Fisiontern

Monday Morning Water Cooler: Mike’s Big Date

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 18:01:41 -0500

Monday Morning Water Cooler: Mike’s Big Date

A Guest Post From the Creative Director I wanted to take this...

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 11:21:21 -0500

A Guest Post From the Creative Director

I wanted to take this time the let everybody know that JK is doing and excellent job at being a design intern… tons of talent, hard working, persistent, humble, fun… but he’s totally failing at the pop culture aspect of this job.

jtwilly:

apparently tumblr doesn’t let you dominate feeds with long ass images, but my design intern is not doing things right this morning and sharing it with the internet makes me feel better about that.

this is mostly about 2 things:

1. He keeps filling space instead of designing space

2. Part of being an intern here is getting a free netflix account where the best movies ever show up at your house, in three weeks he’s watched one.

view the conversation here

Greetings From the New Design Intern

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 11:56:00 -0500

Hi, my name is Joungkong (JK) Yang the new Design Intern for Fision. My first week of Fision has been an awesome experience. I got to wear multiple hats from creating photoshop mockups to researching responsive designs for wordpress and working with the passionate creative/marketing team. The highlight of working at Fision definitely has to be the great music selection using Spotify, and of course the friendly people.

I am expecting to work on new and exciting projects for the next 2 months but most importantly I want to learn new and innovative ideas to help me improve my skills as a designer for future opportunities.

Thank you, Fision for giving me the opportunity to work as your Design Intern I am very excited to see what kinds of projects will be given to me!

JK Yang
Design Intern

Farewell...kinda

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 14:50:00 -0500

Michael here. Today I’m posting a pseudo-farewell blog.

Not because I’m leaving Fision or anything, we just hired a new design intern so he’ll be taking over the reigns.

This has been valuable experience and I’m happy to be in a nine to five routine. You may read this and think to yourself that a nine to five routine sucks, but at some point in life one must take the plunge.

I love having the access to our social platforms and dedicating time to our marketing efforts. I don’t mind putting in the time to research either. The job has been a crash course in communications and will be invaluable as I move my career along.

It really is a wonderful thing here. I just keep showing up, someone keeps paying me.

I’m happy to say I truly like everyone in the office. Sure there are some days where I just want to be left alone and listen to a few podcasts, but overall the people make me laugh and I can count on one hand how many times I’ve actually rolled out of bed in the morning not wanting to go in.

Random things I have liked about working at Fision?

The downtown location, paid parking
Cowboy Jack’s next door and its wait staff
Nerf gun wars
Laurie and Judy’s random inside jokes
Having all the pop and Red Bull you could ever want (sometimes)
The term “Buy Fision”
Middle-aged Jessie the developer’s random thug hoodie
Birthday bars
Spotify
Leering in the skyway
Daydreaming of the worst 4-on-4 basketball team ever
Having a view of CNN on the TV
Spending weeks (months?) trying to figure out if Cheyl is a salesperson or a marketer
Kokapelli
The Dornbach
Pizza Luce
The company’s growing Twitter page
Conservative commentary

Before finishing this post I have to share my favorite story (so far) while working here.

I took a business law course this fall and was unable to sell it back to Amazon because it is “out of date”—by the way, if it’s out of date how come it still cost me $65?—anyways, I jokingly tried to pawn it off on people knowing nobody in their right mind would want a 700-page text book on this stuff.

However, our company CFO Garry was mesmerized.

Garry’s been dubbed “literally most interesting man in the world” for his unusual stories that he’s shared about his life.

These stories include his investment in hundreds of various teddy bears to flip for profit online, being a part-time magici—sorry—”illusionist”,working in the world trade center and a phase as a skydiver.

As I sat down in his phone booth sized office that day, Garry thumbed through the text and lands on a page about racketeering. I know what racketeering is, but this didn’t deter him from going into this story of how back in the 90’s he got into a lawsuit with a frivolous company and SEGA.

The lawsuit had something to do with Garry selling Sonic the Hedgehog (?!) merchandise throughout the country in stores such as Wal-Mart. In the end he says he won over a quarter of a million dollars in the lawsuit.

Garry was represented by a friend who was a federal attorney based in the northeast. Basically the guy made a living off busting mob guys. Not a bad gig.

