This week we finally managed to catch up with one of the most active members in our crowd, Israel García or as we would like to call him, the man with the grand plan or in this case the man with the fantastic media strategy but that didn’t really rhyme.

The self confessed ‘social adventurer’ is based in Spain and has a masters in marketing management, and that’s about as much as we are going to give. We decided that as he is a great believer is creating one’s own history we decided to let his rather enjoyable interview tell his story, so scroll down and read about the man who certainly can….

Hi Israel, now that we finally managed to track you down we have to ask, what attracted you to join blur Marketing? What are your opinions on our Crowdsourced model?

Hi! I know I know I’m busy non- stop! First of all, the model, which I think gives freelancers the opportunity of working in projects for big brands under the well-known umbrella of blur Marketing. Secondly, the crowd, that is to say, as I observed over time, blur Marketing is shaped with great and serious players that go from traditional marketing or personal branding to social media, but – and this is a poignant but – these players are also very active and keen on engaging with the community, we do that by sharing insights, approaches and perspectives and this allows us to expand our knowledge beyond our frontiers – sometimes established by our cultural awareness – but there’s no such inconvenience in blur Marketing, because you can find a good bunch of pros coming from everywhere around the globe. Finally, what I also found appealing to me when joining blur Marketing was the exposure, visibility and network. The more you work or interact, the more people will know about you, so you will increase chances to be contacted by other pros and other people.

You see, I consider myself an evangelizer of the “guest experience” and to me it’s what the crowdsourced model is about, its about putting the best professionals forward to a client and giving them more than couple of alternatives, then choosing the most appropriate for them. What else could you ask for? Moreover, the concept is different and challenging and by nature I like anything that goes against the status quo, so overall the crowd sourced model gets a thumbs up from me.

Preach! So what motivated you to get out of your bed and into the fury of the marketing world?

The thought that in a world where an ordinary individual can make a difference gets me really excited. Also, I am determined to at least try to make it and If I fail I will simply get up and try something different until it happens. I am here to say YES where everyone else says NO, but I want to show them that marketing makes it possible to engage with the world, it also makes it possible to create movements and help people change and more importantly,it allows people believe that the change is possible. I think we as marketers, have a responsibility that goes beyond our daily job. In short, we have the opportunity to change the world.

What qualities do you feel a marketer needs to have in order to be successful? Which qualities do you feel you have?

A marketer is a person before anything else, so I feel that someone that is more of a human than a robot will have a greater understanding of the human psyche. Therefore I feel a marketer needs to be proactive, a great listener, empathetic, emotionally intelligent, funny, irreverent and with desire to make something happen. I would say however, that the most important characteristic in a marketer is the attitude, the skills and knowledge can be learned and enhanced, attitude very rarely.

I so far consider myself irreverent, optimistic, determined, loyal, transparent and committed. I do not know if I am something else so answers on a postcard please!

Some nice words there García, some that any social media-ist or SEO for that matter would be proud of ,speaking of which, how would you personally define social media?

[Deep Breath] Here it goes…Social Media is about giving value, being social and communicative with everybody who cross your path, all that is moving from traditional communication “you to all” (press, television, billboards, etc.) to a communication “all to all”.

Recently, it was about providing information to the folks, so the communication was going only in a one way street. On the other hand, Social media is more concerned with giving people a voice and granting them power to change things and make decisions that can affect a brand directly, either in a profitable or harmful way. Therefore, communication opens up and becomes a two way street, where the public and the brands interact, storing and distributing content created by all different natures, for instance. The content allows taking part, collaborating and distributing information “to all, from all”. What’s more, influencing social media takes profit of the “social” phenomena to strengthen the emotional ties that bind people together, creating fans instead of customers.

Social Media is not only about creating and sharing content, but the best experiences achieving when we’re listening, reading, discussing, blogging, commenting, or giving feedback to the rest of the crowd.

In short, social media is about building an effective communication between brands and their environment, helping them to merge a strategy in each social working area.

Yes thank you for telling us ‘in short,’ *cough*with the emergence of web 2.0, marketing strategies have changed and are adapting to new technology. How has this change affected you?

Hey, I like to be detailed before I conclude so it was short technically! But any way as for your question, for arguments sake let’s say social media. Social media has changed everything. Social Media has created leverage. Social media is threatening the status quo, now they are fearful because, social media is feeding and energizing “us” not “them”.

This change has been incredibly important for me, because many years ago I discovered my passion for Social Media Marketing and Marketing/Communication 2.0. The only thing I truly want to do is to stick with it and rock it.

