Day Thirty Three,
Buzzwordy scratched his neck a bit, puffed out some hot air, and prepared himself to respond to Professor Sandie.
"So Professor Sandie, I sense that you have doubts about my knowledge in the social media realm. Why is that?" asked the concerned Buzzwordy.
"The truth is plain simple. Both you and I happened to pick up the same social media book from the bookstore. It was only two weeks ago. Given such a short time, how on earth could you become an expert in this field?" replied the professor sarcastically.
"Great question professor! If this is the case, why did you invite me in the first place?" responded Buzzwordy.
"Look you marketing stiff, I did not invite you to my class! We had a deal and you should remember that!" shouted Professor Sandie.
The class looked somewhat confused about what was happening between the professor and Buzzwordy. Diva was particularly lost and wasn't quite sure what her role should be. She continued to pad her head gently while spinning her body in a slow circular motion.
"Professor Sandie! I suggest that we don't go down your suggested path because both of us know who was at fault in the bookstore. Let me finish my social media game with Diva and I promise you that I will be out of your sight promptly!" proposed Buzzwordy.
"This is a wishful thinking and your time is up!" screamed the professor.
"Diva, can you monetize from social media?" inquired Buzzwordy.
"If there is a proven way to make money from social media, I will hear about it for sure. So my answer is probably not!" blurted Diva.
At this time, Professor Sandie had already lunged himself forward and signaled Diva to return to her seat. He then stopped right in front of Buzzwordy and stared at him sternly.
"Didn't I tell you to stop? Since you have failed me, I will get your book back!" warned the professor.
Buzzwordy bursted out laughing hysterically as he made a short bow to the class and began walking towards the door.
"Well?" demanded Professor Sandie.
"Have a wonderful life professor!" waved Buzzwordy as he slammed the door behind him.
The trip back to the campus parking lot was a delightful one for Buzzwordy. He found himself sprinting joyously as he made his way back to the car. He was thrilled about his retaliatory move on the professor and knew that his action would never be forgiven.
"Xavia, what is going on?" answered Buzzwordy when his mobile phone rang.
"Bif is going to announce the new organization and you better come back ASAP (as soon as possible)!" requested Xavia.
"Roger!" acknowledged Buzzwordy as he drove away from the college campus hurriedly.
I'll return on Day Thirty Four.
Buzzwordy
Day Thirty Two,
The pimply looking woman kept padding her head as she walked towards Buzzwordy. She had this ghastly look and jittery move that made everyone in the class felt uncomfortable.
"May I get your name?" asked Buzzwordy as he welcomed the woman to the front of the class.
"Yes my name is Deeva and everyone calls me Diva with the "i"!" murmured the nervous woman.
"Wonderful Diva, it is great to meet you. I just thought of a social media game that you and I can play. It is going to be really fun and I know that everyone in this class will enjoy it." reassured Buzzwordy.
"For Pete's sake, please get started ASAP!" demanded Professor Sandie.
"Right!" concurred Buzzwordy.
"Diva, if you take the Internet out, what types of social media tool do you currently use to stay in touch with your friends and family?" asked Buzzwordy.
"Gee I don't know! How about the phone?" replied Diva.
"Excellent Diva! So the phone is it! As you know, there are so many types of phone in the market today. We have the basic phones, phones that you can do text messaging with, phones that will allow you to send and receive emails, and surf the web. The choices are boundless. If we take the Internet out of the picture, the only social media tool that we have will just be the basic phone. Do you agree?" asked Buzzwordy.
"Interesting! Are you trying to tell my class that we have been involved with this social media phenomena ever since the phone was born?" inquired the curious professor.
"It really depends on your POV (point of view). Professor, if you don't mind, I prefer to play this game with Diva instead!" replied Buzzwordy.
"Alright, go right ahead!" smirked Professor Sandie.
Diva was motionless and not sure what to do next. She continued to pad her head gently while staring ferociously at Buzzwordy. The rest of the class were still in its dead silence mode.
"Diva, I think you and I both agree that the phone is essentially a social media platform that is mobile and can be leveraged as a communication tool to reach out to people. My first question to you is this: how scalable can a phone be?". If you disagree with my statement, please provide your reasons!" stated Buzzwordy.
"I cannot imagine using a phone to reach out to millions of people. It definitely has its limitation. I think even with a phone that can support multi-party voice conferencing, its reach is still limited. One thing that I agree with you is that a phone is an essential communication tool." said Diva.
"Bravo Diva, not a bad answer at all! In other words, we do have a basic but very limited social media tool that is both hardware and software poor if you go by today's standard. Now, lets go one notch higher with our hypothesis. What defines social media?" interrogated Buzzwordy.
"Please do not use the word "Hypothesis" in my class! This is my territory!" shouted Professor Sandie.
Buzzwordy did not bother to respond to the professor. He paused for a moment to synthesize his thoughts before turning his attention back to Diva.
"As the professor wishes, I will drop the word "Hypothesis" from our game here. Diva, so what defines social media?" probed Buzzwordy.
"Gee, I don't know! Does it have to do with building communities up or getting the communities involved in some big social trending things?" queried Diva.
"Possible Diva, however, the possibilities are boundless because any topic can be considered as a candidate for social change and as we all know, a medium is simply a vehicle for reaching out to people. As long as the method is legal, anything is possible!" replied Buzzwordy.
