Go to amazon.com, type in “time management” and 111,638 results will return.  Why?  It’s probably because time management is one of the most important yet underutilized tools that we have at our disposal.

According to Inc.com, everyone has two hours each day in which they are most productive.  That’s not to say that you cannot be productive for the other six (assuming you work a normal 8-hour day), but these two hours produce the most quality work.

Are you a night owl?  A morning person perhaps?  Super charged, ready to work right after your second cup of coffee?  Perhaps inspiration strikes every day at lunch?  Or are you more of a late afternoon, as the clock is winding down, rug-cutting-time kind of worker?  It’s different for everyone, so figure out what your best two hours are and use that 120 minutes wisely.

How to find “your time”:

1. Analyze your day.  Prioritize tasks from highest value to least value according to how each affects your company and your customers/clients.
2. Reprioritize your tasks.  Take an hour from tasks that have “no value,” like checking your Facebook Timeline as soon as you turn your computer on in the morning, and put that time towards a “low value” task.  Then find an hour that you’d normally spend on a “low value” task and move it to the “high value” category.
3. Eliminate time wasters.  By setting new priorities you can remove the things that slow down your day/productivity and add no value to your clients.   Eliminating time wasters is a matter of discipline though.  Once you identify your time wasters, it’s up to you to phase them out.  That could mean only checking your email twice per day or rewarding yourself with five minutes to check your social media accounts at lunch after two hours of heads-down work.  On average it takes 20-30 minutes to get back on track after an interruption, whether it’s from taking a phone call, checking your email, or talking to a coworker.  Maximize productivity by scheduling your interruptions strategically in your day, if you can, to avoid getting off track.
4. Track your time.  Document the time you spend on each task, and then check your report at the end of the week to ensure that you’re using your time wisely.  If you find that you’re spending more time on a “low value” task it could be time to reevaluate that goal or find a way to transfer your efforts to a “higher value” task.

How we do it at 360:

At the beginning of each week, every team member creates a list of his or her top 3 tasks starting with the most important, or highest value, and going to the least important (if we get to it, great; if not, no big deal).  Then each department has a “huddle” where we talk about our goals for the week as well as our “wins and losses.”  Wins can be goals that we met or just a positive experience that we had with a client or coworker that boosts morale; losses might just be tasks that we didn’t get to.

Each team member has “rocks,” which are initiatives assigned to each team member in each department as the most important goal for the quarter.  These would be considered “high value.”  We each set aside an hour each day to focus on our rocks in order to reach our objectives.

Finally, we track our time in Web Project Status.  All of our tasks are documented within each project to help us maximize efficiency.

Our Times

I asked our office what their most productive times were and if they consider themselves a) A Morning Person, b) A Lunchtime Warrior, c) An Early Afternooner, d) A Cunchtime Performer, or e) A Night Owl.  Here’s what we came up with:

A) Morning Person: 20%
B) Lunchtime Warrior: 6.7%
C) Early Afternooner: 13.4%
D) Crunchtime Warrior: 20%
E) Night Owl: 26.7%

*A/E & A/D combos: 13.2%

The programmers are night owls; they work well into the early morning hours coding, updating, and upgrading fueled by strong coffee, Mountain Dew, cigarettes, and bags of steamed vegetables.

Designers seem to be more mid-morning/early afternooners.  From what I can tell, they’re heads-down on projects most of the day, but it’s usually around 10 a.m. and then right after lunch that you don’t hear a peep from that part of the office.

The rest of us are spread out pretty evenly, although there are not many lunchtime warriors.  I suspect that has something to do with a foosball league match commencing each day at noon.

And here’s why we work best at “our times”:

Jason… works best between 3 and 5:30ish because “by this time I am done being responsive to requests from that day (support, fires, meetings etc.) and am able to focus on productive work.”

Joel… works best after 9 p.m. when his kids are in bed.  “My brain starts to concentrate after dinner and family settles down. During the day there are constantly urgent items that need attention and prevent dedicated focus time. Later at night, blocks of uninterrupted time are easier to maintain.”

Kelli… works best in the morning.  “The earlier, the better. Partially because I haven’t had time to get distracted yet, but mostly because if I’ve made it a point to wake up early, I have something important to do.”

Lee… works best between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.  “Since I’m not a morning person, I need a few cups of coffee to soak in, and it seems to be the best time I can ‘plug in’ and really focus.”

Dan F… works best between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.  “In the AM I have time to ‘Set the Table’ for the day and have time to actually get some of it done before my whole day goes to hell.”

Eric… works best all night.  “I seem to get really focused around 9 p.m. and stay that way until 4 a.m.  People and animals are asleep.  It’s just me, the stars, and a text editor.  Really though, it’s all because ‘smart’ people stay up late ”

We want to know what your time is.  Tweet us or comment on our Facebook page to share when you work best and why; include the hashtag #mytime.

And now that you’ve treated yourself to this awesome blog, go be productive!

