It Takes a Village...

It's so easy to take things for granted in a day to day basis. Even if you're always fully aware of how fortunate you are and how you could always have it so much worse, sometimes it takes something big to truly take note of what's around you and a handful of helpful people to surprise you.

Today started off like any other day, except that I was leaving from an apartment found on AirBnb in DC to take the metro out to New Carrollton MD to work from 2tor's offices for the day. I was coming in early, felt pretty great bc I love DC and it was gorgeous, had a good cup of coffee in hand, and my headphones in listening to my new obsession, Imagine Dragons. I stepped off the curb to cross the intersection when I misjudged the distance and toppled over into the street. As I fell I felt something snap in my left foot an thought "F*ck!!!! Thaaaats broken."

I sat down for a second and started getting woozy from the pain. I laid down on the sidewalk for a moment so I wouldn't pass out, got my bearings, sat up and someone who had driven by came back to make sure I was ok. He also offered to drive me anywhere I needed to go. I was still in disbelief of what had happened but that shocked me. The absolute kindness of a complete stranger in a car noticed my fall and came back to help. I sat and wondered if I would have done that had the situation been reversed?

A few minutes later a cop on a motorcycle comes by and says "So you're the one everyone's telling me about. To be honest I was expecting you to be a homeless person." I appreciated his levity, but again, shocked to find out multiple people had "told him about me." I really expected no one to notice or think twice.

He asked if I was ok and if I needed an ambulance. I said to him that I think I was ok and he goes "well it's free so maybe just get you checked out." I joked and said "A free ambulance? There's no such thing as free anything in our healthcare system." He laughed and goes,"You're probably right," and then went to get me a cab so I could get to the office and figure things out. Walking was NOT an option as I would either pass out or throw up - no doubt about that.

As he's gone I see a coworker walking out of the station. Keep in mind I'm sitting on a sidewalk in a very corporate park type area. I think I myself "God, this is going to look ridiculous and be embarrassing if I catch his attention... Eh." And I call him over. He goes "What did you do?!?!?" and stayed with me and talked sense into me to go up to our HR department.

Now if you don't know, 2tor is hiring for no less than roughly 1000 positions (I exaggerate only slightly,) and today happened to be a day where we were doing a interviewing blitz of 35 interviews. Fortunately the person I needed was there as well as a long time intern and they sprang into action and not only found me a place to go that took our insurance close by, but actually drove me there and waited the whole time. To say that 2tor cares is really an understatement, and today was truly one of those days that I realize I work at one of the most exceptional places in the world. I was getting so many texts and tweets from coworkers in both NYC and MD as news quickly spread about my clumsiness. It was unnerving to not be in my home city when an accident happens, but they all made it feel OK.

Even Urgent Care was truly impressive. I was in a hospital in NYC for something 6 years ago and it was the most soul crushing experience of all time. This was radically different. The X-ray technician wants to come visit me in NYC after our chats and the orthopedic guy who fit me for a boot told me how it was his first day at this place and how excited he was that I was the first one he was able to help that day (he had been at other places.)

At the end of the day I didnt break anything and only tore some tissue/tendons. I have to check in with my doc in a few days, but the moral of the story is how humbled I am to have had so much help and concern from those around me for such a stupid mistake on my part. Both at work and from my online networks. My mom yelled at me a bit because I didn't call her right away and she only found out from my foursquare check in that I had pushed to Facebook. Sorry Mom!!

Hopefully I'll heal quick and can put this all behind me. I'll never forget the random stranger, the funny cop, my amazing coworkers, and my new friends in urgent care. Thanks for making today about more than just a painful accident.

Where Has All the Common Sense Gone?

It was one of those days today.  One of those days where it felt like the world, the internet, and everyone around you lost their mind.  I don't think it was a full moon or anything, but something came undone and collectively everything and everyone just seemed to not make any sense.

Let's start with the obvious -- the horrible event in Aurora, Colorado where 14 people lost their lives and 59 people were injured while at a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises.  They were going to do the most simplest of things - to just be entertained by a comic book movie - when someone who identified with a character a bit too much thought he was the Joker and unleashed countless rounds into the crowd.  A truly awful and senseless act of terrorism.  It's enough to unhinge anyone, because it threatens our sense of safety in our own society.  We created this and we're forced to shine the light on ourselves and figure out what went wrong.

During instances of national calamity I'm glued to the news online and need up to the minute information.  I scour the internet looking for different stories, reading reactions, and listening to the various types of conversations about the event.  It's like a train wreck -- I can do nothing else but watch, and today was no different.  Unfortunately, I came across at least two extremely insensitive social media posts:

1) The NRA at 9:20am EST:
@NRA_Rifleman: Good morning, shooters. Happy Friday! Weekend plans?
2) A British Clothing Company around 1pm EST:
@celebboutique: #Aurora is trending, clearly about our Kim K inspired #Aurora dress ;)  bit.ly/MOY57N
Both of these are "honest" mistakes. The first was a scheduled tweet that on any other day would have been fine. The second was a British company that may or may not have heard about a tragedy way across the pond. But just because they were "honest" doesn't mean they weren't incredibly stupid and couldn't have been avoided by using common sense.

The NRA: If I were on the NRA's social media team I would never, ever, in a million years, schedule a post on any social media platform. Ever. Full Stop. The world is too unpredictable a place, and the risk is too high that something like this, unfortunately, could happen and you'll get caught with your pants down.  For the 30 seconds of time it saves you, it's not worth having the negative light shown on you. Regardless of being pro or anti-gun, you at least want to always appear tactful. The worst part about this, is that the post went live at 9:20am EST.  Easily 6-8 hours after the event, and they didn't take it down until 12pm.  That's a terrible reaction time.

If you want to schedule tweets and reduce the risk, don't use an automation tool that comes in most third party clients. Always err on the side of caution and common sense.
Pro Tip:  Keep a doc handy of all the content you would normally schedule to post, up to 2-3 days out.  Then set a calendar reminder to post it when you want to post it.  Bonus: You're actually there to respond to any engagement you receive, which is the point of social in the first place. 
The International Company: To me, this is the worst case of lack of common sense.  If you're a community or social media manager that's worth a damn, the first question that should come into your mind is, "WHY is this trending?" and to find that out you click on the hashtag to spend 30 seconds looking at the tweets.  It would take no less than 1-2 tweets talking about a mass murder to know that the hashtag is NOT about your Kim Kardashian style dress.

Their saving grace is that they at least admitted it and apologized, but you can't make up for the lack of common sense and their laziness.  
Pro Tip:  Don't be lazy.  Things trend for a reason and they're not always positive.  Don't cut corners and make sure to ALWAYS read into things.  (And if you can, avoid tweeting about Kim Kardashian anyway, even on a normal day she's polarizing and cheap)
Remember: People on the internet are unforgiving. 
Turning away from the lack of social media common sense, I turn to two instances in the past couple weeks of the worst judgement I've seen in quite a while when it comes to writing in public places.
  1.  Why Every Social Media Manager Should be Under 25  (Next Gen Journal)
  2. A Struggle of Not Struggling (Huffington Post College)
Assuming that you've read both articles, you'll see a giant commonality amongst them both - the comments on each are in the high hundreds and all agree on one thing:  both writers' have no idea what they're talking about because they have no concept of the world that they live in and don't support their articles with any kind of solution, balanced argument, or facts.  One girl (A Struggle...) uses the television shows "Girls" and "Sex and the City" as the "only" examples of women to idolize, and the other girl alienates every, single, person, over the age of 25 (and some under 25) using social media tools in their work and uses no examples or sound reasoning to back up her "claims." Both articles do nothing but whine.

I am sure that both girls in person are wonderfully bright, over-achieving young 20 somethings that before these articles were on an upward trajectory in their careers.  However, their insight (or lack there of) and sense of entitlement is so astounding they might not ever recover.  Buried very deep in their articles is an interesting premise, but they fail miserably at being able to bring it to light. Instead, they surround it with shoddy writing, flimsy stories, and sweeping generalizations. They are the epitome of "that" millennial you want nothing to do with, and that's really unfortunate for those extremely hard working 20 somethings out there. You can't correct this kind of thinking with any amount of education or mentorship.  The one thing they did do was drive traffic to a website, and for that they may be patted on the head, but I can tell you I'd never work with them. 

