Dead Media

Two days ago we posted another Craigslist ad, looking for interns. About 10 weeks ago we were posting the first ad for interns, followed by an intense interviewing process, and eventually we started orientation with the 2 teams of 2 that made the cut.

In the following weeks I coached the 2 teams through developing a social media promotional schedule (when/where/what to post), established our presence thoroughly on Facebook, Last.fm, Myspace, Craigslist, Twitter and a variety pack of event listing sites; and finally documented the process for future interns to manage.

Then in the later 5 weeks I orchestrated a blogger outreach program in which the interns were directed to research and establish promotions with as many local bloggers as would respond. We hit over 50 and have arranged promotions with 25 or 30.

Team 1 was comprised of Ryan and Alex, an excitable, gregorious, born-marketer; and a viciously shy and painfully brilliant engineer-type.

Team 2 held Lauren and Max, a seeker without a path, and a party-boy with a future.

Clearly I liked them all for their own measure, and I feel good about the fact that they seem to have left feeling fulfilled; like they got what they each wanted from us.

I got what I wanted. Another raise, a long list of tasks checked off my list and a proven solution to our content management problems.

What made this work so well, I believe, was the free exchange of ideas and knowledge. I tried to make sure that I invested the time into explaining the ‘why of things’ to each, so that they could put it use somewhere else.

I’ve really fallen for this attitude now, to ‘pay it forward’; that the best of business takes place with friendly, innovative rivalry. And I use that word loosely…

Think of open source. Hell, think of crowdsourcing. Innovation comes from testing and sharing ideas. My buddies in Team 1, as different as can be…they caught a spark between them that I focused to do very good work. Exciting…

While I want different things from my next interns, my approach will still focus on that very necessary element of mutual advancement.

The same with the bloggers, because while I want things from them; I want to give them access to so much more.

After all, why compete when you can collaborate?

Evan and Biz should be paying me for as much of the day as I talk about Twitter. The socialmediaplosion that seems to have everyone running around frantically trying to figure out how to throw money at the ‘social networking’ fad.

I said it. Fad.

Not like jams or emo music (epic-lame and gone like *poof*), more like the iPod which has sort of phased into a suite of products (like the iPhone) and left it’s conceptual roots behind.

So Youmans and I are perpetually arguing about technology’s positive/negative affect on art (and why I think he’s a luddite bastard for not liking twitter). And Mike and I are spending some serious time hammering out exactly what it is, and how we can tap into the twittexperience.

Because, we’re throwing money at it too.

Fast forward from yesterday to today…and let’s talk about walking in a new set of shoes (proverbially).

I got invited to be part of a test group, giving opinions on a the new directory.wfaa.com (shhh…its only pseudo-live so don’t go telling all your friends just yet).

That was fun, and educational. And for once, no one in the room was partnered with TicketsNow, so there was nothing to fight about…which was nice for a change (that little hot-bed of an issue is a M F N beat-down at work). But today, I got to shake hands with a few nice folks at Belo Interactive…and ask some pointed questions.

Amazing how that beheamoth operates. If Belo were a mythical creature it would be a hydra…thrashing about with no conscience or consciousness shared between it’s massive heads.

What’s it like to try to squeeze innovation out of a lumbering giant? The peeps I spoke with were all sharp tacks and obviously dedicated to their product. And it was probably a bit impolite of me to ask if it was ironic that Belo Interactive outsourced their technology development…but the obvious polarity of the identity and the reality was too overwhelming.

For the record…I intend to buy us placement on their site (technically I already did because I put the first $10 on my own card today at the thing). Because, while its ironic as fuck that it works the way it does, they have undeniable brand dominance. And while it has plenty of room to grow (and probably won’t) it works, it’s local in the market and it’s pay-per-click.

Fast foward to tonight. Lauren is a very nice girl that grew up here in Dallas, TX and goes to school at Emory in Georgia and studies Psychology and Sociology. She was very pleasant, and well-spoken and obviously a smart, motivated person. For the life of me, however, I could not extract from her what made her think about applying for an internship at the Granada (a music venue).

Lauren is the first of about 20 people we’ll put through a whirlwind interview process next week to come up with 4 new interns for the summer. If the plan works, we’d do it all the time (all year long…forever) so its a little daunting. But I have to say that it would solve a lot of problems if it worked, by increasing workflow capacity and only marginally increasing production cost for our more experimental marketing campaigns.

If there’s any theme to this post other than the chronological, it would be that so many things happen in a day that at the end I’m not sure if we won or not most of the time…but I know that we’re trying really hard to figure out if we’re winning or not.