Today was “bring your kids to work” day. And to be honest, I really wasn’t prepared for what to expect. I don’t have kids, but the moment they ran into the office (and do mean literally, they were running all over the office- which was actually quite fun to watch people react to it) I knew this day was going to be a little different than the rest.

I thought it was just us adults, that would be teaching the kids new things- but what actually happened was the kids today taught me something too. (stick with me here, I promise this blog post isn’t that cheesy, okay?)

Kids truly are a fascinating study.

Their youthful passion, energy, and bi-polar personalities are overflowing. It can be contagious …and exhausting. But the one thing that literally put a smile-on-my-face-so-big-it-hurt, was the positive and brightened spirits that everyone in the office experienced. You could walk desk to desk and see the subtle grins everyone had on their faces. You would look at each other, and without exchanging words, you knew already what the other was thinking in their head. Which was something like, “We’re supposed to act like they’re not here, but it’s hard not to ignore the kid spinning himself in the office chair behind you. Hilarious.”

Now I’m not saying we work in a boring office. Yes, we sit behind computers. And yes, we attend those same meetings you do in corporate-land. But for the most part, our culture is relaxed and fun. Yet, these kids today really reinvigorated everyones spirits.

But this is what hit me the hardest…

Throughout the day, kids would come into our section of the office and say hi. Or they’d shoot some hoops with the new mini-basketball goal we purchased (not kidding). And I observed a common thread when talking to them.

…their sense of wonder.

Everything (and i do mean everything) had their attention. Things that normally we pass off as just something you do or see everyday, they were fascinated with it. And when they would ask questions, they really wanted to know the answer. It was this sense of wonder that hit me the hardest, realizing it is “the thing” we all lose with age. Naturally, it makes sense that as we learn and experience life over time, the emotion of wonder is something we experience less frequently.

Observing the kids today (and hearing them literally scream periodically throughout the day) it’s obvious they all are fueled by this high-octane passion for life. And the world to them is amazing. They’re filled with wonder. And it’s this- almost palpable emotion- that stuffed the office today from wall to wall.

“Wonder” is something I personally believe can still exist within all of us …but it requires some work. It takes things like surrounding yourself with people are smarter than you. And people who motivate you (and supporting them in return). You must embrace what you’re passionate for in life. And being not only inspired, but inspired frequently. But it’s only *you* that can foster an environment around you that does all this. And there’s no better time to start than now. I personally have a fear for mediocrity, and you should too.
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Facebook is always testing and trying new things with sorting and filtering your Newsfeed. Zucky and the FB team want to make it easy for people with large lists of friends to see updates in different ways. That said, you should be aware of a setting that might be set on your Newsfeed by default that is keeping you from seeing all of the updates from all your friends.

1.) Click and use “Most Recent”, you’ll get an “Edit Options” link you can select.

2.) Make sure you select your preferred option in this menu. Personally, I like to see “All of your friends and pages”. But check to see if it’s selecting: ”…you interact with most” <– you might not prefer this setting

Just wanted to be helpful and share this quick Facebook tip. Bonus: If you’re concerned about privacy, read my “Hide This” walkthrough tip for Facebook.

Yesterday, my friend Pat Padley (and co-worker) and I took a field trip to Toys “R” Us! It was a super important trip we needed to go on for work. <– you read that right, I said for work. It was important. We swear. I video blogged our trip to the store… check out what we purchased…

I’m a sucker for great quotes. And ones that are inspirational or motivating are my kryptonite. I read this one on the 37signals blog (a web-based software company):

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction.

This quote circulates the creative design and UX presentation/blog circuit(s) all the time. It’s refreshing to know, this “design advice” came long before the masses used computers and the internet. And this advice applies to more than just software design…

I’m no professional photog like my friends Rebecca, Jason or Eric, but I do like to have fun taking photos as a hobby. This photo below is my favorite of all the engagement photos I shot of my friend Jamie and Chris (i’ll post more later). We took these in Lawrence, KS. It was a gorgeous day on campus (I’m an alumnus to KU) and we had fun walking around trying different things. Doing photo projects like this always remind me of the appreciation I have for my favorite professional photog friends like Rebecca, Eric, or Jason, who make this stuff look so easy every day and inspire me ← and it’s not just “having a nice camera” that makes the shot

I had to use some Photoshop on this photo below to fix the graffiti on the garage door. I still have so much to learn when it comes to really learning how to use all of the features in Photoshop. This garage was such a cool backdrop, but the “extra” words someone spray-painted on it had to go. Used some clone stamp magic to fix this photo

before:

after:

