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Denise Garciano & Ashley LaFerriere
Social Media Team at PacSun
Join us online for group Y TWITTER THURSDAYS! Every Thursday, we will be interviewing key Action Sports industry figures–execs, professionals & athletes on Twitter
TWITTER INTERVIEW WITH Denise Garciano, Social Media Manager &
Ashley LaFerriere, Online Content Coordinator for PacSun
ON TWITTER, AUGUST 6, 2009
@groupY Your name and official title?
@Niecee Denise Garciano, Social Media Manager.
@Ashlaf Ashley LaFerriere, Online Content Coordinator (Ninja).
groupY Before PacSun what other companies and projects were you involved in?
@Niecee The last company I worked for was Sole Tech and worked in International Marketing. It was cool working with a bunch of really awesome distributors and fun working for an action sports company. Prior to that I worked for an online dating company running events like: speed dating, poker tourneys, and parties. What’s cool about my job now at PacSun is that it’s like the best of both worlds from my previous jobs.
@Ashlaf Before working at PacSun I was at Roxy in their Marketing department. I got to help out with events, model castings and even got to drive a giant hot pink RV around California. Before that I was in college but had a lot of great internships including MTV Networks and a radio station in San Francisco. I definitely have to agree with Denise, because I feel like my job now is a combination of all my previous jobs and experience.
groupY What sports and hobbies are you actively involved in?
@Ashlaf You mean beside Wii Sports??? I’m pro status now at Wii Bowling. Does that count??? I’m always trying new things and looking for something different. Whether it’s snowboarding or jumping into a moshpit in a banana suit.
@Niecee Haha I have to agree with Ash, I’m always trying something new too. I once tried parkour and failed at it after trickin out my hip. Don Brown from Sole Tech @DonBrownetnies even tried to make me show off my parkour skills at a sales meeting, but I was still hurting. Calling it now as the next trend sport: Archery!
groupY What does your daily routine look like … take us through it?
@Niecee Needs to start with coffee for sure! Iced Non-Fat Latte please!
@Ashlaf I call oatmeal!
@Niecee Usually we take a look at the social networks & Community and see what people are saying and how they’re engaging with us. It’s interesting to see what people comment, tweet, or email us. It helps us discover and understand our customers more. Then Ash’s stomach usually starts grumbling around 11:45AM and we have to take a break from tweeting to get some food in her. We usually close our afternoons by creating some content for Community and jumping back on the social networks to engage with our friends, followers, and fans.
groupY When did PacSun decide to create a dedicated department for social media and why?
@Niecee About a couple of years ago when I started working here at PacSun. We started to notice that customers were reaching out to us on social networks and we need to put a voice behind them. It made sense because we needed to communicate with our customers on marketing channels & areas where they feel comfortable communicating.
groupY What are the different online components of PacSun.com and your social media (Twitter, Facebook, Myspace)?
@Ashlaf PacSun.com is our online shopping destination spot. Community is definitely where our voice is and keeping our customers/readers informed. Then our social graph: Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Flickr, Youtube, SoD, Qik, UStream, 12 seconds, Polyvore, and a few other social networks we’re currently tapping into.
groupY How many people are on the staff for your department and what are their roles?
@Niecee Our Community team currently is myself & Ashley. Josh Hubberman @theblingking who is our music guru and is doing a really great job with our music program. Sabrina Hayat @SabrinaSURF who works with our vendors for action sports content. Stacie Perry @sperry who is our action sports manager and really gets our name out there in the action sports industry.
groupY Give us some examples of questions kids email / tweet to you about? Also what problems have you been able to divert into a positive, related to customer service or brand perception?
@Ashlaf Recently a kid sent us a message on Myspace saying he never received his order and we were stealing from him. I messaged him back with instructions on how to check the status of his order and his reply was, “My bad. It came 10 min ago. Thanks!” Being on the social networks has allowed us to reach out to our customers on a more personal level. We’ve seen people start to respect us and see us as more of a friend and not just a store.
groupY Explain to us the “Community” aspect of the website that launched last year. Tell us about the channels and the content.
