Jeffrey Cutler isn’t some guy bent on world domination and SEO manhandling of the Jeff Cutler name. He’s a pretty accomplished guy with some big credits to his name and a lot less focus on social media self importance than many of us in Social Media.

For instance, have you heard of Going? Well, Cutler was part of the team that got that success story off the ground. Have you heard of Fama PR? Well, Cutler is integral in their day-to-day operations and is focused heavily on the tech side of their efforts while remaining involved in their strategy and new media forays. And if you haven’t heard of the word philanthropy, Cutler and his family exude it.

He comes from good stock – folks like Joel Cutler and Rob Cutler and Ted Cutler – who have given away more cash than many of us will ever possess. And they’ve done it for admirable causes like CCFA and the Greater Boston Food Bank.

SO, this post isn’t to get me off the hook for being a SocMed DB, it’s to recognize that there’s definitely more to everyone you meet. Below the surface they might just be more genuine than you imagine and more interesting than you anticipate.

Thanks for sitting down with me the other day, Jeffrey. My offer to assist in any way I can stands. I like what you’re doing and apologize again for pointing fingers and jumping up and down on my virtual soapbox.

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: CCFA, fama pr, friends, gbfb, Jeff Cutler, jeffrey cutler, mea culpa

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

1. People should be judged by their accomplishments and not their Internet popularity.

2. That’s an easy one. Rosemarie Esposito @rosemariee on twitter.

3. I call it the Aristocrats.

If you’d like to provide your answers for this project, send them to me at jeff (at) jeffcutler [dot] com. I’ll put them in the queue and they’ll appear in the order received. *Also include your Twitter handle and one link you’d like included in the post.

Thanks!

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Boston, california, consulting, Jeff Cutler, jeffrey cutler, Marketing, saul colt, saul is, social media, three answers

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

(Photo used is from this blog post – http://blog.slashboing.com/bk/2010/01/26/iphone-shoulder-rest/ )

Legs crossed because you have to pee, you hobble away from the car, take the phone in your hand and put the keys on your pinky so they’re ready for the front door. Mark is talking about charity and his organization and how he met you at some conference and looked up your credentials. He wants you to be a guest speaker at his next event.

Flattered, and with the bathroom in sight, you ask him to email you the details and promise to figure out a way to make it work.

That’s not QUITE how it went down last spring when Mark Connell contacted me to speak at the Downtown Boston Rotary Club, but the result is the same. I’m presenting tomorrow at their formal meeting at the UMass Club and they’ve let me know that the meeting is open and anyone can attend. Here’s the sign-up/event page.

If you can make it, great. If not, you’ll be missed and you’ll be missing an opportunity. No, not to see me…to see the two guys I’m speaking with AND to connect with Rotary Club members who might present opportunities for you to do business.

Also on the docket (and ignore the way the page is written – I am NOT a guru and the discussion will be a collaborative panel, not just me sharing social media knowledge nuggets) are David Cutler and Mike Langford.

Each guy comes at the business world with extensive experience — and each has found a way to meld that experience with strong social media insight and skill. It’s a powerful combination of knowledge for anyone trying to run a business in 2010/2011.

While the model is slowly changing, social media is becoming an operational facet for many companies. But many are still behind the curve. Tomorrow’s discussion will provide some pointers – and a forum for you to ask specific questions – about social media and today’s businesses.

Hope to see you there.

*By the way, there’s also a charity component I’ve been asked to share. The Downtown Boston Rotary is organizing a race down the Greenway (2.6 miles or so). It’s a non-profit event and here’s the link if you’re interested in running or contributing.

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Boston, david cutler, Jeff Cutler, jeffrey cutler, mike langford, rotary, social media, speaking, tweetup

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

This response isn’t because you’re crazy – or because anyone who leverages, relies on or works solely with social media is foolish or ill-informed. It’s because a lot of the world still doesn’t pay attention to or understand the ways in which social media tools can be used.

I usually tell a story during my SPJ trainings. It pertains to how everyone should approach Twitter…with no expectations. This is because you can never tell if anyone is listening before you foist a message upon them. The story goes like this…

One day in Boston, a couple friends and I decided to go get coffee after filming an episode of NomX3. We thought that Starbucks made good coffee and agreed to walk to the local ‘Bucks for a cuppa. While walking down the street, I Tweeted out “Going to Starbucks near Borders in Downtown Crossing – join us!” That message got one taker and the gentleman who saw it showed up and we all enjoyed marvelous conversation and beverages.

But the point of this man’s appearance was what he told us when he showed up.

“Guys,” he said. “I almost missed your message. I had Twitter open on my screen and had just gotten back to my desk after lunch when I saw your Tweet. A few seconds later and I would have never known you were here.”

To that point, a few seconds earlier and he wouldn’t have known either. And that proves my point. Which is….

Twitter and many other tools are haphazard in how they engage people. If you are not already having a direct conversation with them, Twitter often fails as an information-sharing tool. You can’t depend on it to share your message with all your followers because at no one time are all of your followers paying attention to your missives. Not everyone gets that.

Not even Leo Laporte. He of the mini media empire. He of the 24-hours-a-day podcast network simply didn’t understand that what he experienced this week was exactly how social media behaves all the time. And the fact that he didn’t know how social media works really scared me.

But then I turned the lens on myself. I have expectations that are also out of whack. I need new tires. I know a guy who runs the Twitter account for Sullivan Tire. I sent them a note either earlier today (August 23) or yesterday (August 22) announcing that I’d be going to their Nashua store on August 24 for new tires and other work. And I asked for their help. Take a look at this picture taken at 10:30PM on August 23.

