketing Association of Washington’s “Social Media Day.” My presentation is embedded below as a downloadable SlideShare PowerPoint. Four take-aways I cobbled together from the panel and from those in the audience below the jump.
1) Blogger engagement is all about relationships. Nothing terribly profound or new about this statement, but a reiteration of the basic principles of what it means to have a contact that you first connect with in a meaningful way (e.g., shared interest, friends in real life, lend a helping hand) and then, down the road, potentially ask for a favor (for a blogger, this can range from a full story, to a link, a mention, or embedded content). Danielle made the point that her job is building relationships, which often ranges meeting bloggers for coffee, talking with them on listservs and even helping them promote their content through her StumbleUpon and Twitter accounts (she has over 9,000 Twitter followers at the writing of this blog post –which tells me she has done a few things very well, to say the least).
2) Be direct, be relevant, be brief. Dan Riehl, the highly-credentialed blogger on the panel, shared some great best practices for communicating with bloggers. In particular, he highlighted by his own lived experience: Bloggers are often engaged in a number of other stories and, possibly, a full-time job or side consulting work. For this reason, Dan recommended keeping the subject of the email personal and catchy. And, before you even send the email, make sure you have done your research — get to know the blogger, their content, interests… and connect your pitch with it. PR 101, I know. Still surprised that folks don’t take the time. So that’s why I am paraphrasing Dan’s words of wisdom.
3) Consider your assets. Especially in the world of DC, issues can be complicated and / or obscure. And, brands can have a hard time being relevant, even when they might want to be (ahem, orange juice… and the elections?!) But don’t be discouraged. This is where you get creative. Whether it is building a site that does something interesting with user generated content (such as the NMS / JESS3 collab for Tropicana during the 2008 Elections — 1 year and 1 day ago today), or creating a reciprocal link-love program of ‘hey, you link to us… we’ll link to you’ (like the C-SPAN Convention and Debate Hubs — as well as the way Danielle runs things over at National Wildlife Federation’s blog).
4) Twitter placement is the new blog hit. Okay, maybe not. But it is a statement that I have said out loud a few times based on the awesome work the NMS team has done engaging high-profile Twitterers around causes (such as John Mayer’s tweet about the Special Olympics’ “Spread the Word to End the Word” campaign and Ann Curry’s tweet about Save the Children’s World Pneumonia Day involvement) or around cool technological feats (such as Twitter CEO and co-founder Ev Williams’ tweet about Tropicana’s “An Orange America” campaign). These tweets can not only draw in additional eyes, but most importantly, likely to catalyze further tweets and actions (petition-signing, donating, etc.) — John Mayer’s tweet alone was retweeted a few hundred times, Ev’s a few dozen. Views, click-thrus and actions could all be traced back to their involvement. How else would you be able to get in touch with these people — perhaps know someone who knows someone who knows their publicist? Maybe. Or, get busy tweeting (not in a spammy way, but in a targeted and engaged way).
+++
Big thanks to friend and former NMS co-worker Melanie Phung, her company Red Engine Digital (where she is the Director of SEO), the Direct Marketing Association of Washington and a big shout-out to fellow NMSer, Sam Huxley, who rocked the morning panel on metrics.