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>> Trevor Turnbull: So I just have a couple more questions for you. I'm not going to keep
you here all day, although this has been a great chat. I'm glad that you're taking the
time to go through all of these different things and talk some strategy with me.
To just kind of take it back to your current role with the team and what social media in
particular has done for your own career as far as a learning tool, connecting with others
in the industry. What have you taken from social media from an individual perspective
aside from the team?
>> Sean Parker: I think it's probably been, for me, all about connections.
For example, this whole interview was set up via Twitter. I saw something that you guys
put out and I thought it was really good stuff and I tweeted about it and you said thanks
for the shout out and next thing I know you're contacting me for an interview.
I've certainly been privileged enough to appear on some panels at conferences and speak at
some conferences. I think from a personal standpoint it certainly has made me more connected
to people in my industry, whether it's the sports industry or the technology industry.
It's allowed me to express myself in certain ways. For example I love Instagram and I use
Instagram a lot. Although I haven't used it a lot lately but I do use it a lot. I have
almost 800 images up there so you can tell I'm clicking away. So it allows me to express
myself that way, where I might not have had that opportunity without some sort of social
media outlet. I could post it on my Web site or my blog or whatever else but it wouldn't
get the exposure that it gets via social media. In some of the conversations I've found about
how people are using things where I would think that, as a fan, I would use it this
way but I ask the question on Twitter or on Facebook and people answer, "no. I dont use
it that way." I thinking alright maybe we shouldn't go down that route.
Those sorts of things where it's connecting with people, finding out information and obviously
ultimately being able to express yourself in one way, shape or form is probably the
way that I use social media and the way that I've connected with people. I already had
this position when social media became really active. I think that we learned from day one
using discussion boards and those sorts of things; they were social media. That was a
community that you built. That was social media before the term Web 2.0 and Social Media.
We were using it and I think that we built upon that same philosophy.
>> Trevor: You actually bring up a good point there too that you were in your role prior
to social media so it came along with you as you have evolved in your responsibilities
with the team.
Which we didn't really get into a whole lot, but you used be involved; my God. I'm telling
you people this guy was the hardest working man in sports when I first met him. He was
working 12-14 hours per day, he was up in the press box, he was in the room that had
wires all over the place, he was managing the social stuff and he was running back and
forth and he had a smile on his face the whole time I couldn't believe it.
For people nowadays that are trying to break into the industry and essentially do what
you do on a daily basis. I'll let you speak to this but I know from my point of view,
when we hire for people that essentially do what I do everyday I go straight to their
social accounts to see how they use the tool and how they express themselves. It's almost
like a direct extension of who they are from their personal brand perspective. How hard
they work, what they know, what they dont know, how comfortable they are in reaching
out and communicating with other people using these tools. They're important skills to have
in the role.
What would you say about all of that? As far as the social stuff
>> Sean: Yeah. I certainly think that that's a great way to use it. Essentially if you're
going to become a social media manager or director for a company that's your portfolio.
It's funny; whether you're on LinkedIn or Facebook or Twitter or even using YouTube
in a more social manner or Flickr, all of these outlets becomes part of your personality.
It shows who you are, it shows how connected you are. It also shows that maybe you're the
right type of person for a position because you're out there and you're willing to reach
out and communicate with people that you may not know personally. You're not afraid to
make the, I don't want to say cold call because you have some sort of information about that
person via social but, you're willing to go out there and communicate. It becomes, as
I said, your portfolio of work.
When we hire people here we do look at their social stuff. It's not always just to go,
"what's this person look like." Look, we've all made mistakes in the past. I'm not going
to go into your Facebook page and see if you were partying when you were 21. I know it
happens, come on. It's life. I'm not going to be that guy. I do want to see if you're
posting stuff beyond what you ate for breakfast. Or more than pictures of your cat or dog.
I want to know that you're actually having that conversation with people; that you're
not just spewing stuff out there. I look at it from that perspective. I want to know that
they're getting answers back too. I want to know that people are talking with them as
well and that they're not just putting stuff out there. That there are conversations happening.
I can tweet 1 million times just by typing something out every few minutes but if nobody
is answering back then there's no engagement. There's no conversation.
If I was going to give advice to somebody number one I would say yeah there are going
to be guys or HR people that look at your social stuff and say, "this guy or girl was
out drinking the night before. I dont know if this is somebody that we want on our staff."
I would also say, other than cleaning that up, you need to have that conversation with
people. You need to engage, you need to talk with people, you need to express yourself
and don't have flaming conversations; have earnest, honest conversations. You don't want
to have to go, "oh, you're suck a ***." You can be cool about it and say "I don't agree
with that. Maybe you should look at it this way" or "maybe there's something else out
there." You're allowed to disagree as long as it keeps the conversation going you know?