If you can’t read the tiny type, their most recent tweet was on August 18 – FIVE DAYS AGO!

What that shows all of us is that even companies that believe in social media either fall down on the job or come to the realization that they can’t be online all the time. Sadly, all it takes is the one missed Tweet or the missed engagement to put a chink in the social media trust I had in that brand.

I’m still going to get my tires and my brakes and even my oil changed. But I’ll probably be more hesitant to share Sullivan Tire’s Twitter address now that I know they let days go by without any engagement.

Worse are the companies that get into social media and then back off. These are the firms that went whole hog into Facebook and Twitter and started offering specials and events and then decided that since it wasn’t working they were done conversing with customers. That’s idiocy.

Take Summer Shack for instance. I was excited to go there for dinner tonight (and we did go – and spent $70 by the way). But before we went I hopped over to their Facebook and Twitter pages to see if they could save us a seat at the bar and if they were offering specials.

Not since July 14 (Twitter) and May 21 (Facebook) had they conversed using these media.

So, what’s that mean for social media? What’s that mean for consumers? What’s that mean for businesses? A lot. With the proper education, there are companies and brands that are selling more products and making more money than ever because they are reaching out to consumers using these tools. There are also legions of consumers who have moved away from traditional information sources and now rely on the Web and social media to inform them of deals, events and happenings in their physical community. And these same folks are focused on only buying from companies that have a social media presence.

It’s a new kind of activism I suppose. Where you might have only bought milk from the guy who had the farm in your hometown, you know only buy groceries from the shopkeeper who shares coupons online. And you might only get your tires at the place that would give you 10% off when you Tweeted their name. And you might only eat at the sushi place that shares its specials on Facebook.

I’m not saying this revolution is full-fledged or that it will have a significant impact tomorrow or the next day. But we’re moving to a time when the business that ignores communication channels will get left behind because its competition will understand that online works, and works well.

Social media might be about timing, in fact it often is. But I believe the time for social media is now. I just hope the brands I liked before are listening.

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2010. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Boston, communication, consumers, content, Facebook, jeff, jeffrey cutler, Leo Laporte, social media trainer, sullivan tire, summer shack, twit, twitter

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

In early December 2009, I saw a tweet go out (a tweet is a 140-character missive that is carried on Twitter.com) saying how excited someone was about a meeting I was scheduled to attend. I panicked and played the skilled investigative journalist.

Sending back tweets like, “Where are we supposed to be meeting?” and “Who are we having the meeting with, again?” I was able to ascertain that Jeffrey Cutler was going to be speaking to the Greater Boston Food Bank about social media later that week.

I didn’t remember making that appointment, but chalked it up to having thousands of Twitter followers, a social media career that went back to 1999 or before when I started blogging, and an increasingly packed training schedule (as I regularly give talks to corporations, learning institutions, nonprofits and even national conference groups on how to leverage social media tools in their jobs, study and operations).

So, I made a phone call. The gentleman at the Greater Boston Food Bank was thrilled to hear from me. We chatted for three minutes before I decided to clear some things up for him.

“No sir. I have not received ANY of the scheduling emails you’ve sent out.”

“Yes sir. I am Jeff Cutler, the social media journalist and new media trainer. But I don’t think I’m the Cutler you have scheduled to speak to you.”

“Yes sir. I do this for a living, but don’t work in PR. I actually am a 21-year journalist and have run my own writing services firm for 18 years.”

“Yes sir. That may very well make my career older than the Jeffrey Cutler who you are meeting with this week.”

Once we clarified that I was NOT Jeffrey Cutler from Fama PR we compared notes. It was decided that the meeting with the other Jeff Cutler would go as planned. Then, if the Greater Boston Food Bank wanted some additional help, they would contact me and I’d come speak to them about social media tactics. That call came quickly.

This past Tuesday, Gradon Tripp and I went to the GBFB offices and spoke for about 75 minutes on the topics of social media, community, listening, marketing and more. Fun stuff. But it hasn’t helped stem the flow of Jeffrey Cutler incidents.

In fact, tonight I was at the #140Conf Tweetup and meeting at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge. I was approached by my friend Alexis who thanked me for agreeing to come speak to her company. Turns out they got the Jeffrey Cutler with 140 Twitter followers to help them mold their social media strategy.

So what should I do? I could send Mr. Cutler a tweet with a link to this post and start a conversation. I could monitor the Internet and see where “I’m” speaking or training next and just show up. Or I could worry unnecessarily about the damage the other Cutler might be doing to my brand and public image by selling people his social media training sessions. Then I could write about it on Things To Worry About and then go get something to eat.

What do you think I should do? He’s not (I don’t think) purposefully presenting himself as me to land jobs. If he is, Jeffrey Cutler deserves at least some credit as a salesman. But if his clients are hiring him based on my experience, prominence and aptitude, that’s a fraudulent path and maybe something the courts would suggest he be careful about clarifying when he signs on to train folks.

Or maybe it’s just caveat emptor. He has an impressive list of PR and marketing coups. He’s done something right to build up his list of clients. And he’s also been in startup land for a while – having been with Going.com from the beginning.

Maybe there’s room for two Jeff Cutlers….errrr, one Jeff Cutler and one Jeffrey Cutler…in this social media space. Only time will tell.

Keep reading!

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2010. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: @jeffcutler, Jeff Cutler, jeffrey cutler, mistaken identity, PR, worry

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh