We at blur Marketing are proud to present a woman who puts the ‘G’ into Geek. How so, we hear you defiantly ask? Well with a jammed packed CV that we couldn’t possibly detail on here, we will tell you this- she is a social media marketer based in Brighton who has freelanced for the BBC and has worked with brands from  Coca Cola to the RSPCA (and once upon a time she used to teach maths!)

Also, as a part time illustrator and print artist (whose work is as brilliant as it is suggestive), she can market, she can make art and she maintains a pretty darn cool site too! This week we had a nice lil’ chat with the lovely Beth Granter….

Hi Beth! Lets jump straight in,complete the sentence, a successful marketer needs to have….

Hi! Well I would say authenticity. Logical thinking. A desire for a campaign to be a success, not just to keep the client happy. Creativity.

So what made you think ‘ah yes blurMarketing, I’ll give it a shot’ and any views on our Crowd-sourced model?

I got an invitation from an associate I respected, so I thought if she thought it was worth joining, I’d give it a go. Regarding the crowdsourced model, to be honest I hadn’t read about it until you asked this question. I thought the site was simply a social network for social media professionals.

What was it exactly that made you enter the marketing world?

For me, marketing was almost accidental. I’ve been a geek since I got my first computer, and have been a social media enthusiast for 12 years, since my teenage days of hanging out on forums and chat rooms. So, being into technology and social media already, I was ready when my sector became fused with modern marketing.

What did you do before becoming involved in social media? How successful were you at that?

Although I’ve worked as a waitress, a cleaner, a barmaid and a factory worker, and in the print industry as a project manager, as well as a bit of freelance web design, since finishing my MA in Digital Media three and a half years ago, I’ve been specialising in social media, so I didn’t have a ‘career’ job before that really (I’m only 27!). I also specialised in social media during my MA, so it’s basically all I’ve done for the past four and a half years. I called it online community back then though!

That’s a pretty broad range! How have you managed to use social media to build your business/profile?

Well, I don’t have my own business, however, the company I work for is the largest social media agency in the UK.

Would you say that is one of your career highlights?

Yeah it is a highlight getting my job at NixonMcInnes, a company I’ve wanted to work at for years. I’ve wanted to work here due to its excellent reputation for delivering great work, and for being a group of highly intellectual and talented people. And because of the company’s democratic working practices.

Ah, speaking of being democratic, your write up on ‘Benefits of Incorporating Social Media into an Institutional Website’ was an interesting read- democracy and social media does it equal a good marriage then?

Of course. Social media is all about democracy, free speech, giving a voice to the people. The internet evolved as a decentralised mechanism for information dissemination – it’s important we continue to resist censorship and corporate ownership of our data. We can do this through citizen journalism sites such as Indymedia and open publishing projects like Wikipedia.

And have you found that with the emergence of web 2.0, and constant change in our technology that this has helped you in any way?

Absolutely! Coming from the world of the web and into marketing, it means I can get paid to do what I love.

Any projects that you are particular fond of?

I’ve worked on a lot of good projects that I’ve really enjoyed, for different reasons. The work I most enjoy is influencer mapping for animal welfare organisations.

If you’ve made mistakes as we’re sure we all have, what have you learned from the experience?

Don’t let other people dictate what objectives social media will help you to meet. It isn’t good for everything and if you let people tell you what it’s good for (who don’t necessarily understand it), you’re only setting yourself up to fail.

The best method to monitor and listen?

I could list a whole bunch of tools… free and paid for. It depends on the client which is best. I’ve used Radian6, Brandwatch and Mbuzz/SM2. For free tools, I’ve got a presentation on Slideshare about just that: http://bit.ly/freesmtools.

How very instrumental, we will definitely take a look at that. Now, onto Beth the dark horse. You have some rather brilliant but risque illustrations on your site (bethgranter.com) Did you do them?

Yes I did! I use illustrator these days. I’ve exhibited prints in London, Vancouver and Melbourne. I don’t do enough unfortunately, but it was illustration that initially got me into building websites as a teenager – before MySpace when you had to learn to code to publish stuff online.

Its ironic how we seemed to have slipped into a ‘MySpace who? era isn’t it?

Yeah it really is, but at least it paved the way for other ideas, that’s just how it works you see a product or an idea and you figure out how to make it better, think Apple.

Very true and once we figure out how to do something better than Apple we will most probably let you know, most probably… So from your illustrations, We detect a socio-sexual political feel, (also the idea that gender is not fixed) care to explain the coding behind them?

Where would I start? When I did my MA in Digital Media, I audited some additional courses in the Sexual Dissidence MA, having had an interest in Feminism for a few years. I also joined an anarchist queer collective in Brighton called Queer Mutiny. Online, I was confronted with gender issues on various websites, so decided to blog about it. The typical one that gets to me is when a site has radio buttons and only two options for gender (male or female). Haven’t people realised there’s many more genders than that yet?!

Clearly not! It often a big misunderstanding that gender (as defined by societal constructions) and sex (biology) are interchangeable but your blog seems to be paving the way for a greater understanding. So with crystal ball in hand, what next?

To continue to learn, to become more confident, to be helpful and useful to people, to have a positive impact on organisations working to improve society. And to be famous for doing all that!t?!

Just to test your credentials, what are your thoughts on Pythagoras theorem?

Erm… [continued silence]

Hold on we thought you once taught maths, we were looking for some help!

[Laughs] Yes I did about 10 years ago when I was 17! I don’t really have an opinion about it though!

Alright we’ll let you off but answer this, If you were a mobile phone what design would you be and why?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a phone I thought was perfect enough to be associated with me

Wow, now that’s a girl after our own equally perfect heart. To connect with the perfectly designed Beth click here.