The A to Z Challenge: A is for AOL

April 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the direction I want my blog to go in. It’s not too late to do that. I’ve narrowed down what I definitely don’t want to be, and I’ve narrowed it down to 3 specific things I want to talk about: marketing, fitness and leadership. That’s it. Period. While each of those topics can incorporate lots of things. Those are the main three that I want to put my energy into. It feels good to have a focus! With that being said, I have decided to join the A to Z Challenge. Why did I decide to do it? Because it’s a challenge, and because lately, I’ve been jumping into new challenges. I often take them on without knowing all of what’s ahead, kind of like an exercise in faith. I know I can do them, but I can’t possibly figure out how, yet. Yeah, that’s me.

Today, I’m starting with A (looks like some are on A, B and C in the challenge right now, I’m starting today I’ll catch up though I’m sure). I’d like to talk about AOL. It’s the foundation of social media, in my opinion. AOL was how I first used the internet back in middle school. I got a disc from the huge Wal-Mart bin, and at the time, you could pay for dial up internet by the minute. Back then, it was called America Online. AOL is so much better. Rhymes with LOL and fits in with all the other shorthands we use like ttyl, lmbo, irl and ikr, I’m sure I could keep going…

America Online – past

(source)

AOL – present

(source)

Anyway, AOL has this very cool blog about gadgets and technology called Engadget. With the blog, they have a weekly magazine that comes out on iPad and Android called Engadget Distro. It’s a free weekly magazine that pulls in their best blog stories. I just subscribed and I highly recommend it for anyone who likes reading about the tech world and reviews on the latest tablets/computers and phones.

Get Distro for iPad

Get Distro for Droid

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Infiniti + Cirque du Soleil = Le Voyage Inspire

March 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you have been watching March Madness, it’s hard to ignore the commercials for the newest Infiniti vehicle, the 2013 JX crossover SUV. (Also known as CUV). The new car is in a tough category competing with top sellers like the Lexus RX350 and Acura MDX. To help the car reach number one status, Infiniti is working with Cirque du Soleil to bring a spectacular free presentation featuring the new car today. At 12pm today, you can watch a free livestream of a short Cirque du Soleil show featuring the JX! The live stream is viewable today at 12pm on Facebook.com/Infiniti and Facebook.com/CirqueduSoleil. During the livestream, a representative from both Cirque and Infiniti will be on hand to answer questions. I’m excited to see  how the car will be incorporated into the show. I’ve been to one Cirque performance of Ovo when it came to Atlanta. I also really want to check out the Michael Jackson Immortal show. You can watch behind the scenes footage now: http://youtu.be/DJ8hJXhSxjI.

An Infiniti JX backstage of Le Voyage Inspire

{via}

Do you plan to watch the show?

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Manteresting: the Pinterest for Men

February 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Through my job at FiPath, I’ve learned about a totally different side of the blog world. Before I started working there in September, I only knew about the “Lifestyle/Fitness/Food/Leadership/Daily Life” style of blogging. Probably because those are the type of blogs that held my interest most. Since FiPath is a website that helps consumers plan their financial future, part of my job is to connect to that community. With some looking around, I realized that community is HUGE. I’ve learned so much about my own financial habits from just reading their posts. Some of these people tell every cent they have and every cent they are worth. Crazy right? Well, I think that’s cool they are comfortable enough to share their information. Sharing it helps them grow and reach goals.

In following numerous amounts of financial bloggers, I found out about a new site called Manteresting started by a member of the financial blogging community. It’s “the home of interesting man things”. It’s the more masculine version of Pinterest. Since I joined Pinterest, I have noticed that it IS female dominated. I mean, I’m positive that men don’t want to share images of cupcakes, kids clothes, crafts and dresses. Most men won’t…On Manteresting, guys share comics strips, barbecue grills and images of bacon. And funny images like this:

Who knew bacon excited men? Instead of “Pinning” men “Nail” their favorite images. Instead of a “Pinboard” they have “Workbenches”. The site is in Beta, but unlike Pinterest you don’t have to have an invite.

For more information about Manteresting, here’s an instructional video.

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Cover Photos and Playboy

February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Recently, I talked about how the new Facebook profiles were now here. One of the most prominent changes is the Cover. It’s where you let people know all about you. The Cover is public to EVERYONE! So be careful what type of image you select.

