Tech Office Visits – Past, Present, and Future

July 23, 2013 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

Last week I had the privelige to tour the NYC Google offices. Coming up in September, Digital DUMBO is hosting an event with Google Local and saw this as a great opportunity to visit their offices and meet a fellow Community Manager. (Side note: We both went to UCF, I love small world coincidences like that.)

I’ve always had an obsession with visiting tech and other great brand’s offices in New York. Then I thought being the OCD list maker I am, wouldn’t it be fun to write down all the offices I’ve visited as well as the ones on my office “bucket list”.

Here’s my list. What are some of your favorite offices in the city?

Tech & Awesome Brands I’ve Visited:

Google – They have about 4 cafeterias on one floor with great food + Legos.
Buzzfeed – Everything you’d image the Buzzfeed office would be.
Foursquare – Customized conference rooms named after badges, cafeteria with a calligrapher that comes in each week to write out the upcoming menu and craft beer for the following week.
Warby Parker – Dream company + Showroom inside their offices!
Shutterstock – Photos on each elevator door.
AOL – Catered events.
AppNexus – Have their own auditorium space and cafeteria space for events and talks.
Flavorpill – Graffiti, high ceilings, lots of light, Friday lunches.
Tasting Table – Spacious, lots of light, test kitchens on site.
MKG – Each conference room is different and has a theme + word search board and photo booth.
Percolate – I haven’t seen the new offices, just the old one!
Tumblr – They have their own Grady’s Cold Brew fridge and Tumblr user artwork around the office.
Bitly – Pufferfish every where!
Tattly/ StudioMates – Always full of fun surprises.
Ogilvy – Huge and fancy.
Times Square Alliance – Over looks Times Square, of course.
Birchbox – So pink!
Artsy – Probably has the best view of the entire city. Like Top of the Rock good.
Vemeo – Huge and snacks galore! And they have their own popcorn machine.
General Assembly – Open space, good classroom environment.
Huge – The whole office has design in mind. They also name their conferences after celebs. Justin, Britney, Kim.
Sesame St. – Interactive Sesame Street coffee table, their creative department is more fun and colorful.
Squarespace – Customer support has their own floor, and they have pretty great snackage.
Contently – Epic bookshelf in color coordinated order.
MediaBistro – Went there for classes, it was a pretty ordinary office.

Company Bucket List

Adweek
Barkbox
NowThisNews
Jetblue
FAB
Big Spaceship
Gilt Group
Livestream
Chartbeat
Quirky
Uber
Seamless
Songza
Aereo
Fast Co.

#SMWNYC Recap: Parties, Stories, and Jeopardy

February 27, 2013February 28, 2013 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

Last week was one hell of a roller coaster. I’d like to keep up with my goal of at least 1 blog post a week. It’s been a major struggle with the two new jobs, but as a magician told me this weekend (yes, you heard that right), you have to do what you love. It took him 3 years of practicing his craft and is finally doing what he loves. I met him this past weekend at a non-profit gala I helped volunteer for, he made a valid point — you can always have your day job but should always at least have your side art, your passion projects. And that’s exactly why I continue to push forward with my writing.

During Social Media Week, I successfully made it through 7 events and produced my first (sold out) event with DigitalDUMBO. As a promise to myself I wanted to make a recap of all the events and panels I attended. Thanks for bearing through this novel, but I promise there’s a ton of great takeaways.

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Tuesday, February 19, 2013:

6:00-8:00pm: Doing It Live: The Integration of Social in Live Events

#SMWDoingItLive

Bridget Carey – Senior Editor @CNet – @BridgetCarey

Ben Hindman – Co-founder and CEO @SplashThat – @bjamin32

David Adler – Founder and CEO @BizBash_News – @DavidAdlerLinkedIn

Shawn Busteed – SVP, Business Strategy @TBAGlobal – @Busteed

Lauren Drell – Campaigns Editor @Mashable – @drelly

– Always follow-up after an event. Don’t do a post-event survey, instead try a photo gallery, they have higher traffic rates.

– With Live events – Twitter can be a simple way to outline what happened when you’re writing a story, especially useful for journalists and writers.

– Make it easy on attendees. Provide a list of the speakers, twitter handles, and hashtags.