Now this isn't to say that everything I've ever written on the internet is worthy of a gold star, but I never sought out to place opinion pieces severely judging others while patting myself on the back on national news sites.  Common sense would say to stay away from that kind of thing as again, people on the internet are unforgiving.   

Whether you're in charge of social media posts or are blogging on your own - exercise your best judgement and common sense.  And if you are even remotely unsure, ask someone else. 

Really though... where has common sense gone? And how do we get it back?


Great Customer Service Shouldn't Be a Surprise

Allow me to paint you a picture...

It's Sunday morning.  Actually, scratch that, it's Sunday afternoon when I woke up.  I had a pretty rough night watching my Syracuse Orange prematurely end their run for the 2012 NCAA Championship title in the Elite 8.  I woke up, and the first thing I wanted, no, needed, was a cup of coffee.

I've been trying to be healthy lately so this would actually be my first cup of coffee in 8 days (I tend to load it up with a lot of milk and sugar - bad, bad, bad,), so to say I was looking forward to this was an understatement.  I walk into my kitchen,  turn on my Keurig machine, grab a k-cup from on top of my refrigerator to the sounds of it doing it's power up thing, take my favorite "Jesus Shaves" trick mug out of the cupboard, and hear the sounds of the machine heating up.  Then...nothing.  No sounds.  No lights.  Nothing.

I do what you do with a modem, or an AT&T iPhone when you don't have service -- unplug, replug, and hope it resets itself. 

Nothing. 

I can almost hear my body humming, being so close to caffeine... 

Once it set into my brain that the machine will not turn on no matter what I do, I immediately ran to the internet.  I was steeling myself for what I thought to be the inevitable customer service experience - painful searching for the answers, dozens of minutes on hold, having to figure out how to mail my machine back to the company for them to fix it and calculating just how many weeks it would take to have a working machine.   Or worse -- having to wait until Monday to figure this out.

Then the most wonderful thing happened -- I was pleasantly surprised about how unbelievably wrong I was. 

My whole problem from beginning to end was fixed in roughly 25 minutes.  I always start with a Google search before going to a website.  Google knows where the answer to my problem lies without my having to search company websites, and it retrieves the right page more quickly than I ever could.  So I start searching for "Why won't my Keurig turn on?"  And "Why would a Keurig stop working?" and other such phrases.  I was immediately thrown to dozens of sites discussing the same problem I was having and why.  (This in and of itself speaks to the need for more companies to realize the value of SEO, but that's another post entirely).

When I got to the Keurig page it was laid out well, easy to use, and the best thing of all?  A 7 days a week Customer Service line that when I called it, I was given to a person in no less than a minute.  Keep in mind -- it's Sunday! Doesn't that traditionally mean I'll have to wait forever to speak to someone, and then when and if I do, it's most likely going to be someone with a thick accent with a name like, "Alice" or "Steve" who clearly is not an "Alice" or "Steve" and might as well be a robot. 

The best part of it all?  I spoke with Ryan.  Who was from Florida, had never been to New York, was 33, and even told me about a particular unfortunate event in his life when he was 9 in Ohio.  He told me all of this, all the while double, triple, and quadruple checking my shipping information to send me a brand new machine.  He explained my machine's issue (something about a tube, etc. etc.), and just like that issued me a brand new one (not refurbished - and without my asking for it), that would be here within 7-10 days, and I wouldn't even have to ship back the entire old one (just a small piece).   I actually enjoyed the conversation and the process (especially the result).

Now I am sure that not all issues end this way with Keurig and that there was probably some larger factory issue with my machine's make & model.  However, I can honestly say that I've never had a more pleasant customer service experience with any other company.  It was clear that Keurig takes its customers not only serious, but cares that it's employees are happy enough to have normal, fluid, conversations with the people that call in.  I felt like a person -- not someone with another problem that they need to fix, and I can't remember the last time that's happened with a company.   It went far beyond the pleasantries.  He wasn't trying to rush me off the phone (and if he was, I didn't notice) because he's limited to spending so much time on the phone, or has other calls to get to. It was as if I was the only customer in the world.  Heck, maybe I was - it is a Sunday afterall.

Why Does This Matter to a Company?
Whether you're reading this from a customer service standpoint, a community building background, or just in general -- being on the offensive and knowing what will keep users/customers happy will always set you apart from your competition and lead to better Word of Mouth Marketing and higher sales.  I was genuinely surprised with Keurig's experience today in the most pleasant way, and the fact that I was surprised, shouldn't be the case. 

Ryan loved working for Keurig and it showed (he also mentioned it).  He even said that he loved helping people, and I believe him. He mentioned how great his training was too (clearly someone did something right there too).

This whole thing is a real life version of interconnectedness in a company being so unbelievably important.  This demonstrated that higher up decisions to train employees well, to value customers, to having a well designed website as an actual resource, and understanding the needs of the customer trickle down to this 1 pleasant experience. 

Much like my experiences with Apple and the fact that I'll never stray from them -- I now can add Keurig to my very short list of companies that I will be happy to stay a loyal customer to.




Things To Do Before Turning 30

The end is near for me, folks.  It's already happened to so many of my friends, and it's been hard to watch for those who it's just about to happen to.  If you can't tell by my use of the word "folks" I'll be turning 30 later this year.  We all know that when you turn 30 you spontaneously combust and that's all there is.  Your 20s are everything, the only time when you get to blame anything on being young and stupid.  If you excel before you're 30 its looked upon as you're a diamond in the rough and a shining example compared to your counterparts.  Nope - when you turn 30 you inevitably fall off a cliff, never to be heard from again, and your ideas aren't as great as when you were young. You're old. Out of touch. Irrelevant. You've done all you can. I should buy myself a pair of mom jeans and stop wearing makeup, because once you're 30 you're no longer cool.

All kidding aside, you're as old as you feel and a recent trip back to my alma matter, Syracuse University, for a weekend proved to me that I still look and feel like I'm 24.  I've done more in my 20s than most people do their whole lives.  And yes, I have been waiting about 5 years to say that line.  I made it my goal to take life by the horns when I turned 18 knowing that post-30 society expects you to be an established adult.  I've traveled extensively, I've loved and lost, I'm in a successful career, and I have the greatest coworkers, friends and family.  The hardest part about life at the moment is coming up with new goals and figuring out how to dream bigger.  I could kick the bucket tomorrow, and be a happy girl.  But I want...no I need... more.

I found a list recently and realized while I may have accomplished a lot, I have not accomplished everything I've set out to do. My philosophy on life is that I should be expecting constant improvement of myself while being thoroughly entertained by my actions and of those around me.

Here's a list of the 150 things one should do before turning 30.  It's arbitrary and 50 more things could be added to it, but I feel pretty good having done 103 of these things, and wanting to do almost all of the rest.  How many have you done?  What's left on your list before?

Bold are things I've done.
Italics are things I have yet to do and will someday, if not this year.

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with dolphins 
03. Climbed a mountain 
04. Taken a sports car (Porsche, Lambo, Ferrari, etc.) for a test drive 
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid 
06. Held a tarantula 
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it 
09. Hugged a tree 
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris or Italy or Greece other romantic European location
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea 
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise 
14. Seen the Northern Lights 
15. Gone to a huge sports game (South Korea / North Korea World Cup Qualifier!)
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables 
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars (Camping during Chusok in Seoul)

20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon 
22. Watched a meteor shower 
23. Gotten drunk on champagne 
24. Given more than you can afford to charity 
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment 
27. Had a food fight 
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger 
30. Had a snowball fight 
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Be considered an expert resource on something
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster 
35. Hit a home run 
36. Danced like a fool and didn’t care who was looking 
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day 
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Driven a motorcycle/scooter abroad  (...and maybe I crashed one..shhh)
40. Visited all 50 states 
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk 
42. Had amazing friends 
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country 
44. Watched whales 
45. Stolen a sign 
46. Backpacked in Europe 
47. Taken a road-trip 
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Taken a midnight walk on the beach 
50. Gone sky diving  (THIS YEAR!!!)

