Tweeting by ear

I have a part-time job at Easter Seals Headquarters, moderating the Easter Seals and autism blog. Five years ago my then-boss told everyone in the Interactive Marketing Department that we had to open an account on Facebook. I thought this was creepy. I like my job, though, so in a civil-disobedience-type move, I went ahead and opened an account. In my dog’s name. Hanni handed her Facebook account over to Harper when she retired.

This guy look familiar? He’s Harper’s bro!

My job at Easter Seals has taught me a lot about social media. I’m on Twitter. I’m LinkedIn. I even have an account on Good Reads. And when my nephew Brian offered to set up a Beth Finke Fan Page on Facebook for me? I said “Sure!” It’s one thing to have all these accounts, though, and another thing to actually use them. That’s why I decided to hire Eliza Cooper.

I met Eliza when I was training with Harper at the Seeing Eye. She plays the drums, she’s an avid reader, and…a social media consultant. I liked Eliza the minute I met her, and when we discovered her dog is Harper’s brother, we knew it was destiny. We were meant to work together! And so, I am very pleased to introduce my social media consultant, Eliza Cooper, as a guest blogger today.

Dropping by to introduce myself

by Eliza Cooper

Hi there. I’m Eliza, and I wanted to drop by to introduce myself. I had the pleasure of meeting Beth in late November when she was in training with her new dog Harper at The Seeing Eye. I was also there to receive a new dog (my second), and happened to be matched with Harper’s brother. They’re both high-energy, fun-loving boys — great for city life, and my dog and I are busy taking New York by storm.

Beth and I got to talking about Facebook and Twitter one day during class, and when she found out that I am a social media consultant by trade, she expressed interest in learning more.

What is a social media consultant, you might ask? I seek to empower people, businesses and brands through social media, meaning that I give advice to clients on how to promote their business via tweets, Facebook fan pages, blog posts, and any other social media platform that might be relevant to them. The social media realm is full of opportunities to engage with peers and consumers, and more and more companies are realizing this. It turns out that customers become more devoted to a brand when it has an online personality, and when the employees behind that personality care to listen to ideas — and complaints – from customers. The challenge for companies is to figure out how to reach those consumers who will engage with them online. I help them surmount that challenge.

Anyway, for the next few months, I’ll be giving Beth some ideas on new ways to build her online presence, and I hope you’ll stay tuned to Beth’s Twitter feed and Facebook fan page.

If you’d like to find out more about me and what I do, please visit my blog, and follow me on Twitter. Thanks! We look forward to your input.