The beauty of the city

Minneapolis

I pride myself on being a St. Paul girl, but sometimes I do find myself on the other side of the river in Minneapolis.

Last night I went for a lovely and long walk in Minneapolis. We went from the Stone Arch Bridge, along the river, over the Hennepin Avenue bridge before stopping in Northeast Minneapolis for a late dinner. It was a beautiful evening and I know I had to cancel my plans of laundry to enjoy it, and I’m so glad I did.

Social Media Crisis Simulation

Another reason I love the Twin Cities, besides their general beauty, is the plethora of professional associations we have. I’m a member and quite active with Ad Fed MN, but tomorrow I’m attending my first MIMA (Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association) event. It is called, “Secrets Revealed: Simulating a Social Media Crisis”. The FireBell Team from Weber Shandwick Minneapolis will be sharing their award-winning social media crisis simulation platform. Wait, social media crisis simulation platform?!?!  I am a self-proclaimed social media addict, and being able to use it in a professional capacity is my ultimate dream job. So it makes total sense that learning how to use it in a CRISIS situation will be beneficial. I’m looking forward to attending the event and learning. Look forward to a post on that shortly!

Crush It

I’m almost halfway through the book “Crush It” by Gary Vaynerchuk. So far, I’m loving the book. After I picked up the book I came across this TED Talk from Gary and immediately dove into the book. I’ve been inspired a few times and am ready to hit the ground running to CRUSH IT, the Leah Zins way.

Toastmasters

I’ve taken on a leadership role in my Toastmasters club, Securian Toastmasters #560! I’m very excited to be the VP of Membership and Public Relations. The two roles go hand-in-hand so when there wasn’t any interest from other club members I jumped at the chance to combine the roles. A couple of the things I’ll be doing:

• Putting together the quarterly newsletter
• Promoting the club within the organization I work for
• Meeting with interested people and sharing the benefits of the club
• Setting new members up with mentors

I’ve experienced a ton of personal and professional growth since joining Toastmasters in July 2011, and the opportunity to share that with potential members will be so much fun!

Whether it happens in St. Paul or Minneapolis, I’m grateful to live in a metro area with so many different clubs and organizations that thrive on their members involvement and provide so many opportunities to learn and grow.

Experience Ad Fed MN Magazine Day 2012

Picture, for a moment, a large room. In the room there are rows of tables. Neatly stacked upon these tables are magazines. Not just a few, thousands. Every title imaginable is free for the taking, from GQ to Wired, Glamour to Newsweek. The doors open for the attendees to freely grab as many titles as they can fit into their bags.  Welcome to Magazine Day.

When I joined Ad Fed in 2010, I decided to get involved and join a committee. I picked the special events committee and when I heard about this event, I had something exciting to look forward to. Magazine Day 2011 was to be held in May. Cutting through all the boring-for-you-but-exciting-for-me planning details, I’ll jump right into the day-of experience.

There were about 200 attendees of Magazine Day 2011, ranging from ad sales representatives to high-level publishers. The atmosphere was calm as attendees grabbed their magazines for the “magazine grab” portion of the day. Following the conversations by swooning young women over Andy Samberg on the cover of Wired magazine was a sit down lunch. Attendees enjoyed a delicious meal and listened to Kelly Leach share insights with the group about magazine publishing.

Now, that was a rather bland review of Magazine Day 2011. It’s been almost a year since the event so I’m not recollecting it as well as I’d like. However, Magazine Day 2012 is going to be great. The word great doesn’t even describe it.

This year, the event has been given a face-lift. We are incorporating some pretty sweet (for lack of a better term) things. This self-proclaimed internet/Twitter/social media addict has been appointed chair of all things social, you can bet your bottom dollar that the social media integration will be stellar.

We have a panel of speakers and a master of ceremonies. But it’s not just any panel. These people know what they are talking about. They’re leaders and experts in the publishing industry.  They’ll answer the audiences questions in addition to planned questions to keep the conversation going.

While this all going on, we’ll be able to enjoy some amazing food. Since the event is being held at the Graves | 601 Hotel, we can be rest assured that our palates will be pleasantly satisfied.

And then you’ll go home with more magazines than you’ll know what to do with. Maybe you’ll discover something wonderful in Wired magazine and you’ll decide to subscribe! Pretty sure that after last year’s event I subscribed to about six different titles. It’s the event that continues all year long.

Where has the time gone?

I haven’t updated this blog in nearly three months. Yikes. I have a couple posts in progress and hope to get them out soon. Here’s a brief overview.

Planning is fully underway for two great Ad Fed events. Bowl-O-Rama is new this year, and is sure to be a hit. Shortly after that we have an industry favorite, Magazine Day.

