Fellow colleague Mel Carson and I holding our plaques

Yesterday, I celebrated my 5 years at Microsoft.  The tradition is to bring in a pound of candy for each year served, so I’ve already burdened my team with consuming 5 pounds of M&Ms to start their week.  Since I can’t share the love with everyone, I thought I’d share 5 sweet lessons in lieu of candy.

Walk the Talk You Preach

Say what you mean and mean what you say.  No one appreciates someone on a high horse talking about the great things they have and/or will achieve.  It’s important to network and spread the good news about the project you’re working on, but remember to actually deliver on it.  Trust me, at least one of your 90,000 colleagues will notice.

Feedback is a Gift

Growing up we’ve all been conditioned to be praised for good work.  Conversely, constructive criticism is an underrated opportunity to grow and improve on things you may already know.  Never underestimate the power of feedback.  If you’re good at something, there’s room to become great.

You Own Your Career (not your manager)

Many people look to their manager to be their advocates and help shine light for commendable work and grant promotions when merited.  What most of us forget to realize is that promotions may be earned, but our career is something we own ourselves.  Managers are not responsible for guiding you into your next advancement.  Only you know what is best for you, and you are accountable to drive towards your future.

Give the Benefit of Doubt

I am privileged to work with some pretty intelligent people at Microsoft.  It’s natural to want to put as many brains together to benefit from everyone’s talents.  Unfortunately, when there are too many cooks in the kitchen, it’s easy to overlook ideas and opinions that may be valuable.  Never forget to give people the benefit of doubt, because you never know when there is a low hanging fruit with good intentions waiting to help you succeed.

Avoid Complacency

I was talking to a friend other day about getting back into shape.  Usually, it’s easy to start a training routine when you’re working towards an event, like a trip to Hawaii (helloooo bikini weather!).  Once you’ve realized your goal, it’s even easier to fall back to what is comfortable.  This mantra can be certainly applied in the workplace.

You are your biggest competition.  Take a small nibble of satisfaction from your achievements, and keep moving forward, because change is the only constant.

Most business schools host an etiquette dinner to teach students about mannerism and conduct.  You learn things like using your utensils “outside in” and shaking with your right hand while making eye contact (and catching an à la suave glance at their name tag).  Most students avoid this event under the impression that etiquette should be common sense, and I’m guilty of making such a false assumption.  Eventually, I attended an etiquette dinner at a networking event and learned a thing or two, realizing and deeply regretting the simple mistakes that could have been avoided.  Now, I stand strong behind my embarrassing and educational experience.  You gotta learn somehow, right?

The virtual world is a bit different.  You don’t have to face people in person, nor do you have to worry about body language.  But etiquette is a universal language that stretches into our online interactions.  With the rise of social networks, you have to be extra cognizant of your connections and how you converse with them.  To avoid looking like a fool, learn etiquette and let it take your online presence to a higher level.

Twitter Responses

If you’ve read my initial posts on Twitter in January and September of 2009, you know where I stand with this topic.

When it comes to responding to people on Twitter, there are three key things:

• Send a direct message to thank the people who follow you.  This helps make a straight connection with your audience.  This shouldn’t be too troublesome if you have a few hundred followers, but if you have significant following (1000+ followers), you can opt for an automatic DM using tools like Socialoomph.
• Recognize and appreciate those who retweet (RT) or feature you on follow friday (#FF).  I do admit that you can’t thank every single person here, but use your judgment as needed.
• If someone tweets you publicly (using @YourTwitterHandleHere), try your best to respond.  For big wigs with 10,000+ followers, I can understand not responding to each and every retweet, but for the rest of us, we can and should carve 10 seconds of our day to connect to a follower.

The cardinal rule of influence is:  To be a great leader, one must also know how to follow.

Facebook Stalking

You’re a big fat liar if you publicly declare that you don’t stalk people on Facebook.  But this doesn’t mean you’re entitled to befriend everyone and their mom either.  Facebook is meant for people to connect, keep in touch and/or get to know each other (upon acceptance of virtual friendship).

