At some point we outgrew the old BeeLog shell and found a new home in the cleaner and more delicious blog you see here. The same thing happened with our old office(s), our printers and our conference rooms. For some reason the old Blog posts got lost in the move, left behind like 10 pound mobile phones, dot matrix printers and laser discs. However, recently we dusted off and imported all the old blog posts into the current system (you can view them via the archives dropdown list to the right: apologies for the funky characters, this will be fixed soon!). After some jerry-rigging to import all these beauties, we are now in the process of recategorizing them all and highlighting the best ones, and pretty soon we will be listing the most splendous Beelog posts of all time in a separate section of the site.

So, we need your help, O’ Dedicated BeeLog reader. What are your favorite posts of the past? If you have a little time, take a minute or three and take a stroll down memory lane and tell us which ones you think really stand out above the rest.

This is Part 2 of a 3-post series from/about the lovely folks at Alphabet Arm Design. They design our BzzGuides, and do a darn good job, if we may say so. Have you checked out Part I yet?

There’s nothing better than going to work wearing jeans and t-shirt, rocking-out to good music, and making art all day. I solve design problems in the shower and I can’t watch TV without critiquing the typefaces on screen. A new Pantone book makes me giddy and the smell of fresh ink on paper is glorious. Did I mention being a graphic designer makes me happy?

My favorite BzzGuide to work on so far: Storyville Coffee Company. We got to work with quite a few cool print/production techniques while still creating a look that is sophisticated and classic. The guide has a textured coffee-colored paper stock with a diecut window, metallic ink, and even a perforated ticket that is hand-adhered to the front.

I want every BzzGuide I work on to be…exciting and fresh to help inspire word of mouth.

Funny Central Hive moment: The original BzzAgent + Alphabet Arm office space was in a building you might call a “work-in-progress.” We had a residential apartment on the floor above us. On one particular afternoon, one BzzAgent (who shall remain nameless) noticed a mysterious liquid dripping on him and his desk from above. Turns out, the dog living upstairs had a bit of an accident. Needless to say, the BzzAgent was quite irritated (you might say pissed) but the rest of the Hive had quite a laugh.

Hmm, what else? It’s pretty humorous how many people mess up the pronunciation of “BzzAgent”. We’ve heard so many variations including “BizzAgent”, “The Buzz”, “B-Z Agent” and “BzzAsian”. If you’re wondering, it’s pronounced “Buzz-Agent.”

Want to meet ABC Chris, too? Part III coming soon!

This is Part 1 of a 3-post series from/about the lovely folks at Alphabet Arm Design. They design our BzzGuides, and do a darn good job, if we may say so.

I’m Aaron, founder of Alphabet Arm Design (ABC if you dig the brevity). BzzAgent founder Dave Balter and I met while serving hard time in the Mississippi State Correctional Institute for Men…Oh! Sorry, scratch that. We met about 10 years ago when he ran a merchandise company and I headed up the design department at a music promotions company. After working together on a few projects, we eventually formed a friendship based on mutual respect and long walks on the beach (mostly the latter).

Dave started BzzAgent shortly after I decided to open my own studio. We met for lunch and I showed him a design for the famed and determined BzzAgent bee logo later that night. Dave loved it right away…if only it were always that easy!

Our two companies have been working together (and sharing office space) ever since that fateful day. What’s it like, being “outsiders” inside the Central Hive? For starters, it’s easy to tell which days Dave is out of the office traveling, since things are approximately 3000% quieter. Overall, we get to meet lots of fun, interesting people and try lots of different products we might not know about otherwise. We’ve designed hundreds of BzzGuides, in addition to all the other work we do for bands and other companies. There’s a lot of back and forth between us, BzzAgent and the clients, which can be a little challenging, but I love coming into work everyday.

And just like we’ve watched BzzAgent grow over the years, Alphabet Arm has gone from a one-man shop to a four-person strong design studio with more street cred than a street cred convention. We’re glad to be working and growing together with BzzAgent, and we hope the trend continues. So if you’re a potential BzzAgent client, sign that contract already — we’re excited to showcase your brand to help spread word of mouth! For instance, here are a few of my favorite BzzGuides so far:

Dockers

Sol beer

Wrigley’s Winterfresh & Big Red

Stay tuned for a little meet n greet with the other talented folks who bring BzzGuides to life! Part 2 coming soon.

Since we put Bzz.com in cold storage in August, we’ve had some Agents telling us to revive it because:

• The updated-daily forum gave them something fun to do between BzzCampaigns.

• Agents got to interact with each other and share opinions, stories and laughs.

• Agents got to learn more about both new products, as well as past, current and upcoming BzzCampaigns.

With excellent reasons like that, why would we put on the freeze?

Though we didn’t expect Bzz.com to become the next YouTube (or even Eating While Crying), readership and participation went south like old people to Florida. Even with a built-in potential audience of 300,000+ Agents, the site was only getting an average of 55 visits a day during its last month (compared to an overall average of 150 daily visits, with 135 visits on day 1 in March). Sites that advertise free viruses to destroy your computer get more traffic than that.

So we planted the seed, but not enough people were around to help it grow. I’m not saying that to blame Agents — it’s just a fact that the site’s pull was dependent two main factors: 1) our ability to pose relevant and interesting questions/activities, which would spur 2) reader contributions.

Maybe people got bored, or were on vacation. Whatever the reason(s), we were putting in a ton of effort for diminishing returns. That’s why the decision came from up high to focus efforts elsewhere, in an effort to give more Agents fun and rewarding things to do. There’s a special place in our hearts for the loyal, helpful and fun Agents who made Bzz.com what it was, but the Board made the tough decision to direct our efforts towards more far-reaching projects that will hopefully make things better for the company, and the Agents who keep it going.

Still, we brought the BeeLog back due to continued passion and interest within the company. Maybe interest outside the company will lead to Bzz.com being revived – maybe even in a different format? What do you think we should do?

One of the reasons for developing the BeeLog was to create a living history of the business – something like a diary for our evolution.

Finally…all of the posts from the “old beelog”, from 2003 on, are now part of the same system we run on today. Click the archive link on the right hand nav and pick a year – it’s amazing to look back at how the organization has changed over the years…

I think 2004 is a vintage year…Favorite posts anyone?
——– Original Message ——–

Subject:	RE: Old Beelog category
Date:	Fri, 5 Oct 2007 16:20:54 -0400
From:	Brady Bonus
To:	Erik Dasque, Dave Balter
CC:	Sarah Maston

Sarah you’re dreamy.

—–Original Message—–
From: Erik Dasque
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 4:06 PM
To: Brady Bonus; Dave Balter
Cc: Sarah Maston
Subject: Old Beelog category

Hi,

Sarah was able to add all the old posts to the category Old BeeLog (cat#
16). All hail Sarah !

Erik

Recently we asked the company to respond anonymously to some questions. A few were aimed to ‘air out’ some grievances that people might otherwise be unable to articulate:

1. What’s the most frustrating thing you’ve experienced lately at work?
2. What’s the most annoying work habit here and why?

Some answers we received were palpably exasperated and were some light-hearted and upbeat. The “lighter” issues varied wildly (see below), but the more ‘concerned’ complaints dealt mostly with the following 2 topics:

• Personality issues dealing with difficult workmates.
• Inconsiderate meeting behavior: not showing up, showing up late, or not paying attention by playing with PDAs, laptops and other non meeting related distractions.

Here is a sample of the responses (some were too specific in nature to put here):

• “Micromanaging and condescension, which not only insults my intelligence and experience but also wastes my time and lowers morale”
• “Feeling completely ineffectual because there’s just too much to do”
• “Not even acknowledging an email”
• “Sighing, scuffing feet and slurping soup”
• “Kissing noises on the phone”
• “The printers! Why are they so crappy!”
• “Everyone here is late for meetings. What’s the point of booking a 2pm if no one shows up until 2:15?”
• “I don’t appreciate the lasses-faire hands off attitude people have adopted. We need to be hand raisers to get the job done!”
• “A person I used to sit near who would eat ALL of the ice in their iced coffee and it was the most irritating and grating noise – i loathed the summer when they would walk in with a Dunkin Donuts cup!”
• “Defensiveness or lack of flexibility and imagination: “not my job” or “don’t make my job harder” kinds of attitude”
• “Humming, scuffling feet and ‘clicking’”
• “Getting tasks to do without any supporting details on how to do them”
• “Inconsistent, irrational & emotional leadership”
• “Blackberries and iphones at meetings. A short glance is fine, but when a person’s body is in a meeting but their brain is not — its annoying and rude.”
• “People not putting their phones on vibrate”
• “Someone near me punches their desk (apparently when they mess something up). It scares the crap out of me, because I’m never expecting it”
• “People who pass the buck and take credit for the results”

Perhaps when you stick 80 people in a room from various backgrounds, cultures, work habits, intellects and expectations you will get some squeaky wheels [granted, we asked...].

I wonder if this is atypical, or if its a common human issue in similar companies everywhere. It sure seems to be a relatively new trend in this company (from my perspective, anyway). What happened to our happy little company all rowing in the same direction? Is it about the addition of 50 people in 2 years that changed this company’s dynamic, or is it because a little success has left some people spoiled and wanting more? Then again, maybe the company hasn’t changed, we just never asked the question…

Perhaps this discord has always been there, its just that the noise of it was barely perceptible with 10 employees, and barely audible with 30, but becomes a constant background noise when 60-80 people are seeking happiness and fulfillment in the same space. Maybe the true make of a “happy company” is one who can properly forecast storms, protect its employees and minimize this ‘noise’ while simultaneously achieving unrelated business goals and being held accountable to clients, board members, investors and our agents to name a few.

On the other hand, maybe a few people just had a bad day and we shouldn’t ask so many negative questions.

I read Dave’s recent post – 7 Steps to Ween Your Significant Other Off of Celebrity Gossip Magazines – and finished it pondering whether this blog has pulled a Fonzie and jumped the shark? Believe me I think it’s a noble cause to try and eradicate the dreaded disease of celeb gossip addiction, but am I missing something? What does it have to do with BzzAgent?

By no means is this a dig at Dave or anyone else involved with the blog. Heck it’s nice every once and a while to inject some humor into the more serious stuff. Trust me I get it. But, in times like this I think we should take a step back and look to the original intent when we began this experiment. Here are two key quotes from the early days of this blog”

“So, we’re opening the doors. We’ve decided to let all the BzzAgents – and anyone else who cares to look – see the inner workings of this experience. We’d like to turn the mirror around.”

“You’ll get to witness the growth, successes, achievements and yes, even the failures and frustrations of a growing company.”

Readers of this blog do we continue to adhere to these statements?

OK, so does every single post have to be some awe-inspiring masterpiece of 21st century modern literature? Of course not! From my perspective however, I do think that there are a myriad of things happening on any given day/week here that people would find interesting.

So I ask you…what do you want to see here? After all we’re writing this for YOU, not ourselves.

Jono

A few days ago, we had a meeting today about the BeeLog. It seems there is a team of people who help edit and shape the BeeLog, which is reasonable but I never knew that. I always assumed it was just Dave and Brady publishing posts that made sense and filling in the holes.

But like I said there is more to that and today I got to sit in on one of those meetings. The meeting started off like many with people there waiting for it to start. Then Dave came in and began brainstorming. This went around with a few ideas that would possibly be useful coming up and a few being shot down. One editor even offered to write one about something a bit more mundane.

Then we started talking about some previous posts and how the Guardian article was a good example of good karma from the blog. Unfortunately like so many things the discussion quickly eroded to making fun of Erik and his fashion sense (it isn’t necessarily bad just a little unique, but I digress much like the meeting did) and things went downhill from there as the group split and people began general conversation.

Until somebody got us talking about failed technology, or at least things BzzAgent does but nobody really uses (expect a blog post on that). This went round and round and might generate something positive, or it might be a post talking about a service that everyone nods at but nobody uses (particularly disturbing to me since I was the principal developer for integrating that service with our systems). All this served to get us focused. Here the brainstorming got really intense, Dave impressed upon a salesperson to write a piece about her experience as the newbie in sales, and another to talk about their current department. There were even a few more things that people took notes on and might become blogs. For myself I left the meeting having a better idea of what Dave wants employees to use the blog for and an interesting post for right now.

Late last week, two BzzAgent employees were wandering around the office sounding nasally, sneezing and rubbing their eyes – and generally looking disconnected and frazzled. Apparently these could have been two cases of really bad allergies, but the potential existed that this was the beginning of some sort of head cold trend.

Michael Bird, our SVP of Sales, one of the lucky participants, looked something like the Tasmanian Devil – he continued his whirling dervish of sales motivation, deal negotiating, and general enthusiasm, only dampered by repeatedly dousing his hands in Purell Hand Sanitizer to limit the far reaches of any potential germ.

Earlier this week, I was on a call with some folks from Denver, who immediately asked if I was feeling ok. I suppose the fact that I sounded like I was underwater and sniffled every other word or so was a dead give away. When I described the symptoms [sandpapery throat, stuffy nose, clogged head] they remarked that the very same illness had spread around Denver just a few weeks before. Folks in Chicago mentioned that, “everyone seemed to have that just last week.” We usually spend our days talking about how to make marketing ideas and brands viral, and this seemed like a friendly reminder of what the idea of spreading things virally really means.

We have a rule at BzzAgent which is pretty clear. If you’re sick – in any way – do not come in. It’s not about you feeling better [although we certainly hope you do] but rather, about the need to keep others in the office as healthy as possible. Every 6 months or so, usually with the start of a new season, this idea starts to slip. People have jobs to do. They’re passionate. They want to be a productive teammate and want to show their loyalty, so they stick around, even when their bodies are generally telling them to go home and crawl under the covers.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I had to be on the road this week. I gave two speeches that felt sorta like out-of-body experiences and sat in a cramped plane, infecting countless others and giving myself a fine case of 24-hour deafness in one ear due to the depressurization of the cabin as we landed in Boston. I will say that I generally didn’t shake people’s hands, but there was one guy who I know well and don’t like very much and I didn’t hesitate for a moment to extend my micromucous covered paw.

In today’s workplace [certainly in the U.S.] it seems that outside of death-bed-like symptoms or incessant vomiting, there’s an uncomfortable expectation put on us by ourselves to ignore good manners and just plunge onward. At BzzAgent we’re trying to figure out how to reverse the trend. To educate the staff that not coming in is really the right thing to do. You’re no weaker if you don’t show. You’re just sick. That’s ok, it happens to all of us.

Possible?

Excuse me, while I blow my nose.