Pass on the NYCbaton!

February 1, 2013 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

This week I had the honor of holding the NYCbaton. For those that aren’t familiar with NYCbaton, it’s a collaboration from the NYC instagram community. The idea is that a different New Yorker gets passed the baton (Instagram account) and has a day to shoot through the eyes of a New Yorker’s day. Recently I had the opportunity to hold it this past Wednesday.

After my first shot of the day got over 200 likes, I felt the power trip start to form.

I had the attention of 2,892 people. This was the largest audience I’ve ever been faced with one-on-one. It was terrifying and overwhelming all at once. With the limit of 7 photos for the entire day, the pressure was on. This is New York, I thought, realistically there’s far too many things to take pictures of.

Instagram comes naturally to me especially when it’s on your own terms. You have complete control of your own social presence. You have no one to blame but yourself. The only question you have to ask is, do you want a huge fan base or want to be an authority of awesome. I’d chose the latter. Followers will come when you’re original, interesting, and true to yourself. However in this moment I felt like this was my one shot. It wasn’t until the first few photos that it clicked. I had to ask myself, who really cares and what exactly do they care about? The answer’s simple. They care about your day. They care about a New Yorker’s perspective. As much as I struggled to take those scenic Empire State Building shots, I knew deep down inside people could see that anywhere and at WAY better quality than from my iPhone5. What they really wanted was to see our surroundings, how we live, what it’s like to be a New Yorker. We’re like one of those rare species of tree frogs in the wildness that scientists can’t help but study. And to my surprise a lot of people commenting weren’t even from here. All that was left was to give the people what they want. At the end of the day, my personal Instagram will still be there as my own creative outlet.

Here’s how the rest of my day turned out:

Social Hashtag Series #2: #AboveMe

Social Hashtag Series #AboveMe Instagram Photos: NYC Flatiron Building

January 17, 2013 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

This month’s hashtag was # AboveMe. I thought I’d keep my head up instead of down. There are certainly some interesting perceptive up there.

Next month’s theme will be, store front chalkboard signs and messages.

In other Instagram related news, I’ll be shooting from NYCbaton‘s Instagram account on January 30th, 2013. Enjoy the day in the life of me. Any ideas of interesting people or places to shoot in the city, please let me know!

Oh yes, you could always be my Instagram friend now. It’s never to late to be friends.

NYC Winter Trees in Union Square. I got lost for a moment up there… and attacked by squirrels. It was a good day.

This is how some weekend markets decorate in the city. Just re-use Christmas lights.

C.O. Bigelow’s Pharmacy in Greenwich Village. I hadn’t been in this area in quite sometime. It’s probably one of my favorite signs in NYC.

Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Sea Cruise. The detail in this piece is just ridiculous.

Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Sea Cruise – Chandelier in the dinning room. Pinky up, fancy.

Backside of the Flatiron Building. Because everyone takes pictures of the front side.

Winter in Florida consists of warm and happy Nicole.

5 Apps to Check Out This Week: 1/15

Apps to Check Out This Week Post by Nicole Monahan

January 15, 2013January 15, 2013 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

I’m always trying to switch things up. Usually, I’m on the look out for what brands or campaigns caught my eye for the week. Yet, my first week back in the city was filled with an overflow of self-improvement and New Years Resolution filled articles and apps. I thought I would be a guinea pig this week. Here are a few of my favorite iPhone apps that will promote a digital streamlined workflow and help you stick to your New Years Resolutions.

Cue (Free):

Keep up with work, life, and the daily events you care about. Cue turns the accounts you depend on, like email, contacts and calendar, into an intelligent snapshot of your day. Cue surfaces the right details at the right time, so you’ll always be one step ahead.

I’m enjoying this app because it can link to Facebook and all of my contacts and calendar accounts giving me a snapshot of my day. My only real problem was that I never use my Google or iPhone calendar. I’m old school and use a planner. This may not be a bad thing though because it will force me to streamline my scheduling efforts. The app itself definitely reminds me of events/birthdays and connects all my contacts so I could email someone immediately if say I was running late for a meeting.

Pocket (Free):

When you find something you want to view later, put it in Pocket.

