How a Multi-Million Dollar Software Company Prospers Without an Office

In the wake of Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer’s recent decree that all Yahoo! employees must now report to work at a physical office, 21st century companies (large and small) are asking: Does remote working really work?

Given the buzz (and Internet indignation) around Ms. Mayer’s decision, I wanted to try and find an example of a company that’s surviving — even thriving — using what’s been called a distributed work model.

After some searching, I found my test case: a 27-employee software company from Boulder, CO (and all over the US and Canada really)

We spent a few days at SXSW with the executives, managers, and employees of Copyblogger, finding out how they do what they do without a physical office, and why they think it works. Copyblogger has an annual meeting to talk face to face with each other. This year they met at SXSW in Austin.

I think you’ll be fascinated by their story, and the success they’ve earned, while only physically meeting as an entire company once a year.

Sarah Hill had a HIRL(Hangout in Real Life) at SXSW and Chris Yates did this video interview with her. They met for the first time after doing numerous Google+ Hangouts over the past year. The exchange and interaction was fun to see and also a great story to tell.

Sarah Hill works for Veterans United and she talks about the Virtual Photo Walks they are doing for veterans around the world.

Grumpy Cat makes an appearance at #SXSW and Chris Yates was the 1st to interview her and the team from Mashable.Grumpy Cat was also crowned Queen of Social at SXSW.

Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore interview with Chris Yates at SXSW. Cashmore talked about the growth of Mashable, Social Media trends and even talked about Grumpy Cat. #mashsxsw #sxswi #grumpycat

Chris Yates video interview from SXSW with Eric Nystrom Dell’s Director of Social Media.

Dell staffs Global Command Centers across the globe to help meet your critical IT needs with prompt, comprehensive support to help you solve even the most complex problems.

Based on the crisis management best practices of the world’s top process centers — such as the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) — Dell Global Command Centers use industry-leading, real-time technologies to speed up problem resolution, efficiently route parts and direct expert technicians to your site, even during a natural disaster.

We are very honored and excited to be a top 3 finalists for Best Piece of Branded Content for Bud Light Bands.

Go Vote for Huddle Productions on this link:
http://promotions.prnewswire.com/Earnies12_Vote-Piece.html

Huddle Productions
Bud Light Bands

CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVE
Anheuser Busch is investing in a number of properties including Bud Light Bands. Currently these properties are being supported by a number of on-premise and off-premise tactics. There is no social media component to the program. AB requests an influential and cost effective social media component to leverage current properties.

STRATEGY
Create a live Social Media buzz around the Bud Bands & Events by utilizing video content plus fan engagement on Twitter. We also created a Twitter #Hashtag so fans could talk directly with the musicians. Fans that share Bud Light Bands Content had the opportunity to get VIP Access at the events.

RESULTS
Twitter Chat on #cmchat #blbands with 4 artists on 4 nights generated 150+ Million impressions. We also trended on Twitter. We posted 11 videos on YouTube that genereated 53,000 video views plus another 27,000 video views outside the channel. Bud Light had their largest crowd ever with over 30,000 fans showing up. Over 300 photos posted online.

Super Bowl Marketing Google+ Hangout on the SSEshow with New York Giants VP of Corporate Partnerships John Maguire and former CMO of the New England Patriots Lou Imbriano. The NFL does a great job of marketing and nothing is bigger than the Super Bowl.

Thanks to our Sponsors: Bud Light, UPS and JetBlue.

We just finished our first year of Google+ Hangouts. We went from 500 fans to over 295,000 in one year. So excited about the growth and future of our interactive shows.

Here is the YouTube Channel for our Shows.

Google+ Hangout show every Wednesday night 8 pm Texas Time. Social Sports & Entertainment. Here is a promo video of the show.

Previous shows with behind the scenes interaction with the producer of the show.

Callan Mayfield from Sideline Pro joined Chris Yates from Huddle Productions for a Special Edition Social Sports and Entertainment Show to help them showcase the Dallas Mavericks Dancers.

Connect with Sideline Pro:
Website: http//sidelinegroup.com
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/116675194148953381012/about
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thesidelinegroup
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/thesidelinegrp

The Social Sports and Entertainment Show with Chris Yates features special guest Lauren Teague who is the Social Media Manager of the PGA Tour.

The PGA tour has been involved in social media since 2008 and have slowly adapted to some of the more interactive forms of social media. They have previously prevented people from even bringing cellphones into the events. Lauren discusses how allowing social media to become more involved with the tour and with the players.

Lauren discusses how the she reaches out to the tournaments and to the players to provide assistance on their social media pages and encourage engagement with their fans. She also speaks about where the focus of the PGA Tour is at in regards to social media engagement.

Social Sports and Entertainment Show with Chris Yates features special guests President Chris Wright, Vice President of Fan Relations Jeff Munneke and the Director of Digital Stategy Bob Stanke from the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Chris Wright, Jeff Munneke, and Bob Stanke discussed some of the tactics that are being used today by the Timberwolves and the Lynx to keep them as the leader in social media for the NBA. Two days prior to the show on May 19, 2012 the Timberwolves and Lynx launched the new interactive social media hub called WolvesNation and LynxNation which rewards fans with points and badges the more you interact. It is a cross platform hub so no matter what network you prefer to use you will be able to participate.

