In the Hot Seat: Our New VP of Sales, East: Craig Katz

by Anna Eschenburg on April 18, 2012

The last few months have been a very exciting time for the team at SocialChorus. This week was no exception, as we brought on Craig Katz as our new VP of Sales, East. Craig has been in leadership for almost a decade building start-ups and managing multimillion-dollar sales organizations.  The majority of his media career began with CareerBuilder.com where he built and led two different business units to multimillion-dollar results.  Recently, Craig has been immersed in social media working for Janrain, selling social authentication, loyalty & rewards and CRM.  His responsibilities included building an International and Regional US sales organization.  Craig is also finishing his MBA from Penn State University, which will be completed in June 2012.

1) What does the power middle mean to you?
The power middle are influencers that matter, these are people who have a good following of loyal advocates and can expand engagement of a product, brand or topic.  As an aggregate the power middle can deliver millions of social action very quickly.

2) What brand do you think is doing an awesome job in social? Why?
I would say Starbucks is doing a great job, they engage their advocates through multiple channels such as as Facebook (29 Million+ fans), Twitter (2.3 Million+ followers), YouTube, My Starbucks idea, mobile apps and their blog.  Starbucks gives their advocates choice and many different experiences to engage with their brand.

3) What’s your must read blog?
All Things Digital and Mashable are the places I go to first for information.

4) What are you most looking forward to at SocialChorus?
I’d have to say that everyone that I’ve met at SocialChorus has been extremely helpful and incredibly smart.  I’m very excited to be a part of the team.  I’m looking forward to collaborating and working with the team, ultimately delivering strong sales results to the organization.

 5) What was your craziest pre SocialChorus gig? 
My craziest pre SocialChorus gig was probably back in high school, I used to get up at 3am on Saturdays and put together hundreds of Sunday papers with the print advertisements inserts for the local 7-11 store.  This was definitely NOT a fun job!

6) What’s your favorite activity outside of work?
Outside of work my favorite activity would be spending time with the family. My wife Shanon and I have two children, Nina who is five and Craig Jr. who is one. I’m also an avid snowboarder.  I learned 15 years ago after watching a bunch of 5 years olds kick my butt on the slopes.  I’m hoping to get back on the board in the near future.

April 18, 2012 employee spotlight, in the hot seat

In the Hot Seat with Scott Barrett

by Anna Eschenburg on April 6, 2012

Here we go for round two of In the Hot Seat. This time with our Director of Social Activation, Scott Barrett.

What does the power middle mean to you?

To me, the power middle means the way the world communicates has completely shifted. The idea that anybody, from anywhere in the world, can build an audience based solely on the strength of their content and power of their words represents democracy at its finest and is organic to the core. Brands have no choice but to be transparent, and consumers have no choice but to engage. The consumer-brand relationship is changing at a rapid pace.

What brand do you think is doing an awesome job in social? Why?
As cliche as it may be to go with one of our clients, I think PepsiCo does an awesome job of trying a little bit of everything. They’re not afraid to put their content out there using tons of different vehicles.

What’s your must read blog?
Daily I’m reading Gothamist, Videogum, and Deadspin. I’ve probably checked Punknews.org everyday for over a decade.

Best restaurant you’ve eaten at in the last month.
Rye in Brooklyn. If I could afford to eat there every day I would, but that’s mostly because the selection of quality Mexican food in NYC in limited.

What’s your average day like working at SocialChorus?
A day in the life of SocialChorus goes something like this: I start off with a meeting, follow that with a call, and then another meeting. After that it’s decks, team collaboration, and strategy sessions. Then it’s another meeting or call. Eat lunch, and then repeat! Luckily, I like bouncing around and doing a million things at once.

What was your craziest pre SocialChorus gig?
I’m not sure if it counts as a pre SocialChorus gig, but the early days at YouCast were pretty crazy (Halogen & YouCast merged to form SocialChorus earlier this year). There were only a few of us, and like any small company we all wore a lot of hats…even if that hat didn’t fit or we didn’t know why we were wearing it in the first place. It was startup insanity in its truest form, but I learned a lot, and got to work with some amazing people and amazing brands.

