Category Archives: Technology

Build communities, build yourself

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photoLast summer, I was fortunate to attend a Socialmedia.org conference in Chicago. It’s is an exclusive community of social media thought leaders who are enthusiastic about sharing their own experiences and best practices with members of the organization. I love any opportunity for a conference in Chicago — home to amazing hot dogs, pizza, Navy Pier, pizza, the Cubs, pizza, museums, pizza and more. See where this is going? Fortunately, I was traveling with a colleague who was smart enough to suggest that we consult Yelp to make our culinary decision. It led us to Pizano’s and the rest is eat-until-you’re-miserable history. I still dream about that pie.

If you travel, Yelp is a necessity. Last year I used it in Salt Lake City, Chicago, Princeton, Indianapolis, San Francisco and Miami. So, when I arrived at this month’s Social Media Breakfast (SMB) Madison meeting with speaker Corey Dane of Yelp Madison, I was expecting to hear what I already knew about one of my favorite apps. Boy, was I wrong!

Corey reminded me that Yelp is not merely an app for travel and it’s much more than a means to quiet my growling belly. Yelp is a fantastic way to support your local fare by finding that lesser-known cafe or dive bar and then writing a review about the best burger to ever cross your lips. Or to inform fellow hotel guests that they can exchange their floral scented hotel shampoo for an unscented version. Maybe you want to rave about the spa that offers wine with your pedicure. Yelp sponsors offline events for its most loyal contributors and grants them with “elite” status. It encourages you to stand behind your reviews with accurate profiles and personal photos. Yelp builds communities.

While Corey highlighted three main keys to success in building a loyal community for your business, I couldn’t help but notice the parallels to success in building your own personal and/or professional success. These notions to 1) Get Personal, 2) Forge Connections and 3) Embrace Fun are undoubtedly why companies like Starbucks have built strong communities while spending little money on advertising. They seem so simple and yet the impact of applying them can be tremendous.

What do you think might happen if you tried applying those same notions in other areas of your life? Where do you begin? For starters, you need to work hard, cultivate relationships, surround yourself with positive people, celebrate people from all walks of life, don’t be afraid to laugh out loud. According to Corey, “Success = Time + Passion.” Great tips from a guy who knows a lot of about building communities…and the best places to eat in Madison.

13.1 x 5 digital resources

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walk

Triumph after a long walk. Here’s looking toward a victorious run!

Rule of thumb: Don’t post anything on Twitter that isn’t for public consumption. It wasn’t technically a secret, but I hadn’t really started telling many of my friends and colleagues. Now if I had posted it on Facebook, that’s a different story — there are definitely no secrets on Facebook and we all know it. But a couple of Twitter shout-outs here and there have officially let the cat out of the bag…I am training for my first half marathon.

People run marathons all of the time, so this is not front page news . But I am not a runner. I bike. I hike. I kayak. I do not run. The idea came to me a few months ago while lamenting a milestone birthday that is approaching in April. I need to turn back time in a non-Benjamin Button type of way. How about run a marathon? Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. Half a marathon? Maybe. And so began my Google search for gadgets, online support, and mobile running apps.

  1. My first stop was Digital Running Club. I don’t know who these people are, but they know their stuff. I printed out their training program and started tweeting them for encouragement and advice. They never fail to reply, even when I accuse them of trying to kill me.
  2. Accountability is huge when you set any type of goal, so I brought the @MadisonMarathon Twitter team into the mix and proclaimed my intent to run the Madison Half Marathon on Memorial Day weekend 2013. Now they are expecting me to show up and I will be there.
  3. I also used my new aspiration as an excuse to buy myself a FitBit. Do you have one of these? They are way too much fun. It tracks my steps, the number of floors I climb, my calories burned and it syncs with MyFitnessPal.com to monitor my food intake and nutritional requirements. It will even monitor my sleeping efficiency by telling me how many times I woke up throughout a night.
  4. I’m still searching for a great mobile app that I can use for that day when the ice melts and I can leave the treadmill behind in favor of the streets. I’m looking for an app that will regularly speak to me and tell me how far and how fast I’ve traveled. An occasional “Lookin’ good, hot stuff!” would also be welcome. Shoot me some ideas!
  5. There are so many wonderful resources online for starting any new hobby. I have tapped into the expertise of RunningDivaMom about problems like running boredom…something I struggle with on a regular basis. Her inspirational posts keep me moving even when I’d rather stop.

These resources are great, but nothing can do the work for me. I’m almost halfway through my training program and I’ve endured both a hip injury and back pain that set me back at least a week for each. Now my body is adjusting and things are looking up. Remember that accountability issue? Well, now that I’ve truly gone public there is only one thing left to do. I’ve gotta run!

Is this camping?