@Niecee PacSun has always aimed to encompass the whole youth culture lifestyle. I thought what better way to translate that with a site that offers content that speaks to all levels: Style, Music, Sports, Social, & Tech.
groupY Do you work closely with your vendors on creating the content and promotions?
@Ashlaf We’ve been able to work closely with our vendors to come up with contests & giveaways as well as really cool interviews with brands and designers. During Winter XGames we worked with FUEL TV and Foam Magazine for a Twitter trivia contest & did it again this past XGames with @ESPNXGAMES
We’ve been able to do interviews with Zoo York’s t-shirt designer and 15 second interviews with pro skateboarder Lauren Perkins and world champion surfer Lisa Andersen.
groupY What are some of the perks of your job?
@Ashlaf My favorite part about working at PacSun is getting to go to a lot of really great events. My first week on the job I got to go to the Palladium and see The Sounds. I was also able to go to SXSW and ComicCon.
@Niecee Being able to cover really cool events and report on behalf of PacSun. People always come up to us at events and say, “Cool! I didn’t know PacSun was involved!”
groupY What type of music do you listen to?
@Niecee A lot of different stuff. Indie, Hip-Hop, Electro/Pop, Old Skool stuff too. One day I’ll be listening to Phoenix and French Kicks then Pharcyde or Lil Wayne will pop up on my playlist.
@Ashlaf It’s really had to pinpoint a specific style or genre of music I’m into. My iPod is a crazy wildcard mix of pretty much anything and everything. I remember once I was in the car and a song from Cabaret came on and then the next song was from Wu-Tang. I love listening to and finding new bands… even if it’s Dutch rap. Right now my favorite is Muse.
groupY What do you like and don’t like about working with the action sports industry?
@Niecee Ash & I were just talking about this as we were heading over to X-Games last week. When we were in HS we used to attend X-Games as spectators….and it still amazes us that we actually get to be part of the industry and help promote and market the industry’s happenings.
@Ashlaf I love how fast paced it is and how we’re always doing something different. This industry is not your typical 9 to 5.
groupY What do you like about group Y and its events?
@Niecee Where’s the hashtag(#) screen???? I’m just kidding. It’s always a pleasure seeing people you email or talk with over the phone and then seeing them in person for once. It’s also nice new people too.
We now open the questions to @groupY twitter followers…..
@cgeorge110 What % of your marketing plan is in social media?
@Niecee No set % we use it where it makes most sense within our marketing channels and campaigns. Each social network is different so we may use 1 media channel or various.
Have you been able to monetize your social marketing results? If so, how do returns relate to traditional media?
@Niecee Yes we have, but the thing to keep in mind with social marketing are the metrics you set. There’s no set template metric for everyone. It all differs and how it relates back to your own ROI set.
Any best practices you can share with regards to social marketing/strategy?
@Niecee Don’t just jump on Twitter for the sake of. Figure out what’s the best way you can utilize Twitter and social media that actually benefits your company. Really understand the user flow and methodology behind it or else you could wind up in a situation that could hinder you
@thedoubleb What are the biggest challenges in creating content for the Pac Sun site?
@Niecee No real big challenges. When you have events and work really well with your vendors in a partnership for content it makes it a lot easier.
How scheduled are your executions? What I mean by that is how far our to you plan in advance and if you do, how detailed?
@Niecee It all depends on the overall brand and marketing campaign and strategy. Once you know what assortment is being carried allows a lot of planning ahead of time as well as certain events.
@anthonysva Assuming PacSun uses social media to drive behavioral change & consumer action, what effort/campaign had the greatest impact?
@Niecee Overall engagement. When followers friends and fans see us reach out on a genuine personal level they respect us a lot more plus we get comments like this one on this post.
Besides common metrics such as hits, tweets, etc, how else do you measure the impact of @PacSun in the social media space?
@Niecee Qualitative metrics. The quality of comments and emails are sometimes a higher metric than any quantitative metric. It allows us to really see the quality of how our brand is being perceived
groupY Any parting words to the Twitter universe?
@Ashlaf Follow @PacSun ??????????
@Niecee I second that!
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