The term ambient intimacy is more than just a definition- it’s a construct that helps make sense of why the usage of social media appeals to the masses. Many often struggle in rationalizing SM’s value in corporate board rooms and company meetings everyday- or even when you’re talking to your friends. And it’s common for people to throw questions at you like; I don’t get why people use Twitter? Do people even read your blog? Isn’t social media just a bunch of narcissistic noise? Why do people use that website?

First, let me share a quick story about a friend, Sam Meers. Until recently- Sam and I had never met. However, we shared a mutual friend. She recommended I Google him and consider getting to know him better. Sam and myself share common interests in that we both blog and work in the agency world. Beyond that, we’re really quite different people. I started reading his blog and instantly was hooked at his ability to be such a graceful story teller with his words. I posted comments and my thoughts on blogs and we became acquaintances that was limited to just interactions online. Now- fast forward- the company I work for, engaged Sam to provide us consulting in regards to our marketing and brand. It was only then that I met him face-to-face for the first time. Yet, the first thing we both agreed was that the first question he asked, “What have you been up to?” was really irrelevant because of the interactions we share online. We already knew the answer to that question yet were only meeting for the first time! Our conversation was greatly augmented because we are able to jump right into relevant conversation we’re interested in.

Ambient intimacy is about being able to keep in touch with people with a level of regularity and intimacy that you wouldn’t usually have access to, because time and space conspire to make it impossible. In the case of Sam and myself, it is a perfect illustration about how social media facilitates this term, ambient intimacy.

• Facebook helps me see what my friends are thinking, doing, projects they’re working on and what they did this weekend.

• Twitter tells me what websites to check out and the opinions people have about news and current events.

• Flickr lets me see the latest family photos or pics from a recent trip. And it also shows me their latest haircut.

• Friendfeed tells me their activity stream of my friends online, what they’re looking at, what they’re reading and videos they’ve favorited on YouTube.

So who cares? @leisa summarizes it well; It helps us get to know people who would otherwise be just acquaintances. It makes us feel closer to people we care for but in whose lives we’re not able to participate as closely as we’d like. Knowing these details creates intimacy. (It also saves a lot of time when you finally do get to catchup with these people in real life!) It’s not so much about meaning, it’s just about being in touch.

When people have asked the ways social media has helped me- I always make it a point to mention that social media has the power to greatly augment (not destroy or lessen) existing relationships you have with friends, family and businesses (corporate use) you have in your life. Like anything, you must understand how to integrate it appropriately- but once you do, it’s powerful stuff.

Take my mom for instance, she’s likely my biggest fan of my flickr feed and video blogs (note: she lives in a different state). It is almost down to a routine for me to get a phone call from her once I upload something. Furthermore, I myself regularly reference in conversation with her, “Did you see that photo from my trip? [insert story here]“. She enjoys the ways my usage of social media provides intimacy even though the physical distance exists between us.

So if you think that “my mom” isn’t good enough justification- social media works wonders for businesses too. Take a look at the recent revenue Dell is making by using Twitter or the successful brand ambassadors Cirque Du Soleil has.

In my opinion, the term “Ambient Intimacy”, is an important psychological and communication construct that provides the WHY in how the technologies can enhance peoples behavior for the better.
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I had a chance to test out the “ButtKicker” home theater kit- it’s a motor that shakes your couch while you watch movies. Overall, it’s a great product- but I think it’s really geared for hardcore movie goers or video gamers. Disclaimer: I want to make a point to tell you that the company that makes this product sent this to me for free after seeing my AMC Mainstreet video blog. This company outfits AMC theaters with ButtKickers and this product is the same, but designed for your house. I decided to put together a vblog review on my own and was not paid to do this.

