Can't Think of a Title

Another wonderful week at Laughlin. On Monday, I finally got to do some work for Master Lock, a real, current client. So that was pretty cool. Besides that, though, I didn’t get much to do with week aside from the usual social media content scouring.

I’m finding it’s just the luck of the draw as an intern; sometimes there’s work for you, and sometimes there’s not. I talked with Laura for a while on Friday, and she mentioned that it’s totally different when you’re a full-time employee. Your job is more structured, of course, versus when you’re an intern, you’re pretty much just doing all the random tasks no one else has time for.

That’s equally comforting and discomforting. It’ll be nice to actually have consistent work to do, but I kind of like having my hands in all different projects, doing something totally different from week to week.

But I should be grateful for the tasks I’ve been getting. On Monday, Andy showed me his latest task. First of all, he’s up in some secluded hallway on the third floor. Second of all, he’s in a room full of boxes of ancient beta tapes, and he’s got to go through them, one by one, and write down what’s on each one. Geez.

Something else interesting happened this week: It was discovered that an employee that left LC back in 1998 had some money left over in some sort of retirement account, but they couldn’t get a hold of him. Internet to the rescue!

There was a guy running a marketing agency in New York, but he didn’t have Laughlin listed in the experience section of his profile (but his partner did). Anyway, it turned out that was him. Oddly, there was a Journal Sentinel article with a random photo of a man of the same name, shopping in a store. That was weird.

I think I’m starting to loath social media. It’s a lot of stress, often TMI and I’m questioning whether it’s really worthwhile for all the things we’re trying to do with it. Still figuring all that out.

Wednesday was supposed to be a major snow day, but we all saw our hopes dashed. Well, I guess the suburbs got a lot of snow, but downtown got a pathetic sprinkle.

While I’m remarking on negative things, I’ll take a moment to profess my hatred toward Zimbra, our Web-based e-mail/calendar system. I wish we could just use Google… The most important benefit of Gmail over virtually any other e-mail client is that it groups e-mails by conversation. Since it’s a communications agency and we’re collaborators, there are tons and tons of e-mails floating around all day—people responding to different parts of other people’s e-mails. It’s a major pain to have to sift through an inbox of, say, 40 messages when there are really only 3 or 4 conversations. Why must we be so archaic?

And speaking of archaic, there’s been a lot of fuss lately—well, not really—over our intranet, which is equally 20th-century. It kind of bothers me that, as a communications agency that posits itself as forward-thinking and modern can so blatantly overlook its internals. But it’s not exactly that we’ve overlooked these issues; everyone knows they’re there, it’s just no one makes any effort to correct them.

I suppose it’s because the decision-makers don’t have time to work on all this stuff. And it’s a pretty major thing to change; there’s the huge investment of training every employee on the new software. And that we just recently “upgraded” to Zimbra. (I shudder at what must have been before.)

On a better note, Thursday was the annual holiday luncheon, and that was absolutely brilliant. I ate way too much.

Post-Thanksgiving

After a wonderful, revitalizing Thanksgiving Break, it was back to work. And work I did: Writing tweets, drawing up site maps, making handouts and doing some research for a new project. On Friday, I did a little more monkey work (and I'll have some more of that for Monday). Normally I'm opposed to monkey work, but it's nice for a Friday.

I've met a bit of a struggle this week... The classic Mac v. PC scenario re-emerged. Being design-conscious, I greatly prefer to work in an OSX environment, but the rest of my colleagues are trapped in Microsoft Office. Needless to say, I use iWork (but not only because it's more beautiful). Anyway, I've been hitting a few speed bumps in converting between filetypes—you know, the kind that aren't supposed to happen—so that was a bit stressful. It's one of those things that isn't too big a deal, though, and once I realized that, it was all better.

Another thing that irked me this week was when Sarah said we should consult the creative people for their expertise in some design concept or other. I resented that, although I tried not to show it. I know that my role within LC is not creative—I'm a strategist and planner—but I know that I'm design-savvy and capable of doing the simple things we had been discussing. With my eyes closed. Why should I go bother someone, asking them questions I already know the answers to and begging them to do some work that I could do in the time it'd take to explain what I had in mind? This is still not resolved—just sidestepped for the moment. I know I need to respect my role here, but I want to show everyone that I am capable of doing more than my job description (which, incidentally, is semi-nonexistent) dictates.