Remember a few months ago when SOPA and PIPA, those “security” bills aimed at regulating online piracy by neglecting privacy rights, reared their ugly heads?  Thanks to the relentless effort by protestors those bills were shelved by Congress, but we warned you that that wouldn’t be the end of it.   Just like we predicted, here comes another one.  A new bill, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), is being considered by the House, and it’s just as loosely structured as its predecessors.

CISPA targets cyber threat intelligence and information sharing.  What does that encompass exactly?  Basically, CISPA would allow the government to monitor online activity and report any suspicious actions to the private sector for further investigation.  The major concern is, of course, regulation.  What protects the rights of the individual user?  As currently drafted, CISPA offers no such protection.

The dominant distress of CISPA opponents remains the unregulated monitoring and sharing of internet users’ personal information.  The latest draft of CISPA allows Internet companies to share customer data and communications with the National Security Agency (NSA).  Once again grassroots campaigns are calling for citizens to write and call their members of Congress to express concern about the proposed legislation.  That’s not all though.  The American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and other major groups are also leading protests against CISPA.

National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden addressed the bill saying, “The nation’s critical infrastructure cyber vulnerabilities will not be addressed by information sharing alone.”

Hayden added, “Also, while information sharing legislation is an essential component of comprehensive legislation to address critical infrastructure risks, information sharing provisions must include robust safeguards to preserve the privacy and civil liberties of our citizens. Legislation without new authorities to address our nation’s critical infrastructure vulnerabilities, or legislation that would sacrifice the privacy of our citizens in the name of security, will not meet our nation’s urgent needs.”

The real trouble with CISPA is that it isn’t refined enough to be passed through Congress.  Instead of learning from SOPA and PIPA, government officials continue to try and force feed cyber-security bills to their counterparts.  Luckily for us, the Obama administration is growing more attentive to these tactics and squashing this type of cyber-security legislation before it hits the House floor for a vote.

So the real question becomes: when will the government officials who draft these bills learn to refine their outreach before trying to sneak them through Congress?  Perhaps never…

While we’re likely to see less severe protests against CISPA at this point (remember the SOPA and PIPA blackouts by Reddit and Wikipedia), the U.S. House Intelligence Committee doesn’t exactly have all of its ducks in a row either.  Likely to be presented to Congress in the coming weeks, CISPA has already undergone some major rewrites, or “discussion drafts,” aimed at more clearly defining “cybersecurity threat.”   That buys everyone a little more time to become more educated on CISPA and make an informed decision on what needs to be done to protect our privacy right online.

Worried about your personal information being reviewed and shared by the government?  Let your representatives know immediately.  It’s never too early to take action against CISPA.  Stay tuned to our blog for more updates about CISPA in the coming weeks.

A few years ago it was routine to hear “be careful what you post on your Facebook page, you never know what your boss might see” from your elders.  Perhaps you even heard a horror story or two about someone who wasn’t hired or got fired for having “inappropriate” pictures or content on their public profile.  But now almost everyone uses Facebook, especially those businesses, who just a few months ago may have frowned upon your Facebook funny business, that are now concentrating a lot of effort on branding and marketing via social media.

The Band-Aid for preventing potential social embarrassment has always been to set your profile to private.  Save for a shameful profile picture, private Facebook pages left users in the clear from hiring and firing disasters.  That is until employers started asking for your Facebook password.

The latest Facebook trend involves potential employers asking candidates for their Facebook login credentials during interviews so that they can scrub private information for potential red flags; an on-the-spot social media background check.   Don’t want to surrender your password?  That’s fine, just be ready to login to your Facebook page during the interview to navigate through your profile yourself.

Yes, this is actually happening.

MSNBC reported a case in which Justin Bassett, a NYC statistician, was asked to surrender his username and password during a job interview, he refused and thus was refused the job.  While it may seem shocking it’s actually becoming commonplace, and it’s not only unpopular amongst job seekers eager to find work in a battered economy; Facebook has contemplated taking legal action against any offenders.

From Facebook’s blog:

“In recent months, we’ve seen a distressing increase in reports of employers or others seeking to gain inappropriate access to people’s Facebook profiles or private information. This practice undermines the privacy expectations and the security of both the user and the user’s friends. It also potentially exposes the employer who seeks this access to unanticipated legal liability.”

Consider this for a moment: is it morally corrupt for an employer to even ask a prospective or current employee for his or her Facebook login information?

Today, everything is password protected; online banking, billing for all of your utilities, ATMs, email, blogs, your computer, and of course social media.  We’re even taught best practices on how to create impenetrable, and often hard to remember, passwords to protect our personal information.  The idea that a potential employer would ask a candidate to surrender their top-secret Facebook password, or any password for that matter, is egregious.

Technically, it’s illegal for anyone else to ask for or use your Facebook password.  In section four of Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, titled Registration and Account Security, it clearly states:

“You will not share your password, (or in the case of developers, your secret key), let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account.”

So what are job candidates to do?  With the economy finally limping to a recovery an employer asking for a Facebook password applies unjust pressure to an already stressful situation.