What is the ButtKicker? It’s a device that shakes your couch using the low frequencies that your sub woofer outputs. Basically, if your sub woofer is playing- the ButtKicker will vibrate to shake your couch so you can ‘feel’ the bass in addition to hearing it. After testing movies out with my DVD player, I will say the ButtKicker makes already intense action scenes even better and movie soundtracks are much more entertaining. You can literally feel the gun shots fired in a movie and the explosions.

The setup of the ButtKicker was painless (which I found shocking, I thought it would require assembly of elevendy billion parts). It took me 20-minutes to put together the entire kit. You can see in my photos, the ButtKicker goes under one leg of your couch, but the instructions also show you can mount it inside your couch if you’d like. Watch my video blog for more visuals /commentary on how you connect it to your stereo system- it’s really easy.

I really like that when you have the volume down, the ButtKicker still works- which is awesome for those late night movies you don’t want to wake anyone up, but still want the full movie experience. It comes with a wireless remote which has adjustable “intensity” so you can increase or decrease the levels. I couldn’t really tell a difference when I increased /decreased the levels, but I will say this thing is so powerful that it does shake your entire couch without making any noise (you can’t hear any motor or fans coming from the ButtKicker).

Keep in mind, this device isn’t always on shaking your couch. If you’re watching the movie “You’ve Got Mail”, you’re likely not going to feel the ButtKicker at all It’s only the ‘action scenes’ that have loud low explosions or noises will you even feel the ButtKicker.

For anyone who thinks they have every component of their home theater setup- this IS the finishing touch. The bottom line is this is for the hardcore- techy, video gamer or movie goer this is a must-have. For the average person, likely not for you unless you’ve got money to spare. If you want to buy a kit- you can on their website (it retails for $399, but there’s a coupon that I will post later (or email me) that gives you a discount to decrease the cost to $289).
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This weekend I attended the grand opening of The Jones Rooftop Pool in downtown Kansas City. This is about 6′ish stories high, right above Cosentino’s Market. It’s the newest addition to the Power and Light District. There’s 12 private cabanas, full cocktail service, swim-up bar, as well as a daily DJ and concierge service.

I’ll admit I was a bit skeptical of this pool being installed downtown, it’s something you typically see in New York, LA or Vegas. But, after walking in and looking around, I assure you- it’s legit. The layout and setup is bigger than I thought it would be. The view of course, is awesome. The KC downtown skyline surrounds the entire pool. Something interesting I thought I’d mention- it’s named “The Jones” because The Jones Store used to be located in the same spot from 1902 to 1998.

The membership costs at the pool are what I think are completely ridiculous. They’ve tiered out the costs to:

• Platinum: $1,000 ($400/3 months)
• Executive: $750 ($300/3 months)
• Premium: $400 ($150/3 months)

However, membership isn’t required- so you can just show up and purchase a day pass (the more logical thing to do given those prices). These are at least priced competitive with the other place in town that is considered the ‘adult ultra pool’ (e.g. Woodside country club).

Non-members prices are on Saturday and Sunday is $15 for guys and $10 for girls. Admission prices go down after 7PM and is $5 for both ladies and gentlemen. They are open on Fridays from noon to 3am, Saturdays from 11am to 3am, Sundays from 11am to 8pm.

My thoughts? Membership prices to The Jones are insane. The setup and view however, are great. But- all-in-all, it’s a plus for downtown Kansas City. While it’s not for everyone, it’s yet another option of something to do in KC. I’m not sure what to predict as for the size of the crowds that will be there as the summer progresses, but it’s a cool place that I think you should at least check out.

(P.S. Shout out and thanks to Will Gregory PR for access and entrance to the event! Thanks dude!)

I posted to flickr some photos I took while at the grand opening of The Jones Rooftop Pool in downtown Kansas City (view the slideshow here). This pool is the newest addition to the Power and Light District. There’s 12 private cabanas, full cocktail service, swim-up bar, as well as a daily DJ and concierge service. I’ll be posting a video blog about this soon

Last week, a website project I managed won an unexpected national award (we didn’t even enter it into the contest!) and I wanted to share the great news! I know that many of you are familiar with the video blogs I do for fun– but by day I’m a web consultant at Digital Evolution Group. We’re a 30′ish person e-consultancy in which I lead and manage the strategy, development, creative design and deployment of Projects (largely socially website focused).

