Online Registry Done Right

My very excited, "first-time soon to be auntie" sister is throwing me a baby shower in a couple of weeks. She is adamant that I register somewhere.

So after careful online product research and no energy to go into stores and go through the rigmarole I went through with my bridal registry, I decided to only do registry at stores that met my criteria.

1. Must be available in Canada
2. Must be able to register, add and delete items online. (This took out 80% of stores including Pottery Barn and The Bay)
3. People must be able to purchase online.
4. I have to be able to see what was purchased.

I landed up registering at BabiesRus and Baby on the Hip.

Besides providing the above, this is what these two (1 very large and 1 small business) did above and beyond which helped make this process easy for me.

1. Provided a realistic laundry list of items I will need. Baby on the Hip did a great job of even providing a newborn list for newborns vs. 12 months.
2. A lot of items can be sold out in various colours and sizes. Their online system tells you upfront. (Heck, there is nothing more annoying than an e-commerce site not being up-to-date with real inventory)

One last item worth mentioning. Baby on the Hip sent me a Thank You card for registering at their store and offered me a 10% discount off my next in-store purchase. This was not only a great relationship builder but is a great way to drive people into the store.

Tweet Tweet Tweetin' through Twitter

Over the past few weeks, a larger than normal amount of friends have asked me "what exactly is twitter?"

My first explanation: Live updates. For example, similar to you keeping your facebook status up-to-date but on your own page.



Google it - some great 101 and basics come up to bring you up to speed. @mocost tweeted this morning on The Psychology of Twitter which provides a great 101 of twitter and the pros and cons.

Recently, I have been using twitter a lot to connect with other mothers. Whether it is a pregnancy question or learning more about child development, tweets from other mothers is helping me learn about the latest and greatest, while making strong relationships. Learn more about other mommies @Twittermoms

On a professional level, I stay connected to a lot of marketers on twitter, again to learn and connect. This is great when they are at a conference you are unable to attend. Many will tweet about case studies they are learning about.

If you are a business (small or big) looking to get into twitter, check out this great article on the NYTimes. Here is a site that shows you how to convert tweets to moola. For some examples, @edlee tweeted this morning about hotels using twitter and a few days ago, finding companies on twitter. Impressive.

Like any new application, it can be scary to get into it (heck, it may have taken 10 facebook requests before you joined). Here are some ways to start:

1. Sign up and look for people you A) know are on twitter B) use the 'find people' feature which can search people from your email (like gmail) and follow.
2. Follow a few people and see how they are using it.
3. Tweet what you feel comfortable with (maybe stick with what you update in facebook) to get your feet wet.

PS. My favourite tweets are the Mad Men characters. Too good.
PSS. You can follow me @mtampoya

Are you speaking to me?

Blogging, tweeting, commenting, im'ing, facebook'in'...I am a creator, participator and also a viewer of many things online.

With so many avenues of communication and so many ways of connecting the dots, it is becoming increasingly difficult to remember or speak to one audience or group of interest at one particular time.

You see, I have friends that I met through my blog and twitter on facebook, I have people who I IM, that read my blog and I have people whose blog I frequently comment on that read my tweets.

...and so the circle goes.

The result is, a mix and mash of content.

As you may be aware, this blog is focused on online marketing in particular with frequent strayings of my personal life, my tweets, just recently are focused on pregnancy and motherhood and my facebook status updates, are, well, fleeting ideas and comments.

So how do I deal with this? How do I not annoy you and have you communicate with me through the vehicle you are most happy with?

1. All the things I post, no matter where, is/are me. I am a soon-to-be-mommy, online marketer with crazy everyday musings. Unlike many others, I choose to not only cover one area of 'expertise' but several. Some just may not be of interest to you. I hope what is of interest is enough to keep you reading.
2. Let me know your thoughts. Should I cross all areas I write about between all vehicles more than less, or less than more?
3. Should I stick with one area? Online marketing or being a mother?

Twitter and my pregnancy

While I shift gears on the direction of this blog, I thought to do the same with my use of Twitter.

Participating on Twitter has been somewhat difficult for me. Aside from answering questions or commenting , I didn't feel like I had much value to add to my followers.

Why?
1. I do keep track of the latest online marketing trends, but can be a day or two late.
2. I am not always on twitter, so hard to know if someone already posted about a popular article or topic.
3. I blog about online marketing already and didn't want to be repetitive on twitter.
4. With a baby on the way, my focus has been on the pregnancy and baby development.
5. Don't think people are interested in my daily joe activities like doing the laundry or washing the dishes.

