Q:

A: Attracting, retaining and even more importantly, engaging, information technology (IT) professionals has been a challenge for the last 20 years, especially in IT-rich hubs like the Boston area. Here are some tips on how to best engage your best employees:
- Compensation. Pay is important but it is not the only factor. For employees to be engaged, their pay must be fair and reasonable. Without a fair and competitive, compensation system, engaging employees is even more challenging.

- Career Development. Employers often struggle with the concept of career development, especially in entrepreneurial companies. Many companies offer a range of training opportunities to their employees to keep them learning and keep their skills fresh. Tuition reimbursement, internal training programs and attendance at conferences and seminars are what we most often see being offered. We have a few clients who are offering “Training Accounts” to employees. Employee are able to access these accounts and use the funds for training of their choice (subject to a supervisor’s approval).

- Career paths. It is difficult to offer a career path with as many steps as large corporations. A few of our clients are developing 4-5 levels that offer their employees some upward mobility. More of our clients are also rewarding those employees who move laterally – especially if they are adding value to a project or are learning a new skill. For those who have “maxed out,” additional training opportunities can be offered as well as compensating that senior-level individual to serve as a mentor to others.

- Work/life benefits. Particularly in technology companies, we are seeing clients use work/life benefits more fully as a way to compensate IT professionals. Some of our clients permit telecommuting on a specific day of the week for some roles. Some offers flexible work hours as long as “core” work hours are covered. Most of clients have moved to a business casual dress environment at least one day per week if not more.

Don Schiavone, Chief Operating Officer of Grasshopper Group in Needham, MA shares his experiences:

One of the things we have been successful at doing here is creating an environment that fosters leaders, not managers. What I mean by this is that we will often present our IT team with a business issue and challenge them with solving it. Our leadership team won’t tell them what to do or how to do it, but rather provides them with whatever resources they need to be successful. With this approach, you do not need to provide more and more ‘rungs’ in the corporate ladder to climb, which just do not exist in a small company. Instead, you create a culture of autonomous leadership that can pull your company into new directions using the innovative capabilities they will invariably develop.

Grasshopper Group is relying on much of the research that many of us know but sometimes ignore in our daily work lives. The joy of completing the task is what motivates many of us. It is the ultimate reward to face a complex business challenge, work creatively and passionately, and find a viable solution. Many of us humans are intrinsically motivated by other things than just money, a title or some other type of extrinsic reward.

Pattie Hunt Sinacole
August 2, 2010

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However, as great as passion is and as far as it can take you…you have to be careful. Sometimes this energy and excitement can be blinding. Some people are so tremendously passionate, yet lack the ability to take ownership and really get things done. At times this can even result in overlooking an obstacle so simple, and right in front of you. Coming from someone who is so passionate that he earned the title of “Ambassador of Buzz”; I wanted to share a few insights and common mistakes I have seen entrepreneurs make when trying to take their idea and grow it into a business:

1. Trying to be interesting, and not imperative

I wish I could take credit for this one, but I was lucky enough to learn this lesson from Michael Troiano, a brand/advertising expert here in Boston. People tend to think that because their ideas are interesting they will sell – but that is often not the case. Maybe 10 years ago interesting would have been enough, but consumers aren’t buying just to buy anymore. You now need to be imperative. Your end user might be more worried about if they are going to make payroll next week, or how they are going to pay their rent. Make your value added proposition short, clear, and jump out at them. And if all else fails remember these wise words from Troiano:

“Startups fail because the dog won’t eat the dog food”.

2. Hiring the best technical fit

Seth Godin makes a really interesting point in his new book “LinchPin”, that I think really helps drive this idea home

“In a factory, doing a job that’s not yours is dangerous. Now, if you’re a linchpin, doing a job that’s not getting done is essential”.

A linchpin is a single person or thing that is critical to the whole; a central source of stability and security. As you grow your company you will need to hire people who can help you accomplish your goals. It’s not always hard to find someone who is a technical fit for the job…but remember you are an entrepreneur not a factory owner.

Read the rest of Jonathan’s guest post at Young Entrepreneur.com

Out With Direct Sales….In With Word of Mouth

People really don’t like being sold to anymore.  Not that anyone ever woke up and thought….”I wish a salesperson would call men today”.  But it was a necessary evil…not anymore.  For instance, here at Grasshopper Group we very rarely (if ever) will engage an outside agency.  However, you better believe the very few times we did it’s because they came highly recommended….not because I got an email proposal from some company who I have never met or spoken to.  I get at least 2 of those emails every day.  Those companies need to fire their sales people and hire people who will get their truly happy customers talking more (and yelling if possible). 
 
