Pinterest, the visual bookmarking site, has exploded over the last three weeks. And while many users' pinned content is focused on fashion and home decor, consumer brands are using the site for far more.

Pinterest is all the rage, the hottest, newest blossoming social networking site. Pinners are creating pinboards of home decor, lush food items, wedding designs and fashion combinations.

Since I'm don't spend a huge portion of my time on any of those topics, I've been wondering: who are Pinterest's power users and why is it catching on so quickly? What are they using it for? More importantly, how are brands taking advantage of the site?

Maybe it's because I'm at heart a guy. After all, TechCrunch has reported on the skyrocketing popularity of the site, enumerating a few reasons why it's not quite ready for prime time, including:

Guys haven’t bought into it yet: What we are about to say is 100% sexist, so don’t say we didn’t warn you. Here it is: guys just don’t get Pinterest! We’ve spotted a few popular male Pinterest users, but they’re a rare commodity. Apparently, women between the ages of 25 and 44 make up 59% of Pinterest users.

While the lack of testosterone might be a deterrent to the Y-chromosome set, it's not deterring anyone else. Mashable recently reported that Pinterest is driving more traffic than Google+ and LinkedIn. It has even surpassed YouTube, the darling of multimedia content, for referrals. Only Twitter currently refers more traffic--just barely.

Pinterest accounted for 3.6% of referral traffic, while Twitter just barely edged ahead of the newcomer, accounting for 3.61% of referral traffic. In July 2011, Pinterest accounted for just 0.17% of referral traffic, proving the site’s blockbuster growth.

 But it was social media star Aliza Sherman really turned around my thinking on Pinterest. Since I'm not a gal who spends all day crafting, redecorating the bedroom or planning an elaborate dinner, I was desperate to find creative ways social media folks or brands could use this great visual sharing tool. My aha moment was ogling Aliza's Infographic Addict board.

What Aliza's board revealed to me is that Pinterest is providing users something that Flickr and Facebook haven't yet: a way to organize visual content thematically, regardless of where the visual content originated, and to easily share that content with other users. (Without giving away all your private information--Zuckerberg, are you listening?)

What consumer brands are pinning

More importantly, consumer brands are capitalizing on Pinterest's growth and easy visual interface to engage their fans with repinnable content:

Chobani yogurt Chobani, the protein-rich Greek yogurt, has a series of boards dedicated to overall health, community yogurt recipes and Chobani Champions, which features irresistibly cute photos of parents, kids and the occasional Chobani container.

RealSimple Magazine It turns out that news organizations are eating up Pinterest and its ability to group visual topics on a board with one-click viral repinning. For example, RealSimple, the magazine devoted to simple, elegant living, has created a series of beautiful pinboards to showcase the magazine's content and themes, including "Organization Inspiration," "Valentine's Day Ideas" and "Problem-Solving Products." Excellent use of the visual medium by this consumer brand.

Charity: water Not-for-profit organization Charity: water uses pinboards to showcase Photo of the Day, Creative Fundraising and its gear for sale. The first board features beautiful, striking photos of the people in developing countries helped by the organization; the second, practical photos of ordinary people; the third, beauty shots of gear for sale. Three different functions for one organization.

Drake University Drake University, a private university, uses pinboards to highlight aspects of student life, from hot student room decor to study abroad to collections of bulldog photos (the school's mascot). Brilliant.

The key to Pinterest's popularity: simple, visual sharing

The key to Pinterest's popularity is that it has stripped away the complicated interface of Facebook and the staid reverse-chronological order of blogs and Twitter and instead has drilled down to the essence of what people like to share: pretty, useful stuff that they are excited about. The potential for brands is overwhelming; imagine if popular products from a brand's e-commerce site went viral on Pinterest, unhindered by timeline restrictions.

Now I get why Pinterest is so popular. It's stipped away the fluff and refocused on the basis of social media: sharing.

A quick tutorial in how to use Storify to curate, compile and compose a research-based blog post for those of us without a journalism degree

When a story hits my news feed more than once, I tend to want to look at it from a few different angles before forming an opinion. Check the Twitter stream for a hashtag. Do a Google search to see which mainstream news outlets have something to say on the matter and which bloggers have researched and weighed in. Then I'll form my own opinion and construct a blog post with links to relevant content and curated photos and Tweets to support my opinion.

And frankly, that's a lot of work. Too much, quite frequently--there are many topics I'd love to blog about but don't have the time and focus to research and piece together a useful and informative report about.

When I do, Storify is the tool I use to get my butt in gear to begin sifting through the content and formulating a coherent blog post. Storify is kind of like what we used to do with notecards: write salient references, knowledge bits, quotes and the like on cards and arrange them to create a nice, structured five-paragraph essay. Here's a quick view of how I use Storify to curate and compile research on a trend or topic.

Step 1: Discovery and research. The first step upon discovery of a topic of interest through the RSS reader, stream or the like is to track, tag, highlight and bookmark the best information. Diigo is a social bookmarking service (like Del.icio.us; I switched from the former when it threatened to close and haven't switched back) that offers a Firefox toolbar app for easy bookmarking, highlighting, note-taking and sharing. Highlight quotes and key points. Make notes on your opinions, reactions or snark in the notes section. If you bookmark a lot, save to a list specifically for topics you intend to write about.

