Ted Murphy Ted Murphy’s Personal Blog

The launch of WeReward has kept me pretty busy. So far we have been in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Fast Company. This morning we were on FOX. You may see this segment air in your area over the next couple of days.

Special thanks to John Raser, Jamie Brooks and Jaimie Gossett for participating in the spot.

One of the biggest challenges that companies face in social media is getting participation from fans and creation of quality user generated content. I believe that WeReward provides a scalable, low cost solution to this problem. To prove my theory I put together a little experiment for Nike, one of my favorite brands. This experiment was done on my own dime and is not an official Nike promotion.

The idea was simple. I wanted to create a complete social media awareness and user generated content program for less than $100. As a marketer the results blew me away. I have worked on many campaigns designed to generate photo submissions and fan participation. Most of those cost the client tens of thousands of dollars or more. Ideation alone can cost a few grand and take weeks. This campaign took less than 30 minutes to setup and manage the entire approval process.

So… if I was a brand what would I do with all this data and content?

• I would post the best photos to my Facebook fan page or website to keep my content fresh.
• I would reach out to the people that participated to thank them through Twitter or FB.
• I would create new promotions to keep these people constantly engaged with my brand.

When I started MindComet ten years ago one of my dreams was to have a big fancy office. I worked for many years toward that goal, treating myself to a bigger and bigger office as the company grew. Four years later the company became big enough to build its own building. I designed the space and hooked myself up with a mac daddy office, complete with interactive white board, wet bar and personal fridge.

It took several years to complete construction of the MindComet building. By the time it was done something crazy had happened… I no longer worked there. In the middle of all the construction madness IZEA was born. Turns out that I never worked a day in that fancy office I built.

Ditch Your Personal Office

I was now at a new company, in a new location, working with a bunch of people that I just hired. I made the decision that I wouldn’t put myself in an office at first. I thought it would be better to be “out on the dance floor” with my new team members so I could get to know them. Four years later I can honestly say that it was one of the best things I have ever done as a CEO.

My experience has made me a huge believer in open work environments. At IZEA nobody has an office. It took some time for the management team to buy in to but once we all adjusted the benefits became clear. Personal offices constrict communication, draw a physical line between management and other team members and generally serve no purpose outside of feeding management ego. Our open structure makes our management team available to all team members. It allows us to monitor the pulse of the company and more openly collaborate with others.

I’m not watching the dance floor from my cushy seat at the bar, I am out there dancing my ass off with the team. (As you can see from the picture I try to apply the same principle to our customers).

I know what you are going to say. “I need privacy… I work on sensitive materials”. Yes, most management does. I am not suggesting you make your desk visible to every passer by. You can be on the floor and place your desk strategically, you can also invest in some locking file cabinets.  Take your old offices and transform them into shared privacy rooms for important phone calls or projects. I know it sound a little scary, but you can do it. I promise you will thank me later.

This morning I woke up and found myself blessed with super natural powers. Anything I wished for suddenly became a reality. I wished for a coffee… and the lady at Starbucks handed me one. I wished for silence… and my radio broke. I wished for freedom… and looked down to see I wasn’t wearing pants.

Amazing? Yes.

I am pretty much like a genie… but I hope I smell better than a genie because I imagine genies smell pretty bad from being couped in a bottle for so long. Anywho - I want to share my powers with you. Simply leave a comment on this post with your three wishes and I will do my best to grant them.

Oh man. I am not sure if I am going through some sort of mid life crisis or what but everywhere I look I see new toys that I want to buy. The latest is the ICON A5. I saw it for the first time at JetBlue terminal 5 and instantly fell in love. A 2 passenger plane designed for water that is small enough to be pulled behind my truck? Hell yeah!

New FAA sport flying requirements mean you only need 20 hours of in flight training to fly an A5. At $139,000 it’s expensive but not absolutely ridiculous. For just $5,000 you can reserve one for delivery in 2013. Of course by then you might be able to buy all of Greece for just a few dollars more.