How do you do that?  You make them raving fans; you make them so damn happy with your work that they can’t help but talk about you.  Because you better believe if I saw a tweet that said “X-Agency is amazing!  They really embodied our brand with this Campaign”…and then that was RT’ed by someone I knew – you would have my full attention.

Read the rest of Jonathan’s guest post here

But why?  What makes Justine Ezarik (known as “ijustine”) able to get 500,000 people watch her in the Apple Store, dancing like a 12 year old boy who drank too much Red Bull?

How did the pantlessknights get 3,500,000 people to watch two guys dressed in black pretend to be robots and do really weird things?  It’s simple.  These innovators…these entrepreneurs, made sure that above all else, their content was spreadable.  Something only truly goes viral when it is spreadable [To clarify this term, it means you must make sure your content is fun, interesting, and easy for people to talk about].

These are your building blocks for a popular viral video:

• Humor
• Landmarks
• Music
• Relatable
• Big Cast
• Celebrities
• Inspirational
• Controversial
• Current Trends
• Shocking / New / Unique
• Or of course….Dancing Babies & Cute Kittens

Read the rest of Jonathan’s guest post here

There can be strong pressures to simply hire someone – anyone – particularly if your startup is experiencing a rapid growth spurt and desperately needs to bring on more staff. And this pressure can make you feel like the cultural fit isn’t as much a concern as just filling the seat. According to Jonathan Kay, Grasshopper‘s “Ambassador of Buzz,” the founders of the small-business support company say that ignoring the importance of culture while hiring was one of the early mistakes they made. “When we hit our big boom,” says Kay, “we were hiring people left and right and were worried primarily with bringing in the best technical fit for the job.”

To help address this, Grasshopper spells out key elements of its company culture and makes sure these values are stressed during the hiring process. Noting that this means much of an interview is devoted to assessing this cultural fit, Kay says that employees need to demonstrate they have these core values, not just the requisite skill set, in order to move forward in the interview process.

Arguably, that cultural fit can be seen in a variety of ways. You can ask questions during the interview process. You can, as Mark Suster suggests, schedule one meeting with job candidates take place over food. You can probably hazard a few guesses based on the absence of creativity in a resume (or, I suppose, the presence of Comic Sans). You can look at your potential hires’ past experience with startups, their side projects, and their social media presence in order to gauge whether or not they fit with your culture.

Of course, all this assumes you know what your company culture is – not merely the grandiose wording of a mission statement, but the ways in which your team actually works together.

Audrey Watters
July 19, 2010

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The Ambassador of Buzz: Jonathan Kay

“I would say my title helps me remember that I really am a company ambassador, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

While the Ambassador of Buzz might not get invited to many fancy state dinners, the title definitely cuts straight to the heart of the most vital necessity for any social marketer: buzz! The fact that Kay is an ambassador constantly reminds him that he is representing his company, and bringing it out into the world, 24/7.

(A tip for job-hunters out there — Kay is now hiring for an “Apprentice of Buzz.”)

iMedia: How did the term Ambassador of Buzz come about at your company?

Jonathan Kay: The funny part about the title is that I came in one day during my first week and had an email from our CEO (which is scary enough in your first week) saying… “You are now officially the Ambassador of Buzz.” Ha! I would later learn that the term came from this idea that the best employees are those that are “company ambassadors.” Being that they wanted me to lead and start a buzz function for them… the link between company ambassador and ambassador of buzz was a pretty logical connection!

iMedia: So what exactly does an Ambassador of Buzz do? How do you define “Buzz”?

Kay: Our buzz department at Grasshopper Group is tasked with the goal of creating word of mouth (buzz) about our company in any and every way possible. What is so great about our buzz function (and why I love my job so much), is that we accomplish our goal by simply using good old fashion relationship building mixed with a good deal of social networking.

For me buzz equals word of mouth. I would imagine it means something different to everyone. However, a true success story to me is: Jane Smith goes to a local networking event (organized by the Grasshopper Group buzz team), where she gets to meet tons of cool entrepreneurs, learn some good strategies for her business, and have a free drink. She goes home and tells her roommate/colleague about the event. Did we sell our service that night? Nope. But we established ourselves as a personable and knowledgeable expert on entrepreneurship. So you better believe if Jane (or her roommate) ever need an entrepreneurial tool or resource, they will know where to go!

iMedia: How does your job title affect the way you perceive your job, and how do your clients/customers view it?

