Margaux Guyonneau

Bio:

I’m the Community Manager for ToutApp, an email application that allows you to create templates for the repetitive emails you send and track the success of those templates. I recently graduated from the University of Virginia, where I studied History and Latin American Studies. Last summer, I worked for a marketing consultancy researching social media strategies and discovered Mashable and my passion for the NY tech scene. My roots are in Atlanta, but I’m in love with New York. My favorite movies are Thelma and Louise and The History Boys, and the main staples in my diet are chocolate and cheese.

• Title: Community Manager, ToutApp
• Age: 21
• Location: Financial District
• Contact: @margauxg1

What kind of responsibilities does a Community Manager hold in a startup?

A Community Manager is responsible for communicating with current and potential users in basically every relevant way. It's different for every startup, but a lot of the responsibilities include blogging, attending meetups, reading and responding to Twitter and Facebook posts, and generally maintaining a presence in online and offline conversations about your product.

In your introductory post at ToutApp.com, you mention that you were drawn to technology blogs and the NY tech scene. What is it about technology and NY startups that appeal so strongly to you?

I grew up around small businesses (my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles all ran their own businesses), so I think I've always been drawn to people who are doing something independently. I love NY startups because all of these companies provide solutions that fix life's everyday problems. For someone to go out on their own and build something totally new for the world, that's the ultimate in problem solving and independent thinking. The NY startup scene has a great collaborative feel to it; you can tell that everyone is just as interested in helping other out as they are in promoting their own company, and that was definitely the type of environment I wanted to join.

What do you think is the most important aspect of social media when marketing a startup product like ToutApp?

I think it's really important to engage people on a level that matters to them. Sites like Twitter and Quora provide a great way to look for people who could really use products like ToutApp. There are so many people out there who need a product like ToutApp, because they spend too much of their time sending the same emails over and over, or they don't have any idea whether or not their emails are working for them. The good thing is that people are talking about those problems, so it's relatively easy to use social media sites to engage them in a relevant way. Once you're able to identify the people who want to use your product (even if they don't know it yet), it can really sell itself.

Being a part of organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, a member of Alpha Chi Omega, and writing a handful of posts on Her Campus, do you feel that getting involved in the extracurricular and social community during college has helped you in your career thus far? What skills, gained from being a part of these extracurricular activities, have you been able to apply to your jobs?

Being involved in extra-curricular activities taught me that people are willing to let you do pretty much anything if you just ask, and that having the confidence to ask is the most important part. I would also say that getting used to talking to people I didn't know was incredibly valuable. If someone has similar interests with me, why not talk to them? There's so much learn from other people, and there's no reason to let the fact that you've never met before stop you from figuring it out!