anne hubben, creative career coach         anne@rubycreatives.com 917.834.0354

ready to give twitter a chance?

Thursday, June 10th, 2010
 

My last post was directed to those in advertising who have been successful for years and suddenly find themselves without the skills everyone seems to want.  I suggested that before you spend money on a class in Flash or html, first embrace the internet so that you’re familiar with the technology that’s revolutionizing advertising.  Today I’ll walk you through giving Twitter a chance. Of course, it occurs to me that if you’re reading my blog, you’re probably pretty comfortable in these areas, but maybe you could send these links to someone who could use the help. I know they’re out there because I talk to them on the phone and I’m hearing frustration, overwhelm and confusion about what to do next.

First the Twitter pep talk:  In the beginning I thought it was weird, invasive and a little creepy. But then I got a new client who had heard of me on her friend’s twitter stream and I realized I had to check this out more seriously.

Of course, it’s not for everyone, but at least familiarize yourself with what it does and what’s possible so you know what’s going on.  If you go in to an interview and rant about how you don’t know why anyone wants to know what you had for lunch that day, there’s a good chance the hiring manager will write something in their notes like “doesn’t get it” or “old school.”

Okay, so now you understand why you need to spend your precious time on this, here are 8 simple steps to take:

1 – sign up for an account. It’s easy. If you don’t want to use your name, use an alias. If you don’t want to use a photo of yourself, use any image, but a photo is more personal.

2 – you can use the “protect my tweets” option and I did that for about 5 minutes, but it kind of misses the point unless you’ve got some top secret “if I tell you I’ll have to kill you” kind of information.

3 – find your friends or your favorite magazines or news or job sites (@nytimes, @PositivelyCleve, @smashingmag, @TED_TALKS, @Krop_jobs, @talentzoojobs) it’s endless, I’m telling you.  Or you can follow me @annehubben and see who I’m following.  Looking at someone’s followers is a great way to discover new people.  Better yet, look at the person’s lists on the right hand side. They will have people organized by topics like “advertising” or “yoga.”

4 – try out a few of your own tweets.  I started with quotes that inspired me. It felt safer.  Then if you like what someone says, you can “retweet it” there’s a button to do that now, or you can go old school and put RT followed by their name, so it would say:  RT@rubcreatives: great article in Rolling Stones today.

5 – if you’re starting to get overwhelmed by it all and your A.D.D. is taking off, create your own lists to organize things in topics.

6 – if, like me in the beginning, you have trouble remembering to go to Twitter, look in to a free program like Tweet Deck so you can get the tweets on your desktop or Hootesuite which is online, but you can schedule your tweets.  That way, you can space out your tweets or schedule them in the morning for different times during the day. But be careful with the timing so it doesn’t appear that you’re tweeting in a meeting with your boss.

7 – if you still need some more help with how to manage Twitter or get the most out of it, check out someone like Laura Roeder who writes posts and gives tutorials on using social media and specifically Twitter.

8 – get creative with what you tweet – check out @betsyaaron. She tweets a little slice of creative writing every day. It has become her writing practice.

If you’re trying it out and find yourself unable to leave Twitter because you don’t want to miss anything, don’t worry, it passes. The need to read every single tweet thankfully goes away and you get used to the whole process.

Finally, please let me know your experience with this. I would love to hear both successes and also obstacles that you have. We’re all different, so I’d love to hear what you think.  Tweet me, email me, post a comment here.  Let’s talk online with the tools that we have.

Posted in advertising, communication, twitter | 5 Comments »

stay in the game by playing

Monday, June 7th, 2010
 

YouTube Preview ImageMy sister and I still chuckle about a friend saying to us a few years back that “this internet thing will never last.”  It not only lasted, but changed more things than we ever could have imagined. So when I hear people say that they don’t see what’s so different about interactive advertising vs. traditional advertising, it reminds me of this friend’s comment.  Yes, a good creative person should be able to come up with an idea that can cross all media, but how can you do that without being on top of the technology?   Staying on top of it doesn’t necessarily mean taking a class in html coding. Sure, that would be helpful, but first, familiarize yourself with the media.  You have to play with the tools a bit on your own, find out what you want to know more of and why. Don’t just take a class to save your ass. The internet is here to stay so if we want to stay employed, we need to embrace that fact.