Kay: I think the fact that I am an ambassador forces me to realize the influence I have both internally and externally. On some level, when I am on the phone talking to people, and sharing a beer with someone at a local event, I am representing all of Grasshopper Group. So I would say my title helps me remember that I really am a company ambassador, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I think the job title has a similar effect externally with clients and customers. First and foremost it lets them know that I am a fun, passionate person who cares about their company and their job. Which is always important. Second, I think (I hope) it gives them the impression that I can make connections for them both internally or externally.

iMedia: Any tips out there for people seeking to be the “Apprentice of Buzz”?

Kay: The most important tip I could give to anyone trying to get involved in a “buzz related” job is to be passionate. It’s important to not only like what you do, but to believe in it as well. And the craziest part is that people who love their jobs are actually better at what they do because of it. Just remember, people like doing business with people they like. So if people trust and like you, they will want to do business with you.

Madhuri Shekar
July 15, 2010

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The topic for this week is:

What are 3 startup marketing strategies to build a buzz around your company and product?

Here is his response:

1. Target influencers, not customers

• Do more with less: targeting 100 influencers can help you reach thousands of customers.
• Research heavily: Finding influencers is not easy. Do your homework. Find out who the best people are to have talking about your brand.

2. Be memorable

• When you reach out to the influencers, make sure they’ll care enough to spread the word. When we FedEx’d chocolate covered grasshoppers, it was controversial. It created a “wow” response that in turn made them want to spread the word.
• Be unique. If it’s been done before, then it’s not going to be worth talking about.

3. Make it spreadable

• Make it easy for influencers to talk about your campaign. As simple as sharing a link via Twitter, Facebook, or their blog.
• If it takes too much effort, they won’t do it.

Siamak Taghaddos
Wednesday July 14, 2010

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Last week, I had a chance to be a fly on the wall at “Building Buzz Around Your Brand,” an event hosted by Grasshopper.com and MassChallenge at the Microsoft New England Development Center on the campus of MIT. Beyond enjoying the cool digs, attendees also learned marketing tips from folks from Brainshark (an entrepreneurial company with more than 150 employees), Holland-Mark (an advertising agency that boasts an average of approximately 37 minutes per visit to their website), HubSpot (an inbound marketing software provider whose blog gets more than 250,000 hits per day), and Grasshopper.com (a company that provides a mix of products and services to entrepreneurs–oh, and they are also responsible for this really cool video). Each speaker shared his perspective on brand building with the more than 100 people who were in attendance–a diverse audience which included recent MBA graduates seeking employment, entrepreneurs hoping to bootstrap a startup, folks who are gainfully employed in the marketing space.

Which marketing tips can help you build a buzz and stand out from the thousands of other job seekers you’ll likely be competing against ala the Google Job Experiment?

“Craft a personal short email message with one single call to action,” Jay Wilder, Business Development Director with Brainshark. Job seekers often craft lengthy emails to people they’ve never met. Although you might fancy yourself as a great writer, there’s a pretty good chance the person you’re reaching out to does not want to read your life story in one email. You want to provide enough background to explain why you’re writing and, when appropriate, include an “ask.” I’ll include a brief disclaimer–an ask never equates to asking for a job or internship in an introductory email. But it could include inquiring to see if he or she would be willing to chat with you for 10-15 minutes over the phone about his or her career.

“Be imperative,” Mike Troiano, President at Holland-Mark Digital. With hundreds, if not thousands, of choices out there, it’s not enough to be interesting–you must be imperative. This is especially true if you are targeting smaller companies. They might be more worried about whether they’re going to make payroll next week than they are about helping you advance your career. What makes you imperative? Do you possess a certain skill set or background that helps the company solve a specific problem or fill a need? Be sure you are able to effectively articulate your value proposition before reaching out to companies of interest.

“Create compelling content,” Kipp Bodnar, Inbound Marketing Manager at HubSpot. As a job seeker, compelling content can mean a lot of things–a persuasive email or cover letter that piques a recruiter’s attention, providing a great response to an interview question, or finding ways to make a positive impact on your employers. Recruiters often have to sift through thousands of applications–your ability to create compelling content can be a key differentiator.

