Our Thoughts

Digital Marketer Interview: Amber Naslund of Radian6

December 13, 2011 by Marian Schembari

We may or may not have done a little dance for joy sophisticated and nonchalant tip of the hat when brilliant marketer Amber Naslund agreed to be interviewed here on the blog. As the VP Social Strategy for popular social monitoring tool Radian6, author of The NOW Revolution and blogger extraordinaire at Brass Tack Thinking, Naslund’s brain is easily the one we’ve been desperate to pick.

What digital changes this year have you really loved?

I’m most excited about the step back some companies are taking around digital and social. There was an article that came out about Fortune 500 companies retreating a bit from their social investments, and I’m convinced that’s a reaction to the “hurry up just because” syndrome we’ve seen in the last few years. Suddenly, we’re recognizing that a shift to this next era of business takes investment: of time, people, capital, and culture shaping. If businesses are taking stock of all of that, I think that’s a sure sign of maturity.

What new tools do you think won’t catch on?

Anything that looks like a rerun of something we already have or an experience we can already get elsewhere. Things that are overly contrived or complex. It’s not enough anymore to just replicate something that’s been done. You have to do it better in a significant way.

What’s the biggest challenge for people (both consumers and agencies) to embrace digital marketing?

Believable intent and relevance (I guess that’s two). We’re a skeptical bunch these days and trust is a rare currency. We don’t believe half of what we hear and we put faith in even less of the noise that reaches our ears and desks every day. The paradox of having so much fast moving information is that it’s much easier to ignore in a big, massive blur. Being relevant isn’t about being loud, it’s about being incisive and incredibly thoughtful about how we capture people’s attention and how we use it when we have it.

In English, I suppose this is really about investing the time to create something truly new and interesting instead of just treating everything as though it’s a reflection of the things we’ve already done.

What’s your favorite digital campaign at the moment and why do you think it’s a success?

Ah, but see my favorite digital campaigns aren’t campaigns. They’re continued streams of thought and interaction from brands that really care about meaning something for a long time, not just until the media buy or the coupon promo runs out. I love how Crayola talks endlessly about sparking creativity, and that throughline runs through everything they do. I love how ThinkGeek is a small company that knows its customer inside and out because they live and breathe it. I love that Ford and GM continue to inform, explore, listen, and invigorate the auto industry. I love that the Red Cross integrates social and mobility into disaster relief initiatives. I love that companies like Citrix are talking to the profile of their customer – the remote worker – and opening up dialogue about their opportunities and challenges. And how much do I love that so many branches of the Armed Forces are embracing social at a level that we’d be challenged to get many businesses to do?

I suppose it should be telling that I’m hard pressed to think of a “campaign” I love, but that there are instant warm fuzzies around a few brands and organizations that are just gently and constantly present, clear about their values and enthusiastic about what they do online and off. There’s something to that that transcends any “campaign”.

To connect with Amber, find her on Twitter and her blog.

Related Posts:

• Digital Marketer Interviews: Sarah Robb O’Hagan of Gatorade
• Digital Marketer Interviews: Esther Goh of Idealog
• Digital Marketer Interviews: Guy Gonzalez of Media Source
• Digital Marketer Interviews: Eric Rowe of APN
• This Week In Digital Marketing 27 June – 1 July: Introducing Google Plus, Executive’s Realise The benefits Of A Social Strategy and LinkedIn’s Ad improvements

Tags: Desks, Digital Marketer, digital marketing, Ears, Fortune 500 Companies, Hurry, Massive Blur, Maturity, Monitoring Tool, Naslund, New Tools, Paradox, Rare Currency, Relevance, Rerun, Social Investments, Social Strategy, Taking Stock, Tip Of The Hat, Vp

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