foursquare

Tech Office Visits – Past, Present, and Future

google office new york
~ 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.)

google office new york

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.

Informational Interviews with Foursquare Employees – The Problem Solvers

Foursquare Progress Chart
~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

Foursquare Progress Chart

Best piece of advice: Talk to as many people as you can and often. 

It occurred to me that over the past year I’ve conducted 16 informational interviews with wonderfully talented people from Birchbox, Bit.ly, Warby Parker, Buzzfeed, Flavorpill, Eventbrite, Foursquare, and MKG. What also occurred to me was the fact that I haven’t been sharing the advice I received from so many great people. This really clicked for when I had an informational interview last week at the Foursquare headquarters. Besides fangirling over their fancy offices and meeting Dennis Crowley in person, when I sat down with Anna Frenkel, Head of Consumer Marketing at Foursquare I realized she was giving similar advice that Talisa Chang, Product Marketing, at Foursquare did months earlier…

Become a problem solver.

Here’s some highlights from both interviews:

Talisa:

  • In your cover letter you should list how you’re going to solve their problems. List details, be specific. Provide challenging examples.
  • Get into the company’s mind. What are you going to bring to the table? How can you improve their company? 
  • Seek out competitors. Ask yourself, what would you do differently? 
  • Have an active mind.
  • And finally my personal favorite quote from Miss Talisa. “Go where there’s momentum. Go where there’s energy.” 

Anna:

Began at Foursquare in customer service and community management and started looking for pain points that they were facing and presented a solution for them. 

On Prioritizing: Ask yourself, where can I make the biggest impact?

On figuring yourself out, start thinking about:

  • What is it about a company or job that really interests you? Do you love building Facebook Pages? Content on Twitter? Narrow it down and be specific.
  • What is it about these social media platforms that I wish I would have done? What problem was (Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, etc) trying to solve?

I’ve learned two important things from these interviews. Not only does Foursquare like problem solvers, but what these interviews made me realize was how so few companies look or ask for these things. It seems to become more about your resume, what you’ve done, and who you know and less about why this company in the first place or what problems still need to be solved.

Another thing I’ve realized was that I’m clueless in what is it about working in my industry that really interests me. In this economy and more specifically my industry of tech and startups, you’re expected to wear all hats. Even now I do a little bit of everything from event planning, to social media, to marketing and promoting, to community management. Honestly, I was completely thrown off by this question from Anna — How can anyone narrow it down, when you’re expected to do it all? Yet, I understand the importance behind the question. It really forces you to find what you love. And for me, I enjoy being a community manager. I love connecting and interacting with fans of a brand. I love story telling. I think that’s why I like conducting these informational interviews, it’s about learning from everyday people. I must say I’m also pretty obsessed with research, finding what works and what doesn’t with brands, identifying opportunities, and finding what new trends are out there. Above all though, I really would love to Instagram all day. 😉

“We cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them” – Albert Einstein

Internet Inspiration: Living the most productive, healthiest life + vacation!

~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

This is simply a post on things I’m getting excited about. Starting with…

Vacation and scoring this Foursquare badge….

Foursquare Las Vegas City Badge:

Foursquare Las Vegas Badge

App & Devices

Honey.is

Honey.is:

Keep your team informed without the spam. Group mailing lists that automatically build and maintain your intranet while you work. Honey stores everything in the cloud for easy reference. Share once with everyone who will ever be involved with your project.

I’ve been currently using this with my team members to share articles and ideas found while browsing the web. Although, like the description says I’m sure it can be used for many other projects. There’s a plugin to use on your browser and find it more useful than when I tried using Stich/Evernote.

Pulse.me:

Pulse

Pulse takes your favorite websites and transforms them into a colorful and interactive mosaic.

My seamless way to read all my favorite industry and inspirational articles, websites, and blogs. You can also save and share articles.

Up by Jawbone:

Up by Jawbone

UP is a wristband and app that tracks your sleep, activity and food—then helps you use that information to feel your best and stay motivated with teammates.

Focusing on my health led me to this recommendation. It only works with iPhones and iPads right now, but the best part is that it tracks everything — you’re sleep, food, and activity. Knowing more about how I sleep, move, and eat have been so fascinating and helpful. New York is stressful enough, take care of yourself!

Applauze:

Applauze App

Applauze helps you discover, plan and attend the best events around you. 

Just discovered this app and love the interface. You search your location and it pulls up both free and paid events in your area. Best part is you can purchase tickets right through the app with no hidden charges.

+++++++++++++++++++

That’s all folks! I’m now officially starting vacation. BUT I always love productivity and apps. Please send recommendations my way!

 

 

 

Social Media Monday + Tattly

Tattly Love What You Do Tattoo
~ Nicole Monahan ~ Leave a comment

Social Media Campaigns I’ve loving this week:

1.) Patron’s Cocktail Share:

Love this concept and cocktails.

Patron Holiday Cocktail Campaign Facebook

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:

Gilt City #LoveYourCityMore Social Media CampaignGilt City Holiday Instagram Campaign

3.) Here comes the Advent Calendars:

The Yield 2012 Meme Calendar:

If you’re into Memes.

The Yield Advent Calendar 2012 Memes

Wildfire by Google: Social Media Advent Calendar

If you’re into facts.

Social Media Advent Calendar from WildFire and Google

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.

Food Fight Tasting Table Campaign

And the results:

Food Fight Tasting Table Campaign 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.

Foursquare 12/12/12 Badge

6.) SiriTalks Instagram:

Creative finds-love this idea.

SiriTalks Hashtag and Instagram

Bonus: My part-time gig at Tattly.

Tattly Love What You Do Tattoo

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.