*Review 1 by Zee M Kane, writer and editor of The Next Web
*Review 2 from the personal blog of designer Kyle Steed.
*Review 3 from the blog designer Graham Smith.
*Review 4 from the blog of developer Jake Good

We’re hard at work to make magntize even better. Thanks for letting us join you in the journey.

Photo Credit: ►Voj►

A brand is the sum of people’s emotional and psychological perception of you as a person or organization. If that sounds a bit fluffy or hard to pin down, you’re right, it is. However, alot of people have found it to be helpful because it makes the intangible important again. It says that every interaction a person has with you or your organization, from a phone call to the print marketing piece you ran in that trade magazine, is either positively or negatively effecting how folks perceive you. The beauty is that over time if you build trust with people they’ll come to love you. That’s why we hear people say things like, “I only drink Starbucks” or “I love my TOMS shoes”. Really, no other coffee on planet earth is good enough for you other than Starbucks? Did you actually just say the word love when connected with a pair of shoes?

Branding goes far beyond pretty logos. It’s the essence of what people feel when your name is mentioned.

Photo Credit: elfsternberg

* cutting edge enterprise solutions
* disruptive market technologies
* cross-browser seo compatibility
* vertically integrated platforms

When you spend enough time around people who talk this way you actually start to understand them (to some degree). From there it’s a slippery slope to joining the fray. The problem is that too often these words masquerade as meaningful when no one is exactly sure what we’re talking about. They may nod their heads in agreement to pacify us but inside they’re wondering what the heck we’re talking about. Here are a few simple rules to rid you of technology speak.

* Eliminate the acronyms when chatting with folks outside your industry. SEO, CMS, and DNS are off limits.
* Never utilize a long word where a short one will do.
* When possible replace technology b.s. words with plain english.

Finally, if I ever utter the word “solutions” on this blog way you have every right to punch me in the kidney. That is a word that is now so devoid of meaning it should be banned from our mouths until 2025.

Photo Credit: deanj

That last feature is one we’re extremely excited about because it really opens the door to all sorts of people utilizing Magnt that may not have before. Our passion is introducing you online and we’re confident that these updates are a giant step forward in that process.

Go to http://magntize.com to signup for free.

Photo Credit: Camera Slayer

A great example of this is the surf company Finesterre.They’re committed to creating the best technical apparel with minimal environmental impact. For awhile one of their biggest manufacturers was based in China. However, it soon became apparent that going green and human rights wasn’t the top priority for this manufacturer. Finesterre decided to cut ties even though this meant a huge price increase in their cost to produce the apparel. That’s a company with soul and integrity.

Someday your moment will come. Do what you know is right. It’s not just a matter of integrity. It’s good business sense.

Photo Credit: Detlef C

Lucky for me twitter recently released a much needed report as spam feature. You simply go to the profile page of the spammer and the click the Report for spam button on the right tool bar. Here’s a picture of my brothers profile for reference (btw he’s not a spammer, this is just an example)

This should come in super handy. I’m going report as spam crazy over the next few days. You can find twitter’s post on the topic here.

Photo Credit: ‘Pong

They have the highest expectations for their marketing pieces. Their product designs are off the charts. Everything they produce is beautiful. However, the ‘behind the scenes’ parts of their business are anything but beautiful. They treat their employees poorly. Their sales process is a mess. The way they manage client relationships throughout the design process sucks. The lobby and board rooms where they meet with clients look great but the rest of the office is shabby. For some reason they’ve created a distinction between the “creative” and “details” side of their business. Maybe it’s time we raised the bar for our systems.

Why not have a business that people describe as beautiful from top to bottom. Every manual elegantly designed, not just from an aesthetic standpoint, but with simplicity and clarity of message in mind. What if we took the time to craft our HR policies the way we craft a presentation for a huge client? Of course we want a beautiful product to hand the customer but why not have an amazing process to create and deliver that product? What if we could get as excited about employee quarterly reviews as we do about a new website?

Let’s stop neglecting these portions of our business and embrace them as creative endeavors worth our love. What say you?

*The book ‘Design’ by Tom Peters served as inspiration for this post.

Photo Credit: Leo Reynolds

Scientists have figured out something called hindsight bias which it turns out massively influences our perspective of past events. What happens is that we look back on past events with the information we have now, not realizing that we didn’t have that knowledge then. This makes us feel like past events were more predictable and clear cut than they actually were. Sometimes what we call a mistake was simply a wrong decision. Even if you could do it over again you’d probably mess it up because armed with the information you had at that time it seemed right.

We need to ease up on ourselves today and cast a skeptical eye at the self of yesterday. He’s not as smart as he seems.

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It would seem to encourage initiative and responsibility because people feel like they have the power to change their lives for the better. However, after watching this TED talk by Alain de Botton it dawned on me that this mentality is a bit of a double edged sword. On the one hand this is a good thing when you’re fabulously successful in life because you get to take all of the credit. No one is responsible for your success but you. It was your charm, your hard work, your intelligence that was the difference. Chance and outside circumstances played little to no role as far as your concerned. On the other hand if you’re not successful then you you just suck. No excuses. It was your lack of intelligence, charm, sophistication or whatever that landed you where you are. Randomness played little to no role in your lot in life.

This leads us to place successful people on massive pedestals. Almost like mini-gods. While lower rung folks get titles like “loser” because obviously they’ve gotten exactly what they deserve. Machiavelli thought that half of ones life was determined by circumstances outside our control. Maybe as a society we need to better recognize the role of chance in our lives. I’m not in favor of doing away with our sense of personal responsibility. However, I’d like to see the successful among us a bit more humble and the unsuccessful less despised.

I think that might be a world God would be more inclined to smile down on.

Photo Credit: Mariano Kamp

A struggling entrepreneur was pitching the idea of media hubs at doctors offices. While sitting in the waiting room patrons would be able to get online, watch t.v., and read e-magazines. The product would be supported by ads. The sharks (investors) didn’t think it was a good idea because it was expensive to install and most people could access all of this information on their cell phones anyway. Sensing his chance is slipping away the entrepreneur begins to break down (literally tearing up) and confesses that he’s put everything into this idea over the last few years. He’s mortgaged his home, emptied his kids college funds, and is on the verge of bankruptcy. The investors let out a collective gasp and then start to lecture him basically saying, “What the heck do you think you’re doing? This is lunacy. You need to stop immediately. Nothing is worth you’re kids college fund.”

What struck me was that none of them admired him for the risk he was taking. They didn’t congratulate him on his courage or give him platitudes about his big break being just around the next corner. They told him to quit and focus on his family for awhile.

Most rah rah business books always promote a never give up mentality. Apparently, when the chips are down is when you’re supposed to go all in! I agree that most people give up far too easily but there comes a time when it’s okay to say “I’m out.” Then cut your losses and move on.

We need to learn the art of quitting well.

Photo Credit: mattgrimm