Pocket is a classic favorite of mine. I have it linked to my Twitter account and added the Google Chrome plugin to instantly store articles I want to read later. Then I’ll pull them up on my iPhone Pocket app and read them while I’m on the subway.

Lift (Free):

Lift helps you track and achieve habits through data visualization, streaks, and community support.

I’m so in love with this app. Mostly because there’s a set of habits I’ve joined (gym, read more, write, be grateful for someone or something) and I can open the app and “check in” to everything I did today. For one it reminds me of what I forgot to do, for example one habit is talk to at least one stranger. The other day I was like I’ve been neglecting this habit and finally I just did it. I asked a guy in line at Trader Joes about Bikram yoga. So silly but it really made me feel better, like I was making process. The other amazing thing about the app is users can write back to you on a check in or comment that you made, creating this whole support system/community.

Good news: I can now also cross off blog post and write something today!

LaLaLunch (1.99 iPhone)

LaLa Lunchbox is an iPhone app that provides you and your hungry little monsters with a fun, easy way to plan and pack lunch.

I honestly haven’t test drove this app because I don’t have kids. But for those that do, it’s a simple way to plan and organize what’s for lunch. A bonus is the design work, simple and lovely.

TeuxDeux (Currently Free!):

TeuxDeux is a simple, designy, free, browser-based to-do app.

This is a personally favorite of mine. I love how elegant and easy it is to use. It’s also quite a thrill to cross things off your daily lists.

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I’m obsessed with productivity, workflow, and apps with good design in mind. I’d love to make this a monthly thing, so if you have any favorite apps of your own let me know so I can include them in a future post! Thanks for reading. 🙂

Social Media Monday + Tattly

December 18, 2012 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

Social Media Campaigns I’ve loving this week:

1.) Patron’s Cocktail Share:

Love this concept and cocktails.

2.) GiltCity: #LoveYourCityMore Instagram

Amazing way to connect their community with their brand by asking fans to share photos on Instagram using hashtags #LoveYourCityMore and #NYC. I’m also loving how they highlight members on their Facebook Cover photo:

3.) Here comes the Advent Calendars:

The Yield 2012 Meme Calendar:

If you’re into Memes.

Wildfire by Google: Social Media Advent Calendar

If you’re into facts.

4.) Tasting Table’s: Food Fight Debate

Tasting Table gives their fans the chance to vote for the ultimate food debates and then throws an amazing party to reveal the results.

And the results:

5.) Foursquare’s 12/12/12 Robin Hood Relief Badge

Combining an opportunity to partner with Samsung Galaxy around the 12/12/12 Concert for Hurricane Sandy Relief.

6.) SiriTalks Instagram:

Creative finds-love this idea.

Bonus: My part-time gig at Tattly.

I was so fortunate to spend a few days at Tattly last week. Dream gig come true, I am the biggest Swissmiss fan girl- ask anyone I know. Over the week I ended up learning way more than just how these temporary tattoos are made and produced. The whole experience went above and beyond my expectations. I was initially dreading having to deal with the hour commute to Dumbo each day but the more I stayed the more I loved it.

Everyone was so sweet and welcoming. Daily coffee and lunch trips together were a must, then we would gather our food and eat together back at StudioMates. All this actually made me realize how miserable I was at my last job. How much I despised office politics, eating at your desk, and everyone only talking to you when they needed something. More companies should have the Tattly mentality. When you communicate and do things together is creates a much better working environment. Personally, I’m sick of working along side of people who are willing to throw each other under the bus — This was an epiphany. An epiphany of what I am and am not looking for in my next job.

Additionally, in my short time there I’ve learned a good chunk more about design then I ever had prior to walking in there. This is a piece of what I am looking for in my next job. I must be surrounded by creative and passionate people. The wealth of ideas was overwhelming.

Finally, I ran into mini celebrities. I don’t know the ‘who’s who’ in the design world, but many designers came in… so did author Jonathan Foer… and wandering photographer named Shantanu Starick who is on a journey around the world while spending no more, everything he gets is based on trade. It was quite an amazing story and definitely encourage everyone to check out his trades.

Many thanks goes out to Swissmiss and the amazing people at Tattly and StudioMates! You not only made my job dreams come true but you showed me there are amazing companies out there doing amazing things. I know now I want to be apart of that.