Quite often I am asked “What is Magazine Day?”. I have a hard time describing it other than saying, it’s the best day, EVER. So I’ve got a post in the works about Magazine Day! Back to Bowl-O-Rama. Back in October I was asked to lead the committee for a brand new event. I immediately jumped at the chance, what a great opportunity! It’s been a wild ride, but I’ve enjoyed it. Being involved so closely with Ad Fed has not only  brought me closer to my friends and fellow committee members, but I feel as though I’ve grown professionally. More on that, later.

I took the winter term off from classes but will be right back in the swing of things come April. I’ll be taking two classes. After that I have eight or 10 left, and I’ll be done. I’m going for the world record of the longest time to complete a four-year degree. More to come on this.

Work in the corporate world has been wonderful. I’m so grateful to be employed with such a fabulous organization. I’m lucky that I can say, 95% of the time, I am excited to go work. I feel challenged, excited and trusted. The leadership I’m under is great. I love being able to directly collaborate with my boss, she’s such an amazing leader and great mentor. (as stated in my bio, these are my opinions)

I am LOVING Toastmasters! I can’t wait to write a post about Toastmasters and how much I’ve enjoyed it. I can tell, in so many instances, how far I’ve come from when I joined in July.

That summarizes some of the things keeping me busy lately. I look forward to sharing more!

Leah

My 2012 Professional Goals

Any successful organization, team or person runs by setting goals. It feels so great to CHECK off those goals once completed! I’ve found myself becoming more accepting of writing down realistic goals, when I plan to reach them and how I plan to reach them. Also, it’s okay to modify the goals! I always know that it’s OK to adjust things if it just isn’t going to happen. Some of my goals are tangible, like DO this, and some will be more intertwined with bigger goals.

The latter half of 2011 was very good for me professionally and I’m looking forward to moving that energy in 2012. At this time I can only see through the first quarter. With this, I know I want to focus myself on informational interviews. I want to meet people that are in positions I may want to be in and find out how they got there and what they love about it.

Here is a list of my professional goals, I will add to it, too!

1st Quarter 2012

Informational Interviews:

• Communications department at current employer
• Target corporate communications
• Best Buy corporate communications
• Someone in a creative/leadership position at an agency

Toastmasters:

• On track to complete Competent Communicator manual by June 2012.
• Complete speeches 5 – 8 by end of March 2012.

School:

• Taking accounting – aim for a B!
• Also taking business practicum (internship) and using Ad Fed leadership role for this.

Ad Fed:

• Leadership role with new bowling event.
• Be a quality leader for committee.
• Gather assessments and feedback for leadership role with committee, use this as a learning and growth experience.

Miscellaneous:

• Get a real website, i.e. leahzins.com to hold portfolio, blog, etc.
• Hire a designer to make a logo
• Get new business/networking cards

 I’m excited to get started on these, and add to the goals as the years kicks off and gets moving.

Do you set professional goals? How about personal?

 

 

Twitter Tip Tuesday: Using Twitter for Events

Today’s Twitter Tip is about using Twitter for events.

Twitter can be a very useful social media tool when promoting and executing events. It is also beneficial post-event.

1.  Dedicate a blog post to the event:  Just do a short write up! Make sure your audience knows what to expect and look forward to at your event. This is also a place to link to the event listing with specific information such as date, time and directions to the venue.

Ad Fed does a great job of having a blog post to create some buzz about their events.

2. Use an event-specific hashtag: Example: #CheesecakeSampling is the official hashtag for the Muddy Paws Cheesecake Sampling Party! We’ll use this hashtag to have a live tweet wall showing what others are saying. People that aren’t attending can follow along. Post-event, you can put together a recap of all the hashtags in a document. You can make this available to your attendees and others that may be interested.

3. Engage and interact with your audience: Be available to answer questions. If you can’t do this, delegate to someone you trust with the image of your event to do this. Make sure this person knows what they’re doing.

These are simple steps that will lead to quality execution of your next event!

Do you have any tips or hints to add about using Twitter for events?

Giving Thanks

What are your Thanksgiving plans?

I am starting my Thanksgiving this evening, picking up my cousin Rachel. Rachel is a very active and busy 15 year old, she doesn’t have a lot of time for her old cousin. I’m glad we get to spend this time together! We will do some last minute Thanksgiving food shopping (what a nightmare) and bum around a bit. I a foresee manicures in our future followed by an early bedtime.

Tomorrow, bright and early, we will be downtown Minneapolis for the Lifetime Fitness Turkey Day 5k. I haven’t been training so I’m not going to be finishing in a record time but it will be much warmer than last year’s race. Last year was apparently the coldest Thanksgiving in 20 years, it was bad! I’m looking forward to that. Rachel loves running and I love seeing her be so excited to “come to the big city” and run a race.

