This post was written by Juliann Grant.

My Dear Friends at ISA, In case you didn’t see this news, I am stepping down from my role as ISA’s Social Media Community Manager.  I want you to know how much I enjoyed representing ISA and its members.   

As luck would have it, I was offered an exciting new position at eCoast Sales in Rochester, NH and I decided to take it.

The good news is that I plan to continue to participate in ISA as a volunteer, so I will still be around.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you supporting me in this role as ISA’s Social Media  Community Manager. Moving Forward: Introducing Joel Don.

Because this community is so important, ISA is naming a new community manager who will take over things officially December 1.    I’m pleased to introduce my friend and colleague, Joel Don, who has agreed to take on this role. I had the opportunity to meet Joel at the 7th Annual ISA Marketing and Sales Summit where he came and presented a session on the ROI of Social Media.  I had gotten to professionally know Joel over the last couple of years on Twitter.  

And while Joel has the business of social media nailed, I also discovered that he has a little bit of an 80s music streak in him, don’t let him fool you.  Although he argued with me about this...it was not TRUE 80s music, but a crazy cover band who dressed like DEVO. I am excited that Joel is taking on this important role at this point in time.

We are on to some good things.  We have great momentum and want to keep things going by providing an active forum to share technical information and expertise.  Joel already has some great new ideas to help the ISA community move forward. Here’s a little background about Joel:

Formally trained in journalism at Northwestern University's Medill school, Joel worked for a number of years at daily and weekly newspapers and as a contributing editor for McGraw-Hill technology publications.  He transitioned to public relations and marketing with a focus on computers and technology, and was an early user of the Internet (before Al Gore “invented” it), "engaging" with others via CompuServe user groups and doing research via the Dialog and Knowledge Index databases.  He views the growth of social platforms and tools as a natural evolution of the desire of people to connect globally and to consume content without (news media, editorial) intermediaries. 

Joel also has a keen interest in ways to leverage technology for marketing ROI/measurement, and even built an online portal to measure the readership hits for company press releases before link-shortening services and other tools later were able to deliver those kinds of metrics. Joel’s automation industry experience started in the mid-1990s with HMI pioneer Wonderware, a company which retained his services for more than 12 years until it was acquired and re-positioned as a brand of Invensys plc.  He has worked with other automation industry leaders, including SimSci-Esscor, Triconex, Foxboro, Software Toolbox, Mtelligence, Invensys Operations Management and Parsec Automation.

Please join me in welcoming Joel.  I hope you will extend him the same support and warmth that you have provided to me over this past year. Until we meet again...

In the meantime, if we have not connected on LinkedIn, I invite you to do just that!