This is for all my homies on the phone and PTO…(and thanks to Keith who also took notes and collaborated with me on this, he is the T-pain to my “insert name of artist here”)

Rocca $5 Apps tonight and possibly every night, or every Thursday, although, by the time you’re reading this, it’s probably over.

CAT G.– Gets the awesome job trophy, for her work on Modular Sign up, House Pay to Play Campaigns (on top of her normal duties as Producer extraordinaire)

Birthdays

• Sandhya: 10/3
• Katie: 10/5
• Rob: 10/11
• David (W): 10/16
• Ryan: 10/18
• Megan (D): 10/22
• Carla (E, not B): 10/28

New Employees: (Welcome)

• Peter T.
  
• Kelsey M.
  

Leaving Employees:

• Cheyanne (http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/cherish/shesgone.htm)

Welcome Back/Congratulations:

• Louisa (W not C)

ADVOCACY PLATFORM (Code Name: Goose)

Goal is to launch prototype on 11/4 and then launch for realz sometime in Q1

The Premise: [**sorry, can't let this cat out of the bag yet...]

There were a million questions about this…

• Monitoring: Extranet
• UK: Hopefully
• Negative WOM: Bound to happen, an acceptable risk
• Policing: Self Policing (so, your blog www.GunPorno.com/politics_cigarettes ) will be promptly 86-ed by our community)
• Honeycombs: Yes
• If you have more questions talk to Dave/Malcolm or Kurt

Anonymous Questions

Q: Recycling is the law these days, so can we finally get one of our trash folks to allow us to recycle more:

A: Yes, but it doesn’t take effect for a while, but we’ll be on it

Q: Honeycombs board: Understandable that we want people to participate, but public humiliation is lame

A: We had to do something as this is a big problem in the company, and this was the best way

Many people are new, or don’t get invites, some don’t want to participate, some think clients should want us in the Campaigns, there was much discussion about this, to be honest, I’m not 100% sure where we ended up, I think the consensus was: Please participate when you can and it makes sense to do so, but if you’re forcing yourself, don’t steal a spot from a deserving/excited Agent.  You can also participate and frog, if you don’t know how to gain honeycombs check it out at http://www.bzzagent.com/member/bzzperks/BzzPerks.do?action=howstatus

Q: Holiday Party

A: Save the date is sent, invite coming soon

Q: What’s going on for Halloween?

A: People are going to dress up; there may be a costume contest

Q: Goals for the year, how close are we?

A: Q2 Was tough, but Q3 was great and Q4 is shaping up to be strong.

• Q1 – largest quarter in company history
  
• Q2 – 92 day sale cycle went to 142 days.  Yikes.
• Q3 – 4th largest quarter in company history. We’re back.
  
• Q4 – pretty darn good (so far)
  

Things in the market are tough and erratic, and it shows but we’re weathering pretty well (thanks to our kick ass sales team, a focus on high quality programs and a revenue-focused model)

Q: Partnerships

• Rogers, going well
• My Points, has exceeded expectations
  
• Attensity: Implementation going well
• WPP/Group M/Ogilvy – All going smoothly
• ChatThreads
• Discussions w/ the big social networks (shhh)
  

Q: Why do we only sell (Via Netquote) what we’re comfortable with? If we sold 10%/20% above what we’re comfortable with wouldn’t that be better/grow the network/etc

A: Netquote numbers are a stretch as it is, so 10%-20% more would put us in a lot of tough spots, and possibly end up with us spending AOD money, however this is something that we discuss often, and we’re working to new products that will allow us to run campaigns beyond our “agent-means” without resorting to money

Q: Seriously, Cheyanne is leaving, that’s the worst right?

A: Yes

I’ve been at BzzAgent for just over four years, and I think that we’ve lost our way.  I’ve got nostalgia, but I’ve also got perspective, and I’ll leave it to you to separate one from the other.

