Archive for the ‘Motivation from other bloggers’ Category

I love Failblog. If you’ve never been, I give you permission to leave me now and go there. It’s funnier than I could ever hope to be, I promise.

If you’ve been, then stay here and read the rest of the post? I promise, it’s good

So, browsing failblog the other day and I found this awesome bar sign gem…by far one of the best pieces of marketing I’ve seen in awhile. Why?

• It’s simple.
• It’s funny.
• It’s easy to read.
• It nails their target audience.
• It solves a problem.
• No one will forget it.

Definitely a win.

This year, I am finally getting to attend two conferences I have wanted to attend for a very long time – Blogworld in October and PubCon in November.

Even more exciting? I will be speaking at PubCon on a panel – November 10th – Navigating The Complex Social Media Marketing World. I will be discussing the different key social media tools and the best ways to get the most from them – and which tools to use depending on your industry. I will be on a panel with some brilliant minds and am very excited to be a part of this event! If you’re coming to the event – I really hope to see you at my panel!

I am still waiting to hear if I will be speaking at Blogworld…but should know soon. *Update: I will not be speaking but will still be there…*

Either way, since I’m very Type A -  even 3 months out, I am already putting together my “must do, must see and must meet” list for both events!

1. For Blogworld, I am attending with @Vetlovingpetshb and staying at THEhotel, flying in the day before and leaving the day after. Have you been to this hotel before? Recommendations of places to eat/shop visit?
2. For Pubcon, I am not sure where I will be staying – that one is left to be determined. So if you have connections for this one, let me know
3. If you have been before to either event – what are the must see and do’s? I want to know what events are the best, which areas of the expo I can’t miss and if there are any other secrets I should know!
4. Are you going this year? If so, let me know so that I can plan time to meet as many people as possible. My readers are on the top of my list. Just add a comment and let me know which event you are attending

Finally, I am still looking for a sponsor for the hotel/flight for each event – so if you are interested in talking with me about what that means, send me an email and we can chat

I absolutely hate taking photos all night and then coming home, having to either put the SD card into my computer, or I have to plug it in and upload them. Yes, it’s silly, and it doesn’t take much time, but it is time that I really don’t want to spend right after an awesome event. The problem is, if I don’t do it right away, I forget and then it’s weeks before I actually do it! Or worse, I will never get them printed and they will sit on the card forever. Cameras are awesome – but their main fault is the fact that you have to do something after you take the photos – which can waste a lot of time.

So, last week I got the new Sanyo Dual Camera* and an 8GB Eye-Fi SD card*. The camera is awesome, takes both photos and videos and sits in the palm of my hand. It is actually smaller than my DroidX, and only a little thicker. But what was even more awesome than the camera was the Eye-Fi card. When I got it, I didn’t really understand it – it says it has a wireless photo and video uploader built in. Not being hugely tech savvy about cameras, I had no idea what that meant. So, of course, I read the back. and basically it means that once you’ve set ut up to a computer, facebook, flickr, whatever, you can take pictures, come home, and it will automatically send the pictures to the chosen destination. It also said you could set up 32 wifi locations – so  you could use your camera in those places and it would send from there directly to your home computer or your online sharing? Yeah right. I was seriously doubtful – not because I didn’t think the technology was there but because it would make life way to easy. And companies rarely ever do that. So I decided to test it out and was shocked at (again) the simplicity. It was plug-install-and go. And so was taking the pictures. Snapped a couple of the dog outside, and came home…opened the camera, and it did the work. All uploaded into my folder, no buttons, nothing.

It just worked. And was simple. And removed all the headache.

There are tons of other products that have problems like this – they may be great to use, but there is some area where they fall apart. With DVD’s, it’s the packaging. Really, that huge packaging for such a small disk? Why not use CD packaging – it holds the same size disk, yet takes up so much less space. People could buy more of them and not need as much room. With computers, it is the set up time. Yes, you can hire someone to set everything up for you, but that has a high price tag and time away from the computer. It would be great if there was a way to order your computer with just the programs that you want, pre-installed. Like the app market on a phone, you would select the programs you want prior to the purchase. It would take away a ton of set up time and headaches. Or what about laundry? There are so few companies that have started making washer/dryers in one it is shocking – it just makes sense to me. Less space taken up, less issues with machines. Why do in two what you can in one? Email is also difficult – you go through them in the order received, and have to judge importance quickly or you will waste time. But if you mis-judge, you could miss an important email. What if there were a program that searched all incoming email for specific phrases and keywords and then organized based on your settings? This would allow you to know what was the most important before you started reading them!

The list could go one and on of products that waste time, energy or space and could be seriously streamlined. Which was why this product impressed me so much – and why I wrote a promotion-esque post.

