shwirtz

[shwirtz]

Presenting... CrunchyBeforeJuicy.com!

I'm happy to launch a new destination anyone can use to keep track of my life and career.

Since leaving Lightricks to focus on independent work, I've come to realize that sending people my LinkedIn URL really doesn't do justice to my story and doesn't convey the value I could be bringing to the table for new clients.

So that's why I am now launching for myself a "portfolio" site that more accurately tells my story. I tried very hard for it to not be a typical site like "hi, I'm a marketing guru, click here to buy my workshop!" so it may not look as you expect. I avoided simple headlines and summaries, focusing instead on actual stories, case studies and plenty of photos from my 25-year career.

Please check it out and let me know what you think! I might still update on this site occasionally but that will be the best, non-LinkedIn way to keep up with me.

[shwirtz]

Making the leap!

I voluntarily chose to leave the senior, well-paying position at Lightricks, which I’ve had for over a year and a half.

To answer the immediate question: "so what's next, where to?" 

I’m betting on myself.

My goal is to remain independent and focus on doing what I love for stakeholders, clients, partners, and friends. As I've done before, the mantra once again is:

“Work with people I care about on projects I care about."

(read on to understand what this means)

Those who know me have seen me previously take periods of independent work in-between the more corporate roles I've had. I took some time between Viacom and Endemol, between Endemol and WeWork, and between WeWork and Lightricks.

And those who have known me even longer can also recall I’ve co-founded and led companies, projects and campaigns, I pursued side hustles and invented things… so being my own boss isn't new, but it's still a nervously-exciting type of chapter to kick off.

All such periods have energized me, brought me to new learnings, new friendships, and propelled forward my professional skills, experiences and rolodex. If and when I chose to go back to a "normal" job, I'll be doing so with new insights, expanded relationships, and fresh strategies.

There’s nothing wrong with 'corporate life' but sometimes you can get stuck in a funk, gaslit into thinking the way that company works is how they all work, or how things should work. Experiencing a wider variety of projects is a valuable reset and growth opportunity.

Not less important is being a better father and husband, while devoting more time to self-care and my own mental health.

Wrapping up my time at Lightricks, I'm very proud to have brought the brand to new heights of awareness through a vast upgrade in social media sophistication (killer team… Dana, Guy, Charlee, Shani, Michal), a comprehensive approach to influencer/talent partnerships (best-in-class collaborators… Margot, Ryan, Limor, Callina) and a series of experiments and iterations across community, original content, and experiential marketing.

During my work I got to architect possibly the biggest influencer deal in Israeli history, with the D'Amelios taking an equity stake and becoming broad-based ambassadors for the company (over 500 posts made in the year, driving over $50M EMV, great collaboration with Greg and Ali). We pulled off a huge activation at Vidcon (with Charli D'Amelio, Marc D'Amelio and Brandon Baum) and won "best creator lounge" (thanks Omri and Erin!) And we got to work with some insane people… like MrBeast, Maye Musk, Jordan Rudess, Lorena Pages, Kiersay and more (thanks to Regev and Leslie for your help).

Looking forward, I can best break down my areas of focus like this:

Talent / Creators / Influencers / Celebrities -

Mentoring talent at key milestones of their journey, such as building out a team, expanding beyond their core platform, evolving into media companies and businesses, widening monetization options, and insuring they don't get screwed. (inspired by the work being done by Christen and Sherry, among others)

Startups and beyond -

Consulting for companies operating in or building for the creator ecosystem - concept validation for startups, biz dev and intros for those further along, brand building and storytelling, content marketing operations, 'requests for proposal' processes and overall assistance with sourcing the right PR, social, ghost writing and other services. Special focus on working with companies putting money in creators' pockets.

VCs and investors -

Helping vet ideas, bringing deal-flow to the table, acting as an operator within portfolios to bring value from my experiences, relationships and capabilities. This can work several ways, acting as a bridge to American VCs and partners for Israeli companies (there are few folks in Israel as well-connected and experienced with the American Media & Entertainment industries as me… looking at you, Omri, Eyal and Gil) and/or bringing deal-flow to Americans from the insane amount of entrepreneurs operating in Israel.

Israel -

Bringing Israeli culture and business to the world through continued work with Birthright Israel on innovation initiatives (thanks to Renat, Shay, and Gidi). I'm also pursuing a collaboration to bring top-tier VIPs and influencers to Israel, not just for amazing tourist experiences but also for connections and partnerships with local businesses, non-profits, artists, entrepreneurs, VCs, and more. If you're thinking about visiting Israel, definitely reach out and I can help craft the agenda, set up meetings, and advise (for free)… it’s been amazing to see visiting friends like Joanna, Lauren and Greg.

If any of the above resonates with you, and even if it doesn't, be in touch!!!

Endless gratitude to my super-connector friends who are always there for bouncing ideas and expanding the pie, Amanda, Debbie, Sharon, Liat, Weston, Israel, Eran, Dan, Gregory, Paul and others.

[shwirtz]

Joining Lightricks!

After a year of freelancing, I'm so excited to announce my next major career chapter - joining Lightricks to lead all Content Marketing & Creator Relationships.

Lightricks is an amazing success story, a "unicorn" founded in Israel, the makers of some of the most popular and frequently-used photo/video editing applications. They've garnered hundreds of millions of downloads and impressive awards, like multiple Apple and Google "App of the Year" distinctions. Many people might be familiar with Facetune, but there's so much more to the company (for example, check out Videoleap!).

I'm joining the CMO's org to further expand brand storytelling, content marketing, global social media sophistication and celebrity & influencer partnerships… all to claim the rightful place for Lightricks as the major player in the "creator ecosystem" that it already is, but maybe not enough people realize (see Nikita Dragun & Iggy Azalea).

This is a unique opportunity to build and nurture a world-class content marketing operation, across all social media, other consumer touch-points and craft powerful creator partnerships with some of the biggest, most influential stars.

This role couldn't be more perfect for me, spanning my passions for digital culture, social media excellence and talent & entertainment partnerships.

Please be in touch with me if you have ideas for people who should join, vendors to evaluate, partners to talk to… or if you just want to learn more and explore ways to be a part of this evolution in the creator space!

Lightricks is also growing across teams, so check out open positions and let me know if any are relevant!

[shwirtz]

COVID-Era Work and Side Hustles

It's been a year of independent freelance/consulting/advising work and, although I was able to continue earning money, I'm happy to bring this chapter to a close. I have a new job! More on that in the next blog post, this one is a brief ode to the clients and projects I was honored to join during the past year.

COVID threw everyone for a loop, it is a period we'll never forget and likely always talk about as a major marker in time (like pre and post-9/11). Going independent was the right decision, allowing me to better balance family and parenting responsibilities, be a good partner to my wife and also take care of my own mental health. Quarantining in a small Brooklyn apartment was NOT fun and I feel truly blessed to be vaccinated.

With the inability of companies and founders to travel, schmooze, attend conferences and sales meetings, I was able to carve a nice niche for myself. I focused on leveraging my rolodex, my existing relationships with the 300 partnerships I crafted at WeWork and the hundreds more from prior work experiences. My relationships, and personal brand/reputation, acted as a quicker go-to-market tactic for clients, empowering them to connect dots with partners, investors and new employees/vendors despite some of COVID's hurdles.