Step 2: More research. Check additional channels for information on the topic. Topsy is great for real-time (Twitter) search and a good tool for discovering recent, relevant posts on a search term. Repeat Step 1 for any posts, photos or Tweets that reveal additional information not already discovered. If there are Tweets you might want to cite to support your point, Favorite them. In this case, as I'm researching a post on how non-designers and crafters are using Pinterest, I found a few interesting examples.

Step 3: Log in to Storify and begin a new story. Try entering a working headline and story description; it can be edited later and can help with focus for the article.

Step 4: Drag and drop curated content. While Storify allows the user to search for tagged content on Twitter, Facebook, Google, Flickr, YouTube and Instagram, I prefer to use my own vetted and annotated content and take advantage of Storify's easy drag-and-drop drafting feature. Select Embed URL and paste the link from one of the bookmarked articles.

Drag the link to your story, add your own insights and any quotes from the bookmarked content.

Step 5: Add real-time content and photos. To add Tweets from your Favorites stream, click the Twitter icon in Storify's media tab, type in your user name and select Favorites.

Any Tweets favorited from the Topsy search can be dragged and dropped directly into the story:

Step 6: Edit and post. Drag content in and out of the story; streamline; edit; save. When it's polished, publish and post to your Posterous or blog. I've found that once I've begun dragging content in and out of the story, the commentary writes itself and my thoughts crystallize. In terms of posting, I find publishing the entire Storify to my Typepad blog slows down the site's download significantly, so I simply cut and paste the content by hand, adding links and photos as needed.

Other Storify fans--how do you use Storify? What is your favorite feature?

 This weekend, I was totally obsessed with playing with a new iPhone camera app. Hopefully, the pix are so nifty that I can be forgiven for spending all my social time looking at my phone and squeeing.

Full disclosure: this is a compensated review without expectation of favorability.

I don't often do app reviews, except for the occasions in which I can't help but make a list of the coolest apps I've discovered of late. And I think that now that Shiny New App syndrome has worn off, a lot of us are simply returning to our favorite apps and not constantly seeking out the latest and greatest.

So it was kinda fun when the folks at Wondershare asked me to review this app. An excuse to futz with the iPhone camera? Sure!

The Skinny

PowerCam is a free iPhone camera app that enables the user to apply instant, live filters and effects to images and video BEFORE and WHILE shooting them. What you see on the screen before you snap the shot is what you get.

So here's what I see as the differentiating factor from services such as Instagram:

• Instant live filters (not simulated) for both video and photo--see the filters on the screen before you take the shot
• A plethora of effects--if you ever played with Photoshop, some of these will look familiar. But on live video and images BEFORE you take the picture? Crazy!
• Over 50 effects and filters overall
• No photo loss. All photos and videos go to your iPhone camera album as well as the Gallery section of the app.
• Instant sharing to social sites (Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr)

My explorations

There were so many effects and filters to explore; here is a quick slide show of my experiments with some of the coolest ones. My personal favorites: Burnt Paper (for photos at the Steampunk Ball), Neon (for that Saved by the Bell look) and Color Sketch (for the soft and artistic look).

 The effects and filters can be applied instantly to live video as well, so that what you see through your iPhone screen is what is being recorded. A performance from the Beehive Juggernauts at the Steampunk Ball with the Chocolate filter:

And one of the contra dancers with the Ink filter:

I had a blast playing with this app, and it is currently my new favorite toy! The fact that I can apply the filters and effects to videos and images before taking them is like mannah from heaven for this lazy photographer's soul. What about you? If you've downloaded and played with this app, what do you like and dislike about it?

Not sure why SOPA is bad but too lazy to skim the articles? My fave videos explaining the ramifications of SOPA.

Video #1: The Oatmeal

My personal favorite, an absolutely hysterical take on what SOPA would mean for content creators like you and me if enacted as currently written by comic genius Matt Inman of The Oatmeal:

Video #2: Clay Shirkey

Clay Shirkey, Internet activist, NYU professor and author of Here Comes Everybody, giving his TEDsalon talk in New York on the history of music, image and video copyright rights.

The real threat to the enactment of PIPA and SOPA is our ability to share things with one other. What PIPA and SOPA risk doing is taking a centuries old concept, innocent until proven guilty and reversing it--guilty until proven innocent... the threat is this inversion of the burden of proof.

Video #3 Ben Huh of Cheezburger

 And proving yet again that the proponents of the bills haven't actually read them thoroughly and only have a vague idea of what the bill's intent is, rather than how it would actually be applied as written, Ben Huh, CEO of Cheezburger, takes on Rick Cotton of NBC Universal.

And just in case you do want to read more detail, Wired has a great post questioning the economics of copyright infringement and how much the motion picture and music industries are actually suffering.

On January 18, some of the internet's most popular sites went black to protest the SOPA and PIPA bills currently making their ways through Congress. What was the result of a day without Wikipedia and Craigslist?

SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act and PIPA, the Protect Intellectual Property Act, are Congress' attempt to curtail websites that illegally publish copyrighted materials. However, the provisions of the bills are written such that one copyrighted image could lead an entire site to be shut down without due process.

If you're not familiar with SOPA, this video featuring Ben Huh, the CEO of Cheezburger, shows the basic flaws with SOPA as it is currently written.

So... were the protests a success? Did the internet blackout led by Wikipedia, Google, Craigslist et al accomplish their goals?

