Returning to the workforce with a family

I recently met with a mom of younger children who is looking to get back into the agency world (she took a 5+ year break to start her family). She used to work at an agency located here in Atlanta. After speaking with her over coffee, I was impressed and enthusiastic to get her connected (especially because we must support each other as women, after all). But, I struggled to with giving her advice on the best next steps.

I reached out to two women I respect here at Engauge who have both a career and a family to humbly ask their advice and what they’d recommend to a peer for reconnecting professionally in general and within the local marketing network.

They had excellent advice. In summary, they shared that to get experience she had to show she had the knowledge that qualified her for the experience. The best way of doing this was by creating personal branding opportunities and by freelancing. With their advice, here is a quick list to get back into the marketing/agency world after taking a break for a few years:

• Freelance work: Start small (they said this is the most important!). Begin with small ad-hoc/freelance projects to rebuild one’s current portfolio. Deliver double what the project manager asked so that one then has samples of  best work to share. Example starting places to search:
  • Freelancer
  • Craiglist for freelance work (surprising – I know)
  • Professional network job boards (such as AIMA or PRSSA)
  • More options
  • Numerous job sites that not only list full-time, but contract or freelance work as well - Indeed is a great starting place
• Blog: Their second highest recommendation was to blog to show that even though one has officially been out of the space for some time, she still knows what she is talking about
• Social presences: “Hav[ing] a well-built LinkedIn page and be[ing] active in social media” creates a place for employers to go first and get to know her. In fact, “this is easy enough to do using WordPress and several key plug-ins that support SEO, author tags, and social sharing”
• Resume and cover letter: ”Make sure these are first-class”

These factors were indicated as important but not the most important. This can help one reentering the work place to not fall down the “rabbit hole” of one article after another.

• Network: Begin attending AIMA and AMA events. Not only will one gain access to a tight-knit network, she will hear from the best and brightest in the industry. There is also a fantastic women-centric networking group local to Atlanta, called Digital Divas.
• Read: Read leading blogs on a regular basis (using Feedly or Flipboard). Fast Company (Design, Exist, and Create) is very popular right now, and Mashable is a good starting-point that doesn’t get too technical. Forrester and Altimeter are two good blogs to read periodically as well

Open Graph Guidelines Updated to Prevent Content Consumption Spam – Meaningful Stories Matter!

An example of a story published from Open Graph verbs implemented by brands

Facebook announced a largely misunderstood update to its Timeline application guidelines last week, creating confusion in the development and social community. Below is a run-down of the changes and their impact on brands.

Facebook Limits Custom Actions for Apps that Publish Stories As Content Is Consumed

Facebook updated its Open Graph guidelines last week to restrict automatic sharing from applications connected to content consumption (which is when people read articles or watch videos, etc.). Action/object pairs for all apps were once unlimited, as long as they were approved by Facebook. However, the latest documentation specifically contrains the action/object pairs for applications tied to content consumption to a  short-list of five pairs:

• Like - Any Object Type
• Follow - Profile
• Listen - Song
• Read - Article
• Watch - Video, Movie, TV Show, or TV Episode

Most Custom Actions for Apps Are Not Impacted, However

Of course, most Timeline applications are not tied to content consumption and instead use the active sharing capability of Timeline apps. That is, most of the brand examples in the landscape today (such as Pottery Barn, Lay’s Customizer, Mustang Customizer) won’t be impacted by these changes. Vendors of active Open Graph sharing, like Extole, also won’t be impacted. Actions outside of content consumption can be more flexible (e.g. Nommed, wants, etc.) but must still be approved by Facebook (as was the case before). Released as an update to the original post, Facebook has since clarified the change:

Update: To clarify, the majority of custom actions will continue to be approved and function as normal. The changes announced below only impact custom actions for apps that publish stories as content is consumed. For example, if you have an app that publishes a “view” action to timeline and news feed each time some looks at videos on your site, you must migrate to the appropriate built-in action – “watch” – to provide a consistent user experience. For more information on what is considered a content consumption action please see the matrix in our Open Graph guidelines.

To make this more tangible, these are examples of things that will stay the same:

Google+ Challenges Instagram with Photo-Editing Acquisitions

Google+ acquired another photo-editing platform, Snapseed, for an undisclosed sum, thereby adding to its existing portfolio. Nik Software, Snapseed’s parent company, is known for catering to digital photographers with robust platform offerings.

Instagram turns the everyday photographer into an empowered artist with its vintage filters, and other platforms are rushing to do the same to increase their mass appeal. Nik Software is similar to Instagram in that their singular vision is to flatten the divide between professionals and everyday photographers, decreasing the cost and increasing the accessibility of photo editing and imagery.