So what is the change?
1. With a network of new mommies and mommies-to-be, I needed an outlet for communication. I thought an additional blog would be difficult to maintain along with this one so opted for use of my twitter feed.
2. I read a lot about pregnancy and child development via feeds, magazines and books. It is easier to share what I am reading via twitter (especially new reports) or bookmark them.
3. When the child is born, it is easier for me to post to twitter and quickly communicate opposed to email.

If you are interested in learning with me or more about pregnancy and child development, feel free to follow me. If you already follow me and don't find any interest in my twitter posts, feel free to unsubscribe.

Family Day, Everyday - With the Help of Online Tools

Staying in touch with family and friends can be very difficult for some. Work schedules may not match up or family may be spread out across the country.

With the help of some online tools, it is easier to stay up-to-date with what your loved ones are doing and make that distance not seem to far away.

Facebook - This very popular site can help you see what your family and friends are up to at your own convenience. To make this successful, it is key that you too not only join but post photo's, your thoughts and contact information.

Flickr - This photo sharing site allows you to specifically choose family members and friends to see photo's you choose not to share with the public. The great thing about this site, opposed to sharing photo's on Facebook is the opportunity to download photo's in high resolution for printing or sharing on digital frames.

Private Blog - A blog is a great way to post diary submissions about your life to share with family and friends. Blog while on your bike trip across Europe or to track the growth and development of your child. Share with family and friends through either a public or private blog. The good thing about this too is that they can subscribe via RSS or email.

Leadership and Process

For whatever reason, I can't get Godin's post on "What are you good at?" out of my head.

This particular paragraph hit me the hardest:

Process, on the other hand, refers to the emotional intelligence skills you have about managing projects, visualizing success, persuading other people of your point of view, dealing with multiple priorities, etc. This stuff is insanely valuable and hard to learn.

Over the last few years, I have been able to work with some amazing people. Whether they were my direct VP or even an out-of-university co-op student - there have been several people in my life that have clearly, without maybe even knowing it - showed their ability to understand process and effect change.

Here are some small skills I have learned from others on how to get things done:

1. Be persuasive (without being annoying). For many organizations, online marketing is still new (believe it or not). If you are creating a new department or just a one man team - having the ability to make change, change processes and get buy-in from colleagues who may or may not be on board with what you are doing, takes strong leadership skills. This can come in the form of negotiation, through relationship building or for some, a simple business case that is persuasive may just do it. This skill becomes easier if you have demonstrated success in the past.
2. Keep the eye on the prize. Change is many organizations, particularly big ones, can be slow and painful. It requires many meetings, presentations, buy-ins and negotiations. If your organization does online marketing, they may still be reluctant to new strategies and tactics (like applying social media or mobile marketing). Having the ability to present new ideas and demonstrate the business need while still managing everyday projects, processes and functions is key to getting thing moving. This can be one of the most difficult skills to have.
3. Knowing what success is. You would think you would know what this is. Not necessarily. One can get easily swayed to measure success based on the number of projects a department churns out or the number of staff members on one team. But, this does not necessarily mean that effective change was accomplished. It doesn't mean that the projects churned out were done well or got you and the department ahead of the game.

This is a great book to learn the skills or be reminded of the skills to get things done. Don't be fooled by the title.

Intuition and Web Usability

With both girlfriends having a Masters in Education and eager to learn about brain development...It is highly likely that I will read any link or article of any new research on the brain, how it functions and develops.

The tweet this morning from Guy Kawasaki was particularly interesting and indeed helpful as an online marketer as well as a soon-to-be mommy.

The study 'The neurological basis on intuition' "suggests that visual information can be encoded accurately even when one is not paying attention to it - something which has been demonstrated before - and also leads to the counterintuitive conclusion that retrieval of a memory is actually enhanced one's attention is diverted during encoding of that memory."

The connection to online marketing:
One may think that the act of navigation and decision making is based on the users 'intuition'. This is because a person may have never visited the site before, but are able to navigate and find things on the site easily. However, this study suggests that it may be based on being in that situation prior and knowing what to do - even if they have never been there or thought to have been there before.

This is directly linked to web usability and the importance of it. If you are building a website or a simple campaign page - as much as you want to be off the wall, if you want your user to accomplish a particular task (which in marketing terms, is equal to CTA's and $), it is best to stick with navigation, wording and design that is consistent, orderly and logical. Allow the user to use their 'intuition' on where to go, although this can be based on past sites, your main site and best practices.