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I didn’t camp much as a child. My only real memory of camping was a weekend with Uncle Ed and Auntie Rita at a Yogi Bear’s Jellystone campground where my dad accidentally pitched our tent on top of a spider’s nest. In his defense, we arrived in the dark and had just narrowly escaped a group of angry pre-teens who didn’t appreciate our station wagon headlights shining on their outdoor Yogi movie.

I camped in a tent once or twice with my husband and spent one entire evening shaking through a severe lightening storm waiting for a tree to crush my skull. While admittedly not a huge fan of the tent camping, I love all that goes along with the full camping experience…hiking, biking, kayaking, bonfires, s’mores, Toby Keith, and Tanqueray. I wanted it all, and so began our camping evolution.

The tent retired into the basement and we bought a pop-up camper. Had some good times in that old Dutchman and even camped into Month 8 of my first pregnancy. God bless the Luggable Loo. A couple years went by and we splurged on a used hard-sided camper, which we still own today. We’ve blown all four tires, almost lost a side wall on the Interstate, smashed a window and cracked a water pipe. Time for an upgrade?

While a friend might (and does) argue that dining in supper clubs and having a private bathroom is not camping, it suits me just fine. That said, this past weekend when we took our not-so-trusty old camper to northern Wisconsin with the kiddos, I realized that maybe, just maybe, we have evolved a little too far.

What do you think? Too much?!

My trash = your treasure, I

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Just one of the many tables filled with toys.

More than two full racks of clothes for kids organized by size and season!

Garage sale season has officially arrived as evidenced by the slew of signs on every corner in my small town. Do you love them or hate them? Do you find them dirty or intriguing? Do you stretch your neck when driving by in hopes of spotting that Blatz Beer sign you’ve been missing since you were 17? Or do you avoid them altogether for fear of finding that creepy plush Ronald McDonald doll that your mom taunted you with for years?

This very weekend I am playing hostess to the most epic of all Tiede garage sales. I have teetered down the attic steps with arms full of boxes, I have climbed up from the basement dragging comforters, luggage and home decor galore. But mostly, I have shed tears sorting through toys and clothes that my children have outgrown. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I welcome the maturing of my kids. I am not crying because they’ve outgrown the beautiful dresses and coolest toys ever. I’m crying because I’m cheap and I can’t believe we paid $25 for the Zhu Zhu Pet and Fun House that Noah played with for five minutes and now we’ll be lucky to sell for $2.00.

I’m so cheap, in fact, that I refuse to pay for a classified ad in the local newspaper. Do you know the going rate for classified ads? It costs $16 for 10 words and 60¢ for each additional word.  I can’t even get my street address and hours of operation in the ad for under $20 and that doesn’t allow me to begin describing the sheer awesomeness of my garage sale!

Then I remembered that I AM A DIGTAL MARKETER. I am a blogger. I am a tweeter. I am a Facebooker. I use Craig’s List. And I pin pins on Pinterest!

So I present to you, my faithful readers, a brazen and bold digital plug for the sale of my Tiede Treasures:

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

This Thursday beginning at 4:30pm sharp, you are all invited to attend the garage sale to end all garage sales. There will be more toys than FAO Schwartz. There will be baby essentials like wipe warmers, bouncy seats, and changing pads. There will be racks of clothes organized on hangers by size and season. There will be nursing pajamas with only minor Lansinoh stains…c’mon ladies, don’t judge — you know it’s inevitable. There will be a pink motorized jeep for your little princess. There will be an infant carrier for your newborn bundle of joy. There will be a Kelty backpack for your slightly older bundle of joy. There will be a One Step Ahead Sit n Stand stroller for your second bundle of joy. There will be home decor that I can no longer bear to look at on my walls and shelves, but there’s no shame in admitting that you can’t live without them. There will be beauty supplies. There will be one kick-ass pair of boots. There will be an interview-ready suit that I clearly don’t need because my job rocks. There will be kitchen rugs. There will be bathroom rugs. There will be shower curtains. Hey! I just realized that you can redecorate your entire bathroom at my garage sale!

Stop by and check out all of the goodies you will find in my garage and on my driveway this weekend. The children are not for sale, but almost everything else you see can be yours for a small price. The sale of my husband is negotiable.

Laughing at technology (failure)

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Sometimes I laugh at inappropriate times. I’ve been known to get a case of the giggles in the middle of the night when I recall something that happened to me during the day. Or in a crowded movie theater when everybody else is silent. Or in this morning’s instance, the giggles came in the middle of a church hymn. It wasn’t my first time giggling in church. When I was younger, my brother had a habit of leaning over and whispering things in my ear during a long Catholic Homily that would make me giggle until tears rolled down my cheeks.

