Final Project: Social Media Class

Final Project, December 31, 2010

Interviews with Jorie Waterman on Social Media and Advertising

Conversations over the last few years with Jorie Waterman have been informative about the digital world that she began exploring after college. This rapidly expanding field of connections offered unconventional experience with novel networks that have touched on and driven changes in business, culture, and the society in which we live and function in ways that were not built or imagined a generation earlier. Having her first exposure to a home computer at age eleven in 1984 shortly after Apple came out with the first personal Macintosh computer in 1983 (Katz, 2008, p.8), Jorie’s fascination with what would become her professional career journey was sparked. In high school her calculus teacher who was keeper of the computer with special, select access to academic research that was becoming increasingly available on the Internet, opened her eyes and mind further. At seventeen, Jorie had the opportunity of being present, observing, and listening to the dialogue of a gathering of world scholars from many disciplines at a Lindisfarne Conference on the Web and Chaos Theory. She recounted that it was there that she heard conversations, that peaked her curiosity and wonder, on the potential power of the web and what it could become, and has indeed become twenty years later. Graduating from Harvard with a major in Comparative Religion with a focus in Buddhism and having been raised in the art world of New York and Europe, Jorie found her natural choices in the job market practically non-existent. Opportunities were in start up companies, which were computer/Internet based, there she gained experience and expertise that attracted the attention of Microsoft and precipitated a move to Seattle. Jorie’s drive to know more and be on the cutting edge of her field brought her back East, where she is now, and in the position of SVP Director of Search for McCann Worldgroup (McCann Relationship Marketing/ MRM), which is the digital arm of the advertising firm. Not only does she speak to audiences and clients worldwide, Jorie has just become part of a small group of strategists, one of the only women and the youngest, which considers ways to meet the demands of today’s digital world.
It is clear why I consider Jorie a valuable source of information, as she is a leader in developing strategies on the Internet for major companies worldwide. She reflected that in businesses the key is “finding how to start the conversation between the consumer and the company”. “Yes, it is social media”, said Jorie, because people use the Internet search engines to “search for information and problem solve”, therefore it is about them and companies “research people” to better meet there interests and needs. On the positive side, advertising has used Internet to find out what information people are looking for, what language they use to search for it, and how to get this specific information to them easily and quickly. Targeting audiences according to their behaviors has driven technology to gather all sort of data, come up with the most universally used keywords to guide a search, and make the search in Microsoft terms as “easy as breathing”. Knowing more about clients helps companies provide desired services. Jorie noted that although there is a lot of free information as well as programs out there, “advertising will continue to drive economics” with “on-line display advertising and search marketing”.
One of the problems in this age of massive amounts of information out there that Jorie mentioned, as did authors in Katz’s edited book, The Tower and The Cloud (2008), is that of sorting the information and data and making sense of so much that is available, which requires staffing and large time commitments. Another consideration for businesses and research that she pointed out was that it is difficult to “preselect your audience” as response is open to anyone on the Internet. In educational/academic research it may be important to know whom you are reaching and who is responding, unless it is a random sample. Blogs are potential ways to find those interested in certain topics or who want to share voluntarily their stories. There are support groups for veterans, illnesses, and specific interests, which allows the social aspects of the Internet to connect people directly with each other. Many health oriented institutions and treatment centers have offered this as a service follow up for patients and could do more in follow up after treatments. Individuals reaching out for first-hand information, which is a form of checking and cross-referencing information, have started Blogs and websites of their own. Jorie felt that there was great potential for heath care and for individual therapeutic work once a relationship had been established. She envisioned being able to use an iPhone or other phones to connect with a voice messaging service of a therapist in the middle of the night or when traveling and have that message and immediate concern stored and available for the therapist to respond quickly and from another location. The addition of video now available on new Smart phones and today Skype announced their extended services on phones, she felt seeing each other in real time would make a difference in maintaining a more personal connection.
Apparently, there are tools out there for same room conferencing where different voices would be selected when talking and audible to those gathered in another conference center elsewhere. The word “communities” was used to refer to different groups with like fields or interests. The communal aspect of many tools, such as Skype or VoiceThread, makes communication personable and fosters relationships at great distances with family and others. Certainly on-line learning would benefit from more of these personal discussion opportunities rather than the record of email, which serves that purpose, but leaves out the possibility of human relating in a significantly more satisfying way. There is also the argument for strangers connecting, which has its social and business advantages for some, but can be easily abused by others, as we have learned in cyber bullying and illegal and immoral avenues being opened and often preying on minors or vulnerable populations.
This leads to the issue of privacy and knowing how much to share when aliases, symbols and avatars can be used creatively, or not, as surrogates for real and authentic people and interaction. How does one know who is there? Are they trustworthy? Are they an impostor, a fraud? Privacy settings are available and Jorie felt people need to be mindful of them and set them for protection. Professional sites such as LinkedIn are select for specific interests. We discussed the fact that Facebook pages are out there and one has to be conscious of who can look at them and what one posts and which friends, clients or business associates you choose to give access to your information, caution is advisable. She mentioned a company called Bluekai that is a leader in “consumer privacy and good business ethics”. It is possible to find out free from them what information has been gathered, primarily through cookies, about individuals including yourself and remove it. Controlling your profile and checking what is out there about you goes for all ages. For example, how one is identified can be tracked by college admissions searches or effect job opportunities as personal information stays out there. Young people may not be aware of the ramifications of having personal information available for all to see and for how long?