Another thing about Facebook – it is a social networking site, which means people are there to socialize. If I can’t write on your wall and interact, why add me at all?  If I can’t compliment how fabulous you look in your picture, why are we even friends?

Privacy settings are there to protect you from creepers, not so you can set up a fake connection with someone.  I can understand hiding pictures from your crazy bachelorette party, but connecting for the sake of connecting defeats the purpose of Facebook, IMHO.

I’m not campaigning that everyone should become BFF’s on Facebook, but let’s get a little personal here.  If you want to network, kindly connect on LinkedIn.  I won’t take it personally.

Connecting on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the underdog Facebook wished never existed.  Facebook is where you can brag about the awesome concert you attended or share news of your new baby with family, friends, and colleagues you know and have met.  Not to say my rationale is the right way – there are people who can successfully manage both their personal and professional networks on Facebook.  I’m just not one of them.

LinkedIn is where you keep professional contacts updated with your professional life.  It helps you re-connect with old and new colleagues to share expertise, collaborate, or seek help when finding a new job.  Not to mention, it’s a living document of your resume integrated with endorsements from the people you have worked with.  Say goodbye to the days of searching for an old resume and relying on your memory to update it.

If you don’t have an account, start one today.  Never underestimate the power of LinkedIn.

Blog Post Interactions

Your readers are your bread and butter.  Whether or not you monetize your blog, you are publishing content so that someone will read them, right?  If this isn’t the case, remind me to send you a Moleskine.

When people comment on your blog posts, respond to them.  Interact with your audience.  Welcome constructive feedback because they will likely improve your content.  Take everything with a grain of salt and give people the benefit of doubt.

Be Inclusive.

If you’re a social media superstar, likely someone else is too.  This is the internet we are talking about, the land of free content (for now) with an infinite amount of colleagues you don’t have visibility into.  Share the love and avoid looking like you have a stick up your ass.  We’re not in high school and social media isn’t an exclusive club.  Cut the arrogance.  Just because people can’t see your body and facial expression doesn’t mean you are immortal and sheltered from backlash later (haven’t you people learned anything from Jersey Shore?).  Pretentious attitude slices your opportunity thicker (and deeper) than burning bridges.  Get off the high horse.  Share content.  Be a team player.  Make connections. That’s what social media is all about.

Thanks to @HughL for being my soundboard and support.  If this post keeps you in doubt, here’s some entertainment from last week’s Jersey Shore.  Don’t be an Angelina :)

I was strolling around my neighborhood today and finally stumbled into Elliot Bay Book Store. In a world where Kindles and paperbacks coexist, it is nice to be reminded of the satisfaction that comes from turning the page of something delightfully tangible.  (I mean, look at this picture. These are short, hand written reviews of each book.  How amazing!)

Shoot me if bookstores like this ever go extinct.

Happy August!  Check out this video to learn more about the Search Alliance between Microsoft and Yahoo.  Enjoy

I remember teaching myself how to use HTML for the first time in high school because I wanted to “soup” up my AsianAvenue page (you heard me right, feel free to chuckle and judge as needed).  When I went off to college, I used Microsoft Frontpage to build my first website.  Grad school introduced me to WordPress and tweaking CSS to change my font color, but nothing more elaborate than that.

I wish I knew how to code.  I can read HTML and make token changes, but I’m no developer.  And these are the extent of my coding abilities.

You might find yourself in my shoes, and I have an amazing resource to share.  Need a website?  No coding needed.

Everyone, meet Flavors.me

I stumbled upon Flavors.me through an article on Mashable.  It is a dynamic platform that allows you to customize a website within minutes, while syndicating content from your social networks such as LinkedIn, flickr, and WordPress.

Better yet, it’s completely free, or you can also customize your own domain URL for $20 a year.  It’s useful for both personal and business use, and provides basic analytics to measure your traffic so you’re not walking in the dark.