Building a site using a style or concept that is not familiar with what the user may have experienced in the past may negatively affect the user's experience. Alternatively, even if you show the person how to use the new style or concept, it may still prove difficult to learn due to lack of familiarily and what we deem as 'intuition.'

NOTE: I am so not educated in this field but read such articles and studies and try to adapt it to my personal and work life.

Email, SMS, Voicemail, Facebook, RSS Detox

Inspired by the Oprah 30-day email detox - here are some additional quick fixes to get you up to speed without missing too many beats.

Email:
- Make sure your "out of office" reply lets the sender know you are NOT checking email. This will or should help decrease the number of emails you get from that person.
- If you really don't want to get any email, change your mailbox size and fill it up. Senders will get a hard bounceback. USE WITH CAUTION: This may delete you from opt-in lists from stores, newsletters etc.
- Sort your email by sender and delete any emails from vendors (like clothing or food stores). By the time you read these, the offers are most likely over.
- Sort your email by urgency then sender. Read urgent emails first, but follow the point below after.
- Sort your email by sender. Read the last email (per subject). Oftentimes, if an issue had come up while you were absent, it may and probably will have already been resolved by the time you get back.
- If you have time, read your emails from one person and reply back in one email. This will decrease the amount of emails you receive when the person replies back.

VoiceMail:
- Make sure to leave a vm message that lets callers know you are not in and won't be checking voicemail, SMS or email etc. while you are away.
- Don't be afraid to delete messages if they are too long or there are too many. Just call the person. "I got your vm but didn't listen to the whole thing - what did you want?"
- If you don't want to receive voicemail, turn it off or fill it up (some providers only offer you 3 or 10 anyway)...so the caller gets the standard "Mailbox full" message.

SMS:
- SMS conversations are great to read on the iPhone because you can read the latest first.
- If you are following an SMS conversation on another mobile device, read the latest one to see if a result has been found.
- If you get frequent SMS from your boss or key peers and friends, do a search first on their name if you have quite a few to get through.

Facebook:
- Make sure your profile let's people know you are MIA and when you will be back.
- Make sure to delete the SMS and Email alerts while you are away if you are typically inundated by them.
- Depending on how you use facebook, check your popular places first - is it events? inbox?

RSS:
- Don't be afraid to select the 'READ ALL' function for blogs/sites that are not critical to your learning.
- Breeze through your favourite feeds first and then headers. Use the star function to go back to items you want to read fully.

Create, Build, Live...online

Like many bloggers before me and many after, I started blogging to better understand the medium and most of all, connect and learn with others.

Although I tried to focus my writing on digital marketing, I strayed every now and then and wrote about marketing as a whole, musings in my life and others.

Three years later, things are not much different. I still work in online marketing, am just as passionate about it as I was before this blog and of course, thrive on connecting and learning from and with others.

But as time passes, some things do change. I find myself creating and building more online. I find myself 'living' online. Whether for work or for my personal life, I use the web in new and many times old ways to help me better manage the everyday and prepare for tomorrow.

This site will still focus on digital marketing, but I will also write about how I use the web to help with everyday tasks - and hopefully you can gain or benefit from what I try, learn and do things online.

Google Latitude...but do I really want you to know where I am?

Google announced their new Google Latitude application - which basically lets you know where your friends are in real time.

I think this is a fantastic idea for families. But, otherwise, do you really want your friends and family to know where you are?

Scenario's for why you need to think about this, or think about adding a friend to see you:

1. Have you ever said "I already left", when if fact you are still at home in your pj's getting ready?
2. Have you ever said you were somewhere other than where you were (are)? (Ladies, this may be Holt Renfrew opposed to Home Depot or David's opposed to Dominion) (NOTE: This is a bigger for all you cheating bastards!)
3. Do you want to surprise someone? For example, say you were throwing your best pal a birthday party. She can check her Google Latitude and notice a huge amount of her friends are at your house.
4. Playing sick but really on the golf course? Busted!

Keep track of PMS

I have to admit that this PMS tracker* can be very useful to many a men and believe that it can "save relationships one month at a time."

And since I spend so much time on my blackberry and iPod touch, strongly believe an application for those devices would be useful.

I believe this is what technology is good for. Helping you with process and time...both categories PMS falls under.

*First read here.