It was a lot of fun for me to continue exploring partnerships and related efforts, in addition to my classic experience in social media strategy, digital marketing and digital "culture." Some clients were able to benefit from both sides of my career, welcoming me to "interim CMO" type of positions. All in all, I had a fascinating year, professionally, expanding my skills, continuing to build my case studies and relationships, all from my modest bedroom overlooking Trader Joe's.

Some highlights:

As a side hustler, I created and grew @TraderJoesLine to help my neighbors stay updated on the status of the line at the TJ's across the street from my house. This blew up into an astonishing community service and was included in several press pieces, including the NY Times and even the cover of the Wall Street Journal! I ran the account, updating people multiple times every day, for the first 6 months of the pandemic.

My other side hustle, @UnfollowTrump, finally accomplished its goal of getting Trump banned from Twitter. I can't take credit, obviously, but I'm extremely proud to have been a leader in the #UnfollowTrump movement. I launched @UnfollowTrump when he was elected as a way to give people an alternative to following him (since he equated followers with supporters). Over the years, everyone from Rosie O'Donnell and Josh Malina, to Jake Tapper, Scaramucci, Arsenio Hall and Mark Hamill helped spread the word. It was an unbelievable success to finally see him removed from Twitter and, ultimately, the presidency. The account is now retired but I still control the @Unfollow usernames, if you have any creative ideas for using them.

Outside of those personal projects, some of the first work I did post-WeWork was to collaborate with Internet industry super-veteran Marc Scarpa on projects for Global Environment Media, Defiance Media and Earth Day Network (where I got to run social media integration into the 12-hour livestream hosted by Ed Begley Junior, including participation from the Pope, Bono and many others.)

After that, I helped two startups perfectly suited for COVID-times, TechMate and Speakfully, get the word out about their unique services to investors and potential partners. Staying within the startup/VC world, it was exciting working with Kauffman Fellows to upgrade their digital marketing and social media strategy and also helping Innovation Collective to get their social media to a more sophisticated level, with the great services of Natalie Zfat and her team.

As the presidential elections got closer, it was absolutely amazing for me to personally work on two very powerful election-related projects. For Global Citizen, I ran all influencer outreach, negotiation and activation for their massive voter registration efforts (which included everyone from Taylor Swift to Billie Eilish.) My old friend, talent manager/legend Barry Katz looped me in to handle all social media strategy for Ben Gleib's super-entertaining Telethon for America, where dozens of stars participated live, engaging their fans to get out the vote. We reached over 250K live-streams, made the homepage of Twitch and ran streams across the pages of Alyssa Milano, Rosario Dawson and many others.

Entering 2021, I focused on working with fewer clients, but in deeper, longer-term engagements. I grew meaningful relationships with three great founders, David Datny of Lingopie, Paul Robert Cary of Kamua and Norbert Horvath of GetStarted. For each, I tried doing whatever I could to help the companies succeed, from marketing strategy to influencer/celeb partnerships and biz dev/outreach. Lingopie is a unique company, innovating language-learning through TV and Film, and I was able to get some powerhouses like Thanasis Antetokounmpo and Mallika Sherawat to join the cause. Kamua offers some mind-bogglingly impressive AI to content creators and GetStarted is revolutionizing the Smart Speaker space in the same way Wix democratized website building.

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Finally, on the flip side from start-ups, I really enjoyed a long-term role with Fuse to help them create an innovation pipeline to become a media company of the future. It was a blast collaborating with the leadership team on needle-moving ideas around merchandising, content licensing, talent partnerships and more. We kicked off a creative co-marketing effort with Ipsy, launched a new Snap channel and have several other projects in the pipeline.

COVID was a difficult, difficult time for everyone and I fully recognize the privilege and luck I had to get through it with my family in-tact and a lineup of interesting clients and projects to sustain us. I'm really, really grateful and also very thankful to the friends, peers, connectors, thought partners and others who helped me think through trends and opportunities, find and close deals, get on the radar of potential clients and even just provided some sanity and honesty in crazy times.

Thank you Erik Levis, Marc Scarpa, Peter Chelala, Harvey Schwartz, Rahul Chopra, David Brinker, Gaurav Misra, Amanda Slavin, Shama Hyder, Natalie Zfat, Dave Perry, Paul Robert Cary, Norbert Horvath, Dave Levy, Yochai Levi, Greg Levey, Will Keenan, Omri Marcus, Debbie Shapiro, Leslie Morgan, Morgan Greco, Morgan Buell, Josh Machiz, Tracy Quitasol, Ross Martin, Sharon Weisman, Mark Svartz, Asael Kahana, Paul Knegten, Adam Courtney and others!

See you in the next adventure…

[shwirtz]

My Three Years at WeWork

What a wild, wild ride! After three years at WeWork, my time came to an end during the COVID pandemic, mid-2020. Almost a year later, I sit to write about my time there.

This is my WeWork story, with a hefty dose of hindsight and perspective. I'm planning some other blog updates with more current news, and future adventures.

I initially joined the company after 20 months of successful freelancing. I worked on exciting projects for AMC, Discovery, Nickelodeon, Harper Collins, Microsoft and others. What convinced me to go in-house was the opportunity to completely build from scratch a global, sophisticated social media and digital customer service operation. This was before WeWork's "hyper-growth" that was kicked off by Softbank's investment. Getting in before Softbank was a lucky fluke, giving me some "veteran status" and authority that I got to benefit from, right before the rocket ship/roller coaster of Softbank.

Within six months I hired about 15 people, put in place technology vendors, internal processes, workflows and education, all meant to establish a world-class digital content and support system for the ever-growing beast of a company. We were expanding product lines, offerings, launching into new countries, cities and languages. Truly a highlight of my career, firing on all cylinders within a really invigorating environment.

As happens with large, growing companies, there was a big re-org, which saw the infrastructure I had built move from the CMO's world to the Chief Communications Officer's world. What initially was a sad decision made above my head turned into a blessing in disguise. With the leadership of David Fano, whom I really admire and respect, I was able to stay within the Growth side of the business and shift my focus to a new endeavor, partnerships.

Leveraging my prior career experience with media and entertainment companies, celebrities and influencers, I founded WeWork's formal partnership efforts with that whole world. With my new effort under way, for the first time ever, the company had a way to value and execute celebrity partnerships, influencer activations, and co-marketing and barter deals with entities like the NBA, Cannes Lions and many more.

I became WeWork's informal ambassador to Hollywood, formalizing a system across our sales, real estate, finance, legal, marketing, communications and social media teams. I had YouTubers and podcasters producing their content in WeWork spaces. I organized parties with the NBA in WeWork spaces. I had amazing people like Kevin Smith, Aimee Song, Al Roker, Jose Andres, Alysia Reiner, Dominique Wilkins, Christina Tosi, David Ortiz, Simon Sinek, Hugh Jackman, Anna Faris and others make WeWork the official office space for their businesses, media companies and charities. I was able to provide March for Our Lives with free office space to organize their events and Michelle Obama with free space for her get-out-the-vote initiative.

