A Return to Office Life
The federal government has decided that it wants to learn how to use Facebook. Captura Group, a San Diego-based hispanic online marketing agency, won the contract to help them do this. I got hired by Captura Group to manage the contract. I started work on Monday of last week (the 21st). We’re starting by tackling Facebook. I’m really excited. That’s the short story.
Why Me? Why In San Diego?
USA.gov is the federal government’s official online portal—a place designed and managed by the General Services Administration (GSA) to make all government services and information easily accessible online. In 2003 the GSA launched a Spanish language version of their portal to serve the millions of Spanish speaking Americans looking for information online. About 3 years, Captura Group started working with them.
Now Captura Group will be working with GSA on their social media outreach strategy.
It’s a big deal (yes, I’m boasting) because in addition to running USA.gov, the GSA runs Webcontent.gov, which is the official source of internet best practices for all other government agencies. Essentially, the GSA is the arbiter of how every other government agency should behave online. The GSA’s strategy will be looked to by just about any other government agency looking to take the social media plunge.
To develop this strategy, Captura needed to hire someone in San Diego who understands social media, knows how to use social media to accomplish business (or bureaucratic) goals, and speaks spanish. I fit the bill.
How We Found Each Other
A few weeks ago, while looking for freelance marketing jobs, I found a posting for a search marketing manager position at Captura Group on Craigslist. I wasn’t interested in the job, but the description of Captura intrigued me, as I was trying to make a name for myself doing online hispanic marketing consulting. I decided to introduce myself to the company and offer my consulting services, should they need them.
I ended up calling Lee Van, the CEO on June 19th. I told him who I was and what I do. I told him that I wasn’t interested in a full time position, but that I was available for consulting services. He told me he was trying to build a team, and wasn’t very interested in consultants. I proposed that we at least meet the following Thursday (June 26th), just to network and talk shop.
Two days later (June 21st), Lee added me on Facebook and LinkedIn, with a message that he wanted to talk to me about a social media project. I sent him an email asking if we should still meet up on the 26th. He said yes, and we set up a time.
The reason I’m mentioning all these dates is that when I met Lee on the 26th, he started talking as though he had found me. I told him it was the other way around, that I had found him.
It turns out that he probably found me on the 21st, not realizing that I’d spoken with him on the 19th. As my friend Jonas points out, this has the makings of some kind of romantic comedy. The point being that we found each other, as though it were meant to be.
When we met, Lee described a job tailor made for me. We’d work together to craft and manage the GSA’s social media strategy as they try to make their services available to both Spanish and English speakers on Facebook.
When I quit Eventful at the end of February, I set forth to start my own business (which is still coming along) and told myself that I didn’t want to work for anyone else unless it was in a small Internet marketing company in San Diego that made use of my Spanish skills. It seemed like a tall enough order that I’d be forced to work full time on my own venture—honestly, where on earth do you find a job like that?
Not even 4 months later, I found myself wanting to work for Captura Group.
So now, ten days in, I’m thrilled. I’m busy (busy enough that it’s taken me this long to blog about it), I’m being challenged (immensely), and I’m using a broad range of my skills. Oh, and I work in Hillcrest, so I’ve got a ton of great lunch options.
I couldn’t ask for more.
hi jed,
i loved this entry…i wonder why ;o)
welcome to the team! glad you’re doing ok and i’m really happy to hear that you’re enjoying this opportunity AND the lunch options! ;o)
ah! one thing i wanted to mention and just so you know gobiernousa.gov was launched in 2003 and was developed by government employees. the spanish site is not a direct translation of usa.gov but a unique site created for the Spanish speaking community…just thought it was important for you to know.
anyhow hope all is well. i’m sure we’ll catch up soon.
have a great weekend.
un abrazo,
leilani
And we are delighted to have you Jed. We are glad you and Lee found each other.
Thanks for using your blog to let others know about the great work we are embarking on.
We are glad you and Captura will help us expand what we have already started in social media for both USA.gov and GobiernoUSA.gov. You will not be starting from scratch. We already have presence on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, and MySpace as we began to experiment with social media to see who it could help achieve our mission to help the public easily find U.S. government information and services. We look forward to you helping us take this to the next level. And you are right, other agencies watch what we do, so your work will have an impact governmentwide and throughout the U.S.
One clarification. GobiernoUSA.gov is its own portal, not a translation of USA.gov. If we had translated USA.gov it would point to English sites. We began GobiernoUSA.gov in the same way we began USA.gov. That is, we looked at who the audience was for the site, what they wanted from government, and then began a complete inventory of what government information was available from federal, state and local governments in Spanish. We then organized the information to make it easy for the public to find and use. We have been using public feedback to continuously improve GobiernoUSA.gov over the last three years.
Thank you both for the comments and clarification. I’m lucky to be working w/ people who are so passionate about their work and who really understand the potential of social media.
Jed … again, congrats. We will be coming to you for lunch soon :)
Jed,
Bienvenido! We are thrilled to have you on board and Captura Group supporting GobiernoUSA.gov and USA.gov.
I hope the return to office life is treating you well. Considering you are inhabiting my old office, I hope you are treating IT well. That is, until we move to our swanky new digs on the other side of Hillcrest. Bread and Cie for lunch anyone?
Congratulations!
Oooh! Hey! As it turns out! I was just thinking about this yesterday morning in fact …
http://anittahpatrick.com/thinking/should-the-gubmint-build-a-social-network/2008/07/31
Congratulations! You and this project were meant to be.
BTW, in IE6 this particular blog post appears completely blank except for the big letters (T, U, A). And yes, I still use IE sometimes. Don’t judge me!
Give the government a super-poke for me!
Congratulations on the gig. I’m sure with the new administration, you’ll have many more social networking project management opportunities.