I have followed Playboy’s social media evolution for some time. I think they have a great strategy going! They are active on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. They engage fans (male and female) with their own weekly version of Follow Friday called Frisky Friday and they post SFW (safe for work) vintage photos on Instagram. In 2010, Playboy launched The Smoking Jacket a non nude and SFW website to help interested readers avoid getting into trouble at work. I like reading The Smoking Jacket for the entertainment features. If you like action movies (like me) the articles are pretty funny and informative. (Check out 6 Ironic Casting Decisions in Movie and TV and Generation Screwed to catch my drift..) Over the weekend, I noticed that Playboy released an entire album full of Cover photos for Facebook. I think this is a great idea for brands to do. If you are a big fan of Playboy, all you have to do is set one of the images as your Cover. I’m pretty sure more companies will jump on board with this concept because it’s an easy way for them to encourage fans to promote their brand!

Take a look at their SFW :) album of cover photos here.

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My Favorite Super Bowl Commercials 2012

February 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Every year I look forward to the Super Bowl! Not necessarily because of the game though, it’s because of the commercials. Last year, I wrote about my favorite commercials and I want to continue that tradition this year! Check out my top 5 selections below.

5. Bud Light – Rescue Dog
I like this commercial and how it’s connected to a cause! Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation and Bud Light wanted to raise a quarter of a million dollars together. Simple and funny commercial with a message. The dog featured, Weego, is actually a real rescue dog. Very cool!

4. Chevy Sonic “Stunt Anthem”
The “We Are Young” song by Fun ft. Janelle Monae featured in this commercial really set it off for me. The aerial car stunts were pretty cool too!

3. Tax Act
The little boy in this commercial is so cute! This has happened to us all at some time and it’s relate-able. Plus it made me look up Tax Act, I’d never heard of them before.

2. M&M
This commercial was so cute. I love how the Red M&M danced to “Sexy and I Know It”. Apparantly LMFAO songs were a hot spot last night. Madonna even “shuffled” in her half time routine with the group to “Party Rockin”.

1. Oikos
Oikos is a Greek yogurt made by Dannon. Their commercial featured Uncle Jesse John Stamos. It was simple and I literally laughed out loud at it. I really like this commercial best of all. I’ve never tried Oikos before, however, this commercial left a memorable impression on me. I might grab some next time I’m shopping for yogurt.

What were your favorite commercials? Vote for them in the YouTube Ad Blitz!

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Pinterest and Social Media Overload

January 26, 2012 By 2 Comments

I avoided joining Pinterest for weeks.

The top reason I was on the run from Pinterest was because all of my friends post about how it sucks up all of their time. I’m already on so many social media sites as it is. But eventually, I gave in and joined. I can understand how Pinterest can take up ALL of your time. Similar to the same way that all social media sites do. All to often it’s easy to get caught up in things that don’t do us any good. For me, this hits close to home because I not only use social media for leisure, but I also use it in my daily profession. So getting consumed by a website happens frequently. I had to put myself on a limit because it was all too much. Joining Pinterest made me consider my personal brand and how I can use it in a way that would benefit that. So for me, the best aspect of Pins and boards incorporates posting inspirational words, quotes and building an online vision board. Just for fun though, I’ve added a pin about movie style. I promise it didn’t suck up all of my time.

What do you use Pinterest for?

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Win Top 40 Books for Entrepreneurs from AppSumo

January 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
from Crunchbase
A few weeks back I joined AppSumo. It’s a daily deal site targeted towards “web geeks”. Some of the deals they offer include Facebook ad training, website packages and DSLR training guides for cinematography. The deals are great tools for entrepreneurs, independent contractors and small business owners to learn new things. Crunchbase describes them as the Groupon for Web Apps. That’s funny, because I thought the exact same thing. But anyway, this morning AppSumo emailed me with a great promotion that Iwanted to share. They are giving away the Top 40 books for Entrepreneurs. The list includes many I’ve heard of like The Lean Startup, How to Win Friends and Influence People and the Steve Jobs biography. It also includes lots of others I’ve never heard of but I would love to have and read. A few of the books are even signed by the authors (Seth Godin, Tony Hsieh and Daniel Pink). I’m on a quest to become more business savvy this year and I’m sure even one of these books will be a great resource in getting me there.
If you would like to enter here are the details. Toss one of the books to me after you finish reading it if you win (totally kidding, well not really it’s 40 books!). If I win, I’ll share the books after I read them. If any of you win and you found out from me, let me know, I’ll be happy for you!
A small sampling of the books via AppSumo

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The Muppets for Google+ Hangout

December 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This past year has been a big year for The Muppets. Over the last few months Disney has invested a lot of time and creativity into making them “popular” to a younger audience. I saw The Muppets in theaters last month. It’s actually incredibly funny and the plot pokes fun at how Muppets aren’t cool. In fact, that’s a primary part of the storyline. The Muppets are “out of style”. Using social media from YouTube video parodies of popular films like Twilight, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Hangover 2. The Muppets have a Google+ page and now they are featured in the latest Google+ Hangout commercial:

I’d describe Google+ Hangout as a fun group Skype I’ve done a Google+ Hangout with friends and we all liked it! Have you tried Google Hangout yet?