Given my role in the team and evolving company priorities, I was honored to kick off WeWork's formal partnership with Softbank, creating the system by which Softbank-backed companies could connect across the world of WeWork and get special access to office space and related services. This eventually turned into a full-blown VC-partnership effort, which was my focus until COVID hit. By the time my WeWork adventure came to an end, I was able to point to over 300 partnerships I created and over $200 million I had brought to the sales pipeline.

With the outbreak of COVID, I was proud to take a leading role in the company's "WeWork for Good" program, which gave free office space to NGOs, government groups and philanthropies that were on the front-lines at the very beginning of the pandemic. From Rihanna's foundation to Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen, we gave free space and resources to dozens of orgs.

Asked to sum up my time at WeWork, I don't have many negative things to say, which surprises some people. I honestly got so much out of my time there, made so many connections, built a lot of wonderful case studies and learned a lot. I was able to add specific skills to my resume and some amazing stories to my collection of anecdotes. If people are looking for wacky stories about Adam or other corporate drama, look elsewhere :-)

[shwirtz]

Major news! After 20 months as an independent consultant I'm jumping back into a full-time gig and it could not be any more of a dream job! As of today, I am the Global Head of Social Media Strategy at WeWork.

First and foremost my decision is based on a deep appreciation for WeWork's mission, which is "to create a world where people work to make a life, not just a living.”

I'll be working with a kick-ass team to maximize the full potential of social media strategy, influencer and other content partnerships, video, live-streaming and more.

For those who don't know, WeWork is a worldwide, innovative, impactful company. Beyond offering single desk-space for small businesses (over 100k members in over 100 locations around the world), WeWork has expanded into large-scale deals with medium and huge companies as well as new initiatives like WeLive, Creator Awards and much more!

If you're a WeWork member, let me know! If you're considering becoming a member, reach out! If you're a vendor, entrepreneur or service-provider that might be relevant to my work, hit me up!

Big shout out to my friend Yochai and the wonderful clients I've worked with over the last 20 months, including Discovery, AMC, Nickelodeon, Microsoft, HarperCollins, Epic Reads, Airtime, Michelle Phan, Carla Gugino, Katie Linendoll and others.

[shwirtz]

The trivia game that changed my life

This is a ten-year throwback Thursday to a pivotal moment in my career.

The challenge:

In mid-2006, I was living in Israel and working as a product manager at Answers.com. The site boasted the largest collection of reference materials, available for free to everyone, and my job was making the content as accessible as possible.

A key challenge for the product team was that no one goes to a dictionary site to “hang out.” Even though it was one of the most-visited sites on the internet, the destination garnered just a few page views from each visitor. Changing that just a little could have massive impact overall.

The landscape:

By that time, I was already nine years into my internet career. My passion has always been to understand the ever-changing trends of the digital landscape. What makes people click? What makes content shareable? What pops and what dies? Then, the magic is translating insights and analysis to concrete ideas, strategies and tactics.

The web of 2006 was very different than the web of today. In many ways, 2006 was the height of “Web 2.0” and, indeed, Time’s Person of the Year was “You.” Digg ruled the viral web and it was illegal to launch a company or product without finding a vowel to drop from its name.

Some milestones of 2006 include: @Jack opened his Twitter account in March, Flickr upgraded from “beta” to “gamma” status in May, Facebook opened up beyond .edu users in September and Google acquired YouTube in October.

My idea:

I constructed the proposal for what became Blufr through a series of reverse-engineering exercises based on my analysis of the landscape and Answers’ unique situation.

If pageviews were the issue, I’d build something with very little content on each page. To get people to click to another page, there’d need to be a piece of compelling content waiting for them. This idea should compound, such that every click lures the user into more clicks, a never-ending stream. Short content also played nicely with the emerging Twitter platform and could even act as standalone headlines for use on Digg.

Psychology would play a key part, recalling the various “personality tests” that were popular at the time. People wouldn’t just click around for their own amusement, they’d be driven to share with - and even challenge - their friends.

Ultimately, it had to be a super simple idea, one that could be built for minimal investment, because I’d be asking my boss for time away from my regular job to embark on this experiment. I was able to compile a succinct proposal, promising just a month away from my normal responsibilities and requesting just $10K for the experiment. Management was on board with my humble, frugal pitch and I set out to build Blufr. (shout-out to my MBA classmate, Marc Fischman, who built the backend almost single-handedly)

Introducing Blufr:

The concept was straight forward – when arriving at the site, users would be presented with a simple statement (a “bluf”) and be asked to decide it was true or false, by clicking on either “way” or “no way.” Upon clicking, they’d be ushered to a new page, revealing the answer based on content from Answers.com (with links throughout for more information) as well as a percentage indicating how many others were fooled by that bluf. Critically, beneath the answer would be a brand new bluf, enticing people to learn its veracity and continue the cycle of addictive pageview nirvana.

Blufs were the main attraction, and each one had to be written from scratch, in a masterful way, to intrigue, beguile and even amuse. Upon reading, users would need to have gut reactions along the lines of “no, that can’t possibly be right” or, “of course that’s true.” Emphasizing the percentage of people fooled played on users’ gullibility and, altogether, the content begged to be shared with friends. Not only was every bluf highly shareable, the game itself could easily be embedded on any site, just like a YouTube video.

To produce the content, I employed comedy writers I knew from my days performing improv in NYC. This allowed me to launch a trivia game with entirely fresh material, unlike the mostly recycled trivia of other sites. Some of my favorite blufs include: polar bears can't be seen by night vision goggles, milk is not technically considered dairy, elephants can’t jump and Cinderella's slippers were originally made of fur. (true, false, false, true) (shout-out to my army buddy, Paul Knegten, on his work as Blufr’s editor-in-chief)

The results:

I’m proud to say I launched blufr.com on time and on budget, on July 2, 2006.

Blufr took the web by storm, quickly gaining traction, earning great buzz for Answers and delivering results way beyond the modest investment made. The game garnered an average of 100 page views per visit, saw average visit lengths of 30 minutes and drove real traffic to Answers.com reference pages. Furthermore, it showed people a whole new spin on Answers.com and delivered a shot of adrenaline into the corporate culture.

Blufr was my first taste at what a “viral hit” looks like. I watched as site after site wrote about the game and embedded it. I heard story after story of radio programs and other media using Blufr content for things like call-in contests. Best of all, I was shocked when the site reached the number one spot in a directory of Web 2.0 sites. (shout out to the Answers.com head of product, Gil Reich, and the head of marketing, Jay Bailey, without whose support Blufr would have never seen the light of day)

Postscript:

The story of Blufr is one of my favorites because it goes far beyond just my invention of a viral hit on a tight budget and timeline. It wasn’t just a runaway success for Answers, it immensely impacted my life. Indeed, Blufr is a great story because it shows the power of the internet to spread messages, connect passions and change people’s lives.

