No offense to my IT and CMO buddies, of course I’m not talking about you guys ;)

Welcome to the first podcast from the Digital Innovation Group (DIG) at Engauge. Our group researches, tests, and experiments with innovative and emerging technology to heighten our understanding of total engagement between companies and consumers in this new technology era. DIG’s podcasts will discuss the way brands are using emerging media, interview both established and start-up technology companies, host debates between field experts, and provide conference-insider information access to our listeners.

Jeff Hilimire, Engauge’s Chief Digital Officer, discusses the RapLeaf Conference – social media influence, the social graph, and business-to-business potential.

Stacy Cohen, Social Media Lead, discusses the pros and cons of how brands are engaging in the social space:

• Victoria’s Secret Facebook Limited Edition Exclusive Panty
• Juicy Fruit – Serenading Unicorn, catchy and viral, but no connection to brand
• NBC’s Show Check-In Based Interactive Game
• Wendy’s Summer Scavenger Hunt Promotion for Frosty on Facebook

Interview with Andrew Knight, VP of e-commerce at www.case-mate.com, about the intersection of e-commerce and social media

• Blending marketing and customer service (http://feedback.case-mate.com)
• Case-mate.com’s viral campaign of the Recession Case
• Mobile’s importance in social media
• Big company vs. small company social media initiatives
• Quality vs. quantity of a community fan base
• And more!

Learn more about DIG and Engauge here:

http://www.facebook.com/DIG.engauge
http://www.engauge.com/

I love this movie.  It’s short at 16 minutes, but its great.  It’s basically a satire of how brands are slowly but surely taking over the world, sponsoring everything in site and trying to move into our lives at every turn.

As a guy that is a huge proponent of social media, its a nice reminder that sometimes, enough is enough.  I try to be thoughtful of this when working with my clients but its easy to cross over to the dark side and start trying to find every way they can get in front of their customers.  You have to walk that fine line and thanks to this movie, I’ll be more aware of that going forward.

Here’s a preview:

In conjunction with that, my guest post this month on the 1to1 is up and I wrote it with a focus on The Total Engagement Era.  Here’s the first two paragraphs:

From the day of advertising’s mad men to the era of the Internet, the relationship between marketers and customers has continued to evolve. And this era is no different.

Consumers are no longer content with the marketing status quo. They’re calling the shots, and what they want are experiences — not messages. Today’s consumer wants to engage with a brand on all levels and at the time that they prefer, not the other way around. For a meaningful interaction to take place, they want a total engagement experience. Technology today has made it possible for customers to create real relationships with brands — and the more technology evolves, the more they’ll come to expect from these brands.

If you want to read more…

Oh and don’t pay attention this, its for some verification thing: EAVB_JGBEFRDIWN

I’ve given a version of this presentation several times now but it keeps changing as, well, digital trends change.  So here is the updated version:

See, somewhere around December of last year I moved out of my personal office – a corner office on the 17th floor in midtown Atlanta, complete with couch and fridge – and back into a cube.  I felt like I needed a new start and felt like I had been disconnected from the company.

My “old” office on 12seconds.tv

But perhaps I should back up.

I started Spunlogic in 1998/99 with Raj Choudhury and Danny Davis.  In 2003 we moved into a large(r) office on Zonolite Road.  It had 2 private offices.  I took one, Raj took the other.

Since I was the CEO/President, and since the company only grew from that point, every office we moved into had private offices, and I always moved into one of those.  It was the normal, safe, expected thing to do.  I had the need for more private meetings than other people did.  I had to have private phone calls.  I needed time to close the door and work without interruption…or so I told myself.

But what I didn’t realize was that with every passing year, I was becoming more and more disconnected from the company.  I was losing sight of what was really important.  The culture.  The ideas that our staff had.  The pain points they were dealing with.  The product we were producing.  What made us unique and special.  All the “stuff” that made us great.

In March of 2008 we were acquired and became a part of Engauge.  It was a great move and I’m extremely proud to be a part of Engauge.  It’s no secret though, or at least it won’t be after this post, that somewhere between the sale and the end of 2009 I was lost.  I struggled as most entrepreneurs do after selling their company with what my role should be in this new organization and with the lack of control I suddenly had.  Being “trapped” in my office, I felt even more alienated from the staff and found myself drifting into this weird place that I think many executives find themselves as they move up the corporate ladder.  In too many closed door meetings and in some kind of private club that doesn’t have access to the rest of the company.

In fact, toward the end of 2008 I created a rule that required anyone that had their own private office to never close their office doors.  I even considered taking the doors off the hinges.  But after a few months doors started closing again and the effort was lost, probably because I was the only person that needed to have an open door.  And boy did I need it.

And then it hit me.  I needed to get back to what I enjoyed the most.  Being a part of a team, getting my hands dirty, learning from the truly smart people that are a part of Engauge, and leading again the way only someone in the trenches can.  There is a place high above that leadership is needed, but that’s not where I get my energy and that’s not where I’m best suited to help move a company forward.

I got approval from the CEO of Engauge to move into a new role focused on innovation – we call it DIG (Digital Innovation Group).  I would put together a team of people focused on testing and understanding new technology in order to help our clients maximize their marketing efforts.

And I would move out of my office for the first time in 8 years.

Many, many people told me it would be a mistake.  That I was crazy to do it.  That I should “sleep on it” and if I wanted to work in a cube I should also keep my office, that way I could return if I wanted to.  I finally relented to that last suggestion but after a week I had moved everything out of my office and officially moved out.  I was released back into the wild :)

It was one of the most liberating experiences of my professional career.  I’ve learned that for me, there’s nothing more powerful than feeding off the energy of people around me.  And I’ve got some awesome people around me (here’s a list of some of their blogs).

Also, while visiting Twitter headquarters recently I found out that Ev Williams doesn’t have his own office.  No one does at Twitter.  I loved to see that.  I hope he hangs on to that so he can always hear what the people around him are thinking.  That’s so key for a company like Twitter.

So it might be a bold statement to say that I’ll never have my own private office again, but at this point in time I can’t see any reason to do so.

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Note:  This post is NOT meant to discredit anyone who has their own office.  Not by any stretch.  I’m fairly certain that almost every person I look up to and consider a mentor has their own office.  This is a personal decision for me and one that is more about my personality than anything else.

While I obviously have my own opinions on the topic, I’d like to get your thoughts and see where the conversation goes. Having debated both sides of this issue, I’m looking forward to seeing how this develops because I’m still struggling to figure out where I will eventually land.

And…begin.