Years later this friend would go on to be a part of the council who advised Bernie Madoff (?!) to turn himself in to authorities over his multi-billion dollar ponzi scheme.

My chat with Garry somehow ended with him meeting Mark Zuckerberg’s sister (?!) on a couple of occasions, and now they are friends on facebook.

Asked why he befriended her on the social media site?

“Just to see if I could get an in with Mark. I haven’t had the time yet.”

And you wonder why I just keep showing up.

WALK THE MOON - Tightrope (by WalkTheMoonVEVO) My favorite song...

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 18:21:17 -0500

WALK THE MOON - Tightrope (by WalkTheMoonVEVO)

My favorite song from the last year. Can’t wait to see them next Friday.

Book Review: Live from New York

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 17:37:27 -0400

Some how, some way I found time to finish reading “Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live” and it was a great ride. Hundreds of pages of stories from the people, both behind the scenes and in front of the camera, who made SNL the institution it is today.

Veteran authors Tom Schales and James Andrew Miller clearly did an exhaustive amount of research and hundreds of interviews, and paint a balanced portrait of the shows highs and lows. Interviews including series creator/executive producer Lorne Michaels, producer Marcy Klein (Calvin’s daughter), network executives like Don Ohlmeyer and Dick Ebersol all provide great behind the scenes insights, but of course the best stuff comes from the performers and stars that were in the cast, wrote or hosted and it’s a venerable laundry list of comedy legends. Quotes and stories from personalities like:

Bill Murray
Dan Aykroyd
Chevy Chase
Steve Martin
Al Franken
Jane Curtin
Joe Piscapo
Billy Crystal
Martin Short
Harry Shearer
Larry David
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Dana Carvey
Jon Lovitz
Kevin Nealon
Mike Myers
Tom Hanks
Dennis Miller
Damon Wayans
Conan O’Brien
Adam Sandler
David Spade
Chris Rock
Jerry Seinfeld
Janeane Garofalo
Alec Baldwin
Norm MacDonald
John Goodman
Molly Shannon
Will Ferrell
Chris Kattan
Cheri Oteri
Robert Smigel
Horatio Sanz
Jimmy Fallon
Tina Fey
Maya Rudolph
Amy Poehler
Seth Meyers

They all give candid tales from politics backstage, on-air controversies, great anecdotes and stories on how characters came about. The only shame is talents like Gilda Radner, Phil Hartman and Chris Farley aren’t available to

At roughly 700 pages, there’s just so much information to get out of the book and I look forward to reading it again because it’s certainly something you can find out something new on every time you pick it up.

In all the only two things I didn’t like about the book was one, Eddie Murphy refused to do an interview which is too bad because there’s basically a whole chapter devoted to his meteoric rise on the show in the early-80’s and two, the book only goes up to 2002. It would’ve been great to have tales about Kristen Wiig, Justin Timberlake, Digital Shorts and the 2008 election.

All-in-all this is a must read for any fan of the show and comedy in general.

Stray observations:

The tales of Belushi and Farley are incredible.

Nealon might be the most underrated comedian of the last 25 years. Every time he pops up in the book he’s gold. Story in the book notes that a fan sent a death threat to Nealon via the mail and called him a “big-headed idiot” so naturally Nealon walked around the office for two weeks asking people “Do I really have a big head?”

One person was quoted as saying Lorne “likes Irish Catholics a lot”. Judging by the list of names above this is true. But who doesn’t love Irish Catholics, right? RIGHT?

It’s a three-way race for who comes off as the biggest jerk in the book between Chase, Shearer and Franken (spare me your political opinions and read the book) who all come off as angry and unfunny.

It’s funny, possibly ironic, to hear Oteri say that no one uses drugs on the show anymore, when it’s since came out that her once cast mateDarrell Hammond was abusing opiates while on the show.

Dozens of pages devoted to Michaels, and it’s a fascinating character study, although it’s too long.

Kattan mentioning that he constantly has to tell people that he’s not gay was a highlight.

Interesting to read Fallon wasn’t sure if Lorne liked him or not and here we are all these years later and Michaels hand picked Fallon to replace O’Brien for the Late Night show.

Yes, most movies about SNL characters are bad.

You really get the feeling nobody saw the success of Tina Fey coming, not that people didn’t have sterling things to say about her, but people didn’t speak of her like she would become the star she has.

Michaels likes to name drop. A lot.