While I was managing the heights of Blufr’s success, executives at MTV Networks were planning their own shake-up. The TV execs, specifically, sought to create a more unified strategy between greenlighting TV pilots and crafting the digital strategy for those shows (instead of relying on the existing workflow of the MTV.com digital team, which operated separately). The idea was to rapidly ideate and iterate games, apps, communities and social presences for shows in a way that really integrated between what people saw online and on-air.

While browsing a directory of popular Web 2.0 sites for inspiration, they came upon Blufr, which was enjoying its position as the number one Web 2.0 game.

The details of what happened next is a story for another day.

The highlight is that I was discovered from the other side of the world and given the opportunity to help lead a team that would operate with an entirely entrepreneurial and scrappy approach, to launch dozens of social media, user-generated-content destinations for MTV and VH1. (shout out to my partner on that adventure, my best friend, Asael Kahana)

By the time that story came to an end, Asael and I had created and led a boutique agency that directly managed a hefty budget from Viacom to invent, build and nurture a myriad of projects, including the one that became my next “viral hit” (NextOrNot), earned multi-millions for MTV and solidified my career path as a social media and digital marketing executive in the entertainment industry.

[shwirtz]

The celebrities’ guide to social media

Cutting to the chase:

This is a manifesto about the ways celebrities use and leverage social media, how their activity is valued by fans and corporate partners (studios, networks, publishers, etc.) and how they can derive even more value from their efforts by evolving the classic agent/manager/publicist ecosystem.

As someone who regularly works with celebrities, I all-too-often see them getting taken advantage of by partners focused on a specific, short-term goal (promote the next movie, the upcoming show, etc.) at the expense of a quality social media strategy set up for long-term success (and profit).

And beyond those types of relationships, there is a whole undiscovered country online for most talent — one that offers the ability to create their own content, explore their own passions, drive attention to their causes, and enjoy a level of creative control and intellectual property ownership that they likely haven’t experienced previously.

Take to the rare extreme, we see savvy celebrities create entire digital businesses. Short of that, there are specific, powerful ways that a smart digital strategy can benefit a talent with even the most traditional career ambitions (bigger roles, better parts, larger venues, conventional spokesperson deals, etc.)

Ultimately, I believe each celebrity who understands (or is curious to understand) the value of their digital presence will grow to have a “head of digital,” who works alongside the other members of their ecosystem, to help them navigate ever-changing trends, vet opportunities and maximize the impact (and income) from everything they do on everything they want to do.

About me:

My first-hand experience with the topic of “celebrities and social media,” in all its idiosyncrasies and permutations, comes from a decade spent working with reality stars at MTV and VH1, advising social media managers across all the brands of Viacom, acting as Chief Social Media Officer within the world’s largest independent production company (Endemol Shine Group) and guiding lots of talent directly (career highlight: Courtney Love calling me a mensch on Twitter).

(Quick note: I’m using celebrities/talent/creators/influencers interchangeably and focusing almost exclusively on “traditional” talent, as opposed to digital-native stars)

Celebs getting social:

Some celebrities are adamant about staying offline, some dip their toes in the water hesitantly, some consider social media for purely promotional purposes, and others embrace the medium as I do, as a fascinating and impactful storytelling platform, offering endless possibilities for sincere engagement, authentic creation and serious business.

For those that do make the leap, there’s a whole spectrum of how they do so, from tackling social media personally, to outsourcing to ghost writers, assistants, publicists and high school friends.

Case study: I worked with Drea De Matteo, who had previously only been active on Instagram. I launched her Facebook and Twitter accounts, focusing on video content and helping her translate her unfiltered perspective to the two platforms. We also held a wildly successful Reddit AMA. She now has a much more rounded social media presence that’s serving her well into new projects.

Regardless of whether or not the talent is active themselves, celebrity social media is executed very differently from corporate social media.

Companies usually employ “social media managers,” as well as analysts, designers and editors, to carefully craft and implement strategies that learn from case studies, exemplify every-changing best practices and experiment. Companies have budgets for staff, as well as for vendors and tools to help track, analyze and publish.

A celebrity, as an individual, typically doesn’t have any of those resources. That’s where we get either the celebrity handling things themselves (and figuring stuff out as they go along, sometimes with help from reps at the various networks) or relying on assistants and maybe someone junior from the agent/manager/publicist.

Unfortunately, in almost all these cases, there is little to no actual social media expertise in the mix. And even if there is a little experience there, it can’t compare to well-staffed, well-funded, well-trained and well-connected corporate teams.

That’s not meant as a value judgement. Even when they lack a professional level of savviness and resources, talent that love it can still excel at creating personal and energetic social media presences… while those that don’t love it, and perhaps rely on outsourcing, are left with mostly generic, uninteresting social media presences.

And even then, those that don’t love it, and maybe don’t even care about it, might nevertheless have huge digital followings, which come from the sheer force of their celebrity. Unfortunately, when you dig below the surface of those staggering numbers you’ll usually find accounts that can’t deliver the quality reach, engagement or click-throughs of much smaller-but-better accounts. And by “better,” I mean “more authentic.”

Not shitting on agents/managers/publicists:

In general, I’m avoiding the claim made by some agents/managers/publicists about their teams’ social media expertise and resources as I draw a clear distinction between their expertise and the expertise needed to really capitalize on the potential of the digital revolution on behalf of their clients. It’s simply a different job.

Very few invest in creating the sort of full-blown digital practice you’d need to really compete. Instead, if they do try to pitch this type of service to clients, they more often than not hire a few junior social managers and call it a day. This approach falls short for various reasons:

1. The resulting content will never be as authentic and impactful as that coming from the talent themselves — especially when considering interactions like replying to fans, live-tweeting and Q&As.

2. There are more and more outlets that require personal, real-time content creation that can’t be faked, ghost-written or produced ahead of time — like live-streaming and Snapchat. Just in the last few days we’ve seen news that growth on Facebook will soon be very difficult without live-streaming video (or spending lots of money).

3. There’s a vast difference between young, social-savvy social media managers and overall, high-level digital strategy that only comes from seasoned, senior executives, who have deep relationships with investors, the social platforms themselves, vendors, startups and apps, as well as experience with insight analysis, trend-spotting and overall business strategy.

Case study: One example is my work with Eliza Dushku. At the time, she had just launched a new homepage and we strategized a content plan for that, as well as how to leverage her social media accounts to benefit the non-profit cause she was (and still is) most passionate about. One tactic was to kick off a crowdfunding campaign, which raised more than our goal of $40,000. Finally, I was able to bring a digital perspective to the film she was acting in at the time, with live Q&As and more content sharing from the set, bringing fans into the heart of the action. In all the above, the work spanned various projects, personal and public, for-profit and non-profit, helping to build her own long-term impact in a way that the traditional setup, where talent gets support from specific corporate partners, would never be able to achieve.

Having said all that, it’s not impossible to conceive of agents/managers/publicists who can pull this off to the high standard I’m setting. It takes money, commitment and planning because it isn’t easy, can’t be done in a day or with a few junior folks. (and if you’re one of these companies thinking about this topic, be in touch with me!)

