Reinventing Doe Interactive

A few weeks ago, I told you of a new challenge for me with Doe-Anderson and that I would be hiring a few folks to help me tackle my role as Director of Interactive and On-Line Communications. Yesterday, two of the four posted positions were officially filled.

On the social media front, I’m excited to welcome David Finch to the team. A friend and fellow Social Media Club Louisville board member, David is an established blogger and thinker in the social media space, has a sharp mind and an astute business sense and happens to be pretty darn good at driving traffic to websites, too.

And from the development side of things, Seth King joins Doe as a web developer. He’s tremendously talented, has a nice blend of application work to go with an outstanding web design portfolio and even has some traditional design and creative experience that will come in handy as we try to forge a stronger relationship with our agency creatives.

I’m sure you’ll see David here as he’ll join the SME staff as a contributor along with Kat French. Seth may very well make a guest appearance as well. Certainly his work will on the occasion we launch and share some of our craftsmanship.

I’ve had several people ask me what Doe Interactive is going to do differently and, while I’ve been lost in the weeds serving as director, project manager and social media dude for the last month and haven’t had time or opportunity to formulate some formal plans, I’d answer by saying that we’ll do a lot differently. From the way the department is managed to the outcomes we expect of ourselves, I intend to try things that haven’t been done at an advertising agency. Below are some thought starters on what I want our philosophy, actions and outcomes to be. I’d love your input, opinions and thoughts on them as well.

What I hope for Doe Interactive:

• We build content-centric websites that engage audiences and drive them to the client’s intended outcome.
• We balance form and function in a way that produces both utility and beauty.
• We get out of the habit of building websites and into the habit of creating ongoing elements of the greater consumer experience.
• We bring search to bear fruits for all of our clients.
• We innovate, for our clients, for our agency and for our audiences.
• We are driven by results, excited by opportunities and enthused by collaboration with each other.

I’ve told my staff, which also numbers Kat, Jen Isaac and Jeff Hennis and will soon also include a project manager, that I am not the boss nor am I the coach. I’m the quarterback. We’re all on this field together and we all have roles to play. Everyone’s contribution is an equal part of our success, every opinion counts and the only bad ideas are the ones you don’t share.

Perhaps I’m being idealistic about it all. Perhaps we’ll get six months into this thing and the bottom line will prove I should give up the management part and go back to my full-time social media role. But with the team I’ve started to build, I have a hard time thinking we’ll be anything but successful.

Welcome David and Seth. Here we go.