A few months ago, we were tasked to redesign the corporate website for Entertainment Properties Trust (EPR). They are a publicly traded REIT and is the largest owner of entertainment related real estate in North America, owning megaplex movie theater properties, entertainment retail centers and other specialty properties in the US and Canada. Their portfolio has over 7.1 million square feet of properties and over $1.4 billion of assets. Translation? They’re a pretty darn-big-deal. Chances are if you have ever been to an AMC, you walked on property they own. Specifically here in Kansas City, they own the AMC 20 in Leawood, AMC 30 in Olathe and Snow Creek.

Anyways- I’ll jump to the good news. The website was awarded second place (silver) by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT). One of the more exciting parts is that all REITs and publicly traded real estate companies were included in the competition. The “best website” category was the 1 of 3 captions they honored. Furthermore, we didn’t even enter it into the contest! NAREIT discovered it on their own!

For this project- it was a bit of a challenge. Think about it- how do you make a Real Estate company compelling? Buildings and land isn’t necessarily sexy stuff. We first set out with some ambitious Project objectives. Then we took careful time following our persona methodology and getting that right. One thing I’d like to note, we mapped out the expectations and context of visit to the website between a retail investor and an institutional investors or analyst. This uncovered some gaps of resources that needed to be present on the website, as well as influenced the naming convention of sections and pages of the website. These are two of our primary personas visiting the website, and while there are overlapping needs- there’s also clear differences in what they expect to find. One final note about the process, the entire Project team made sure the creative execution captured the personality of the brand that is greatly influenced by the leadership team. Anyone who has come in contact with the gentleman who run this company know it’s an experience in and of itself (meaning, in a great way).

Check out the website and judge for yourself. Be sure to check out the interactive flash properties map. I was pretty pleased and proud of the output. We’ve got some work to do to make it even better- but it’s a great start.

P.S. for what it’s worth, the 1st place winner Avalon Bay and 3rd place winner Post Properties aren’t even CLOSE to the quality execution of www.eprkc.com but that’s just my opinion.
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I recently shot a video blog of Jazzoo and I wanted to share it as well quick thoughts about this vblog. For the past few years I’ve attended Jazzoo- a fundraiser to help the local Kansas City Zoo and it’s programs. It’s a great creative black-tie formal event held every year.

When I vblog or event cast- I’m usually able to balance capturing good footage of the event while still having a fun attending it as well. But, I’ll admit- it wasn’t easy to do this at first and took a while to master this (it’s easy to get caught up in just shooting footage).

That said, I wanted to preface this video blog with the disclaimer that I wasn’t able to get all the footage I wanted. Not even close. In fact, I got so little- I was only able to scrape together bits and pieces. In my mind, this is WAY below average execution for me. Enjoy it for what it’s worth, but I thought I’d at least tell you first. I’m still posting it since I strongly believe in supporting our great Zoo here in Kansas City (disclaimer: they are a client of the firm I work for).

This past weekend I snapped a couple photos while down at the “Taste of the Crossroads” event here in Kansas City. I’m a huge fan of The Crossroads area since many of the businesses are KC originals/local establishments. More importantly, they serve some of the best food KC has to offer. I posted more pics to flickr, check out the slideshow of photos here.

Today, I gave a social media presentation to the American Institute of Architects and didn’t get a chance to elaborate on a finding that I found fascinating regarding a finding about “continuous conversation”. So I figured, I’d blog about it . During my portion of the presentation (powerpoint here), I cited a report published every year called the Edelman Trust Barometer. It is a survey conducted every year to measure consumer trust in businesses, government and other industries. Within that report there’s a finding that concludes, “Regardless of channel or voice, the majority needs to hear a message 3-5 times to believe it.

