@JoelECarlson – Hello everybody, and welcome to the Twitterview of former @Wienermobile driver @mrdolson. Time to ketchup with him! :)
@mrdolson – nice to see you use one of the old stand-by puns right of the bat, Joel. Excited to be here
Q – #1 So @mrdolson, what did you study in college and how did that help you land the @Wienermobile job? Lots of traveling involved?
Daniel: First, thanks for having me @joelecarlson. I studied print journalism at the U of MO (go Tigers), so my familiarity with media helped
Additionally, I did media relations work that required traveling for Mizzou’s women’s soccer team, so I was accustomed to travel
Lastly, I suppose my general enthusiasm for the brand and my lack of reservations with talking with strangers helped, too
And, yes, it did require a lot of travel. I hit 32 states in my 12 months on the job. Getting paid is the best way to travel
Q – #2 Did you actually sell/provide hot dogs out of the @Wienermobile? What kind of facts did you have to learn?
Daniel: Actually, we didn’t give out any hot dogs because of vending licenses…we were on the go so much that we would have needed hundreds
We did, however, give out the much coveted Wiener Whistles, which people actually followed us hundreds of miles for,
We learned a lot about the company’s history, as well as engine specs, and the height/length/width of the WMB in hot dogs
The @Wienermobile is 18 hot dogs wide, in case you wanted to know.
Q – #3 Following the @winermobile gig, you worked for the @Cavs when they had @KingJames. What was that experience like?
Daniel: It was a lot of fun to be with the @Cavs when the team was playing at such a high level, and to see the excitement it brought to CLE
As a lifelong sports fan, it was fun to see @KingJames up close in person at work every day, but it was also a lot of hours with gms.
And, no, it wasn’t part of my routine to hang out with the players, though they often participated in season ticket holder events
So it was fun to see their personalities there. Delonte West was the most charismatic of all the players on the team I worked for.
Q – #4 Where do you work now, and what’s your role there entail?
Daniel: I currently work @cl_spong, an agency I had my eye on since I moved back to the TC. My title is social media specialist …
… but I also work on the traditional acct. side with clients like Jack Link’s, SUPERVALU, Schlage, Kryptonite, etc.
In my day-to-day role, I usually am working with clients who want to expand or enhance the impact of their presence online
this can take the form of running social media pages, developing specific PR campaigns or offering POVs on response tactics
The great thing about social mediums is that they’ve ushered in a new era of experimentation, IMO. It makes you think outside the box
Q – #5 Agreed! Lets now shift to your FAVORITES: restaurant, store, winter activity, comfort food and recent book or blog.
Daniel: Fave restaurants at the moment would be @BarLaGrassa, 112 Eatery and @HauteDish, three of the best meals you can get in Minneapolis
I’m a pretty big gadget guy, so for store I would have to say Apple. Favorite winter activity involves retreating indoors for soccer
I play in leagues at the UofM and Augsburg college right now. As for comfort food, a nice bowl of Pho or a homemade mac ‘n cheese
As for reading, the most recent book I finished was a collection of short pieces from Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Q – #6 Got any takes on Facebook and all of the changes they keep making? What would YOU keep or change?
Daniel: Well, @joelecarlson, I think that Facebook’s frequent changes are making it more difficult for small businesses to keep up
For how much talk surrounds Facebook as an asset to small businesses, they put strain on companies by constantly making them update
I think that companies that invest in the look and feel of their pages will see greater returns as a result.
I would like to see Facebook offer a better product for musicians, though, and finally figure out their security stance.
Q – #7 Very true! For FB to appeal to small/med businesses, they need to keep it simple. :) Got any prof goals for yourself?
Daniel: My goals for the short-term are to keep learning from the great people around me @cl_spong and also to get more involved …
In the fantastically rich PR/communications/ad community here in MSP. The passion this city has in these areas is inspiring
I figure, as long as I can continue to surround myself with smarter, more experienced people, I can learn through osmosis :)
Q – #8 Indeed! Lastly, I know you like to cook, so if you could invite any 1 person (dead/alive) over for a meal, who and why?
Daniel: Ooo, tought question. Because of my love of soccer, and the fact we share a birthday, I would have to say Pele.
Though I might need to learn a Brazilian dish or two to impress him
@JoelECarlson – Makes sense. Thanks so much @mrdolson for your time and comments today. Have a great week!
@mrdolson – Thanks, @JoelECarlson, I really enjoyed myself. Thanks again for all you do in connecting pros within MSP. Have a great week yourself
About 2 years ago, March 2010, I came up with the idea of a new way for people to share more about themselves on Twitter, called Twitterviews. It would consist of a 1hr interview, conducted totally on Twitter. It would allow them to share things about themselves such as where they grew up, their interests, hobbies, passions and their goals for themselves for the future. Not only did it provide more exposure for them to other people, it turned out to be a great networking tool for myself and for them as well. I’ve currently conducted over 300 of them, and am still benefiting from them. In fact, it led me to now conducting them on behalf of the locally based magazine, Minnesota Monthly. What an opportunity!