For Jorie and me the discussion of ethical standards starts with the individual and their intentions, but there are ethical business practices that she mentioned that are available through links to various industries codes of ethics that can be found on the Direct Marketing Association Site (DMA). She felt that for the most part businesses were trustworthy and regulated in this country. Her concern was that about pharmaceutical companies are regulated in this country which keeps them limited in advertising on the Internet due to the vast amount of information that is required of them that can not be accommodated on the Internet, which gives unregulated or foreign companies more visibility and availability to searchers on the Internet. This brings up the question about unregulated drugs, in particular as to what information is available, is it reliable, and has it been tested for what it claims. The public has access to reliable as well as fraudulent information in a global information age, now they decipher it is a question. Other countries do not have the regulatory agency that we do which gives them an advantage on the open market place that is now international. Also, cultural practices and standards vary worldwide. This further opens the global network to illegal and immoral minds and practices, which is beyond the scope of this discussion, but was recently discussed at the United Nations in a panel I attended on the profitable and expanding illegal business of human and drug trafficiting.
The fact is that our world over the last sixty years (Katz, 2008, p.6) has become connected globally by the Internet and instant information is available regardless of the time zone. With more devices that are inexpensive and available it is staggering to assess the impact that this is having at any moment, as updates are constant. Authors writing on this is Katz’s edited book (2008) discuss the ramifications for institutions of higher education that have been evolving from religious and guild beginnings according to Katz’s historical account for over a thousand years. The “tower” metaphor for the exalted, often removed place of knowledge building (Katz, 2008, p.3) was juxtaposed with the “cloud” image which is symbolic of the worldwide web (WWW) which lacks the boundaries of a physical space and the concentration of scholars in close proximity. The positive side to this is possibility of sharing, coordinating, and collaborating globally. Katz used the phrase “maturation of virtualization technology” (2008, p. 11) which presented issues that education as well as all aspects of information transmission will more and more address. With information more available to many people in potentially every culture, the possibilities of learning are more egalitarian and individually prescribed. I can’t help but think this may be helpful to women and others without financial or practical means who have been denied education in many cultures. Institutions of higher learning are indeed challenged to respond beyond their halls and communities of scholars. Benkler (2008) writes of “decentralization” (p.51), Katz and others speak of “disruption” (2008, p.13), “bundling” and “unbundling” (p.4), others write about shifts, changes, cultural differences, economic issues, indeed the ramifications of “the networked information economy and society” (Benkler, 2008, p.51) are provocative on all levels. With this new open frontier that seems limitless, endlessly creative, spontaneous and collaborative comes the call for standards, protection, privacy and whose rules?
Jorie credits her college education where she was exposed to the best scholars in a small group of three other students for four years with giving her the thinking tools to know what questions to ask and ask them relentlessly. She felt that she also saw and heard different perspectives and learned to respect them. The work she is doing now draws on the ability to understand “how people think”, how they go about “solving problems”, and her knowing that “people are actively looking to solve problems”. She laughed as she described her work as “digital anthropology” which encapsulates her problem of sorting through vast amounts of material and more staff to help to do it. I do think that doctoral students are empathic to this and hope for the development of better and easier tools for doing research, storing it, and assessing it at key moments in their thinking and writing in order to synthesize and focus their learning which is the key in communicating their findings. How to get research out there and credited is indeed of concern for institutions, peer journals, libraries, publications and those scholars, writers and creative thinkers and artists who originate and document sources in traditional ways. Finally, our conversations in which Jorie used the term “social media properties” of the WWW, which are influencing society, relationships, the brain, business ect., came full circle to the need to “know when to turn things off” and “balance” life with and without technology. She said that she works generally a fourteen-hour day “communicating” and has learned to be “respectful” of the benefits of the Internet and mindful of the distractions it also provides. Prioritizing communication, archiving emails every 6 months, and not having messaging at home help with time management and just clearing the space. Perhaps we do need to respect and have our own sanctuaries for contemplation, music, art and just being that are without in her words, “constant bombardment”. The excitement of finding “new innovative media” that is out there and feeling “overwhelmed” has to be put aside, said Jorie, to have real time with friends, go to the gym, read, and enjoy her cats. She surmised that the Internet is tied to language and thinking in language, and now translations are easily available in many languages. Explicit or factual knowledge today has been opened to participatory involvement on the Internet, true or false? I was refreshed to be reminded of tacit knowledge (Attis, 2008, p. 81), that which we know, but don’t have words for. As I read the discourses on what has been described as the “cloud computing” (Katz, 2008) culture into which we are webbed, it seems this reality is put in dramatic, frantic terms that describe our changing, expanding world. As the year comes to a end and this class is coming to a close, I am indeed more knowledgeable and curious about tools that have been discovered, are being instantaneously refined, and new ones being developed to allow for searches specific and useful in the dissertation endeavor. The draw is that I don’t yet know what I will discover, what I will look for as the process evolves, or what contexts will expand my horizons.