What made me giggle in church this morning? A mere 10-second glitch in technology. You see, my church prides itself in the audio visual features of a “hands-free service.” This includes a Madonna-style headset for the pastor and no more thumbing through a 600-page hymnal to find the right song. Now the lyrics are projected on a large screen for all to see and sing along. Today in the middle of Here I am, Lord the screen went dark for 10 seconds. For those 10 seconds, Here I am sounded like a remix of the kindergarten choir and gasps of uh oh’s. The man in front of me almost dropped his glasses while fumbling to find the thick green song book.  A baby cried. Looks of panic were exchanged. I giggled. The projector lights came back on and everybody relaxed. I was still giggling.

Technology is awesome, but every single day it fails somewhere in the world. Why are we so shocked and unprepared when it happens? My day job revolves around using new technologies to convey a message, strengthen a brand, and ultimately to make money for the company. But you can’t rely only on the technology because it’s just not a sure thing. You can spend $25K on a cool Flash video for your website and then find out that Flash technology will no longer be supported by any mobile operating systems. Oh wait, that did happen!

You need to be an innovative thinker and not just a user of innovation. Be smart, be creative, and be flexible. You never know when the screen will go dark in church or the DVR will malfunction and you’re forced to pull yourself away from the television and into a book, a board game, or maybe a puzzle. No batteries required.

Google Doodle gets it

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Google is famous for its timely “Doodles” that change with the seasons, the holidays, and world events. This morning’s Google Doodle was dedicated to Valentine’s Day, of course. It featured a short video of a boy scouring the Web to buy his young crush a myriad of stuffed bears and candy only to be rejected in favor of her jumping rope. Finally, the boy gives up his Google search for the perfect gift and decides to simply jump rope with her. Shazam! She puts down the jump rope and the boy gets the sweet hug he’s been working sooo hard to get.

Keep it simple. Why 24 roses when one beautiful rose can put a smile on somebody’s face? Even the best-selling Valentine’s Day candy of all time, Conversation Hearts, gets it. The phrases are simple: Kiss Me, Be Mine, Love You. Have you ever pulled one from the bag that said, Buy Me a Diamond Necklace?

Take your time. What do we really want from our significant other? Time. Get off your computer, put away your smartphone, and spend time talking to each other. Or don’t talk at all.  ;-)

Ninety-nine percent of Google revenue is generated from its advertising programs. That includes advertising for flowers, chocolate, jewelery…all big sellers on a day like today. In my opinion, that makes this morning’s Google Doodle even more special. I was already a Google loyalist, but today I <3 Google even more!!!

Social Bowl XLVI

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I love social media. I love interacting with complete strangers on Twitter who teach me more about digital marketing than any semester in college. I love “Checking In” to the Boston Store on Foursquare only to find that I just earned $10 off a purchase of $30 or more. I love finding a new recipe on Pinterest that appears ultra complicated but only has four ingredients. I love seeing pictures on Facebook of my cousin’s new baby, Avery Jean, who I have yet to meet in person. I love getting an endorsement from a colleague on LinkedIn who refers to me as someone who “…is ready to deal with any situation and offers strong solutions.”

Even though I try to immerse myself in social media, the impact it had on yesterday’s Super Bowl XLVI was still mind-boggling to me. A Super Bowl Social Media Command Center was established in Indianapolis providing social media coverage 15 hours a day for a week leading up to the game.  The Super Bowl Host Committee selected 46 of the top influencers in social media to promote Indianapolis and the Super Bowl through social media. Twitter broke records both during Madonna’s halftime performance and again at the end of the game.

For me, YouTube gets my vote as the favorite social media channel for all things Super Bowl. I missed the National Anthem because I was busy loading “Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest” into the DVD player for my kids. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long to catch the performance online.

The commercials are a major draw for a large part of the population and as a marketer, I look forward to them every year. However, once again the kids make it nearly impossible to both watch and hear the clever multimillion dollar masterpieces. YouTube strikes again by providing a one-stop shop for every commercial aired during the Super Bowl at AdBlitz.

Couldn’t stay awake for the Vince Lombardi Trophy presentation or the game MVP announcement? You guessed it…YouTube has all of the highlights. I haven’t had the opportunity to sit down and watch them all yet, but I am really looking forward to reviewing the MVP announcement. David Beckham got that one, right?!

Word Girl prevails

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I have a love/hate relationship with Alec Baldwin. On the one hand, I’m not so much a fan of listening to him call his 11-year-old daughter a “thoughtless pig” on her not-so-private voicemail. On the other hand, Baldwin’s Schweddy Balls skit on SNL helps rank him as my second all-time favorite host of the show (my heart belongs to Justin on that one). When Baldwin made news last week for being kicked off an American Airlines flight because he refused to turn off his cell phone while playing “Words with Friends,” the first word that came to my mind was moron. But a few days ago, I was invited to play my first game of “Words with Friends” and now I get it.