"Listen up, Mr. Marketing Stiff! You only have less than 5 minutes to finish up your game. I do have one question for you: "what makes you qualified to teach social media?". I would like to hear your answer!" snarled Professor Sandie.
Diva started to giggle and Buzzwordy could tell that everyone in that class wanted him to fail in answering to the professor. He raised his head and looked straight into the professor's eyes.
I'll be back on Day Thirty Three.
Buzzwordy
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Day Thirty One,
Finding Professor Sandie's class room wasn't exactly easy for Buzzwordy, nonetheless, he managed to track it down after dashing through tiny corridors, stopping to ask students and staffs on the business department floor, and deciphering the room numbers on the wall.
"Great, Mr. Marketing Stiff. Am I glad to see you!" greeted the sarcastic Professor Sandie.
"Likewise Professor. By the way, your room is hard to find. I will suggest .....!" responded Buzzwordy before the professor cut him off.
"Class, I promise all of you that I will bring in a guest today to share his social media insights with everyone. Here he is, Mr. Buzzwordy!" introduced Professor Sandie.
There was a long and dead silence in the room. Buzzwordy felt that everyone was staring intensively at him. The type of stare that wasn't common among a bunch of college marketing students. He took a deep breath, gave Professor Sandie a nonchalant look, and readied himself to engage with the audience.
"Hi everyone! Before I start, let me introduce myself. My name is Buzzwordy and I do technology product marketing for a living. A lot of people call me the marketing stiff with a flair since I do get problems resolved. I met Professor Sandie by accident and he ended up inviting me to come in today to talk about the social media trend." said Buzzwordy with a smile.
"So you are the freak whom Professor Sandie talked about!" laughed a pimply looking woman in the audience.
"Is this how I was described?" queried the puzzled Buzzwordy.
"Class, please let our guest speak! He is supposed to be loaded with great social media knowledge and today is the day for us to pick his brain." interrupted Professor Sandie.
Buzzwordy tilted his head back and saw the professor smirking while rubbing his left thumb over the cover of the social media book repeatedly. That was the book that almost started the fight between the professor and him.
"OK, guys! I'm sure that most of you have already known some of the popular social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Digg, ... etc. Instead of talking about these sites, I would like to focus on the societal impact of social media. Is this OK with everyone?" probed Buzzwordy.
The class continued to stare at him without any feedback and Buzzwordy knew that he had to improvise his gig in order to shut the professor up.
"Hey you over there!" grinned Buzzwordy while pointing at the same pimply looking woman in the audience.
"What me?" asked the terrified woman.
"Yes you! If you don't mind, lets play a social media game. I hope that Professor Sandie doesn't mind!" shrugged Buzzwordy.
"Go ahead!" approved the professor.
The social media game will begin on Day Thirty Two.
Buzzwordy
Day Thirty,
Both Xavia and Buzzwordy were a tad surprised to see JJ returning with Bif but far from being totally shocked since she was notorious for dragging the ill-tempered CEO into any tough situation involving her projects with marketing.
"Listen up you two, as I told my team during our last Monday morning staff meeting, we could no longer afford to maintain our marketing communication budget. It has to be slashed in order to keep our operating cost low and competitive. The whole industry is doing this now and I don't know why you two twits don't get it!" screamed the shuddering Bif.
Buzzwordy tilted his head and saw JJ grinning. He then shifted his attention to Xavia. Once again, he saw his boss focusing on his Blackberry screen and purposely trying to avoid making eye contact with Bif.
"Well, speechless aren't you two twits! I know that JJ is right about you marketing stiffs - just a bunch of hot air balloons. When your pathetic ideas happen to soar higher, the harsh reality will simply squash you and bring you back to earth. Now this 3D graphics project is the living proof of what I'm insinuating!" scoffed Bif.
"OK, Bif. I believe we are in sync. with you as far as the cost saving measure is concerned. This is not the issue here. The issue is that JJ came up with a 2D graphics to represent our latest widget which should best be presented in 3D. That's all!" explained Buzzwordy.
"Well, JJ is our media guru and I trust her judgement. It is too late to make a change now so Mr. Buzzwordy, your job now is to figure out the marketing message that will boost the sale of our widget despite the harsh reality of its 2D presentation. Did you get me?" shouted Bif.
"Bif, I will see what can be done but I will need JJ to be open-minded!" acknowledged Buzzwordy.
"I Agree!" concurred Xavia.
"Fix it!" yelled Bif as he left the meeting room.
"Well Xavia and Buzzwordy, as you guys know well, due to our current financial situation, my hands are tight so I do expect the marketing team to work on the media piece alone. Once Bif approves it, I will help put the promotional piece out into the market!" said JJ.
"JJ, we will manage it. Is there anyway for you to incorporate a 3D drawing into the body of the widget promotion flyer? I don't think this will cost any money since I'll create the drawing myself." asked Buzwordy.
"Doable but it will be up to Bif at the end!" nodded JJ.
As Xavia and Buzzwordy were heading out of the meeting room, Xavia shoved his Blackberry screen right in front of Buzzwordy's face.
"Read this!" commanded Xavia.
Xavia,
My position is clear. If no extra cost is incurred, have Buzzwordy add the 3D drawing and get the revenue immediately!
Bif
"I think we can quickly put this project behind us!" smiled Buzzwordy.
"Don't forget that you have a gig with Professor Sandie next week!" mentioned Xavia.
"He is on my calendar." confirmed Buzzwordy.
I'll be back on Day Thirty One.
Buzzwordy
Image by fredcavazza via Flickr