The last thing of note: Paul sat down and had a talk with me about Poland. "Do it. Don't even think twice about it... And don't think for a second it'd jeopardize your chances here," he told me. That was a comfort. One of the biggest mental battles I was fighting was regarding whether I'd stir up dirt with Laughlin by leaving (although I think I knew deep down that it'd be okay). "Wow, if I were in your shoes, I'd go in a heartbeat. Actually, I'm really jealous." That made me feel better.

I'm still partially unsure about going to Poland next semester... I'm mailing in my documents on Monday. For now, I think I'm going unless some unjumpable hurdle comes up, but it's still not 100-percent confirmed.

All Done with the UW Campaign

This was the second and final week of the United Way giving campaign at LC. On Wednesday, we had our Balloon Burst, which went great. Everyone who came had a lot of fun, and most of them won prizes. Then on Friday I got to draw the 50/50 raffle winner, and we tallied up the winner of the LC Penguin promo.

Besides that, I didn't have much to do this week. I wrote up a few project memos for the LC Digital Initiative we're working on, but that only took a day or so. On Tuesday, for example, I went from person to person, looking for some work to do. No one had anything for me, so I devoted some time to scouring the Internet for CoolJobs tweet ideas.

It was a little frustrating not having anything to do. They're often telling me how great I am at this or that, yet here I was, withering away.

That's one thing I noticed... It takes them time to find work for me, and everyone at LC is so busy that they don't have extra time to find things for me to do. Hopefully, though, they'll have me in mind now, and when something crosses their desks that they can have me do, they'll note it.

I did get some such work on Friday, which ended up being a very busy day. Unfortunately, the work in question was paragon monkey work. Literally selecting, copying and pasting. It was valuable for the company, though, and extremely time-sensitive, so I put up with it. And it's not as if I were the only one doing it; several full-time people were doing the same, exact thing. So it wasn't so bad.

Friday was also great, because a few other interns and I got to have lunch with Steve Laughlin. It was pretty exciting to meet and speak with one of the founders of LC, who I'd never really gotten any face time with before. It was a little restrictive having so many people around... Rather than having a conversation, it turned into more of a classroom lecture, but it was still great to tap into his mind.

I also noticed that my colleagues seemed more interested in impressing Steve than having a legitimate conversation... They were quick to spout off anything that sounded professional or intelligent, and the whole thing felt a bit contrived. We did have Panera catered, though.

Also, I found out that I'll have a legitimate vacation for Thanksgiving Break: The office is closed on Thursday and Friday, and there's an early release on Wednesday. That means, since I don't come in till the afternoon anyway, I won't be coming in Wednesday. So from Wednesday through Sunday, I'll be able to take a nice, long breath. Can't wait.

Anti-Cubicle

As usual, a lot happened this week.

The United Way giving campaign launched this week. Everything went smoothly, thankfully. We did find that, by Wednesday, we had very few entries in the raffle box, and we decided that we needed to increase awareness. I devised two half-sheet flyers (one to advertise the raffle, one for the balloon burst), which you can see below.

In other news, I helped Laura with another new business proposal, did some SEO research and compiled some analytics statistics.

So I've been at Laughlin for over a month, and I still like it. That's a good sign. My cubicle is right next to Joyce's office. A great placement. Joyce is always so positive, turgid with new and interesting ideas. She always has good things to say and, best of all, she loves to laugh.

Working at Laughlin makes me feel happy. And extremely lucky. I can't help but remark, time and again, how blessed I am to have happened upon such a wonderful opportunity. And I can't help but feel indebted to Amanda for thinking of me. So great.

And I'm proud. Proud because I'm able to work with such great and talented people. And they count on me for things just like they count on each other. I'm not just the guy who gets them coffee, like interns are at some places; I'm a real employee.

But it is frustrating sometimes... I'm only at Laughlin for a few hours each day, and I have so much to do. And on top of that, there are meetings and meetings and meetings, and before I know it, the day is done—and I never even got a chance to work on anything! It's a little overwhelming sometimes, but I know that I'll get through it. I always do.