Whoa! Did that just blow your mind like it did mine!?! 60% of people need to hear information about a company 3-5 times before they believe it. If you deconstruct this a bit more, you can see how as a company, while you may be marketing 1 message (or shouting it, if you will) in order to really be effective, people must here this message echoed before they really believe it.

Think of this from a more integrated communication strategy (e.g. online, print, face to face). If your message or information needs to be reiterated, multiple times, by multiple sources- employing a strategy that reaches out across multiple mediums is essential. The long-term goal would be that people will promote/discuss that message or information for you with others (who you could call your “cheerleaders”).

There are a lot of elements that people evaluate in order view someone as trustful. However, I found this finding somewhat of a “Seinfeld eye-opener”, that illustrates you should never rely on 1 communication channel to achieve a goal. Things are all integrated and it should all be consistent (golden rule: consistency facilitates recognition). Given these findings, I believe that utilizing social media (which is a set of communication tools) you can reiterate that message in several areas in order to fulfill that 3-5 time requirement in order for people to believe it.
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This weekend was the launch date for the new Palm Pre, so I walked over to my nearest Sprint store to check out the phone and vblogged it (note: this vblog wasn’t intended to be technical or a walkthrough of all the features, just a down and dirty here’s what it looks like).

Yes, this phone has received a lot of hype. I’ll admit, I was skeptical. But after using it- it’s a worthy iPhone competitor. However, I do think this phone would have done MUCH better if was released in February. Other touchscreen phones will have their place in the market share, this might be the phone to do just that. Or maybe not. We’ll just have to see. Judge for yourself and watch the video blog to evaluate it for yourself.

I’m not supportive on throwing out and using ubiquitous buzzwords too often, but I thought I’d share what I thought was a fairly well cited explanation of the phrase “Web 3.0″ (this is from an article about the website Twine)

[ Web 3.0, a "semantic Web" where sites can understand the quirks and relationships in the data they mine, much in the way that humans differentiate between cheesy nachos and cheesy pickup lines. ]

You can go to business conferences, talk to “experts”, consult with agencies- but one angle in regards to social networking tools that isn’t being emphasized enough: do not overuse the tools. The definition of what “overusing the tools” actually means is debatable- but we all can agree it’s easy to get addicted, become excessive with usage of the tools and ultimately can translate into being counterproductive. Don’t get me wrong, I flippin’ love Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, [insert the next big social tool here and here] but I’ve also am cognitive that there is a right way to integrate these tools into your life without it taking over your life. It can help you, not drown you. It should augment your life not make it harder. It can make things easier and not be a burden to your already long list of things-to-do. But also realize, like everything else, it does take practice, retooling and lots of self-evaluation. Unfortunately, no one can really teach you how to do this because how you should use the tools depends on what YOU are trying to achieve. I would argue it’s not the same for everyone.

That said, I wanted to share a great article I came across from the NYTimes of view points that are totally on-point in my opinion. Take the 5-minutes to read it here. One of my favorite excerpts from the article:

“The bottom line is: We have to learn when and where multitasked social networking media actually help us carry out our daily tasks rather than interfering with them. Because these media are ubiquitous, tempting and potentially addictive, we must strive to manage them better than we do now.”

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Here are a couple favorites from photos I snapped this weekend while @The Lake of the Ozarks. A college friend had a bachelor party and it was a great excuse to head down to enjoy the not-to-hot-outside-but-still-sorta-warm-enough-to-swim weather. I’m a fan of going to the lake in the summer because I grew up in Springfield, MO and my parents had a place at Table Rock Lake. Check out the photo below with my friend Brittany- I took a series of pictures and patched together her back dive into one photo neat-o huh?

