A few weeks ago, I attended The Design Automation Conference, the Big Daddy of all conferences in the Electronic Design Automation Industry. If you’re an electrical engineer responsible for chip design, this is the place to learn about the tools required to get your job done.
I was invited by Karen Bartleson of Synopsys to host a session in the company’s Conversation Central booth, but the highlight of the day came immediately after my session when a man, slightly out of breath, rushed into the room and announced that some Synopsys guy was about to start his presentation in a few minutes.
“Can you tweet about it?” he asked Karen.
Without looking up from her screen, Karen said, “Sure. Tell me something interesting about the talk.”
The man stood in the doorway, stumped for an answer. The perplexed expression on his face resembled that of a person trying to calculate the cube root of 37 without the aid of a calculator.
The man knew that Karen had built an audience on Twitter, and as a marketeer, his goal was to deliver his message to it. However, through her question, Karen helped him understand that this audience was different, because she had built it, Twitter-follower by Twitter-follower. By asking for “something interesting,” she was simply demonstrating her commitment to publishing quality content to that audience.
Companies adopting New Media channels such as Twitter can learn a huge lesson from New Media Evangelist Karen Bartleson. Not only must they build an audience through publishing compelling content, they must also continue to respect that audience. By doing so, not only will the existing audience remain loyal, but the company will likely add a few more readers/followers along the way.
Tags: Synopsys Karen Bartleson Design Automation Conference DAC46 Twitter content New Media Evangelist Ron Ploof