What tools do you see that could be streamlined to be more effective? What about your daily activities?

*Full Disclosure* I was given the Sanyo camera and an Eye-Fi card for tweeting/managing Sanyo’s Twitter and Facebook page. For those who missed my tweets on Thursday and Friday, I am working with Social Rewards and Sanyo Dual Camera on Sanyo’s release of a new dual camera line – and a rewards program that is giving away cameras, a trip to the Palazzo Las Vegas and Eye-Fi video cards.

BUT!! (and this is a big one) They are not compensating me for this post – in fact, I wasn’t even asked to write it. I wrote this on my own accord, because I was so impressed with the Eye-Fi card and the built-in wireless uploading capabilities and how businesses could learn from this. As you have read in the past, I am not a huge fan of promotional posts – in fact, I often despise them. So, if you buy the eye-fi, awesome. If not, no big deal. I am not an affiliate and make no money should you choose to buy it (or the camera). But I was honestly so blown away by the coolness of the abilities of this eye-fi card – and how what they are doing can relate to other industries – that I felt it really necessary to talk about it.

Seriously, stop whatever you are doing this instant, and read these 5 blog posts. They will change you. They certainly had an impact on me.

This Ain’t That – Steve Woodruff

The Field Guide to Social Media Weasels – Ike Pigott

Dog – Allie Brosh

Two Wolves – Kneale Mann

201 Ways to Arouse Your Creativity – Katie Tallo

<rant begin> I understand that with age comes wisdom, but age is not the only factor to consider when determining someones experience. I can’t count the number of times that I have talked with people over twitter, email and phone, then met them in person and had the same reaction – shock at my age.

I am young, 25, and as I have learned, this can be a serious disadvantage. In fact, it has been such an interference that I am looking forward to the day I turn 30. When I speak with people over the phone or they read my work, most assume that I am in my early 30′s (I guess I come across older in voice/writing?)…but, when they meet me in person and see that I am not in my 30′s, it is as if a cold wind has blown in and all of a sudden their mood changes. They start asking about my experience again, wonder when I graduated college, how I learned what I learned…all questions that my portfolio and site answer, but they begin to doubt me. Their entire belief towards me shifts in one fell swoop. I can’t prove that this has lost me business – as no one has ever come out and told me “we want someone older”, but I feel like it has been a serious interference, and is definitely frustrating. I hate having to try and explain myself – to try and clarify that yes I am young, but I am the same person that just a day ago you were enamored with and loved my work.

Why should my age matter? If what you are looking for what I would do well, and you had faith in me based on my portfolio, writing and conversation – why does my age change any of this? </rant over>

What do you think about age? Have you had an experience where your age was a problem?

…and so far, I am in love. If I could take a picture of it with it and put it here, I would.

But I can’t.

And I am also trying to get it set up, organized and the way I want it.

Which means writing an awe-inspiring, content filled blog post isn’t happening. Sorry.

Read about the 10 Biggest Brand Nightmares of 2010 instead. (thanks to my Mom for the article! )

Come see me tomorrow when the “new toy syndrome” has worn off…

First, I interrupt this post with my lesson for the day: Even if you are on a roll when writing, stop and save. This post had to be written twice…the first version I was so involved in that I never even stopped to pause (let alone save) and one glitch in wordpress…poof! gone! So save. save. save. and save again. Now back to your regularly scheduled blog post*

Last week, I bookmarked a great post from Steve Woodruff about an idea he had for saving money and space on printer ink. He was frustrated with the fact that a large part of the cost was in the packaging – a package which was silly and unnecessary. The idea was great – and I loved that he shared it with the world.

Of course, it got me thinking about all the random ideas for things I have floating around in my head. And thinking about all the random ideas floating around in your head. We all have them – those ideas that we think are silly, ridiculous and crazy. The ones that we think people would laugh if we told them. But the reality is, 99% of ideas are thought of as crazy when they are first mentioned – it usually isn’t until it works that people begin to give it merit.

Unfortunately, a lot of us are also afraid to share the ideas in case someone steals them. We don’t want other people taking our ideas and using them as their own. We want our ideas to be ours! But, if they are just sitting in your head, they aren’t helping anyone. So I say we share them! Put them out there for the world to hear, see and use. Because the nice thing about the web, once it’s there it can never disappear…so your idea is always going to be your idea. And who knows? Maybe someone will want to use it and give you credit for it! I say we stand up and share.

So, in the comments, let’s share some crazy ideas that we have (they can be half developed, rambling sentences or just random “what if…” scenarios) and see what happens! I want to know what ideas you have for making things easier, better, more efficient, less expensive, more user friendly, less wasteful, etc…

I’ll go first:
I think that we need to develop one cross browser coding language/control. It is unbelievably frustrating to have to deal with testing a server in all browsers (mainly IE) and I think that if all the browsers could just come together and decide on one way to work – it would eliminate a huge percentage of web issues and cut down on development time for coding.