Talking ROI:

If you’re a celebrity who’s chosen to embrace social media, hopefully you’re not overwhelmed or intimidated while growing a quality fan base, enjoying unfiltered feedback and interaction, ignoring the haters and welcoming it all as a fun part of your overall career.

From the perspective of “return on investment,” you likely feel the potential for your social media activity to benefit specific projects, like getting the word out about new shows, movies, albums, books. You probably also tried leveraging your following to benefit the social causes and non-profit orgs closest to your heart. Maybe you’ve even made some money from companies who were willing to pay for specific promotion.

When not done in the right way, these attempts at ROI can really harm your reputation. Its easy to “sell out,” seem overly self-promotional or come across as just boring/generic. You or your friends might have even questioned whether it’s worth the effort (“what are my millions of followers good for?!”)

That’s because being “worth the effort” depends on who you ask — it definitely benefits your corporate partners (film studios, production companies, retailers, etc.) But their interests are usually short-lived, focused on the project at hand (let’s say a new movie’s release) instead of the long-term quality of your digital reputation.

Similar to how relying on external resources might not lead to the best digital strategy, likewise only valuing your efforts through external lenses (like promotional partners) misses the point.

So let me tell you what it’s good for!

Recognizing your intrinsic social value:

Hopefully you’re not falling into some of the traps I described because, even when not tackled with high professionalism and resources, your celebrity social media can still bring massive, tangible impact.

That’s because, as a general rule, ANYTHING you do with your digital presence will overshadow ANYTHING corporate partners do with theirs. Of course there are exceptions but, again, generally, audiences are much more apt to act based on the post of a celebrity, someone they theoretically love, than the post of an official show account (for example), which everyone knows is corporate-run.

In short, companies might theoretically have the savviness and resources but celebrities have the audience trust and attention. Of course you want to make money and promote your projects but only you have your long-term reputation with the audience in mind.

Recent research from the film world:

Twitter teamed with analytics firm Crimson Hexagon to analyze tweets for 33 movies released in 2015, spanning each film’s lifecycle from trailer release to post-premiere. The films included 15 “over-performers,” which had an average box-office-to-budget ratio of 2.5, and 18 “under-performers,” with a B.O./budget ratio of 0.5.

The key findings: Over-performing movies had 150% more posts on Twitter than the pics that bombed, among the films analyzed. Overall, movies that had talent who were active on Twitter saw a 326% boost in average daily volume of conversation on the service, compared with those whose actors or directors did not have Twitter accounts.

“It’s a powerful story to tell: Having your cast on Twitter does boost the overall conversation about your movie,” said Rachel Dodes, head of film partnerships for Twitter.

Recent reporting from the branded marketing world:

It turns out that consumers have little interest in the content that brands churn out. Very few people want it in their feed. Most view it as clutter — as brand spam. When Facebook realized this, it began charging companies to get “sponsored” content into the feeds of people who were supposed to be their fans.

On social media, what works for Shakira backfires for Crest and Clorox.

The problem companies face is structural, not creative. Big companies organize their marketing efforts as the antithesis of art worlds, in what I have termed brand bureaucracies. They excel at coordinating and executing complex marketing programs across multiple markets around the world. But this organizational model leads to mediocrity when it comes to cultural innovation.

Cashing in on your value:

Your activity online as a celebrity, with an active, long-term and hopefully authentic, vibrant, smart social media presence, is WORTH REAL MONEY and, therefore, should be treated with the sensitivity, forethought and business savviness as any new venture, promotional appearance, endorsement and the like.

I said I wasn’t shitting on your agent/manager/publicist and here’s exactly where they play a key role — fighting for what you deserve, based on the real impact you can have digitally. And they can do this for you when properly empowered by insights and hard numbers from your digital strategy. Imagine them preparing pitches (for your traditional work) that include things like average engagement rate of your posts, breakdowns on genders, ages and locations of your digital audience, and on and on. Real stuff!

Don’t get taken advantage of by partners who only care about their one project with you. Don’t assume you need to live-tweet your show as a *favor* to the company or that it “comes with the territory these days.” Don’t swap out your header banners with something gaudy and over-promotional just because the VP of Marketing asked nicely or offered to do it for you. Don’t give out your passwords, admin access and advertising rights (the permission of a company to put money behind “boosting” your posts) because an intern of the VP said it’d save you time. Don’t participate in some sort of spin-off web series or other digital campaign as a freebie/bonus even though it’ll “just take a few minutes during down-time on set.”

Yes, this means you:

My thesis applies not just to the biggest stars but to every working talent who’s committed to their own digital presence and the role it can play in their career and business.

Of course, there are some stand-out examples of celebrities that have seriously capitalized on their digital activity, which can be used as points of reference and inspiration for us all.

Celebrities like George Takei have become full-blown masters of content curation. Celebrities like Jerry Seinfeld, Steve Buscemi and Nicole Richie have enjoyed great success with web series (where they can enjoy more creative control than traditional media). Celebrities like Lauren Conrad, Gwyneth Paltrow and Reese Witherspoon have launched their own entire digital publications and full-blown lifestyle offerings. Celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Justin Timberlake have created, invested in and nurtured multiple digital businesses. Others, like Louis C.K., have experimented with leveraging digital strategy to radically disrupt the standard operating procedures of their fields. And don’t get me started on the digital mastery of the Kardashians.

Even if you’re not going to launch a digital business, there is still a wide middle-ground between just doing what your corporate partners want and exploring the potential for you to leverage your efforts to earn extra money, bring attention to the for-profit and non-profit causes you care about, and use your digital activity to achieve real goals in your traditional career.

Where do we go from here:

It might be a little extreme to say, and we’ll likely see various hybrid models emerge, but the bold pronouncement I’d like to make is-

Welcome to the birth of the Personal Chief Digital Officer!

As a celebrity, you probably have or had some combination of agent/manager/publicist. I believe you’ll soon also have a “head of digital” on your team that is PROBABLY independent of the other three. This person will be much more than a social media manager. (In fact, you might still have a social media manager and they may actually work for one of those other three).

Your own personal ‘head of digital:’

This will be the person bringing a digital perspective to everything you do. Sometimes they’ll equip your agent with analytics regarding the online demographics you resonate most with to help with pitches. Sometimes they’ll brainstorm with your manager what new content to create that’ll help attract your desired audience or show off your specific “range” that you might think isn’t currently obvious in the industry. Sometimes they’ll work with your publicist to make sure all the right media outlets — traditional and digital — are targeted with the right stories that exemplify what you’re doing and how it’s special.

From day to day the job will change. There’ll be a mix of making sure you’re always up to date with new features of existing networks, which new networks to experiment with, which old networks to drop — as you always want to be on top of the right trends and growing at a respectable pace.

Then there’ll be specific initiatives that capitalize on your traditional projects, partnerships, causes and general interests. Maybe it’ll be a cool way of working with an interesting startup or a savvy way of connecting between your passions and what’s trending on any given day. And there’ll certainly be a lot of dialog and coordination with all your corporate partners to insure that your digital footprint is properly valued ($$$) and suitably leveraged, with your own long-term interests in mind. So when you promote those partners, are they promoting you too, and are they providing you with the most effective content to use (customized to your audience, not just the same generic materials your costars are promoting, for example)?