Employers could argue that they are just trying to protect themselves.  According to MSNBC, Robert Collins, a Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services employee, was asked for his login credentials during a reinstatement interview following bereavement leave, so that employers could check for gang affiliations.

“I needed my job to feed my family.  I had to,” Collins said about the incident.

While most job seekers likely have nothing to hide, it comes down to a matter of privacy rights; something that Facebook seems to be very passionate about.  Although Facebook has yet to take legal action against any offenders, in the blog, entitled “Protecting Your Passwords and Your Privacy”, Facebook points out the following:

“(Asking for passwords) may cause problems for the employers that they are not anticipating.  For example, if an employer sees on Facebook that someone is a member of a protected group (e.g. over a certain age, etc.) that employer may open themselves up to claims of discrimination if they don’t hire that person.”

While it is important to protect yourself and your rights, it’s also important to be a responsible Facebook user.  In reality, we are all individual brands.  Companies advertise directly to us via Google, Gmail, Facebook, you name it.  Facebook has evolved from a college bulletin board full of pictures and stories of weekend debauchery to a sophisticated tool used by world leading corporations to present their product and interact with customers directly.  So perhaps instead of fearing what a potential employer may discover on Facebook, maybe we should really be conscious of how we are presenting ourselves to the rest of the world.  What is your brand?

*Update: As I’m writing this blog, a grade school teacher’s assistant in Michigan has been fired for not surrendering her Facebook password after being reported for posting a picture of a coworker.

Have a Facebook story?  We’d love to hear about it.  Share it with us below.

Have you ever opened a Gmail and noticed an ad on the side of the screen with an offer about the very subject matter of your email?  That’s a personalized ad, and they are most likely tailored to match the subject matter of a particular email thread or the most frequently mentioned items in your entire email history.  Advertisers track your search history to find out what you’re looking for and then use that information to market directly to you.  While some may find it convenient, others find it intrusive.

Google offers the Ads Preferences Manager, which “shows you what information is used to personalize your ads, and lets you block some advertisers or opt out entirely of personalized ads on Google search and Gmail.”  But what about other major online services?

A new Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights proposed by the Obama administration will let users determine how much information is being collected by organizations in an effort to protect consumers on the web.

The Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights hot points:

• Individual Control: Consumers have a right to exercise control over what personal data companies collect from them and how they use it.

• Transparency: Consumers have a right to easily understandable and accessible information about privacy and security practices.

• Respect for Context: Consumers have a right to expect that companies will collect, use, and disclose personal data in ways that are consistent with the context in which consumers provide the data.

• Security: Consumers have a right to secure and responsible handling of personal data.

• Access and Accuracy: Consumers have a right to access and correct personal data in usable formats, in a manner that is appropriate to the sensitivity of the data and the risk of adverse consequences to consumers if the data is inaccurate.

• Focused Collection: Consumers have a right to reasonable limits on the personal data that companies collect and retain.

• Accountability: Consumers have a right to have personal data handled by companies with appropriate measures in place to assure they adhere to the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.

How does the White House plan to implement and follow through on the online privacy bill?  Lucky for you, I have some quick facts on that as well.  According to a White House press release, “the President will assure strong individual privacy protection in the Internet age with the following actions”:

- Putting in place a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights
- Convening commercial and public interest stakeholders to assure dynamic rules
- Strong Enforcement by the Federal Trade Commission
- Flexible privacy principles to assure continued innovation
- Enacting comprehensive privacy legislation
- Achieving Global Open Internet privacy policies

While the Online Privacy Bill of Rights was introduced by White House Press Secretary as a “comprehensive blueprint,” it does reveal some interesting ideas that could lead to stricter mandates on what companies can do with your collected data.

As part of the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, the White House is also calling for “industry action” in the form of implementing Do Not Track Technology from the World Wide Web Consortium (WWWC).

Just like the “do not call” list, which removes your phone number from telemarketing call sheets, the “do not track” option blocks specific sites from tracking your web browsing history.  The White House is asking “companies that represent the delivery of nearly 90 percent of online behavioral advertisements, including Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and AOL” to comply.

Google and Mozilla support the proposed bill and plan to implement Do Not Track functionality in the Chrome and Firefox browsers, respectively, starting next year.

So far this is what the major browsers are doing to comply:

Google Chrome: Offers Keep My Opt-Outs (available since early 2011), which is a plug-in that removes ad tracking.

Mozilla Firefox: Implemented a Do Not Track HTTP Header.

IE9: Offers Tracking Protection, which allows users to create a list of sites to block, or “have it automatically create a list based on how often a third-party site phones home from different sites you visit.”

Opera: Supports “do not track” technology but is afraid that it may give a false sense of security to users.

Safari: Not as compliant… Yet.

As for those pesky Gmail ads that I mentioned earlier, for now you can visit google.com/history and click the “Pause” button to block advertisers from tracking your history.  However, with the exception of Safari, all browsers have agreed to implement a straightforward “Do Not Track” button by next year, a proposal championed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Read the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.

