Note from the editor: There was a new star at the holiday parties I went to this year, besides the food that is. It was my Intel Tablet! You see, I was tapped to join the Intel Tablet Smart Squad in November to try out the device and share my experience AND I got a Windows 8* tablet to keep as part of my participation on the team. Pretty cool, huh? There’s more to Intel’s tablet story and more to the Tablet Squad, so I went straight to the source and asked one of the minds behind the squad, Scott, to share the concept behind the Tablet Squad and what we can do for you! Scott is the Head of Buzz Marketing for New Business in our Corporate Marketing Group. He’s been with Intel for a year and a half, coming from a text message start-up, HookUp Feed. In his current role, he’s taking on the challenge of informing, educating and connecting with consumers using scrappy, grassroots socially charged programs vs. traditional marketing. Since launching the Tablet Smart Squad, he’s found himself in one of the most unselfish roles of his life (next to being a loving husband and father). His entire focus is to ensure the Smart Squad team members have all of the necessary training, tools, resources, and creative opportunities all focusing on the end goal: education. Second to that, making sure we’re all having fun! Follow Scott on Twitter, @scott_jaworski, to learn more about what he’s doing and to hear more about Intel Tablets!
I’ve heard it all before—marketing is fun and cool but I want to focus on technology. Is it really possible to do both? You mean have my cake and eat it to? I love marketing and I love technology. How many jobs out there do you think allow you to do both? There are many reasons why these seemingly simple questions pose a true challenge. Most will have a certain level of educational focus or experience swaying you to one side or the other or you may live in an area with a shortage of technology based companies.
After receiving any job offer its common (and best) practice to make your list of pros/cons. After all, you need to learn about the company as much (if not more) than they learn about you. Work ethic, rapport with interviewers, industry, and location should all be top of mind when evaluating a position. Thankfully, Intel was capable of crossing all of these off my list with high marks. How does this tie back to having my cake and eating it to?
Having been with Intel for just over a year, I feel I’ve personally made it through the “learning curve” and I’ve been told that I have acclimated exceptionally well – remember this is a 100,000+ global tech company. What aided this success AND provided me and others the ability to have our cake and eat it too is my involvement as one of the lead drivers of the Intel Tablet Smart Squad.
The Tablet Smart Squad was created to help educate consumers in an effort to simplify their decision making during the purchase experience for tablets. Come again? You know that techy friend you call before you buy any new electronics? Or maybe you have a friend who’s really into cars and your go-to for any automative advice. We wanted to do the same thing, but with tablets. We created the Tablet Smart Squad to give people who were thinking about buying a tablet (and even some who weren’t thinking about it) access to PEOPLE that could help them decide what tablet would work for them. Does that sound fun and cool? Maybe, maybe not. If you keep reading, I’ll guarantee you will think it is!( I apologize that this was written using more than 140 characters, but it’s worth it.)
Who, where, how is the Smart Squad making it happen? Hint: this is where it gets cool.
The Smart Squad is open to all employees to join and is currently comprised of approx. 255 Intel employees (and growing every day) from a diverse set of backgrounds, business units, locations and levels of expertise. All Smart Squad participants were provided product, messaging and social media training. Intel even went to the extent of providing 1/3 of these participants with tablets for their own use and to aid in the online conversation, education and awareness this team is driving all with the hashtag - #IntelTablets. Check out the hashtag on your favorite social networks like Twitter and Instagram and you’ll get a feel for what the smart squad has done. From #TabletTipTuesday to sharing photos of how they use tablets to help with their every day life to creating videos to show you some of the bells and whistles their tablets have to boiling it down to their new favorite (addictive) games, the squad is made up of employees, just like you, who are testing their tablet limits to see what kind of fun (and sometimes trouble) they can get themselves into!
This my friends is how I and my colleagues were capable of having our cake and eating it to. It’s not often, if at all, that an organization will allow “non-marketers” the opportunity to facilitate a marketing function. In addition to providing new opportunities for veteran colleagues to learn a new skill and broaden their horizons while staying the course in their current role. As for me, yeah, I like cake, but I much prefer being directly responsible for the positive morale of my colleagues and helping our consumers.
Note: Scott and a few other Tablet Smart Squad members will be at CES this week showing off their tablets and answering questions. Follow the hashtag to see what they're up to!
I’ve heard it all before—marketing is fun and cool but I want to focus on technology. Is it really possible to do both? You mean have my cake and eat it to? I love marketing and I love technology. How many jobs out there do you think allow you to do both? There are many reasons why these seemingly simple questions pose a true challenge. Most will have a certain level of educational focus or experience swaying you to one side or the other or you may live in an area with a shortage of technology based companies.
After receiving any job offer its common (and best) practice to make your list of pros/cons. After all, you need to learn about the company as much (if not more) than they learn about you. Work ethic, rapport with interviewers, industry, and location should all be top of mind when evaluating a position. Thankfully, Intel was capable of crossing all of these off my list with high marks. How does this tie back to having my cake and eating it to?Having been with Intel for just over a year, I feel I’ve personally made it through the “learning curve” and I’ve been told that I have acclimated exceptionally well – remember this is a 100,000+ global tech company. What aided this success AND provided me and others the ability to have our cake and eat it too is my involvement as one of the lead drivers of the Intel Tablet Smart Squad.
The Tablet Smart Squad was created to help educate consumers in an effort to simplify their decision making during the purchase experience for tablets. Come again? You know that techy friend you call before you buy any new electronics? Or maybe you have a friend who’s really into cars and your go-to for any automative advice. We wanted to do the same thing, but with tablets. We created the Tablet Smart Squad to give people who were thinking about buying a tablet (and even some who weren’t thinking about it) access to PEOPLE that could help them decide what tablet would work for them. Does that sound fun and cool? Maybe, maybe not. If you keep reading, I’ll guarantee you will think it is!( I apologize that this was written using more than 140 characters, but it’s worth it.)
Who, where, how is the Smart Squad making it happen? Hint: this is where it gets cool.
The Smart Squad is open to all employees to join and is currently comprised of approx. 255 Intel employees (and growing every day) from a diverse set of backgrounds, business units, locations and levels of expertise. All Smart Squad participants were provided product, messaging and social media training. Intel even went to the extent of providing 1/3 of these participants with tablets for their own use and to aid in the online conversation, education and awareness this team is driving all with the hashtag - #IntelTablets. Check out the hashtag on your favorite social networks like Twitter and Instagram and you’ll get a feel for what the smart squad has done. From #TabletTipTuesday to sharing photos of how they use tablets to help with their every day life to creating videos to show you some of the bells and whistles their tablets have to boiling it down to their new favorite (addictive) games, the squad is made up of employees, just like you, who are testing their tablet limits to see what kind of fun (and sometimes trouble) they can get themselves into!
This my friends is how I and my colleagues were capable of having our cake and eating it to. It’s not often, if at all, that an organization will allow “non-marketers” the opportunity to facilitate a marketing function. In addition to providing new opportunities for veteran colleagues to learn a new skill and broaden their horizons while staying the course in their current role. As for me, yeah, I like cake, but I much prefer being directly responsible for the positive morale of my colleagues and helping our consumers.
Note: Scott and a few other Tablet Smart Squad members will be at CES this week showing off their tablets and answering questions. Follow the hashtag to see what they're up to!