JitterJam – Integrated Social Marketing Software for Business

One hundred and forty-seven years ago today, a man was born that would revolutionize the American economy, and forever change how people conducted business.  His name was Henry Ford, and he built his business with unorthodox practices that still influence companies today.

His most significant contribution to the American economy was the assembly line, which through teamwork and delegating tasks allowed him to lower costs, improve quality, and produce more.  In this day and age these characteristics can be just as powerful for businesses, and they are still present, especially in social media.  This is because social media is a team effort that everyone must take part in to create an effective presence.  Assigning different people to different channels and mediums of social media based on their skills is also an effective practice–one that is rooted in Ford’s production philosophy.

Ford also turned heads by paying wages that were around twice the industry average, by teaching employees to read and write, and by shortening the workweek.  These practices significantly reduced worker turnover and simultaneously increased employee productivity and well-being.  While our employers today are usually unable to pay us twice the norm, benefits like healthcare and 401Ks, educational reimbursement and employee development and training are widespread and help increase productivity and employee loyalty; all are results of the employment practices that began with Henry Ford.

Henry Ford’s success drove the wide adoption of his business practices.  In the constantly changing environment of social media, differentiation is vitally necessary to be successful, and we can learn this lesson by looking back at Ford.  Some of the most memorable recent social media campaigns (like the Old Spice video and Twitter campaign) were successful because, like Henry Ford, they were groundbreaking and different from anything that had ever been done before.

Henry Ford’s contributions to American business practice were influential and significant enough that it seems appropriate to recognize him today on his birthday.  Whether he was organizing company picnics or implementing his assembly line, he was a transformative force for positive change in his workplace.  Which characteristics of your workplace are related to Henry Ford’s?  How have these helped to make your company and its employees successful?

Photo Credit: Khaane

A few weeks ago, the FourSquare mayorship of our office was up for grabs.  Over time, a clear winner began to emerge, and the competition became one-sided.  While the battle is now basically over, it illustrated how good-natured competitions within the office can be fun for everyone.

These competitions increase dialogue between coworkers, offering more opportunities for them to connect with one another at work.  This provides another way for employees to get to know each other better, and will create a livelier office environment.  These are some other fun ideas for office competitions:

• Team Events – Separate the office into several teams, and create a fun competition that encourages everyone to participate.  Some events can be beneficial to an entire community as well, like a food charity drive or a recycling contest, while also improving valuable intangibles such as teamwork and overall morale within the office. Provide incentives for participation and rewards to everyone for their engagement.

• Office Olympics – Plan to annually take a full afternoon out of the office for this event.  Choose multiple activities, and develop a scoring method that aggregates accomplishments at the end of the day to determine the top three finishers.  Some of the easier events to run are paper and wastebasket free throw shooting, rubber band archery (shoot at a safe target not at coworkers), and the crucial best coffee contest (judged by all).

• Out-of-Office Challenges – This is more of an activity than a competition. Spend a day at a ropes course completing group challenges with all members of your office.  This teaches people to think together creatively to solve problems and accomplish tasks.  This is a great activity to help each individual build confidence and the team to develop skills outside of the office environment.

Prizes for all of these activities can be tickets to a concert or sporting event, an extra personal day, cash prizes, or anything else that coworkers would see as an incentive.  Be sure to ask for feedback from coworkers after events, so the next competition is even more fun than the last one.  What other ideas and suggestions do you have for office competitions?  How has your office used these in the past?

April Fools’ Day is serious business. Because of the nature of the day, it’s hard to launch, announce, or write about anything effectively. Take, for example, the trouble Netflix had yesterday in announcing their app for the iPad.

On the other hand, if you decide to go with the flow and try to pull an April Fools’ Day prank yourself, there are all sorts of issues to consider—long term impact on SEO is just one that I’ve been warned about over the years. YouTube is so careful in determining what their annual prank will be that, before the stunt is finalized, a “panel made up of engineers, product managers, and PR reps congregates to figure out which ideas are feasible (and won’t offend anyone).”

Both TechCrunch and PC World have nice write-ups on all of the shenanigans that went on yesterday, while Museum of Hoaxes has compiled The Top 100 April Fools’ Day Hoaxes of All Time.  Enjoy! And then get out there and have yourselves and incredibly foolish Fun Stuff Friday.

As a blogging platform, WordPress is fairly ubiquitous. There were 202 million users worldwide in September 2009, according to Jason Calcanis. And if you’ve ever scoured the Web in search of ways to customize your WP site, it might have seemed as if there were just as many themes to choose from. Some of them are good, and many of them are bad. But, regardless of what you’re finding, the plethora of choices can make putting together a WordPress site a real chore. And if you’re looking for free themes, the task can be downright painful.

There is hope, however! This week, Barb Dybwad posted her picks for 14 Fantastic Free WordPress Themes over at Mashable. Here are the two that struck me the most:

Dybwad positions Irresistable (Woo Themes) as a theme more fit for a personal blog than a professional or corporate one, but I think its slick, clean interface—with clearly delineated areas for blog posts, photos, and a social stream—would work for any organization with a diversified mix of content on offer.

And, for the business owner looking for something a little bit more traditional, iBusiness (New WordPress Themes) offers above-the-fold space for both a bold, extra-large photograph and a brief, focused About Us blurb or mission statement. Below that, there’s also room for a blog and a clearly laid out sidebar with several calls to action.

If none of Dybwad’s choices seem like the right fit for you and your business, another useful resource is Best WordPress Themes. It breaks down free and premium themes both by number of columns (1, 2, or 3) and by intended use (magazine, photo gallery, or specialized).

I hope this is helpful to those to you who are looking to put a fresh coat of paint on your WordPress site, and I hope that, if you have any additional theming resources, you’ll share them in the comments below.

Now, go and have some fun on this Fun Stuff Friday!

We have a tradition here at JitterJam. It’s Fun Stuff Friday. Our team always does something fun on Fridays, whether it be a tasty snack, a frosty beverage (Jim’s favorite), or squishball dodgeball…we relax a bit to wind down our week. (Thanks Katie!)

Fridays on the JitterJam blog will follow in that tradition! So here’s our first installation of Fun Stuff Friday on the new JitterJam blog–Twitter Backgrounds!

Have you played with your Twitter background? It’s a way to further brand your social identity, and it’s fun!

Here’s the @jittergram Twitter page before the new background:

Before...

I just wanted to do something simple for the time being as I’m working to determine a style for new collateral and branding, so I took some colors from the website and created a simple background.

After...(link opens our live Twitter page)

It makes it easy for potential customers to see my brand and my URL. There are some tricks to size of the left bar, size of the background, etc. Here are some “how to” resources for you to learn how to make your own!

• Mashable’s How To Create Twitter Backgrounds
• Croncast Twitter Background Guidelines
• Interactive Insights Group Blog (lots of links to other resources and tutorials)

Now go and have some fun on Fun Stuff Friday!