Learn more about how Google tracks you now.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
~Ferris Bueller

Do you remember your first computer?  I remember that our first at-home, family computer was back in the mid-90s when having a computer, at least for my family, was a “big deal”.  We took turns, everyone got an hour on it per night (unless you had homework to do, then you could surf Encarta ’95 as long as you’d like).  It was a Gateway.  It had a decent soundcard, good graphics, probably a 1 GB hard drive, and a 15” monitor.  Now, those specs pale in comparison to most smart phones.

My, how times have changed…  Today, I work on a 27” iMac, 17” Powerbook, iPad 2, and an iPhone 4 daily.  Not a bad progression.  Of course there were all of those awkward college-transition years upgrading to 20 gig Dell laptops and 40 gig Compaq desktops, but every computer I’ve had since that first one have been a huge improvement upon the previous one.  Quite frankly, it makes the price we paid for that first Gateway look completely absurd today.

Still, doesn’t it always seem like as soon as you upgrade to the latest and best version of a new computer something else comes out that’s even bigger and better?  Staying on top of technology can be a daunting and expensive task.  That’s not to say that you can’t get an awesome machine for a very reasonable price now.  No matter where you stand today, there’s no doubt that you’re leaps and bounds ahead of your 1995 self.

Last week Joel passed this blog around the 360 PSG office, in which the blogger draws up a hilarious comparison of computers from 1995 vs. 2012.

Let’s take a quick look back:

A few of us took a trip down memory lane to reflect on our own inaugural computing-owning experiences.

Do you remember your first computer?  Let us know, we’d love to laugh hear about it.

Do you remember what your first computer was (make/model) and when you got it?  Do you remember any of the specs (memory, hard drive, processor, etc)?

Bryan

The Mighty “Tandy 1000″.  It was 5 foot nothin, 100 and nothin, and it barely had a speck of athletic ability.

Matt

Gateway i486, with Windows 3.1, 1.44MB, a 3.5″ floppy drive, but no CD-ROM.

Kelli

My family’s first computer was an IBM DOS that was for shared use.

Ben

Packard Bell with a 14.4bps dial up modem.

Joel

My first machine was a custom built unit from TDN (now out of business). It was a 486 with about 2MB of RAM and a tiny hard drive. It had the 3.5″ and the 5″ floppy drive which later added a 2x CD-ROM. It was DOS only (since Windows was a much pricier upgrade… later I bit the bullet and spent about $200 for the windows 3.11 enhancement). I had the 15″ monitor (Large screen option).

Lee

My first computer was an old school IBM whose screen only had green and black.  Everything was saved on the big 5 1/2 ” floppy and we upgraded for a “new and improved” 3 1/2″ floppy disk.

Angie

My first computer was a Dell laptop; not sure which model but I bought it in the summer of 2000 before college. I don’t remember a ton about it except that it was super heavy.

What was your primary use for your first computer (word processing, games, programming, surfing the primitive web)?

Bryan

Word Processing with Microsoft Works, and playing a shareware game called “school mom,” which was actually two games.  You could either match capitals with states or states with capitals.  It was really stupid and I still do not know the state capitals.

Matt

Games & messing around with programming, mostly creating crappy 2d games like Pong, Breakout, etc. The stupid thing didn’t even have a modem when we first got it. Eventually we upgraded to a modem to surf the primitive web with AOL/Prodigy/Earthlink/etc. (whatever flavor of the month gave us a 30-day free trial).

Kelli

The idea behind purchasing our first computers was that I could use them to type my papers for school, but more often than not, I used them to play games and eventually socialize with friends using AOL Instant Messenger.

Joel

I started playing video games on it… Some of the best games came on 16 x 3.5″ floppy discs and there was no doubt that by the 12th disc, it would churn out a “corrupt, cannot read disc”… (a)bort, (r)etry, or (f)ail… ha.  I would have to take the disc out and blow on it (like a Nintendo cartridge) and cross my fingers the “R” retry would eventually get through the full install.

It was on this same machine that I learned my first programming languages of BASIC-A and QBASIC. (Eventually, I bought a copy of Turbo C++ for DOS).  This was all before the Internet; you could use the modem to dial up and connect to bulletin boards, etc. but all on the command line.

Jena

I don’t recall any of the specs but I remember playing Midnight Rescue, Commander Keen, and Doom.  I’m sure my parents used it for more important things but that’s all my brother and I did.  We got America Online in 1997.

Angie

I only used it for basic word processing, some Internet usage and instant messaging. You know, super important stuff, ha!

What computer/computers, smart phones, tablets, etc. do you own now?  How do those compare to your first ever computer?

Bryan

I own a laptop and an iPad.  They’re a lot more useful, and also I don’t have to sit on a steel stool that my dad had for an office chair.

Kelli

I have a 13″ MacBook Pro and an iPhone 4. It’s crazy to think that I can get internet access with a pocket-sized device when just over 10 years ago I would have to plug-in an extra phone line and sneak it into my room in order to go online to chat with friends.