Not too much is mentioned of Hartman’s murder, which is understandable, but it’s very noticeable how they just skate past the issue.

Ferrell’s audition story is hysterical.

Great book. 8.5/10.

On: The Work Rut

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 18:05:00 -0400

Read a wonderful article on effective moves to break out of the dreaded “work rut” this afternoon.

To be honest, one of the first points made is incredibly true: Summer breaks our routines. We’re more apt to vacation, there is less traffic, a lot less classes and students, and since football is out of season both sexes leave the house on the weekends.

As a young professional I’ve read that it can take a full year for those to adjust to full-time work schedules. That makes sense as well, and we all have days/weeks where anyone can kind of be in a funk. I’d like to tackle some of the points I found compelling.

Set a bedtime and wake-up time: This is probably my worst problem since I’m a devoted night owl. The lack of air conditioning in my apartment, and the constant scoffing I have received from retail employees-“Where were you when we had them in April?”-said one teenage employee at an unnamed store) when trying to buy a window air condition during our heatwave(s) this summer haven’t helped.

Alternate chairs/stand up for your life: I want one of those weird standing desks. After having this bizarre ergonomic chair salesman come to my eighth grade business class I have always had a weird thing about my chair.

Don’t give lunch short shrift/get out of the office: I always try to go out to lunch twice a week, mostly for the exercise. It really does break up time, even if it’s the ~5 minute walk to Jimmy John’s.

The whole article is worth the read, if only to break the monotony of your day for seven minutes.

Can Twitter and the Olympics Co-Exist?

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 18:03:00 -0400

The world is abuzz over the Olympics. It has came with the usual water cooler topics over the new heroes and the reminding of forgotten sports likes water polo, handball, and synchronized diving.

But the explosion of social media in the last four years has also taken center stage. Sure four years ago we could tend to our facebook posts congratulating Michael Phelps, Shawn Johnson, and LeBron James, but with twitter only in its infancy, there wasn’t the same first-hand interaction from our stars.

And so the Olympic twitter controversy has taken center stage.

First there was Greek pole vaulter Voula Papachristou (yes I did copy and paste that) and her racist tweet aimed towards African athletes.

Then during the first weekend there was the bizarre Hope Solo tweets aimed at color commentator, and women’s soccer hero, Brandi Chastain for her on-air commentating.

Now Swiss soccer player Michel Morganella (command+c, command+v) was sent home after racist tweets towards South Koreans.

Uff-da.

We here at Fision have blogged about blogging and social media practices and while not completely linear cases, I infer that we, not just these athletes, can follow some easy, defined practices.

Have interesting content. Ask yourself if someone else wrote this, would I care?
Be credible. Have you built up trusting relationships through integrity?
Don’t seem desperate. If it’s it, they will follow.

At the very least hopefully these embarrassing remarks will be a good lesson for all. Now, if my twitter followers would stop spoiling the results!

Learning the Ropes

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 16:08:00 -0400

Hello! My name is Caitlin Brown, yes bossman Mike Brown’s daughter. I am just working with Michael as an intern here at Fision for the rest of the summer before I head back to school in the fall at Iowa State.

Why?

Basically because I was bored sitting around at home and didn’t have enough time at home to get a job. Not that I am suddenly having so much fun here at work… All morning I have been uploading codes and names and numbers, yada yada yada, into the computer.

At least it’s pretty mindless and something to do. I also kept looking up the results of the Olympics. I had to keep posted on women’s gymnastics team finals! (I won’t spoil it, but we did well for those of you who care).

I am a gymnast at Iowa State which is why I spend so much time at school and don’t usually have enough time for a job. I’m not sure what I expected this job to be exactly. I think I was just excited to 1) say I have a job and 2) dress up for work. Seeing as I’m an apparel merchandising major, I had plenty of outfits planned out before I even started. Today I wore a new pair of floral heels that I LOVE.

And I was glad too, because today my dad introduced me to someone in the fashion industry. That was pretty cool for a 19 year old still in school to gain that connection. I also learned that Jt went to Iowa State and happened to live just down the street from where I lived this summer.

Other than that, things here have just been learning about the company and entering information from long lists of stuff that doesn’t mean a whole lot to me. I did sit in on a few tutorials of the product last week. I can say I finally know what my dad does for a living. And I must say, it’s actually pretty neat. Now when people ask I can give them the right answer instead of just saying “He owns a marketing company or something”.