Ahh, we are just teasing you although now we have a slight toughie to ask, the term social media ‘expert’ is often highlighted by many potential candidates and yet have nothing more than a reference to the amount of Twitter followers they have. Please explain what separates you from this particular breed of expert.

I love this question. Let me be clear, how can someone be an expert in social media, if there’s such an unexplored and changing landscape? Is any formula to be successful in SM? Does someone have the key? Social Media is all about trying new things, taking risks and exploring new paths. We are adventurers more than experts. We are exploring an environment full of opportunities to build a better future for all. I just have 1,798 followers on twitter and I would like to have less if that mean that they are true followers, that is to say people that matter, people that care about you. Just a hundred of these type of people is worth 10,000 low value followers (auto-follow, follow-back…) As in LinkedIn, Why do you want 5,000 contacts, if you only can keep up with no more than 150 connections. If this sounds a bit low to anyone, ask them to try an experiment of contacting with 150 connections regularly and attend to all of them and see how they succeed.

And your biggest challenge in the industry so far?

It is happening right now, which is leading an ambitious Social Media strategy for the government opposition and drive it successfully towards the next Spanish elections. We are we going to win this game, for sure!

How about some highlights?

My highlight is more to do with my personal life. Consider that I quit college at 19 and was working in small city near Alicante [Spain] on a textile factory. My rather limited future was written and supposedly set in stone or at least this was the life expected for me. Nevertheless, that temptress called Fate did not count on something, me.

I wasn’t prepared let my life go down this route without a beautiful struggle, so I challenged Ms Fate and changed my future. So, here I am and I’m glad I did it. I proved to myself that we have the power to create our own history, no one can stop me nor anyone else who wants to change their situation.

However, on a side note, it actually is a social media Project I have developed and I am implementing for the Spanish democrat party. It has given me the chance to stand out of the crowd and having a voice in this party.

Do you have any campaigns that you are particularly fond of?

Not really. I live every single project or campaign with the same passion and enthusiasm as the very first one.

We guess that’s where your motto, ‘my job isn’t making waves, but to ride them’ comes in play, can you break this down a bit further?

That’s right. I think today’s scenario give us a great gift (including the economic crisis), it gave us the opportunity of being remarkable, the right to question everything, the choice of making a difference, the ability of empower other people, the possibility of helping individuals and groups achieving their dreams, the choice of stand out from the crowd take the lead and create movements. Whatever happens, we are here to say YES, where all the rest say NO, and showing them that change is the only way to success.

With an answer like that now wonder you’re riding waves instead of drowning in Twitters and Blogs, which bring us to our next question, What do you feel are the pro’s and con’s (in terms of usefulness) of Twitter in the promotion and duration of an event?

The pros is mainly following the development of the event in real-time, keeps you informed about what’s happening and what is hot without the need of being there. On the downside it can be stressful, attention grabbing and sometimes even disturbing, hosts or guests may lose the importance they deserve.

Do you think that Twitter can be suited to every type of event/message?

Yeah! Mainly because, Twitter isn’t a tool or platform, but a communication medium, which has the power to create conversation instead of the typical “noise”, leverage millions of people with just 140 characters and all this in real-time. Therefore, if we identify our audience, create relevant content, adapt it to them and last but not least ship, and deliver it properly. It will be suitable for every form of communication we intend.

Now that you mention noise, we just thought to ask, what are your thoughts on Facebook’s relaxation of privacy settings. Honestly speaking, Facebook only has access to what we choose to be out there so a degree of self censorship needs to be exercised. Isn’t it akin to saying ‘I will leave my front door wide open but I will get upset when somebody tries to look inside my house’, what do you think on the matter?

I see what what you are saying however, and I do think that we all thought that Facebook was too great and perfect to be true, so we came up with this – Although it must be said that it is a severe point to bear in mind We have found its weakness, the privacy. However, if we have a little idea about how Facebook works, we can make an efficient use of privacy settings…Anyway. I think Facebook has realised that they can’t act in such way anymore. This is why they’re introducing improvements at a hectic pace. They cannot afford to be playing with the world’s privacy.

Indeed, we also see your point, they cannot afford any mistakes on any level so fingers crossed its sorted quickly, so digital pr and social media marketing the difference?

With Social Media, we could empower other people by structuring and disassembling concepts and ideas for maximize their reach, build influence and harness the power of global communications and build relationships within a “going social” perspective.

To me, the social media aids comprehension of communication experiences by connecting in a more personal way with the audience, it also optimizes and enhances the relationship with them.