The idea is simply to take the resources, capabilities and intelligence of what a company has and bring it to the realm of what you, as a celebrity, should have for yourself… because you deserve it, because your digital presence can be even more powerful and make even more of an impact that those corporate accounts. It’s time for you to have someone on your side that you can trust who is savvy to these issues, someone who lives and breathes every breaking trend, startup, vendor, case study and best practice.

Takeaways:

Many studios, networks and agencies like to claim they are “talent first.” In this day and age, given the state of the Internet and its impact on popular culture, I don’t think claims of being “talent centric” can be sincere without serious investment in the sorts of strategies and resources I described. It is possible, and I’m not throwing anyone under the bus.

Hopefully I’ve helped you, as a talent, see this topic in new light. Hopefully I’ve equipped you with new ways to evaluate who you chose to work with and the claims they make.

And if you’re curious to talk more about these issues, just say hi!

And if you do something similar and are reading this, say hi! The world is filled with meetups, conferences and symposia for corporate social media managers but not ONE is dedicated to those of us doing high level social/digital work directly for celebrities/talent/creators (and I mean DIRECTLY). I’m organizing our own meetups and forums for collaboration, so definitely reach out. Obviously everything is kept in total confidence.

This manifesto was originally published in The Drum.

[shwirtz]

New Horizons

I’ve had an amazing nearly-two-year stint as a founding executive at Endemol Beyond USA, as its Chief Social Media Officer. Working across TV and digital-native shows, talent and projects was exactly what I wanted following my prior role at Viacom. I got to build a fierce social media brain trust that evangelized social media strategy across the organization. I owe a ton to the group’s President, Will Keenan, who brought me on board the same week he started. It was a crazy and fulfilling adventure and I’ll forever be grateful to him.

I’m very proud of my time at Endemol Shine and am now excited to spread my wings toward new vistas!

So what exactly am I up to? A lot! Several projects that continue what I’ve always done… social and digital media strategies that empower storytellers to stay innovative in the ever-changing landscape of the digital revolution.

[shwirtz]

The Revolution Continues

Kicking off 2015 with some updates:

We just finished up work on an amazing New Year's show for FOX, hosted by Pitbull, live from Miami. Pitbull's New Year's Revolution was a great career milestone for me. It was my responsibility to coordinate all social media in and around the show. From working with the writers on integrating social media, to the control room operators who got a Twitter scroll on-air, to the teams of each talent on the show (including Enrique Iglesias, Fall Out Boy, Becky G, Fifth Harmony, The Band Perry and more) and, finally, working hand-in-hand with the man of the hour, Pitbull (and his top-30 Twitter and Facebook presence!)

Don't miss this guys!! @pitbull NYE Revolution mañana @ 8PM @PitbullNYE #PitbullNYE pic.twitter.com/WoSo5cdKwE

— Enrique Iglesias (@enrique305)

December 30, 2014

Cutting to the chase: we ended up reaching the number TWO slot on Nielsen's Social TV ratings. I couldn't be any happier with that, passing CNN, NBC, BET and everyone else doing New Year's Eve programming except for one show. I can't begrudge ABC's Rockin' Eve, with their entrenched place in people's minds and much larger budgets for production and digital promotion.

Thanks to Will Keenan, Matt Borst, Fiona Hillery and all the other great colleagues I get to work with to make stuff like this possible!

Happy New Year y Feliz Ano Nuevo pic.twitter.com/G9xDFOBWwo

— Pitbull (@pitbull)

January 1, 2015

Believe it or not, I have the distinction of having written the single most highest-performing tweet of the night. This is what I get paid the big bucks for :-)

2015!

— Pitbull (@pitbull)

January 1, 2015

A highlight from the end of 2014 was my work on Michelle Phan's book launch. I was honored to see Facebook cover my strategy for Michelle in their official blog. Check it out. Also, in February, 2015 the campaign won GOLD in the AVA Digital Awards.

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Hey guys! I'm so excited to share a sneak preview of my new book that's coming out next month. Here's the first chapter!...

Posted by

Michelle Phan

on 

Friday, September 26, 2014

Beyond the above, I encourage those curious about what we're doing to keep track of our various YouTube channels:

Pitbull, especially the web series Gentlemen's Code and The Most Bad Ones

BEYONDreality, especially The MUTHASHIP with Drea De Matteo

BEYONDcomedy

Brittany Furlan

Michelle Phan

FAWN INC (major relaunch coming soon)

Andy Milonakis (new web series launching this month)

Here's my proof @shwirtz #THEMUTHASHIP Too early to type!! 😂🔫

A photo posted by Drea De Matteo (@dreadematteo) on Oct 19, 2014 at 9:42am PDT

Hey guys, I finally have an official facebook fanpage,https://t.co/0jXxqs2yDu thanks to @Shwirtz

— Andy Milonakis (@AndyMilonakis) November 18, 2014

And, finally, if you make it to the LA office of Endemol Beyond be sure to take a selfie with the new telepresence robot that I control!

Yay! I now control a RoboJacob in the LA @endemolbeyond office from my office in NY. My own drone! Will make our work together much easier. If you're in the office take a selfie with me! Here I am in front of the PR wall. Thanks to @doublerobotics and the coolest boss, @willkeenan. #GetBeyond

A photo posted by Jacob Shwirtz (@shwirtz) on Jan 5, 2015 at 6:41pm PST

[shwirtz]

Year of Revolution at Endemol Beyond

My birthday is a great milestone from which to take stock of the last year. About a month after my last birthday update, Will Keenan offered me the job of a lifetime, right as he became president of Endemol Beyond US, the new digital division of the world's largest independent production company, Endemol.

And so my year began, as the first Chief Social Media Officer of a global media company. Not bad! The company behind many people's favorite shows over the last twenty years was making a major statement, declaring that social media has both a central role in its new digital operations and its core business.

That's no bullshit! A few weeks back, when the CEOs of all Endemol-owned US subsidiaries met for an all-day pow-wow, I was honored to join for the whole day and present our evolving vision of social media at Endemol.

Over the last year I've had a chance to work on Wipeout, Fear Factor, The Steve Harvey Show, Sing Your Face Off and, most recently, Kingdom. In fact, just this week, on premiere night, Kingdom was the top-five most-tweeted show - which is amazing when you consider it's only accessible to subscribers of DirecTV.

Unlike any place I've ever worked, and to a degree I've never heard of, show producers, crew and executives are interested, engaged and actively working with our digital team to maximize and grow their efforts across the board, at all levels (casting, editing, programming, etc).

Working with a select roster of high-profile partners, we're creating awesome entertainment and new businesses: from Brittany Furlan, the Queen of Vine (most-followed female) to Michelle Phan, the Queen of YouTube (practically invented the beauty vlogger genre).

Thanks @michellephan for letting me see your creative process, introducing me to Cat The Human and practicing our best Blue Steel pose. #zoolander @endemolbeyond #GetBeyond

A photo posted by Jacob Shwirtz (@shwirtz) on Aug 20, 2014 at 8:57am PDT

But that's just the beginning! Stay tuned for four new web series with Mr. Worldwide, Pitbull (trailer), a reality show with Emmy-winning Drea De Matteo (The Muthaship on BEYONDreality) and more.