– The decor is the event. Make sure your brand is on everything and do it in a unique way.

– Think of creative ways to thank attendees.

– A great way to influence people to tweet is to make them look awesome at an event or give them something awesome to photograph or share. Don’t make tweeting forced.

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Wednesday, February 20, 2013:

9:30am-10:30am: A Conversation with Neil Blumenthal, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Warby Parker

#SWMHQ

– Businesses can create good in the world.

– One of the reasons why people leave their jobs isn’t because of compensation, it’s because they stopped learning.

– [Warby Parker] always trying to merge the physical and the digital. Connecting people on an emotional level.

Examples of this innovation:

Created a birthday party for Buddy Holly.
Warby Annex
Warby Parker Class Trip
Annual Report
NYPL Secret Fashion Week Event

– Always asks themselves the following questions:

Is this a unique experience?
Is this authentic?
Does it have a compelling narrative?
Does it do good in the world?
Are we consistently learning?

– If you want to build relationships you need to let people in and be vulnerable.

– Give people a reason to share and they will.

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6:00- 7:30pm: The 140 Character Resume: How Your Social Media Footprint Can Get You Hired.

#SMW140Resume

Lars Schmidt, Head of Talent Acquisition and Innovation @NPR – @ThisisLars

Sharon Feder, COO @Mashable – @Sharonfeder

Brooke Camp, Talent Acquisition Leader New and Digital @NBC Universal – @BCeenByMe

Kathryn Minshew, Founder and CEO @DailyMuse – @kmin

Hagos Mehreteab, Director of Talent Acquisition at AppNexus @AppNexus – @gosnew

– Have an online presence and tailor it to your personality.

– Build your own projects. Create content and blogs.

– Consistency in your online profiles is important. Before you even start, scrub your online identity. Be professionally attractive & approachable.

– With every single message you send, you’re making an impression. Up to you if it’s good or bad.

– One big mistake is to ask for something from people you follow before you build a relationship with them.

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Thursday, February 21, 2013:

9:30am-11:00am: The Evolution of the Modern Community Manager

#SMWCommunity

Casey Carter- Social Media and Digital Marketing Manager @SoulCycle –@caseyculture

Kristin Maverick – Director, Earned Media @BarbarianGroup – @kmarerick

Joanna Firneno – Brand Strategist at @Percolate – @joannaf

Brian Ries – Senior Social Media Editor at @Newsweek and @DailyBeast – @moneyries

Mike Hayes – Social Media Editor @Buzzfeed – @michaelhayes

– The old way community management was done, included relying on content calendars. You’d develop the calendar and put it out. But with working on a hockey brand (Brian Ries) we noticed that the conversation escalated during game time which meant after 6pm — after working hours. There was a lack of real-time.

– You need to be flexible when real-time event happen. With Breaking News Buzzfeed comments within the first 15 minutes to elevate the conversation. People think if you’re not tweeting and commenting that much, then you’re not really there.

– How can brands work/change real-time. – Create a foundation on your brand and voice. Example: Oreo has a style guide. Like Oreo and the Super Bowl. It has to have that perfect formula. It blended the Blackout Meme with America’s love for Super Bowl Ads. They did something similar during the Grammy’s and it didn’t have the same effect because people don’t care as much about ads during the Grammys.

– When jumping on new platforms (Vine, Rebelmouse). First contact these companies, seeing if you can secure a domain and then set up a coffee meeting and see what the best approaches are for your brand. Secure your social presence.

– Social is just another piece of the business pie.

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12:00pm-1:30pm: The Golden Age of Digital Storytelling

#SMWBuzzfeed

Josh Sternberg – Media & Publishing Reporter at Digiday- @joshsternberg

Jon Steinberg – President and COO at Buzzfeed – @jonsteinberg

Lee Nadler – Marketing Communications Manager at MINI USA- @leenadler

Sabrina Caluori – Vice President, Social Media and Performance Marketing at HBO & Cinemax- @sabrinacaluori

– Connect the world through conversations. Example when HBO did a Mistakes Girls Make hashtag and content, this happened alongside the conversations of New Years Resolutions.

– You can’t do anything good without actually working on it.

– We’re moving away from interrupted experiences (homepage take overs) into more custom emotional experiences. Example: Mini’s End of the World Campaign.