51. Backpacked in Asia
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them 
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs/computer music files
57. Pretended to be a superhero 
58. Sung karaoke 
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football 
61. Gone scuba diving (but I want to be certified)

62. Kissed in the rain 
63. Played in the mud (Mudfest 2008!!)

64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theatre 
66. Visited the Great Wall of China  (10k hike in January baby)

67. Started a business  (Thecommunitymanager.com)

68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites 
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Seen Niagara Falls
72. Gotten married 
73. Been in a movie 
74. Crashed a party
75. Camped outside & slept on the ground
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo  (3...w/ #4 coming soon)

81. Gone White Water Rafting
82. Been on a news program or in a newspaper as an “expert” 
83. Gotten flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas 
86. Recorded music 
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date 
89. Lived in another city internationally
90. Bought a house
91. Gone strip club hopping
92.  Ridden a camel.
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95.  Watched 25 of the top 500 movies out there
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour 
98. Passed out cold 
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign county (Multiple times in China)

100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over 
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge 
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking with the windows open 
103.Had a One Night Stand
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived 
105. Wrote articles for a large publication 
106. Lost over 100 pounds 
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback 
108. Piloted an airplane (thanks Hans!)
109. Touched a stingray 
110. Broken up with someone who wasn't the one
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a TV game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears (eyebrow AND tongue)

116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol 
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild 
118. Ridden a horse 
119. Been on a plane longer than 8 hours
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for a full day
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. States
124. Visited all 7 continents 
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi (Found out I was allergic)

128. Had your picture in the newspaper 
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school 
131. Parasailed 
132. Touched a cockroach (UNFORTUNATELY.)
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes  (Dinosaur BBQ baby)
134. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read on your own
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions 
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Write a book
140. Built or played in an Igloo
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Gone skiing/snowboarding
143. Gone Surfing
144. Done something nice for someone just because
145. Compete in a sports competition
146. Dyed your hair 
147. Been a DJ  (WERW!  Z89!  K-Rock!)

148. Shaved your head/donate your hair to charity (Locks 4 Love)
149. Excel at public speaking in front of a large crowd  (LOVE IT!)
150. Saved someone’s life

Trolls Aren't Born, They're Made.

What is a troll? A Troll, according to wikipedia, is a super natural being in Old Norse sources that were described as living in isolated rocks, mountains, or caves, and were rarely helpful to human beings.  So it isn't hard to understand why the internet came up with slang for internet trolling.  An internet troll (also according to wikipedia) is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.  So the question remains, are you a troll?


Of course you're not a troll.  You're probably a good person just trying to interact with the people that you converse with daily, and sometimes you feel passionately about certain topics and want your voice to be heard.  Something personal happened to you and you want something to be done about it.  But does that desire and continued action sometimes translate into you going from passionate advocate to annoying troll? Yes. Do people realize this and automatically discount your credibility?  Abso - friggin - lutely.  Your cause may be dead in the water because of how you handle it.

The "Am I a Troll?" Checklist - (If you say yes to any of these, you're probably a troll or have been one at one point):
  • You repeatedly post on the same networks with only the same few people responding.
  • You emotionally respond, and don't provide any real evidence or examples.
  • You don't ask questions about the who/what/where/when/why, just assume things.
  • The group that's supporting you isn't growing.
  • You're only complaining on public social networks/forums/blogs, and haven't contacted the actual organization yourself.
  • You've stopped getting responses from the admins of the pages you're using, or from the organization itself.
  • The organization has responded and attempted to meet your demands and feels that it did so adequately, yet you continue to post.
  • You tear down any efforts that were made (no matter how big or small) and refuse to acknowledge any steps that were made to calm you down.
  • You've noticed people who were once posting happily have left the community and you may be the reason.
  • You've resorted to being mean and nasty on seemingly unrelated posts.
  • Others have told you that progress has been made, but you refuse to hear it.
  • You think you have inside jokes with some of the other trol..er posters.
  • You've formed bonds with the other negative people and keep the circle of negativity going because now you find this fun.
  • You've met up with those people in person and brainstormed how to "take down" the organization or those in charge.
  • You've forgotten what your goals were when you started advocating for change or don't see that you may have actually already won by creating an open forum/dialogue.
  • The organizers have actually come through and made change, and yet you're still unhappy and don't know why.
  • When someone calls you or talks to you in person regarding your claims, you're as sweet as pie.
  • What you're fighting for is a free product that you don't pay for and have the most opinions. 
  • You notice that you spend all of your free time on social networks complaining, and announce to the group that you've realized this.
  • Your real life starts to suffer (job offers don't come, recognitions don't happen, you aren't picked for awards or special teams or contests or opportunities).  
How to Avoid Being a Troll:
  1. Don't post on social networks immediately.  Work the proper channels first behind the scenes by contacting the community manager (or whoever is behind the account).  Direct Message on twitter, message on Facebook, send an email to contacts in the organization expressing your concern.  Wait for a response.  If one doesn't happen within an acceptable amount of time (a couple of days), then you can go to the online public forum.
  2. Assess the situation.  Don't get emotional, provide facts. Perhaps you're the only one affected by something.  Or perhaps you're one of 10-15 people in a community of 500, 1000, or 10,000.  A small group might be able to enact change or settle something quietly without the need to disrupt a happy online community.  Don't involve others if there's really no need.
  3. Accept the Outcome.  Sometimes things happen and there really is nothing you can do about it.  You're a member of the community, but businesses make decisions based off of information you're never going to fully know as you're not an employee. You tried your best, but don't let that negativity consume you for the rest of your life.
  4. Wait it out, and then present your case.  If the company is doing something awful, give it time to demonstrate that what it's actually doing was worse in the long run.  Gather evidence,  discuss with others offline, put together something (a petition, a case study, examples from other organizations, numbers, charts, graphs, incidents, etc.) and deliver it to the powers that be in the organization.  Outline a better plan.  (Hey, maybe they'll hire you as a contractor if it's actually compelling). 
  5. Leave the community.  Most of the time, you're not forced into something.  If it's a product, stop buying it.  If it's a service, find a competitor.  If it's this important to you, only you can stop the behavior. 
Do Organizations Create Trolls? 

Yes. By not listening to a community, or by enacting changes that the community wasn't made aware of that were coming, companies increase the risk of creating internet trolls.  Trolls aren't born, they're made.

Companies, or Community Managers, can avoid creating trolls by understanding what they're going through.
  • Is a product being discontinued? Perhaps give them a space to mourn the loss of their beloved item/show/process/etc.  Create a memorial for something that the company thought wasn't financially worth it, but was beloved by a small group of your most dedicated community members.  
  • Another option is to announce that changes to X are coming soon, and that when it happens, the company will be accepting community member feedback in the first few weeks so everyone gets it right.  
  • Perhaps someone dropped the ball in creating daily activities online and your members are bored and wanting "how it used to be."  Assess what's going on, and ask a few of your power users if they notice anything different.  
There are quite a few ways to help transition communities into something new without all the negativity that they're likely to create, but the company (community manager?) has to be the one to think ahead of the game.

Self Care in the New Year: Keeping Our Resolutions [Infographic]

In full disclosure, I work for the online MSW degree program, MSW@USC, and worked on this infographic project.


The italicized words above being said, I actually really liked the concept of this one.  I am not one for making resolutions, I prefer to make hard and fast goals.  I don't mean the "I want to be XX in 5 years and ZZ in 10 years," but more like, "I am going to live abroad."  (Check).   "I want to work in music." (Check). "I am going to the gym 4 days a week to get healthy." (Check).   Giving yourself timed goals or tying them to specific numbers too fast is risky.  So I don't do it.

So when I had the chance to figure out how long it took people to flake out on their resolutions I was pretty excited. Needless to say, 22% of people give up after only one week!  Slackers.

Jokes aside, working in community management is fast paced, exciting, time consuming, and could eventually lead to high burnout rates.  It's important for community managers to take time off (as I wrote about recently on TheCommunityManager.com), and to have lives outside of the internet and their online (/offline) communities.  