Back in the day of 20 employees, and maybe even in the days of 40 and 60, the Agents were our partners.  With ComDevs responding to BzzReports all day long in the office, there was a very real feeling of connection to the Agents out there.  Our work was pervaded with a sense that these people were helping us make this word-of-mouth experiment a success.  It was the Agents who were proving their worth to our clients; we were just the go-betweens and the cheerleaders.  In an “us vs. them” world, the clients were “them”, and we and the Agents were “us.”

Agents have become a “them.”  We commonly told stories about our most wacky Agents, which felt to us like stories about those friends whose quirks make you enjoy them all the more.  They taught new employees an unexpected and untrue lesson, though: that Agents are a crew of crazy people that we use, but whom we don’t really relate to.  Meanwhile, ComDev moved to a rotating group of faceless telecommuters scattered across the country, so we lost our strongest connection to Agents.  We had one employee who could be said to control the friendly BzzAgent “voice” and steer the Agent experience, but his role was limited as he launched another business, so the voice and experience began to be dictated by clients.  Employees used to be in almost every BzzCampaign, but now when someone asks what the latest BzzReporting interface looks like, no one in the room knows, and all of a sudden we aren’t Agents ourselves.  The words “our Agents” have drifted from meaning “our partners” to meaning “our possessions.”  And we’ve started to hear words applied to Agents that we’ve never heard before: lifetime value, monetize, dollars-per-click, dollars-per-acquisition.

Agents are now our cattle, and the Central Hive isn’t even the ranchers, who live with their cattle every day.  We’re the executives who are willing to serve poor-quality food because some cattle will eat it, because we maintain “reasonable attrition rates” and “above-average productivity”, and because more cattle are being born every day.

This business needs to remember that Agents aren’t to us what “consumers” are to other businesses.  BzzAgent was special because we treated people like they matter for more than their power to spend money and spread word-of-mouth.  Agents are our partners in a common mission, to teach corporations that empowered, engaged people make better customers.  And the only way to empower & engage people is to remember that everything that you learned about it at your last job is wrong.

How do we teach that to every employee, and get back on the path that we lost?

After six seasons as captain of the BzzAgent Killer Bee’s soccer team, I am signing over my duties to MSB. It’s been a pleasure playing with you guys and we’ve had a great run, haven’t we? A few of the more memorable highlights to share with the world:

- Befriending other teams (and picking up Z) after a few rounds of drinks

- Invigorating the atmosphere of Brighton’s dive bars, and making friends with bikers

- Playing (one) game with Dave, in which he wore sunglasses the entire time

- Becks and Posh moments

- My graceful mud dive, thanks to the rough guy on the red team

- Chris…The League Tough Guy

- Rain outs, snow outs, no lights, no refs

- The ballet dancer form of McGlinn

- Playoffs in December – in sheets of rain

- The bizarre, ever-changing outfits of Toof

- 1,000’s of just-barely-missed shots on the 6′x6′ goal – seriously, 1,000’s…

Have a great fall season and beyond! Thank you BzzAgent for supporting the team all these years – one last game on Friday…GO BEES!

(What a tough looking crew?!)

Having worked with several entrepreneurs throughout my career, I’ve noticed precisely nine common traits that unite them together and distinguish them from the rest of us.  But what’s particularly interesting is this: just as these characteristics unify entrepreneurs into a discrete group, so too do they corral those who work for them into a community of their own.  You see, entrepreneurs inadvertently create a culture in which the staff that survive bond over the realization that it is not each of them that is crazy.

Enter Exhibit A: This post.  I wrote this post because our entrepreneur/leader constantly complains that too few blog posts are being submitted.  I decided to write minimal text, and instead let the image speak for itself.  After reviewing the post, our entrepreneur/leader informed me that “we” (another baffling entrepreneurial habit is to use plural pronouns when assigning tasks to an individual) need to add more text to make this post more about “the business” (code for “the entrepreneur,” himself?).  So that’s what I am doing.  And, in doing so, I have found myself reconsidering the image, itself.  Perhaps the size of the rearmost lobe (labeled “self-esteem,” which was polite for “ego”), should be, err, adjusted.

