Mark Schaefer (author)
Mark W. Schaefer (born June 7, 1960) is an American author, professor, frequent speaker and marketing consultant with a focus on social media marketing.
Introduction
Schaefer wroteThe Tao of Twitter and Return on Influence. He has appeared on national television shows and periodicals including the Wall Street Journal, Wired, The New York Times, and CBS News. Forbes magazine named him as one of the top 50 social media "Power Influencers."
Background
Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Schaefer graduated from West Virginia University in 1982 with a BSJ in Journalism. He earned an MBA from Claremont Graduate University at the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management in 1992 and studied under American manangement expert Peter Drucker from 1990-1992. In 1997, he earned an MA in Applied Behavioral Sciences from Basytr University (WA). Schaefer spent his early career in journalism, video production, public relations, and sales account management. In the mid-1990s he became a marketing director for Alcoa where he worked with global brands such as Coca-Cola and Anheuser-Busch. In 2001, he accepted a job to lead Alcoa's international eBusiness team and was responsible for CRM, eCommerce, and digital marketing implementations in countries such as Brazil China, and Russia. In 2008 he formed the U.S.-based consulting company Schaefer Marketing Solutions LLC. In 2009, he founded his blog {grow}, which examines The Intersection of marketing, technology, and humanity.
Current career
Schaefer is Founder and Executive Director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, LLC. He authored two books on social media. Return on Influence and The Tao of Twitter describe social media practices and how the creation of Klout influences personal and business success.
Teaching
Schaefer began teaching at the college level in 2009 with courses at Tusculum College (TN) and created social media marketing curriculums for later that year for Pelissippi State College (TN). He developed a similar curriculum for Rutgers University (NJ) in 2010. He now serves as an adjunct faculty member at the Rutgers University Center for Management Development.
He actively lectures on the university circuit and his appearances include Oxford University (UK), Carnegie-Mellon University (PA), Princeton University (NJ), Indiana University, New York University, and many other institutions.
Consulting
Mark Schaefer consults on marketing strategy, business development, and social media marketing. His clients include IBM, AT&T, Johnson & Johnson, and the U.K. government.
Social Slam
In 2010 Schaefer founded an annual national social media conference in Knoxville, TN. named Social Slam.
Speaking
Mark Schaefer is a frequent speaker at universities, industry conferences, and marketing seminars. His keynote appearances include National Economic Development Conference, National Association of State CIOs, National Trucking Association, OI Conference (Wales), Social Media Success Summit, Blog World New Media Expo, PR News Measurement Summit and Social Media Week London.
Awards and Accolades
- Mark Schaefer received seven patents for new product innovations during his career at Alcoa.
- AdAge Power 150 marketing blogs of the world out of the 1121 tracked daily.
- Named one of the top 50 social media "Power Influencers" of the world by Forbes.
- TweetSmarter Twitter User of the Year - 2011
- B2B Twitter Personality of the Year - 2011
Books
Schaefer has authored two best-selling business books and has contributed to several others.
Return on Influence
Return on Influence (ISBN 978-0071791090) explores how personal and corporate influence differ in the online world compared to the "real world" and how companies are tapping into a new era of "citizen influencers" to create advocates for their brands. Return On Influence was the first book to examine the field of "social scoring," where companies like Klout assign influence values to individuals based on the content they share on social media platforms. The American Library Association named Return On Influence as one its Outstanding Academic Titles of 2012. According to the Association, "This list reflects the best in scholarly titles and brings With It the extraordinary recognition of the academic library community." The scholarly review called the book a "path-finding contribution" and "an essential work for marketing professionals."
The Tao of Twitter - Changing Your Life and Business 140 Characters at a Time
The Tao of Twitter (ISBN 978-0071802192) was self-published by Schaefer in 2010 and was re-launched in an updated EDition in 2012, when the rights to the book were sold to McGraw.
Contributions
Mark W. Schaefer contributed chapters to the books Social Boom (2011) by Jeffrey Gitomer, 8 Mandates for Social Media Marketing Success by Kent Huffman, and Engagement from Scratch (2011) by Guy Kawasaki and others. He wrote the foreword to Everyone is in Sales (2012) by Ryan Sauers.