Withdrawing support

If the goal was to pressure Congresspeople to withdraw their support of SOPA and PIPA, the answer would be a resounding yes. The investigative journalism site ProPublica is keeping records of Congresspeople that have made statements both opposing and supporting SOPA. At last count, 102 Congresspeople have stated public opposition to the bills, withdrawn their support or reiterated their opposition.

Creating awareness

If the goal was to create awareness of SOPA and to drive Internet Americans to sign a protest petition, that was accomplished, too. In the funniest portrayal of Why SOPA Is Bad I've ever seen, Matt Inman of the comic blog The Oatmeal created an animated GIF that left users laughing out loud. (Kittens? Flamethrowers? Really? Yes, really.) And yes, he asked visitors to pirate it.

But that's not all. As Inman reported today, his animated GIF was so hilariously concise that it wound up on CNN. And that's not all:

Why else am I telling you this? Because of the combined efforts of some of the internet's biggest players as well as countless awesome underdogs, you could tentatively say that the protests were a success. 18 senators backed off from the bill, 4.5 million people signed a petition, and anyone who used the internet yesterday for more than five seconds is now well aware of what SOPA is and how to stop it.

Pissing off the big guys

If the goal was to piss off the bills' handful of corporate sponsors, that, too, was mission accomplished. MPAA CEO Chris Dodd called the blackout a "gimmick" and an "abuse of power:"

It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information use their services. It is also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today. It’s a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests.

A so-called “blackout” is yet another gimmick, albeit a dangerous one, designed to punish elected and administration officials who are working diligently to protect American jobs from foreign criminals.

Personally, I believe the SOPA blackout is the most democratic use of power we've seen in a while. And anything that pisses off Rupert Murdoch, CEO of Newscorp, this much has to be a good thing, right?

For SOPA/PIPA opponents, the good news is in. PCWorld ran a tally of the effects of yesterday's blackout, and the internet definitely rippled with repercussions:

• 4.5 million people signed Google's anti-SOPA/PIPA petition, according to the Los Angeles Times
• 25 Senators now oppose PIPA (the Senate version of SOPA), according to OpenCongress  
• Twitter saw more than 2.4 million SOPA-related tweets between midnight and 4 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday

However, keep in mind that, despite all this publicity and online actions and outrage, SOPA isn't dead. From the PC World article:

SOPA sponsor and Chair of the House Judiciary Committee Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) recently vowed to continue working to get the antipiracy legislation passed. And advocacy organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Democracy say the will continue opposing both SOPA and PIPA. The next Senate vote for PIPA is scheduled for January 24.

A show of force

Without a doubt, the online blackout raised awareness and gave the Little Guy a voice. But what is perhaps more important than these two bills is the power that has been wielded by the democratic web. In the age of SuperPACs that don't have to disclose their largest donors, the internet waged a transparent campaign and won hearts and minds--by simply doing nothing for a day. The New York Times called this flexing of the technology industry's online muscle "a political coming of age for a relatively young and disorganized industry that has largely steered clear of lobbying and other political games in Washington."

This is beyond exciting. This is the internet itself showing its guns in a way that only lobbyists have heretofore been able to. Whether or not SOPA and PIPA pass in their current forms (unlikely), this blackout was the internet saying to Congress, "Hey, guys--no. You can't block things you don't understand, and you can't just not listen to your constituents. Listen to us as we shut down your servers as we tell you that we do NOT support this, and you shouldn't, either."

Six-year-old clothing model Ryan Langston has been discovered and applauded and via social media channels--all because he appears in mainstream Target and Nordstrom ads that don't call attention to his Down Syndrome.

The adorable six-year-old has a flashy smile, big blue eyes and an abundance of energy. He also has Down Syndrome, but the kids' clothing ads he appears in don't call attention to that fact. In fact, they don't call attention to anything except the clothes that he's wearing.

And for this quiet inclusion, Target and Nordstrom are being applauded by the parents of Down Syndrome kids far and wide. When Rick, author of the blog Noah's Dad and father to a child with Down Syndrome, saw Ryan on page 9 of the Target circular, he was overjoyed. In particular, he was thrilled that Target hadn't called attention to Ryan's condition, instead silently including him in the ad with no muss or fuss regarding the child's condition. Rick writes:

Even though Target didn’t make a big deal out of the fact they used a boy with Down syndrome as a model in their ad, they said plenty.  They said the same things that Nordstrom said when they used Ryan as a model in their catalog this past summer.  I could list a hundred things Target said by running this ad, let me give you 5 that immediately come to mind:

1. They said that people born with Down syndrome deserve to be treated the same as every other other person on this planet.
2. They said that it’s time for organizations to be intentional about seeking creative ways to help promote inclusion, not exclusion.  (It’s no accident that Target used a model with Down syndrome in this ad; it was an intentional decision.  If want the world to be a place where everyone is treated equal we can’t just sit around and watch the days tick away.  We have to be intentional.  We have to do something.)
3. They said that companies don’t have to call attention to the fact that they choose to be inclusive in order for people to notice their support for people with disabilities.  In fact, by not making a big deal out of it they are doing a better job of showing their support for the special needs community.
4. They said it’s important for the world to see people born with disabilities with a fresh set of eyes.  That it’s time for us to lay down all the inaccurate stereotypes from the past and move forward embracing the future with true and accurate ones
5. They said you don’t have to spend a lot for your kids to look good!  (I mean come on, that shirt’s only five bucks!)

And many agree--to date, the post has received over 21,000 Likes on Facebook, has been Tweeted over 3,500 times, and boasts nearly 300 comments, most of which are positive.

