Meet our new Chief: Sam Noble!
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Meet our new Chief: Sam Noble!

18th November 2014

A little over a year ago we re-branded State of Search into State of Digital. This was a big shift for us, which had lots of implications. It was a lot of work re-branding, finding our new audiences and keeping our old.

All this time the editorial team has been of a huge importance to the site. To the outside it may have seemed as if I was doing it all, in fact the team had a huge role in this. This is why I thanked them on our birthday in September.

Working on the re-brand and getting State of Digital to the next level has been hard work and we have taken some important steps. Now it’s time to take the next steps. And in next steps leadership is important.

There have been written many books on leadership. Everybody has their own opinions on it and every leader does things differently. One thing always comes back though: new faces mean new impulses, mean new next steps. So the next step for State of Digital should involve ‘new faces’.

Some of these new faces will be new bloggers on the website, but there is one face, which is not necessarily new, who will be playing a big role in this: that of Sam Noble.

Starting today Sam Noble will be the new (co-)chief editor of State of Digital!

In the past few months behind the scenes Sam has already been playing a big role. She has been acting as chief editor for the bloggers, arranging things and planning the future of State of Digital together with me and the team.

[Tweet “WOW!!! @Koozai_Sam new chief of State of Digital!! Brilliant!!”]

It is now time to give Sam the stage she deserves: as the leading editor on State of Digital.

sam-noble-pictureHow will it work?

Sam will be joining me as the lead of the team, taking over some of my ‘duties’ in communication and strategy. Some of the plans coming through in the next months will be her ideas! I won’t bore you with the details, but you can be sure she will have quite the say in things happening on the site.

Practicing what we preach

Sam will continue her job at Koozai as she does now and will be Chief Editor in her spare time, just like me. This means we will both combine the role with other work, making sure that we actually practice what we preach: doing the best marketing to be able to teach about it.

‘What does this mean for Bas’ role?’ I can hear you think. Well yes, I will be taking a step back, but don’t worry; I’ll still be around and will be playing my role, just less visible than before, where Sam will be more visible.

Why Sam?

I have known Sam for several years now after meeting her at an SMX conference in London for the first time. Quickly after she guest blogged a few times on the site and then came on as a regular blogger. Sam became an editor when we first set up the editorial team on State of Search. From the minute she joined the team she showed her capacities and potential. It was clear quite soon that she would be playing a bigger role in the future.

Last year Sam became a mother and stepped back a little work-wise. This also meant a different role within State of Digital, going into a more strategical role. Slowly but surely she was moving towards becoming chief already, even though none of us knew that at the time. With Sam now back at work at Koozai she has kindly agreed to offer up some of her spare time to State of Digital.

Making her Chief Editor of State of Digital is a very logical step for me and it makes me proud as well. I like talented people, I like to give them the platform they deserve, and Sam definitely deserves this platform.

So it’s time to hand things over to Sam. I’m going to do that ‘virtually’ by introducing her to you via a few questions. You probably know her already, but maybe there’s something you didn’t know yet from her, who knows ;).

Sam, for those that don’t know you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your role at Koozai?

Sure…. I have worked in online marketing since 2006 when I joined a financial services company to run the paid advertising for their secured loan division. I then moved to Koozai, a dedicated digital marketing agency, back at the start of 2008 and have been there ever since. Since joining Koozai, I have had three roles; Digital Marketing Executive (running PPC and SEO campaigns for clients), Head of Search (managing the Search Team) and for the past three years I have been the Marketing Director. My role is very much geared around making sure our clients get the best possible service, our team are looked after in terms of their personal development and that the company achieves its targets.

What is your expectation of being Chief Editor of State of Digital?

As they say, having two pairs of hands is better than just having one. There are lots of things we want to do with State of Digital and with both of us working towards the same goal, I would like to think we can get some of these ideas implemented faster.

How do you see the future of State of Digital?

Bas and I have spoken lots about this over the past six months and there is so much that we want to do. One of the main things for me is ensuring that we continue to deliver first class content and retain and grow the audience we have got. We aren’t your typical ‘news’ site; we like to share content that our audience can relate to, learn from and put into action. Whenever we write content, we always ask the bloggers to put the audience first and ask themselves ‘so what…’ at the end of writing the piece. It is important to always summarise the post and make the stuff you wrote worth reading and acting upon.

We have a lot of plans including new content formats and ideas which I hope you will all enjoy.

Can you tell us one thing about yourself most readers won’t know yet?

Ummm, let me see. I went travelling round Australia for four months in-between leaving the financial services company and joining Koozai. I spent three of those months driving all over the country with a big group, selling strawberries to local businesses and their customers. It was a great opportunity and something that I look back on now and realise how just much the experience taught me. During the three months driving, I visited so many places including most of the major cities like Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane!

Thank you Sam and good luck!

 

Please join me in congratulating Sam, tweet, share on Facebook or comment your celebrations to Sam 🙂

[Tweet “Congratulations to @Koozai_Sam for being the new Chief Editor of State of Digital!”]

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Bas van den Beld is an award winning Digital Marketing consultant, trainer and speaker. He is the founder of State of Digital and helps companies develop solid marketing strategies.
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