I wanted to pass along the good word about a great book called Web Form Design. If you’re designing a website, good form design is essential. The book is over 200 pages- however, I wanted to share the “CliffsNotes” lesson in regards to alignment of text labels for a website form. This is the fast and furious version I put together (below), but go buy the book if you want the longer explanations and research/data behind the tips (i’m just trying to save you some time).

Label alignment is vital to form design and there are basic rules on when to use top-, right-, or left-aligned labels for input fields.

TOP ALIGNED
Use this method if you want to reduce form completion time for users. This design is quick and easiest for users to complete because the labels are close in proximity to the fields themselves. Users will quickly scan to see see the only direction their eye has to move to complete the form (down). The book goes into in-depth eye studies about top-aligned design- which prove it’s consistently the fastest type of layout / design to have users complete a form. Again, since it’s all compacted together, this makes it easy for users to see a clear path to completion.

RIGHT ALIGNED
This method is good users and the minimal vertical screen real-estate used. This method still allows for fast completion time, but not as fast as Top-Aligned.

LEFT ALIGNED
If you’ve got a form that you really want people to take special care and time in what data they are entering, Left-Aligned is the way to go. The amount of area the eye has to travel from the label on the left to the field on the right- this is the reason for this being the slowest of the options. However, if you have several ‘optional fields’ or ‘preference’ dialogs this is the best method to choose. Again, if you’re asking for specific uncommon data input (address information for example is NOT an uncommon data request).

I’ll admit, there’s nothing special about these photos — just a few photos I snapped while golfing on a cheap golf course (in this economy!?!) last weekend with one of my best friends Trent (more on my flickr page). If you follow me on Twitter, you probably already know I love golf. Also, you might remember, one of my goals for 2009 is to improve my wicked skillz at being a photog (ok, maybe they’re wicked …at least, not yet).

Checking my list of goals for 2009 was refreshing- I’m making decent progress. Still lots of work left to do. How about you? How are YOUR goals / new years resolutions for ‘09 going? Have you achieved things you’ve wanted to for the year already?

Have you read the articles buzzing around this week quoting Google co-founder Larry Page and his concerns that Google needs to be in the business of real-time search? Here’s an example of how I’m already turning to Twitter for real-time search (depending on what I’m searching for). If you’re skeptic of the value Twitter can provide, this mini-mini-micro-case study is easy, clear, simple example of how it can actually be useful regardless of your participation in the Twittersphere. Take that Google

Here’s a tip I came up with: whenever I’m shopping for things online- right when I’m about to checkout, I go to http://search.twitter.com and search for “[company name here] coupon code” or “discount”. So far, 3 out of the last 5 I’ve purchased online, I have found coupon codes to use.

I want to just officially state all this jib-jab about the new Amazon Kindle is simply ridiculous. I’m tired of reading about it. I don’t know any friends, family, co-workers who actually own a Amazon Kindle. I met ONE person at a conference who had one and it was a company gift, he didn’t buy it. I personally do not have any desire to even consider purchasing one. That’s a bold statement considering I heart electronics- anything that lights up or has buttons catches my attention (I know, I’m like a 5-year-old). I’ve already asked my mom and dad- they’re not interested in a Kindle, who’s this supposed to be targeted towards again?

This Amazon Kindle buzz just needs to GO AWAY. Either that, or someone needs to explain to my why this is the next big thing, because frankly I think it’s just a waste of Amazon’s time and money. Furthermore, I’m tired of reading about it on my favorite tech blogs. Valuable blogger resources are being expended.

The idea or principle of “not having a plan in life” has been reiterated by multiple people the past couple of weeks. I remember at first I thought it was stupid advice, you need a plan, duh- right?  I heard this first at the BIG Omaha conference a couple weeks ago by Jason Fried of 37signals and then again tonight while watching Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt give the commencement address at Carnegie Mellon (worth your time, if you’ve got 11 minutes and 55 seconds). So what does this “do not have a plan” advice really mean? I wanted to take some time to reflect on this crazy notion.

In Eric’s speech, he says, “Live your life and forgo your plans- and you can also forgo fear.”

