Fussing Update
I fussed around more with del.icio.us, Digg, and Technorati. So far my thoughts…
del.icio.us: really easy to use. I exported my bookmarks from Firefox and imported them into my bookmarks in a matter of minutes. I’ve spent probably the last half an hour cleaning up my tags since they’re so scattered and I’m a neat freak like that. But it’s a really simple interface that’s a breeze to use. I’ve head a lot about this site, so I get the feeling I’ll be using it a lot whenever I come across something particularly cool.
Digg: pretty easy to use, but there’s a lot there. The home page of News & Videos is cracking me up reading some of the titles. Not sure how this can be leveraged though without digging my own stories. I did try a plea on Twitter for digs, but got none. And it’s taken me hours, but I’ve figured out how to add the Digg This button you see to the right. I found out though that I have a friend already on Digg, so I can foresee messing around more with this and building more friends on this network.
Technorati: Okay what the hell? The main function of the site, as far as I can tell, is to keep a list of your favorites. Do me a favor and look HERE. Do you see any favorites? If you don’t I’m really annoyed because I followed their instructions to export my blogs from Google Reader, saved the file correctly, imported them to Technorati, they showed up for a couple minutes and now they don’t show. So my frustration is building with this site to the point where I’m already ready to give up… which for an experienced web user like me, isn’t good at all. So I’ve decided to walk away from it for awhile, focus my efforts on the other two, and mess around with this once they’ve got this bug fixed. I already ventured into their help forums on the first day… not really a good sign, folks.
Avoiding Former CoWorkers in San Jose
Sometimes it’s pleasant to see an old coworker… other times, it’s best to avoid them. Which is what I did at Search Engine Strategies last week in San Jose. I’m not necessarily proud of what I did, but I successfully avoided what could have been a rather awkward situation, so it worked out for the best.
I spent the majority of the day in the Social Media track of the conference, learning more about the inner workings of Digg, Technorati, Del.icio.us, and Wikipedia than I ever thought I wanted to know. Of course, one of the first things I did when getting back to the office was apply some of this and set up a Digg profile and a Technorati profile and an account on Del.icio.us. Since PsPrint doesn’t sell it’s content, I don’t really see Wikipedia as being that huge of an opportunity for us. But the others… well I’m shocked I wasn’t on them personally for awhile.
Now, my roots in social media lie in the likes of MySpace, message boards, and chat rooms. I’m not the seasoned internet user you’ll hear speaking at trade shows that’s been online since 1997… but that’s mostly because back in ’97 I was still writing history essays and doing math homework in High School. I’ve been online since about the time I got to college, Fall of 1999. Going away to college and having to make all new friends, I immediately found chat rooms as a place to connect with like minded people. A friend introduced me to Live Journal back in ’03 and I’ve been blogging ever since. When MySpace came around big time in ’05 I jumped on that bandwagon and haven’t looked back.
Has it really been 2 years on MySpace? How time flies. But, I digress. SES was a great show for me to attend. Very informative, and my favorite part was how organized all the panelists were. Everyone had a neat & tidy Power Point presentation that will be available online this week, so I barely had to take any notes. I’ve also decided that the next time I go to one of these shows and attend the educational panels I’m going to be bringing a laptop. Since there was really no need for me to take many notes, it would have been great to be able to surf the websites that the panelists talked about while they were talking about them. I’m all about multi-tasking, so getting some work done while learning is my ideal.
This is becoming an exciting time for me. Learning more and more about the field I’m working in and exploring social media marketing is really exciting me to be moving onward here at PsPrint.
Read MoreTurning Gray at 26?
While brushing my hair this morning I found not one but three gray hairs. It’s hard to tell the color of a single hair, it almost looked blond… but considering that my hair is naturally a dark brown, I sorta doubt they were blond.
Has the stress gotten to me already? My coworkers have joked that I’m no longer allowed to take Vacations because the rely on my being here so much (although this is something they joke about every time I take some time off for any reason…) And since returning from Sin City, the work load on my desk has been seemingly endless. I’ve been here two and a half extra hours each night trying to catch up before Labor Day, and with it also being the end of the month I have EOM reporting coming up to worry about as well.
What happened to the days when I just came in, did my job, and went home? I guess in the days of mailing services, marketing, advertising, sales, social media, the affiliate program, and email marketing there’s no sleep for the weary. It took me half a day just to catch up on Twitter posts and all the blogs I subscribe to through Google Reader. I’ve perhaps spent more time here at PsPrint than home in the last few days.