I’m no expert on it though, still just learning the ropes.

Caitlin

Multitasking Adds Stress?!?!?!

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 17:56:00 -0400

I could not love this infographic more.

I especially love one of the opening tidbits that in 1960 the average person had 5 hours of media exposure a day. I assume it was the kind of media exposure that Jack Arnold from “The Wonder Years” had. Just kind of staring blankly at the TV, trying to forget about another crappy day while working at Norcom, his hippy daughter, and commies.

But in 2010 the media exposure per day jumped to 12 hours.

Half of our day is exposed to mass media?

So does this mean that every generation post-baby boomers is going to end up with mush for brains? While I certainly hope my brain and body don’t end up like one of Rachel Leigh Cook’s eggs, you can’t help but wonder what all this exposure will do beyond attention deficit issues.

Take for example me right as I’m writing this.

I’m listening to Mayer Hawthorne on Spotify.

I’m writing on this Tumblr blog.

In my right eye periferal CNN is on at all times on the TV.

On my left computer monitor, having one isn’t enough, my email is open and my company Twitter page is constantly streaming.

Once I get home and am done with dinner I’ll pop on my MLB Extra Innings package and flip between a few games from 6-7 out East, add the Twins game to the mix at 7, then check out what’s going on out West when the 9pm games start. Ohh and I’ll be toggling through my three, yes three, I’m not proud, fantasy baseball team pages and my own Twitter page.

My head is spinning right now, maybe from the two Diet Mountain Dews, probably from the fact the above paragraph explains why I’m single and it depresses me.

After writing all this down I think I’m going to try to initiate less internet use at night.

Kind of makes me yearn for the days Jack Arnold could just zone out Walter Kronkite.

-Michael

Why Such A Pain SoMe?

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 17:37:00 -0400

I’m pretty new to the LinkedIn game.

I like LinkedIn, it makes a lot of sense to have a professional social network you can connect, have good discussions in groups, and learn more about companies. It’s an especially nice change of pace from Facebook, which let’s be honest can be annoying.

No not, Kimmy Gibler annoying, but “I don’t care about what you just ate, what your thoughts on health care are, or how much you love life” annoying.

But one thing I have come across is how difficult LinkedIn might be.

No, not winning a game of three card monte in Queens difficult, more we forgot to leave Katy Perry those specific tulips in her dressing room difficult.

We here at Fision tried to share a Facebook video we liked on LinkedIn and it wouldn’t let us do it. Turns out LinkedIn and Facebook don’t get along and with the news of Facebook rolling out a jobs posting board on its site probably won’t help matters.

And by the way, we need another site that posts crappy jobs like we need a hole in the head.

But besides not being able to share the Facebook video, now LinkedIn and Twitter have broken off a partnership that allows you to share content at the same time (A post you make on Twitter automatically goes to your LinkedIn profile and vice versa because they’re synched).

We didn’t link our accounts, but it’s just knowing the inconvience of many that do that makes me shake my head.

It’s short sited.

The future to me is combining all these profiles. One page where all the content lies. A Timeline ala Facebook, short message posts like tweets or status updates, a stream of info once you log in, detailed professional information like LinkedIn, a pinboard, brand new photos glossed over to look vintage.

I think this will happen for two reasons:

1. The bubble might burst. SoMe isn’t going away, but Facebook’s stock disaster is proof none of these companies are invincible.

2. Too many sites. I have a Facebook page where I can goof around, keep up with family, and check out those classy instagram photos of the beach. I have a twitter handle wear I’m known as @McGive_It_To_Me and follow my favorite sports writers, entertainers, and can interact with friends as well. I have a LinkedIn where I mostly promote the Fision brand over myself. This doesn’t include blogs, Pinterest, Yelp, Four Sq. etc.

Social Media is suppose to be fun and informative, let’s get the top sites to be friends so we can move on consolidate our pages.

(And exhale)

Making the Most Out of Your Internship

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 14:50:23 -0400

PR practitioner Priya Ramesh wrote a blog telling Interns, specifically PR interns but it could be pointed at any communications intern really, “You Are Not Special”. The article can be found here and is worth a read.

