How are you implementing TAGFEE?

[jcolman]

I've been a big believer in SEOmoz's TAGFEE tenents since stumbling on them a while back:

• **Long version: **http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-we-believe-why-seomozs-tagfee-tenets
• **TL;DR? Here's a shorter version: **http://www.seomoz.org/about/team (scroll down)

TAGFEE stands for "Transparent & Authentic, Generous, Fun, Empathetic, and Exceptional".  It's the core set of guiding principles that makes SEOmoz great... and a great place to work.

And even though I don't work for SEOmoz, I find TAGFEE inspiring and something that I want to implement in many aspects of my own life and work.  It has occurred to me more than once that TAGFEE is, in and of itself, just as much a tool for developing your work as Open Site Explorer, the browser toolbar, or the Linkscape Index.

So I'm curious: do folks outside SEOmoz use these principles at their workplaces?  Or do Mozzers use them outside of work in their community/communities of practice?

tagfee-transparent.jpg

[flowsimple]

In being transparent and holding yourself accountable, don't forget to also be generous with yourself!

My teachers/coaches/ and friends have adeptly pointed out that being passionate and driven can make us our own worse critic, and then we are hardest on ourselves. In the very act of practicing generosity with yourself you become more generous and empathetic with others. It may be more difficult to practice that type of generosity than to hold yourself accountable.

[Cargo]

It has no place in news industry! You know this!!!

[wp2013]

My paymasters in the Kremlin frown upon your TAGFEE. One comrade was taken out and shot just for suggesting it. Now we stay quiet

[KeriMorgret]

For anyone interested, here are the TAGFEE bracelets that Dr. Pete had made:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150291508411246&set=a.293920196245.153433.8489236245

[jcolman]

I see that this conversation is happening broadly in our industry under different names.  For example, this recent post on Ethics and SEO is largely a demand for transparency and authenticity.

[jcolman]

w00t - someone please send Dr. Pete a Duck of Awesomeness ASAP!  

ducks.jpg

[HallStigerts]

Thanks for sparking this great thread, Jon! It's exciting to see Mozzers implementing TAGFEE in their own personal and professional lives. Many companies have value statements, but TAGFEE are guiding tenets that helps us keep our compass pointed in the right direction. Like Joanna mentioned, it's not always easy and we're not perfect--being truly TAGFEE is a lifelong process.

I think there are not-so-obvious positive side affects when you focus on being TAGFEE. The benefits of true transparency and authenticity are apparent, but if you're lucky enough to get the honest story from someone, you develop thick skin. You learn how to receive feedback (and criticism) gracefully. You're more sensitive to your limits (being generous and fun, but enough to get the job done) and how to effectively provide feedback. It's also a reminder to keep yourself balanced (all work and no play...), and to not only be empathetic to others, but also to yourself (stop beating yourself up--we all make mistakes).

[Dr-Pete]

I learned that they'll print one word on each side, and so a test batch of wrist-bands with "TAGFEE" on one side and "WWRD" on the other side is in production. I'm ridiculously excited about seeing how they turn out.

[jcolman]

I can't decide if I want a "TAGFEE" wrist band or a "WWRD?" wrist-band.  How about one for each wrist?  

[jcolman]

I LOVE THE DUCK OF AWESOMENESS!  I'm about to give special recognition to one of our front-end developers here and your post has inspired me to start a similar effort at REI... maybe something like "The Carabiner of Awesomeness" or something...

Many thanks for the great tip, Will!

[jcolman]

Wow, I love what you're saying about feeling a sense of relief and boosting personal health with TAGFEE.  I agree that there's a strong correlation (if not causation) between following the TAGFEE principles and reducing stress, building better relationships, and getting the most out of life... all of which boosts mental health and brings a positive outlook.

The interaction on this thread makes me giddy, too!  In all my interactions with Mozzers in and out of your office and events, I see TAGFEE in action and it's inspiring.  I hope to get to the Jedi-like level of well-being that you're at someday.  

[jcolman]

Hilarious indeed, sir!  Actually, I'm more curious about what you're saying about empathy.  It takes time and energy and a careful hand and lots of attention to detail.  But like you said, it's really, really hard to scale.

So beyond producing high-quality products (your Bing Quality Score research, for example) that meet the needs of your audience, what are some other tips for scaling up empathy.  Or is it something that simply cannot be stretched beyond individual interactions?

