Posts Tagged ‘BzzAgent’

AgentBzz: Meet Liesl

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

Tell us a little about yourself and your family

I have been married to a wonderful man, John, for 14 years. He’s a TERRIFIC cook and Dad to our adopted daugher, Kadence. Kady came home with us from China almost 3 years ago and is the love of our lives. She has 3 sets of grandparents and family across the country (New Mexico, Alaska, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Colorado…) who adore her.

Why do you like being a BzzAgent?

I love testing out the products! I’ve always been a “feedback” kind of person, happy to call a company and let them know a) their product is awesome or, b) there was an issue. Companies won’t know what we think unless they hear from us directly. BzzAgent is a great service for both companies AND consumers. I’ve raved about so many of the items I’ve tried that many of my friends are now loyal consumers.

What have been some of your favorite BzzCampaigns and why?

I’ve loved the cosmetic campaigns, specifically the eye cream and makeup campaigns. As I’m getting older I’m always looking for products to help me age more “gracefully,” but I loathe spending a lot of money if I don’t even know if the product works. Via the BzzAgent campaigns, I’ve become a big fan of the Covergirl Age Defying products!

What makes you want to talk about a product? How do you Bzz?

If I love or loathe a product, I’ll shout it to the world because personal experience is the BEST unbiased information out there.  I Bzz: Face-to-Face over coffee, email, via my Blog & Facebook.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what 3 CDs would you bring? 

“Love Stinks” by J Giles Band; “The Meditative Chopin” by Roy Eaton and “Very Best of Daryl Hall & John Oates” by Hall & Oates. “Love Stinks” is outstanding! Not a bad song on it and good for a laugh (which you’d need alone on a deserted island!). I’ve been a fan of Hall & Oates for alomst 30 years and wouldn’t want to be without them…ever. And “The Meditative Chopin” is my FAVORITE classical music album of all time. Really helps calm you down when things are stressful.

If you could have dinner with any 3 people living or dead, who would they be?

Stephen King – The guy writes some amazing books (where does he come up with this stuff?!) AND plays in a band. Seems to me to be the ideal guest for a lively dinner!

Angelina Jolie – She seems to be well read and charming, which makes for an excellent dinner guest. Plus. we could swap adoption stories AND my daughter would have some kids to play with!

Martin Luther- The guy took on the Pope & the Catholic Church, was excommunicated, married a former nun, translated the Bible into the language of the people (instead of just Latin), founded a church and was a prolific writer of hymns. I know tradition says to avoid discussion of religion in social situations but this guy would be a fascinating, educated guest!

Thanks for the chance to do some hard thinking, BzzAgent! Looking forward to more campaigns!!

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Posted in Behind the Programs, Making BzzAgent Work, The BzzAgents | 1 Comment »

AgentBzz: Meet Mari

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

Tell us a little about yourself and your family

I am a SAHM of 3 kids ages 13, 9 and 6.  I also am a social worker and am trying to start my own online business.  My husband is an MIT educated Computer Engineer.  My oldest child Gavi,  is a computer whiz like his dad – spends most of his time programing and creating video games to sell on the APP store!  My middle child competes with riding horses (hunter/jumper) and is currently 7th in New England in one of her divisions – pretty good for 9 years old. That is Mimi in the picture with Picasso our pony (more like a big dog!). My youngest, Eli, is a funny kid who loves to play sports and make jokes – life of the party type of guy.  I pretty much live for my kids and do whatever I can to make their lives better.  I am an excellent friend and very intense person.  I hold my beliefs strongly and it can be said that I have an assertive personality (ie: I am bossy!)

Why do you love being a BzzAgent?

I love being a BzzAgent because I get to share my opinions and feel like what I have to say matters.  As a mom, I don’t get to use my intellect that much, but by reviewing items and writing about them, I can at least feel like I am contributing in some way to the world.  Plus it is fun to try new things!  It is like Christmas when I get a new BzzKit in the mail – I love it!