– When jumping on new platforms (Vine, Rebelmouse. ect.). Workshop with it, gather your team up and first understand: What’s my personal experience with this?

– Humanize and connect with users in real life. Try not to automate everything. Don’t be sales-y, understand the point of view of what makes this product or TV show awesome and be authentic.

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6:30pm – 9:00pm: dd:SOCIAL SMW – “Majors and Minors” Presented by Digital DUMBO & Translation

Recap of photos from running my first DigitalDUMBO Event.

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Friday February 22, 2013:

2:30pm-4:00pm – The Future of Branded Experiences

#SMWMKG

Nick Parish – Editorial Director, Americas at Contagious – @paryshnikov

Dave Brown – Director, Digital Strategy at MKG – @holidaymatinee

The best part of this panel was that it involved a DIY Jeopardy board. Leave to Dave to make magic among the digital and physical space. The “host” read off an audience member’s Twitter handle and they got to choose from each category on the board. The two panelists Dave Brown and Nick Parish would give their answers. Everyone was a winner. And it all started with this quote:

Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends. – Walt Disney

Final Takeaways:

– You don’t need to buy your voice in the world.

– The biggest danger brands can do not being interesting enough.

– Data can be used to make smarter decisions about events by using online data to help make offline decisions.

– Marketplace Disruption – – Airbnb is changing the hotel industry and challenging how hotel’s need to rethink their business models. Plated and Blue Apron is changing the food industry. Changing how Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s will rethink their models. Who Gives a Crap is changing the way we think about sanitation and the fundamental need for paper goods. Skillshare reminds us we’re all teachers.

– Brands need to be more human, have a conversation. Empower your Community Manager! Everyone needs to be integrated. Sit around the same table. Brands need to start talking with us and stop talking at us.

– People are consuming the content we write in unthinkable ways. Make content consumption a comfortable and seamless user experience – personal for anytime, anywhere, and on any device.

– We’re creating products that provide meaning to people’s lives in frictionless ways. ( Wemo, Twine, Goodnight Lamp.)

– Let’s make a human connection.

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Social Marketing Mondays: Back to School

August 27, 2012October 3, 2012 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

It’s almost Fall, kids are going back to school, and brands got the message. This weeks picks includes an interesting mix of approaches to using social media marketing for a back to school audience. Going into this research I was faced with the idea that everything would be marketed like on the Today Show with free haircuts, penny pencils, healthy lunches, angry bird backpacks. You get the idea. However I was pleasantly surprised at how these brands were thinking outside the box.

Biggest Takeaway: There is no single approach to marketing for back to school nor just a soccer mom audience anymore.

Here’s what happened on social this week:

Twitter: Back to School

Knowing your audience

Who is on Twitter? According to Quantcast the majority isn’t moms or children, the highest age demographic is between 18-34. This demographic tone is easily recognizable in these two Twitter back to school campaigns.

MediaBistro’s #TeacherStories

Having taken numerous MediaBistro classes, I am definitely a supporter of their classes and teachers. Thus I was happy to find out about MediaBistro’s Twitter contest which asks users to Tweet @mediabistro and share a story about your favorite teacher or best teacher experience using #teacherstories. It’s not targeting to moms or teens but instead anyone who has an inspiring story to tell about a former teacher.

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon #MyCrazyTeacher

In contrast, Jimmy Fallon uses humor as his weapon of choice, while asking fans to Tweet something funny or weird about one of your teachers using #mycrazyteacher. It isn’t that these two twitter campaigns can’t target teens or parents but I get the thought process behind it. Both are tapping into an experienced yet still youthful audience. Both want stories from people who have had a number of experiences with teachers worth remembering and sharing.

Here is the video of the best #mycrazyteacher submissions.

Facebook: Back to School

Below are four different example from brands that demonstrate multiple approaches to Facebook Marketing. Target’s Give with Target campaign uses Facebook as a landing page to support schools in need. Gilt City has a Back to Fall Sweepstakes. Mashable is surrounding learning through their editorial content, and The Container Store threw up a Facebook post on customers shopping for back to school supplies.