After learning about Flavors.me, I created a portfolio website to package my blog (WordPress), photography (flickr), tweets (Twitter), and resume (LinkedIn).  I guess they really liked it, because it is now featured in their directory!  Woot.

It has a few kinks, but it’s a work in progress.  I’ve provided feedback directly and they have been pretty responsive on Twitter (@flavorsme).  It’s simple.  It’s sexy.  It’s free.  What more can you ask for?

So, what’s your flavor?  I’d love to see your creations.

You may have heard of Seattle’s gloomy and depressing weather – it’s all very real and true.  With the exception of last week’s annual heat wave, Seattle is predominately overcast (nine months to be exact), but three precious months of glorious Pacific Northwest summer is what has kept me in this Emerald City for the past ten years.

That preface is meant to be an excuse for why I’ve kept mum in the blogging world. I’ve also been busy doing some spring cleaning on my blog.  Thanks to my lack of coding background, I’ve spent countless hours re-vamping my blog for simple aesthetics and social bookmarking features.  Hope you like it.

Excuses aside, I’ve decided to make my comeback post with a chance to win some free stuff from Bing^TM for their one year celebration.  If you’re not too cool for freebies, read on for more details.

Microsoft Advertising is celebrating Bing’s 1^st birthday with a bang.  If you have an adCenter account, you can enter to win some cool prizes.  You can go green with a Bing water bottle or a coffee mug and get some Seattle in your life, too.

100 winners will be random chosen on July 19, 2010 for both US and UK advertisers.

This may be a shameless promotion for my team, but I can’t help it.  I like free stuff and birthday celebrations (and you should too).  Help Bing celebrate its first birthday and win Bing Bling for your office! 

Enter Bing Bling for US advertisers
Enter Bing Bling for UK advertisers

My cool colleagues modeling their Bing Bling

In light of the latest privacy controversy with Facebook, I’d like to re-purpose this post (yes, published in the past but it’s Memorial weekend.  I’ll risk plagiarizing my own work to enjoy some play time as I have been developing another blog for the past few days).

So, let me just get the cat out of the bag:  I can’t emphasize the value of creating your online identity enough .  I totally respect those who want to keep things private, but there is a way to balance privacy and making sure that your identity is kosher.  Especially in this digital age, it is important to develop your identity first, then control what is being shared.  Luckily, we have so many resources to make this possible.

On the other hand, there are way too many sites to manage.  LinkedIn.  Facebook.  Twitter.  MySpace… you name it.  I can’t even keep track anymore.  But I do know that if I don’t take ownership of my identity, chances are someone else will do it for me, whether they do it deliberately or not.  How many times have you found pictures of yourself on social networking sites that others posted?  Or how about information about you that is shared because you were “just part of the story”?  Whether you like it or not, social networks are successful because of their transparency, and there’s no changing the truth behind that reality.  The irony of not being (somewhat) transparent about yourself is that you actually end up losing control of your privacy.

Times are changing.  Our existence is no longer solely based on our human interactions, but also in our online ones too.  The amount of social networking sites have only grown over the years, and it is becoming harder to manage online identity.  Some of my friends are fearful of identify theft or not wanting people to know what they are up to, and tend to set their privacy features to the maximum.  Others prefer to keep their lives private, opting out of all social networkings sites altogether.

The million dollar question is:  Can opting out of social networking sites become detrimental to your online identity?

In my opinion, the answer is yes.  I’m not trying to advocate that everyone should start a personal PR campaign on the Internet, but rather create a presence and regulate the perception that is already being shared.  If others are already influencing your identity through their lives and interactions with you, why not take self authority to validate it?

Here are my thoughts on the most commonly used social networking sites.

LinkedIn
As a professional networking site, this should be the most transparent of everyone’s online identity.  I don’t see the value of keeping anything private on LinkedIn, because the platform is meant to help market yourself.  You want people to find your LinkedIn profile on search results and you want to allow people to network with you.  From a professional perspective, the more to share your experience and the more you connect can only help build your credibility.  You never know if you will lose your job tomorrow, so best that you prepare yourself (and your resume) by networking real-time.