What have been your favorite BzzCampains?

Of course my favorite BzzCampaigns have been the Werther’s Caramels and the Lindor Truffles Campaigns! Super yum!! We LOVE candy and chocolate, so everyone in my life was very grateful to be included in those campaigns – Tasting and reviewing candy? That is like a dream job!  My oldest still has dreams of being an “ice cream taster” as his grown-up job.  By participating in these BzzCampaigns he has the idea that his dreams can come true!! ;)

What makes you want to out a product? How do you Bzz?

I guess I want to  talk about a product when it is either really good or really bad – Both ends of the spectrum get me fired up and want to tell others.  I am really all about advocacy as a social worker and as a mom – I want to stand up and tell people when things need to be improved or if they are already spectacular – Either way people need to know the truth.

What would you do if you were immortal for a day?

You are testing me now… I am in the middle of private High School applications with my oldest child and all were are doing is writing essays like these… oy vey!

If I was immortal for a day, I would change the world. I would want to help as many people as possible – for example, go into drug infested neighborhoods and rescue kids that were being abused (I couldn’t get hurt after all).

I would want to end as much suffering as possible – Would I have other magical powers?  If I did, I would make the leaders of the world just get along already!  No more suicide bombs, no more buses blowing up, and no more people hating others for no real reason – Just work it out already people, will you???

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Posted in Making BzzAgent Work, The BzzAgents | No Comments »

AgentBzz: Meet Stephanie

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

As we begin 2012, we thought it might be interesting to profile some of our Agents who make up our BzzAgent community.

We often talk about our Agents and how great they are, but we realized we don’t talk about them enough, individually. We asked Agents on our Facebook page to tell us about themselves, their hobbies, and why they love being a BzzAgent. Over the next few weeks we invite you to see what it means to be an Agent and just what makes our Agents want to Bzz.

Tell us a little about yourself

My name is Stephanie Cole. I am a 30 year old stay at home Mother of 2 children and 2 dogs in Arlington, TX. My son will be 4 and my daughter just turned 2, so my house is pretty chaotic.

Why do you like being a BzzAgent?

I absolutely LOVE being a BzzAgent. It gives me the opportunity to try out new products and share my views with my friends, family, and strangers that are local and across the US. I am big into spreading the word and introducing new products that I believe in and have personally tested so that I can give my honest opinion. I also love learning about new products via the web and social networking sites from my fellow BzzAgents on other campaigns. The best opinions are honest ones through personal experience.

What have been your favorite BzzCampaigns so far?

Burts Bees Skin Solutions for Sensitive Skin and Green Mountain Coffee Fair Trade. I was equally thrilled with both products. I am a coffee lover and was able to throw a Green Mountain Fair Trade coffee get-together to spread the word and I had a blast doing it. I am also excited to be introduced to the world of Fair Trade and to educate my friends and family.

The Burt’s Bees campaign was also a blast. I have completely changed my skin care routine because of the results of the Cleanser and Moisturizer. Good Stuff!

What makes you want to Bzz about a product?

Having a good experience with a product or getting fantastic results make me want to Bzz. There are so many products and choices out there. When I find something that is worthwhile, I want to share with everyone and spread the Bzz so that they too can experience it for themselves. I love to Bzz via web cam, Facebook (of course), twitter, at the store to random shoppers, and shopping reviews. I am big into online shopping and love to read reviews before I make a purchase. If I can share my knowledge on a product, then I want to post on as many shopping sites as possible to assist others with their shopping decisions.

If you could have dinner with anyone living or dead, who would it be?

I would pick, my Mother-In-Law. I never met her and my husband and his sister have the greatest stories about her. She seemed like such a strong and amazing woman. I would love to meet her to introduce myself.

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Posted in Making BzzAgent Work, The BzzAgents | 21 Comments »

BzzAgent’s Practical Facebook App

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

With several thousand members, we’re now out of the early beta for our Facebook App.