Target: Give with Target

Gilt City: Back to Fall Sweepstakes

Mashable: 10 Must-Have Apps for Successful High School Students

The Container Store: Facebook Fan Appreciation

Inbox Overload: A Weeks Worth of Email Marketing

August 22, 2012October 3, 2012 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

This is a look into a weeks worth of email newsletters.

I have had to do similiar competitor research at an internship for an online publication where emails are the core to their business. I used to look into everything from advertisers, contests, events, to even design work. Admittedly, I miss that weekly research report. It was so interesting to see what others are doing out there.

So naturally I let my emails pill up just to explore a weeks worth of newsletters.

Publications explored included: Flavorpill, DailyCandy, Urban Daddy, and Tasting Table.

An Email Subject Line:

First things first, it doesn’t matter what you’re selling or if you have the best peice of content you’ve ever written. If no one clicks to open your email, all that stuff doesn’t matter anymore.

Make it count by providing a subject line your readers will be sure to make the next move on.

Here are recent examples that have caught my attention lately.

DailyCandy’s:

Draw Men Naked

Any and all from UrbanDaddy my favorites are:

There’s a Stranger Making Dumplings in your House
When You Think of Guacamole, Think of This
Murray Hill’s Best Hope Yet
24-Hour Beer Delivery to Your Doorstep

Tip:

Be funny. Be creative. But most importantly know your audience and who you’re taking to.

Tip:

Try A/B split testing. This allows tracking such things as subject lines. Two different subject lines that you want to test out will be sent to a certain percent of your audience. The results of which subject line performed better, based on open rate will be sent back to you, go with the better one.

Continue reading →

Personality in Brands: P&G’s Take on the Olympics 2012

August 6, 2012October 3, 2012 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

While watching the Olympics and all of its glorious ads, one of the very notable “Thank You Mom” commericals would constantly come on. Not only would I ponder, what about thank you dad, but I started to wonder what were P&G’s other brands? Once I looked into their company’s brand page, I noticed tons of other P&G products were squished together between commercial breaks. Since they are sponsor of the London Olympic 2012 games, I wanted to break down these individual brands and steer away from P&G’s big corporate scope of “Thank You Moms”.

Here is a look into how some of P&G’ household brands are covering the Olympics:

Old Spice:

Old Spice kicks the games off by what it does best, incorporating their own quirky humor into the games. First step, setting up a spot light on Table Tennis player Tim Wang and really talking to their audience.

Thank you Old Spice. Here’s to American pride, table tennis, and photoshopping. Old spice continues to challenge and question the games especially when it comes to smelling good.

Mr. Clean:

Mr. Clean best encompasses brand voice, which I like to think is an old man’s voice or perhaps the voice on anyone on Facebook that shares way too many useless status updates. It’s like he is a real person! Mr. Clean really doesn’t try to do anything different for the Olympics except continually asking lots and lots of questions about it, as only an annoying Facebook friend would probably do.

Charmin:

Charmin’s Facebook page is usually up to some kind of bathroom humor, yet with the start of the Olympics I noticed a challenge that faced them. How do you package together the Olympics and bathroom jokes? Charmin had to accomplish this by thinking outside the box.

The result: Bathrooms with London flare. Engaging fans with their finds on some posh terminology and British bathroom culture.

Duracell:

Technology and Powering up the Olympics, this is Duracell’s angle for the London games. Duracell has created a Virtual Stadium where Olympians and their families are able to view videos, photos and messages from online fans on a screen using Kinect sensor technology. They are using Facebook to not only promote the campaign but to engage their audience in the real-time interactions with the Olympian’s family members, as shown in the above Facebook post. I only wish there were more than just one of these post, I love behind the scenes photography.

Takeaways:

I have learned quite a bit about this company after this research. Not only did I have no idea some of these brands were nestled under P&G but I have found that what their brand’s are doing within social is very different. I would have naturally expected every brand to have the same structure, same voice, same social media strategies, but no. To my surprise they have executed each product differently taking on an individual personalities. Looking beyond P&G’s core “Thank you Mom” campaign, this experiment helped me see each product differently, while understanding the importance of having a unique brand voice.

