Why Every 20-Something Year Old Girl Needs To Read Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In

This post is the inauguration of my blog's return (hooray!) and as the first post of 2013, I feel that it is incredibly fitting to talk about Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's new book Lean In. Sandberg's memoir-slash-life advice book is about fostering environments for female leaders and driving all women to achieve their dreams. Sounds soft, fluffy and a drag doesn't it? I literally finished the book in one reading (avoiding meals), which is hugely momentous because I can't remember the last book I read to the end.

Every word of Lean In is relevant to my life (okay maybe not the pregnancy parts but it will be someday). I felt like a 20-something year old Sheryl Sandberg and what she writes is what I feel and what she says is what I need to hear. It's hard for me to explain the urgency of reading Sandberg's book without sounding like a bandwagon feminist but I'm being honest when I say this is probably the most important book I'll read of my career.

My life both professionally and personally has propelled forward in the last 6 months, requiring me to make a mass of decisions--what I recently realized is called growing up--and a big part of growing up means realizing your dreams, especially the dream to lead. Ten years ago, my dream was to create kick ass advertising campaigns that ended up in advertising annuals and won awards. And I'm here, doing that (the awards part is coming). The question is what's next? What's next for me is to do what so many clients, VPs, Directors and Strategists have done for me which is guide, teach and inspire girls and boys like me to push the boundaries of the industry.

The most memorable quote for me in the book actually didn't come from Sheryl but came from a reference to Harvard Business School's definition of leadership: "Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence." This has been an unspoken mantra of mine and I find it most fulfilling to lead in this way.

I applaud Sheryl for attacking the topic of female leadership face on with a book referencing her own experiences, thought provoking research and an actionable plan. As a 20-something year old you often want to idolize your peers and amplify the voices of your generation, but after today, I feel Sheryl Sandberg's message is really important and this post is my way of getting it heard.

Ads in Hong Kong Have Better Facebook Call-Outs

When I'm traveling abroad, I like to take extra notice to the ads. I was recently in Hong Kong and noticed a lot of the ads had a unique Facebook call out. Unlike the US, where you often see a standalone Facebook logo in the corner or accompanied by a "Like us" on Facebook call-to-action, what makes the Hong Kong Facebook call out more effective is the visualization of the Facebook search bar. The search bar makes it intuitive to the viewer on how to find your brand on Facebook. I haven't seen this done in the states, and I don't see why every brand on facebook shouldn't do this!

What I Got Right (and Didn't Get) About Facebook Timeline for Brands

Hooray! Facebook Timeline is finally here for brand pages and I can't be more excited. Five months ago, I wrote an article for Mashable about the implications of Facebook Timeline for brands and majority of the changes predicted were positive--such as the "cover" photo real estate, infinite scroll of wall and timeline storytelling aspect. Moment of truth, today Facebook revealed what brands can expect by allowing pages to preview in Timeline. All pages are expected to rollover to the timeline format after 3/30, so it's nice to see Facebook allow time for brands to understand and prepare for these timeline changes.

Now it's time to see what I predicted right (most of these are obvious based on personal timelines):

• Cover Photo
• Infinite Scroll/Timeline
• Access Apps through Icons beneath the Cover*

What I didn't see coming:

• Guidelines on Cover Photo - According to InsideFacebook.com, CTA, arrows, references to price or purchase or asking people to like or share is not allowed--which is understandable to avoid terrible ad-like cover photos; however, this is a huge bummer because the potential for brands to use that space creatively to feature a promotion is enormous 
• Pinning Posts (or the "Sticky" Posts) - ability to highlight a post at the very top of the timeline for seven days. This is Facebook's fix to not allowing CTAs or call outs in the cover photo
• Doing away with Like Gates and Default pages - Brands need to work harder to earn those likes!
• Private Messaging to Page Fans - Finally!

The next big push for brands is to build open graph Facebook apps that live within the timeline versus hidden in a square icon. This will increase visibility of the app on personal profiles but also force brands to increase the value and improve the experience of these apps to make it worthwhile for people to use.

*I don't think I actually wrote this in the Mashable article but this is where I expected "tabs" and apps to move to

Profile Manipulation, Is Facebook Becoming More Like MySpace?

Facebook did something right this time around.  The new profile format, which debuted last week, is much more photo focused (we all know we love those Facebook photos!) but better yet the new layout allows some personal creativity to seep into the once rigid, uniform Facebook page.  Check out some really inspiring profile updates that I found on BuzzFeed:

Being able to creatively manipulate your profile page reminds me of the days of MySpace when you could tweak the HTML code to change your profile's background photo, layout, border colors, music, etc.  I highly doubt Facebook will EVER let anybody, not even Mark Zuckerberg, skin their own profile but I will settle for the 5-box photo line below my name as a tipping point to some potentially amazing creative and viral marketing ideas.  If you are interested in tweaking your profile, first you will need to hide photos tagged of you in your privacy settings and then in backwards order upload your five photos (exact size 97 x 68 pixels) to your profile picture.  I decided to rep the "From A to Zeny" blog on my page since the website info or personal blurb no longer exists on the left.  The possibilities are endless so go CRAZY!