Self Care Infographic
Brought to you by MSW@USC: Masters in Social Work

2011 Writing Roundup

This past year was the year that I really put pen to paper and spent a lot of time writing guest posts for a variety of blogs and sites.  It was an exercise in writing styles, research methods, link building, and developing my blogging voice.  Some pieces came naturally (anything about community management and social media) and others were tough, but rewarding. I'm thankful and honored that all of these blogs allowed me to guest post on their site, and look forward to writing more in 2012 (and sharing it more frequently than once a year).  


Here is the Truth Behind the Troop Withdrawal in Iraq - BusinessInsider.com (not my name, but I did write it ;) 
Ribbons 101:  Breakdown of Awareness Symbols - Uloop.com
Drawing Down Troops from Iraq [INFOGRAPHIC] - Uloop.com
Live Life to the Fullest, Get Out and See the World - Gradeguru.com
Social Media & Relationships - Uloop.com
The 10 Best Fictional Professors  - HuffingtonPost.com
The Top 5 Countries to go Backpacking  - TheHuffingtonPost.com
When Should I Go Abroad? - Bettergrads.com
Techstars can Make You a Star - Yahoo.com (Internet Week)
Beer Diplomacy  - Yahoo.com (Internet Week)
Foursquare is the New Pulse of America - Yahoo.com (Internet Week)
Live Abroad - Life After Teaching in Korea  - AllEducationMatters.com
Social Media Etiquette  - Sisarina.com
All Graduated.  Now What?  - TroyNunesIsAnAbsoluteMagician.com
National Marquette Day 2 - The Revenge - TroyNunesIsAnAbsoluteMagician.com
Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Brackets - TroyNunesIsAnAbsoluteMagician.com
A few of my favorite articles this year: 
Inside Higher Ed Blog -- 2tor Partners With Schools to Build Community
Mashable.com - Creative Social Media Resumes
Infospace - SU Visits Foursquare 
Infospace - Cuse Grads Rock the Social Media World




Who Should I Donate to For #Movember?

You may have become painfully aware in the past 30 days of an increase in dudes walking around looking like porn stars, police officers from the 70s, and men who shouldn't be allowed within 100 feet of a playground.  Fear not ladies, these looks aren't here to stay, they're only apart of something called "Movember."

Every year men across the globe grow out their facial hair and take the public ridicule of looking like unfortunate members of society in order to raise money for charity. If you take a look at the Movember website, it tells you that they are a "moustache growing charity event held during November each year that raises funds and awareness for men's health."  There are a few rules involved with growing a stache, including the fact that you cannot have a beard, and you must sport that 'stache proudly.

I've always had more male friends than female friends (and I was a bit of a tomboy as a kid), and love all of the awesome gentlemen in my life.  The guys below are either social media colleagues/friends, friends from teaching abroad, old friends from Syracuse, or even my "fiance" (depending on who you ask).  Regardless -- they're all pretty damn amazing.

The Deal and How You Can Help

  • I want to donate to all of these amazing guys, who for the past 30 days have been looking ridiculous, but I cannot afford to donate to all of them and I need you to help me choose one.  
  • I am going to donate money to one lucky guy Wednesday night, and I want you to tell me, in the comments below, who has the absolute best, most ridiculous moustache?  I don't think I have a favorite.
  • Leave comments here, on Facebook or in Twitter @'s, and I'll count them up and announce the winner at 11:30pm EST Wednesday Nov 30th. 
Your gentleman choices are Options 1 - 10.  Choose!

Option 1 -  Patrick Johnson  (New York)

Option 2 - David Spinks (New York)
Option 3 - Sheldon Levine (Toronto)
Option 4 - Drew Lederman (Saudi Arabia)

Option 5 - Simon Corvan (Australia)
Option 6 - Mike Fraietta (New York)
Option 7 - Jamie Garantziotis (Australia)
Option 8 - Nick Rovisa (New York)
Option 9 - Hamish McGregor (China)
Option 10 - Manoj Parameswaran (Minneapolis)


Option 11 - Kevin Haughwout (New York)

Option 12 - Rory Ellis (Texas)
If you would like to donate to any of them personally please go to www.movember.com, select their country/region on the map (I've listed them above) and search for their name.   Their movember profile page will come up along with other ridiculous pictures of themselves over the past 30 days.


Savored.com Really Wants You To Read This Blog Post...

Fool me once... shame on me.   Fool me twice, and I write a blog to tell you about it.

There's a lot of discussion lately about shady marketing practices and the smarmy marketers behind them.  I was recently shown this article, "Is Marketing a Dirty Word?" and didn't really have too much to say about it because there are some people out there that do give Marketing a bad name, but I couldn't think of any personal examples.  And then today happened, where I realized that not only is "Marketing" being dragged through the mud, but that people are playing fast and loose with the term "Social" as well.

Over the summer I signed up for a Savored.com account and really loved the service.  I actually did tell people online and in person about it when it came up in conversation.  For those that don't know, Savored allows you to spend $10 on a reservation to the city's best restaurants, and then once you are there you get 30% off of your entire bill, including alcohol.  I went with a few coworkers to a place and it was all taken care of by our servers, and the service was flawless.   As I'm usually lacking in time, I don't believe I even filled out the "How was your dining experience?" type survey that Savored sends after your evening.  Overall, it WAS great.  It was the weeks afterwards that I've been having trouble with.

I was made aware by a good friend that he received an email from Savored with the headline "Jenn Pedde has tried X Restaurant and suggests you do too."  I thought "Oh, maybe I just didn't look closely enough at the settings, let me go in and change that."  Once I looked over my account, there was no way to turn off this feature and I was more than a little upset and sent a letter off to their customer service.

Why was I Upset?

  1. I did not give permission for my name to be used in email campaigns.
  2. I did not participate in the follow up survey -- what if I had disliked that restaurant?
  3. What if I did not want that contact to know I was at said restaurant?
  4. What if that contact and I were no longer on speaking terms?
  5. How did they even get said contact's information?
  6. Who else were they sending it to?
  7. If ANY of my contacts did receive this, and did sign up because I "recommended" it, would I see any rewards/loyalty points/compensation?
I received the following email in response, and it was very well said:
Maureen, Sep-21 02:52 pm (EDT):Hi Jenn,
Hope all is well, I'm writing to you from the marketing team at Savored. I read your email to Support and I'd first like to thank you for your insightful feedback. It's really important that our members communicate with us like you have, and we sincerely appreciate the time you took to let us know how you felt about the email you received. 
The thought behind that email followed the idea that if your friend invited you to join Savored (and you indeed signed up), then maybe referring to that friend's loyalty would prompt a user to try Savored for themselves. Unfortunately, it seems like we missed the point and only upset members like yourself. Needless to say, we won't be experimenting with this again due to feedback like you have provided. 
Please let me know if there's anything we can do from our end, aside from my assurance to you that there's no need to worry about your private information being distributed to anybody else.
Thanks again,
Michael

It was a pretty great response.  I understood why they did what they did when they did it, because I too am a marketer who operates in the social space.  I didn't want anything except confirmation that this wouldn't happen again.  We emailed a few times back and forth, discussing the importance of opting in and opting out of such things, and the last correspondence was:

Maureen, Sep-26 09:26 am (EDT):Hi Jenn,
Thank you for reaching out, and thanks for your thoughtful feedback. We have discontinued marketing of this nature, and apologize for not allowing you to opt out earlier.
Best,
Maureen


And then today...



They did it again!!!   I only showed you two emails where they said they were discontinuing this practice and then sure enough, 2 weeks later, they continue!   Asking my friends for me to sign up for a service I use is NOT a best practice of social media marketing.  Especially without my consent.

I immediately emailed savored and told them to cancel my account.  I was willing to forgo this slip up the first time, but I refuse to participate in this the second time -- the company has lost all of my trust.  They did everything right except for follow through on the one thing I requested.

The point of social media is for your customers or community to spread the word for you.  NOT for you to spread it on their behalf as a marketer.

I leave you with this,  a quote from Fred Wilson in the above linked article that couldn't be more true.

“I believe that marketing is what you do when your product or service sucks or when you make so much profit on every marginal customer that it would be crazy to not spend a bit of that profit acquiring more of them (coke, zynga, bud, viagra).” – Fred Wilson

And I urge you to read the fine print of any service you sign up for in the future, and not use Savored.com until they have a better marketing plan in place. 