Chris Yates features special guest Kathleen Hessert. After years in the media as an on-air journalist Mrs. Hessert founded a strategic communication training and consulting company working with C-level executives. In 1988 she added a sports division (Sports Media Challenge) to provide the same kind of reputation management services to elite athletes, coaches, teams and leagues at the college, professional and Olympic levels. Services range from speech writing and coaching for Super Bowl MVPs Peyton & Eli Manning and the NBA’s Shaquille O’Neal to media training for 6 NBA teams, dozens of top ranked college programs, & NASCAR teams. The company has repeatedly provided Crisis Management consulting for national sports powerhouses. In 2004 they added another division specializing in New Media and Fan Engagement. Recognizing the power of the Internet on sports, Buzz Manager was created – the first in sports to monitor and analyze online word of mouth for marketing and PR purposes ultimately enriching and protecting brands in the sports, entertainment and lifestyle markets. They’re the creators of The Sports Blog Index , Pro Football Blog Buzz and Blog Hound in the Sports Business Daily and Sports Business Journal

Chris Yates of Huddle Productions hosts a weekly sports business show discussing many topics centered around sports. On this episode we have social media professionals Mandy Medsker from the Phoenix Suns and Coby Rich from the Arizona Cardinals joining us to discuss the effects social media has on the teams that they work for.

Social Sports and Entertainment Show #SSE hosted by +Chris Yates of +HUDDLE PRODUCTIONS featured special guests Darren Woodson and +Bill Bates former +Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl champions.

Darren Woodson #28 is a three time Super Bowl champion was inducted into the +Arizona Sports Hall of Fame in 2009. He works as an +ESPN analyst appearing on NFL Live and +SportsCenter and is known for his incredible insight on the show. More recently he has been working with +Jeremy Roberts on a start-up called +Guidehop. This project is dedicated to assisting people find new and exciting experiences to do all over the world. They provide a great community with peer driven reviews of unique activities provided by professional guides, instructors, and enthusiastic locals.
Website: www.guidehop.com
_Twitter:_ http://twitter.com/guidehop
Facebook: www.facebook.com/GuideHop

+Bill Bates a two time Super Bowl champion wrote his autobiography called Shoot for the Star. More recently he has been a special teams coach for the +Jacksonville Jaguars an assistant coach for the Nease High School’s football team and is currently the assistant coach for the Ponte Vedra High School football team. Through his heavy involvement in schools he has recognized the importance of communication between students and teachers and has created the multi-faceted platform PlanetHS which is used not only used by teachers and students but the parents as well concerning school-based activities using modern media in a school-wide community.
Website: www.planeths.com

Chris Yates features special guest Brant Feldman. Mr. Feldman has been in the sporting industry since 1995 and is now a managing partner with American Group Management. He represents Olympic athletes from the United States, Canada, and Switzerland for the Summer & Winter Games.

Chris Yates from Huddle Productions joined the chat to discuss social media and marketing with Blogger/SocialPR Consultant Jessica Northey. Jessica is taking over Country Music, by use of her chat on Twitter #CMChat and her network of over 400,000 followers. 15+ years in traditional media experience has landed her in a position where the Huffington post considers her as a “Twitter Powerhouse.”

She founded Digital Media Firm FingerCandyMedia.com and specializes in coaching clients on how to use Social Media and Social Networking when they ARE the brand. In May 2011 Northey created #CMchat (Country Music Chat) on Twitter, an open source format where Country Music enthusiasts tweet, discuss and share industry topics including music, news and info by using and following the #CMchat hashtag; every Monday there is Industry Celebrity Guest Q&A from 8-9pCT. #CMchat has become one of the largest organized 24/7 hashtag(#) communities on Twitter generating and average of 40 million impressions per week.

Google+ Hangout with host Chris Yates from Huddle Productions. In this hangout we are joined by Lou Inbriano, Mike Mahoney, Ken Troupe and Chris Kosmala to discuss Twitters #sbchat ran by Lou Inbriano and J.W. Cannon.

The Social Sports and Entertainment Show with Chris Yates features special guest Edwin Duterte

Edwin joined us to share his keen insights about the promotions for the new movie ‘Shadow Lurkers” as well as how he used Google+ as his platform on connecting with many people through the use of Hangouts. Through the use of lists on Twitter and circles on Google+ to really find the people that he needs to connect with to make the material that he is working on really go viral.

Edwin is currently the Executive Producer at Mediaployment, the CEO at The Viral Publicity and the Owner/Founder/Organizer at PinkSlipMixers.com. In this video he discusses some of the current projects that he has had the opportunity to work on as well as some of the prior experience that he has had in the industry.

The Sports Business Show with Chris Yates features special guest Sean Callanan.
Sean is the founder of +Sports Geek – Sports Digital & Social Media which is focused on connecting sports, fans & sponsors using technology.

In just this past year Sports Geek has assisted their clients with reaching over 1 million fans, has launched Sports DP at the #NBADraft with the +Minnesota Timberwolves, presented social media strategies for +Cricket Australia to all Big Bash teams, launched the first sports gamification implementation using Sports DP with The Swoop with the +West Coast Eagles among many other achievements.

He will be joining us to discuss how he got into the business and some of the practices that he has used over the years to assist his clients in getting great results.

How to do Google+ Hangouts.

Here is an example from Chris Yates, Keith Knox and Charles Hogge

Google+ Hangouts have been a great tool to market Brands, Actors and Athletes. This was the first Google+ Hangout live from London with an Olympic Athlete just days before competing.

The Social Sports and Entertainment Show with Chris Yates featured Olympic track and field athlete Jamie Nieto.

Jamie joined us from his apartment in the Olympic Village. Jamie, at 35 years of age, is the oldest American high jumper to ever qualify for the Olympics. Jamie talks about competing at the Olympics, his faith in God and his other passion-acting.