Who's got two thumbs and has a front row seat to this month's Social Media Week LA/SMCLA collab on social media and retail/ecommerce? Me! Haven't bought your ticket yet? Here's the link - get your ticket now and avoid the hassle of at-the-door tickets: http://smclaretail.eventbrite.com/. Need more motivation? Meet another of our speakers for Monday, September 24's event - Nicole DeRuiter. Ever go to the market and think, what would this market tweet? Well, at Fresh and Easy, Nicole is your go-to. Read on!

Nicole is a communicator at heart and currently works as the Social Media Manager for Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. Fresh & Easy is a growing grocery chain serving Arizona, California and Nevada with nearly 200 stores and a significant private label food line produced at the company’s manufacturing kitchen in Riverside, CA.In her current role, Nicole serves as the strategic brain and as well as the majority content creator for the brand across various social platforms. She will admit to loving the occasional treats that show up on her desk as ‘gifts’ from product buyers…Prior to her role at Fresh & Easy, Nicole served as the Manager, Emerging Media at Teleflora. Nicole’s early career work in traditional public relations and radio & television broadcasting provided valuable skills for her work in social media.Nicole holds a Master’s in Communications Management from USC’s Annenberg Program on Online Communities and a Bachelor’s in Applied Arts from Central Michigan University.When not on the job, Nicole likes to spend time learning to play her new ukulele and Skyping with her young nephews back home in Michigan.There's Nicole in a nutshell. What works in a big grocery chain may still work in a tiny micr0-business online. I'd like to know from Nicole:

1. What tools are you using to make social media management more efficient of your time?
2. You've got over 200 stores to pull content from - how do you decide on which stores to highlight? Or do you?
3. What is your overall strategy for Fresh and Easy as we come up to the holidays?
4. What's your strongest social network for Fresh and Easy?
5. What does success look like at F&E?
6. Can you play Stairway to Heaven on your ukelele?

Got your own questions to ask Nicole? Drive over to Cross Campus LA (Santa Monica) on Monday, September 24 and ask her yourself! Tickets are only $10 (before 9/24) - we keep our rates low so everyone can afford to join in the conversation. See you there!