Gavin Baker

I’m leaving Ruby Tuesday. About a year ago I wrote this post talking about my decision to join Ruby Tuesday in the role to help lead the social team and WOW it went fast. My time at Ruby was great and I’m thankful for the opportunity to have collaborated and made a few waves with their awesome team, who I’m now glad to call friends. Not to mention working with a top digital agency, AgencyNet and their great crew.

So I’m sad to go, but I’m excited about the new opportunities at my new firm, Moxley Carmichael. I’ll be leading the digital initiatives as the Director of Digital Media which will include the social media spaces we’ve all become familiar with such as blogging, Facebook, and Twitter – but also covers the possibilities in the emerging spaces of mobile, location based services (Foursquare etc) and other technologies.   I’m a firm believer that the market for digital answers to communication problems will continue to grow and I’m excited to begin work with both current clients and new ones down the road.

So while I’ve poured some out for my friends at Ruby Tuesday – my glass is still half full.

Image by doug88888

David Armano makes a three predictions for 2010 on social media and business.

1. Scale

2. Integration

3. Policy

I think he’s right on for 2 and 3.  I’d add an additional prediction – that social networking sites and tools will begin to add offerings that appeal to business.  I’m not talking about CoTweet ramping up it’s twitter tool, while it’s a good product.  I’m talking about product design BY the sites themselves.  Sites building out tools and frameworks that not only support businesses but invite them.  Let me be clear, I’m not sharing insider information, I just know what I think would help us and other companies like us.

Most social sites are designed for the individual and rightfully so as relationships are what create and grow these sites.  But now that organizations are starting to join the fray – their needs, our need are different.  Take for example any national retail company in any vertical.  Walmart, Best Buy, Ruby Tuesday, P.F. Chang’s, Moe’s, etc. the list goes on and on.  The commonality with all these organizations is that they are national, if not international companies, but ultimately serve customers locally.

Each of those customers cared for locally visits a store, where there may be 10-10,000 locations and those local stores together create the global brand.  The tension is that social sites know how to serve the local – they are even set up for that in most cases (i.e. requiring a geographic area) but they haven’t quite figured out the global range yet. Global brands need the ability to set parameters to maintain control while allowing for local flexibility.

I’d also add that this need “could” be filled by third party developers if the platform API’s allow deep enough access.

Exciting to see how this plays out.

UPDATED: With slides below

We all know that the world has been quickly transformed (you might also say overloaded) by social media.  News anchors are on twitter and ESPN has a social media policy, and you’ve only just signed up for facebook!  No worries, if you’re in Knoxville – you may be interested to join me (and a few friends, see Katie’s post on the topic) tomorrow as we explain our views and answer your questions at “Social Media 101: For Grownups” a panel put on by Leadership Knoxville.

The topics and presenters:

Social media is the new “civic” club. Learn how to make it useful personally and professionally. Presented by Katie Allison Granju Director of Digital & Social Media at Ackermann PR.
Nuts & Bolts of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. How to get started and what you need to know now. Presented by Bob Wilson Director of New Media at Moxley Carmichael.

Social Media Business Success! Hear how the use of social media and personal branding has produced measurable ROI in this challenging economy. Presented by Suzy Trotta Realtor at Coldwell Banker Business Benefits of Social Media

Social Media in the Enterprise. Hear how Ruby Tuesday, Inc. uses social media to build awareness and traffic to build its business and strengthen its brand. Presented by me.

The details:

Reserve your seat today!

Wednesday, Oct. 28th
4:00 – 6:00 p.m.

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Updated: Slides embedded below and on SlideShare

I’m heading out to Greenville, SC to this weekend at the invitation of Trey Pennington to speak to the great members of  Social Media Club – Greenville on Monday morning (Facbook Event link) about Social Media in the Enterprise.  I’m going to cover the why, the how and the what about social media at Ruby Tuesday, Inc.  If you’ve wondered about how large companies think about and use social media – this will be a great chance to hear more about it.

I’ve got the honor of following the great panel from last month – (watch the video captured by Bobby Rettew).

Spike Jones of Brains on Fire
Olivier Blanchard of The Brand Builder
Jeff Elder from the Charlotte Observer
Top Chef’s Celebrity Chef Michael Parise

The deets – Monday, October 12, 2009

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Last week I made a new life transition.  I’ve started a new job with Ruby Tuesday as the Social Media Manager.  To be completely candid – a large(r) public company was one of the last places I thought I’d end up after my time at Abunga came to a close.  However after learning about the company culture and the values they hold near and dear to success, the opportunity began to look like a promising possibility.  A couple of meetings later and I accepted.  And it’s incredibly exciting to lead the development of the social strategy and program for such a well known brand and one of the first (if not the first) in the restaurant industry to adopt and invest in social for the enterprise. Not to mention I’m joining a grouping of some incredibly talented people across the globe.  (Jeremiah Oywang has a list of those in this role or roles similar).

AND

more importantly I’ve joined an incredible group of creative and passionate people who are primed to make some change.

So needless to say, I’m excited.  We’ll be rolling out some awesome interactive changes, updates, and fun as the team I’ve joined has already planned some great stuff so keep your eyes peeled.  And as always, feel free to hit me up with questions, suggestions or thoughts.  Plans are still being formed but look for significant changes on the blog, facebook and twitter front.

In spirit of #followfriday – here is the team

Angie Heig @aheig
Andrew Becks @andrewbecks
Ryan Bridges @rsbridges
Tim Furmaniak @furmaniak
Regina Kirkpatrick @rkilpatrickr
Diana Lennox @dianalennox
Catherine OBrion @cobrion