Social Hashtag Series #1: #ChristmasInNY

Toy Solider NYC Christmas #ChristmasInNY

December 5, 2012January 11, 2013 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

My new hashtag series sparked from a number of different places…

Beginning in October, I had the pleasure to doing 2 Instagram Meetups. One with NBCU’s Health Week. Another was an Instagram walk in Central Park with Estee Lauder using the hashtag #mysimplepleasures as the theme. Both had sparked my love for events, exploring, photography, and social media.

Another huge inspiration goes out to Jimmy Fallon’s #latenight hashtags. #IGotCaught is a personal favorite.

And finally, meeting with many people for informational interviews. The last one I conducted was with Monica Lo and Megan Nuttall who’s advice to “Do things that matter” has stuck with me ever since. Starting this series matters to me. I love creating new ideas and sharing what I’m most passionate about, social media.

Above all, lets just say I was recently left discouraged from doing the things that I know I’m capable of — there is nothing greater than proving people wrong and since then I am left with this reminder:

“The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”

And with that I will leave you with my first of many #hashtag series. Enjoy!

#ChristmasInNY

Rockefeller Christmas Tree NYC 2012 #ChristmasInNY

Holiday Shopping NYC Christmas 2012 #ChristmasInNY Bust Craftacular

Unicef Snowflake NYC Christmas #ChristmasInNY

Hurricane Sandy and Responding Through Social Media + Bonus Relief Events

November 8, 2012 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

For the past few weeks, my absence has been the cause of: bridesmaid duties (never again), vacation, and hurricane Sandy. This post is specifically geared towards two brands who’s social responses stood out to me over the past week and a half.

The key players I’m thinking of here are airlines, as my vacation last week was a near miss. At no fault to the airline under such circumstances, these are two examples of a social crisis plan in action and one that’s not:

Jetblue wins for my customer loyalty and I wasn’t even flying with them. Through Twitter these notifications consistently kept me updated:

Then Jetblue updated its Twitter, Every. single. day…

And even in Spanish:

I also received 2 emails with updates.

On the contrary was the airline I had booked a flight with… Delta.

What was in their crisis plan you ask? 0 emails (except notifying me my flight was cancelled), and these 2 updates on Twitter, below. The real icing on the cake was a tie between, being on hold for an hour only to be hung up on + having to go through 3 people to get to a supervisor.

The New Social Crisis Plan of Action:

Good rule of thumb: Situations, conflicts, complaints should never get to the point of a supervisor. That’s like giving the other team the ball and getting out of their way to score a touchdown. Here are a few other tips for brands/company’s to tackle crisis situations.

Every member of the team should be on the same page. Given a message that stays consistent.
Have a clear understand of the situation, and stay on top of current updates.
Be trained to give a clear response to the situation, with empathy.
Have the tools, courage, and power to take control of the problem on their own.

A small part of me knows this is a bit of a rant. But this experience has also helped me realize how important it is to have some sort of crisis management plan for your company, especially around your social. It’s many peoples go to source for information and updates because now a days it takes so much longer to get approvals and press releases out. Think about it.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Hurricane Sandy Relief Events I’m Diggin’:

Flavorpill + Absolut

General Assembly: Fundraiserpalooza

Airbnb

Eventbrite NYC Newsletter

Social Marketing Mondays: Facebook Cover Photos

Fun Stuff- Holiday Matinee Facebook Cover Photo

October 1, 2012October 3, 2012 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

Facebook Cover Photos

A few months ago this change was new to us, now we know it as the large picture in our Facebook profiles everyone first sees when they land on our page. There are a few rules to live by — such as you cannot use your own contact information or CTA’s (calls to actions) such as “Like our Page”, “Buy my new book”, “Tune in Sept 3rd at 7pm” because this is what Facebook Ads are for… Yet I enjoy these rules. It makes limits limitless and the beauty of rules is that they were always made to be broken. Simply put, I love finding examples of how companies are embracing these boundaries and in turn trying to tell their story visually.

Here are a few examples:

Inspire // Holiday Matinee

My initial reaction to this image and message was inspiration and that’s exactly what Holiday Matinee is — a blog for creative inspiration. It tells you everything you need to know about the company from a single image.