Yes, social media can be used to spread good news and good best practices. This is a prime example.

It's refreshing to report a story not about PR gone wrong or yet another company that doesn't get customer service, but instead about organizations that are not only promoting inclusive marketing but also decidedly not bragging about it specifically because that would defeat the point.

But that hasn't stopped anyone else from bragging on Target's and Nordstrom's behalf (behalves?). Ryan has become a bit of a celebrity and has been featured on NBC Nightly News, and the NoahsDad.com Facebook page currently shows over 10,000 Likes with a stunning 7,576 Talking About This. Currently, a Google search for "Ryan Langston" turns up 17,800 results.

I don't know about you, but it brings joy to this social media geek's heart to see organizations being rewarded with Tweets, Likes, +1s and mainstream media coverage for doing something well. Kudos to both Target and Nordstrom's for their quiet inclusion approach, and kudos to the social media communities for expanding and amplifying the case study.

HootSuite users can not currently see all their reTweets. Here is how to make sure you are covered.

I discovered something interesting this week: my favorite social media management app, HootSuite, doesn't have the capacity to show all of an account's reTweets.

The skinny: HootSuite doesn't show native Twitter RTs

This week, I noticed that my Boxcar iPhone app was showing me more reTweets than HootSuite. I contacted HootSuite and was informed that HootSuite will show your Mention stream, the same stream as if you viewed the @username tab at Twitter.com. However, any RTs that are made directly from Twitter will not appear in this stream.

Where in HootSuite do they appear? Nowhere, it seems. From the HootSuite team:

There is currently no way to see who retweeted your tweets in HootSuite with the new RT style in twitter. You can only see which tweets were re-tweeted by going to your sent tweets. If a tweet was re-tweeted, it will say so underneath the tweet in your sent tweets stream.

You will only see a Re-Tweet in your mentions stream if the tweet was re-tweeted in the "classic" style. This means that the person re-tweeted the tweet, and selected "classic" style, so that the tweet appeared as RT @yourname.

What's odd is that while HootSuite claims the Mentions stream is exactly what users see on their Twitter.com @username tab, when I check the @username tab on Twitter.com, it is actually now showing everything that I see in Boxcar: all the RTs, mentions and even when someone has favorited a Tweet:

Five RTs, one mention and one favorite. By contrast, here is that same time period on the HootSuite Mentions stream:

Three RTs, period.

The quick fix: use Boxcar to see all mentions and RTs

Since HootSuite doesn't yet have the capability to show native Twitter RTs, here is what I recommend until they do: Boxcar is a fantastic app that will track and notify you whenever you have a mention, reTweet or when someone has favorited a Tweet, no matter the method. Install Boxcar on your smartphone to make sure that you are properly thanking everyone who reTweets you, even those that aren't shown in your HootSuite feed:

Until HootSuite adds the capacity to show the entire Mentions stream, use Boxcar to make sure you don't miss anything. Anyone else have good fixes for this?

Yesterday, a journalist discovered that the receipt for her pizza from a Papa John's franchise in New York referred to her as "lady chinky eyes." What ensued was a storm in a teacup that teaches valuable lessons on public response when a franchise employee makes a gaffe.

This weekend, one Harlem resident got her pizza order with a side of racism.

Saturday, Minhee Cho Tweeted a photo of her receipt from Papa John's in which her name was specified as "lady chinky eyes" with the notation, "Hey @PapaJohns just FYI my name isn't 'lady chinky eyes'."

Papa John's corporate responded swiftly, posting an apologized on Twitter within hours:

And they hit Facebook as well, currently with over 1,000 Likes and 57 Shares:

Conflicting messages

And this would have been an ideal case of swift and appropriate crisis response, but conflicting messages quickly arose. As much as the corporate office speedily addressed the gaffe, the local franchise seems to be brushing the whole incident off as one oversensitive customer making a fuss over an unintended gaffe by a well-meaning employee. A manager named Jerome reportedly told the Post:

“I think the lady [Ms. Cho] put it out there just to get some attention—some people like that type of attention. I truly don’t think it’s fair. It’s been taking up all our time. It’s been very disruptive.”

Since Ms. Cho is the community manager for an investigative journalism site and the victim of the racist remark, it's pretty fair to say that yes, she did post the Tweet to make others aware of the unacceptable behavior. And as Christoforo of Ocean Marketing discovered last week, yes, it IS disruptive to be called out for your bad behavior. And one could argue that racism is a tad disruptive as well. I wonder if Jerome would like being called "fat bald slob" on his receipt. (Note: I've no idea what he looks like.)

Unfortunately, Jerome and an assistant managers gave interviews to the press, undercutting the timely and sensitive apologies by corporate headquarters. Yes, it gets worse:

An assistant manager at the store told us that the teen meant no harm with the slur she used to identify Cho: "We're all of different races here in this store. So she didn't mean any harm, didn't mean to stereotype against her, to discriminate against her, but that's how she took it." Jerome agreed with her, saying employees use slang to identify customers: “It’s a busy place, and it was a way to identify her and her order. You know, we do stuff like that sometimes. We’ll write ‘the lady with the blue eyes’ or ‘the guy in the green shirt.’ ”

While I'm a huge fan of the Avenue Q song "Everyone's a little bit racist," which brings our racist proclivities into the open and encourages acknowledgement that the best of us do make judgments based on race, I don't believe that we live in a world where one can make a racist comment and not get taken to task for it. "I didn't mean anything by it" is the call of the bigot, and it's a poor excuse for bad behavior. Better to own up and say, "I'm so sorry. I guess that was insensitive of me."

