For several weeks, the news was all over the story of late night television. Namely one Conan O’Brien who parted ways with the decades old franchise of The Tonight Show. Growing up, it was a dream of mine to take part in this industry and as it has unfolded, I am glad that my life did not take me there. Conan got caught in the intersection of where media and business are headed and where it has been. And it is for this reason that I am still with Coco.

Conan O’Brien got the short end of the stick. Everybody has gotten the short end of the stick. So people related. Online and offline protests took place. His ratings went through the roof for doing what he had been for the last 7 months. But he took up a notch. He used online properties to express his comedy. He applauded the creativity of those that were coming up with the support for him. This is something we have never seen in network television. It worked and will work when he is out from under his contractual obligations.

This is my hope: that Conan O’Brien finds a way to create his own franchise, continue to interact with his audience and show the world that there is a new way to make money and creativity on television. Just like the dream that he had and I had as young men growing up, that he can lead a new generation of young people to love producing creativity and make a living out of it. Make it happen Coco!

As I write this, I am sitting on the floor of the US Airways Center where the Suns are struggling against the Golden State Warriors. That is correct, you read that correctly, the Golden State Warriors. A team riddled with injuries and the Suns are barely keeping their heads above water.

The reason I write this is because it is much like my situation this past summer. Working hard on several projects, nothing seemed to click and making ends meet became very difficult. With sports still a month out and a stack of bills, I began looking for work.

I write this for two reasons. First as an explanation to why the last few posts are dated from May. To be quite honest, I just wasn’t up to it. But, the other reason is to update a previous post regarding my profession. It was a huge blessing in October when I was hired by Antigua, the maker of some premium golf shirts and apparel. I am now in the eCommerce and Social Marketing department. Needless to say, it is a perfect fit and I am thrilled with the new situation. Thus the reason to resurrect this blog. It is time for a change.

So moving forward, this will be a place for me to share my thoughts on things ecommerce, social media and interactive marketing. I am learning a ton, having a blast and I must take the time to share. Plus, I have been jonesing to write a bit. So, welcome back to MattPosts.com.

And now the game is over and the Suns ended the game on top, 112-103. So, just like life, after struggling the home team can come out on top. It’s great to be here. Thanks for playing.

If you were not aware, on the May 5th episode of the Oprah Show, they did a show called Harpo Hookups where they did cool things for some of their viewers. As a gift to her viewers, they made available online a coupon for a free KFC 2 piece Grilled Chicken meal. Not just the chicken, but the meal with two sides. And while just being on Oprah is a marketers fantasy, the social media crowd got in on it and it was the biggest topic on Facebook and Twitter. A marketing home run, right?

Yes, but it highlights how so many companies confuse advertising and publicity with marketing. It is what I feel can be called Fallout from the Oprah Effect. While executives at KFC are celebrating and pouring over traffic numbers for this two week long experiment, perhaps they might want to take a look at the total experience that their consumers are having while sampling their restaurants. My question is this: is there goal to get customers to add on to this order while there or do they want repeat business from these new consumers? If it is the latter, they have some issues.

What follows is my experience when going to redeem my coupon. I am well aware that it is just one experience at one restaurant in one city. But, if this is the way this company operates all of their stores, they are going to have a very difficult time bringing back the Oprah audience, of which I am not, but am married to.

Let me start off by saying that I was very happy to get a free lunch. I would put up with just about anything for it, so this is not me complaining about something I did not pay for. I was just struck by what somebody who had never been to KFC might see going there for the first time. And it all started before I walked in the front door!

• Getting out of my car, I noticed a vehicle parked in front of the drive-thru. Taped to the back of the car was a hand written note “Drive-thru is closed. Use front counter. Sorry for the inconvenience.” Fortunately, I was eating in.
• Upon walking in the front door, it seemed a bit warm. Apparently, the air conditioning was not working with the temperature rising outside here in Arizona.
• Once at the counter, I noticed smoke in the kitchen, approximately 5-6 workers running around in the back and nobody at the counter, except a kid who was bringing food up that just stared at me.
• After about 3 minutes, a girl came to the register and I don’t believe she asked if she could help me, but more or less looked at me to come over.
• When I presented the coupon to her, she grabbed and set it to the side like it was really an inconvenience to her. No engagement, just ring it up and hand me the cup for my drink.
• The food was fast! I will give them that. I had my meal before I could even get my drink. That was cool, but once I got, it definitely was not as good as the same meal that I had purchased last week. There was not nearly as much seasoning and the pieces were tiny. Again, I understand that this is sampling and there should not be five pounds of chicken on the plate, but are you trying to keep me as a customer or get me out of the way?
• The table that I sat down at was filthy. This does not come as a surprise to me at a fast food restaurant, but upon further examining, the whole place was a mess. The trash had not been taken out so customers had begun stacking it on top of the trash cans and the floor was covered in debris.