Show Off Your Community // Lomography

Lomography just did an update that showcased: A.) Their product — analog cameras with analog film quality and B.) Their community of users. I’m very familiar with these shots better known as photography workshops, which are always the best.

Tell a Story // 3rd Ward

I am familiar with 3rd Ward but maybe not everyone else is. There’s a lot of tools going on here leaving me curious to find out more about what they do. Which if you explore further, is perfectly fitting for them.

Creative Approaches // Tasting Table

I have mentioned Tasting Table‘s Custom Guest Editor Facebook landing pages in an earlier article. Yet I’m still impressed by it, it’s such a creative way to showcase content while also putting a face to them. Brilliant!

Motivation // New York Road Runners

If this image of seasoned runners doesn’t get you motivated to run, I don’t know what else will. Not only that, but it makes me feel good that there’s a community out there that supports a range of runs in NY for a wide range of people on all kinds of levels.

Leave Me Hanging // OpenSky

I would have to include this as my bad example. I have never been too familiar with what OpenSky does — but I know this image doesn’t help either. Are they cooking supplies, lessons, lifestyle? Nope, actually they are “a shopping experience that matches individual taste with the exceptional finds of industry insiders.” — but you wouldn’t really know this from this image.

Social Marketing Mondays: iPhone 5

September 17, 2012October 3, 2012 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

The announcement of the iPhone 5 — biggest tech news that came out last week.

It certainly couldn’t be ignored on my news feed, so this week I am bringing you my favorite and not so favorite social media updates on it.

Mashable

Mashable‘s never and I mean NEVER ending updates. Without a doubt, this announcement was very fitting for their brand, but it felt overwhelming to me… Like Black Friday or a college textbook store when they know this is it! This is their big day and they only have a small window of time to market — Yeah I’d say that’s what it felt like. Yet, in all honest it’s not their single biggest day. They have so many channels from tech, to business, to social good.

Stretch it out, I felt like I was walking down a perfume isle the day before Christmas. It’s too much!

BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed on future predictions for the iPhone. I love how the photo says it all here — saying so much with so little.

Society6

Society6 embraces a problem that the new iPhone 5 will face (besides the new charger outlet) — cases. They are already a step ahead of the game by saying, hey we’ve thought about this, they’re available and can be shipped to you in about a week. Not the same day as when the actual iPhone ships, if you pre-ordered, BUT it is better than this next solution….

Threadless

This was one of Threadless‘ responses to the iPhone 5. What I get from this Facebook update is sheer panic to get rid of the old cases. It may not be conveyed in the copy but the timing on this was the day after the announcement. Compared to Society6’s response, the feel of this makes me uneasy. Maybe I like a brand that will provide me with a solution to a new change. I think that’s called trust and thinking ahead for your customers.

Curators Conference Recap: Curate your Life

September 12, 2012October 3, 2012 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

Last week I participated in the Curators Conference. As I did not want to pay $400 for admission, I decided to take what I like to call the “Hustler Approach” and volunteer for the event. To say the least it was a gruesome 12 hour day, but well worth not having to shell out the cash for the conference. Another positive was getting to experience the inner workings of running a conference, something I’ve always wanted to do.

While being a volunteer does face the disadvantage of being able to seeing every speaker, a few speakers I did manage to see stood out to me. Specifically Soraya Darabi, who is the co-founder of Foodspotting and was formerly in charge of NYTimes’ Social Media. As most speakers took the approach to talk about their company and what they do, Soraya instead, walked us through an hour by hour snapshot of her day with the apps and websites she uses daily– curating her life through social.

Her day consisted of this:

Cir.ca: News, re-imagined. (New app -not yet released.)

Path: Staying connected with family & close friends.

Reading websites: Portable, Brain Pickings, Cool Hunting

Work Flowy: Organize your brain. This tool helps organize personal to-dos, collaborate on large team projects, take notes, write research papers, keep a journal, plan a wedding, and much more.

Sparrow: Combining email and social at the same time.

BrandYourself: Curating SEO results, your personal brand, and Google results.

Foodspotting: Visual guide to good food and where to find it.

Spotify: Digital music service that gives you access to millions of songs.

Google + Hangouts: Video chatting, face to face.

Vimeo Staff Picks: Online videos, handpicked by the staff at Vimeo.