What’s your favorite activity outside of work?
I’m a pretty big music nerd and I’m a pretty big baseball geek. Anything involving collecting vinyl or meticulously studying box scores is a good time for me. I also love to cook and play with my dog.

Band of the month: GO!
I’m really digging the newest Lucero (the country / punk band – not Lucero the Mexican pop star) album, “Women & Work.” That came out last month so I guess it’s still pretty new and relevant now.

April 6, 2012 employee spotlight, in the hot seat

In the Hot Seat with Michael Duskus

by Anna Eschenburg on March 23, 2012

Starting today, every other Friday we’ll feature a SocialChorus employee, because really, don’t you want to get to know us? The lucky first pick: Michael Duskus! (We hosted a little Yammer contest: he was ultra speedy and was the first to respond.) Michael is our Lead UX+UI Designer working on the SocialChorus platform. Read below to get to know him a bit better and learn more about what life is like at SocialChorus.

What does the power middle mean to you?
For me, these are the “real” people of influence who work at it in earnest; influencers/blogs who are relatable, conversational, culturally relevant and passionate about a brand, lifestyle, hobby or cause. They have a certain influence among others who appreciate well-crafted thoughts about a particular subject, product or service.

What brand do you think is doing an awesome job in social? Why?
You mean besides us? American Express. I love how they’ve recently partnered with Twitter to offer no-hassle discounts/rebates on purchases by simply tweeting a current given hashtag deal. Recently, I tweeted a deal about Sports Authority, used my AMEX to purchase, and got $15 (off $75) back in my account within three days. Love it. No muss, no fuss. #winning

What’s your must read blog?
If I were to only pick one, I’d say Thinking For a Living. Beautiful, easy-to-use layout and great “just-enough” content. Great use of keyboard navigation!

Best restaurant you’ve eaten at in the last month.
It’s been a little more than a month now, but I went to Sons & Daughters on Bush St. in San Francisco for Valentine’s day. AMAZING. Perhaps the best restaurant I’ve eat at EVER.

What’s your average day like working at SocialChorus?
As the UX + UI designer, I sit with the Dev Team All-stars (our developers). Typically, I work through Pivotal Tracker (project tracking software) which lets me see what’s in the queue and what the priorities are since things can change pretty quickly in an agile development environment. My day is equally split between trying to figure out the next iteration of any given aspect on our platform while addressing any immediate needs. For me, it’s really about story-telling. I try to help figure out what the story is we’re trying to tell on the platform as a whole, and within each of it’s features and then interpret that visually.

What was your craziest pre SocialChorus gig?
I was a technician/personal assistant for Meshell Ndegeocello on the ’99 Lilith Fair tour for the East Coast leg. Basically, I’d tune her bass, guitars, wire pedal boards, sound check etc. I got the gig by jamming in a musical instrument store by myself during my lunch break. She came over and asked me if I wanted to go on the road. I said, “sure.” Sadly, I don’t play much anymore, but keep saying that I’ll get back into it.

What’s your favorite activity outside of work?
Golf. I’m fairly obsessed with it. As a skateboarder dude, I remember growing up and thinking it was the lamest NON-sport ever. But, just like everything else in life – once you understand it deeper than just what’s on the surface, you find an appreciation for it.

Band of the month: GO!
I’ve been looping Hey Marseilles – To Travels and Trunks, pretty frequently. Not necessarily “new”, but so great. I saw them perform at the Fillmore late last year and they were simply great.

What else can you tell us? 
We have such a great team of people all around that I’m thankful for working with. I really enjoy working on our platform. It’s not easy; but if it were, everyone would be doing it, right? It’s quite a unique set of challenges that can change every day! I appreciate being a part of creating the SocialChorus story and look forward to helping design a world-class platform for brands and influencers.

March 23, 2012 employee spotlight, in the hot seat