In case you’re wondering, I did enjoy my vacation. Some of the highlights included a helicopter tour over the strip at night, seeing Penn & Teller live and getting photos with them and their autographs, seeing lots of animals, going very high up at the top of the Stratosphere tower and the Paris Las Vegas Eiffel Tower, and traipsing all over Las Vegas Blvd. My travel friend and I basically saw everything we went to Vegas wanting to see, except we missed out on the Tournament of Kings dinner show at Excalibur. I think when I go back to Vegas in November to attend the National Association of Realtors’ conference, I might take an evening to head over there. I wasn’t quite ready to re-join reality!
Going to Vegas. BRB
So in less than 48 hours, this is where I will be… chilling with (hopefully) a fruity drink in my hand rearing to go and enjoy beautiful Las Vegas. I’ve needed a vacation for awhile now, and it’s good to go on a real vacation.
Of course, trying to get a bunch of projects done in time to go without worrying about work is almost impossible. It’s like the fates align to send every new project possible right into your inbox the day before you’re set to leave. Today was my last day in the office until next Tuesday, so of course new affiliate projects came across my desk, problems with mailing services customers happened, a new email marketing campaign launched, and I was IMed about a thousand times.
If only my vacation started tomorrow! While I won’t be in the office, I’ll instead be down in San Jose attending the Search Engine Strategies Expo at the Convention Center. They have a Social Media track of educational sessions that should be very informative and give me some good ideas for that task here at PsPrint in the coming months. I’ll be there in classes until about 2, then I’m going to walk around the expo and check it out a bit.
Afterward, that’s when my vacation starts! First I’ll be meeting up with a friend from out of town in San Jose to go to the Winchester Mystery House. It’s amazing how terrible of a tourist one can be in their own area… I’ve never been there, despite being fascinated by it’s history since 3rd grade. So going there, then Friday morning flying to Las Vegas. I can’t wait.
So, I bid this blog adieu until the 28th when I get back. I leave you with a question: what did you do on YOUR summer vacation? 😛
Read MoreHats, Hats, Everywhere!
Have you ever noticed that right before you’re supposed to go on vacation, everything piles up out of nowhere? Things that weren’t even on your radar before are suddenly paramount priority. Last week my lovely manager Anne mentioned that I’ll be taking over e-mail marketing for PsPrint. I assumed this would be happening within the next month. I get into the office today to see an email from her with details for an email to be sent out Wednesday. Good thing I was prepared!
So I’ve been working mostly on that today, ironing out some kinks and playing that good old Waiting Game for the copy and other information. I’ve been chipping away at this ever increasing task list (thank the stars for the Tasks feature in Outlook) and most of the things on the list are due in the next three days before my vacation.
About a week ago, we were invited to post in a blog called PrintSalesPros as a sort of guest author. I wrote a blog post for them about our 100% Recycled Matte paper stock in response to a request for articles about green printing they posted on Twitter. Feel free to check it out HERE. Another contributor also posted an article about green printing entitled Green printing can make a great impression, and it’s a good one too.
So I’ve added another hat to my closet, so to speak. Mailing Services, the Affiliate Program, E-Mail Marketing, Social Media Marketing, trade show assisting, some really general assistance in advertising and promotional deals… I finally feel like I’m in marketing!
Read MoreGas in California for $2.70/gallon!?
A few months ago, in the renaissance that seems to be engulfing Alameda businesses, the Bridgeside Center opened with just a few stores. Most of the spaces are taken now, and the centerpiece of the center, Nob Hill Foods, is alive and well.
I usually did my grocery shopping at Albertson’s, living pretty central to the center of the island and passing Marina Village on my way through the Tube home from work. But curiosity and a great marketing ploy have wooed my cart over to Nob Hill.
I mean, how can you pass off 25 cents off per gallon of gas?
The deal is that when you spend at least $50 on groceries (some items, like lottery tickers, don’t count towards the total) you get a bar code on your receipt. The Nob Hill also came with an Aisle 1 gas station, which despite the discount has the lowest priced gas in Alameda anyway. When you scan this bar code at the pump, the price per gallon is reduced by 25 cents. So I filled up at $2.70 per gallon. The added bonus of using the Aisle 1 station, besides it being brand new and everything in nice, working condition, is that they have a brush-less car wash. And it’s only $5.
It’s all about the Hamiltons, baby. $5 even for the super duper premium wash? I’m there. Especially since it doesn’t use those nasty rubber sponge things that could damage the precious new paint on my precious new car.
There was only one downside to this situation… the 45 minute wait to get into the car wash. By the time I’d decided that it wasn’t worth waiting anymore, I noticed that I’d pulled just far enough into the curbed off area and it was impossible for me to back up or get out.
So 45 minutes spent waiting for the car wash, but at least it go my car clean. And the moral of the story? Their marketing ploy worked.
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