So what’s it like to work for an entrepreneur? It’s a never-ending exercise in dimestore psychology and a constant evaluation of one’s own sanity.  That’s what it’s like, every moment of every day.  But yet I have voluntarily worked for several, so maybe my next post should dissect the brain of the entrepreneur staff member?  That could be a more valuable exercise.

Anyway, I hope that was a sufficient amount of text.  Now let’s get back to the interesting stuff.  Alas, I present you, dear reader, with Pepe’s “Phrenology of the Entrepreneur.” Limitless thanks to Papa Bonus for his help with the image.

Hi there BeeLoggers! My name is Cat and I am a Sr. Producer at the Central Hive.

My role in the Hive includes project management of BzzCampaigns. Each campaign team includes a Media Services Director (who are the clients’ main point of contact, rolling out campaign success strategies), a Campaign Analyst (who invite agents and measure the results of the campaigns), and a Producer (aka Project Manager, who manages the schedule and the creative production). We work, along with other staffers in various capacities, to take each BzzCampaign from our clients to our agents.

I have been at the Hive for almost a year now and after working on a few BzzCampaigns, I realized that many of the campaigns home pages never really change much. It seems like there aren’t a lot of reasons for agents to keep visiting the campaign home page after the first week or so of the campaign. So, I started to brainstorm, I asked myself,

self, how can we spice it up a little? How can we use this page to encourage Bzzing over the course of the campaign?

When various clients kept providing video files for use somewhere in the campaign, the green light went on for me; “(green light!) why aren’t we using videos at all? That would really spice things up.” Video content can be extremely captivating for web audiences when used well, so I thought this was something we could test.

Over the past few months, we have been experimenting with changing up the campaign home page content every other week for a few campaigns. When we make the changes, we notify agents of the new content via email updates. Eventually, when the timing was right, those biweekly campaign home page refreshers started to include a few of those videos.

We included hilarious “Go Meat” commercials for the Hillshire Farm Deli Wraps BzzCampaign, testimonials for the Wachovia campaign, unboxing and review videos for the Logitech Harmony One (there are still more on the way too), and we linked to videos from our sponsor’s websites in a few cases.

Our goal in adding these videos to the campaign home page is to keep agents engaged, not only at home with the product they are bzzing, but on the BzzAgent website. The videos should try to have helpful information about the product that can help Agents Bzz the product or should be somewhat entertaining and interesting for agents.

For 2 test campaigns and for the Choose & Cook campaign, we even went as far as to produce a few videos straight from the Hive. The most intensive one to produce features our beloved copy writer, Keith starring in a cooking segment where he prepares a delicious treat with Carolina Jasmine Rice (it was great, I ate it for dinner) – check it out:

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

However, for some campaigns we just couldn’t find any videos, but not for lack of trying. This endeavor is still in its infancy and we have more exploring to do but I think we are on a positive track. There has even been talk of including more video BzzReports submitted by agents on the campaign home page – so keep submitting so we can keep exploring this option as well.

From the limited feedback I have seen, agents seem to notice the videos and the changing campaign home page content – have you seen any of it? What do you think?

This post is completely gratuitous, has very little in terms of content and you won’t learn anything from it. Aside from the fact that the marketing team and part of the engineering team is moving from their existing workstations to a new room which was previously sub-let and had never really been used by BzzAgent employees.

As usual with those things and though it is for the greater good, while some are psyched, others are less than enthralled at the prospect of the move. Sue and her team are doing their best to make it easy for all and I am sure that everyone will be quite happy in the end.

I came upon this sight today, as our BzzGuide library is being moved to make room for the new settlers and I thought it warranted a photo (can you recognize any BzzGuide from campaigns you were part of ?):

This is the new room, still under construction:

How’s it going? I’m doing great. I’ve been working at BzzAgent for about, oh, 8 weeks now and I’m enjoying myself. You see, I come from a very different agency – an agency that did more traditional advertising (print ads, websites, and collateral materials). And quite frankly, I needed something a little different. Oddly enough, at my old job, the bosses would constantly say, “Nothing sells better than word of mouth. How do we generate word of mouth?”