It’s important to not stop yourself from doing something because you’re unsure on it’s possible outcome. Not knowing how it will “end” shouldn’t be reason to stop you from trying it. Far too often do people cross things off their list or dismiss their ideas because they think of 1 negative possible outcome. Figure it out, don’t hold back from trying something, learn from it, tweak, then keep trying again.

Originally I thought the idea of “do not have a plan” was a ridiculous notion- but I’ve realized that I have adopted and practiced this myself already. Personally, when I started blogging, shooting my video blogs, trying out photography or started planning the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party benefit- I did not have experience, a road map with instructions, or even the slightest clue where it would end. And I still don’t. But I do have more information now than I did before- which has influenced what step to take next. More importantly, not knowing outcome to each of these activities didn’t stop me from trying.

For people who are linear thinkers and require rationale for everything, it’s hard to exercise this “no plan” mindset. But, I believe John Lennon got it right when he wrote, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
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This weekend I snapped some photos I wanted to share from an event called AMUSE here in Kansas City. It was a benefit for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I have some friends who were in the fashion show portion of the event and I figured it would be a fun event to check out. You can view more photos from the event on flickr and watch my video blog of the event here [YouTube link coming soon ]

Yesterday marked the day for the launch of website redesign Project of mine, Ferrellgas.com [cheers, loud noises!]. These guys are the leading retail propane company in the U.S. and are a publically traded Fortune 1000 company. Just to back up a bit first- for those of you who may not know, I work at Digital Evolution Group. We’re a 30′ish person e-consultancy in which I lead the concepting, design and implementation of Projects (largely website focused). I really love what I do and who I work with- no day is ever the same. It’s awesome.

Anyways, back to the website launch. The short and sweet gist is we were tasked to redesign the website in order to satisfy the organization’s marketing and overall strategic goals. Their old website did not completely fulfill these basic, mission critical needs. Furthermore, the overall aesthetic of their old website wasn’t reflective of the fact they service over 1 million customers nationwide (they’re a big deal).

This is the old website (left) vs. redesigned website (right)

So we focused on formulating a plan by integrating objectives from all aspects of the organization- not just marketing and sales. This meant meeting with every department in the organization and understanding internal objectives and the customer perspective as well.

In addition, we analyzed the persona of the visitors to Ferrellgas.com. We believe that every successful web project prioritizes the end-user experience above all else. As such, you must design the website from the end-user’s perspective.

This is what a persona is by our definition: “A persona incorporates the demographic and psychographic attributes of a type of website end-user (“target audience”), as well as that end-user type’s context of visit, expectations, and business situation.”

If you just use demographics or target audiences to design a website — you are likely to find yourself short changing or leaving your visitors with an unfulfilled experience when they visit your site. By identifying persona you are able to take it a step further by understanding needs and context of the users visit (download a free whitepaper I wrote about Persona here).

For Ferrellgas, we identified that our primary personas that guided the design of the website were;

1. Prospective residential/business customers
2. Existing residential/business customers
3. Potential employees

That said, I’m extremely proud of the execution and output- it’s reflective of a smart, clean, customer focused website that fulfills the expectations of our personas. Check it out and let me know your thoughts at www.ferrellgas.com!
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If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw all my updates from the Big Omaha tech conference this weekend. There was a company that had a booth setup to display their capabilities of developing software for the Microsoft Surface computer. The Surface is essentially a big giant computer shaped like a table that is touchscreen controlled. It also has the capability to read/scan things that touch the surface as well (p.s. if you haven’t seen the MS parody video, you need to watch it).

I was pretty excited to see the Surface in action after reading the hype on tech blogs these past couple of months. It’s rumored to be over $10k. I had Jason from phenomblue.com walk me through how the program they developed for Big Omaha worked. Watch the video blog!