When I'm frustrated, I sit and reflect on the things I'd change if I ran the place. Sometimes they're major changes. Sometimes they're political. Sometimes they seem silly. For example, I'd get rid of the cubicles. I just don't like them. If I were in charge, I'd open up all the rooms, and people would have their desks out in the open and they'd actually see each other. It's not like people at Laughlin are living like hermits; there is, of course, a lot of collaboration. But there's just something about cubicles that jangles my nerves...

I guess I'm also lucky in that regard. I have a cubicle, yes, but it's not my only station. I'm just as much upstairs in Paul's office or around the conference room. In a sense I'm placeless; in a sense I'm omnipresent.

In Perpetuity?

We always hear about how once you put something on the Internet, it's out there forever. Although that's kind of an exaggeration—I mean, even if the random document that you stored on some server for a half an hour is still stored on a remote desert island, the chances of it being discovered, associated with you and used against you are miniscule.

Anyway, we rarely hear people saying, "Make sure you don't put stuff just on the Internet." It seems equally as, if not moreso, dangerous as putting stuff on the Internet in the first place.

For example, all my e-mail is stored on Google's servers. My school e-mail forwards there, too. I conduct all my personal e-business through Gmail, and only very rarely do I print something out. What if, for whatever reason, Google decided to delete all my e-mail files? I'd be ruined.

That's not to say I'm super paranoid now. I'm not about to download my Gmail archives, and there's no way I'd go and print out every message on there (I'm sure I'd be embarrassed by most of them, anyway)... But I'm starting to think I should.

And I'm not alone in this boat. There are so many users of Gmail—and the other free, Web-based e-mail services. Is it good that our lives are in their hands?

A Note on Jealousy

Amanda and I were talking today, and she invited me over to her cubicle to look over a document for her. "Here," she said. "Have a seat."

So I did.

And the first thing I noticed, and almost blurted out: Wow! Your chair is really, really comfortable. Why doesn't my cubicle have a chair this nice?

I got down to reading and offered her some advice on the document, then went back to my cubicle, where I made an important discovery: I have the exact same chair as she does.

So here's the lesson: Don't rush to be jealous of what other people have. Sometimes, like me, you'll find that you already have the thing you were so jealous of, but you took it for granted and never actually realized that you had it.

Even if you don't, though, I'm confident you'll find that you've been getting on fine without it.

Week in Review

This week I did some research for a client on e-marketing (SEO and SEM) versus traditional direct mail. This client has been hesitant to enter the digital world, so it was my job to find research and statistics that could show them that e-marketing is really important, even though they've been doing just fine without it. Another example of how "leaving well enough alone" can cause you to miss out.

I compiled all my findings and typed them up into a succinct report, which I passed on to Laura. She said I did a good job—that a lot of my work would be included in the agency's formal recommendation to the client. For me, it's exciting to get any kind of feedback... I like to know how I'm doing. But it is, of course, nice when the feedback is positive.

This project was also exciting for me, because it was "real" work for a "real" client. Even though it was pretty basic, I could see the importance of my task, and it was exciting that they trusted me, at least a little, to perform it.

On Thursday, students from the Marquette Ad Club came to visit Laughlin, and I sat in the dome with them. To take pictures for the HR Dept's Facebook page, and also for my own information. We heard from a few people (who I hadn't met yet) from different areas in the agency, and they talked about their jobs. This helped me get a better understanding of how the different people and teams work together—how all the pieces of the agency fit together. I'm really understanding what Steve Laughlin means when he says that we can't work as isolated departments—if everyone doesn't work in symphony, nothing will happen. (Goal 2)

On Friday, Amanda and I finished up the final details of planning for our United Way giving campaign within Laughlin. We sent out an e-mail to the agency overviewing the events for the next two weeks. We have a lot going on: a 50/50 raffle, a balloon burst (people buy $5 balloons, some contain prizes) and the "L/C Penguin" (everyone can cast $1 votes and the "winner" in the creative department "gets" to wear a tux for a day).

Behind the scenes, we have so much going on... drafting reminder e-mails, coordinating with higher-ups in the agency, keeping track of progress in our programs, collecting pledge forms... It's not overwhelming, though, because we have all the duties properly delegated and scheduled (Goal 1). Together there are four of us who did all this planning (and are doing the execution), but it's been a little hard staying in contact and keeping everyone accountable for what they're supposed to be doing. Just another challenge of teamwork.