[jcolman]

Agreed!  But I'm still curious about what TAGFEE looks like at Distilled.  With your great events and the tools that you've released to the community (I'm especially a fan of the lovely Excel Guide for SEO), I imagine that you've got some good tips to share with us.

[jcolman]

I love what you're saying about how you "also like to help out other individuals and agencies in the digital marketing space by promoting great content we find online."  I think this sort of generosity is genuinely missing from a lot of folks in our industry who are shameless self-promoters.  Good, engaging content (and people!) should always be celebrated.

[jcolman]

Wow, great response, Joanna!  I love your point about "the better you exhibit one tenet the better you are off on all the others."  I agree that success breeds success and that a small, positive spark in any one of these areas can help light up each of the others.

I also like how you've transitioned TAGFEE into areas outside of work - that's something that I'm working on as well as a husband, son, brother, student, neighbor, etc.  But most of all, I think that the hardest struggle in this area is to be transparent and accountable to myself.  Setting realistic expectations and holding myself accountable is somehow incredibly difficult while doing so with other people seems much easier.

Do you experience that phenomenon as well?

[jcolman]

Hey Anthony, I really like your point about being up-front about results, even (or especially) when they're negative.  I think this is the hallmark of any conscientious and transparent/accountable person, whether they work in marketing or otherwise.  How do your clients respond to negative data or results and how do you respond to their response?

[jcolman]

Great answer, Gyi.  I particularly like your "G" point about offering free advice.  I think this is one of the key ways that, working together, we'll all rehabilitate the SEO industry.  I think there's a great opportunity here to re-brand SEO practitioners from snake oil salesmen into competent, data-driven inbound marketers.  And the first step down the road is education and free advice, not treating SEO like a secret or charging upfront.  Well said!

[willcritchlow]

I'm amazed that the acronym has spread as far as it has. I see it actually being used all the time. Quite amazing really.

As Hannah mentioned, we have a bunch of internal memes at Distilled which are similar to a bunch of the principles behind TAGFEE. If you're interested in how we embed this stuff in our culture, you might like to read this post Tom wrote about how changing culture with language: http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/40478/Startup-Culture-Memes-Do-You-Have-A-Duck-Of-Awesomeness.aspx

[jennita]

haha love it! And you're right we say that all the time. Often times when I'm dealing with a tough situation, I'll think "How would Rand respond?" and do that!

[AnthonyMangia]

I'd buy that wristband.  Just sayin...

[Dr-Pete]

It is funny how often, in internal communications, we'll say something like "Is this TAGFEE?" or "Hey, that's not TAGFEE!"? We should just wear wristbands that say WWRD

OMG, now I'm picturing a Lance Armstrong style wristband that says "TAGFEE". Someone get on that, stat!

[jennita]

Thanks for posting this Jon, I really love this discussion. It's amazing to see people in the community wanting to be TAGFEE as well. When we first started talking about it internally I remember feeling a bit relieved. Each of the words and the overall meaning and feeling are so positive, I feel that it makes my job a bit easier. I always have these tenets top of mind and that means both at work and in life in general.

I've personally had a rough year with health issues and such and keeping TAGFEE in mind has helped to keep me focused and positive. I've also found that these also help me as a parent. I often find myself thinking "What's the TAGFEE way to respond to [this situation]". Now I'm not perfect and sometimes these principles can be hard to live by, but it gives me something to strive for and constantly want to be better.

Seeing the community wanting to implement these in their work/life as well makes me giddy! Thanks again for starting this thread.

[Dr-Pete]

Love this discussion. I came into SEOmoz as a contractor (and am still a contractor, although my role has expanded), and one thing I can tell you is that TAGFEE is something the staff takes very seriously. I think about it a lot as a blogger, both here on SEOmoz and on my own sites:

Transparent - Whether a business or personal site, I try to be open about my process - data sources, methods, motivations, even the ugly truths from time to time. I think people learn best from honest examples, and that includes the bad bits.

Authentic - On the one hand, I think social media always represents a bit of a mask, but I try to be the same person anywhere I write, regardless of the audience. You may hear a different side of my story, but I'm not going to pretend to be someone I'm not.

Generous - I work hard to give credit where credit is due, and always point out great content, even if it's a competitor or someone I occasionally disagree with. On SEOmoz, I put a lot of effort into participating, because I value the community's contributions (we all do).

Fun - I'm hilarious. Enough said.

