Well, here we are. Today marks my last day as chief blogger of our corporate blog, eBay Ink.

Starting on Monday, June 18, I will be heading up our social efforts at StubHub HQ in SF. Thankfully, as a result, this is definitely NOT goodbye.

I’ve never really been at a loss for words… until now. As a result, I thought it best to share the email I sent to our company earlier this week. I sent it to everyone in global communications; to our CEO, CFO and the President of PayPal. I sent it to our mobile, PayPal and eBay Marketplaces teams. I’m sharing it with you because I really believe it and am genuinely excited at the future possibilities…

I’ve been blogging on behalf of our company since the end of March, 2008 and have come to equate what I do to bartending. There are 200 or so people involved in the creation of any given pint of beer – from the farmers to the water company to the distributors, etc. – but the only human interaction you have with that pint when you go into a pub is the bartender who serves it to you. You create a relationship with that bartender (and, while I’m on the analogy, the English pub or neighborhood bar is essentially your first social network right? The place where workers, farmers, butchers, etc. all came together to share stories over a pint). So when we represent our company and our business on any level externally, we are bartending on behalf of our brand and each individual blog post represents a large number of colleagues and friends.

In order to stay fresh, consistent, alert, attentive and effective, bartenders work in shifts. I’ve seen a lot of bartenders emerge across our businesses over the 4+ years I’ve been on my shift. Partner that with the unbelievable opportunity for social at StubHub, and the decision was an easy one for me to make.

It is an incredibly exciting time for social here at eBay. We have seasoned social veteran, Dave Peck, joining our PayPal team; Don Bradford leading the charge on social product for eBay Marketplaces and social functionality being integrated directly into our core offerings more and more. We have Andrew Chase’s Social Selling pilot and just held our 7th successful eBay: On Location. We have regional social leadership in place – like PayPal’s Jon Bishop in the UK and Christian Richtscheid in Germany – and we have executives playing an active role in social networks (see @DavidMarcus, @cdixon, @jackabraham and @RichelleParham for examples). We have “bartenders” (or if you prefer “Social Ambassadors”) in both IR and Legal and we will continue to evolve all social programs across businesses and geographies.

So yes, it may be last call for me on Ink but it is just the beginning of bartending here at eBay and I am very proud and glad to say that I am a continued player in the eBay Social Media Mavens program.

eBay Ink will continue to deliver stories, opinions and conversation around all aspects of our business. Relying more on our larger network of bartenders than on one individual contributor, the blog will truly represent Inc. For those of you wanting to contribute story ideas, stories of your own and/or news for eBay Ink moving forward, please send to our Digital Publishing team: ebayink@ebay.com. I know am leaving the blog in very capable hands.

All that’s left to be said is thank you for everything. From my first interview with Bob Swan to sitting down with John Donahoe in his hotel room in Dallas (akin to a witness relocation video interview), it has been a heck of a ride for sure and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for everyone involved with social at eBay, PayPal, StubHub and around the world.

I’ve been in a very unique position since I’ve been at our company and the biggest takeaway I have is that we are definitely a company of individuals and personalities – people that really care for the success of our business. People tend to focus too much on stats and metrics when it comes to social. Yes, these things are essential but social media is not all about the number of followers or friends or likes. Our business and our success is built upon a foundation of individual personalities and entrepreneurs and the relationships forged with each. We are inherently linked to one another (see: “What’s in a feedback score? A Twitter Follower count… Just a human being.”

As long as we keep the true essence of “social” at the heart of our programs, then we’ll continue to be successful in the long run and I’m very fired up to be given the opportunity to do just that at StubHub!

Cheers!
RBH

Please continue to follow @ebayinkblog and read what’s coming out on the blog. I know I will. You can follow me on two handles on Twitter… For my work at StubHub – @StubHubRBH; for my beer updates – @ESBAle.

CHEERS!

RBH

Can an employee really be transparent?

I acknowledge that it’s definitely a fine line to walk but one that will only guarantee progress and to be blunt, I think the answer lies with all of us. Not just me. It is in everyone’s best interest – authors and audience alike – to remain honest, transparent and authentic as we contribute to the eBay Ink conversation.

We need to ask the honest questions and search for honest answers. Authors and commenters alike are tasked to look for solutions that serve the community at large (employees and executives; the buyers and sellers; the operators and analysts; the technologists and executives).

I would argue that this is as true today as the day I wrote it over 4 years ago. When I first started blogging for eBay here on eBay Ink, the first question I always got was “how the heck did you land that job?” (Based on some of my posts, I’m sure a lot of you have asked the same question over the years). It has been a great ride to be sure. Given the sheer “what-have-you-done-for-me-lately” nature of corporate blogging, the more appropriate question should be “How did you keep it?”

