Ten Minutes With Shannon Dalton Giordano ’91
Digital Media Expert
Social Support
Shannon Dalton Giordano ’91 received her master’s degree in international development from American University and began her career managing USAID and World Bank projects overseas. In 1999 she and her husband returned to Massachusetts with plans to start a family. The ensuing years brought infertility challenges as well as career development at Fidelity Investments. In 2004 she gave birth to twin sons, and her experience brought her to Fertility Planit, an online community for family building, where she soon took on the role of chief marketing officer. In 2013 Giordano left Fidelity to start Serendipity Social Media Inc.
On starting a business:
Ten years into my job at Fidelity, I met a woman on the Seven Sisters LinkedIn group. She was a Smith grad and the founder of Fertility Planit. She was looking for help with social media, and I volunteered. I kept my day job and started doing all of Family Planit’s social media, bringing together family building experts and producing trade shows in LA and NYC. My work led to other requests for help. Soon I had four clients and decided it was time to branch out on my own, taking the leap in August 2013.
I wanted to do good work without being away from my house for twelve hours every day.
Shannon Dalton Giordano ’91
On embracing social media:
What’s going to engage people and bring them to your business? That’s the true value of social media. Platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn provide a venue for sharing ideas, products, services, and very real innovation. I’m inspired by the creative aspects of social media analysis, community management, and content development. My clients include infertility authors, psychologists, musicians, and lawyers. I love to work to find their voices and understand what they care about in order to build their networks and bring their wisdom and expertise to others.
On going forward:
Building a family was the most difficult challenge of my life. Ultimately it’s been the greatest gift in my life as well. Now a mom to ten-year-old twins, I’m able to share the hard-won wisdom and life lessons that brought me to motherhood. Fertility of the soul and body is within all of us and brings us to new places. That may include mothering a child or birthing a new business or solving the issues of our time around hunger, justice, and peace. There are so many ways we can use our Mount Holyoke education and alumnae network to change the world.
This article appeared in the fall 2014 issue of the Alumnae Quarterly.
October 15, 2014
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