And how has digital PR adapted into your daily routine?

I think my social media framework would sum up all this…

What do you have to care about? Badly designed processes lead to slow and inefficient response of your audience, ineffective communication, wasted time, disappointing experiences and poor degree of engagement. Not to mention driving yourself to nowhere.

This is how I’d do it – Actually, it’s how I do it -[Deep Breath]

· Did I mention the word sharing? Share news resources, tools, best practices, tips and guides through social bookmarking platforms.

· Rock with Twitter: Use it heavily for different purposes such as, RT useful links, Word of Mouth, spread the news, share insights with professionals, learn what is hot now, real-time conversations, gain more affluence and traffic in your social networking platforms, support interesting initiatives, building an outstanding reputation being taken into account in the field I work on, promote your blog, look for trends topics , getting ideas and enlightening tips from brilliant people.

· Your effort and sacrifice deserves being showed and shared for the benefit of others: Posting papers, concepts, frameworks, reports, projects, strategies, marketing plans or campaigns I’ve developed, so the job people can get insights from them.

· Knowledge does not belongs to you or me, but to the universe: Spread what you know, share what others shared with you, teach what you’re good at, learn from everybody, write about how you put in practice these campaigns or explain how you reached that conclusion, what decision made you successful, but above all quote your resources!

· Fall in love in a “long-term relationship” with LinkedIn: Use it insistently for giving and receiving feedback, reading interesting posts, commenting on them, find your key connections and engage with them, share ideas in the groups discussions, also participating in Q & A (either giving advice or receiving it). This should increase your visibility, it will improve one’s chances of being contacted.

· Have a break and have some fun on Facebook: Aim to talk and engage with your friends. Create lists to giving different degree of permissions to your crowd and segmenting the information according to the content you usually share with them.

· Don’t make “waves”, ride them: Use Google Wave for a collaborative tasks, develop projects, exchange ideas, brainstorming, conceptualize campaigns and seeing how others can enhance your work.

· Grease the hub of your timing belt: Your blog, Do you love it? No? You must, because it’s the place where all your efforts, time, money and even romantic relationships are going to end up. All you do on Social Media has being meaningful to your blog. If not, I suggest you may want to reconsider your strategy. Give him a personality, a sense of humor, a purpose, a regularity, a bottle of Möet if he wants it and you’ll have your reason to give the very best of yourself in this URL.

· Managing and optimizing: It is essential to define your strategy, set your goals and monitoring your results but, it’s vital not being overwhelmed by its magnitudes. Hence, write down every procedure, pattern or system you follow to implement your social media workflow and start developing a schedule with all the tasks you performs every day, together with the time spent, the activities, the allowance, restrictions, and of course, deviations.

· Plan for failure: If it doesn’t work, try changing and adjusting things to your needs. I know how it works for me, but this has to be decided on a personal level. Be aware that you need to have hundred of bad ideas to have 1 or 2 great ideas.

Israel, the man with the strategic plan (that finally rhymed!) So seen as you have that down with your wonderfully short explanations what ever is next?

Your sarcasm isn’t cute from here you know, ha ha! But yeah it may sound a little crazy but, I just want to follow my dreams wherever they want to go, and do whatever it takes to accomplish them. Today I may be here in Spain, but frankly I don’t know where I’ll be tomorrow, what I do know is that it will be where my dreams lead me. With that I mind I still have 2 things to do, travel and work in Australia and a 1 year world-round trip.I would love to form an amazing team of strong players, people like me but with better and different skills, people who enhance what I do, then help others in their endeavors.

Just to make things a bit lighter as I’m sure we’ve picked your brain for long enough, name 3 things you could not live without.

My friends

My Mum

Believing in myself every day of my life

And a quick fire round, what, who or which is your favourite:

· Blog? Chrisbrogan.com

· Superhero? My uncle

· Film? Neverland

· Advertising company/company? Ogylvi/Google

· PC or MAC? Mac

. Twitter or Facebook? Twitter

. Linkedin or blurMarketing? Linkedin

And to conclude,what household utensil would best describe you and why?

Funny question! I believe, the household utensil that best describes me, is the knife, because it is usually used to open the way to a new things, perspectives, worlds, approaches…the knife is used to clear and open new paths ready to explore. It also helps others to connect with new environments and take profit of thing that seemed impossible to reach.

You should be brave and cautious at the same time to use it. Also, you want to be very confident and skillful.

Smooth answer! To connect with the wonderfully sharp Israel just click here