I also finally met Dave Hanneken, the creative director, and we talked for a while. He's great. It was exciting to finally get in touch with him (they say he's the busiest guy at Laughlin). Anyway, he offered to review any portfolio pieces I had and said I could come by and pick his brain whenever I wanted. This is a great step for my future, since I'm still most interested in Creative (Goal 14).

One more thing: I mentioned before that Paul encourages me to sit in with him while he's talking on speakerphone with clients, or talking to his colleagues about whatever project. I don't always understand what they're talking about, because their conversations are often highly technical and obviously assume a certain degree of background knowledge. Even so, they're valuable for me because I can see how Paul deals with clients (Goal 4). I've seen two keys in doing this:

1. Relish small talk. I used to think small talk was a waste of time—in my communications, I'd get to the point right away, often forgoing the "How are you?" and ignoring their "What's goin' on?" I realize, though, that small talk is vital to creating an amiable relationship with a client. To make everyone feel personable and comfortable.

2. Recap. Business people are busy. Things are constantly running through their heads and, in conversation, they're often only halfway paying attention. It's important to recap periodically during a conversation. Repeat key points, reemphasize who's doing what as the next step. It's like that old saying, "Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em, then tell 'em, then tell 'em what you told 'em." But a little more suavely.

A New Kind of Presentation

Joyce and I talked about a new idea for presentations. To make them less blasé. "When you're on a first date, you don't come in with your resume... You talk and gesture, and wow them with your words and body language!"

She's right, you know.

Tom from Blue State Digital

Had the honor today to hear from Tom Gensemer, a partner of Blue State Digital, the agency responsible for Obama's 2008 digital campaign, which was obviously overwhelmingly successful.

He focused on e-mail marketing. Not Twitter, not Facebook, not Gazoobla... E-mail. Why? Because that's where the audience was.

He offered a number of tips for this kind of marketing. The distilled lessons can be applied to any communications.

• Create and maintain a narrative
• Stay on-message
• Say one thing at a time
• Make the call-to-action clear and singular
• Offer small victories along the path—make people feel like they're getting somewhere
• Don't forget who you're talking to—refer back to the strategy frequently
• Test everything, always
• Answer these questions for your audience: Why am I on this list? What do you want from me? What comes next?

Another key: Market to people so that they don't feel like they're being marketed to. Maybe disguise your message as entertainment. And I love that idea. It's times like this when I wonder whether I have any sense of ethics...

Lessons from Paul

"When I hire new employees, I make sure they have a college degree. I don't care what it's in—just that they have one. It shows their ability to commit to something and follow through."

He did concede later, though, that he likes the way Computer Science majors think. "It's just such an amazing way they look at things. I mean, in their classes," he said, "they learn so much about the inner workings of the hardware and the fundamentals of how computers function. They get such an intimate understanding of everything... And that translates into better programs. Programs that work with the hardware, that go along with the basic way computers work. People who try coding and don't have that kind of background, well, they create software that's bloated and slow, that doesn't work as well as it could."

What does that mean? Well, I'll be honest: Part of me wanted to run to the registrar and change majors. To prove that I could be brilliant, I guess. But then I realized that wasn't necessary—that I could pull some wisdom from what Paul had told me:

To really solve a problem—any problem—you need to examine its fundamentals, not just the superficial. Look at it from the backend. See what's going wrong at the root and be prepared to do a complete overhaul.

In a Web site, for example, a "redesign" isn't just a redesign. Changing the color palette and pretties won't do any good if there are still major problems in the backend—if you're targeting the wrong audience, for example, or you don't realize that you're not reaching people in the best way.

Shorter yet: Even if it looks pretty, it can still suck.

Another Move

"Yeah, that's kind of what they do here," Amanda told me. "Like, they'll bring you on board for one thing and then, when they get to know you better and learn about where your skills lie, they'll move you to something that fits you better."

So that explains why I'm now working with Paul Brienza, the Senior Vice President of the Digital "Department," who's Dennis' supervisor. I'm working in his office now, or in the conference room outside it, or downstairs in my cubicle, or anywhere.

This is exciting for a few reasons. First, Paul really understands the potential value of an internship. He invites me to shadow him and see how he works with clients, to get my feet wet in his colleagues' projects... To learn through osmosis and take on real responsibility. Second, because I'm one step closer to working with actual clients. Third, because, well, I'm easily excitable.