Humans vs. Robots

I probably should have named this blog post something like, "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"  because the introduction of SEO into my social world was the equivalent of a bomb.  If you had told me 8 months ago I'd be writing a piece now about how not only have I come to appreciate SEO, but that I'll be speaking on a panel at sxswi in Austin, TX 2012 regarding "Humans vs. Robots, Social + SEO Friendly Content"  (please vote here to not make me a liar: http://bit.ly/humansvrobots),  I probably wouldn't have believed you.

When I started community managing it was great - all social, all the time.  Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, blogging... I created content, I built relationships,  I didn't have a real care in the world except that all the numbers on all the sites had to keep going up,  sentiment was positive, customers were happy, and job well done.  I would say that's entry level community at it's best.  But, as things are oft to do they grow and expand and of course they have to become justifiable.  Not only that, but you begin to the push the boundaries and see what you can do with all of these social tools and where it can bleed into for other departments.  That's where SEO entered my life.

For those that don't yet know,  SEO stands for "Search Engine Optimization"  and that simply means making your website play nice with Google's search algorithm so you can organically climb the ranks and be in that coveted #1 spot on a first results page that gets you so many eyeballs.   A number of community managers out there will tell you that what they do, has nothing to do with SEO - and if they are telling you that - they're terrible community managers.

Social and SEO are blending now more than ever.  Every word you put in a blog post matters.  Titles first,  headings second, content itself third.  Tweets are being indexed.  Facebook shares matter.  Links flying left and right all over social networks and guest blog posts might as well be it's own form of currency.  Keywords, thousands of incredible keywords, determine how successful your business can be.  If you're managing a community and aren't aware of even just the basics, you're already behind the curve.

There are arguments to be made about internal and external community and that community should only exist on owned properties (your website vs. Facebook).  We can talk until the end of time about the word community and the responsibilities that come with the job and if that should be for one person or a team and how far into SEO strategies the role can get.   No matter how you slice the community pie, each person should be made well aware of how their actions are determining search results.   They should know optimal ways to share content, and what it means and how to expand the reach.

The same goes for the SEO folk out there that are completely behind the scenes.  Your information and knowledge is invaluable, but you have to be able to speak plainly, build relationships, come up with social content and ideas, understand the space that your managers are operating in, and be just as active as your social counterparts.

The marriage of SEO & Social is a beautiful thing and I for one rarely see it done well, together, in a strategy.  Merging these two areas is no easy task either.  There will be training on both sides of the table, an incredible amount of research done on what are the best tools to manage all of the efforts, and getting down to the nitty gritty of what is important out of a social media strategy at the end of the day.

How are you blending Social & SEO in your strategies? 

Follow http://humansvrobots.tumblr.com/ for more Social + SEO content leading up to sxswi,  and please make sure to vote on  http://bit.ly/humansvrobots so myself and the other panelists can discuss these topics at the SXSW Interactive Conference in March 2012 before August 31st, 2011. 

+K on Klout -- The New *Useful* #FF?

Last year I wrote a blog post called, "#FF Yourself,"  which talked all about what the tradition known as #FF or #FollowFriday is all about.   It's a organic system that started seemingly when twitter started that allowed users to highlight their favorite twitter people to follow and share with their communities.  There are a number of different ways to participate in #FF and as Twitter has grown, it's really nice to know that a tradition like that has continued.   However - other than ego stroking, I'm not sure it really does much to help anyone in the long run outside of a few extra followers (which yes, is always nice).  However, this is where Klout's +K comes into play.

Klout, for those that don't know, is a website that helps to find the "influencers" online by measuring activity.  In the past year it's grown from just measuring Twitter, to measuring Facebook, About.me, and Linked in as well.  I for one see the value in this site, and believe that starting now with more services included, and in the future, they will be the online influence powerhouse with reliable data.  As more companies get a better handle on how to use this technology, and the data gets refined to be more meaningful, it could very much be a tool that helps in areas like recruitment, loyalty programs, and blogger outreach.   As an example, Vegas' Palms Hotel already has perks for those with high Klout scores.

Klout's most recent, and perhaps most useful addition comes with "+K".   Their algorithm will figure out what topics and/or keywords a person is most influential about, and then it's up to that person's followers to corroborate Klout's findings by giving a +K, or an affirmation that yes, this person is influential in the topic of X.

What this now does, is not only demonstrate that someone has a high score, far reach, and knowledge about a subject - but that what Klout is reporting is actually true.  Real people out on the interwebs agree that yes, you should contact the person in question if you're interested in X topic.  

The only drawback is actually getting people to Klout to do this.  Users are given up to 5 +Ks per day, and there are a variety of rules and guidelines on Klout's blog.

I may not think of doing this everyday, but when it comes to Friday and the #FF tradition, I will now give out those 5 +Ks to people that have really inspired me throughout the week, or provided a lot of value in their specific areas, or helped me in some way.   I encourage you to think about who in your week has done the same, and give them a +K. 

When I Grow Up I want to be a Wri...er... Blogger.

Awkward 15 year old Jenn was plopped into an honors English class in April of her sophomore year at a school 2 hours away from the area she grew up in. The class of seemingly overachievers was in the first stage of writing their autobiographies, a semester long project, and I had to catch up.  By the end, my book was 10 chapters of about 1500 words each or so, full of artwork, prose, and even poetry. Even though I had lived a whopping 15 years so far, it was surprisingly full, and I believe the title was a poorly written, "A Lot Can Change in the Blink of an Eye." Bad name aside, 15 year old me had this lofty, gigantic dream of one day becoming a writer.

Fast forward (almost, but not quite) 15 years later, not only have I taken journalism classes and had a short stint with a newspaper column, we have seen the evolution of the internet from poorly designed geocities websites, to live journaling, to blogging.  We are even currently witnessing the slow downfall of printed books for the ease of ebooks.  I myself have not bought an ereader, but I do own an online publishing company, and the day where I purchase one of these contraptions is quickly approaching.  Newspaper sales are in steep decline, magazines are switching to iPad only issues, and print as we know it is drastically changing.  Is it still a "good" dream to want to become a writer?

The short answer is well, yes.  To be a writer with a published book is still an incredible feat - either printed or in ebook format.  To become a journalist for example, the NY Times, is still a great dream.  However, is this the only way to becoming a famous writer? No. With the progress of the internet, blogging has become something equally as gratifying and just as high in potential of reaching fame for the written word.  While it has leveled the playing field, it does not guarantee success for all - the writer in question must still have that "it" factor to be famous for their craft.

All Blogs are Not Created Equal
Recently at work we crafted a tiered categorization of blogs that fit into 5 areas.  A top tier are your big time blogs on websites with the biggest reach like the NY Times, Washington Post, etc.  A second tier would consist of your TechCrunch, HuffPo, and Mashable online publications.  Then the 3 remaining tiers are levels of average people's blogs with their various levels of influence. Everyone basically starts off on that 5th tier of having a new blog, developing content, creating an audience, and then if they stick with it and make it a priority they can move up through the ranks and increase their reach and begin to even monetize and see where it can grow to.  Plenty of bloggers have transitioned into newspaper columnists and even authors.  The possibility is there if you understand the space, and put hard work into it. A professional blog consists of a steep learning curve, and is not easily done.

To be a blogger, you also do not have to have and maintain a personal blog.  It helps, but you could easily write blogs and shop them around to other bloggers. Ask to write pieces on blogs from all tiers and level of influence and build your online credibility.  Some you can be paid for, some you won't be.  This was done years ago in the writing world when people would write editorials in newspapers, or were freelance writers, but now it's much faster and there is more to choose from.

If you do maintain your own blog, not only do you have to be a skilled writer, but you also must be a visual creature as well.  Content may be king, but the look and feel of your site is prince.  If you're not a graphic artist, or understand coding - get yourself a web developer because all of it goes hand in hand. A beautifully designed site, plus great content, plus having a site that is easily found by search engines like Google will help you in your path to becoming a successful and famed blogger. 

