Meet Ryan Rasmussen, the new Emerging Media Specialist at Levenger. 

His job is to do all the cool social media stuff that we all talk about.

He represents the company in social networks and Second Life. He schmoozes bloggers.  He encourages real consumers to help design and develop products. Basically, he does all those things that big companies are struggling with.  While marketing departments and agencies are debating the optimal word of mouth strategy ... Ryan just does it.

I took a lesson from Tom Kelley in my approach. He prescribes a new face of business - that of the anthropologist. Embedded within vocal communities, I have found that using the emergent tools of the environment to spark discussion through collaborative new product development (otherwise known as "hacking") generates a great deal of positive feedback. The result is a spike in consumer generated marketing, and a steady stream of collaborative ideation that gives consumers a voice in the direction of 'their' company.