Empathetic - Here on SEOmoz, this may be the toughest. When you have 90K readers, you can't always write to everyone, but I think a lot about what our audience wants and how to serve the most people. The best link-bait fits a real need.

Exceptional - Writing for SEOmoz means always raising the bar, especially when you're post side-by-side with people like Rand. It's the most daunting and most exciting part of what I do. Every day, I think about how I can make my next post better or create something no one has seen.

[CriticalMassChicago]

At Critical Mass we absolutely use principles much similar to SEOmoz’s TAGFEE. It’s awesome to see SEOmoz raise industry standards and give the many other companies who are doing the same thing a place to share!

Here’s what we do to help uphold TAGFEE principles:

Transparent -  When working in client services it’s easy to fall into the trap of telling the client only what they want to hear. At Critical Mass we strive to be as transparent as possible, giving our clients realistic feedback on everything from weaknesses with their sites to the expected impact of a marketing campaign, even if it’s not always the answer they were looking for. We’ve found that being transparent from the get-go is the easiest way to form strong, trusting relationships with our clients and ensure everyone is satisfied with the end result.

Authentic – In a world where the temptation and ease of implementing Black Hat tactics is great, we’ve made the commitment to abide by authentic SEO practices. At the beginning of any SEO campaign we introduce the client to our agency’s values and beliefs (which include not paying for links, no comment spam, creating unique compelling content, etc.) in an attempt to be as authentic as possible.

Generous – Being a part of the Digital Marketing community, and more specifically the SEO community is great privilege and we do our best to give back in any way possible. We try and share our knowledge with others in the field by participating in conferences, such as South by South West, and by hosting webinars and Twitter chats. We also like to help out other individuals and agencies in the digital marketing space by promoting great content we find online. Offline we make a commitment to give back to the community, giving employees paid time off to volunteer and matching our employee’s donations to charitable organizations.

Fun – You know what they say, all work and no play is… well no fun! Here at Critical Mass we aim to make working hard as fun as possible. We host events like Frideas, a Friday event which often takes employees away from their desks and out onto the streets of Chicago, hoping to foster creativity and evaluate the ways digital marketing is integrated with real-life. We also regularly participate in Beer:30, host holiday parties which often involve dressing to theme and host our own awards show, the CMMYs, to encourage employees to get to know one another and reward hard work.

Empathetic – We always try and put ourselves in our client’s shoes and it’s thanks in large part to our Account Planning team that this is possible. They dedicate themselves to understanding the client, their needs and their hurdles, listening to any and all feedback, and making sure every question is answered. Our Business Analysts also greatly aid this effort performing countless hours of research to truly understand our client’s industry and what challenges face businesses in this vertical.

Exceptional – As a digital marketing agency we believe that “our job is to create extraordinary experiences.” We spend a great deal of time prospecting the best talent, staying ahead of industry trends and research, and rewarding creativity to ensure that every piece of work we produce is exceptional. We’ve even created our own blog, called Experience Matters, and internal social network where employees can share ideas on how to produce exceptional experiences for the client and users.

It’s great to hear how everyone else is implementing the TAGFEE principles, I love the fact that as an SEOmoz user (A Mozzer? ) we are part of such a wonderful, helpful community! I look forward to reading everyone else’s responses and welcome any feedback!

[JoannaLord]

Hey Jon! Thanks for bringing up TAGFEE here in the forums. As you know we talk about it quite a bit internally, but its always great to see how others are lacing it into their professional and personal lives. I will be honest and say when I first started working here at Moz, I wasn't quite sure how to negotiate TAGFEE in my everyday professional life. I quickly saw how it raised the bar on almost everything I touched, and wasn't sure if I had the discipline, patience, and honesty (to myself and others) to really use it daily in performance marketing. Try being transparent about screwing up a test, or being generous with a promo that might lose you money or members. It was tough to say the least.

But you are right, it really helped me grow and quickly became something I started applying in other parts of my life as well. I do find myself being more transparent with others outside of my job, and have even tried to lace both fun and exceptional into my personal life. This means I have to take time from work to enjoy the wonderful people in my life (which has always been a struggle for me) and I have tried to be a more exceptional friend, and daughter as well. This often laces directly into generosity and empathy. To me, the better you exhibit one tenet the better you are off on all the others.