At the end of the day, being a writer is still an incredible goal. I still have the aspirations I did when I was 15 to have a published book under my belt - but for now, I'm quite content with being a blogger, and aspire to be a better one.  For me - being a writer and being a blogger are one in the same.

The Web's Limitations (or The Cloud is Not All That It's Cracked Up to Be)

Our email has been web based for years, we can watch TV on Hulu, stream movies and entertainment through Netflix to our TVs, use Soundcloud, Live.fm, and Pandora for music anywhere, and have satellite radio beamed into our cars or phones.  There's even Dropbox which acts as our own personal servers (at 2gb for free, or 50gb for $99/yr) that works with multiple devices.  It seems as though we have access to anything at anytime.  Although, I am going to say it here, we really don't.

I am actually writing this post, as the internet in my apartment in Brooklyn, NY is for whatever reason - just not working.  I've done what we all do - unplug, replug, wait for all the blinking lights - run back to the laptop to check, and start the process over if there's no luck, but maybe giving it a few more minutes of downtime.  While I wait for the internet gods to be pleased with me again, I've had time to formulate an opinion I've been working on since I was in India in January - and that is - "The Cloud" is not all it's cracked up to be.  

In January I was on vacation in India with my best friend, and admittedly we're both wildly addicted to our iPhones.  However we had no data plan, and our hotels for 14 out of 15 days did not even offer wifi - which was nice. The one day we stayed at a Marriott we both thought nothing about paying $16 each to have access to it for 24 hours.  But it was amazing how not having instant access to the internet kind of rendered us useless.  Without Google maps we relied on a guidebook, without email we had to print hostel reservations/train tickets - or even go to a travel agent, and without app suggestions, we had to ask around for the best food in these little Indian towns.  Don't get me wrong, the challenge and fun of it all is 100% the reason I travel outside of the country as often as I can, but I hadn't realized how dependent on instant internet access I had become.

Fast forward to being in America though, the second the internet goes out, I am 100% screwed.

All of my docs are on google docs.   Can't see 'em.
All of my entertainment is on Hulu.  Can't watch it.
All of my friends are on Facebook.  Can't stalk them.
All of my friends are on Twitter.  Can't talk to them.
All of my work is in my email in Gmail.  Can't do anything.
All of my music is on Pandora.  Can't listen to it.  (Well, for me personally this one's a lie - everything's in iTunes, but still - if I was having a party, I like the Pandora stations)

For some of these things I'm relying on my iPhone for a connection to the outside world.  And let's face it - if we're relying on AT&T's 3G network in New York City - we're screwed.

While you can't say "The dog ate my homework!" any longer, you certainly can say, "Ohhh sorry, my internet connection at home went out!"

Before this forced down time, I was just tonight looking into storage ability on The Cloud to put my terabyte worth of photos, movies, tv, and paperwork on it to have access from any device.  By crowdsourcing Twitter, I received a whole bunch of answers, and the best one so far looks to be a company called Sugarsync.  Although buying 500gb for $400 a year seems ludicrous when I can buy a Terabyte external harddrive that would fit in my pocket for around $100 one time.  The only problem is that it couldn't plug into a iPhone or iPad.

I was THIS close to actually pulling the trigger on it (they offer a 30 day free trial) when this internet embargo happened.  And I realized, if I were to go completely to the cloud - if I lost access to the internet, I would have no way to do absolutely anything. Then I thought back to India and all the travel I do, and how much I still rely on accessing a harddrive of some kind.

The United States is just not there yet with its internet capabilities, and currently ranks 18th in countries with the fastest speeds.  I have plenty of friends and family still on dialup in rural areas, and there a number of places where I just don't have access to it.  Our internet infrastructure is not competitive enough, nor up to the standard of this power user.

And as I'm finishing this post up,  I am still - without internet, which happens at least 3-4x per week. 


The Seedy Underbelly of Community Management

Ad Age called the Community Manager position the hottest job in marketing in 2010.  There are thousands of people in the various Linked in groups, a vibrant Community Builders group on FB, and I run a successful twitter chat of an average of 100 participants every Wednesday at 2pm EST with Kelly Lux. Social media gigs are popping up left and right at warp speed and there is no lack of people clamoring for those jobs.  (Note if you're a hiring manager reading this,  rip up a resume of ANYONE calling themselves a "guru," "expert," "maven," or worse.. "rockstar."  You've been warned).

Community Management is So Hot Right now.
This gig is perfect for anyone who thrives on challenge, loves to be an early adopter, can't get enough of people, event planning, and being the face of a brand.  In a way, it's like getting 15 minutes of fame if you're good at it.  In a lot of ways, it has moments of being game like.  Needing higher numbers, converting more customers, more more more, and you "win" when you get hot press and more people know about you.  It's a never ending veritable Super Mario World of Community. 

It hasn't reached it's max yet either.  There are a few amazing resources out there that even though they've been around, they're just getting started.  Like The Community Roundtable.  Or the upcoming Community Manager website that most haven't heard about yet,  but will soon.  2011 should be an even better year for the profession.

It's Not All Rainbows and Puppies. 
Once the glamorous facade wears off, there's real work to be done.  Yes you manage a blog, but do you know how long it takes to write a blog post, and a good one that will get talked about and spread around?  Or how much time it will take to edit multiple blog posts of your staff of writers? You tweet, but do you know how hard it is to find the right articles to tweet out?  What are the perfect words to say that won't get you in Kenneth Cole deep water?  Which journalist can you talk to at a conference to get them to write about your product?  What is the next thing you can do to bring your community together?  There's always something!

Not to mention, Community Management is as much an inward facing job as it is outward facing.  You must educate your coworkers, and create a community where you work for it to be transparent that people want to buy into what you're doing.  There's a psychological aspect to it and knowing how to read the temperature of a room or team is paramount to getting the job done well.

And last but not least, there's the always fun crossing of lines.  Community managers have all of these fantastic social media tools at their disposal (which takes time to learn).  They're spending a significant amount of their time keeping up with the trends and platforms that change as much as... well, something that changes an awful lot.  There's always a new app, a new monitoring tool, a new program to learn to use and then teach out to others.  And then there's convincing the necessary departments that they could indeed use this.  Community Management should in all likelihood live in a Marketing department, but it crosses the boundaries into Public Relations, Customer Service, Communications, and even IT.   So if you're dipping your toe into each pool, you're most likely going to sit in on a lot of meetings.   

Time is not the friend of a community manager.  Expectations aren't either, because they're usually set abnormally high.  Change is good, and inevitable too.

It's an amazing job, and one of the most fun things I've ever attached my wagon to, but it is not really a job.  It's a lifestyle, and there's only a small amount of people crazy enough to A) do it and B) be good at it. 




The Facebook Dual Personality

Forgive me internet, for I have sinned.  It has been over a month since my last posting.  I have traveled to India on vacation and unplugged, I have started a new job in NYC, and I have been apartment searching.  All of these topics and more will be blogged about in the near future but there is a topic so pressing it had to come first, and it could not wait.

We talk an awful lot about privacy.  As professionals we discuss how what we post and where can be seen as representations of ourselves and how hiring managers and coworkers may judge us.  As a community manager I must go one step past that and operate official pages and platforms on behalf of a company.   The responsibility in that is a public one that I can't afford to mess up with an off color post or an inappropriate picture.   So I behave.  

I lock up my personal Facebook profile so it can't be found by doing a search.  I close it off to non-friends.  I only accept the friend requests of those I know or have built a decent online relationship with professionally.   I make sure not to post negative things about those I know or about a bad day at work.  

Is it a matter of privacy, or a matter of conflicting usage?

I joined facebook in May 2004.  I was a 21 year old graduate of Syracuse University that was about to take a job working in New York City for the hottest musicians in the world at the world's foremost entertainment agency.  To say that I took a lot of stupid pictures in my early 20s is an understatement. 

However, over the last 7 years, I have created a community on Facebook that's my very own.  It's a strong network of in real life friends and family that do what friends and family do, they post a lot of inside jokes.  They post a lot of angry things about sports and the schools/teams that our favorites play against.  They post a few off color remarks that I find funny because I know who they are, and how they mean it.  We all blow off steam.  We post about touchy subjects like politics and religion and debates happen frequently.  They post swear words and risky video clips and random cartoons.   Even now in my late 20s we still go out and drink and take dumb pictures and post them on Facebook so we can all make our hilariously immature comments.  