4 Top Campaigns of the Week | 7/23/12 – 7/30/12

July 30, 2012October 3, 2012 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

Campaigns killing it this week include social “geo-targeting” snack giveaways, a hide and seek social twist to an old school game, what store locations have to do with branding, and a retail partnership I never saw coming. Here is a look at the top campaigns that caught my eye this week:

Clif Bars “MojoGo” Campaign

I am going to kick things off with Clif Bars “MojoGo” Campaign. Clif claims that this is the first geo-location Twitter campaign , the even sweeter deal is that Clif will give away Mojo bars. All you have to do is go on an outdoor adventure and tweet your geo-location to @ClifMojoGo. In return you will receive a coupon to get a free Mojo bar. I really want to go hiking now, I love free snack bars. Here’s the video for more details.

Birchbox Hide & Seek Pinterest Campaign

Birchbox is at it again for the second week in a row. Who thinks of these ideas? I must know!

I feel Pinterest is becoming a shrinking platform, that caters to a very specific target group of women. And yet Birchbox just gets it, they know that’s their target audience and they just go for it. I also love the Hide & Seek approach, it’s a classic game with a new school social twist. This approach also forces fans to search all of their Pinterest content. This can only mean one thing… they will get distracted by other amazing Birchbox product and will want to buy. While at the same time getting a discount. Genius, Birchbox.

Chobani SoHo Store:

This is not so much a campaign unless I were to include all their new Olympic Ads. This is about Chobani’s store in SoHo. How many people have opened only greek yogurt stores? Only best idea ever.

What I would like to point out that really connected with me was one of the many reason most restaurant succeed or fail… location, location, location. I was blown away when I saw this in SoHo. Instantly what came to mind was the last branded stores I’ve been to, which was M&M World and PopTart World. Both in Times Square, or as I like to think of it as nightmare city, yet just a hair above Chinatown. Given, yes, tourists go to both Times Square and SoHo, but there’s something about SoHo. Maybe it’s the fancy high-priced shops and restaurants, but I instantly associated Chobani with this higher quality with higher standards brand. While I think of Pop Tarts and M&M’s as being cheap and kid friendly, which are also other ways to think about Times Square.

Gap + Threadless

This partnership blew my mind as I walked into the Gap. I have gone so far back with Threadless, like high school back. I remember the only times they would ever do sales was during summer and right before Christmas (now there’s one every other week). They were exclusively online and only had one store in Chicago where they are based. The uniqueness and rarity of their shirts is what really made me fall for the brand in the first place. Sadly, I can now get Threadless shirts at the Gap for $25 now.

I am still one of those that wants a Threadless store in their town. But a store or even Threadless vending machines are way better approaches than partnering with a specific brand. Now you’re limiting yourself to that brands specific style, it doesn’t seem like a Threadless thing to do. No bueno.

Top 3 Campaigns and Promotions of the Week | 7/13/12- 7/20/12

Image ~ July 20, 2012 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

I thought I would try out something new and find the most intriguing campaigns and promotions of the week. Hopefully, turning this into a more weekly occurrence.

To kick things off, this week’s picks include an e-commerce brand’s Facebook approach to achieving more “likes” and customer interactions, a foodie favorite of mine whose Summer Cookbook snagged a collaboration with Apple and Starbuck’s “Pick of the Week”, and a beverage brand hitting the pavement in your local borough.

1.) Birchbox – Facebook Promo Code Photo Hunt Campaign

While Facebook no longer allows you to “Like” before entering Facebook contests. I love Birchbox‘s approach in thinking outside the box to get more “likes” and customer engagement through their Facebook channel. Now I will have to wait until Monday to learn more about promo code. Oh the suspense!

2.) Tasting Table Cookbook – Summer 2012 – Starbucks and iBookstore Promotion

I am such a huge fan of Tasting Table, so when I saw this at Starbucks today I literally did a double take. I am so glad that they were able to do this summer cookbook campaign with Starbucks and Apple, more people need to know about this brand.

3.) Vitamin Water – Guerrilla Marketing, Hitting the Streets

Vitamin Water brings the product offline and into the hands of the community. I saw them passing out Vitamin Waters last week in Fort Greene, Brooklyn and now Astoria in Queens. I love how they have been using this summer’s heat to their advantage and getting face to face with consumers. More importantly, they’re not taking it to Times Square, they are hitting the local community, which I find to be a great strategy since now I remember and am writing about their brand which means it’s working.