Instax Photo Friday: Leah Beah

Leah is an all around great friend and recently an awesome freelancer who makes the projects I work on look pretty—if you're ever in need of a graphic designer she is your one woman powerhouse or as she would say "the bomb dot com".

Things I have learned from Leah:

• Papyrus is the worst.
• Bad kerning is just as terrible as Papyrus.
• Your hair can be your best accessory.
• Being camera ready at all times is necessary.

Gratitude Tuesday: Strangers

Image via WeHeartIt


Today I am grateful for the kindness of strangers.

On my morning commute to work I found myself doing what I do nearly every morning: listening to KROQ while driving with my windows down because in the summer months I consider an air dry commute to be the perfect solution for not blow drying my hair.

While stopped at a red light, I must have been laughing at something said during the Kevin and Bean Morning Show because all of sudden I heard someone yelling "Hey!". I looked to my right and there was a little old man in a pickup truck perfectly in line with my passenger window, I realized he was yelling at me and instantly thought I was going to get yelled at about my driving. But instead he said "Hey, you're happy aren't you?" I was confused since I had expected to get snapped at so I replied "Well, I guess so... yes, I'm happy". Then he smiled, laughed and said "You have the nicest smile so I hope you're happy".

I had no idea what to say to that but thank you. After that I didn't know what to do, what is the etiquette for red light conversations with strangers? By the time I ran through what may have been a nice reply the light turned green and we went our separate ways. I don't know what made him want to talk to me but I appreciated it and I thought about it for the rest of day, especially since a morning drive to work isn't always the happiest thing. Since I didn't get a chance to say something nice back to him I figured the next best thing I could do was pay it forward to a co-worker. So, I complimented the small detailed things that get over looked but are still very special.

That little old man really made my day and all he had to say was "You have the nicest smile so I hope you're happy."

Wordless Wednesday: I'm On Fire

{Car accident seen from my dash on my morning commute to work.}

Wordless Wednesday: Office Window

Yeah, I get to watch people fish/play in the water/have picnics from my desk window. Bittersweet.

Conversations With A Cat

One out of the three cats that reside in my office happen to be very bossy. And of course the bossy one has become my shadow. At first, I was not ok with this but now Fancy (she should have been named Sassy) and I have a dialogue going. She gives me death stares and meows at me with a nagging undertone and I talk to her as if she cares about what I have to say.

Example:
A photoshoot was being set up for some product shots at work. Fancy being the attention loving cat she is always feels the need to hop in the light box and pose when the camera is out. Not having time for shenanigans no photos were taken of her. This made her grumpy, so I tried to talk her through her bossy mood:



She avoided me for the rest of the day after this.

Etiquette For Social Media

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Last week I hosted a webinar for an MLM company to help clients begin using social media for marketing. After the Q&A portion of the webinar I got to thinking about how social media and marketing don't go together. It should really be known as social media and public relations. I get the feeling that most people see marketing as an active way of finding an audience and sending them their message. But to me, social media is a passive way (aside from SEO) of sending your message and allowing your audience to find it.


That being said, here are a few points I covered about "sending" messages via social media. I like to think of it as a good starting point for corporate social media etiquette:

Be real.

Is social media a great way to market to your audience? Yes. Should you accost them with marketing messages/strategies? No. Well, not all the time. The point of being real is just that- engage your audience in a conversation. Ask and answer questions, learn about what's important to them and every now & then toss out a message. It will be better received after building audience trust rather than acting as an internet billboard for your product/service.

Add value.

Think of value in terms of your everyday conversations: you're either listening or waiting for your turn to speak. Be the listener and respond by adding value to the conversation. You've already worked on being real and building trust so now add to that trust by offering your expert knowledge. You want to be the first place your audience goes when not only wanting answers but also information.

Respond.

Be present in the conversation. Remember, listening or waiting to speak? Listening is great but if you're not around to respond in a timely manner then you're ruining all your hard work. Too many people think they don't have enough time for social media. These are the same people that think they need a hand in all areas of social media. Narrow your focus, learn where your audience is going to share & receive messages and make those social outlets your new home base.

Give Praise.

This is where most people get lost. Why would you want to praise others when your goal is to build and keep your audience? Because you're being real, remember? If you find a piece of information that your audience would like to hear about share it. Give praise to others that are adding value to your niche. It's another way to start more conversations, add value and build audience trust.

Be Original.  