For example, many people will say that they have Facebook or Twitter accounts, but they don’t get what the big deal is or hardly ever use it.  If you don’t get what these services provide, then there’s no sense in using your hard earned money (and time) for a class.  Knowing coding won’t give you ideas on how to engage with the consumer.  It’s like learning french, but having nobody else to speak french with.  It’s fine, but you probably won’t retain it for very long or enjoy it as much.  As for social networks, you don’t have to love them, but it’s important to have an understanding of why some people would.

The reason I love Twitter so much is for the accessible information.  I have access to leaders in advertising, design, technology and fine art.  I know what they’re up to, what they’re thinking about, who they’re collaborating with. I can be a part of the conversation.  That’s pretty cool considering I live in a suburb in Cleveland.

Many people want to make the effort to use these tools, but get overwhelmed by where to start.  Since you’re probably already on Facebook, start there.  One valid concern with Facebook is the whole privacy issue.  Take a look at this article that explains what the situation is and gives you the steps to protect your privacy.

Ok, so you’re on there, now what?  Do some searches and look for the different pages that people have set up.  These are found in the left hand column. You can start with mine and then go to my favorites that l list.  If it’s a big brand, there’s usually more going on like games, contests, videos, like on Slurpee’s page.   Or search key words like “advertising” or “art director” or whatever interests you.

Some people object to the applications that people send.  Just ignore them.  I prefer to check out shared links and videos.  I like to post links that people might find interesting, helpful or funny.  If you’re not in to someone’s updates, but want to stay connected, just remove them from your newsfeed.

Don’t worry if you do all this and you still don’t like it.  Hopefully, if you’re in advertising you’ll at least see how someone else could like it. Then try out something else.  Personally, I prefer Twitter.  So I’ll talk about that in my next post.

Posted in action, advertising, change, solutions | 1 Comment »

guest blogger: Deb Maltzman freelancing with Angela Denise

Monday, November 9th, 2009
 

I met Deb Maltzman when she was a much revered freelance ACD (copy) at Digitas. She also did the copy for my first website and did an amazing job capturing my voice immediately. I’ve always admired how in her career she seemed able to get consistent, steady work as a freelancer so that she could pursue things that she loved, like traveling. I’ve wanted to interview her for a while about how she pulls this off when I received this awesome promo piece that she did with her art director partner, Angela Denise. So I thought it would be interesting have Deb tell us how they do it. So here’s Deb:

I’ve been freelancing in NYC for 4 years.

About 2 years ago, I met Angela Denise (Art Director) while freelancing at Digitas. The first week she was there, we were thrown into the trenches on an insane pitch. Immediately, we clicked. We mostly liked the same stuff, and weren’t afraid to say when we didn’t. We were both quick decision makers, and could make stuff happen fast. And when one of us would lose our mind, the other one would become remarkably lucid.

And so, recently, we put together a self-promotion (debandangela.com) and decided to embark on a little freelancing adventure together.

How’s it going so far? After “launching” our site two weeks ago, we’ve already landed one gig. And hopefully, as you read this, we’ll be at one of the gigs we were approached about this week (fingers crossed).

Anne thought maybe we could give some advice to people thinking about becoming freelancers themselves. Here’s what we’ve learned:

You have to be seasoned. If you haven’t had a lot of experience working full-time in an agency, freelancing will be tough. That’s because you have to know how agencies tick. And the best way to learn that is working full-time.

You should be able to do work even if your desk is in the bathroom. I kid. But, seriously. Half the time when you’re freelancing, they have no computer and nowhere for you to sit. So if you need ideal conditions to get the job done, freelancing is probably not for you.

You have to be motivated to produce work on your own. Most times, freelancers don’t get the best assignments in the agency. And rarely do you get to produce anything. Do something to freshen up your portfolio – and enjoy the fact that there are no clients involved. (Check out this “spot” I shot while visiting my grandmother in Boca Raton).

You must never think you’re rich. Sure, as a freelancer, you get paid more. And sometimes it seems to pile up fast. But people tend to forget about those pesky things like taxes. And insurance. And two month dry spells.

You need be able to work with anyone and everyone. There are a lot of people out there who aren’t so great, and you’re going to be partnered up with them. Make it work. The luxury of switching partners (and complaining for that matter) doesn’t exist for freelancers.

You have to be able to live with the lull. Sometimes you’ll be so busy you’ll have to turn down jobs. And other times…crickets. On those days (or weeks) try not to drive yourself, and everyone around you, crazy. The work will come.

