Catch the Brainwaves is our semi-regular series of Q&A sessions with social media folks. Today’s interviewee is the CEO of Search Engine People and an enthusiastic citizen of the blogosphere. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting our guest in person and he’s a great, intelligent guy.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you… Jeff Quipp!


1. Five years ago, would you have predicted the surge of social media innovation and functionality?

Wow … good question. No, I don’t think I did see it coming. I mean, I knew something was coming, I just didn’t really know exactly what. I stay very focused on our direct business for the most part, and don’t really try to develop additional businesses … it would be a distraction of focus.

To be honest, I think those who foresaw the coming of social media as we now know it, are reaping the benefits as we speak. Kevin Rose will be quite happy I’m sure with a few hundred million, as will Mark Zuckerberg, Fake and Butterfield, Garrett Camp et al. And good for them … they had the vision and capitalized on it.

2. As a regular conference attendee, can you tell us about the best parts of conferences, in general?

Without question … the networking! Sure you can pick up tidbits here and there in the sessions, but the real learnings occur afterward at dinner, or at the bar, and especially in the friendships that are forged. I’ve made so many great friends that I speak to on a daily basis. If I ever run into a problem that we can’t solve internally, I can reach out to my network of friends, and guaranteed someone will have run into it before.

3. In a similar vein, what are some of the more disappointing parts of conferences?

To be honest, I don’t go for any other reason than to socialize and make new friends. Fortunately it fits my personality and my role with SEP too, otherwise I’d be spending a lot of money for not. All that to say … I’m only disappointed if I don’t meet a lot of new people, and even then I’ve only got myself to blame.

4. Is there any particular revelation, or biggest surprise, that you experienced as a result of starting Search Engine People?

Wow … so many revelations! The single biggest one for me though was “surround myself with great people I could trust!” I had a few missteps at the beginning and it set us back a while. But I learned, and ultimately realized I couldn’t excel at everything, and that there were people who were infinitely more talented than I was at so many things. It became clear that I needed these people on my side. If we then all worked to our strengths, we’d be a very formidable machine … and we now are! I very fortunate to work with so many exceptional people, who are so much stronger than I am at so much.

5. Any thoughts on the hard line that the Associated Press has been taking with bloggers using their stories?

I think they’re missing the boat completely! Its amazing sometimes how even large corporations can lose perspective, and fall prey to the whims of underperforming managers within. If everyone starts doing what TechCrunch did, they’ll come to their senses quickly. Here’s a quote:

“So here’s our new policy on A.P. stories: they don’t exist. We don’t see them, we don’t quote them, we don’t link to them. They’re banned until they abandon this new strategy, and I encourage others to do the same until they back down from these ridiculous attempts to stop the spread of information around the Internet.”

6. Does your family use social media for recreation? If so, any recommendations?

ABSOLUTELY! My kids adore Webkinz World which is a social media site for preteens. My wife as you know also works here at SEP and is one of those very trusted, more talented than me individuals I mentioned earlier. She’s also got profiles everywhere. And for me … social media is my way of staying atop of all my other passions; sports, science, technology, environment, music, space, gadgets, and oddities. Its become part of our family culture.

7. Did you use computers much in your formative years? Would you say that you use them more or less than in the past?

Lets see … my first computer was a Texas Instruments TI994a bought in 1982 or 83. There was no disk drive, believe it or not the Basic programs I wrote at the time were saved to a tape recorder, and that acted as the disk drive. I also studied for 2 semesters in the 80’s at college to become a Computer Programmer, but at that time there was just unstructured code … it was terrible.

Now … I do use computers more than at any time in the past. Partially because of my job, but also because much of my social network is online and its my connection to real time news and information, and I am an information junkie.

8. Are you dying to own an iPhone (especially the new one)?

I am … but I’m also looking forward to the day when it will have an infrared blue tooth keyboard and wall projector built into it. Then … it will become a must have!

9. Pretend the Internet was destroyed overnight. What do you do the next day?

Hmmmm … well I guess I’d have a better idea how it would unfold when its starts to redevelop, so I’d probably change my last name to Zuckerberg, move to Boston, and get ready to launch something called Facebook.

10. Any parting thoughts for our readers?

Hi Mom!

For anyone who wants to hook up with me at a conference, stop me anytime and say hi. I love to meet new people, especially if your interests are similar to my own. Also, if anyone wants to hook up on social media, you can find my profiles here. If you like the type of stuff I submit, and submit similar stuff yourself, drop me an email (jquipp AATT gmail.com)

Thanks, Jeff, for being our guest!

Table of contents for Catch the brainwaves

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