Can't wait for everyone to see the super cool projects we're doing with Mr. Worldwide, @pitbull, at @endemolbeyond. #DreamJob #ThinkBeyond #Disruption

A photo posted by Jacob Shwirtz (@shwirtz) on May 8, 2014 at 10:50am PDT

Gets my heart pumping! Really jazzed for what we are doing with @Pitbull. Here's a tiny clip from the new YouTube channel trailer we created. See the whole thing: YouTube.com/pitbullmusic

A video posted by Jacob Shwirtz (@shwirtz) on Sep 23, 2014 at 6:22pm PDT

I'll elaborate a little on our work with Michelle because it's just so exciting to me and represents how we are different from and better than others. Michelle is a wonderful role model because her success is based on consistent, high quality, elegant and authentic work (over 300 videos), done over the course of years (over seven).  From successful beauty vlogger, Michelle launched her own cosmetics line, subscription beauty business, is releasing a book later this month and just announced a new record label! Together, we are pursuing multiple, global digital and TV projects as well as an entire international lifestyle network of content and personalities.

  As partners, I get to work with Michelle and her great team across all silos, maximizing the social media impact of everything. This is truly a dream job because Michelle considers herself a storyteller first and foremost and that's exactly my vision of social media.

  Two quick examples of my work with her and the team... Halloween is a big time for beauty experts and I'm proud to have facilitated a partnership with Pinterest around Michelle's Halloween looks this year (it's Pinterest's first co-marketing partnership!) For the release of her book, I worked with peers at Facebook and Instagram to launch a first-of-its-kind series where Michelle has been introducing each chapter of the book in a separate video that lives on her page as well as Facebook's official pages for authors and celebrities.

*Update added in Feb. 2015: The book launch campaign was so successful that Facebook detailed the strategy in a case study for their official blog and we also won GOLD in the AVA Digital Awards.

  And we're just getting started!

  An upcoming massive priority is Pitbull's New Year's Revolution! Taking on all the "classic" New Year's Eve TV programming, Endemol is producing a NYE show for FOX, with Pitbull and his friends, live from Miami. This is where we'll get to bring the best of all worlds together, creating a truly massive, innovative and disruptive omni-media extravaganza.

  I couldn't be more grateful for this wild year and I know next year will be even crazier. I'm working with the best people, at the best company, with the best partners and we are creating revolutions!

[shwirtz]

Another thing to check off the bucket list: dinner in Noma, the best restaurant in the world (on Valentine's Day weekend of all days), tour of their test kitchen and hour-long chat with the visionary owner and head chef, Rene Redzepi.

Check out my album of pictures from the evening and read Nicole's review on her blog about sea urchin, UrchinSurchin.com.

[shwirtz]

Congratulations to Jacob Shwirtz, Endemol Beyond USA's Chief Social Media Officer, on becoming the newest member of the Shorty Awards Real-Time Academy of Short Form Arts & Sciences. ...

[shwirtz]

Approved mensch! My mom will be so happy! Thanks @courtneylove, Mrs. #Nofilter #endemolBEYOND

[shwirtz]

New Gig: Going Beyond with Endemol Beyond

I couldn’t be more excited, proud, honored and humbled to announce my new job as the Chief Social Media Officer of Endemol Beyond USA, the new digital branch of the world’s largest independent production company, Endemol. This is an awesome job (bringing social media to the core of a major media company), at an awesome company (startup but within an amazing brand), under an awesome boss (cult film legend and digital impresario, Will Keenan) and within an awesome team (that you’ll be hearing a lot more about).

Here’s some initial press on Endemol Beyond in general. Here's the press release about my hire and Variety was the first to break the news. If you don't know what Endemol is, check out the Wikipedia entry to be impressed.

In this post I’ll share a little of my vision for the new gig and what excites me most about the opportunity.

First I’ll take a step back to put the new job in a little context for those new to the blog.

This new job comes exactly one year since leaving Viacom, where I was the first person hired to lead Social TV efforts across the dozens of brands and over one thousand social media accounts of the company. It was a great job, where I was an internal adviser to executives, product managers, social media managers and more. I also spent a good deal of time on public-facing initiatives like press interviews and panel appearances at conferences. I wrote pieces like The Day You’ll Know Social TV Has Arrived, The Great Storytelling Revolution and, since leaving Viacom, Corporate Structure in the Innovation Economy.

Ultimately, it was time to depart amicably, after over four years in the Viacom family and 2 years in the last role (the first chapter was under visionary President Brian Graden, leading a SWAT team of digital operatives to create dozens of digital and social offshoots of original programming). I spent the entirety of 2013 traveling, meeting hundreds of people, working mostly behind the scenes on several consulting gigs and helping various non-profit causes. One of the highlights was working closely with actress, activist and producer Eliza Dushku on her digital and social strategy, as well as helping her propel efforts around the two non-profit causes closest to her heart. For a quick look at this uniquely inspiring year of my life, outside of traditional work, check out What I’ve Been Up To. (just a quick shout-out to my awesome wife, who stood beside me all year and let me join as her eating companion on her goal of becoming a top Sea Urchin expert – please visit UrchinSurchin.tumblr.com! Also check out our travel blogs, Shwirtzing.tumblr.com and ShwirtzTheSouth.com.)

Getting back to the update…

To me, Social TV represents a vision for new genres of content, new ways to connect with audiences, letting them behind the curtains in ways never before possible. The chief challenge industry-wide is figuring out how digital and linear teams work together, with social media not just serving a marketing or technology function. Social media needs to be at the core of what media companies do, work across all silos and, ultimately, influence all traditional practices, from talent agreements to how shows are edited and much more.

And that’s why I’m so excited about Endemol Beyond and my role as its Chief Social Officer. I can now work across all silos and think in terms of “digital business plans” for our brands and talent, not in terms of “social media marketing plans.” In hiring me for this new position, Endemol is stating loud and clear that it understands social media belongs in the core of its business. Unlike my prior jobs, I am now spending a majority of my time with the ultra-creative people who create amazing, popular and profitable content – producers, writers, talent and more. I’m reading scripts, evaluating talent deals and developing social and digital strategies as key components to helping to evolve new paradigms of content creation, distribution and monetization.

Two and a half years ago I wrote “This Isn’t Your Grandmother’s Social Media Revolution” and now I have the unique opportunity to put those strategies into action!

So what are we doing???

Not a lot is public yet. The work will take many forms and, undoubtedly, be experimental and a lot of fun!

I just returned from NATPE, where we made two major announcements:

1- An all-around deal with the mega, mega global superstar Pitbull. There’s been a lot of press about the deal.

2- A digital deal with legendary Courtney Love – check out the trailer for her new premium YouTube channel and catch her actually replying to fans commenting on the video (I promise its really her!):

Here’s a fun picture and caption, which was my idea (referencing her Twitter libel case):

Can't shut me up...now we go beyond #twibel @willkeenan pic.twitter.com/9ponFuaPrE

— Courtney Love Cobain (@Courtney)

January 27, 2014

And I love what my old friends at MTV had to say about Courtney’s new deal.