Words are my friends. They got me through four years of journalism school and a certain co-worker of mine has been known to call me “Word Girl” when she needs a good synonym. The mere thought of myself sporting a superhero cape and saving the world with my words is enough to rouse goosebumps!

While I don’t consider myself much of a gamer, I have enjoyed an action-packed Scrabble match in my day. “Words with Friends” is really just an online Scrabble match with people who don’t live in your house. So then why is it so much more addictive?!

It took 2.5 days to finish my first and only game. Granted, my opponent and I have busy lives and families, but we also calculated each move very carefully and I could literally feel the tension from 300+ miles away. I found myself playing under the kitchen table during breakfast and hiding around the corner at playtime. I even studied my game at a 6% incline on the treadmill while watching the Green Bay Packers do their thing. Now that’s multitasking at its best!

There were some exciting moments during this weekend game as well as some questionable word choices such as zee and fixit, played by my opponent. At one point, I was horrified to realize I had lost a turn when I swapped my letters and suddenly found myself 30 points behind. Several moves later, I pulled out a 33-point tween and was back in the game. Just when I thought the board was mine, my opponent won a 39-point brugh and become very cocky on the messenger, so I appropriately retaliated with a 30-point glib. In the end, this Word Girl brought it home.

What’s my next move? Mr. Baldwin, if you’re reading this, I would be super jazzed if you would accept my invitation to play a friendly match with yours truly. If you must fly, I might recommend trying Funjet…seems like they might better understand our predicament. Game on!

Bad teacher

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Okay, I’m not Cameron Diaz bad, but even my own mom claims that I’m a bad teacher. Isn’t she contractually obligated to tell me that everything I do is amazing?

In the last several years, I’ve spent countless hours teaching my mom:

  • How to program the VCR
  • How to use a DVD player
  • How to use a universal remote
  • How to use a cell phone
  • How to search with Google
  • How to bookmark
  • How to create a Yahoo! e-mail account
  • How to buy me presents on Amazon
  • How to use a digital camera
  • How to attach photos to an e-mail
  • How to send photos to Walgreens
  • How to buy a Groupon
  • How to “ship to store”
  • How to reserve movies from Redbox
  • How to “friend” somebody on Facebook
  • How to “defriend” somebody on Facebook

While my mom has truly mastered a few of the items above, our lessons have left her performance less than stellar on a majority of these activities. She blames her lack of understanding on me for being a bad teacher. I will admit that I don’t read diaglog boxes, I grab the mouse from her hand, I click faster than a Kardashian marriage, and I swear a little. Apparently what I perceive as efficient, others find irritating. You say potato, I say potahto.

I pretended not to hear my mom a few weeks ago when she asked, “Should I be tweeting?” And again yesterday morning when she said, “I wish that I knew how to sell stuff on Craig’s List.” I literally ran from the room when she uttered the words, “I ordered a DVR last week.”

That said, my mom was my very first blog subscriber and she still doesn’t even know what is a blog. I truly love my mom for trying so hard to learn about technology, new media, and how I spend my days in eMarketing. I just wish that somebody else would teach her.

Video chat, schmideo chat

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Remember the first time you recorded your own voice and then listened to it? For me, it was on a large black tape recorder owned by my elementary school. I remember cringing at the sound of my voice and thinking that the machine must have distorted it to create that annoying whine. Interesting that technology hasn’t advanced much since then because that same voice exists on my voicemail today. Hmmm.

When I was pregnant with my son, we bought our first video camera to document our miracle baby and all of his milestones. Five years later, I still run for cover when my husband grabs the camera to catch me and the kids dancing in the living room or playing soccer in the backyard. I like to consider myself more of a director type than the actual on-screen talent.

I recently splurged and purchased my first smartphone. It’s everything I could want in a phone and more. What’s the more? Video chat. Why on earth would I ever want to video chat?! I love a good Google Talk as much as the next person, but by talk I really mean type.

When I get home from my day job, the real work begins…cooking, cleaning, kids to bed, and finally a killer workout. By the time I’m ready to hop online, I ain’t too pretty. The last thing I want is to do is chat with my friends and family sporting a sweaty ponytail and a spaghetti-stained tank. Have you ever seen what you look like through the phone camera anyway? Talk about a close-up…your forehead looks twice as big, your eyes are slightly crossed, and your pores are enormous. Vain? Absolutely.

Will I never video chat? Well, I must admit that I do look forward to personally blowing my babies a kiss goodnight during my next trip to New Jersey. For that alone, I’ll learn to tolerate the feature. But don’t expect an invitation from me to video chat with you anytime soon.