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This is our 50th Fun Stuff Friday post!

One year ago (tomorrow, in fact) we posted our first Fun Stuff Friday blog post. It seems like ages ago to me rather than just one year.

Milestones are fun. I like having places along the way where I can stop, look back, evaluate where I’ve been and review where I’m going. Goals should have milestones to ensure you’re on track. Personal milestones can be the hallmarks of success and satisfaction. But milestones don’t need to be tied to a measure of success; they can just be a stop along our way, a time to reflect, or a really good excuse for a party.

We use milestones at work to measure progress, to motivate people and reward them for their accomplishments, and to mark significant change. I think that whenever possible, we need to celebrate what we’ve done and thank those around us that helped us get here. We’ve written 50 blog posts about Fun Stuff in the office and in our lives. I think that’s a great milestone, and I look forward to the next 50!

So to mark my 50th post, I’d like to thank Dave (yes, you Dave!) for his ever-patient support as I grumble about html and CSS, drive him crazy about Java script and PHP errors, and generally become a pain in the…you know…when I post to and update this blog and this site. (Don’t kill me Dave. Please?)

Is it time for our official Fun Stuff Friday beer bash yet? I hope so. We certainly have a lot to celebrate!
 
“Fifty” Photo Credit: Berkeley

I’m not a fan of snow.

As a person with a disheartening lack of ability to propel myself using anything strapped to my feet, I can’t ski, snowboard, ice skate, snowshoe or do anything remotely related to winter sports. Coupled with the fact that I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and rarely visited the Sierra Nevadas, I was, shall we say, snow averse. Even living for seven years in the Midwest snow belt didn’t change my attitude towards gobs of frozen flakes.

Imagine the surprise of my friends and family when I moved to New Hampshire. Now I’m knee-deep in it. And given my first encounter with driving a snow blower this past week during the first blizzard of 2011, I’m still not enamored with snow.

As one of the driving forces behind JitterJam being a Pet Friendly office, dogs are one of my core pathways to fun (I would imagine you have already determined this by some of my previous Fun Stuff Friday blog posts!). And I think seeing a dog bounding through the snow is pushing me closer to the tipping point of accepting snow as FUN.

Brewster the Snow Dog

Snow Fun Links

• Skiing. New Hampshire has a number of ski resorts, and most of the locals have their favorites. I’ve noticed that many flock to the smaller resorts due to their family-friendly attitude. So in that spirit, here’s a link to a list of the Top 5 Mom & Pop Ski Resorts.
• Hot Tubbing. I do have to say that this appeals to me MUCH more than skiing. But what do you do when you have to get out? Midwest Weekends–Seeking an Outdoor Hot Tub.
• Dog-Friendly Resorts. When planning travel to any of these resorts, don’t forget to make sure you can bring your snow-loving furry friend. Search the DogFriendly.com to find your ultimate destination.
• Sledding. Not looking to travel? When I was plowing out my driveway the other day, the neighbor kid slid by on the street with a cool plastic sled. (Of course, this 6’4″, 240 lb. “kid” didn’t stop and help me man-handle the giant driveway full of white stuff, but that’s another story.) After browsing some cool sleds online, this one caught my fancy–mainly because of the name.
• Ice Fishing. Okay. I’m not sure of the point here. Fishing? On a frozen lake? Someone told me it’s about the two B’s–Beer and Bonding. Um, I think I’ll stick with outdoor hot tubbing. But just in case, here’s a plausible site for you to learn all about how to get started in Ice Fishing.

Any other suggestions for a snow-challenged Californian?

Happy Friday to you and yours. Stay warm!

When I went out to dinner last night, I found that the restaurant I visited was fully decorated for Halloween and all the wait staff were in full costume. The menu had new “limited time” items for me to try, and they had fun activities and specials planned for this coming weekend. It was fun to see the restaurant get into the Halloween spirit, and it made me think about how businesses can utilize holidays to drive sales and customer engagement as well as provide a fun environment for their employees.

Do you encourage your office or business to get into the holiday spirit? Do you look upon holidays as a chance to have fun with your customers and employees? If not, you should consider doing both! Holidays are a great way to bring spirit, goodwill and fun into your business and share that with your customers and employees. While it’s an “excuse” to have fun, it’s also a great way to draw your customers back to your business as well as engage your employees in a more informal way. Here are a few ideas to help you integrate the holiday spirit into your business.

• Decorate! Put up Halloween decorations, Valentine’s Day hearts, Christmas and Hanukkah trinkets, Easter eggs, St. Patrick’s Day shamrocks and more. Get into the spirit and let your employees have fun as well.
• Contests, Promotions and Specials. Use the opportunities to drive more awareness and sales for your business. Create contests and promotions around holiday themes, and let the prizes relate to the theme. Make the contest entries public (post pictures, videos, etc.) and viral (encourage others to spread the word to get more chances of winning) to help drive engagement and publicity. Utilize the special promotions, events and “rewards” to drive traffic in the business for that holiday season. Provide value and fun, and you’ll be able to make the season special for your business, your employees and your customers!
• Reach Out. Use holidays to show your customers that you appreciate them. Send out greeting cards or hand-written notes. Pack a little something special in an order or the retail bag. Let customers know that you’re thankful for their business. Tie that outreach to the promotions that you’re running for the season, or just foster goodwill and get your customers to think about your business…again!
• Do Good. Does a holiday have special meaning to your business? Do you have special causes that you’d like to support? Use holidays or special occasions to highlight your causes. Do you have employees that have battled cancer? Do something company-wide to support National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Is your company eco-aware? Get your company involved in some Earth Day activities and create a way for employees and customers to participate.

 
Remember to be aware of individual preferences and differences when you’re encouraging participation in holiday events with your employees. Participation in “fun” activities should always be optional!

I hope you have a happy and safe Halloween!

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!