15 Women Who Rock Social Media at Top Tech Companies – Career Advice & Insights

To honor women who “rock” the social web, we’ve been publishing a list for the past 4 years and  2014 marks the 5th. That’s about 100 social media pros we’ve featured ranging from marketers to business owners to those using social media to advance a cause. Many of those honorees have reached out to share they’ve benefitted in many ways from those lists ranging from general notoriety to career advancement.

During research within my own personal network for the 2014 list, I noticed an impressive group of social media marketing pros in the tech space that represent some of the top brands from IBM to Adobe to Intel. This group of 15 women represents some of the talented executives and practitioner social media smarties that me or my team at TopRank Online Marketing have had the good fortune to work with, collaborate with on projects or meet (IRL or virtually).

For anyone interested in advice from some of the most successful executives and managers in the social media marketing world, this is a great group to follow.

Amber Naslund – SVP Marketing – Sysomos
@AmberCadabra – /in/ambernaslund

Career tip: Immerse yourself in as many other areas of the business as you can. Finance, sales, product, operations. Understanding your and social’s role in the bigger picture helps you make smarter decisions and broad perspective always makes you a more valuable contributor.

Becky Brown – Director of Media at Intel Corporation
@beckybrown – /in/rebeccaannbrow

Insight: Organizations are filled with exceptional young adults with great ideas and a new approach. Embrace the young minds and foster ways to co-create project and ideas across the teams. Source

Deanna Lazzaroni – Manager, Global Content Marketing & Social Media Strategy – LinkedIn  (client)
@DigitalDL – /in/deannalazzaroni

Career tip: Social has a powerful way of connecting great minds. Don’t be afraid to tell the world why you’re one of them. Build your brand.

Jeannine Rossignol – Vice President, Marketing Services for Large Enterprise Operations – Xerox
@j9rossignol – /in/jeanninerossignol

Career tip: Use your social media skills to understand what drives key execs in your business – what are their hot buttons and interests, what are the best ways to engage them?  Having these insights will make you more relevant, more effective, and (important to your career) more memorable.

Jeanne Quinn – Manager, Social & Digital Experience Strategy, Global Partner Marketing – Cisco Systems
@JeanneQuinn – /in/jeannefoggquinn

Insight: Be the cornerstone for developing a social strategy and work collaboratively with communication teams to ensure there is a cohesive message to partners. Reaching social media excellence is a combination of skills: listening, content development, amplification, listening/engagement. Source

Jennifer Mesenbrink – Senior Manager, Digital and Social Content Strategy – Motorola Solutions
@EditorThink – /in/jmesenbrink

Career tip: Use every avenue you have to stay abreast of what’s new and next with social media. Read articles and blogs, follow key influencers and pay attention to both big platforms and new sites like Vine and Instagram as they emerge. Consider how you can best leverage these platforms for your own company.

Kelly Ripley Feller – Senior Community Manager – Emerging Products & Services – Autodesk
@kellyrfeller – /in/kellyrfeller

Career tip: Corporate social media is often about change management. Start small and build on the little wins. Take the time to nurture relationships with peers. Those connections can often make the difference in how open others might be to hearing what you have to say.

Lauren Harper – Senior Manager Social Marketing – Oracle Marketing Cloud
@LaurenEHarper – /in/leharper

Career tip: Ask questions, listen, and network. It’s important to build a network of people both internally and externally that you can lean on for help and expertise. Be empathetic to the people you’re connecting with whether they are friends, coworkers or customers. Honesty and transparency go a long way on social media.

Marchell Gillis – Social Media Manager – McKesson Health IT (client)
@MarchellGillis – /in/marchellgillis

Insight: For career success in social media, have a healthy respect for the discipline of communications, be a lifelong student of learning and understanding how to leverage social media in your company.

Maria Poveromo – Senior Director, AR, PR and Social Media – Adobe
@mariapoveromo – /in/mariapoveromo

Career tip: Try not to let fear of failure get in the way.  We need catalysts for change and social is a great place to be a corporate change agent.  Have the courage to try things that haven’t been done before.  Think about the culture of your company, who do you need to persuade and influence in order to advance your programs?  Start small and don’t boil the ocean.  Pick one area and do that so well that the program (and you along with it) will shine.  Build on that success and you can chart your own career path.  And don’t forget to promote your accomplishments in way that will make an impact – if you don’t promote your successes it’s as though they never happened.

Michelle Killebrew – Program Director, Strategy & Solutions – Social Business – IBM
@shellkillebrew – /in/michellekillebrew

Career tip: When you think of social media in a marketing context, think about how your marketing efforts can create authentic engagement with the audience. Companies need you to do more than help them be present on social networks, so think beyond social media itself to conversations and interaction experiences.

Nazli Yuzak – Senior Social Media Strategist – Dell (client)
@NazliYuzak – /in/nbyuzak

Career tip: Be prepared to fight the good fight! Social media is still about building human to human relationships. There may be a lot of content to share from your organization but you have to defend the customers’ perspective and make sure that they are being presented with the most relevant content to where they are in their journey.

Saba Mohammad – Director of Social Media and Online Marketing – EC-Council
@saba711

Career tip: One thing I recommend for women who are getting into the corporate social media world is to have their own brand out there (Twitter, LinkedIn, a blog, etc) and be aware of the newest trends in whatever field you are in!

Suzanne Doughty – Social Media Program Manager – Dell (client)
@suzanne_doughty – /in/suzannedoughty

Insight: Always think of the audience and customer first.  They care about solving problems and feeling good about their decisions. Find a way to help them do that. And – don’t be afraid to be yourself, show the human side of your company and even provide a little comic relief!

Ursula Ringham – Director, Global Indirect Channels – SAP
@Ursula_Ringham –  /in/ursularingham

Career tip: Don’t be afraid to engage socially with people at all levels of your organization and beyond.

In the coming weeks I’ll be publishing the 2014 edition of our 25 Women Who Rock Social Media in partnership with our friends at Traackr.  It’s a list that will go beyond social media for marketing and will include women who are creating business impact as well as making a difference using social media. Be sure to watch for it!

Top photo: Shutterstock