Postscript
I would like to thank Jorie Waterman for her time and this rich discussion, which has helped me enlarge my perspective beyond academic consideration and into other worlds going on simultaneously. Her ethical, educated, and envisioned stance is admirable and encouraging for our future on the ground and in the skies.

Jorie Waterman’s Bio
Jorie Waterman, SVP Director of Search
McCann Worldgroup (McCann Relationship Marketing)

Jorie Waterman joined MRM in January of 2009 and leads the New York Search practice for MRM Worldwide. She has worked with clients across many verticals: Financial Services, Technology, Retail, Automotive, CPG, Travel, and more. A select list of clients includes: Chase, Bank of America, American Express, Citibank, Mastercard, GEIP, Alleghany, Diageo, General Mills, Colgate, Unilever, the U.S. Army, Exxon Mobil, Chrysler & GM.
Immediately prior to MRM she was at Microsoft adCenter leading efforts around keyword data. Jorie went to Microsoft to work with adLabs, the R&D division of Microsoft Advertising, working with leading mathematicians, engineers, data analysts, and taxonomists on next generation advertising technology. While there she helped develop the Keyword Services Platform, Web services for keyword demand and demographic data. Additionally, she led product planning for the Targeting platform – tapping into years of keyword research and search data experience as a major behavioral factor in targeting algorithms.
Jorie’s search career started in 1999 with Comet Systems, one of the Overture and Google’s first partners, now part of MIVA and eventually led her to iCrossing. At iCrossing she served as Senior Director, Search Analytics, spearheading methodologies such as Linguistic Profiling to drive actionable online marketing strategies from keyword data.
Jorie graduated from Harvard with a degree in Comparative Religion and has an advanced degree from the Universidad de Navarra in Pamplona, Spain. Jorie speaks fluent Spanish, and has reading knowledge of French, Latin, and Olde English.

















References
Attis, D. (2008). Higher education and the future of U.A. Competitiveness. In R. Katz, (Ed.), The tower and the cloud: Higher education in the age of cloud computing (pp.81-87). Campanile: University of California, Berkeley.
Benkler, Y. (2008). The university in the networked economy and society: Challenges and opportunities. Chapter in R. Katz, (Ed.), The tower and the cloud: Higher education in the age of cloud computing (pp. 51-61). Campanile: University of California, Berkeley.
Katz, R. (2008). The tower and cloud: Higher education in the age of cloud computing. EDUCAUSE Retrieved, May 1, 2010 from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/PUB7202.pdf.
Waterman. J. (2010, December 29). Interviewed by S.P. Firestone [MP3 recording, privately held, available], Social Media Class 10-FA GWKSP.7888.01, Lesley University Ph.D. Low-Residency Program in Expressive Therapies. Lesley University, Cambridge, MA.
Waterman. J. (2010, December 11). Interviewed by S.P. Firestone [MP3 recording, privately held, available], Social Media Class 10-FA GWKSP.7888.01, Lesley University Ph.D. Low-Residency Program in Expressive Therapies. Lesley University, Cambridge, MA.