KCTV5 asked me to come on to their afternoon show with Carol Long, and talk about the concerns about “Apple tracking your every move” with their 3G iPhones and iPads. During the interview (watch here) I explain how this is not a red-alert concern. Apple only tracks this data in order to better pinpoint a phone’s location more quickly (when you use Apps like Google Maps), saving bandwidth and battery life. However, there is a concern is that Apple should have done a better job of encrypting and protecting this file (which they likely will address in the next iOS update). BTW, I wouldn’t be surprised if coverage of the Android OS location data storing methods bubble up on the tech blogs next week…

I took some screenshots of my own data from my iPhone to show you what it looks like when you use the App to visualize the data file. It’s interesting b/c there’s many places I’ve been that aren’t on this map.

What if …film companies posted 20-minutes of movie footage, online, for all new movie releases?

Hear me out on this one.

Freemium exists. Freemium works.
The “freemium” formula is all around you. You may just not have thought about it. Traditionally, we’re familiar to the physical product or service freemium promotions. You know like those free food samples you get at Costco? Or when you’re walking out of a concert or a ballgame, the free swag and t-shirts that get thrown at you. Even online web services like Pandora, Flickr and Skype are freemium.

Another opportunity exists.
There’s another kind of freemium opportunity I believe that has emerged given the advent and adoption rate of YouTube. It’s online video. We are living in a day and age, where it’s not just your TV that is demanding your attention to watch and consume video content. Your cell phone, tablet, and computer continue to erode at the time we’re relying on TVs to exclusively consume video. 24+ hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. And there are over 2 billion views on YouTube each day. And movie trailers are some of the most viewed types of content.

So here is my idea:

What if, film companies posted 20-minutes of “freemium” movie footage online for movies? It would give audiences, in a sense, a try-before-you-buy experience that is different then the semi-tired formula of using movie trailers to get people drawn-in. If what they see is good, people will want to keep watching to find out what happens. They’ll want to go to the theater to see how it ends.

I’m not reinventing the wheel here.
Parts of movies like Harry Potter and Wolverine have been leaked illegally online before, and they’ve been box offices successes. I think that if film companies would open themselves up to trying this idea, they might see releasing 20-minutes of actual movie is more effective than a 2-minute movie trailer. 20-minutes is the perfect edge of an audience investing just enough time to get hooked into the storyline.

If film companies wanted to be really smart:
…they would require an email address or click to “Like” on Facebook before you could watch it the movie content. This would allow them to capture data about their audience, to then be able to use the information to market back (relevant) new movies they might be interested or perhaps incentivize them with an emailed coupon reminder to see the movie in theaters -and- could be smartly triggered on a Thursday, just in time for the weekend.

I know zero, zilch, natta about the movie business. But why hasn’t anyone tried this?
Is this idea so crazy that it would never work? Why?
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Sometimes brands and companies accidentally jump into the Facebook space too quickly and incorrectly create a “Profile” rather than a business or organization “Page”. Profiles are intended to only be used for individuals and actual real people. Pages are designed to provide more robust features that brands and companies can utilize. So, it’s a common problem that brands and companies struggle with how to merge or migrate from a “Profile” to the proper listing as a “Page”.

That said, I wanted to be helpful and raise my hand to let you know… Facebook actually has a tool created that allows you to easily merge to a “Page” without losing your Friends. This tool allows you to keep your friends from your profile and make them automatic “Likes” on your new Page. *caution* all your content, pictures and posts will not be transferred to your new Page. Only your Friends as followers are passed in the merge. For more information, Facebook has an entire FAQ Help Center about this tool you can reference.

How  to convert your Facebook “Profile” to a “Page”:
1.) Login to your “Profile” that you want to convert to a page.
2.) Go to this URL: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php?migrate
3.) Follow the instructions on-screen and select the type of page category for your business or organization:

**UPDATE**
Buck, pointed out a great “work around” for not being able to transfer photos and posts. You can use the “Download Your Data” feature to pull photos and posts down in a .ZIP file and then reupload or add back your data. Facebook provides instructions and a dedicated FAQ Help section on how to do this.

A few weeks ago I discovered on Zappos.com that Heelys were sold in all sizes. Yes, you read that right- *all sizes*. Even we adults can enjoy the fun of having Heelys! (i wasn’t paid to write this i swear)  They just came in the mail and I dig them! They take a few minutes to get adjusted too. But they’re great! I shot this video blog short at the office with them on.

…ok, this is not actually a “Super Bowl Halftime Pep Talk”. This is a video from 1997, in which Steve Jobs is addressing Apple employees about how a brand can be meaningful.