Your turn!

We’ve all been here…

Created by Alberto Montt

Last night, I was craving CPK…but had zero desire to go out to dinner. So I jumped online and ordered food for my husband to pick up at their (awesome) curbside delivery. But then I remembered…if I don’t go in for dinner, I can’t get the foursquare benefits, and CPK does a good job with theirs. For example, if you check in anywhere near a CPK, you get a “special nearby” for a free appetizer when you spend $20. And I would have loved a free appetizer! But, if you are picking up food to-go, you don’t want to wait for the appetizer. And there is no way to “check-in” through the web so that you can order it… Which I think is unbelievably silly because there are a huge number of people who shop online – and not just for food. So I did what any normal person would do and tweeted about it – and @Admore responded with an idea I liked, and wanted to expand upon.

(read from the bottom up)

So here’s how I think it should work…

Step 1. You login to foursquare from your computer, type in the retailers name that you want to shop online with, or you can search by categories.

Step 2. Follow them on Foursquare, then click on their web link within their profile – this will have a tracking code that determines what you are doing.

Step 3. Each retailer can determine the level of participation required on the site for the checkin points, however I suggest that the visitor should have to buy something if you are checking in online. This would stop the issues of tons of people checking in online, because they have to buy something to make it count.

Step 4: Stores could offer the same types of specials through the web that they can online. Or, another way to do it would be to have “web mayors” in addition to actual “mayors”, so there is one for the brick and mortar facility, and there is one for the website.

I just know how little I like going to real stores, but how much I shop online – and I think that we are such a web driven world that it needs to be recognized. This makes foursquare more accessible too for people who live far from their favorite stores, or don’t have the ability to go out as much as they would like. This opens up foursquare to a larger demographic – and as long as the checkins online have strict rules so that you can’t abuse it, I think this could be a really successful new part!

So Foursquare…what do you think?

Readers…how can we improve on this idea?

Rob Gokee and I met through twitter awhile ago…we then connected through my “free” post and finally met in person about 2 months ago. Rob has done a brilliant job combining his multiple personalities into one website, and one good business. So I asked him to share his story…Take it away Rob!

Multiple Personality Disorder

I’ve got it. But not in the way that you think.

I’m a composer for film, television & webseries. It’s been my job for the last 5 years. It’s kind of a niche marketplace, I’ve got it down to a science: who I market to, where I find them, how I get my foot in the door. Twitter became a big part of that over the last few years, so much so that I wrote a book about the experience.

Being a writer takes a different set of muscles than being a composer. And when you’re writing about yourself… that’s a whole other animal. It was an amazing and cathartic experience, but it opened up a can of worms. When the book was finished, published and in my hands, I realized I had to market myself as an author in order to sell it. Personality Number Two.

Then, because of my experience on Twitter and the book I wrote about it, people started asking me to speak about social media, which then turned into helping people (and small businesses) with their social media. And a third personality was born.

The problem came in the separation. It was important to promote only the parts of me that were related to the work I was soliciting. A director or producer doesn’t care that I wrote a book about social media. And an independent bookstore doesn’t care that I’m a composer. I already had a website for music, and created one for the book, and I was suddenly faced with a dilemma: I needed one for social media work. Keeping up with one blog was hard enough, now I was looking at three blogs that all needed to be maintained, and three sites that needed to be updated, on top of the work itself they were generating. I was feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.

I met Kirsten for lunch one afternoon, and asked for her opinion. She presented a solution that I myself had entertained a few weeks prior: Create a static page that has three buttons, each leading to a different site so that people had one place to go. It was a great idea, but with one flaw. I still had to build and maintain three different sites. That’s when it hit me: I didn’t need to.

I’m a composer. If I wasn’t a composer, I wouldn’t have written the book, which is about my job. I’m also adept at social media marketing, which I wouldn’t have been without being a composer and writing the book. I’m not three personalities: I’m one. What was wrong with combining the three things into one place? So I created one site, with three different sections. I took all three sites and “merged” them over to robgokee.com, and created one blog with 3 different categories. That way, I could separate the posts by job, but only manage one blog. I had a logo created that also became my new business card. On the landing page, I created buttons in Illustrator that took visitors to the section that most fit what they were looking for. And you know what? It worked.

It comes down to what you’re branding. I consider myself a brand; I’m selling myself. It makes sense that I should keep everything in one place where it’s easy to find. If you’re your own brand, you need to build everything else around that, and not the other way around. It’s OK that you do more than one thing, but it’s important that your “brand” isn’t scattered; it needs to be focused. Otherwise, you’ll always be battling with the other personalities, and then no one wins.