The entire article isn’t reinventing the wheel- it tells you to work hard, shut your mouth, stand out, pick your spots etc.- but it’s well written, applies to all young professionals, and a good reminder of basic qualities of a worker.

I did love the end of the article where he quotes a teacher named David McCullough who stated in a commencement speech this:

“Resist the easy comforts of complacency, the specious glitter of materialism, the narcotic paralysis of self-satisfaction. Be worthy of your advantages. And read… read all the time… read as a matter of principle, as a matter of self-respect. Read as a nourishing staple of life. Develop and protect a moral sensibility and demonstrate the character to apply it. Dream big. Work hard. Think for yourself. Love everything you love, everyone you love, with all your might. And do so, please, with a sense of urgency, for every tick of the clock subtracts from fewer and fewer; and as surely as there are commencements there are cessations, and you’ll be in no condition to enjoy the ceremony attendant to that eventuality no matter how delightful the afternoon.”

Well stated Mr. McCullough!

For other interesting articles that I’ve recently posted on CMO longevity, social media trends, and an awesome infographic on email’s at the workplace look no further than here, here, and here

-Michael

10 Career Tips For Young Professionals

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 17:18:00 -0400

Marcus Starke’s article on tips for those venturing out into the work world blends a sensible balance of small and big picture goals/habits/interests that lead to success. The whole article is worth a read here, but I want to touch on a couple points I can personally attest to.

The first is Starke’s notion of looking for a mentor. During a class last Spring our professor would bring in accomplished guest speakers to give lectures and presentations to help us, the students, gain knowledge. They’d always leave a business card and seemed generally interested in helping out others. I met with a few of these speakers, have kept in touch with them, and picked their brain. On every occasion these professionals said they knew I have what it takes to succeed.

Why?

Because I was the only one in class who had contacted them.

How is that possible? I think in today’s world, today’s economy, wouldn’t you want to take every chance possible to build yourself up, network, and get that next oppourtunity? I wouldn’t have this internship if I hadn’t done so…

The other notion is to stay positive. Yeah we all lose our cool, but every morning is a new chance to prove ourselves again. Think of the un-positive people that you’ve come across in your life. I bet your opinion isn’t that high of them.

I’ll never forget the teacher I once had who spent countless time lecturing the same handful of kids in our class, and apparently every other class, on why they wouldn’t be successful in life unless they conformed to the set ideals the teacher made up.

Isn’t life too short to have that negative of a point of view?

So get a mentor, stay positive, and check out the rest of that article for eight other steps to gain success as a young professional.

For more insights on marketing, check out my employer, Fision, and their blog here

-Michael

Taking In A Great White Paper

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 16:50:43 -0400

The Bossman sent me a link to a white paper on Marketing Automation that offers a broader view on the topic.

I’ve read, and read, and read some more, and finally read a little bit more after that on the topic and everything was the same as before.

“Marketing Automation creates efficiency for your sales team.”

“Automation helps industries that struggle with Marketing.”

“Automation bridges some gaps between the Marketers and Sales staff.”

“Marketing Automation is like Soccer and Dippin’ Dots. It’s the wave of the future.”

Okay, I made the last one up, but there has been a lot of “wave of the future” talk.

But this white paper was great at answering a lot of ruminations in my dome and, at least I think, help me, your humble intern, in making us here at Fision better at social media. Right now we’re robotic. But the white paper helped fuel some ideas.

I won’t get into detail, because you probably don’t care, but some tidbits I will share kind of do make sense. This includes:

Marketing Automation (MA) encompasses multiple technologies, functions, and purposes.
MA helps marketers face pressure to deploy new technologies, control costs, and prove out the value of their efforts.
MA helps score better leads. Low quality leads are worse than no leads because they waste resources.
Outbound email, social media, landing pages, and web forms are all you need for MA
The real value of MA lies in empowering marketers to run more programs, try new approaches, and strengthen coordination w/sales.

There’s plenty more but these are some tidbits that helped me understand more about Marketing Automation, an easier way to test new methods in marketing techniques.

Marketing Autowhaaa?

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 18:00:40 -0400

Michael here.