After 1,250 blog posts, 8,000+ comments, 13 earnings calls, 8 seller releases, 7 eBay: On Locations, 2 analyst days and an eBay Live, it is time to watch my baby grow up. Just as I am facing a new, exciting opportunity within the eBay business, so too is the eBay Ink Blog on to bigger and better things.

Starting June 18, I will be joining the StubHub team in San Francisco, heading up all of our social media efforts. To say I am excited would be an understatement.

Having said that, it is a bittersweet moment for me. On the one hand, I welcome the challenge and natural progression of my career here at eBay… on the other, I always knew that this day would come… the day when my dorky eyes would stop staring back at you from our corporate blog.

This move is good for everyone. A fresh approach to the blog can only mean fresh perspectives, heightened commentary, new content, and a clear set of eyes on everything. I would argue that for too long, this blog has relied on the primary content and perspective of one individual and given how far this company has grown in the past the 4+ years, it would be short-sighted of us to think it should continue as such. It is time to evolve eBay Ink to be truly representative of the eBay Inc. family of businesses and customers. More info on this in the coming weeks.

For now, all that is left for me to say is thank you. Thank you for everything. Thank you for your support and for contributing to the conversation. Thank you for keeping me honest. Thank you for congratulating me when I got it right and thank you for showing me the error of my ways on the occasions that I got it wrong. It has been a significant step of the journey that I am very proud of and I have appreciated every moment along the way.

Cheers!
RBH

With that in mind, we wanted to give you the opportunity to have your say here on eBay Inc.’s official corporate blog. So much so, that we set up contributed content guidelines.

CONTENT PREP
** Unless a topic has been previously determined, choose a compelling topic or story idea.
** Gather complementary assets such as videos and images to support your post.
** Instruct the date and exact time of publish for post. For example, Tuesday November 15 at 9:00am Pacific. Note if copy material coincides with launches or important announcements.

CONSTRUCTION
** Keep tone of voice conversational and light, you are talking to people directly.
** If possible, lead with an image or video asset. It’s the initial hook that pulls readers further into your post. Be sure that images included in the post are high resolution.
** If support pieces exist for your post – other web pages or documents – be sure to provide links to those pages or the documents themselves.
** Keep word count to 500 characters maximum.
** Break-up post to include images – products, subject matter or action shots — in between paragraphs
** Before the post is published, review the post to ensure the accuracy of language, links and assets.

POST-PUBLISHING RESPONSIBILITIES
** Follow up with blog readers by responding to comments or questions left on the post.
** If any changes need to be made to the post, please contact the site administrator.

To submit contributed content, click here.

Cheers!
RBH

Cheers,
RBH

Two years ago, at 11:17am PT this morning, eBay Ink was officially “turned on.” Even though a lot has happened since then, I remember that morning very well. I had a sick feeling in my stomach when I woke up around 4:30 that morning. Was I really about to launch the corporate blog for eBay Inc.? What was I thinking putting my bloody face up there? Could we possibly announce MORE changes to the eBay Marketplace during that same Spring? (The answer to that last one was “yes”, of course). There were a lot of questions.

I’m sure there were questions here at eBay too… very similar to the ones we saw on the blog as we opened it up to the world. In a nutshell – who is this guy writing on behalf of the company? Do I really care what he has to say? How unbiased can a company stooge really be?

I sat down with my wife the night before we launched the blog and had the same conversation with her that I’d had many times in the 3 months leading up to the launch (even though we launched eBay Ink on April 2, I actually joined the company on January 7). It went something like this:

Me: This could last just a couple of months, you realize that?
Allie: I know. But it could also last a long time. You could be talking years instead of months.
Me: “Corporate blogger” sounds so forced and ugly.
Allie: Just be yourself. Pretend you’re bartending again and just listen and tell stories.

And that pretty much nails what eBay Ink is all about. If there are 5 pubs or bars in your town, all serving the same drinks, why do you choose to go to the one that you do? At some point, it comes down to the person serving you the drink [insert Kool-Aid reference here]. You have a connection with them more than the other bartenders. (And, while I’m on the analogy, the English pub or neighborhood bar is essentially your first social network right? The place where workers, farmers, butchers, etc. all came together to share stories over a pint).

Blogging is bartending. There may be a dozen or so people out there online that all have the same story or news to tell… but you choose to have that conversation with blogger A over blogger B.

I don’t want to dwell on this. I need to get ready for the shuttle into work this morning and get back to serving folks. I just wanted to take a few minutes to say thank you. Thank you for making it last more than a few months; thank you for putting up with my all-too frequent ignorance on certain things; thank you for giving me the benefit of the doubt; and most of all, thank you for choosing the eBay Ink “pub” to tell and listen to stories. Because when it comes down to it, no pub or bar can survive without its customers. Plain and simple.