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A Brave New World – The New Facebook Timeline

December 20, 2011 By 1 Comment

My senior year in high school we read Aldous Huxley’s futuristic novel Brave New World. At the time, I thought the book was out there – in a good way of course. It was all about this future that in 2004 I couldn’t imagine. Somehow, in 1931 Aldous Huxley imagined up this future society in the confines of his mind. The book is really spectacular and by far one of my favorites ever. Just thinking about it makes me want to get back into science fiction books.

{via}

Babies are now exposed to all sorts of technology while in the womb. After looking through the new Facebook timeline, it made me reminisce on this book. The new timeline is supposed to get us ready for the future. See, many of the children born from the last 7 years or so will have their entire lives documented on Facebook if they like it or not. The new timeline design is for the future. That future when everything that has been done in a person’s life will be documented on the site. I have friends with photos ranging through the entire timeline of their lives. From prom to high school graduation through the birth of a child. I understand we all don’t go in that order, but regardless of order it’s all documented on Facebook. Here are some things I really like about the new design:

1. I like how Facebook has recognized important life events and lets you post them in your profile. Some significant life events that you might want to tell your friends about like buying a home, losing weight, travel and new tattoos. Other random stuff that Facebook has listed: telling your followers when you get contacts or glasses. I guess that would be significant if it was a huge dramatic change. But still a slight stretch.

2. The Facebook Cover is a great new addition. I appreciate being able to have a more unique Facebook profile now where I an add a personal photo. Right now, mine is a photo from Thanksgiving with my grandmother.

3. The year timeline on the right side of profiles is a great addition. I had a great time reminiscing on my experience cheering in college and reading old comments.

4. Nosy people have less stuff to search through while looking at Facebook. Come on now, everyone that has a Facebook is at least slightly nosy. And now the timeline helps you see where people were 7 years ago. As if that makes a huge difference on how they are now.

I hope with the new Facebook timeline, Facebook will also improve their apps. My iPhone and iPad Facebook apps had to be deleted because they wouldn’t cooperate. That’s another post though, of course.

How do you feel about the new Facebook timeline?

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Silverpop Agent ROI Atlanta event recap

December 1, 2011 By 1 Comment

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending the Silverpop Agent R.O.I Digital Marketing Tour 2011 at Intercontinental Hotel in Buckhead. The event lasted about half of the work day. Silverpop pulled out all of the stops and the hotel offered us a wonderful lunch, snacks and cocktails. I had lots of white tea to keep warm and I even picked up my first HonestTea to try later. I found out about the event on Twitter after seeing a tweet from Silverpop. We (FiPath) are also new customers. Here’s a gift they sent us last week:

Tootsie Pop and PopRocks were inside of the cup. I like the “pop” theme and the mug is perfect for tea.

I learned so much great information about how to create an effective email that our members at FiPath would love to read. One of my responsibilities is to manage and create content for the email. Or as Meg Heuer describes it, I am a Content Strategist. Sounds snazzy right? I really enjoyed being in a space with other professionals who experience the same frustrations as me. There’s no “how to” book for this crazy social space. I guess now it’s “mocial” now (social + local + mobile) as described by Loren McDonald. I took some great notes and I won a prize for most unique tweets! Below I have a recap of the top 5 takeaways:

1. The “forward to a friend” email option is dead. - This got me thinking. When was the last time I did this? Umm…well over a year ago. Nowadays, I share emails via Social media sites before I press forward to a friend!

2. Don’t make all of your emails a hard sell - Ask yourself, do you want an email that always says “Buy this” “Deal here”.

3. Care enough to send the very best email – Don’t send what you think people want to see. Or what someone tells you people want to see. Research!

4. Do not re-purpose advertisements and direct mail pieces – This one made me chuckle. I hate seeing re-purposed ads in email form!

5. Be human – Please and thank you aren’t called the magic words for nothing! These relational words make emails more human.

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