I will say that the hardest part for me is realizing not everyone takes these so seriously. To be fully transparent There are plenty of people in our industry that could give two hoots about the above words and how they apply in their lives...which is their choice, you know? I shouldn't hold them to a standard they never promised to consider. Also some people at Moz are still working on "getting" these, as am I at times. Its a work in progress and all we can do is re-read them often, and ask ourselves some hard questions when faced with a fork in the road.

Thanks again for bringing this up, its a great topic, and I'm excited to see what you and our community do with these tenets. Thanks Jon!

[Hannah_Smith]

Here at Distilled I think it's fair to say we've also adopted a TAGFEE approach.

I think it's really good to keep in mind when building relationships with clients and I know our Exec team (Will, Duncan, Tom and Rob) also work hard to make sure that Distilled are a 'TAGFEE' company (we often talk internally about making Distilled 'the best place for the best people to work').

Outside the office? Well I think a TAGFEE human being is the kind of person I'd like to know and I'm guessing most would agree

[miloszpekala]

Will now. This TAGFEE is darn catchy!  What a great way to get people to read the company's tenets/principals.

[AnthonyMangia]

T - Just like Gyi, I do my best to keep all of my clients in the loop about what our options are, exactly what we are doing, how it is being done, and the results we have achieved (yes, even when they're negative, although thankfully those situations have been few and far between).

A - Quite simply, I just be myself.  Yes, sometimes this means that when I'm explaining something to a client, my response might be a long, drawn out extended metaphor about fantasy football or hip hop, but either way, at least I'm being me.

G - This starts with my time here on this Q&A board, and on other outlets like Quora or SEOchat.  Likewise, everybody in the industry has that friend or family member that has a billion questions, and I do my best to be patient with those requests as well.  I can't tell you how many times an innocent happy hour has turned into a full blown SEO strategy session.

F - I try to get to know all of my clients personally.  I don't want to be the guy that drops in once a month with an invoice.  I'm the guy that's invited to the company holiday party and drinks the Vice President of the company under the table.

E - I try to be flexible.  This is a big one when it comes to working with the team members of my clients.  The last thing you want is to have a client's programming or PR team think you're stepping on their toes, so you need to remember to see their viewpoint, and consider their job.  The world doesn't revolve around SEO (as much as we would like to believe it does), and in the business world, sometimes you have to make compromises and work in situations that aren't ideal.  At the end of the day, we're all just people on the planet Earth, and you need to be able to have some give and take.

E - I try to go above and beyond, be it with the information I give out for free on forums like this, the blog posts I create to help educate people, the work I do for my clients, or even the proposals I create when I'm talking to a prospective client.  Being exceptional pays dividends through and through.  I've converted people I gave free advice to into clients countless times, and by working hard and offering a great product, I've managed to enjoy a high customer retention rate.  Work on every campaign as if it is your own!

[gfiorelli1]

Transparent > For me is synonym of Intellectual Honesty. With clients: tell them the truth, even if that can destroy their 300-$$-online-marketing-conquering-the-world-dream. Always be clear, avoiding misunderstandings, making myself "obvious". With colleagues and community: not hiding myself behind a mask or fictitious character (note: my avatar is resembling me https://plus.google.com/photos/110957997763625569561/albums/profile?hl=en ).

Authentic > See the previous answer.

Generous > Help without asking nothing in return... that is also a great way to obtain links by the way. Sharing my knowledge and my experience.

Fun > I don't know if I'm fun... but if you want to share a beer, maybe on Twitter if we cannot actually meet, here I am.

Empathetic > Yes... understanding the feelings of the others... talk to them, dialogue, confront constructively. Making mine their objectives: this is especially important when it comes to clients.

Exceptional > This can't be achieved without the 4 qualities above. And I don't know if I am exceptional... but maybe I am exceptionally humble

[Gyi]

I try to apply TAGFEE as much as possible. Here are just a couple for biz:

T - show my clients what I'm planning on doing, how we do it, and advantages and disadvantages of going in a certain direction.

A - To me, this is just being me as opposed to some faceless logo, website, or trade name.

G - I try to spend as much time as I can offering free info, advice, help.

F - Like most of us, I probably need more of this. I try to integrate "fun" into proposals, discussions, posts, etc.

E - Some people are naturally better w/ empathy than others. For me, a lot of it comes down to communication. If someone (colleague or client) seems off, find a way to ask them what's up w/o putting them on defensive.

E - Listen. Learn. Teach. Do these things well and you might just be able to get yourself "above the noise."