That’s about all from me about the announcement for now, but stay tuned for much, much more! Here are a few pics from our total blow-out party in Miami... Courtney rocked the house, Will and I had a great time overall and I got to bond with digital talent Grace Helbig over a shared passion for Buffalo wings:

This is where it all happened. Partial view of the party poster. Disruption is just BEGINNING with #endemolBEYOND

A photo posted by Jacob Shwirtz (@shwirtz) on Jan 30, 2014 at 9:21pm PST

Highlight of Miami trip was getting to know digital MAVEN and fellow buffalo wing aficionado @gracehelbig

A photo posted by Jacob Shwirtz (@shwirtz) on Jan 30, 2014 at 9:15pm PST

Blown away that I get to work with the rocking vanguard @courtney. @courtneylove #endemolBEYOND

A photo posted by Jacob Shwirtz (@shwirtz) on Jan 30, 2014 at 9:10pm PST

[shwirtz]

Major bucket list accomplishment: sushi from the top sushi master in the world, Jiro. Once in a lifetime experience. Mind=blown. Oldest three Michelin star chef in the world. Seriously, seriously amazing. And very special to have eaten at both his son's place and the mother ship. (at Sukyabashi Jiro)

[shwirtz]

What I've been up to!

Today’s my birthday, when Facebook reminds people I’m still alive. With that in mind, I figured it was time to answer a question I know people will be thinking when they see my name pop up in the birthday reminders – what have I been up to this year?! In short, 2013 turned into a year off the grid for me, filled with travel and lots of behind the scenes work. This blog post attempts to share what I’ve been up to.

The last formal job I had ended at the end of 2012, when I left my role as head of Social TV Strategy for Viacom. The amicable departure allowed me to spend much of this year away from traditional work, corporate America, job hunting and the like. I was able to travel extensively with my awesome wife (about eight countries, three continents, 20 cities) and meet with a vast array of people. These meetings were unique because I wasn’t looking for work, wasn’t pitching myself and wasn’t soliciting anything other than genuine conversation and exchange of thoughts.

In this time I met with former colleagues, mentors, friends, peers of all kinds and many friends of friends. It was refreshing not having any agenda other than getting to know people while talking about issues and trends we shared passion for.

In the course of over 100 such exchanges I was astounded to discover a large amount of folks that had either already left their jobs or were about to leave their jobs. This surprising trend has continued and it seems like every other day I learn of another relation who’s left her or his job. What’s even more intriguing is that the majority of these unemployed left where they were without having their “next thing.”

To make it clear, 2013 appears to have been the year for really talented, well-connected and successful people to leave their jobs even without knowing what they were going to do next. As a quick anecdote, over half of the thirty participants I invited to a high level, digital think tank-type gathering I organized in January, 2013, are no longer with the jobs they had while attending The St0ry. There seems to be something in the air, and it isn’t a “millennial” or any other generation-specific trend.

What I’ve noticed, in conversation after conversation, is that really smart people started seeing the writing on the wall. The first type, those who succeeded in doing great work from a more senior position, recognized they are more valuable as independent contractors and creators – where they could own more of their work, intellectual property, monetization and the like. The second type, VPs and below who are promising up and comers, on the fast-track in their careers, recognized there are intractable barriers to innovation at most large companies and they’d be better off on the outside (I wrote elsewhere about Web 1.0 executives in a Social 3.0 world).

This has caused an amazing reality, where talent is both needed and available but the truly talented want more. Figuring out that “more” has been my mission for 2013. My peers and I know we have a lot to offer. We have trophies, great contacts, experience and passion but are tired of old-world org structures, titles, bosses afraid to innovate themselves out of jobs and an obsessive focus on the next quarterly report to investors. We want more and that’s why we’re checking out of old paradigms.

Unsurprisingly, as the year progressed, I had to make decisions about earning an income once again. In trying to describe my desire and answer that question of “what’s more?” I eventually stumbled on to what has become my mantra, “I want to work with people I like on projects I care about.”

It’s a simple idea that has empowered me to make decisions I otherwise wouldn’t have made. Its focused my thinking, opened new horizons, attracted like-minded superstars to want to work with me and given me space for the kind of contemplation needed when embedded in such a frenetic industry.

So what am I actually doing now? Because I’ve mostly been working behind the scenes, with people who know me, I’ve decided to be more secretive than usual about my work. Generally, I’ve worked with a major network on strategy around their biggest event of the year; I’ve worked with several agencies on thought leadership ideas for their clients; I’ve consulted for one of the most interesting Social TV experiments to launch in 2014; I’ve mentored startups and entrepreneurs. Luckily, I have a super supportive wife who is happy to be on the ride with me.

One thing in particular that I’m excited about is applying the ideas and strategies of media companies to individuals, specifically celebrities. Like media companies, celebrities create content regularly that they own the rights to (think Instagram, blogs, podcasts, web series, etc.) and control their own, direct-to-fan marketing channels (social media, newsletters, etc.)

With me on this adventure is the actress, producer and activist, Eliza Dushku. Together, we’re working on several projects that explore the evolution of what it means to be a celebrity with content creation, ownership and marketing strategies (case studies include Soleil Moon Frye, Adrian Grenier, Zooey Deschanel, Kevin Smith, Lauren Conrad and many others).

Birthday selfies with @elizadushku as we plan to conquer the interwebz

A photo posted by Jacob Shwirtz (@shwirtz) on Oct 10, 2013 at 9:49am PDT

Something else that’s interesting is my evolving role as an advisor to people thinking of leaving their work and as a connector for newly-extricated superstars. I’m thinking of creating some sort of unemployment club. Seriously. The first rule of Unemployment Club? You can’t have a job. The second rule? You can’t want a job.

So what am I actually doing now? Stay tuned. Or, better yet, say hi! (bonus points for wishing me a happy birthday by means other than the Facebook wall!)

----some postscripts----

Here are some of the people who, like me, have made big shifts in 2013. I owe each a huge thanks for their commiseration, inspiration and friendship (I linked to their news as well as Twitter accounts): Jesse Redniss (@JesseRedniss), Sharon Feder Hirsch (@Sharon Feder), Andy Ellwood (@AndyEllwood), Erica Berger (@GoodBerger), David Levy (@dslevy), Callie Schweitzer (@cschweitz), Mark Ghuneim (@MarkGhuneim), Rebecca Sinderbrand (@Sinderbrand), Greg Levey (@GregoryLevey), Amanda Slavin (@AJSlavin), Will Keenan (@WillKeenan), Morgan Greco (@MorganGreco).

Of course I also send warm blessings to all those I know about, and don’t yet know about, that are still stealthily planning their exits (let me know if I can help!)

And, even though he didn’t change jobs this year, I have to shout-out the ever-inspirational Ross Martin (@RossMartin1) – go watch his Poetry of Misunderstanding TED talk and read this amazing Facebook note.

And here’s an awesome article to read for additional insight: Build a Career Worth Having