Staying Connected With Hawaii During A Tsunami

I woke up at 9:30 am EST today, and like every Saturday, I turned on my computer and checked my Facebook wall, which was scattered with status updates from friends in Hawaii who had posted about a Tsunami warning.  I was instantly concerned.  As all of Hawaii was still asleep (it was 4 am there), I was in New York trying to figure out how serious the situation is back home.

Until today, when I needed to know what was going on halfway around the world in real-time, I did not understand how useful Twitter, Facebook or online streaming video can be.  I have been watching streaming live video of Hawaii's shorelines on CNN, reading tweets from total strangers in Hawaii about the progression of the Tsunami and viewing mobile uploads of crazy gas station lines in Hawaii.  It is interesting to see how a sudden, urgent event plays out online:  UFC champion BJ Penn has been video blogging his preparation for the disaster on his site BJPenn.com and Hawaii's newspaper The Honolulu Advertiser (@HonAdv) needed some help learning how to tweet.

Social media is surely changing the way we get news, and obviously, media channels are learning to adapt; however, the easiest and quickest way to find out what's going on is a phone call, and after talking to my family, I know that they will be okay and I have nothing to be concerned.  Stay safe Hawaii!  

H&M Cuts Holes In Unused Clothes? TRUE!

After the NY Times and several other New York publications and blogs revealed how some H&M New York stores are destroying and trashing unused clothes instead of donating them, people are voicing their distaste for H&M through H&M's Facebook Page and Twitter Feeds.

My friends Larissa, Ilana and I know first-hand that H&M does cut holes and trash unused clothes on the street, because ten months back, while searching for the famous chicken and rice stand we stumbled upon a giant pile of trashed H&M clothes outside the 51st St location and took them. There was rings, bracelets, hair clips, beanies, heels, sandals, scarfs, shirts, sweaters, etc. The only issue with the clothes was that there were randomly cut holes in it and the shoes were missing its matching pair.

You can read about it in my dumpster diving escapade post. Here's a blurb:

'Larissa on the other hand is more interested in digging in people's trash. We pass by H&M where there's a four foot high pile of bags of shoes, clothes, accessories, swimwear. It was all crap, but for some reason, we thought we struck gold. I grab a box and we throw all sorts of crap in it, heels, tights, bracelets, corsets, thongs, etc.

We are sitting on the sidewalk digging through a box of stuff that is cut up, shoes are mix matched and I give up. Larissa, my hero, doesn't and uses an existing garbage bag to hold all the stuff.'

Here are some photos of us dragging the trashed clothes:
H&M took down these photos after they were posted on the Facebook fan page saying it was an isolated incident.

At least from this PR nightmare, H&M is aware of the problem and select stores will change their ways. I'm still a fan of the store and its affordable, stylish clothes. So no hard feelings... but stop cutting holes! And donate the clothes, it's cold. Really Cold.

Wife Despot? The Suggestive Facebook Security Check

Before, I had an issue with the ineligibility of the Facebook Security Checks because I always had to guess what to type. Now, it seems Facebook has made an effort to ease the confusion and use real words like 'Wife Despot'?
WHOA, hold on there Facebook. Are these security checks for verifying that I am not a computer virus or alien that could steal Facebook's giant vault of blackmailable photos? Or, are these 'suggestive' security checks for planting negative messages into the young minds of our future as part of an evil scam for world domination. Hmmm, either way they are kind of entertaining. Good job to the Facebook Intern who has to write these all day and probably hates/loves his/her job.

Some other questionable security checks:
'heir herself'- Who wrote this? Paris Hilton? 'favoring vilifies'- I don't know what this means, but I don't like it.

Facebook Security Check Ineligibilty

Is anyone as frustrated as me with Facebook's security checks?? Not only is it a pain to do this for every post I make, half the time I can't even read the words (If you can even call them words). 

I guessed "runn", and guess what? I was right.

FB Abuse is a Funny Thing

Why I neglect Facebook:

Julian Smith - A New Breed of Entertainment

Julian Smith is living the user-generated content dream.  Check out his video about the "25 Things I Hate About Facebook" and his website www.juliansmith.tv.  You gotta watch this video... it's as if he reads our minds.

Someone created a code to put duct tape over the facebook sidebar, as mentioned by Julian in his video, and the code is on Julian's website.  So awesome.

It's amazing how things are being communicated and created today, you post a video about how much you hate facebook and want to duct tape the side of your computer and someone will respond to your vlog with a code to make it happen.  "Wisdom of the crowds" baby... magic is happening.