As I embarked on that fearful task of job searching (and I’m 2 years out of college, so I JUST searched for a job and it’s hard work and I plan to stay put now), I came across BzzAgent and they did WORD OF MOUTH. Now, naturally I was curious as to how this business bottled up this phenomenon and made it work since I just came from an agency that was still working on it.

Now that I’ve been here for about a few months, I’m starting to see it.

I’ve been reading through BzzReports and seeing how naturally word of mouth comes to our Agents. Just in talking to my friends, I’m constantly recommending one thing or another, “Oh, I heard about this new xyz place. Let’s try it out.” (Sometimes, it comes off motherly when I recommend things, but it’s all out of love.) Although it seems so natural to tell people what you know about, I can tell you that it’s hard work getting a campaign going and the people here work their tails off to make it happen and give Agents a good experience (perhaps one day I’ll write about how that goes down). It’s also great to see how the Central Hive gets genuinely excited about new deals, successful campaigns and the growth of the company.

In conclusion, I say hello to you all and that I’m happy to be at the Hive.

Being 24 years old, living in a city, and having come from a company full of 45 year old financial consultants I thought to myself ‘self, you are going to work with a bunch of cool 20 somethings and drink beers with them, and hang out, and be friends.’ Right, totally. So after a few months, I found myself enjoying this office, these 20 somethings, and the general fun that goes along with hanging out with your co-workers. The problem then becomes, are these people friends? Or are they coworkers? Often times things are said over dinner or at a bar that are totally acceptable amongst a group of friends, but what happens when someone brings them up in the office? And is it possible to have “friend” relationships with these people before 8:30am and after 5:30pm and on the weekends, but have a totally professional relationship that doesn’t involve any of the activities that take place during these times? Not to mention the fact that I think I have more BzzAgent facebook friends than any other social group I travel in.

So after a few weeks of having my personal life and my office life be one in the same, I approached our CEO on the subject. His general input was as follows (paraphrased, of course): in your 20’s the people you work with can be very much part of your social network, you spend a ton of time together, usually share similar interests, and are forced in to close quarters. After 29, all bets are off – your life changes, you get married, have kids, then you spend less time worrying about making friends at work and more about managing the friendships you already have [or wondering why you have no friends].

So yes, you can be friends with coworkers.

What do you think? Is it possible to leave what happens outside the office, outside the office? Or is it just human nature to remind people of what they said after a few beers, or that time they shot coffee out of their nose?

I am two hours into a flight to Las Vegas. My five-dollar, airline-issue headphones failed to perform their designated function – that is, to produce sound – thereby returning Transformers to its cozy slot in my Netflix queue. Time for Plan B: writing a post for the BeeLog.

In a way, posting this blog is the least I can do. You see, unlike many of my colleagues (particularly those hired recent months), I didn’t go to business school. I didn’t graduate from an Ivy. Heck, I am grateful my alma mater is even listed in the Barron’s books. As a result, precious few MBA terms find their way into my lexicon. But here’s one I do know: soft dollar. While I am sure there exists a complicated-sounding, SEC-ratified definition, I typically use “soft dollar” to describe a value that is real, though not immediately calculable. For example, there are soft dollar advantages for an athlete who plays a for major market team because big cities provide greater opportunities for endorsement contracts.

Metaphorically, BzzAgent is our collective ticket to card show signings and personal appearance deals. Whether you aspire to be cooler at house parties or get noticed by companies you never though would pay attention to you, at some point each of us will be able to trade on the company’s success. In the convergent worlds of advertising and media, BzzAgent has become an emblem for change. And that emblem is sewn onto the lapel of everyone who works here.

I know my “high decibel conversations” with Dave often can be heard by those seated near his office. I am also aware I spend a good portion of my day cursing, muttering and sighing. But I never lose count of the soft dollars that line my red wallet.