I don't mean to bash on this poor employee. She was reportedly 16 and undoubtedly making minimum wage. There is only so much training a company can do and so many expectations a company can have of such a young, underpaid employee. So what lessons are organizations to take away from this kerfuffle?

Coordinate the message

The racism question aside, the PR could have been better coordinated here. Papa John's had a good message going out--until the local managers were interviewed and chose to defend the employee instead of making a humble apology.

Frank Reed of Marketing Pilgrim suggests that there isn't really much organizations can do to prevent behavior like this. Would additional screening for racism or additional training on attitude adjustment will help the underpaid, under-20 crowd? Probably not, but that's not really the issue.

Mistakes will happen. Random acts of insenstivity and racism are hard to avoid, especially with independently-run franchises that tend to employ the young and inexperienced at low wages. I don't believe this incident is Papa John's fault in the slightest; the corporate office address the issue promptly on Facebook and Twitter, with a sincere apology and termination of employment for the employee.

However, what can be avoided is conflicting messages during crisis communications. Papa John's corporate did an excellent job of responding swiftly and sincerely on Twitter and Facebook. However, the managers who were interviewed for the Gothamist article above were in desperate need of some coaching. Saying that the employee "didn't mean any harm" and blaming Ms. Cho for taking the remark as racist when it wasn't intended that way comes across as backpedaling and minimizing, and claiming that Ms. Cho only posted the remark to get attention all come across as defensive tactics, which are rarely useful in crisis communications. Jerome's comments seriously undermined the effective public apology made by Papa John's corporate.

The takeaway here is that in such a crisis, national and local representatives should be coordinated. The local managers should have been instructed to admit fault and offer sincere apologies without commenting on the nature of Ms. Cho's posting or attempting to defend the employee in question.

What do you think? What is your takeaway from this?

It's Infographic Saturday! This one is near and dear to my heart. I'm thinking I'm 70% geek and 30% nerd. How about you?

For the past eight years, I haven't made any New Year's resolutions. I don't believe in them. Instead, I have taken five hours during the year, usually in the summer or fall, to follow a 10-step goal-setting process.

And this year, I'm sharing more of the process with you. It's a bit personal and therefore a bit scary, mostly because it involves announcing my failings in public. But I have managed to achieve such consistently good results from this process that I thought, "Why not post it this year?"

First, none of this process was my idea. It's all derived from Your Best Year Yet, which is both a book and a seminar. Cheesy; I know, but it's been worth a little cheesiness to accomplish what I want each year. The process results in a printed summary I post on the bathroom mirror and see every day. The results have been consistent: every year I've done this, I've accomplished between eight and ten of the ten established goals.

You can't argue with success. Well, you can, but it's kind of silly.

So here we go. The summary of my 10-step goal-setting exercise for 2012.

What did you accomplish in 2011?

What I love about this process is that it begins with a list of your accomplishments. In my case, this year, I quickly had a list of 15 accomplishments--and those are OUTSIDE of the 10 goals I'd set and accomplished--including:

• took on new PM challenges at work
• came up with a new idea for a seminar and implemented it
• went to visit my mom in Texas on her birthday and made her really happy
• helped two friends through really tough divorces
• blogged more than I ever have before 
• added elliptical to my workout regimen

What were your disappointments in 2011?

The next step is listing disappointments. This is an interesting and sometimes painful exercise. In the past, I've actually broken in to tears when listing these. Writing your failings down in black and white can be uncomfortable and downright painful. In 2011, however, I'm happy to say that the list of disappointments was short; just five compared to 15 proud accomplishments. They included:

• Didn't find a place to do a social media project and improve my skills
• Still don't feel like I'm pulling my weight at work
• Didn't dance as much as I'd like

What lessons did you learn?

What's great about listing disappointments is the next step: listing the lessons learned from those disappointments and the limiting factors that caused them (we all have them, and this is an excellent change to drag them out into the open).The lessons learned are turned into two or three personal guidelines for 2012.

For example, one of my lessons learned was:

When I prioritize relationships, they improve.

I turned that into the personal guideline:

Focus brings rewards.

Likewise, I took "My friends are awesome, and my detractors are idiots" and "When I gather up my courage and take risks, fantastic things happen" into:

Be brave and be awesome.

The next section can be a bit challenging. You look at how you have limited yourself and what you tell yourself to explain that. In my case, my explanation of my failures tends to be:

• I'm too tired
• I'm too old
• I don't have the energy
• I don't have the time

Ouch. My closest confidants are undoubtedly tired of hearing about how I'm too tired to live the life I want to live! Those are definitely limiting my own attitude towards my life, work and success. Happily, the next step is to take the strongest of those limiting beliefs (in my case, "I'm too tired") and turn it into a new paradigm, one that will support my goals. This is the kind of statement that if were 100% true, you believe it would make the biggest change in your life. Mine for 2012 is:

I have abundant energy to work, play and give back.

Yes. Now THAT is what I need to see every morning in the bathroom mirror!

What are your values and what roles do you play?

