Guess Who I Met at AMA Boston’s Connect Community Tweetup

If you haven’t joined the AMA Boston Connect Community yet, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. Created on the Ning platform by Myles Bristowe, AMA Boston Past President and CMO at CommCreative, this popular online network recently celebrated the fact that over 2,000 marketers – including yours truly – have now established a presence there.

Indeed, to commemorate this milestone, a bunch of us pulled ourselves away from our desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones for a couple hours of good, old-fashioned socializing recently at the Connect Community Tweetup held at Performable, a marketing automation and analytics company in Cambridge.  

I was happy to catch up with a few good friends in the business, including Jamie Bradley and Lew Sabbag, as well as to meet a handful of people for the first time, including Keith Spiro and Christina Inge.

And then there’s Jessica von Goeler. Talk about taking initiative. In the spirit of the event, Jessica was kind enough to introduce herself by email before the festivities had even begun (having gotten my contact information via Eventbrite), telling me she would like to have the opportunity to meet me there and hear about what I do for a living.

Needless to say, I was flattered that she was interested in connecting with me, so I couldn’t help but keep an eye out for her as I was doing what I could to make my way around the room that evening. So I just want to thank Jessica, first for breaking the ice with her introductory email, and second, for agreeing to be interviewed here on my blog.

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing Jessica von Goeler, networker extraordinaire and, well, I’ll let her tell the  rest of the story…

Bob: Please tell us about yourself, Jessica, including a few details about your professional experience and accomplishments as well as something not related to your livelihood.

Jessica: My professional career started as an engineer aboard a tug boat in the Gulf of Mexico shortly after graduating from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy with a Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering. After a couple of years of this type of work, on and off shore, I pursued my MBA from Worcester Polytechnic Institute while working in the family retail business in Harvard Square. Along the way, I found my passion for helping others and began a new career in the non-profit industry where I’m most known for managing financial literacy programs. My other non-profit achievements include community organizing for the pivotal smoke-free regulations in Salem, MA, increasing philanthropic giving by more than 20% to nonprofit organizations, and earning a Community Service Award from the Salvation Army Cambridge, MA Corp. While I continue to volunteer in my community, I have recently transferred my experience in essentially managing corporate social responsibility programs, special events, and cause marketing campaigns into a public relations role at a marketing consulting company.

I’m a third-generation Rotarian. My grandfather brought me to my first meeting and the experience is one of my fondest memories of him. I’m proud to have been awarded a Paul Harris Fellow by my Rotary Club in recognition of my accomplishments while Club President (2008-09). For five years, I served as the Club’s Speaker Chair and just changed roles this year to become the Public Relations Chair.

I’m an avid sailor with over 35 years on the water.  I raced J24’s out of Beverly and Marblehead Massachusetts for almost 15 of those years and participated in many Marblehead Race Weeks and Jubilee Yacht Club’s Travis Roy and Around the Rocks Regattas.  I’m looking forward to a relaxing season on my J24, Black Magic.
 
Bob: Why did you join the AMA Boston Connect community?

Jessica: The AMA Boston Connect community seemed like a good opportunity to increase my knowledge of social media in ways that would benefit my contributions to corporate social responsibility and public relations initiatives.

Bob: What prompted you to attend the AMA Boston Connect Community Tweetup?

Jessica: I think a blend of in-person and social media interactions can build strengthen relationships.

Bob: What’s your experience with social media so far?

Jessica: For my first several years using social media, I just maintained a LinkedIn profile and added contacts. The last few months, I’ve been participating in conversations to advance my knowledge and career. I landed my recent PR position through a group discussion. About a year and a half ago, I joined Facebook, because a college friend told me it was “mad fun.” I have lots of fun sharing pictures, catching up with friends, and making plans. I also maintain a private YouTube account for sharing family videos.  

I was first awed by the power of social media when I helped a Rotary Exchange Student my Club sponsored when she got stranded in the Atlanta Airport on her way home. I recently started a Facebook group, MBTA: A Child in a Stroller is a Safe Child, and it gained 100 members in the first day. Motivated by the social impact I have experienced so far with Facebook, I signed up for Twitter and had been browsing tweets until speaking with you and Keith. I’m now Tweeting.

Bob: What social media platform are you most active on and why?

Jessica: Hands down, LinkedIn. I use LinkedIn to promote myself as a professional, find mutually beneficial connections, and advance my knowledge as a professional and volunteer.

Bob: What role do you think social media will play in your career in the future?

Jessica: Social media will give people I’m working with an opportunity to easily learn more about me and vice versa. I plan on continuing to build mutually beneficial relationships through social media sites. I think it would be fun to incorporate it into cause marketing and fund-raising initiatives.

Bob: Could you write a tweet (140 characters or less) that would be the equivalent to your “elevator speech” and share it with us?

Jessica: I’m a leader in high profile community affair initiatives and known for my work empowering people to reduce debt and increase savings.

Bob: And, finally, what are your three biggest questions about social media?

Jessica: Where do people find the time to participate in social media? Why does it seem so many social media guru’s have a day job loosely, if at all, connected to social media? And what’s being done to address further disparities being created by social media for people without online access?

If you have any answers to Jessica’s three questions above, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment. Or, of course, feel free to get in touch with her directly. You can find her on both LinkedIn and Twitter via the links below.

Jessica von Goeler
Jessica von Goeler

To view Jessica’s LinkedIn profile, click here.
To follow Jessica on Twitter, click here.
To join the AMA Boston Connect Community, click here.

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