Art Stack: Social platform for art – the best way to discover art is through people.

Highline Park + Think + Paper: She uses this hour to get offline. Reflecting on accomplishments you made today or want to make in the future.

Brewster: Your personal address book.

Highlight: Gives you a sixth sense about the world around you, showing you hidden connections and making your day more fun.

Svpply: Online shopping. Helps you find the products you love, from the people and stores you find interesting.

This break down left me wondering– is this even true? Does anyone have a breakdown hour by hour of applications they use? Probably not, even Soraya mentions she only uses specific apps and only the most productive ones that meets her own needs. Perhaps it isn’t possible, but this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have productivity in mind.

Continuing to thinking about this concept I asked myself —Is anyone this organized? What is my daily routine?

Looking at my past few days, weeks, even months I realized I honestly don’t have one. I love to stop what I’m doing to help others but I haven’t really helped myself. Feeling completely unorganized with managing my own priorities, this is something I need to start changing.

Last night I stumbled upon a few TED Talks for inspiration and came across Matt Cutts’ speech, “Try something new for 30 days.”

“Small sustainable changes are more likely to stick.” I may not have a solid play-by-play of every hour of my day, but I can start by making small sustainable changes.

Things I would like to try for 30 days:

Dedicate an hour a day to:

Writing
Reading
Learning Italian
Gym time
Personal time– Including everything I need to catch up on in life, from Twitter updates to planning my birthday trip.
Cooking one new recipe a week
Trying one new restaurant per week
Meet 5 new people per week

Like Matt says, “the next 30 days are going to happen whether you like it or not, why not do something you’ve always wanted to try.”

What is one thing you would try for 30 days?

Social Marketing Tuesday: Visual Marketing

September 4, 2012October 3, 2012 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day break. Because of the holiday, this usual Social Marketing Monday will be dubbed Social Marketing Tuesday!

This week’s examples take a look into how brands are using visual marketing towards their social media efforts. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Visual Marketing. According to a Wikpiedia definition, Visual Marketing focuses on the study and critical analysis of the ability of objects to be ‘protagonists’ in a visual communication scenario. More simply put, a means of using visuals (i.e photos) that drive your marketing efforts forward.

Call to actions and elegant copy are certainly necessary, however it is the visual that speaks before the text.

Personally, this has always been a favorite task of mine on any given project. I enjoy finding the right visuals that will fit a particular piece of content ever so perfectly, it’s like a puzzle for me.

Here are some examples I found this past week that are driving the conversation forward, leading with the visuals:

Lost in E Minor:

This is a cool visual. You can’t tell me you wouldn’t stop and have a double look at this photo. Better yet, Lost in E Minor then asks its audience to think of a great one-liner for it. Visual Marketing can be used as a conversation starter, and usually isn’t that how things go viral?

Indiegogo:

Indiegogo is a global platform for crowdfunding, empowering anyone, anywhere, to raise money for anything. This post is what is known as texts over image. Admittedly, pretty pictures and inspiring quotes is a weakness of mine. I post similar visuals on my own Facebook every Monday for motivation. Many people do it, it’s a cliché but everyone needs some motivation and this example is particularly fitting to the brands core values.

Tasting Table:

As most of you know, a new feature to Facebook is endless updates. This includes when a friend or brand updates their cover photo. This example of Tasting Table’s latest cover update immediately caught my attention. Mostly, again, for the visual. It is classic, very fitting for their brand, overall I thought it was a unique idea. Showcasing one of their guest editors while doing a complete ROS (in this case run of social) take over.

Thrillist:

Another example of text over image. It is a very quick and engaging method that never fails to start a conversation.

More importantly, it serves as a reminder to all. If given the choice, always be Batman.

Warby Parker:

Here is an example of Visual Marketing at its best in Warby Parker’s Where’s Waldo Facebook post. Mixing a notorious icon to promote their product, Where’s Waldo inspired frames.

Takeaways

Visual Marketing can be approached in a number of different ways. Whether it be used to promote a product, promotion, event, or even if it is just to get the conversation started in your social community. I find the way brands are using visuals to market limitless. This is a passion subject for me so there will definitely be further research in the future.

Are there any examples of brands using visual marketing that have stuck out to you? I would love to know, send your best examples in the comment section.