I attended Big Omaha- a conference that featured several speakers in the online space (e.g. Gary Vaynerchuk, Jason Fried and Ben Rattray), it was dedicated to bringing together others with like interests of that great-super-thingy called the Internetz!

I snapped a few photos at the conference and along my way Omaha, NE (it was my first time in Nebraska). Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with both the amount of tech in Omaha and the city itself during my visit. These photos are shot with my new 17-40mm Canon lens- which I’m in LOVE with.

As you can see by the two blog posts I recently posted; I really enjoyed SOBCon this year. That said- since I love the power of video (and it’s ability to depict an experience) I wanted to shoot a quick video blog while I was there! Check out my video blog on YouTube and don’t forget to subscribe to my channel! The inspiration of this video blog didn’t come until about the second day when I realized that I wanted to provide something that highlighted both the experience of SOBcon -but also highlight everyone who attended. Hope you enjoy it!

This past weekend I was in Chicago attending SOBCon (Biz School for Bloggers). This was my first year attending and overall the entire weekend was great time with some pleasant surprises (like riding a scooter in downtown Chicago). In my opinion, the difference in this conference is it has a more intimate, interactive, feel and makes it easy to really get to know almost everyone who attends (view my video blog). While we all had a common interest of utilizing the Internet, the people I met were made up of such an eclectic mix of focuses it was interesting to hear the different perspectives.

I’m a proponent of going to conferences and doing as little talking as possible (which for those of you who know me, it’s hard for me to do). Ask, ask, ask questions is what I say. There were several presentations, but the most engaging part for me at this conference was all the conversations in between. This is where I got to hear the stories of what works, what doesn’t, what struggles others have faced was interesting- and motivating.

It was also interesting to ask how people were either making money marketing social media or utilizing social media.

One thing I’d like to share that really resonated from people and presentations was the concept that social media is more than just marketing.

Social media is just a way where people can talk to each other and that can affect the entire company. Marketing just so happen to be where the money is, that’s why people are talking about it. It’s much more than just marketing.

BINGO; social media can touch everything in a company like: customer service, operations, research and development, compliance, human resources, public relations, product development, etc. etc. So while marketing and lead generation may get most glitter and attention- it’s not the only consideration when executing strategies as a company. For example, consider what a social media HR strategy has to it: In what ways do potential employees engage looking for jobs at your company? Does having a presence in certain existing online networks help facilitate recruiting? Does this require that you not only ‘fish’ for candidates in social networks- but also contribute in order to positively position your brand in the long run of potential candidates?

Your objectives dictate how strategies should be executed and formulated (online and offline). And the bigger point is that these objectives involve more aspects of the company other than marketing or new business- understanding this is the first step, but executing and measuring (then repeat) is vital in order to see success.
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This past weekend I attended SOBCon (Biz School for Bloggers). I snapped some pics when I was there — check ‘em out in the gallery below. I’ll be posting a video blog and my thoughts about the conference later this week. You can view all the photos on my flickr account here.

Your online profile photo(s) is a great form of self-expression. Even if you’re not intentionally trying to communicate a message, the profile photo you choose is communicating one for you. It is powerful and selecting a photo is typically a subconscious thought process to most.

One could argue, what you choose as your profile photo, reveals what is most important to you. For example, some people utilize their profile photo for their: pets, kids, cars, hobbies — but essentially it’s something that illustrates “them” or “you”. It’s also one variable in the formula to your personal brand.

Yesterday, I updated my profile photo on Facebook and I wanted to share it with you. Last year, I took it upon myself to make a t-shirt on zazzle.com (great website btw) using our company logo. I’m proud of where I work and I wanted capture that in a photo. I posted it to flickr also. If you want to learn more about where I work as a web consultant, hop on over to www.digitalev.com for more info.

FYI, this wonderful red backdrop in the photo is actually our kitchen. I was pleasantly surprised with the results, it was fun experimenting with my Canon 40D and this rich color as a background. I’m trying to get better at photography and add more to my photo portfolio.