Digithoughts

Last month, Gretchen Cordova, Digitaria's own Account Strategist, was hand-selected by Alicia Keys to select a head blogger for her website, I Am A Superwoman (IAAS.com), from thousands of applications. The selection committee consisted of representatives from each company that contributed to the overall project.

"They (AK Worldwide - Alicia Keys' Company) wanted a combination of folks who built the program. Monster.com should have a representative, Digitaria should have one, etc. They wanted a group of people on the panel that were a solid representation of the qualities they were looking for in a Head Blogger; knowledge of social media, someone who was engaging, someone who understood the public relations component" said Cordova.We sat down with Gretchen and asked her about her experience on the panel, the search for the perfect blogger, and what it was like to work with Alicia Keys.

Digitaria worked with AK Worldwide to build the ideal website for the blogger search. Digitaria's Design team developed creative that was utilized on all of the Alicia Keys social channels as well. A few of us, along with team members fro AK Worldwide, even posed for pictures for the site. Naturally, all of us at Digitaria had one particular question in mind for Gretchen, "Did you get to meet Alicia Keys?"

"I did not meet her in person because she was in Europe on tour, but I did speak to her on the phone. We spoke about the structure of the process" said Cordova. "Alicia put a lot of faith and trust in us to bring her three people that were exactly what she was looking for. Digitaria helped orchestrate this entire project for AK Worldwide. Alicia and her team had a great idea, but they did not know how to approach it. We came up with the contest site and the idea of a preview blog. What better way to see how someone would perform as Head Blogger than by having them actually do it?

While I didn't get to meet Alicia in person, her mother was on the panel with me. We sat next to each other. I was really impressed by how supportive she is of her daughter and the qualities of her character. She was really looking for someone she knew exemplified those things. She really knew what her daughter would like and what she was looking for."

The search for the AKW head blogger attracted applicants from all over the U.S. To help with the process, Digitaria's Performance Marketing group delivered a solution that relied on extensive search engine optimization that helped to drive qualified traffic and Head Blogger applications. There was an impressive amount of people that applied for the position making it hard to narrow the search down to the top three.

"Narrowing down the applicants was a challenge. I was impressed by all of the top 10 applicants, said Cordova. Initially there were 10k applications. The first part of the search, we used Monster's technology to get it down to 60. Monster put some great filters in place, everything from job experience to personality traits. From there, we each had to pick our top 2. The first group session we all presented the people we chose. We got through the process pretty easily; we had set up a good process to follow to make it as painless as possible. But narrowing down the top 10 to 3 was probably the hardest."

AKW created specific criteria in order to find the perfect fit for the blogging position. Some of the criteria included: technology literacy, excellent writing skills and being a natural at engaging people. Another important element of the job is being able to interact/interview with different people outside of the Internet, including celebrities at red carpet events. Cordova met many talented and interesting people through the interviewing process.

"For the first time I felt I had a say in making a dream come true for someone, said Cordova. That really became clear when I saw how emotional some of the finalists were. One that stuck out was a young woman who had gone through Katrina. I was really moved by her story. But honestly, I'd be happy with any of the 3 getting the position. You really become personally involved in it. I know regardless of who gets it, I will check back to see how they are doing."

Reena Leone Marketing and Social Media Coordinator

Read more from the Web Trends category. If you would like to leave a comment, click here: Comment or stay up to date with this post via RSS, or you can Trackback from your site.