The Return of the Podcast!

What are free, plentiful, full of new ideas, and accessible anyplace, anytime? Podcasts!

Not only are they proven to be super effective, the speakers are generally passionate about their topics which makes them really easy to listen to. 

Here is a short list of the podcasts I’ll be tuning into for inspiration in 2013:

• This American Life
• TechCrunch 
• npr TED Radio Hour
• Stuff You Should Know (howstuffworks.com) 

ps. Make sure to check out the new Podcast App for iPhone too, it’s pretty cool!

Starting from Scratch

Okay, so you have a BIG idea. You've done the research and now you have to start building something...from scratch. An enormous pile of thoughts and facts, and it's just you and the white board. 

Where do you begin? 

1. Choose a direction. Determine the best way to get from point A to point Z, the challenges that might occur, and possible ways to navigate around them. By acknowledging and preparing for doubts, you'll find your first step to a solid strategy. 

2. Expand your thinking. The end goal is to deliver something the client wants. You may not have access to all the tools necessary right away, but pshhh save those details for later. Figure out what the client wants first, then the best way to execute it. 

3. Test it out. Nay sayers might tell you not to test it until things are perfect, but forget that! The moment you feel a solid foundation is in place, start testing it. The goal here is to see how people respond so you can refine and make improvements. 

Follow these simple steps and you'll be on your way to a successful project! 

The Impressive Personal Library II

Those were the glorious days, the ones spent showing off impressive personal libraries. But alas, no more. So we in the e-book reading majority must, I think, confront the following questions:

Will libraries cease to exist at all?

How will brands move away from books as public artifacts, and towards personal, intellectual experiences?

Rolling Deep (No Adele)

With all the possibilities the modern world of social media brings, many brands are finding the need to roll deep, in data that is. The rationale of this not only comes from the age old "having strength in numbers" or something like that, but the need to back up strategic moves and the allocation of marketing dollars.

Pretend you're a brand with hundreds, if not thousands of social mentions everyday. Now imagine if you could make scientific correlations and understand how each and every one of those mentions translated into brand preference, awareness, and real world consumer actions. Being able to look at online conversation on both an aggregate and granular level, along with patterns and trends of the users generating that conversation is incredibly powerful. That's where me and my posse come in.

If you asked me a year ago what I thought of data and analytics, I would've responded with a ugh, boring. But not anymore!  If you ask me now how I feel about pouring over data, facts and figures, I'd say enthralled! It's a bit like solving a mystery actually. You notice something has happened to the data and need a reason why. Suddenly you find a correlation, are hot on the trail, and BAM your prime suspect is right in front of you!! Being a data head is actually quite fun, who knew!?

But anyways...

The moral of the story is that when it comes to making strategic moves and allocating marketing $$$'s, roll deep in data.

Favorite Things: Eating Messy Foods

Welcome to Nacho night.

I'm going to personally say that nachos are one of my favorite foods these days. There's just something I love about navigating through a plate of chips smothered in cheese, gauc, and jalapenos. And it's even better because there's no graceful way to eat them.
 
So, it's time to get over yourself. Toss that fork and knife out the window, sister. We both know that deep down inside there's a hungry animal waiting to devour! Eating messy foods reminds us that we began as messy eaters, and will probably end up that way too. Skip the show, relax your expectations and jump in the deep end.

YUM.

A Year of Drafts

Fine, I admit it! I don't always finish everything I start, but at least the ideas are there, right?  Here is a collection of some of the blog posts I started, but never got around to finishing. Mistakes, incomplete thoughts and all, enjoy!

5 Ways to Make Your Day More Productive

Online Data

There are several misconceptions that people are quick to jump to when it comes to the way online data is collected and put to use.

“Marketing research is the function which links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information – information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process.” - The American Marketing Association

10 Commandments of Facebook

1.              You shall have but one account. 
 

2.              You shall not post highly photo-shopped images of yourself, or any likeness of anything that does not reflect what you really look like.
 

3.              You shall not post multiple status updates per day.
 

4.              Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Take one day off per week for Christ sake.

Some Top Notch Apps in FoodTech

Foodspotting

Gourmet Live

Food Network In The Kitchen

Snooth

Ratio

Gojee

Break Baking Basics

Dinevore

Untitled 

Ask someone how they feel about the terrible turbulence they just endured half way through and 

Ideation

The most genius ideas in the world never came from following rules, they came from breaking the rules. Yes, it can be risky business to break the rules. Yes, your boss make think you're

There comes a Time…

ABC's of Communication 

O Holy Crowds 

Untitled

Twas the weeks before Christmas and all through the city

Not a person was sleeping, not even

Procrastination Station

It's Saturday afternoon in Manhattan and here I sit- swigging down eggnog, devouring leftover stuffing and writing a 10 page term paper on the dominance of western fast food in China. Except I'm not writing the paper now, I'm Blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking and "Elfing Myself" thanks to Office Max.

Untitled

Someone has to protect the money and someone has to spend it. Put a marketer and an investor in a room and they will fight til the death. The marketer will likely want to spend all mass amounts of money researching and developing an awesome product consumers will love. Financial departmer will spend as little money as possible to

Laundry Tribulations

Today was a day of great tribulation as my roommate and I set forth on a journey that lead us into the great unknown.

We packed our suitcases with laundry and spoke of how we were going to pass the time reading books, listening to our i-pods and making lists. How great it would be to do our own laundry and be all set for the busy week ahead! Little did we know, that was NOT how it would end.

If Then Statement 

If the only thing constant is change, then managing change is the name of the game.

If you contribute to managing change, then you will be be quick to identify windows of opportunity.

If you are quick to identify windows of opportunity, then your chances for success are great.

Living On a 4th floor walkup

Life on a 4th floor walk up is amazing, there are lots of perks as long as you remember the #1 RULE: MAKE SURE YOU HAVE EVERYTHING BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE HOUSE. I cannot count the number of times I've gotten all the way downstairs and outside when I realized I had forgotten my umbrella, phone, metro card, etc. Then it's back up up up and down down down all those stairs again.

A Letter from the Editor

Dear Family, Friends, Co-workers, Educators, Mentors and Leaders of 2011,

First of all, THANK YOU! I can't think back to a more exciting, challenging or prosperous year. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to be part of such an amazing period in time and to have so many wonderful people in my life. I would not be where I am today without the love, guidance, and support that you all have provided. And for that, I am truly grateful.

Tomorrow marks the first day of the rest of our lives, and the first day of 2012. So let's bring it in with open hearts, open minds and fearless ambitions to accomplish our goals!

Can't wait!!

Angela