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.

2 Years in the City: A Recap of the Adventure, So Far

January 21, 2013 ~ Nicole Monahan ~ 1 Comment

Today marks my 2nd year in NY. It feels only like yesterday my cat shoved himself into my luggage bag.

Before I knew it I was face to face with snow for the first time in my life.

“New York forces you to grow up fast,” a friend said to me this weekend. He couldn’t have been more right. Every single day you’re given a new challenge that makes you think faster and learn quicker than you ever thought possible. Changes are made daily; you need to learn how to adapt.

I’ve learned quite a bit over the past 2 years. Here are a few secrets I’ll let you in on:

1.) It will never get any easier. Ever. There will always be snow, rent, tourists, homesick-ness, and everything comes at a cost because lets face it, it still annoys me that you have to pay for the beaches here.

2.) Ignore the haters. Inevitably someone will cut you in line (and never apologize), no one will ever give up their seat for you, and you may face a time when someone will throw you under the bus. Hear me out. The truth is there’s far too much competition here. Everything needs to be fresh and fast, simply because there are too many talented people here. Everyone wants to be seen. My advice, ignore the haters. Master getting people’s attention without excuses, without sacrificing someone at the cost of your benefit. They may think they’ve accomplished something, but in the end they are still the same — mediocre at best.

3.) Stop questioning the city. At some point you will eventually learn to accept it for who it is – Like a pain in the ass family member, who in the end you love regardless of all their faults. Because the reality is this place changes you. I would never have had the opportunity to do 2% of the things I’ve done here back at home. Looking back I’ve been a part of some amazing companies, made some good friends, and with all the things I’ve been able to experience I feel truly blessed and lucky.

There is really nothing like taking that leap into the unknown and knowing you will probably fail. The key is to fail harder again and again. Because those who have it easy, those that are so naturally successful aren’t nearly as interesting as those that fail, learn, get up, and tries it all over again…. (Look at Kim Kardashian, she’s got to be the most boring celebrity ever. As Grumpy Cat said it best, “I wish I had her talent of having no talent, and getting paid for it.)

This journey has been both exciting and terrifying. But there is nothing quite like that feeling of figuring it all out – The Uncomfortable Zone. I’m not sure what’s in store next but I do know that I’m excited about the adventure. And I do know I want to continue to write it all down, whatever it might be so I’ll never forgot.

———-

It wouldn’t be a true Nicole post without lots of photos so here is a #2yrRecap:

Working at the Guggenheim Museum #2yrRecap

Rockfeller Christmass Tree #ChristmasinNY — Christmas in NY, always a good time #2yrRecap

Webster Girls Adventure in Brooklyn — Any Webster Girl Adventures #2yrRecap

Lomography Trips and Work — Lomography Trips & Work #2yrRecap

Improv Everywhere 2012 MP3 Experiment #2yrRecap

Moustache School Bus — Any time this happened #2yrRecap

New Yorkers at their best — Or this. #2yrRecap

Me and Dad in the city — Any time Dad came to visit. #2yrRecap

Regis and Kelly Show — Finally seeing Regis #2yrRecap

Jazz-Age Lawn Party with Friends #2yrRecap

Flavorpill Art of Yoga — Flavorpill Events and Worklife #2yrRecap

Central Park Bubbles — Exploring Central Park #2yrRecap

Irish Family Facebook Reunion — Meeting my Irish Family for the first time #2yrRecap

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

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 →

Nicole Monahan

Digital marketer, brunch enthusiast, passionate about building relationships and inspiring others through connection and great experiences.

flavorpill

2 Years in the City: A Recap of the Adventure, So Far

Inbox Overload: A Weeks Worth of Email Marketing

An Email Subject Line: