19 Jul 2010 at 08:50
Michael Sommermeyer
Career, Courts, Linkedin, Personal
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In another week I’ll be on vacation and the week after that I’ll be starting a new job. I am moving away from the limelight and the weekly news interviews into a position with fewer demands for media exposure and more needs for customer service, outreach and providing help to individuals struggling with Nevada’s foreclosure crisis.
I’m moving from Nevada’s busiest trial and misdemeanor court system to the Nevada Supreme Court. I’m looking forward to less stress and more opportunities to explore how to target individuals needing help from the courts. It will be strange to not be interviewed and I will likely miss talking to my national media contacts, but perhaps they’ll still check in from time-to-time.
As the Clark County Courts Court Information Officer, I took a job that didn’t exist nine years ago and turned it into a reliable, transparent and trusted office for dissemination of information and news. I relied on social media tactics and tools to reach new audiences. My name will be forever linked to Brittney Spears in Google and I had the good fortune of being able to handle more than 300 media representatives all needing parking, passes and access to State of Nevada v. O.J. Simpson. If you ever need to organize a huge media event, I’m your guy.
In some ways I feel like I may have denied myself a new challenge; I considered creating my own consultancy and was emboldened when Jennifer Windrum offered her manifesto. That took courage and frankly I decided I didn’t have the same courage to go out on my own and engage in my passions. I still like the idea of working for myself and will likely take that plunge once I feel more secure in the future economy. My new position is a chance to learn a few new skills and expand on others. Not surprisingly, my passion remains centered on improving access to justice and so this new job is a perfect fit at this time. I will continue to innovate and that will benefit my new employer and myself in endless ways.
I will be continuing to explore social media, public relations and customer service. This blog will continue onward even as a few of my other activities will cease. If you are not currently following @wordymouth on Twitter, please do so and look for various changes, improvements and new ideas here on the blog.
The other day a friend of mine became the mayor of his house on Foursquare. A bit of tongue in cheek hopefulness on his part, because everyone knows his wife is the mayor. Perhaps it was the only way he could achieve mayor-hood given that everyone seems to have grabbed the good mayorships for local Starbucks, Borders Books and other prime real estate.
Location-based social networks have really started to find their niche. This is a far cry from the early days of Loopt or Yelp, which remain on the landscape even as Foursquare and Gowalla duke it out for supremacy. Connections and partnerships seem to pop up everyday between a location-based service and a local business or national brand. For instance, the Independent Film Channel (IFC) and Foursquare have announced a partnership where the social network will uncover cool places that people who subscribe to the ‘indie’ lifestyle can meet up and presumably talk about independent film. It adds layers to the check-in experience; imagine a neighborhood linked up with incoming news and information.
The implementation that I like is the slick Snack Square, powered by Four Square, which is a cool way to demonstrate how local businesses can tie in special promotions with social networks. For instance, a bachelor in Las Vegas might want to spend some time working on become mayor at the Playboy Club to earn the reward of two VIP passes for himself and a friend. There are also great offers for local restaurants.
All of these social networks are coming closer to the notion of being able to offer a special promotion to customers as they walk by a store. There is a lot of potential in being able to reach out to a willing and eager customer. And having those customers brag about the experience doesn’t hurt either.
Location-Based Social Networks