How do you censor personal community? 

I could hide my pictures and videos from others.  I could close my wall to comments.  I could delete posts that aren't the most professional.  But then where does that leave me?   I'm now the moderator of my own life. I'm policing a page I use for fun, and would have then taken all the fun out of it for myself.

Recently I became the admin on a Fan Page.  The page is owned and operated by a team, and I am there to act as myself.  I use my personal profile to answer questions as the community manager, and not hide behind the logo.  Total transperancy - which to me makes perfect sense.  As a customer I would always like to know the name and face of the person that's talking to me or helping me.  

However, in order for this to work on Facebook this now means Facebook is no longer my little bubble that I've curated over the years for myself.  It now opens up the possibility of people in that community friending me and leaving me with the dilemma of blurring the work/life boundary.   I love my job, but do I want to take it home with me?


I've been struggling with this thought lately.  I'm a community manager.  I'm out to build relationships on behalf of the company that I am technically the brand ambassador for.  I'm excited to do so, but does that mean I have to open my entire life?  

The easiest answer that I've come up with lately is to have two separate profiles on Facebook.   A personal profile and a professional profile.  

Having a clean slate on the professional profile allows me to separate life and work. It also makes me worry less that my friends will post something that would reflect poorly on me.   It allows me to add members of my work community as my friends on Facebook without revealing too much.  It also allows me to focus solely on that content that maybe they might be more interested in.  

With my new professional profile on Facebook I will still be me.  Add a few pictures from vacations.  I'll still "Like" things and post it to my profile.   I'll add friends as the time goes on and that will include community members.   It may be a little more work to manage two pages,  but then at least I'll still have my own personal space as the average everyday Facebook user.

What do you think?  How do you manage the Facebook duality if you're in charge of Fan Pages and tasked with marketing or community management?  

Announcement: A New Year, A New Job...

Some of you may remember a tweet that I sent out in October that mentioned company downsizing and being laid off.   I was inundated with well wishes, leads, words of encouragement, and positivity that absolutely floored me.  For anyone who says that Twitter is just a place where people talk about what they had for lunch that day, they could NOT be more wrong, and that day in October solidified that for me.  I would probably even go so far as to say that I kind of retreated a bit the past few months trying to figure out what the next step would be.  I realized how powerful one tweet could be (in the right circumstances, of course).    

I was quietly talking with people, and researching opportunities that were quite literally being thrown at me.  Everyday someone tweeted a job lead and CC'ed me, or put something on the #CmgrChat hashtag looking for Community Managers.   When Kelly Lux and I talked in August about starting a chat for community managers I think we did it so we could learn more about our own positions, and it's grown into such a vibrant chat each week with some of the greatest and most influential people that operate in their businesses using social media.  I'm very thankful for all those that participate and bring their smarts to the table each week.  Definitely looking forward to what comes out of this group in 2011.

So just like they say - the best way to get a job is to network.  I reached out to a few people and asked if they knew about any leads.  I hadn't even updated my resume yet and had already had 2 phone interviews with one company the day following my twitter announcement of being laid off by the end of the year.  Fortunately I had been given two months' notice and planned to take my time and find the right fit. Leaving Syracuse wasn't my first choice because it's an incredible community, but professionally a major move was needed.  Now was the time to really step up my game and work for a company that is forward thinking and aligns with my ideals - and ya know, would give me health insurance since that was something I've gone without the whole of 2010.   Risky business if you ask me.

As fate (or luck, or coincidence, or happenstance) would have it, that company that I had talked with not even 15 hours after being laid off was just that company.  That first conversation just felt so natural.

**.....Drumroll Please.....**

I am extremely excited to announce that I will be working back in the city that started it all for me a few years ago -  New York City, working for a start up in the realm of education at a company called 2tor.

I will be a Community Manager for the University of Southern California's School of Social Work Master's program.   You can read all about 2tor in their about us section on their site, but it was founded in 2008 by some education industry heavy hitters.  The whole concept of 2tor, is that the company partners with the top higher education systems to get their degree programs online for students to participate in from anywhere.  2tor provides the school with the resources, tools, experience, technology, and creates a community around the programs to help them grow and succeed on line.

I am beyond excited to dive into this new endeavor and I'm not wasting any time.  My last day at Alliance Relocation Services is tomorrow, Thursday December 23rd, and I will be starting at the 2tor offices in New York the day after I return from my vacation to India in the middle of January.  Hitting the ground running in 2011, that's for sure. And for all those in New York...  a move back to the big apple will be following closely behind that start date - can't wait to see you.


*Special thanks to @DavidSpinks for making the introduction to @Alexa!  Ya know, speaking of that whole networking thing.

Social Good During the Holidays


Regardless of the particular celebration you take part in at the end of the year, there’s no denying that people are more generous and thoughtful during the months of November through January.  Volunteering time, donating money or goods, or attending charity holiday parties are only a few ways that people give back at the end of the year.   But are there ways to do good all year long, and to do social good as well? 

If you’re going to crowdsource for social good, keep in mind a few important things:  
  • What charity will your current audience care most about? 
  • Remember to plan out all aspects of your social good campaign like you would any other project.
  • Commit the required and appropriate amount of time to a social good campaign.  It cannot be an afterthought.
Mashable’s Social Good Page
Mashable is the social media hub of all online news.  A blog like no other that demonstrates up to the minute information, has recently launched a “Social Good” page that chronicles all of the ways in which companies are taking up initiatives that help the greater good using social media and reaching large audiences.   If you’re company doesn’t know how it can help, it should check this page for various ideas from the big to the small.

Recent Social Good Campaigns
Everyone is getting in on the location base services (foursquare, gowalla) these days and now foodies will get their chance to participate by more than just checking in at their favorite locations.  Foodspotting is a geolocation guide for food lovers.   The campaign it has just recently launched is asking its users to participate in what they are calling a “Spotathon Challenge” that will result feeding families in need.  The company, after so many feats are accomplished by the users, will donate a cow, a garden, and/or a pig.  

There are a number of organizations that accept donations on line at any time.  If your cause is to feed the hungry or to help out low income families in the United States, or even in your own local areas, consider these 4 organizations that can be found nationally – The Salvation Army, Feeding America, United Way, and the Global Foodbanking Network. 

Large companies like American Express and Yahoo are getting into the social good spirit as well.  American express encouraged people to buy their goods from small businesses on the Saturday following Black Friday.  All the participants had to do was to register their card on Facebook on “Small Business Saturday” and spend at least $25 at a small business and they received $25 back.  Yahoo, started the How Good Grows campaign in a pay it forward kind of initiative.  They provided $100 to 400 influencers to encourage them to do a kind act.  Since then 21,000+ have shared their acts of kindness in what they’re calling a ripple effect. 

If you’re a local group looking to do some good socially, ask a local bar to sponsor a holiday “tweet up.”  Have each person in the community bring a donation (money or an item such as a toy or canned good) and donate to a local charity of your choosing.  Or contact local shelters and see if there is a family you could sponsor and buy the children Christmas presents with the money you raise from an event you throw.  Whatever route you decide to choose, rememeber, even if you show up with one box of food to a local pantry, that’s still one more box of food they didn’t have before.   Use Mashable’s meetup system, or meetup.com to create an event.  Promote on twitter and local Linked In groups.  And use your own influence to get people to come and help out a charity.  

The End Always Makes You Think About the Beginning

As 2010 comes to an end I realize it has been nothing short of a whirlwind.   For me, I returned home from living abroad for nearly 3 years in December 09, and I didn't know what to expect.  The economy was terrible, I was living at home for the first time in 10 years, and quite literally the world was at my finger tips.   If I wanted to take off and go live in some random country, I could have, knowing that I'd already done it and could handle it.  However, it was the time to be home and enjoy resting a bit with my friends and family - and to settle into some kind of career.  I was told to buckle down for a long and difficult unemployed road, but honestly (and thankfully), that didn't happen.