So now you know, after all this time, why I sign every blog post the same…

CHEERS!
RBH

Cheers,
RBH

That’s how it all began, a year ago today. Indeed. Today marks one year to the day that this blog has been up and running. I had debated writing a standalone post regarding the milestone. It is, after all, rather self serving and I’ve been pretty busy this week at the Web 2.0 Expo but I figure I’d take a few minutes to reflect.

Yesterday, eBay’s CTO and SVP of Global Platform, Mark Carges, closed out the first day of Web 2.0 Expo’s keynotes with “Five things that matter to developers today.” I was lucky enough to have a front row seat and at its conclusion I started to wonder what the 5 things are that have mattered most to this blog over the first year… I’m not saying I’ve been able to follow these 5 keys to success every day, but when I have come close, the blog has been better off for it:

1. Consistency
I’ve been doing this for 365 days. There have been stronger weeks than others and I can see when those peaks and valleys occurred quite quickly when I look at the blog stats. I will say that in the first year, eBay Ink has had over 136,000 unique visitors that have made 201,735 visits with 432,000 pageviews. The average time on the site has been over 3 minutes. You have contributed over 5,000 approved comments in the first year (this doesn’t include the over 7,000 invitations to meet someone in a chat room or to boost my “manhood” that were deleted) to the 212 posts (213 with this one) I’ve made. If my math is correct, that makes about 4 posts a week, every week, since launch. Pretty consistent. NOTE: 730+ of those comments were made to the “Feedback on Feedback to Feedback” post.

2. Knowledge
If I don’t know a subject inside and out – and this is pretty frequent I admit – then I better find someone who does because the readers will pounce pretty quickly and tell me where I’m falling down on the job. To say I came into this job “green” with regard to eBay background experience is an understatement but I still feel that hiring a devoted blogger with no prior bias or agenda was essential to keeping the credibility at a decent level. I still approach each interview or story as an outsider and if I don’t have the right questions set up, your participation makes it so I can definitely ask the correct follow-ups.

3. Self Discipline
Blogging is a lonely business. Sure I have a great team behind me and the support of the organization but there are many times when it’s just me and the blog at 3am and I need to publish a story – regardless of how tired or preoccupied I may be. Perfect example was October 6, 2008 when we had significant news coming out of the organization. My wife had gone into labor early and we welcomed our second daughter, Quincy, into the world 2 weeks earlier than expected on Sunday, October 5. Thankfully the hospital room had wireless so I was able to make the three blog posts at 5am the following day. I remember that long night of mixed emotions more than any moment since we launched the blog.

4. Selflessness
Just because this blog is “my baby” and it’s my name and face on the front page, I have to remember EVERY DAY, that this blog is not about me. It’s about you. It’s about every individual that is involved with eBay Inc. and, when one really analyzes it all, the ultimate measure of success of what we’re trying to accomplish with eBay Ink is that I’ll be out of a job. Seriously. Eventually, in an ideal world, the conversation will be happening between multiple members of the company and all of its constituents. The novelty of a “corporate blogger” will go away pretty quickly when that happens. Until then, you’re stuck with me, baby.

5. Twitter
The personal and professional relationships I’ve been able to establish with people that have been following our company a lot longer than I have is all down to Twitter. I still find myself in conversations each day with friends and family answering the question, “so what’s with this Twitter? Why should I care what you’re having for lunch?” Quite honestly, unless you’re Shaq or Stephen Fry (gratuitous Twitter inside joke) you really shouldn’t. However, Twitter is great as a business communications tool. You either use it to receive information or distribute (and redistribute for that matter). I’ve used it equally for both since June of last year. We’ve made some pretty significant strides as a company in the financial and IR world using Twitter. I’m really looking forward to what we can do with it over the next 12 months.

That’s it really. A busy 12 months to say the least. I like to think that the last year was simply building a foundation for eBay Ink and connecting previously disparate groups that should be otherwise intertwined. We still don’t have any marketing or promotion of the blog on any of our online properties. Something else that will change in the coming months.

For now, I’ll continue to be thankful that I am employed full-time doing something that I love. Giving an opinion and communicating with as many people as possible. On those days when I’m less than 100% I find myself repeating the same three words in my head – and I try to apply them to all aspects of my life for that matter: Make It Count.

Thanks to all of you for your support over the year. It has been overwhelming to receive such positive feedback from people, most of whom I’ve never met and I hope I can continue to strive to bigger and better things over the next 12 months.

Cheers!
RBH