OK, so much for the turning painful lessons into empowering statements. Next comes a list of your personal values and the roles you play in life. My personal values:

• Contributing to the community
• Supporting myself financially
• Being a supporting and compassionate friend
• Being honest and kind
• Giving back
• Thanking people
• Integrity
• Lifelong learning
• Personal growth

And the roles I play in life:

• Chief Conversation Officer/Spoken marketing whiz
• Social media producer and speaker
• Friend/confidant
• Advocate
• Romantic partner
• Heidi's cheerleader
• Organizer of the fun
• Good daughter

Choose a focus

Then and only then (usually about 2-4 hours in) do you start making decisions about focus for the next year. The next steps are to choose a focus, list three to five goals for each role you play (which results in about 20-30 goals), and then a narrowing down to 10 goals for the year.

I looked at the roles I play, and I chose the one role to focus on this year: Spoken marketing whiz. The reasoning for this is that, while I've excelled at work over the last few years, this year I really want to rock my position. I want to boldly own projects and and effectively and enthusiastically bring the team together. Last year I focused on "friend/confidant," and I ended up building AMAZING friendships with some stellar people here in Seattle. And a side benefit was that I found and built a relationship with a fantastic romantic partner as well! Two birds killed with one mighty stone.

Now, it's time for those friendships to support me as I throw my focus back on really making a difference as Chief Conversation Officer at Spoken. It's a title I'm proud to own, and this year, as the company continues to grow, I want to shine. Hell, I want to be leading the way!

 Making and narrowing the goals

The next step is the fun one: writing down two to five goals for each role you play. Of course, they should all be specific, measurable and attainable. So I end up with this big, honkin' list of nearly 50 goals--crazy unwieldy. So next, it's time to hone down to a list of 10 goals you can see and make progress on every day. Here is the final result that will be taped to the bathroom mirror:

Heidi's Awesometastic 2012

Major Focus: Chief Conversation Officer/marketing whiz

Personal guidelines:

Focus brings rewards.

Be brave and be awesome.

Give thanks and give back.

New paradigm: I have abundant energy to work, play and give back.

Goals:

1. CCO marketing whiz: Build team interaction by having a meaningful spoken interaction with two people in the company each day.
2. CCO marketing whiz: Write Big Weekly Goals on Mondays and What I Accomplished on Fridays, store in a Google doc and share with CEO once a week.
3. Social media producer: Find a new project to lead or participate in. Give back.
4. Advocate – Write up one opinion post a month.
5. Friend/confidante—Set aside one lunch and one evening per week for one-on-one friend/relationship building.
6. Romantic partner—Take a vacation with R.
7. Romantic partner/support—Have lunch/coffee with L or S to catch up once a month.
8. Heidi Cheerleader—Journal or publicly Tweet positive events and accomplishments. Take joy in them!
9. Organizer of the fun—Find a dance buddy to go dancing with (swing, ballroom or salsa) 24 times.
10. Good daughter—Visit Mom in Texas for her birthday.

This is what will be taped to my mirror and what will shape my good and bad days in 2012. It is a little tough to share my personal failings here in black and white, but it means that I also get to share all the excitement I have for what 2012 will bring. I'll admit that 2009 and 2010 were damn challenging for me; 2011 is where all the hard work started to pay off.

This year is gonna be awesome. Just you wait.

Words of wisdom from Rick Steve on the value of travel at TEDx Rainier

By far my favorite and most inspirational speaker at TEDxRainier was Rick Steves. His anecdotes told touching tales of cultural compassion, understanding and tolerance. My favorite tidbits from his talk:

• Travel wallops ethnocentricity.
• Our dream is beautiful, and so is theirs.
• On why he went to Iran: "I think it shows good character to know people before you bomb them."
• Fear is for people who don't get out very much.
• A society has to make a choice: tolerate alternative lifestyles or build more prisons. America locks up eight times as many people as Europe does.

As I read over the top failed QR code campaigns for 2011, one shining lesson comes through: make sure your QR code is scannable. Seems simple, but every single big campaign fail came down to the code not being easily scannable (or scannable at all). To break it down a bit more:

1. Make sure the most popular scanners will register your code. Test, test, test.
2. Make sure your code is posted in places where reliable internet access is common. This rules out underground locations (subway tunnels, basements), hospitals and in-flight locations (unless you're assuming everyone will want to pay for wifi access in order to enable your code).
3. Make sure nothing is obscuring your code. Graffiti, mailing labels, etc.

 More about QR codes:

QR codes don't suck; you're just doing it wrong

SMB Seattle podcast: Mobile messaging

The real truth about snap tags

After customer outrage at Bank of America's $5 fee forced the policy withdrawal, you'd think organizations would take notice and avoid implementing nickel-and-dime fees for customer convenience. Verizon has not yet caught up to the learning curve.

Update 12-30-11 2:43 PM: Faced with consumer backlash,Verizon has rescinded the proposed fee.

Yesterday, Engadget reported and confirmed a leaked memo from Verizon that as of January 15, the company will be charging customers a $2 convenience fee to pay via IVR and online. Customers paying their bills using AutoPay or electronic check will not be charged the fee.

It's difficult to sympathize with the wireless giant, which claims to be trying to reclaim the cost of providing IVR and online support with the fee, especially in the wake of the recent decision by Bank of America to retract its wildly unpopular proposed $5 monthly debit card fee. Did Verizon learn nothing from Bank of America's woes? Did they not see customers flocking to credit unions, even after the proposed fee was lifted?