“Find out what people are interested in and help them,” David Hauser, Founder of Grasshopper, Grasshopper Labs, and Chargify. Probably the most important piece of advice for any job seeker–before you can write an effective cover letter or build a meaningful connection with someone through networking, you must identify their needs and interests. When you meet someone new, be sure to ask about the challenges they are facing and what keeps them up at night. Once you have that information, you can look for ways to help them address those challenges. This approach completely changes the relationship dynamic. Instead of dreading networking, you will instead look forward to connecting them with resources (friends, colleagues, articles, etc.).

I’d also add this tip–no matter where you are or what you’re doing, always look for non-career related advice you can apply to your search. Before going to this event, I thought it would give me a few ideas I could apply to my job–never thinking there would be a few slices of fried gold. Boy was I wrong. As Mike Troiano put it “Start ups fail because the dogs won’t eat the dog food.” As a job seeker, it’s about getting recruiters to bite on your candidacy.

Shawn Graham manages the CourtingYourCareer blog. Find Shawn on Twitter @ShawnGraham or via email at shawn(at)courtingyourcareer.com.

Shawn Graham
July 1st, 2010

Click here for the original article.

Each of these Boston-area companies have had a hand in creating remarkable brand strategy from the ground up through realtime web movement in a world focused on virality.

How do you use social media, utilize inbound marketing tactics, and promote your personal or company brand to get people talking about you and wanting to learn more about your product?

Last night, MassChallenge and Grasshopper teamed up to give dozens of entrepreneurs the chance to hear from a group of panelists who have done just this — created brand buzz to build their customer base. The event, dubbed How to Build Buzz around your Brand, was held at Microsoft N.E.R.D.

First you must get to the point of needing to create buzz around your brand or startup. Take the initiative and embrace the fact that you will fail a few times (probably seven times if you ask Michael Troiano). Find what drives you, what motivates you and keeps you wanting more throughout each day, and go get it. If you build that buzz around your team even prior to pitching your company, you will get people around you engaged and wanting to know more. How can you sustain this buzz and grow your following as a first-time startuper?

Jay Wilder of BrainShark: How to Clone Yourself

Jay realizes that all of us want to be in seven places at once and that we are constantly wondering how to maintain our brand. He showed entrepreneurs exactly how to do this. Jay related brand cloning and being in twenty places at once throughout the many digital worlds to wearing many hats at once with a comparative analogy to Lady Gaga. You have to be playing all angles at one time. The best way to do this is by finding a format, as BrainShark has created, to allow consumers of information to watch and disseminate information at their convenience and on their own time. By removing yourself from the equation and putting yourself into the shoes of your target audience you will start to create the content that finds the right kind of buzz. If you want to start creating that fire around your company, start answering the questions to the issues that you are coming across on a daily basis. Do this in forms of video, short presentations, live meetings or webinars and tweet out your calls to action. “These things will allow you to open up your time to do a lot more of the important things to grow your business. Remove the noise questions to allow focus.”

Michael Troiano for Holland-Mark: How to Take your Brand from Interesting to Imperative

“Startups fail because the dog won’t eat the dog food,” said Troiano. Buying powers and initiatives to buy have changed. The fact is it that people are not buying just to buy anymore. Consumers are people who change and we as consumers are no longer sitting back and buying whatever is thrown at us. We are taking information that we are fed through social media, through blogs, through the viral voice and vocalizing this information to affect brands in positive and negative ways. Michael has a theory that to be imperative you need to do four things:

1) Think about relevance. Are people willing to pay for your product?
2) Clarify your message. You must have shorter messages in the world we live in today that will keep your customers engaged from the very beginning. People are busy, cut down the clutter.
3) Create a consistent experience. Make sure you have your story down pat, remain consistent with that image in all facets of the business and promoting the business including your words, your tone, your actions and your visuals.
4) Drive engagement. “Listening is not optional in 2010.”

Kipp Bodnar of HubSpot: How to Use Creative Content to Jumpstart your Business

“Twenty percent of the searches have never been searched before. 80 million searches a day are brand new,” said Bodnar. The time to be an entrepreneur is now. The web is your oyster in BostInnovation’s eyes. The frontier explorers and creators of Inbound Marketing at HubSpot compel entrepreneurs to create outstanding content. The way to get found is not as tricky as you all might think. How can your business create the content that is not already out there and bring in the leads? Create content people are not yet looking for, perfection is irrelevant when it comes to content, pick a side that you believe strongly in and take that stance. HubSpot offers the best content on the web for Inbound Marketing and social media best practices; they were the creators of this topic. Their main advice for you is to take a step back and ask yourself when creating content, would I read this? In the words of HubSpot’s Bodnar, “if you would not read it then don’t ship it.”