Ben

A desktop with two monitors, a laptop that fits in a briefcase while still being more powerful than the desktop and a phone that has more graphical capabilities, storage and processing power than the original computer on at least 1 order of magnitude, but probably more.

Joel

I have multiple desktops, a Netbook, dual screen systems in my office. I have a Droid X (with about 1,000 times the power of that first PC).  The funny part is that you still feel like you’re chasing the maximum capability of software and the “newest” stuff, so you don’t realize what you used to have because it is not even like comparing apples and oranges; it’s like comparing apples and Corvettes (And then when you have a Corvette, you want the Aston Martin).

Lee

Today I have my desktop, my Netbook, Droid cell phone and iTouch iPod, which all blow away my first few computers away!

Jena

I own an HP laptop, an iPad, and an iPhone.  Obviously everything has improved immensely but there is something special about the original computer we had and how exciting, new, and simple it was.

Angie

I now have an iMac, an iPhone, and I use my fiance’s iPad 2 occasionally.  I heart Apple products.

What’s your primary use for your personal computers (at home) now (email, word processing, music, video, programming, design, surfing the over-saturated web)?

Bryan

Work and watching Youtube videos that feature talking animals.

Kelli

I use my personal computers for just about everything: streaming TV/movies, listening to music, designing, posting to social media, looking up recipes, shopping, booking hotels/flights. You name it, I probably do it online.

Ben

Internet, email, gaming, graphic design, research, music, archiving, writing and general tinkering in programming and electronics.

Joel

It is my entire communication hub from email to social networking to the VOIP phone systems. The obvious use is for the work in a web development company… but it is also a very personal tool as well.

Lee

All of my computers and mobile devices are used for emails, word processing, music & movies, and just surfing the information super highway!  Today we see another turn in storage technology, from the once treasured “flash” or “thumb” drives to storage in the cloud.  Soon, computers won’t need hard drives; simply a operating system to boot up and get online!

Jena

Primary use for my personal computers now are email, word processing, music, and the Internet.

Angie

It’s hard to narrow down my primary use for my personal computer now, since I do everything online. Bill paying, emailing, watching/sharing videos, listening/downloading music, wedding planning, using iChat to talk to my niece & nephew in Arizona – EVERYTHING.  I pretty much Google everything.

Have you harnessed the power of hashtag marketing to promote your brand via Twitter?  It can be a handy tool that “tags” a tweet and allows searchers to find it more easily.  While it can be very rewarding to run a successful campaign, it’s also easy for your plan to backfire.

What are trending topics?

Twitter’s help center explains:

“Twitter’s Trending Topics algorithm identifies topics that are immediately popular, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis, to help people discover the ‘most breaking’ news stories from across the world. We think that trending topics which capture the hottest emerging trends and topics of discussion on Twitter are the most interesting.”

Why use hashtags?

The Good

First, Twitter redesigned their website last year to highlight key services, one of them being hashtags.  At the top of your Twitter home page there are three large icons: Home, Connect, and Discover, which all allow for more fluent navigation of the popular social media website.  On the side, you’ll see the most popular trending topics for specific locations, e.g. Los Angeles, New York, or the United States.

Apple recently announced the latest version of OSX, Mountain Lion, with Twitter integrated into many Mac programs like Safari, iPhoto, Photo Booth and more.  That means even more tweeting in the near future, so getting a jump start on developing your social media marketing campaigns is a good idea.

Second, hashtags give users a way to interact with your brand by referencing a specific topic.  Back in 2010 retail giant Target used hashtags to promote their #blackfriday deals, giving away $25 gift cards and offering special deals through their trending topic.  But hashtag topics don’t have to be promotions.  According to Carmen Hudson, CEO and co-founder of Tweetajob, between 300 and 500 jobs per minute are posted on Twitter with hashtags like #jobs or #salesjobs.  Of course with the saturation of job postings on Twitter, hashtags should only be used to supplement other job resources like your Job Board.

Hosting an upcoming seminar on Social Media Basics?  Why not establish the hashtag #socialmediabasics to allow guests to live-Tweet your event.  Then anyone not attending the event can easily search for highlights from your event by plugging #socialmediabasics into Twitter’s “Discover” section.

Finally, hashtags are a cross-platform tool.  Hashtags are not exclusive to Twitter; they can be used to promote brand unity across popular social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest just to name a few.

Now, The Bad

McDonald’s recently made headlines with their hashtag campaign, #McDStories, which garnered some bad press.  Intended to help spread positive experiences at McDonald’s locations around the world, #McDStories was hijacked by angry patrons and used to share unpleasant dining experiences at the fast food chain.

It started innocently with tweets like, “Meet some of the hard-working people dedicated to providing McDs with quality food every day #McDStories”.  However McDonald’s hashtag campaign quickly turned into an ugly bashtag campaign with tweets like, “One time I walked into McDonald’s and I could smell Type 2 diabetes floating in the air and I threw up”.  Oops.