Not everyone is going to want to read an informational article or even a 140 character status update. Present content with images, video, audio... the possibilities are endless and originality makes for a more meaningful conversation.

New Header

I got bored with my original and told myself I would hop on Illustrator and make something fun. But after using my all my creative ideas at work on someone elses projects I realized I'm all out of ideas for myself. When did being creative become a chore? Ugh. Anyway, the new header that took under two minutes to create is up...for now. Maybe I'll find some new inspiration soon.

Work Shmerk: Fancy

No Music Monday post today. Mostly because I got caught up doing other things and by the time I realized it was Monday I wasn't feeling motivated to write an entire post about a band.

I would say that I was too busy to do a MM post but really this is what I did at work today:

If you don't know about Fancy, here is a quick run down:

• She is a brat.
• She believes that my sole purpose in the office is to play, pet and pay attention to her.
• She thinks that anything I'm doing she should be doing too including: sitting in front of my computer monitor, trying to "meow" in the phone while I'm taking a conference call, chewing on my paperwork and trying to eat/drink my food during my lunch break.

I suppose we could consider this post to be a MM since there is awesome New Orleans style music playing in the background....

Nicknames

I haven't blogged in over a month. Actually, that isn't entirely true. I ghost write several blogs and have been crazy busy with work so that is my excuse for not writing on this blog. Deal with it.

I got into a discussion about nicknames in which I declared that I didn't have any only to realize that I have several. After thinking about it, most people have something specific that they call me by for their own particular reasons, I only wish I could remember what those reasons were. In any case, I made a mental list that will now be a blog list:

• Ang
  
• Poo-ca-roo
  
• J
  
• Angel-a
  
• Angeluh
  
• Tangela
  
• gella
  
• AJ
  
• Angelimaca
  
• Angeler

There is more but they get more and more embarrassing... The most obvious nickname you would think I would have no one ever calls me. Which would be Angie. I guess I just don't look like an Angie or just haven't met anyone yet who would think to refer to me as such. My personal favorite has always been Ang, I don't know why, I just like it. But I enjoy all of them because they are all used by specific people, who I know have a perfectly logical reason as to why they call me what they do. The way the mind works and why we do/say what we do just fascinates me. Which leads me to this:
My computer monitor is going to be so effed up... just another day at the office!

I didn't want to finish that anyway.

Honestly, this doesn't happen to anyone else at work. I had to clean and refill my glass 3 times before I gave up. First time, shame on her for taking advantage of my unattended glass. Second time, shame on me for thinking placing a sheet of paper over the top would stop her. Third time, who would have thought she would knock a book off the top the glass. Not me, that's for sure. Maybe it's a sign that I shouldn't leave my desk or it's a reminder to never forget my Nalgene at home.

Either way, I don't trust cats.

I swear it's not a pyramid scheme

This week has been random and busy. Both of which I have enjoyed very much!

I have been informed that the multi-level marketing company (some may say pyramid scheme, but I swear it isn't) that is run within the company that I work for has a new edition to our fleet of wrapped cars ( by "wrapped" I mean the cars that have the vinyl advertisements plastered all over them):



I've decided that I'm going to weasel my way into going for a spin. It would be a crime not to ride in it.

Homely & Hideous

I thought this was really funny and had to share it even though it's only funny at my expense.

A quick back story: A co-worker of mine wants to include a photo of each of us in the office with a short bio and our favorite product from one of our web sites (1 of 30 & counting that I get the awesome task of marketing/managing). He sent this email out to everyone in the office explaining why we should do it and an example link of what he was referring too. Low and behold my name gets tossed in there. Awesome.

"I was just on this site and I remembered that we were talking briefly about a contact us section for the SHP site (and possibly the other sites). This is the idea that I had. http://www.godoggygo.com/pages.php?pID=6&osCsid=be9c9060fd8989fbc704e07289f60cfe Everyone in the office could take a picture with a pet. It’s not a necessity or anything but I personally think it adds a fun, personal touch… and we’re all pretty attractive people (myself especially) and I think that makes a difference as well. Not any of us are homely or hideous (except maybe Angela, but only on a bad day)… ok, it goes like this………. when I saw Christopher’s picture I instantly wanted to buy about 50,000 toothbrushes… and move to Montana… next door to him…… and buy some binoculars. That’s all I’m saying. All because of a silly little contact us section on their site."

Can you feel the love? I know I do.