David Hauser for Grasshopper: PR is Dead. Why Sales and Social Networking is Killing Traditional PR

Well, I loved this one. He didn’t have a PowerPoint, and started by telling us that PR is dead. “Press releases are a waste of time, a waste of money. The writer wants to know how they are going to generate more views. Turn your PR process into a sales process. Pick up the phone, call them and pitch your idea,” he said. I can say that from first hand knowledge Grasshopper is doing this right. Jonathan Kay of Grasshopper, the mediator of the panel and “Ambassador of Buzz” at the company does just this with BostInnovation. He promotes our content on Twitter and focuses on helping the startups we’re helping. Grasshopper has seen the process of finding buzz as an easy obstacle to overcome. An awesome way that Grasshopper engages their Twitter followers and customers through Twitter is by answering questions on Twitter and responding to the questions with their follows.

After each of these seasoned entrepreneurs spoke, I came across a common theme which seems to be circulating in the startup community: the only way to sustain your business and your hard work is by loving what you are doing. Find the passion inside of you; figure out what you love, this will push you and your team to create the buzz around you to make your company a success.

Need more inspiration to get after your social media, blogging and inbound marketing to create buzz?

Watch this video recently created by Grasshopper:

How is your startup creating buzz around your brand? What is your personal brand strategy to create that fire to sustain your brand?

Ali Powell
June 24, 2010

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The virtual voicemail systems provider is using spinoffs to reach its goal of serving one million small businesses.

Siamak Taghaddos isn’t sure how many distinct product lines he’ll need to reach his goal: to serve one million business owners. Could be three, could be seven, could be 20 or more. So Taghaddos would like to see Grasshopper Inc., the virtual phone-system company he founded with David Hauser in 2003, pump out two or three new companies a year. Toward that end Grasshopper, a $12 million business based in Needham, Massachusetts, has reimagined itself as an umbrella for multiple startups and established Grasshopper Labs, an R&D team focused on standalone products that may eventually become companies. To be considered, ideas emerging from the Labs or from the brains of Grasshopper employees must be disruptive, simple, capital-efficient, self-sustaining, scalable, and “buzzable.” (A separate R&D group tends to Grasshopper’s core phone system.)

Grasshopper’s first new venture, Chargify, is in most ways typical of how Siamak and Hauser expect their spin-off engine to work. The company, which sells a Web application for customer billing, is virtual, with programmers scattered around the U.S. and in Brazil. “When we started Grasshopper, cloud-based computing and virtual tools hadn’t developed to the place they have now,” says Taghaddos. “We can use the virtual model for the new businesses so we can keep startup costs low and get the best people, wherever they happen to be.” Chargify’s CEO, Lance Walley, lives in Sacramento, California; Taghaddos and Hauser recruited him for his experience raising venture capital as founder of the cloud computing company Engine Yard, and also for what Taghaddos calls his “passion for billing.”

Taghaddos plans to run Grasshopper’s second spin-off—a buzz-marketing service called Spreadable—himself until it becomes big enough to need its own executive team. At that point he expects someone at Grasshopper will be ready to take over. For subsequent companies, Grasshopper will mint CEOs by providing insiders with the necessary training or hire outsiders, depending on the challenges each spin-off presents. Grasshopper will retain a majority stake, although all the CEOs will receive equity.

Taghaddos prefers starting companies to simply multiplying Grasshopper’s product lines because it allows him to create distinctive brands. Chargify, for example, whose mascot is an angry bull, targets Web 2.0 developers, who see themselves as a “bad-ass” population, Taghaddos explains. Grasshopper clients are entrepreneurs from every industry, so that brand’s look and feel are more subdued. Spreadable is playful: appropriate for a buzz marketing firm.

As a vendor to entrepreneurs, Grasshopper Group encourages employees with ideas for startups outside the company’s market to strike out on their own. One or two are openly developing businesses on their personal time, which is fine with Taghaddos, who cheerfully advises them. But he hopes the opportunities the new spinoffs present will keep most people down on the farm. “There’s nothing better than starting something: turning an idea into a huge company,” he says. “Except doing it with the support of a multimillion company backing you up.”

Leigh Buchanan
July 1st, 2010

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