Facebook + Myspace
I think these social networking sites can swing two ways.  It can be used to share yourself with the world, and it can be used to keep in touch with people you know.  Personally, I go with the latter.  I joined Myspace in 2003 (post Friendster, haha), then Facebook in 2004, to update family and friends with my life events.  Eventually, I got sick of managing both sites and ended up cancelling Myspace.  Over time, most friends transferred to Facebook anyway.  Pre-social networking sites, I used to write letters or mass emails to keep my friends updated with my life.  Now, I am doing the same thing without doing it manually.

You can still use social networking sites and maintain your privacy using filters, settings, and managing the people you are connected with (whether this number is 5 or 500).

Twitter
I won’t spend too much here since I have two other posts dedicated to the use and value of Twitter (To Twitter, or Not to Twitter: Part One and Part Deux).  But I do want to say that if you tend to keep things private, Twitter may not be for you.  I also think that content on Twitter is meant to be shared publicly, because it is a combination of updating your status and microblogging about information you want to share with the world.

If you have your Twitter status private and/or connect your Tweets to your Facebook, what additional value does this provide?  You’re probably sharing your updates with the same audience, so you’re only duplicating your efforts.  On the other hand, if you want to share information with the world and your personal friends (like, check out this cool website), it might make sense to link your status between Facebook and Twitter.

All in all, don’t complain about your online privacy.  Do something about it.

Last week, Twitter finally announced the news the world had been waiting for: a revenue stream model. People were speculating for months how the social networking phenomenon would monetize itself, with hopes that there would be a profitable plan other than online advertising. Well, fanboys, you can put that dream to rest.

As an advertising professional, I’m not adverse to online ad monetization. The funds keep our favorite websites alive and it gives advertisers the opportunity to promote whatever it is that brings them their return on investment. But as a social media critic and junkie, I had high hopes that Twitter would think out of the box. Maybe they would go the Wikipedia route (relying on donations), or employees would do something mind-blowing like donating their organs for money.

Twitter did think out of the box by avoiding straight-up advertising, but, to my regret, they didn’t invent something that had never been done before.

Twitter’s “sponsored tweets” will be similar to the advertising model of Yelp, where restaurants and businesses pay a premium to show up as sponsored results (and the placement is quite seamless, in my opinion). Twitter will provide account holders the opportunity to do just the same, with sponsored tweets prominently featured at the top of your Twitter feed.

Are sponsored tweets a positive or detrimental move? I’m still scratching my head and forming an opinion. My initial thoughts are that “you gotta start somewhere,” and, perhaps this will plant the seed for future success. I’m trusting that sponsored tweets will fulfill Twitter’s need for revenue and help move the company forward.

But Twitter users are not as keen on the idea. According to Mashable, 42% of users don’t want additional spam in the daily lives. I believe they enjoy using Twitter without advertising screaming in their face, much like on Wikipedia. However, I would encourage the community to give Twitter the benefit of doubt.

Sponsored tweets will likely be less annoying than regular advertising. They will be similiar in form to sponsored Yelp reviews, but the value of their content will be higher, because they may contain an interesting call to action; they might even open doors to information you’d never stumble upon on your own.

I’m looking forward to the results from Twitter campaigns to learn the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of a true social media advertising model; we’ll find out if this will be the Holy Grail we’ve been searching for.

So yes, Twitter is jumping on the advertising bandwagon with the rest of our favorite sites and that’s big news (though not as big as it could have been). But hopefully this is just a first step towards developing revenue models so that more and more Twitter will  reap the fruits of their labor—and so that we may see fewer fail whales during the day.

So here’s a thought when thinking about a blog entry describing a different use of streaming media (not emulating a television or radio show):  Utilizing streaming media as a blog platform, also known as “vlogging”.

With the popularity of reality shows rising, it’s not a surprise that we (society) also flock to user generated sites that contain video content, like YouTube.  But if you try to think about another way of using streaming media, why not a blog entry in video form?  Here are some different ideas for streaming media blogging and reasons why it wouldn’t be so shabby…

Food Journal

Forget the Food Network!  These guys get paid to eat and review restaurants.  Why not put the power to the people?  I’m a huge fan of Yelp and having user generated food journals would be interesting.  People can upload videos of restaurants to capture a holistic experience like sound, idiosyncrasy of waitstaff, etc.  While text reviews and blogs are fun, video blogs might cater a different attraction.

Idiot’s Guide

A classmate of mine recently started a video blog about How to Use a Flip Video.  YouTube is already a semi-mecca for how to:  play the guitar, ride a bike, etc.  Professionals can use streaming media blogging to create buzz.  A yoga instructor can use streaming media blogging to show different yoga positions.  Or a bartender providing different drink recipes and ways to make them.  The possibilities are endless!

Personal Journal

Many people have privacy issues regarding their online identities, but there are also a lot of people who crave to attract attention online.  If there are those who blog about their life (and other interests) online, I’m sure some would be willing to give streaming media blogging a try.  This also might work for families who are juggling long distance relationships, for those who want to create a professional profile and presence online, or for those who just want to keep a journal record of themselves.  Whatever rhyme or reason, streaming media blogging is just another outlet for the human mind.

Check out the latest flip video camera to create your first vlog.

U-G-L-Y, your blog ain’t got no alibi… (it’s ugly)!

Unless you enjoy being dissed by a bunch of cheerleaders, you may want to consider the usability and design of your blog.  I’m no graphic designer (despite my small stint as a digital design major in my college days), but I do know how to spell ugly when I see one.  Here are a couple of great blogs I follow, and the design takeaways from both.

Twooting.com (Podcast Blog)

If you’re looking for a podcast that is entertaining and resourceful, these are your guys.  While I am a huge fan of their podcast, I need to pop pain medicine before visiting their website.  Twooting.com has a lot of rich information, but you need five pairs of eyes to find and read through all their topics.

Pros – Utilize Best Takeaways

• Branding – To achieve audience reach, you must develop a brand that is catchy and relevant to the topic of your blog.
• Color Scheme – Keep it simple.  Using too many colors will distract your readers and make your overall design very messy.
• Resources – Make sure to highlight the important resources your blog has to offer, and embed the rest.  Readers who are very interested will eventually find the less important resources as they dig into your site, and it will be like finding icing on the cake.

Cons – Learn From Others

• Organization – Categorization is key.  If you have great resources to offer but scattered on your site, your readers won’t be able to find them.  They won’t stick around to figure out your maze.
• Tabs – Utilize tabs (web pages) to organize the content on your site.  I love that Twooting.com offers a calendar and list of podcast episodes, but they are located on a very crowded home page.
• Simplicity – Don’t let John Maeda down (author of The Laws of Simplicity).  Put yourself in the readers’ shoes and think about the easiness of your site usability.  I personally like having one navigational column to make the content easy on the eye.

Adam Metz (Social Media Blog)

It is rare for me to classify anyone as a social media expert, because the industry is too new to understand all there is to know.  However, Adam would be my one exception.  The MetzMash blog not only discusses new trends, but introduces new ways of thinking about and measuring social media.

Pros – Utilize Best Takeaways

• Simplicity – Honestly, I can’t put more emphasis on the important of simplicity.  You can be creative and keep things simple, just like Adam’s website.
• Links – Having links to other blog content, such as past articles, can help your readers navigate more easily and increase your site traffic.  You can place them at the bottom of blog posts or in the navigational column.

Cons – Learn From Others

• Blog Real Estate – Don’t be afraid of being plain.  Personally, having a little white space won’t kill your site.  If anything, it will allow your readers to scan your site more easily.
• Image Size – I like how MetzMash utilized one picture of Adam, and how each page reveals a different expression.  It would have been nice for the image to be 75% of what the current size is now.  This would allow more space for content and less space for tiny facial features (not that they are bad).

Ultimately, you want to pimp your blog before these cheerleaders pay a visit.