It’s incredible how relevant and dead-on this video is, even though it was filmed back in 1997. Steve advises how brands should focus on marketing that targets consumer needs to evokes feelings and perceptions about the brand and what it stands for -vs- talking about yourself or your product and services (it’s not about me, me, me).

I’ll be honest, this video is exciting and gets me re-energized. As a digital marketer and web strategist, watching and listening to Steve Jobs speak with such passion and purpose is reinvigorating. Especially since the consistency of what Apple stand for today is exactly what he preached in 1997.

I’m determined to make my mark.
And even though this is a snippet of video from 1997, makes it exciting to be here in this space today.

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I hardly ever write blog posts just to complain about something. So I’m calling this a “tip” or “advice”. Yeah, that’s what I’m going to say this is…

I’ve attended and presented at many conferences, lunch-n-learns or [insert corporate event name with a guest speaker name here] …and i have a pet peeve with the a few guest speakers and how they start their presentations. Stop me if you’ve heard this one:

1.) Introduction is given by the organizer of the event…
2.) Then, the guest speaker get’s up and begins by taking the first 1-minute to thank the organizers all by name and for asking them to speak at the event.

Why do people do this?
The audience almost never cares to hear this.

Isn’t the 101-rule-of-public-speaking to “know your audience”? I don’t think anyone came to your presentation to hear ‘thank yous’. And you’re cutting away from the time they paid to learn from you. Can’t these ‘thank yous’ be done off-stage?

This idea isn’t going to change the world…
…but can’t we respect everyones time and move the ‘thank yous’ off-stage? Or send them a card.

Thank you,
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…that’s the headline Uni-ball wrote for their most recent blog post. I’m *humbled* that they reached out and posted this on their corporate blog!

Also, if you click the picture they posted, you can see just how bad my handwriting is… ugh, (my elementary school teachers would be embarrassed!). It was really nice they did this, i even shot a vblog to tell them thank you!

One repeated question and concern I get from clients and friends is mixing your personal vs. professional life when using Facebook or Twitter. Should you? I wanted to share 1 simple “business life hack” of why *you should* mix the two. Social media can facilitate ambient intimacy for your clients and business partners. And you can leverage the data for strengthening the relationship you have with your clients. Here is what I mean…

Before I call my clients or send them an email, I check their Facebook updates or Twitter feed.

This “life hack” can give you instant personal context for conversation. If I’m friends with my clients online, this data allows you to immediately jump into the details.

“I saw you posted on Facebook you had dinner at X, that’s a great place to eat! You should try…”

“Your pictures from your vacation to Rome were incredible. What was your favorite part of the trip?”

“I didn’t realize you ran in 5ks, I actually am into running as well.”

It’s not creepy.
When you reciprocate friendships on social networks you’re enabling the communication.

It’s not invasive.
When someone clicks “Post” or “Publish” for their status update, they are accepting that it is shared online and can be read by other friends/colleagues <– which is the point of using social networks isn’t it? It’s all about wanting to have real interactions with real people.

Social media enables ambient intimacy to occur. It allows us 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. And these social technologies have the power to greatly augment (not destroy or lessen) existing relationships. But like anything, you must understand how to integrate it appropriately- but once you do, it’s powerful stuff …like help you with work relationships.
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One repeated question and concern I get from clients and friends is mixing your personal vs. professional life when using Facebook. I wanted to share a privacy setting that can help those who are concerned with how to manage “who sees what”. It’s all about utilizing the “Friend List” features (you can read a step-by-step of “what/how to setup Friend Lists“).

Once you have your Friend Lists setup, then go to “Account” at the top right of Facebook, then click “Privacy Settings.” Select “Custom” and then click “Customize settings.”

The screenshot below, illustrates how once you have Friend Lists setup, you can then block and manage who sees what you post. In this screenshot example, I can type the Friend List name “Clients” and block any person I have on that list from viewing things like “Pictures” or “Posts by me”.

One thing to consider, you can create a Friend List called “People I Don’t Know”. This would allow you to accept and put strict control on those random friend requests.

Yesterday, I noticed @thethechad replied to my Foursquare check-in, when I said “Podcasts and Running” <– which is one of my favorite things to do. I find it’s a great way to use your time to catch up on business and tech podcasts.

I created this big-ass image below, which illustrates what Podcasts I listen to. If you use the App called “Stitcher“, all Podcasts are sequenced and on-demand (no need to download audio files, you can just listen over 3G). Submit your Podcast suggestions in the comments. I’m always looking for new ones that are good!