We live in an age in which consumers are empowered not only to switch brand loyalties but also to communicate those shifts loudly and publicly. No longer are consumers forced to sit and helplessly accept a ridiculous fee; now they can communicate transparently about it, even when the organization doesn't. Engadget comments:

Tactical differences aside, the leaked memo shown above details what has to be one of the most consumer-unfriendly policy changes since the carrier boosted its early termination fee for "advanced devices."

If Mashable's Topsy curated list is any indication, the consumer backlash to the unjustified fee will be mighty.

And it might have been wise to wait until the "most reliable" network was not experiencing its third 4G outage in a single month, leading users to wonder if the company is going to nickel and dime them on fees, would they also be providing refunds for their inability to deliver the purchased 4G coverage in December?

Fee justifications aside, the timing of the announcement was not optimal. Announcing petty fee hikes when in the midst of network outages is a perfect formula for customer backlash.

And backlash there is. Interestingly, @verizonwireless has not responded to any Tweeted complaints today, but @VZWSupport has been making valiant efforts to calm complaining consumers:

However, since the @VZWSupport handle is rather klunky and has only 25,000 followers versus @VerizonWireless' 677,000 followers, it might have been a good idea to either empower the @VerizonWireless team to respond or at least use CoTweet or the like to pass on complaints to @ZVWSupport.

One lesson here is that the channel the organization prefers to use might not be the one the public prefers to use for response. Anticipate consumer response and cover your bases!

When deciding what you want from marketing, think about how the content will primarily be used. While "a slide deck" might be the first idea that comes to mind, is it really the best format for the message's intenteded goals?

A down and dirty primer on purposing marketing content:

When a deck is best

A slide deck is best when the main purpose of the content is to be presented live in order to show something that cannot easily be explained by email or a flier. The goals are to communicate a message, engage in conversation and create an atmosphere in which the subject will ask questions in order to better understand the content. To those ends, the slides contained therein should contain graphical content that show the participant how and why something works. A slide deck:

• Is best for showing, not telling
• Contains primarily graphics
• Does not contain paragraphs of text
• Does not contain primarily bullet points
• Does not make sense independent of the presenter's words and actions
• Cannot be "read"
• Engenders discussion
• Should "cover" 2/3 of the time allotted with 1/3 for questions/discussion

When a document is best

A document, such as a one-sheet, spec sheet, flier or pamphlet is best when the recipient wishes to skim and absorb the content independent of its creator. It should be self-explanatory and tell a story using well-constructed paragraphs to lead the reader to a conclusion about the information contained therein. Its goals include to communicate a message to the independent reader about a specific topic, quickly provide a high level of detail and lead to setting up a meeting. To those ends, a document should contain detail-oriented prose to dive deep into the message as well as bullet points to aid in pulling out memorable key concepts. A document:

• Is best for telling, not showing
• Contains primarily prose
• Contains well-constructed paragraphs of text that tell a story and give detail
• Contains bullet points to pull out salient features and points
• Works best when read independently
• Engenders a meeting

Before creating a slide deck to present a message, ask yourself:

• Is the primary purpose to discuss this message in a live meeting?
• Is the primary purpose to engender live discussion of this message?
• Is the primary purpose to show the message in a way that is most beneficial with live interaction?

If the answer to any of these questions is "no," then switch to prose and create a document instead.

When Ocean Marketing's Paul Christoforo went off on a PS3 customer via email, he probably thought no one else would ever read his boastful, bullying and highly misspelled rant. As a lesson to customer service and PR pros everywhere, he was wrong.

In a PR debacle that must be heightening schadenfreude everywhere, undoubtedly PR pros and customer service aficionados are saying, "Our service may not be that great, but at least we're not Christoforo at Ocean Marketing." If there were a PR blooper reel entitled How to Frak Up Your PR Career, this guy would be all over it.

The kerfuffle began blandly enough, with a customer Dave emailing Paul Christoforo at Ocean Marketing to determine if his pre-ordered and fully pre-paid PS3 controllers would be shipped in early December as promised. However, at Christoforo's first cryptic response of "december 17" and following messages, it became clear that not only would Dave not be receiving his pre-paid order by Christmas, but Ocean Marketing would not be handling the query with aplomb. Christoforo tore into Dave in response to his questions:

so put on your big boy hat and wait it out like everyone else. The benefit is a token of our appreaciation for everyone no one is special including you or any first time buyer . Feel free to cancel we need the units were back ordered 11,000 units so your 2 will be gone fast. Maybe I’ll put them on eBay for 150.00 myself. Have a good day Dan.

The email dialogue escalated, with Christoforo telling Dave off:

You just got told bitch … welcome to the real internet check kotaku in 2 weeks when they are reviewing free PS3 Avengers we send them as well as G4 and all the other majors hell yeah , don’t forget to check Amazon, gamestop.com, play n trade , Myers , Frys and a ton of other local stores coming your way you think you speak for billions son your just a kid you speak for yourself no one cares what you think that’s why were growing and moving 20-50 thousand controllers a month. We do value our customers but sometimes we get children like you we just have to put you in the corner with your im stupid hat on. See you at CES , E3 , Pax East ….? Oh wait you have to ask mom and pa dukes your not an industry professional and you have no money on snap you just got told.

