I care deeply about using new technologies to create relationships, empower individuals, and transform organizations. I'm a marketing professional, proud Upper West Sider, and lover of startups and pop culture.

A few weeks ago, I left my position as a Digital Strategist at Porter Novelli in pursuit of a new opportunity at 2tor, Inc., an exciting edu-tech startup that I believe is changing the world of higher education as we know it.

In my new role, I’ll be the Community Manager for USC’s Master’s of Arts in Teaching program, helping connect students and alumni in both online and offline channels. This new position has me working alongside a team of visionary leaders in the higher education field and immersed in a diverse community of more than 1,000 educators and students across the country.

As I start this new chapter, I’m forever grateful to the team at Porter Novelli for the lessons they imparted on me. Their unique approach to strategic thinking, unwavering commitment to their clients, and unbelievable attention to detail gave me newfound respect for PR professionals and brand marketers. If you ever get the chance to work alongside Stephanie Agresta (friend, mentor, and geek girl extraordinaire), John Havens (actor, all things augmented reality, mr. congeniality), Joel Johnson (strategic planning guru, swagger king, powerpoint wiz), Israel Mirsky (lover of emerging tech and small puppies), Karen Hartline (queen of karaoke and events, my left coast lover), Heather D’Amico (the skinniest fat girl with the best laugh you’ll ever meet), Greg Tedesco (my #strongisland counterpart), Nicole D’Alonzo (the sweetest gal on the web) and Christina Petroni (my separated sister at birth) – take it!  There are so many agencies out there, but I truly believe that PN’s integrated approach, their heart and rockstar talent sets it apart from many.

And so, here I am once again, joining another all-star marketing team led by Jeremy Johnson (too cool for school, but one of the smartest, kindest, and most driven individuals I know) and Marcus Cohn. I’ll be going back to my higher ed roots (I used to work in Admissions at Barnard College), revisiting platform technologies (shout out to Mzinga!), and putting all of that Porter Novelli strategic thinking into practice.

In the word of my new Trojan friends, FIGHT ON!

Is anyone really surprised that Facebook changed its functionality from “become a fan” to “like”?  To be honest, hearing this news is about the equivalent of someone telling me that guys in college don’t want a girlfriend, they just want to get laid.  Truth be told, the average consumer doesn’t possess the type of brand loyalty that warrants fan status and the average Page administrator doesn’t have the intention of building a real, meaningful relationship with users anyway.  Fans by definition are people  who are enthusiastic devotees, diehard admirers and sometimes even addicts.  These are the people that marketers should court on their hands and knees, the kinds of people who deserve more than a Facebook one-night stand.

For years, I’ve always felt that Facebook gave lazy marketers an ego boost by providing a metric that said marketers were doing their jobs better than they actually were.  As consumers, “becoming a fan” never really meant much beyond the word “like”.  There were no real relationships there, no real types of meaningful engagement.

Facebook’s decision to switch from “fan” to “like” feels logical, natural, and really very necessary.  The ecosystem today is one giant meatmarket of brands and products vying for our attention.  At the end of the day, we as consumers have no desire to commit to contrived relationships.  Luckily for us, Facebook just gave us an easy out.

Yes, I know some of you are “over it”…. I’ve been reading a lot of “been there done that” lately.  Well guess what?  This is my first year going to SXSW and I’m practically on the verge of tears that’s how excited I am.  For years I’ve wanted to make it down to Austin and due to financial, personal, work-related reasons, the stars just never aligned for me.

Well world, I am officially here!  This week I’ll be joined by about fifty of my colleagues from Porter Novelli (disclosure: we’re SXSW’s Agency of Record), helping Stephanie Agresta and Brian Solis rock out the blogger lounge and TechSet, recording an episode of Capitalize for Dartboston, and connecting with some of my favorite people in the industry.

I’m slightly worried that VIP lists and secret dinners will create a separation between the “haves” and “have nots” or the “influencers” and the “wannabes”. I do not have VC funding or a hot startup to call my own. I am not an online personality nor do I have an upcoming book deal. I do not have a million Twitter followers or a personal fan page. But what I do have is a purpose.

This year at SXSW, I want to celebrate the following:

1. Friends – There are people who I’ll be meeting this week who I’ve known for years and some just a few days. There are people who I haven’t met in person yet, but have written emails and tweets to for months. I want to celebrate friendships that I’ve been fortunate enough to have thanks to this wonderful community. I’m a better person because of them.
2. My job – Do you know how awesome it feels to get to be here because of work?  I take a lot of pride in being able to say that I’ve hustled hard over the past four years to get to this point and to know that I’m making a living doing what I love means everything to me.
3. Serendipity – I ran into @heyamberrae on my flight earlier and we bonded at the airport and over lunch about our similarities, passions, and shared connections. Prior to this run-in, we were just twitter acquaintances who had met briefly at an event in NY. I can now say that Amber is officially on my “watch out world” list and someone who I’m looking forward learning from and collaborating with in the future. This is just one of many serendipitous moments that I hope to have in the days to come. It’s the unexpected, anything can happen, spontaneous nature of this space that keeps me coming back for more every time.

In this vast landscape of social media practitioners, ideators, innovators, entrepreneurs, and technology titans, to know that I somehow have a piece of the puzzle is something words can’t describe.  And even though I officially haven’t slept for two nights straight, I am so alive, alert, and ready to have SXSW kick off my best year yet.