Trying something new – Every week I’ll post a weekly re-cap of what I found interesting, from social, technology, events, creativity, inspiration, and NYC. Enjoy!
Wildcard (My life and interesting things I find along the way) :
This new Tropicana Subway Ad
Blue Apron Meals– This is a life changer. They send you 3 healthy meals per week to cook. I’m learning to cook and don’t need to do as much grocery shopping!
Snowpocalypse (Nemo) and the Smallest Snowman to Hail a Cab:
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.”
In the Social Media air travel space, I have heard of such contenders as Southwest being noted time and time again as the ruler of social. Being that I love travel and Social Media research I thought I would take a deeper look into how these top airlines compare. Of these airlines I chose JetBlue, Southwest, Delta, American Airlines, and Virgin Airlines. And we’re off…
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Nicole Monahan 