You must enjoy vacations and time off. Sounds like a joke, but it’s not. After all, one of the biggest benefits of freelancing is being able to take off for a month or two. The thing is, there’s no guarantee you’ll have work when you come back. If that thought freaks you out and ruins your vacation, there’s really no point in taking it.

You must visit debandangela.com. Be prepared to shamelessly promote yourself at all times. You never know where your next gig is going to come from.

Posted in advertising, collaborate, guest blogger, self promotion | No Comments »

guest blogger Patrick Lupinski: The Individual Is The New Media Network

Monday, November 2nd, 2009
 


Today I’m introducing something new where I invite creative people to blog and talk about a range of topics. Today my guest blogger is the very talented Art Director, Patrick Lupinski, who presently works at Adrenaline Works. I’ve asked him to talk about his take on what’s going on in advertising today.

A rebellion is currently brewing online and thousands are participating in it. It started a few weeks ago with an unsatisfied Bank of America customer who felt he was being mistreated by the monolithic company. Skyrocketing interest rates and additional miscellaneous fees that many have become all too familiar with. What did he do? He attempted to contact the institution via phone and several times in person only to be told nothing could be done. Fed up, the customer sat in front of his computer and spoke to his webcam recording his problem and published it on YouTube. A few days and thousands of hits later, action was taken and a bank representative called the customer and resolved the issue. One down, but what about the other dissatisfied customers with a computer at their fingertips?

Remember when companies would pour an unfathomable portion of their budgets into marketing? Splurging to create TV spots that had an over-tested but hollow message? This money allowed corporations to act as the gatekeeper for their message, protecting their reputation and sometimes withholding truth from the consumer. Ad agencies were responsible for crafting messaging to further promote products that may not have lived up to their pretty art direction and flowery words.

But, in the world we live in today, the gatekeepers walls are getting flimsy. The internet helps us keep in touch with loved ones, get the news 24/7, spend hours surfing the web and watching what some may think are pointless videos on YouTube, Google, Vimeo, etc. But, thanks to the more affordable costs of computers, digital cameras and other content building and publishing hardware, there are many opportunities for people to create their own channel. A large portion of our population just doesn’t trust that they’re getting the truth from the mainstream media anymore and so they’ve taken matters into their own hands. We have entered an era where the individual is now their own media network participating in and contributing to the true democratization of information.

When you log onto Facebook you’re immediately immersed in a streaming feed of the mesages, ideas, pictures and videos of hundreds of your friends. And that’s just the beginning as there’s also Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo and Doostang, to name a few. These online communities all provide a platform for people to publish their message and be heard.

But what is unique to our time is that within these communities, groups of like-minded individuals who are facing similar hardships, are forming. They are gathering around compelling issues of our time that are affecting them such as the economy, unemployment or healthcare reform. Many have been thrown into compromising situations where they are left questioning their realities within the context of this rapidly morphing landscape. Within these communities they find support.

I cringe when some compare our current situation to that of the Depression of the 20’s or the Recession of the 70’s. The current situation is far different than any other that we may have experienced in the past. Today we are empowered with technology and connected virtually when in the past we were limited physically to the community that we lived in. People sharing similar thinking can communicate from across the world transcending borders and building lasting relationships through their virtual realities. These relationships and feelings of empowerment have started to step out of the virtual and into the physical through various artistic and business collaborations such as on CollabFinder, personal microloans to people in developing countries via Kiva, programs such as TapIt benefitting healthier and responsible living, and recently large protests mobilized via Facebook and Twitter.

The Bank of America event is just one example of how the internet is bringing people together and providing a public forum to expose unfair practices. Some companies are taking note of this and realizing how big this “internet thing” actually is. Rather than spending a majority of their budgets on marketing and crafting messages as to why you should use them — some are going back and re-investing in the products or services that they sell. This is an amazing thing. For too long we were paying for mediocre products and services that told us to feel a certain way. We are no longer a throw-away culture as we once were. We just can’t afford to be and let’s face it…neither can the planet that we live on.

I’m very hopeful and excited for the future. Transparency will expose those companies that are lying and those that are actually selling a quality product through the human network that we’ve built. And I think that’s awesome. Besides it’s much easier to advertise a responsible product or service you can actually believe in.

Posted in advertising, guest blogger | 1 Comment »