After a full week on my own I’ve learned a few tricks to help get through this office. This includes, but not limited to, getting to the back door of the Butler Square building, finding out what time the building locks and you need your swipe key to get in, the pros and cons of leaving the parking ramp an hour before a Twins game , don’t wear a Gopher hat or Jesse will have to wear his “Big Red” attire (I assume he’s referring to the Neberaska Cornhuskers), Don’t put up an unintentionally hilarious poster of one of the kids from OneDirection or Garry the CFO will wanna know “What your story is” and load up the Spotify playlist before doing anything.

But above all else, the one thing I’ve learned is just what Marketing Automation is. I still don’t know enough to explain it to any of my friends without them thinking that I’m lying. They might not think I got a new job and in reality they think I lost my old job.

Marketing Automation seems to be a simple, effective way to get your overloaded sales and marketing people to have one less thing to worry about. I’ve read time and time again that shared value and BtoB connections are the wave of the future and Marketing Automation is getting more attention.

But where do I fit in? I hope to get our Fision brand out there in the SoMe universe and help get those leads to our sales people. We here at Fision think that big things are right around the corner, and I’m just grateful I’m getting the opportunity and time I need to excel at this gig.

Hopefully by the end of all this Fision will see the growth it envisions, nobody will question my OneDirection poster, and Marketing Automation will be as common a term as “Social Media”, “Search Engine Optimization”, and “Multi-Channel Distribution”.

Life Is Weird

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 16:00:00 -0400

Michael here.

Today is my first day all alone as the Fisintern. The previous intern, Jake, has left for the Summer. He will be back in the Fall and I look forward to seeing him. In short, Jake is a really sharp dude.

It was really reassuring to hear from him at the end of last week that he didn’t know what he was doing either once he started the internship, so while I’m filling big shoes, at least I know that I will be given time to find my groove.

I will say as I take the reigns for SoMe and Marketing, it feels odd that I’m so different than the previous two interns who were more analytically inclined. They’re both super organized and I’m not as much. Do I need to shape up? We will find out…

Lastly I titled this post “Life Is Weird” because just in the last month I’ve gotten this job in downtown Minneapolis and got my own place on Grand Ave. in St. Paul. For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to work downtown and live on Grand. I’m about to turn 25 and poof- two long standing goals have been realized.

Crazy.

At this rate my lifelong dream of marrying Tiffani Amber Thiessen will be realized by 2017.

-Michael

The Cat Loving Intern's Final Post

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 17:39:41 -0400

Today is my last day as the intern and it has been a good one. I’ve made 13/20 baskets, which is much better than my average of 3/20. I helped decorate a co-workers cube in a I <3 Justin Bieber theme. I was gifted some chocolate covered almonds and I ate a gyro.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working here thus far and I am excited to return in the fall. Here are a few things I have learned:

1. My eyes were opened to new media. I discovered a lot of new music because of our awesome playlist schedule. I watched some “must see” 80’s movies and saw Charlie Sheen when he was truly winning. Lastly, I fell in love with the Inbetweeners and Arrested Development.

2. I try my best to communicate through gifs. I have a ton of them saved in my AWESOME folder and I really love finding new ones.

3. I learned a cat ton about marketing software and B2B communications. I still wouldn’t consider myself a master, but I have come a long way in the social and SEO world. It’s a fun industry to be in and creating the social aspect of our business has been a good challenge.

4. I learned about people, roles and small business. I now know that Suzy loves cats too and that Jt wishes he was a rainbow. This helps you relate to them and makes work more fun. I learned that there are several roles in a small business and just because you are assigned one doesn’t mean you will stay there. I dabbled in a lot of different things in my time as the intern but that was one of my favorite parts of the job

Overall the internship wasn’t at all what I expected - truth be told I wasn’t sure what to expect. Though, I was pleasantly surprised, I learned a lot and had a ton of fun doing it.

I expect the new intern Michael to further develop our social strategy. I hope he is able to come up with a wonderful process for crafting and pushing out content. It’s a time consuming task, so any way he can improve it would be great for both of us. I also expect him to tweet and post so much that he drives 100 people to the website in a single day. We’ve hit 90 before and it would be fun to hit that 100 person mark. I Also hope he hits Jt in the face with a koosh ball at least once a week. Lastly, he needs to become a Nerf basketball star, a shooting average of 3/10 would be satisfactory.

Best of luck Michael. Enjoy the position and hoard all the fun stuff, it is awesome.