The lesson?  Know your brand.  McDonald’s has to know that they have just as many detractors as they do supporters.  They set themselves up for failure and had to quickly pull the plug on their #McDStories campaign.

Avoid making a similar marketing gaff by identifying your intended audience.  It’s important to believe in your product and trust that your audience does too.  However, before launching a hashtag campaign, really think about what you’re trying to accomplish.  If there is any chance that your positive message could be spun in a negative way then consider a different marketing strategy.

As a final note, having a unified brand across all social media platforms is extremely important.  Make sure your new Twitter page reflects your current color scheme, logo, and website address.  Had the same homepage for a few years?  Consider a Twitter page redesign.

Like it or not, Facebook Timeline is here.

I like to fancy myself an early adopter of new technology.  I was a Twitter-er before anyone else I knew, I begged friends for a Google+ invite, I converted to Gmail’s newest theme when it was still just a trial version, but most recently I changed my Facebook profile from the classic view to the new Timeline layout not because I wanted to but rather because I would be forced to sooner than later.

Am I fan of Facebook Timeline?  Aesthetically speaking, no I am not a fan.  Timeline displays your activity in a chronological column alternating left to right and back again.  It’s a bit jumbled compared to the classic news feed view, but just like any other design change Facebook has made over the last few years I’m sure Timeline will grow on me.  Love it or hate it, Facebook Timeline is going to be mandatory for everyone in the next few weeks as they “roll it out.” (according to their blog)  It’s social networking Darwanism at its finest.  Adapt or be left in the dust.

Facebook is famous for rolling out changes to the site’s design, layout, and privacy settings frequently enough to frustrate users who had “just gotten comfortable” with the previous version.  Speaking of privacy settings, there are a few of those to pay close attention to as well.  The big one being that Facebook Timeline goes way back like Steve Jobs’ hairline, displaying information from the beginning of Facebook time (okay, that’s only 2004, but still!).  Once you make the switch to the Facebook Timeline layout (or when the switch is made for you) you will have a seven day preview of your profile during which you will be able to edit or delete any information from your Facebook past that you don’t want to be visible.

Don’t worry; the seven day grace period isn’t the only opportunity you’ll have to edit your information.  Whenever you post on Facebook, there is a “Public” dropdown menu that allows you to choose whether your info will be public, for friends only, close friends, acquaintances, only you, and more.  You can also delete your past activity from friends’ Timelines.

To some, Timeline may seem pointless.  For example, do I need to know what I posted or who I was dating in 2006?  Do I really need to relive my college years?  If that is important to you however, Timeline makes old information much more accessible.  If you wanted to see one of your posts from 2005 in classic Facebook you would be required to scroll to the bottom of the page and click “See More” an exhausting number of times.  With Timeline, you just select the year that you want to view on the right, and voila, there are all of your posts.

Apps

Facebook is also pushing Timeline Apps as a way to share activities and interests with your friends.  Facebook explains “Apps on Facebook allow you to play social games with your friends, remember friends’ birthdays, share your taste in movies, send gifts to friends, and much more.”

With categories like entertainment, music, food, fitness, news, fashion, and more you can add apps like Words With Friends, Hulu, Rdio, Spotify, Urban Spoon, Wall Street Journal, and Pinterest just to name a few.

A Little Creative Freedom

My favorite part about Facebook Timeline is the new “Cover.”  Facebook encourages you to “fill this wide, open space with a unique image that represents you best.  It’s the first thing people see when they visit your timeline.”  Finally, Facebook gives users a customizable (even if it’s just one spot) profile for the first time.

Here are a few examples of really creative (and funny) Facebook covers:

http://mashable.com/2012/01/26/funny-facebook-timeline-covers/

As usual, there are plenty of Facebook Timeline critics.  As reported by the Washington Post, a SlashGear poll revealed that forty five percent of responders admitted to considering nixing their Facebook accounts altogether over the mandatory switch to Timeline.  But let’s get real for a moment, Facebook isn’t going anywhere.  In fact, I doubt it will see a very steep decline in users once Timeline becomes the norm.  We’ll just have to learn to enjoy Facebook Timeline until the next big change comes.

No Changes for Facebook Business Pages… For Now

For the time being, Facebook Timeline is only being rolled out for personal pages, so business pages will have to wait for any profile design updates.  However, rumors are swirling that Timeline could be available as soon as the end of February.

Facebook VP of Global Marketing Solutions Carolyn Everson said:

“The goal has always been to have your personal experience on Facebook not be so different than the brand or page experience. And right now, it is different. You have Timeline and you have a page-brand profile. So we are absolutely moving in the direction to sync those up. We believe that brands want to be able to curate how they’re represented in a more visually pleasing way, and we’re in the midst of trying to figure out how best to do that.”

If that’s the case, then now is a great time to get a head start on Timeline design concepts for promoting your brand to millions of Facebook users.

We did it, guys!  We saved the Internet!  SOPA was shelved; we won.  The revolution is over.  Right?

Not so fast.

