GG's founder takes on a new adventure

Julia Rosien, Founder and Editor in Chief of GoGirlfriend.com, is embarking on a consulting career as a Social Media Optimization consultant with her newly formed company, SocialNorth.com. Most recently Communications Director for Natura World Inc, Rosien pioneered the social networking landscape of the furniture industry and launched three websites that saw unprecedented traffic growth and brand awareness for the company.

Trailblazing through social media

Socialnorth.comRosien broke new ground in the industry when she put Natura on facebook and twitter, which now have thousands of followers each. More than 50 bloggers have written about their experiences with Natura products and Rosien has developed friendships with many of them - social networking is social, right?

SocialNorth.com will offer a full suite of services that will give companies the strategic advantage they need to eat their competitor's lunch online.

Using the latest tools, she'll

• Show companies where they're losing traffic to competitors and point them to the biggest wins right out of the gate.
• Launch social media platforms based on keyword research and search engine optimization best practices.
• Offer training sessions to bring expertise in-house so social media and SEO wins continue into the future.
• Share linking strategies, content generation and keyword research that optimize findability online - now and in the future.

Measureable Success

Influential in Social MediaRosien has been named one of the most influential women in social media in various blogs and has a following in the tens of thousands. She believes success for companies happens when they invest in developing content, smart web strategies and growing online communities. 

"Yamaha said it best in an online conversation with someone from their community - If you're going to get naked, you better be buff," says Rosien. "There are so many people claiming to be social media experts because they've mastered facebook or twitter, but they really don't have the experience or track record of success. Sitting at home in your pj's twittering does not always translate into a strategic, workable plan."

BedheadRosien launched a Safe Sleep Campaign in June 2010 that hurled Natura into the world of viral marketing. Julia and a team of co-workers produced a series of videos that introduced the world to safe sleep, Natura style. During the campaign, online traffic to Natura increased by 75%, page views by 180% and traffic from facebook alone swelled by 1000%.

GoGirlfriend, a vibrant and busy travel site written for and by women thrived on social networking in 2007, long before the rest of the world had even heard of online networking. Without a marketing budget, Julia called out to her friend network of writers and editors from her print journalism days. Within 6 months, GoGirlfriend became an accredited news source for Google and had a stable of contributing writers sharing their travel adventures.

Rosien uses social media for GoGirlfiend as well and regularly attends blogging conferences that introduce brands to influential women online.

Companies big and small are flocking to social media to reduce their marketing budgets. The beauty of the medium is the ability to get involved at a grassroots level and growing a community of believers that will take your brand and share it. "Creating an online community is like going to a gym - you aren't going to see results if you only visit once a month but if you're there every day, things start to happen," says Rosien. "And going every day takes strategy, discipline and the right person leading the charge."

Changemaker in the making

Prior to joining Natura, Rosien began her career as a freelance journalist, contributing to national publications such as The Boston Globe, Chicago Sun and Women's Health Magazine. She served as the senior editor (and managed a stable of 75 freelancers) for the second largest pregnancy magazine in the US before it closed its doors in 2006.

Julia RosienFrom there she took on a team of travel writers and pioneered the online space for social networking opportunities. She quickly saw quantifiable results that can be difficult to collect in the traditional marketing world. For a time, Julia managed a community on Restaurantica that saw more than 2 million visitors monthly.

Rosien gives Natura full kudos for pioneering social media for the bedding industry. "When I was hired, no one else in the industry was doing it and Ralph Rossdeutscher created the position for me," says Rosien. "Ralph took a big risk that social media was going to take off (this was only 2009, remember) and they reaped the rewards of being the first - and I believe, most powerful - out of the gate."

Rosien is a regular speaker at industry events, a member of the Better Sleep Council as well as a 2^nd Vice President for WithIt. Upcoming speaking engagements include Furniture Today's Tech Conference in Chicago, Blissdom in Toronto and Vegas Furniture Market in February.

To reach Julia Rosien online, visit SocialNorth.com: http://www.socialnorth.com/