So what, you might ask, is the purpose of this rant? I am, by no means, trying to pile on KFC. I love their food and I want them to do well. But, my question is this:

If you were able to get on the Oprah Show, would you have your entire organization, from top to bottom, ready to superserve this huge, new audience to win new business?

If you believe that your marketing begins and ends with the ad buy or the publicity stunt, we might as well build a camp fire and burn the money in it. I am not the first to say this, nor am I a self-proclaimed expert or guru, but I believe marketing should be the sum of the consumer experience including the sights, sounds, taste and feelings that they come away with. With all the media that is consumed today, good word of mouth is probably the most trusted and valuable marketing that a company can have today.

If you have a bunch of Oprah Moms saying that your business is dirty with poor customer service, that can’t be good. Let the fallout begin…

UPDATE: I guess I was lucky to get chicken at all. More stories of the fallout here and here.

Thanks to the random and varied posts that I add to Twitter, that then get transmitted to Facebook, I have been getting this question quite often. What exactly do you do? I understand how it is difficult to figure out as I just can’t say “Insurance Salesman” or “Radio DJ”. The catchalls that I have been using lately are “self-employed” or “professional freelancer”. But, to truly understand what I am doing now, let’s take a quick look at where it all started.

Upon leaving college, it was the dream to get into radio. At that time, I wanted to do it for life. Who knew this little thing called the internet would disrupt the whole world of media, but I digress. I spent over 10 years in radio working at some great stations like Radio Disney, KTAR, 98.7 The Peak and some that no longer exist. As our family grew and the market share of radio stations shrank, a couple of things happened:

1. I was away from home, A LOT. I did not want to miss my daughters growing up so I could stand in front of a mobile phone store handing out station T-shirts or spending all night at a bar with people I really wasn’t that fond of.
2. When I first started in radio, it was fun. Sure, there were issues, but the fun was more plentiful than the issues. After a while, that tide turned and there were more issues than fun. This helped make my decision much easier.
3. The internet happened and I was smitten. As I felt about radio in my young adulthood, I fell in love with the new frontier of new media. I knew from the moment that I started programming that I needed to be involved with this growing field.

In 2004, I began my own business, dabuzz media. While I have never been accused of being too bright, I left radio with very little plan. I did not have a ton of capital and just a bit of a business model, but for the mental health of myself and my family, it had to happen. And I have not regretted that decision once. EVER. Has it been tough? Sure, there are times when I wish I could look forward to that paycheck on every other Friday, but never regret. I even went back to radio for about 18 months before I was thankfully laid off to remember why I don’t want to be there anymore.

Now, to answer the question in the title. From the beginning of self-employment, I have been able to put together a lot of different projects that come together to make a living. God has blessed me with a lot of different skills and I am thankful that I get to do such a diverse group of activities and get paid for it! The include:

• Setting up and designing websites using WordPress and Joomla. One of the projects that I am most proud of is pvcstudents.com, the site for the Junior High and High School ministry that I serve in at our church.
• Sports radio engineering. Basically, I set up the equipment, headsets and telephone line for sports radio play-by-play. Almost all of the visiting teams in basketball and hockey hire a local engineer in all the markets that they go to. When they come to the Phoenix area, I am one of those guys.
• Assist in managing events for these guys. I have gotten to work on some really cool events including the Fiesta Bowl Block Party, Rock & Roll Marathon and the Tempe Music Festival. Essentially I help set up the events and then manage areas of the event to make sure everything goes smoothly. I work with a bunch of great people, it is a ton of fun, but it is really hard work to entertain thousands of people. Highlights include meeting The Fray and ushering around Fergie. Those are just a couple. The rock band made up of the coolest guys ever would probably have to go to Everclear.
• As I mentioned earlier, I serve in the Student Ministries at Palm Valley Church. If you see a status or tweet regarding church leadership or pastors around the country, that’s why. It is one of my passions.

Finally, I am working on a couple of projects under the dabuzz media banner that I will post on separately in the next couple of days. I am very excited where all this is going and I appreciate all the friends and colleagues that I have had the opportunity to be around the last 20 years. Thanks, and I hope that helps clear up exactly what I do for a living. Talking to an old friend yesterday who is in a similar situation, this is becoming more common than ever. If you find yourself in a similar situation and have any questions, I am happy to share my experience. Now, on to the next project…

Don’t you hate that, when someboday has set up a blog and not written anything. I understand, but I have been setting up the back end and have not had time to post. I will be here shortly. Thanks for your patience.