Two days after the proposed blackout (Jan. 18^th) of major websites like Reddit and Google, Lamar Smith, the main sponsor of SOPA, postponed further action on the bill in Congress soon after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did the same with PIPA.    The postponement of both bills came on the heels of a somewhat unified protest by Internet giants Google, WordPress, Mozilla, and Craisglist, amongst others.

Wikipedia and Reddit “went dark”, Google covered its logo with a black rectangle, millions of armchair activists voiced their opinions via social media and by signing online petitions, and in turn Congress backed down.  A moral victory if nothing else.

What does that really mean?

We’ve won the battle but not the war.  While SOPA and PIPA have been shelved for the time being, we need to be aware of revisions and similar bills with new names (and acronyms) that will likely surface in the coming weeks, months, and years.

“It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products,” Smith stated in an interview.

Markup (that’s Congress speak for “debating, amending, and rewriting proposed legislation”) for SOPA is scheduled to continue in February.  Hopefully the new bills will outline a responsible way to police online piracy while still looking out for the best interest of everyone, especially small  business.

This is beginning to feel less like a revolution and more like a revelation of what the Internet is by the majority of Congress members; you know, the responsible leaders who are writing legislation that could affect everyone who uses the Internet, who is, you know, EVERYONE.

SOPA UPDATE: Read “SOPA Far, So Good” Here!

A Case of Censorship VS. Free Speech

Raise your hand if you can tell me what SOPA stands for.  Okay, well how many of you have at least heard of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)?  How about the Protect IP Act (PIPA)?  If you still didn’t raise your hand, you should pay close attention to what follows as SOPA and PIPA could change the Internet as we know it as early as January 24^th.

Introduced on October 26, 2011 by Representative Lamar Smith, (R –Texas), the SOPA bill targets rogue websites (mostly located outside the US) that infringe upon the rights of intellectual property owners by offering illegal downloads of movies, music, and other copyrighted, trademarked, and patented material.

PIPA: The Senate’s Older Cousin to SOPA

The Senate will have their own vote on their bill, PIPA, which was first introduced May 26, 2011.

According to MediaBeat:

“Under PIPA, if a website is accused of containing copyright-infringing content (like a song, picture, video clip etc.), the site could be blocked by ISPs (like Comcast), de-indexed from search engines and even prevented from doing business online with services like PayPal.”

How Do SOPA & PIPA Affect You & Me?

If any of the bills pass allowing governmental regulation of the Internet we could, at the very least, see the demise or severe depletion of content shared on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, Reddit, Tumblr and other popular social media websites.  Blog authors would be putting themselves or their websites at risk of copyright infringement every time they post a link, video, or share a photo with their readers.

For other websites and small business owners, even if you’re clean, one of your visitors could post a link to copyrighted material in your blog’s comment section and put your site in danger under these new guidelines.

Social media sites aren’t the only ones affected by these bills.  Monster Cable, “the world’s leading manufacturer of high performance cables that connect audio/video components…”, cites Ebay and Craigslist (as well as Costco and Sears) as “rogue” sites because their users offer Monster’s secondhand cables at cheaper prices.

Craigslist now offers a page with more information on SOPA, including a list of supporters and opponents of the bill.  A Craigslist representative added:

“SOPA/PIPA authors and supporters of course insist they’re only after foreign piracy sites, but Internet Engineers understand this is an attempt to impose China-style controls on the Internet, complete with DNS hijacking and censoring search results.  Except in the US, instead of to the Communist Party, that control will go to the highest bidder.”

It’s a perplexing issue for lawmakers.  On one hand protecting U.S. jobs and earnings is very important for the economy.  However, the hasty fashion in which this legislation is being drawn up and voted on could result in major repercussions for small-to-medium size companies doing business online; something that I don’t think the government is addressing.

Who is supporting these bills?

The entertainment industry loves the idea of ending online piracy.  The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)issued a press release alleging that content theft has cost the U.S. economy $58 billion dollars annually, “including more than 373,000 lost American jobs, $16 million in lost employee earnings, plus $3 billion in badly needed federal, state and local governments’ tax revenue.”

However there are plenty of people who oppose SOPA & PIPA and for good reason.

Together We Stand

In a letter titled “We stand together to protect innovation” addressed to Congressional leaders several Internet giants expressed their concern for the bill:

“We support the bills’ stated goals… Unfortunately, the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new and uncertain liabilities, private rights of action, and technology mandates that would require monitoring of websites. We are concerned that these measures pose a serious risk to our industry’s continued track record of innovation and job creation, as well as to our nation’s cybersecurity.”

The letter, which was signed by Google, Facebook, Mozilla, Zynga, eBay, Twitter, Yahoo, LinkedIn, and AOL, also cites the already-strict Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which “…criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself… while limiting the liability of the providers of on-line services for copyright infringement by their users.”

Under the DMCA, sites are responsible for removing content or users who use or share copyrighted material when they receive a complaint; a sort of honor system.  That disappears with the passing of SOPA or PIPA and instead leaves the policing of websites up to the government.