>> Trevor: Yeah. So having an opinion is important. I couldn't agree with you more. The other
thing I would say too is the hunger and the desire to learn right?
>> Sean: Absolutely.
>> Trevor: I see a lot of people that dive into social media and the ones that find immediate
success are ones that start following people that they idolize, they see as mentors, they
see perhaps in a position that they want to be in and start sharing what they have to
say in a genuine way and eventually contributing to that conversation in an intellectual way.
Before you know it you're on the radar of the person that you want to be like and next
thing you know you're chatting with them at a conference.
It seems like such a logical thing that a lot of people forget to do. Be human. Be a
real person that's generally interested in learning and building relationship with people
and you'll see success from the social side of things.
>> Sean: Yeah, absolutely. Alex Ball, our developer here, one of the ways that he got
on my radar was he actually came from an industry that wasn't in the development role at his
prior industry but what he did is he build a site specifically for this job to show me
his skills. Then he followed me on Twitter and started having these conversations with
me and then I knew about him. When it came time to pull the trigger on who to hire it
wasn't a real struggle.
>> Trevor: He was at the top of your mind right?
>> Sean: Yeah, exactly.
>> Trevor: Yeah. Free work. You just brought up a good point about doing free work.
People have a misconception of what that means too. By no means do I mean live on the streets
and work for free forever. There's just a difference between doing free work and doing
an internship where you're being told what to do and you're just plugging through spreadsheets.
The proactive nature that your current developer showed landed him a job. How much time did
it really take him probably; if he's skilled at what he's doing it might have taken him
a full day. A little dabbling around here and there but if it got him his dream job
then I think he can honestly say that it was time well invested.
>> Sean: Yeah. Absolutely.
With the intern stuff; one thing that we always look at with interns here is how proactive
they are. Once they've obtained an internship here we dont want them to just say "what do
you want me to do," "let me pump out another Photoshop file" or "let me look at these analytics."
It's "have you thought about this sort of method on Twitter" or "all of my friends are
doing this on Facebook. Maybe you should look at this and see where this trend is going."
"I just found a new piece of code that we can use that fits into our site that can make
this great thing." We're not afraid of ideas here; bring them on. They're not necessarily
a bad idea, it's just one that doesn't fits right now.
Its funny; do you know Square, the credit card technology that works with iPads and
iPhones and Andriods? I had mentioned that here to somebody in ticketing a long time
ago. One of them was Anthony and another was I think Anthony's boss. I found out this morning
at a meeting that we're using Square now for ticketing stuff and I'm like, "what? I told
you that."
We're not afraid of ideas it's just sometimes they take a little time to develop and work
into the mindset of people around here. I think it's the same with any organization.
If it's a good, viable idea yeah they're going to run with it. If it's an OK idea maybe it
just needs to be built up and flushed out.
>> Trevor: Yeah. I've seen you guys be proactive in a number of ways and use new technologies
and experimenting with things and it is exciting to see.
I really appreciate you doing this interview with me Sean and I know I'd like to do some
folo-ups too here and we start to see how Google+ is making out and when you guys decide
to dive into Pinterest and whether or not your perspective on that platform will change
or stay the same or whatever it might be.
So, I guess just to wrap things up then, how would people connect with you online specifically?
LinkedIn, Twitter, how can people connect with you. Even your Web site too.
>> Sean: Yeah. well washingtoncapitals.com.
>> Trevor: Your personal Web site.
>> Sean: Oh, badlemon.com. I haven't written there in a while; for me it takes forever
to write a blog post. I think about and I think what is this, is it really going to
go over that well. SpikeP is my Twitter handle. Sean Parker on LinkedIn. Facebook I like to
keep for my friends and family but you can always become a fan of the Washington Caps
and reach us that way.
>> Trevor: What about Instagram? How do people check out these 800+ photos you have going
on?
>> Sean: That's almost 800, not quite 800. Now I have to start posting there again too.
It's SpikeP, the name I use on that one. I'm on Google+ as well on a personal level. When
Google+ first came out only one person could manage the Google+ page.
>> Trevor: You're the guy.
>> Sean: Now there are things that we can do to get other people to manage it as well.
>> Trevor: Good stuff. Awesome. Thanks very much again Sean for doing this and if you
see Anthony in the hallways make sure you give him a good shot for me on the way by.
>> Sean: Oh I will. A good body check.
>> Trevor: Good body check, there we go. We'll talk to you again soon.
>> Sean: Thanks Trevor. See you.