We'll see how this develops.

United Way Campaign

Jen, one of the other HR leaders, talked to me and two of the other interns today about the United Way giving campaign at Laughlin—which we'd be in charge of executing this year.

We took on the project graciously, and got right to planning some great and fun ways to encourage people to donate...

The Move

Well, the kind-of move.

"You're just too damn good," Joyce told me, with the sentiment of a mother reluctant to let her kid go off into the world. She was passing me off to Dennis—well, kind-of—a digital strategist, for whom I had the prospect of working with actual clients (and getting paid for it).

I'm still going to be working with CoolJobs and the Social Rebels; I'm just doing other stuff, too. I sat down with Dennis and he gave me a few tasks to start out with. Looking at some things, organizing my thoughts and creating recommendations.

He also told me to take a look at Laughlin's current clients and pick a few that I'd be interested in working with.

So... I came on board for "a few weeks" to do a project, the groundwork for which was done, and now I've gotten something of a promotion, I think. Things are looking good.

First Checkpoint, and a Revelation

At the end of the day today, CoolJobsAtLC had 132 Twitter followers (increase of 24) and 49 Facebook fans. Not so bad.

Here's something important I realized, though: Don't post content just because it's there and you "need" to make an update. Make sure all updates relate to your strategic goals.

It's like when a teacher tells students that a paper has to be 4 pages; students will say what they need to say in a page or two, then write two full pages of filler. Garbage.

There's too much garbage on the Internet already... Let's not worry so much about making the Quantity Quota, and instead focus on the Quality Quota.

(Oh, and my cubicle was all nice and decorated for my birthday today, including cookies! Thank you!)

Goals

Joyce recommended that I create a few goals for the CoolJobs sites, now that I have them all set up. (By the way: http://facebook.com/CoolJobsAtLC and http://twitter.com/CoolJobsAtLC.) The most important thing is that they be realistic, measurable and specific. So here's where I'm starting:

10 tweets/week (research suggests that 2–10 tweets a day is optimal)
50 Facebook fans by Oct. 12
50 more Twitter followers by Oct. 12

That gives me... 4 days to get 50 more fans and followers. I have no experience, so I don't know how "realistic" that is, but whatever.

Genesis

Last spring, when I was planning out this semester, I made a decision: I wouldn't do an internship. I had too much on deck: I knew I was going to be an ambassador in Marquette's Global Village program, the pledge educator for Sigma Chi Fraternity, the Vice President of Communications for the Interfraternity Council and the Online Editor for Marquette Student Media. Oh, and I'd be a full-time student. I just wouldn't have the time for an internship.

Fast forward to early October. The headless chicken busyness of September had died. Class was in full swing, Student Media was off its feet, fraternity recruitment was over and I was sitting pretty.

I got a Facebook message from Amanda, a friend of mine from my copywriting class last semester, asking if I was doing an internship this semester, because Laughlin/Constable downtown was looking for someone to come on for a few weeks and help out "with social media."

Sure, I was busy, but I know an omen when I see one. Before I knew it, I got an e-mail from Joyce O'Brien, the head of HR at Laughlin. Four short days later (after a curious weekend), I was sitting inside the Mitchell Building downtown, waiting to meet Joyce.

I was way overdressed.

But not over-prepared. It hit me then, when I was sitting there, that I ought to be nervous. I was looking for a job, after all. I suddenly wondered whether there'd be an interview, and I tried to think of some things that I might say. "Then again," I reasoned. "This is just a short-term thing. It's not so serious."

Joyce was great. Ebullient, she led me to her office, where we had a quick chat. She described the project to me in a little more depth, set me up with a cubicle and gave me a brief orientation, during which I met more people than I care to realize that I've already forgotten.

What I'd be doing, in short, was getting Laughlin/Constable's HR department online in the realms of social media. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn—the usual suspects. Once everything was up and running, I'd plan the strategy and policy, and develop content with my teammates.

The next day, I facilitated a meeting with some of the other Social Rebels—the name of my team—during which we brainstormed myriad ways to use our social media outlets. I had already done some thinking of my own, and I was skeptical as to what more could be thought up. I was surprised and excited, though, to find myself with a giant list (quite literally—it was like 12 feet wide) of tactical social media ideas.

I spent the rest of the day organizing and prioritizing them.