— Jake

Evil Dead 2

Thu, 03 May 2012 09:46:54 -0400

If I look at this movie from a single perspective, as a 23 year old guy living in 2012, I look at this movie and say wow. Wow, this is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. When compared to my normal standards, the plot was bad, the acting was awful, and the special effects were also quite weak. Moreover, the fact that this is a sequel concerns me. The fact that it has the same main actor as the first movie confuses me. Even though I wanted to stop watching, I couldn’t, and that forces me to look at it from other perspectives. About 15 minutes into the film I looked at the IMDB rating, and was half-shocked by the 7.8 rating, that number confirmed my belief that Evil Dead 2 is a cult classic and needs to be seen as just that. When I look at it from that perspective I can enjoy the cheesy 1-liners, the crazy hillbilly, and the amount of blood usually only found in Quentin Tarantino films. I also have to pay my respects because, as any horror film should, it creeped me out and made me jump at times. I will never be able to say that I enjoyed the film but I can say that I appreciate it for what it is. With that I give it a 2 out of 5 stars, sorry to disappoint the mega-fans out there it’s just not for me.

The Internet

Wed, 02 May 2012 11:06:00 -0400

Yesterday our internet connection went kaput. I still really don’t have a grasp on why it happened, but it did, and it was crippling. At first it was kinda of fun. There were no emails coming in to distract me and I knew my to-do list wouldn’t be getting longer. I also talked with a few people in the office - the socializing was great. When I finally realized it wasn’t going to be a quick fix, I sorted through my work and found several things I could do without the internet. I accomplished all of those in a few hours and again was at a loss. So, I fixed the basketball hoop, scavenged for Nerf darts, and even did a little cleaning. After those “high importance” tasks were completed, I scoured my to-do list and found a few other things to do. I even pre-completed a few things, like drafting emails and blogs for that happy moment when the internet would click on again. It was nearing the end of the day and I finally gave up and went home. There simply wasn’t anything else I could do.
In my personal life, I am completely fine being without the internet, it’s actually refreshing. However, in a work setting, particularly a social media work setting, it is impossible to do my job without it. As all of this is happening, I am torn between loving and hating the internet. We survived for thousands of years without it, and all of a sudden it seems to be essential. I love how easy and comfortable it makes my life but I hate the fact that I cannot be productive without it. I feel empowered by the knowledge I have gained from it and the connections I can make. But at the same time, I feel ruined as a person and useless as an employee. It’s an interesting place to be. Hopefully things change by tomorrow, because I know the longer it’s off, the more I will have to do when it’s on again. Apparently the internet runs my life - scary.

—Jake

Things I've Learned so Far

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:49:07 -0400

SEO: I didn’t really know anything about SEO or link building before I came here. Within the first week I was told I was going to be building links. Being a bit confused and not wanting to look like a fool, I did some research and watched a few webinars on how to do it. Now, I do it almost every day. To add to this, I’ve learned that it is worth the money to invest in a tool that will help monitor all your links and also help you find new ones. I use Raven, which has been very helpful; it makes the task manageable and helps me organize everything.

Social Media: I’ve learned that it takes a lot to maintain a social presence across the interwebs. I have love/hate relationship with the beast. I love it because it’s so quick and allows me to connect with people and the world instantly. However, maintaining that connection or trying to start a new one is an ever-growing task. It really has no end, which is depressing in the sense that there isn’t a finished product at the end. Though, I try to set goals and extend our reach, so to keep my spirits up I look at it from a different angle. Furthermore, I can imagine that as time goes on we’ll get into a routine and it will get easier.

Variety: Don’t do the same thing for too long or you’ll die. I have a few tasks that I do every week. One week I did Raven one day, LinkedIn the next, research the next, etc. and it wasn’t that fun - the day seemed too long. I’ve learned to break the day up and do pieces of different tasks every day (more or less). With that though, I do try to focus on the given task for an hour or two to “get in the zone.” While multitasking seems efficient I don’t think it actually is, and the social media can be a big distraction. I try not to get sucked into the random articles about the apple android debate or anything relating to Justin Bieber.

FUN: You’ve gotta have some fun here and there. Break the day up with a little fun, if you’ve been working hard you deserve it. Depending on my mood, I’ll take a stroll to the secret staircase or maybe shoot some nerf basketball. From time to time I like to send a co-worker a .gif or start a nerf gun fight. Don’t get wild, but don’t stay bored either.

—Jake