At this point, Dave had already forwarded the email conversation to Mike Krahulik of Penny Arcade, who got involved, saying "Dave, if this guy has a booth at Pax east we will cancel it." Christoforo's response to Krahulik (also the producer of PAX) was, predictably and yet incredibly, still more posturing and bullying threats:

Were in 6 countries and you’re not going to take my money for a booth that’s a crock I can guarantee I’ll get a booth if I want one money buys a lot and connections go even further.  He’s a native Bostonian from Little Italy . Who are you again ? [Note: he's writing the organizer of the PAX conference]

I’ll see space where ever I want , with who I want when I want and where I want so many ways around you and so many connections in this industry its silly. Anyway , I have no issue with you Sean Buckley Engadget, Scott Lowe IGN and the list goes on and on. Little kids unhappy with a PRE ORDER starting trouble and you email that to us , he’s a customer unless you’re his boyfriend then you should side with the company not the customer. Be Careful

Christoforo would have done well to take his own advice. Every name he dropped (including Kotaku and IGN) has disavowed him, and David Kotkin, the inventor of the controller that Dave originally ordered, has publicly fired Christoforo and Ocean Marketing: “We apologize for our poor representation from Ocean Marketing. We wanted to give Paul a chance. He was rough around the edges, but he had drive and enthusiasm. However his behavior was unprovoked, unnecessary, and unforgivable. We are no longer represented by Ocean Marketing.”

Not surprisingly, Christoforo did not show wisdom or restraint in response to IGN's public disavowal:

The Examiner has an excellent timeline of the kerfuffle, which is still unfolding. In spite of half-hearted apologies Christoforo ended up making to both Dave and Krahulik, he continues to spew braggadocio from his public Twitter account (since changed to @OceanStratagy), rising to the bait that his detractors throw at him. Christoforo's take all along seems to be that he is important and well-connected and therefore under no obligation to treat end users with any level of respect. He is out making these big deals, so anyone who disagrees with him is a nobody. Um... except every name he's dropped has dropped him. The Examiner concludes:

Regardless of how savvy or connected one thinks they may be, the internet has a way of leveraging enough fury to shatter even the most foolproof business plan - even if that plan seems centered on defrauding customers of their pre-purchased products and then being a complete asshat about it when failing to deliver.

I don't know about you, but I'm wondering if there is any defense for Christoforo's actions. The initial email exchange could be written off as having a bad day and presumably a lack of education regarding grammar, punctuation and basic communication skills. But to stick to one's guns, even after the entire Internet, gaming blogs, gaming conference organizers, and his own cited sales connections have gone against one is a little crazy. What could he be thinking? He told Gamerfront that his job "isn’t really to deal with individual customers like Dave, but rather to strike deals with companies like GameStop and BestBuy. Those companies are buying his wares, so he 'doesn’t care about anyone else.' Why? Because as long as his products are on store shelves, people will buy them." 

That may be true, but they won't buy you. Your reputation is all you have, because no one is buying the bluster any more.

Even after insincere apologies to Krahulik at Penny Arcade/PAX, Christoforo just doesn't seem to get that he did anything wrong. After begging Krahulik to "make it [the Internet] stop," Christoforo pulls out his wife and newborn as a reason for his actions--a dirty and unconvincing tactic. I have to agree with Krahulik's assessment of the situation:

I think there is a big difference between being sorry and being sorry you got caught. I have a real problem with bullies. I spent my childhood moving from school to school and I got made fun of everyplace I landed. I feel like Paul is a bully and maybe that’s why I have no sympathy here. Someday every bully meets and even bigger bully and maybe that’s me in this case.

It's not just you; it's public opinion in general. Sometimes, putting a bully's idiotic actions in the spotlight is exactly what needs to be done.

Update 12:20 PM 12-28-11: There is now a meme based on Christoforo

Update 12:26 PM 12-28-11: In response to a query from Joel Johnson, editorial director of Kotaku, Brandon Leidel, director of marketing at Avenger Controller, wrote:

Hi Joel,

I have been following this story since this morning when someone notified me about what was going on. I did not write that response to you.

Yes, in the past I received email at brandon@avengercontroller.com but even then we were an outsourced marketing agency for N-Control. I no longer receive email at that address because we fired N-Control as a client about 8 months ago due to constant shipping delays (which we had to deal with) and their association with Paul Cristoforo who is a street thug masquerading as a self proclaimed "Marketing Professional". This guy is a complete fool and somehow strong armed his way into working with the company so we walked away. I am not surprised in the slightest bit by what's going on right now. In fact, we told the owners of the company on many occasions that this would eventually happen.

I wasn't going to chime in but since he is replying as me, I can't resist. I personally can't stand him.

Brandon

_____________________________________________________________________

Brandon Leidel - CEO, Director of Operations
The HAND Media, Inc.

Update 1:35 PM 12-28-11: Geico riffs on the kerfuffle, turning the PR laughingstock to their own PR advantage (via Twitter, of course). Now this is how to have a sense of humor via social media. PR folks, take note.

Update 1:41 PM 12-28-11: Now Cheezburger has its own dedicated Paul the PR Guy site. Seriously.

Update 4:37 PM 12-29-11: I wrote a follow up to this post at Spoken Communications from the customer service point of view with suggestions as to how to chose a marketing/customer service rep to avoid big fails like this one.

Update 9:51 AM 1-2-12: Christoforo is still at it and still doesn't seem to understand that no, NOT all publicity is good publicity. He's taken to holding N-Control's social media and internet sites hostage, trying to extort a settlement from the company's new (and far more ethical) PR rep, Moisés Chiullan.