Take the flight I am on. I am traveling to Las Vegas not for an industry event, press interview or client meeting. Rather, I am headed to the Strip because I was invited to join the Board of Advisors for a start-up company that is working with the world’s largest trade magazine publisher. We are meeting to revive a once-great Internet industry event. Yet as much as I would like to believe I received this invitation because rumor of my marketing acumen has moved the world’s top executives to seek out my counsel, I know that’s untrue. It’s the logo – not the name – on my business card that triggered this call.

Let me be clear. I am not suggesting we put our own professional or social agenda before the company’s goals. I would not have interrupted my workweek with this trip if there wasn’t a clear benefit to BzzAgent, such as placing Dave as a speaker at a conference that will be rich with Web 2.0 and social media themes. All I am really saying is that some benefits cannot be itemized in an employment package.

Looked at another way, at some point during the next 48 hours I will find my way to the roulette wheel. If I were to try to attempt to trade a fist full of soft dollars for a tall stack of chips, the pit boss would have me removed from the casino. But just because the Mandalay Bay doesn’t deal in soft dollars, it doesn’t mean they aren’t every bit as valuable as their hard counterparts.

Dave recently posted a somewhat tongue-in-cheek entry called “This Is How I Know We’re Corporate”. My response is freaking long, but I’m not sorry, and I hope you read it. Especially if you work here.

If you’re not familiar with Dave’s post, here’s a recap: anonymous employee survey, some questions were risqué (who’d couple up, who’d get killed first, etc.), survey was pulled to avoid offending people.

I do think that BzzAgent has become more corporate over the last few years (and the overall friendly culture has suffered somewhat as a result), but I’m not so sure that the survey being pulled was an example of that. I agree that some of the questions were powder kegs. I actually started to answer some of them and stopped halfway through because I realized I wouldn’t be comfortable submitting my answers. Some were “too honest”.

We may not be the typical company, but most offices are pretty similar. There’s gossip, there’s frustration, there’s a fair amount of joking around that wouldn’t make it onto network TV.

Still, would employees very publicly (albeit anonymously) outing gossip or frustration be something that a rebellious, freewheeling startup would condone, or would it just be something a stupid company would do? I wish I could read what other people submitted for their answers, but at the same time, I have to wonder if it was plain common sense and respect, and not red tape, that stopped the survey.

If anything, I’d say more appropriate signs that we’re “more corporate” would be stuff like:

· We don’t know each other’s names or what exactly other people do here (or even what department they’re in).

· Individuals, and sometimes entire sections of the office, are skipped during introductory walkarounds of new employees. Perhaps this is related to the previous point?

· Not many people dressed up for Halloween, and beforehand you could have easily guessed who was going to dress up – and who wasn’t. Sounds silly, but this is some Freakonomics stuff here, yo.

· Who goes out to the local pub for drinks/socializing with coworkers/playing Big Buck Hunter & video bowling? I’m not saying we should all be attached at the hip, but there seems to be more of a “I’m just here to do a job, I don’t want to talk to you” vibe than there used to be.

· Do you only talk to people in your department, or people you see as “on your level” within the company? Regardless of where you are on the org chart, there’s unfortunately a pretty decent chance this applies to you.

Maybe we’re not a small company anymore. And maybe things aren’t as grabass as they used to be. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be a friendly company where we actually bother to get to know each other. I think we’re caught between what we think the company is or should be (friendly and you know, different) and what it’s actually becoming (perhaps not those things). Whatever we are, and whatever we need to stay or become, needs to be figured out. There’s a big disconnect here, and the drift and static are disheartening and distracting. Maybe I’m wrong about all of this, and I really hope I am, but I look around and I don’t like what I see.

Anyway, if you work here at BzzAgent, here are a few things about me that you could use to start a conversation:

· Mainly, I write and edit BzzGuides and other copy.

· I like hockey and playing guitar. I watch lots of movies and TV shows. My favorite book is The Odyssey.

· When I was a baby, I ate so many carrots that my hands and feet turned orange.

I’ll try to be more outgoing and start conversations with you too, but if you throw off bad vibes (I know I’m guilty of it at times), maybe that’s more dangerous to corporate culture than a survey about employees boning on a tropical island.