While Snapseed’s acquisition is the latest in a series of photo-editing platforms by Google+, Google has been active in the acquisition space for quite some time already. Picnik, a browser-based photo-editing tool, was acquired in the spring to supplement Google+’s current photo editing capabilities.  Once an early user of Google+ and self-professed Google-phile, I now rarely use Google+ anymore to post status updates (who does?). However, I love the separate Google+ photo manager, which lets you simply sign in to the app from your phone to automatically store photos digitally via Google+. There’s no need to transfer photos (such as uploading/emailing, etc.) and no storage limitations (such as with the same app functionality in Dropbox).

Snapseed is available as both an iOS and desktop app (and will be soon available on Android). Snapseed supplements the already available in-browser photo editing of photos I seamlessly uploaded with Picnik by allowing on-the-go content capture, editing and sharing.

Yes, it looks like Google+ is up to something. However, it has not yet been decided whether or not Google+ has done anything truly revolutionary or even differentiated in a way that other platforms can’t easily mimic or adapt to quickly. #GameOnGoogle. It’s easy to root for the underdog.

Please reference the article in Mashable and The Verge for more information.

Killer Marketing Stats from Mintel’s 2012 Social Networking Report

Mintel’s social networking report has rich stats for us marketers, even if we’re not primarily social marketers. In case one doesn’t have access to the report or doesn’t have the time to dig into the details, here are high-level stats I archived. Rich content here.

1. Most importantly, the underdog champion of the report was the untapped power of social influencer marketing: 7% of networkers bought a product for the first time after hearing about it within a social network within the past 30 days (which sounds insignificant, but that could mean that 7% of networkers are purchasing 12 new products annually after hearing about it in their social networks)
2. Women are more likely to be networkers and are more persuasive in their networks than men. 
   1. Women are 15 percentage points more likely to have visited Facebook in the past 30 days than men
   2. Daily usage of women in social network tops men by 13 percentage points’
   3. Women show elevated participation in actions that spark viral marketing, including discussing social networking activity in person, posting often, and checking the links sent to them by friends
3. Men are heavier users in mobile: While women tend to be more active in social networking, men are active as mobile users, including checking in.
4. The power of YouTube continues, even across age segments: The ideal demo for a viral agent is: female, young and household income of $50k
5. The blog is NOT dead if it has adoption among early adopter, younger demos: Even though only 6-7% of users use blogs, one in three of 18-24 year olds use them.
6. And, the report includes evergreen stat needed to showcase the adoption of social for corporate brands: The majority of Facebook users (71%) have liked brands and product outside of the entertainment arena.

A Few Favorite Verses for Work/Life

It is the Friday morning of one of my hardest weeks yet at Engauge. For that reason, this seems more important than ever. These are a few of my favorite verses for work/life – or life/work as some at Engauge like to call it – balance.

• Commit your work to the LORD, and then your plans will succeed. -Proverbs 16:3
• The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. -Exodus 18:18
• Whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. -Colossians 3:23 
• Work hard, but not just to please your masters when they are watching. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. -Ephesians 6:6
• Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? -Luke 16:10-12
• Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. -James 1:19
• You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. -1 Peter 3:4

Presentation: Making Sense of Facebook Timeline Apps as a Non-Developer

Note: This presentation has since been significantly updated and was presented at Digital Atlanta in October 2012. See the latest version here. 

I had the privilege of presenting some of the latest and greatest advancements in Facebook to my company, Engauge, last week at an internal Lunch and Learn (which is where we share information across disciplines and offices). The presentation was crafted to have a non-technical focus and the target included those who know marketing well, but may not primarily work in digital marketing. The purpose was to translate the latest Facebook enhancements into everyday marketer speak and showcase best practices in Timeline applications for brands. Below is the presentation.

Apps, Timeline and Facepile: Making Sense of Facebook as a Non-Developer

View more presentations from linds313

#MakeItCount – Nike Film Director Scraps Project, Travels World, and Creates Viral Hit

Kaitlyn Dennihy sent me a link rogue video that said almost nothing at all about Nike, lasted four minutes, and made me want to go out and purchase the product more than any commercial I can think of recently. The story behind it’s creation is even more fascinating than the ad itself. But first, watch the movie:

Casey Neistat, film director, was hired to create his third commercial for Nike. Tired of the same routine, they took a chance that could have caused them to be sued for breach of contract. From the movie:

Nike asked me to make a movie about what it meant to ‘Make It Count.’ Instead of making their movie, I spent the entire budget travelling around the world with my friend Max. We’d keep going until the money ran out. It lasted 10 days.

And this story is true.