Work, Work, Work
To give you some perspective on a job time line during a terrible economy:  I started the job search in January, received a temp to perm job as a recruiter at a firm in New York City in February.  The company was very unorganized, and I returned home in March for a speaking engagement at Syracuse University.  While I worked from home and waited for this company to get their act together, I found the perfect job for myself in community managing at a very promising national relocation services company right in my own backyard.   I turned down the offer from New York City, and started in on my year as a social media professional in central New York.


Things to Take Away from 2010
2010 was a year of learning... a year of creation... and a year of figuring things out and settling back in to life in America.  Don't let anyone tell you that reverse culture shock isn't a thing, because it very much is.  Knowing what life is like elsewhere is a tough thing to put behind you. For example, I went this whole year without health insurance which is a risky thing to do.  That's something I didn't have to worry about in life abroad, because everyone in the country of Korea has nationally funded health insurance (that you also pay into - c'mon, nothing's ever free). 

2010 was also a year of development. My new side project and start up company, Eat Your Serial, had a very successful Kickstarter campaign, and has really started to take form. We are looking forward to a launch and very exciting times ahead in 2011.  Expect to hear more about that later.


It was also a year of non-stop networking.  Thanks to things like Twitter, it has never been easier to create incredibly amazing career relationships.  I have no shame in saying that Twitter honestly changed my life as a tool that brought me so many opportunities. 

But if I take anything away from 2010, it will be this:

Be realistic about things and take time out for yourself to process events clearly.

All too often I felt burnt out this year and it is because I overloaded myself with expectations.  I got overly excited about projects and ideas that would never come to fruition.  2011 will be a year of trimming the fat.  This year taught me what's important to me professionally and personally.  I want to excel at my job and see incredible results from my professional efforts.  Patience has never been one of my virtues, but I'm trying to learn to scale myself back.  Sometimes I am my own worst enemy.

What comes from that is also the concepts of making sure I am organized.

For those that know me, you all know that I'm ridiculous about being organized.  But I don't mean this in a "my agenda book is color coded" kind of way.  What I mean is being more diligent and sticking to schedules.  Be consistent with the work I give myself and the goals I set.  Be realistic about the kind of time that it takes to complete a necessary task. 

2010 threw entirely way too many curve balls at me and that's what life is.  What's that famous lyric?  "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."   There are going to be things you cannot account for that get thrown at you.  However, how you handle them, and the organizational system you have in place will make all the difference.  The idea is to best prepare yourself for the worst - professionally, financially, and personally.

I have an awful lot to be proud of and thankful for this year, but at the same time I view 2010 as not one of my better years.  I can pinpoint an awful lot of mistakes that were made, but that's exactly what makes me excited about 2011.  The word I would use to describe this year:  Perspective.

Knowing where you went wrong, will inevitably help you do things better in the future.   And THAT makes all the difference for 2011.

What are the things you will work on in 2011?  What word would you use to describe 2010?

Hiring a Social Media "Guru"


First things first...  anyone calling themselves a guru, ninja, rockstar, maven, or expert is most likely the LAST person you want working for you.

That being said, hiring the “right” social media professional is a hot button issue these days.  Social Media jobs are popping up all over the place and there are more open positions than there are truly qualified people.  Anyone with a facebook page and/or a twitter account can call themselves an "expert" but that generally carries little weight.

Where to Start
Most companies will take a look at a person’s resume since that’s how you know they are interested in your position.   Look for all the obvious traits – education in traditional business, marketing, or communication.  If they do not have a solid communication background, odds are they will not be able to handle the demands of a social media job, since after all, social is in the title.

If you do not want to read the resumes you are given, it is very easy to go out and find the candidates you are looking for directly on Linked In or twitter.  Use key words like “Community Manager” or “Social Media Manager” and odds are, you’ll see resumes and blogs pop up almost immediately since the best candidates are already alive and active in the medium.

Once you have found a good sampling of candidates that you would like to start interviewing, a more and more common practice is checking Klout.com to find out how influential the candidate may be.  It is important not to use this score to make a decision on hiring, but as a starting point.  If their score is a 20, they clearly do not understand Social Media, and would probably not be a great hire.   Look for someone with 40 or above.  That's probably as far as I would take Klout as it is not a perfect measuring stick at the moment.

How to Assess
You will have a job description already prepared, and know exactly where you want this person to fit into your corporation.  The questions you ask must reflect the specific jobs you have in mind.  These are just a couple to get you started:
-        What programs would they use for website management?
-        How will they come up with blog content?
-        How will they drive traffic to a website?
-        What would their ideal strategy be on Twitter?  Facebook?
-        What experience do they have creating a strategy?
-        How do they plan to grow a community?
These are all great starting points, and their answers should reflect relationship building, actual names of tools and specific examples of past experiences. 

You want someone who is analytical, creative, responsible, entrepreneurial, social, outgoing, and has the ability to see the big corporate picture.   You do not want to hire someone who only understands how to build a personal brand instead of a company brand, someone who isn't on the big 3 networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn), or someone who thinks that high activity is the same thing as a marketing plan or strategy. 

The thing to remember, that while social media is new, the basic principles are still there.  The candidate must be strong in marketing, communications, & public relations – and understand that sales is the bottom line.


Oh, The Things You'll Leave Behind

This post is part of a blog series on Brazen being sponsored by Entrustet.  They asked Brazen members to answer the question:  What do you want your legacy to be? 


I plan on living forever, and so far, so good. 
 
That line was always one of my favorites and I have no idea where I heard it or who said it first, it could have even been me, who knows (if you do know, speak up).  It's true though - the idea of living forever, being immortal - it's the stuff that movies and books are made of.  However, as much as we all like to pretend we're infallible, one of these days our stories do come to an end.  The interesting thing is that our digital footprint will live on long after we do, and that's not really something previous generations have had to think about.  So when it comes down to it, what do you want your legacy to be?

Everything we do nowadays from tweets to blog posts is said to remain on the internet forever.  If we're intelligent and thought provoking some of our material will last longer than others.  If we've been fortunate to go viral with a video or some other kind of media, there's potential for that to continue on forever and ever.  Hopefully it educates, or makes someone laugh.  If it doesn't, and it's negative, that's something you'll have to take into account when thinking about your legacy.   

What Does the Current View of Yourself Look Like?

Obviously your legacy means nothing if the whole version of your current self isn't at its online best.  Take a second to set up Google Alerts for your name every day so you can see where you exist currently on the internet.   Modifying your footprint daily will help you to demonstrate to the public the image of yourself you want portrayed.   

If you have a fairly common name, and want to distinguish your good work from those other bums who shares your name,  I wholeheartedly recommend utilizing a service like Brand Yourself. It's not only good for when you want to job search, but it can help you to cultivate the legacy you're leaving behind in your wake.  Identify the pattern of what you have already put online.


How Do You Want to be Remembered?

Once your modern self is being promoted in the best way, now you can start to think about what your legacy will be.  What do you want left behind about yourself?   I know that everything in my whole life exists on my external hard drive as far as all of my memories from college, living in New York, and living abroad.  I also know that my email account will be an accurate portrayal of my life, and that I have more than one.  Let's not even think about all of your financial dealings and important paperwork.   Create a list of websites and their logins/passwords and give it to the person who is in charge of your life should something happen to you.  My mother is my designated Power of Attorney so I keep this updated and send her a reviewed form every so often.   Also put on there which online sites you may want deleted

You Can't Take it With You

 We live in an age where having a Will probably doesn't mean much.  I don't have many material items to leave behind for family members to fight over, and at the time of this writing I have not yet become a millionaire (there's still time).  My entire legacy will be online and the things I have done and written.  If by chance I am being searched for in the distant future, I hope that the pictures and videos and speaking engagements all demonstrate that I enjoyed life and wanted to help those around me.  I also hope that my start up company Eat Your Serial is wildly successful and that it continues long after I'm around by entertaining the masses and finding great new authors for generations to come.  Time will tell.

Some profiles take care of your legacy.  Facebook "memorializes" your page by closing log in attempts, making your wall available for friends and family members to post if they wish, and by taking your name out of public search results.   Whatever you had on your profile as your favorite music, or your inspirational quotes will stay there forever.  

So at this current moment in life - What do you think your legacy will be?  And more importantly - what do you want it to be?