Just when you thought that was enough, there’s a third “solution” for combating online piracy.

OPEN Act

SOPA and PIPA essentially assign responsibility for policing every site on the Internet to the government, but who is actually the watch dog?  If it’s up to the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Ace (OPEN), policing international online pirates will be a job for the International Trade Commission (ITC).

Sponsored by a coalition of lawmakers including Representative Darrell Issa (R – California), OPEN is a somewhat less severe option for policing overseas piracy.  As reported by the Washington Post, Issa explained, “OPEN would address the problem of piracy without resorting to denial of service, he said, by empowering the ITC to cut off the money flowing to copyright infringers.”

While OPEN may enlist the help of the ITC for overseas matters, they cannot regulate domestic matters.  That would be left up to whom?  SOPA or PIPA?  Even if that is the case, would all of this regulation actually “fix the problem”?  According to NY Times reporter David Carr, no.

“…Even if it made some progress toward reining in rogue sites, the collateral damage would be significant. Under the terms of each proposed bill, the federal Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, could seek a court order against a Web site that illegally hosts copyrighted content and then wall off the site permanently.”

The letter to Congress concludes by pointing out the major impact the Internet has had on the US economy.

“We are proud to be part of an industry that has been crucial to U.S. economic growth and job creation.  A recent McKinsey Global Institute Report found that the Internet accounts for 3.4 percent of GDP in the 13 countries that McKinsey studied, and in the U.S., the Internet’s contribution to GDP is even larger.  If Internet consumption and expenditure were a sector, it’s contribution to GDP would be greater than energy, agriculture, communication, mining, or utilities.  In addition, the Internet industry has increased productivity for small and medium-sized businesses by 10%.  We urge you not to risk either this success or the tremendous benefits the Internet has brought to hundreds of millions of Americans and people around the world.”

David Carr is as unbiased a reporter as they come, however he may have put it best when he wrote, “Given both Congress’s and the entertainment industry’s historically wobbly grasp of technology, I don’t think they should be the ones re-engineering the Internet. The rest of us might have to just hold our noses and learn enough about SOPA to school them in why it’s a bad idea.”

Blackout Imminent… Hopefully

Reddit, a social news website, has proposed a blackout day to the veritable Internet superpowers who drafted the letter Congress.  Reddit has promised to go dark Wednesday January 18^th from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. just over one week before the House’s scheduled floor vote on SOPA the 24^th.  Whether or not Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter or any others will follow suit is still up in the air.  Will they walk the walk or let Congress walk all over them and their users?  We’ll just have to wait and see.

What Can You Do?

While it is important to stop these pirates to curtail the hemorrhage of jobs and capital that is otherwise due to the entertainment industry and the US in general, it is also important to consider the ramifications that imposing such harsh laws could have on everyone who does business on the Internet.  SOPA, PIPA, and the OPEN Act affect nearly everyone.  Stay informed.  The Washington Post recently reported that Congress is starting to back down on SOPA and PIPA.  However, that does not rule out a revised SOPA or PIPA bill resurfacing in a few weeks or months.

It will be interesting to see how Congress handles this matter going forward.  In the meantime, contact your State Senator and tell them you are against SOPA and any other bill that imposes governmental regulation of the Internet.

Speak up!  Contact your representatives today.

Be sure to sign Google’s petition that tells your representatives to vote “NO” on SOPA and PIPA:

Google: https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

Visit Wikipedia’s homepage today, enter your zip code and you’ll be linked to a list of your Representatives with their contact information:

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Craigslist offers a plethora of links to tell Congress that you oppose SOPA & PIPA:

Craigslist: http://www.craigslist.org/about/SOPA

SOPA UPDATE: Read “SOPA Far, So Good” Here!

2011 was a big year for 360 PSG.  We grew as a company with new hires and new positions that allowed us to improve our overall efficiency in providing powerful web solutions that enhance and add measurable value to our clients and their organizations.  In addition, 360 moved into a brand new office space and upgraded our world class datacenter.

On our blog this year we brought you news about cell phones; making good first impressions (on the web and in person); what we watch and how we listen to our music; stand-up work stations; our favorite apps; 360’s big move; open creativity; Netflix and Qwikster; and 360 PSG’s web culture.

As the year comes to a close at 360 PSG, the heads of all departments are meeting to discuss our plans to improve procedures to better serve our clients in 2012.  Tonight, we have our holiday party where the Championship round of 360’s Foosball tournament will be played before we head to Lasertron for Laser Tag and Cyber Sport.  Then of course, it’s back to work tomorrow…  Sure it’s a Tuesday but hey, we have to celebrate the holidays together when it’s convenient for everyone.

With all of the upgrades in workspace, personnel, and internal procedures, 360 PSG strives to provide the best web solutions and superior customer service for you, our readers, our current clients, and all future clients.

360 PSG thanks you for reading.  As always, we greatly appreciate your feedback to help us improve our services.  Please be sure to fill out your Snapshot surveys.  We look forward to an even better 2012.

Happy Holidays!