Meet Jeff Cutler – Content Creator

July 26, 2010



One of my clients asked me recently to craft a blog post. This post is supposed to introduce a brand to their membership and allow them to feel at once comfortable, informed and energized by the brand’s innate qualities.

This would seemingly be well within my abilities. I’ve been a content producer in print and online since 1988. I’ve got bylines in The New York Post, Technology Review and Gatehouse Media. I’ve been a Technology Correspondent for NPR (WBUR Radio in Boston) and have also been tabbed as the Social Media Trainer for the Society of Professional Journalists nationwide.

In addition to my journalistic content creation – print, audio, online, video and social-media shortform – I’m also a skilled interviewer who gets excited by a challenge and enjoys sharing interesting stories.

What’s the issue? Well, the brand this client wants me to introduce is ME. They want Jeff Cutler to report on Jeff Cutler. Seriously.

What more can I say about myself? Hardly anything that will create value for these readers…but I can tell them what lies ahead. So, instead of stepping into the cocktail-party foyer, let’s jump into the mission control room and examine what I’ll be doing for this client during the next few weeks.

First – this client is commonground. They’re an environmental professional social network. A community of environmental professionals who discuss issues of the day – and now I’m going to be doing some reporting for them in the Gulf of Mexico.

Here’s what their Website says about the organization…

Commonground’s mission is to be the premier business-to-business social network for environmental consultants and information resource where users and providers of environmental, engineering, property assessment, and due diligence services for real estate and asset transactions congregate to discuss relevant topics, gain critical insights, and generate business opportunities. By working together to advance our knowledge, professionalism, and services, we will elevate the visibility and credibility of our industry, which will have significant benefit to all.

Here’s my role with the organization…

I’ll be in the Gulf of Mexico – between Houston and Tallahassee – reporting on the environmental impact the oil spill has had on the region.

I’ll be conducting interviews with business owners, environmental organizations, financial institutions and others to see how this disaster has affected their operations.

These pieces of content may be as small as an update on Twitter to a full, photo-rich and multi-page post suitable for framing and uploaded to the Website dedicated to this content road trip.

From video interviews of people to photos of environmentally sensitive areas, I’ll be using all my skills to get the entire story of the oil spill in the Gulf and then I’ll be sharing it with commonground.

The journey is going to be fun. It’s going to be hectic. It’s probably going to have a number of surprises, challenges and eye-opening situations. I’ll be doing my best to collect information for readers/viewers/listeners that informs, entertains and captivates. I’m looking forward to this challenge as much as I have any project in recent memory.

It’s going to be a journey of discovery for me and for you. So come along for the ride. My dispatches will be open for all to see and I’ll be tweeting my progress along the way so you can keep up. For those of you who follow me because of my connection to food, I’ll also be posting my meals while in the Gulf to my Tumblr site.

Further, I’ll be doing regular posts on the behind-the-scenes experiences. From the equipment I’m using to capture content to the struggles I’m sure to run into finding a good dish of flan. That’s going to be fun, too!

Please put your comments here and interact with me on Twitter. I would love to learn where you want me to explore, what you want me to ask, what you want me to try and learn.

It’s gonna be a great few weeks.