It is my opinion that most early applications on Facebook (portions of the screens, widgets, where third party can interact with you and your friends) were game oriented or gimmicky.  Soon thereafter many started to focus on sharing, from virtual gifts or other gimmicks (but a gigantic industry, apparently) to sharing opinions, new videos, web sites, products, brand. Bzzzing, really.

When thinking about building a Facebook application, we wanted to create something practical.  This is what went through our mind:

  • Facebook has a large North America but also international user base. So do we (albeit not as large).
  • Many applications on Facebook are fun but rarely useful. We’d like ours to be useful. But we also need it to be fun.
  • While agents spend a lot of time in Facebook, we don’t want to re-invent BzzAgent in Facebook but we should give them access to the basics
  • We need to showcase BzzAgent and agent activities within Facebook, weaved into its social network in a native, natural manner.
  • Create a web service based framework to build such remote applications in the future (portable campaigns, MySpace, …)
  • Build a beachfront for future (key social networking endeavors such as targeted recruitment, embedded Campaigns)

In June, we were happy to welcome our first three co-op students from Northeastern University. After a couple of month spent learning about the business and how to build features on Bzzagent.com, I trusted them with the ambitious task to build our Facebook application. So Ken E. and Jacob C. started building the application while Ryan M. acted as the QA (Quality Assurance) engineer on this project. In about 350 hours of work, with the help of Keith L. (Copy), Shawn S. (Web development), Sam C. (Product Management) and myself as acting business owner, they built a great app which we’re introducing today.

Here is what its main screen looks like (test account):

FrenchBuzz.jpg

Our Facebook application includes many features beyond displaying and sharing information about your current status as a BzzAgent including:

  • Profile Box
  • Notification
    • Status Change
    • Campaign Invite
  • Newsfeed
    • Campaign Join
    • BzzReport
    • Status Change
    • Frog
      • Frog Review written
      • Frog Review shared
      • Frog created (User generated frogs)
  • Actions
    • Associating your account on BzzAgent.com with Facebook Connect, offline access
    • Submitting a BzzReport (optionally selecting the friends or family you bzz’ed)
    • Inviting friends to use the application, register with BzzAgent

We have many many other things planned for this application but in the meantime, try it out today !

Here’s what to do:

  1. Add the BzzAgent application (or this one in the UK)
  2. Explore the features (Submit a BzzReport from within the app, interact with the FrogPond on BzzAgent.com and see newsfeed items posted on your Facebook, …)
  3. Share your feedback with us in here

Happy Social Bzzing!

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Posted in Making BzzAgent Work | 12 Comments »

What The “Heck” is Going On With Tiers?

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

As of Monday, April 21, 2008 at 6:22 p.m. (also known as, “right now”) the word “tier” appears 16 times in the comments following last week’s rewards post. It’d be hard to pick a more popular topic to discuss. So let me consolidate those various references to tiers into a single, cohesive, and eloquently articulated question: What the &$#@! is going on with the tiering system?

The short answer: a lot. For the longer answer, please read on.

We created a tiering system for one simple reason: to provide a fun incentive to keep you all active and engaged. And for many of you, the system works. But for most of you, it doesn’t.

What’s wrong with exactly?

  • There are too few levels.
  • It’s not clear what you need to do to climb to the next level.
  • It’s (way) too easy to slide back down a level.
  • And it’s just sorta drab – there’s nothing really “BzzAgent” about it?

So those are the shortcomings we’ve set out to fix. There will be new tiers and it will be much more clear what you need to do to climb up the ladder (or – more accurately – what you need to do to “fill your honeycomb”). It’s going to be remarkably difficult to drop down a level. And the spirit of the whole thing will be more lighthearted, more “BzzAgent.”

And please remember, when the system goes live, you will carry your existing level over to the new program. So if you have already earned Agent status, fear not!

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Posted in Behind the Programs, Making BzzAgent Work | 89 Comments »