It was great to meet you in Austin and nice to know the company is moving in that direction. Keep draggin' 'em, my man.

It was great to meet you in Austin and nice to know the company is moving in that direction. Keep draggin' 'em, my man.

Thanks for the shout out. While I write the Crocs blog daily and am proud of where it's going, I still see it as a work in progress honestly. Until SM is incorporated into the daily processes of the company and the powers that be relax enough to understand that true engagement is where it's at – it won't be finished. It's a battle – one that definitely won't turn around in a day, but one that I am willing to fight. (and for the record, my brand is actually very open to everything but it still is mostly foreign to them. Baby steps…) I appreciate it when people like you bring attention to my work.

I did want to sort of correct you. While we don't have a branded Twitter account – @Crocs is actually a squatter and we're in the process of getting that from Twitter – I personally engage people from my Twitter account @GeorgeGSmithJr. Our social media campaign originated organically from the inside – namely, I was being the brand evangelist that I am and built the program up from my previous position in sales using twitter, blog outreach, etc. Now that I focus my efforts on SM full time, I felt my personal twitter account was just as effective, if not more so, than a branded account. After all, I'm here to take people like you who have never tried our products and get them to become exposed to it. They may not want to hear it from a branded account. So, in the name of transparency, I went with just being me. What's more human than a real employee being a brand evangelist? There are drawbacks to this methodology, but I find that I am building really strong relationships with our core consumers through Twitter and, while it might not scale, is proving effective for now.

And honestly, I think the best social media practices are the ones rarely discussed – mainly, getting out there and seeing who is talking about you and going there instead of driving them to you. While my sales guys and metric gurus may pressure for numbers and click throughs, being part of conversations on blog comments is probably where I see the most return on my personal investment and ultimately will build the brand up to where we want it to be. It might not be as fast – or even as measurable – but it's my #1 commandment.

Again – thanks for the shout out. Sorry to leave such a long comment.

Thanks for the shout out. While I write the Crocs blog daily and am proud of where it's going, I still see it as a work in progress honestly. Until SM is incorporated into the daily processes of the company and the powers that be relax enough to understand that true engagement is where it's at – it won't be finished. It's a battle – one that definitely won't turn around in a day, but one that I am willing to fight. (and for the record, my brand is actually very open to everything but it still is mostly foreign to them. Baby steps…) I appreciate it when people like you bring attention to my work.

I did want to sort of correct you. While we don't have a branded Twitter account – @Crocs is actually a squatter and we're in the process of getting that from Twitter – I personally engage people from my Twitter account @GeorgeGSmithJr. Our social media campaign originated organically from the inside – namely, I was being the brand evangelist that I am and built the program up from my previous position in sales using twitter, blog outreach, etc. Now that I focus my efforts on SM full time, I felt my personal twitter account was just as effective, if not more so, than a branded account. After all, I'm here to take people like you who have never tried our products and get them to become exposed to it. They may not want to hear it from a branded account. So, in the name of transparency, I went with just being me. What's more human than a real employee being a brand evangelist? There are drawbacks to this methodology, but I find that I am building really strong relationships with our core consumers through Twitter and, while it might not scale, is proving effective for now.

And honestly, I think the best social media practices are the ones rarely discussed – mainly, getting out there and seeing who is talking about you and going there instead of driving them to you. While my sales guys and metric gurus may pressure for numbers and click throughs, being part of conversations on blog comments is probably where I see the most return on my personal investment and ultimately will build the brand up to where we want it to be. It might not be as fast – or even as measurable – but it's my #1 commandment.

Again – thanks for the shout out. Sorry to leave such a long comment.