After that, I’ll try to sneak in a nap and some coffee before going to grandma’s. I’ve been put in charge of bringing rolls. Clearly, grandma knows my level of culinary skills. I’m also bringing some Muddy Paws Cheesecake!  It has been difficult keeping a cheesecake in my freezer for four days but it WILL make it to grandma’s. Being the oldest grandkid has its perks in that I have 11 younger cousins who are closer in age than I am with any of them. It’s fun watching them play and laugh.

For the first time in five years, I have the day after Thanksgiving off! I’m not sure if I will head out to the mall to shop or just relax but I will be having a relaxing day in general. I will go to my new favorite Friday night hang out, Moksha Yoga, for some Karma yoga.

I’m very thankful for the opportunities I’ve had, both professionally and personally, and I look forward to celebrating with my family. Enjoy the day of rest!

Leah

 

Twitter Tip Tuesday!

I have decided to start a weekly feature titled, “Twitter Tip Tuesday!”. Just like the title, I’ll share a Twitter tip with you. It could be something simple, or something more complex. Have a suggestion? Leave a comment or drop me an e-mail.

 

 

Using Links In Tweets

To kick off the very first Twitter Tip Tuesday, I’m going to tell you about sharing links! 

When you’re reading something on the web you might find useful to others, more than likely there will be a “Tweet” button near the end of the article. Sharing what you’re reading is great! If you find something interesting, you should share it. You never know who will find it beneficial. 

Since the character count for Twitter is 140 characters or less, it makes the most sense to use a link shortener, such as bit.ly, to share your link if it isn’t automatically shortened.

That said, if you just tweet a link, it will look like this: 

How is someone going to know what you’re sharing? In fact, this could very easily be confused for spam tweet. 

Add a simple tagline to let your reader know what you’re linking to. 

And just like that, your followers know where they’re going when they click the link. 

Here are a couple of examples I captured of links being shared successfully: 

There you have it, our very first edition of Twitter Tip Tuesday! 

 

 

Muddy Paws Cheesecake’s Sampling Party

Muddy Paws Cheesecake, located in St. Louis Park, will open its doors to many guests for a sampling party, holiday bazaar, live music and more! There will be over 30 flavors of cheesecake available to sample, as well as whole cakes to take home.

If you find yourself available on November 29th, 2011 from 4pm – 8:30pm be sure to stop by for some fun! This is will be my first time attending but Tami, owner of Muddy Paws, is great at putting things together. I have no doubt that this will be an awesome event! The cost to enter is a new unwrapped toy or dog food. These will be given to local charities.

Snap Social Media has signed on as the official social media sponsor of the party. There will be a Tweet Up room with a live tweet wall and a live feed of photos onto the Muddy Paws Facebook Page.

Check out the event on Facebook and I hope to see everyone there!

Balancing Act

I’ve never been one to sit on the sidelines. In fact, I’m usually the first to volunteer for something. I love being involved with things because I get to meet new people and have great new experiences. But as I get involved in different things I’ve come to realize that a busy life is a careful balancing act. I definitely have a new respect for those people I know that have a career, a home, a family, are in school, are doing outside activities, maintaining themselves and have a social life, too!

My life is pretty simple. I have a great job, I have a little apartment and two cats. But then I add something fun and exciting things. I’m involved with Ad Fed, which I absolutely love. I am in the Toastmasters club. I’m in school! I try to attending different networking and social events. And then there are my friends and family! I love my friends. I especially love when my friends overlap with my outside things and my job! Add on to that the things I like to do in my free time, like spending time with my new addiction, Pinterest.

At the end of the day, I’m lucky to have such great opportunities and to meet such great people on a daily basis. I love everything I do, and I feel as though I do it passionately. Balancing many things in life is a very important skill to master. At this moment, my planner is my best friend and I’m making sure to spend plenty of time writing out to-do lists and setting reminders for myself. Being busy is definitely a way to keep things exciting in life, and allows you to cherish those quiet moments that much more.

Steve Jobs: Compelling and Inspiring

I spent the evening disconnected from the world, having dinner with a former classmate and friend I haven’t seen in a while. I opened my laptop when I got home, logged into TweetDeck and saw a tweet that said “RIP Steve Jobs”. I knew he had recently resigned from his CEO position at Apple and that he was ill, but I was blissfully unaware that his death would be so soon.

Steve Jobs was a leader. He was inspiring. He conquered. I’ve never met Steve Jobs. In fact, I wasn’t even too familiar with his story other than that I knew he dropped out of college and made it a very far from where he came from.

Immediately on every social network I’m connected with were Steve Jobs quotes and links to videos and speeches he has given. I clicked on a link for the commencement speech he gave for Stanford University in 2005. I sat down and spent the next 30 minutes watching the speech while pausing to Google different facts and figures about his life.

Although the entire speech is compelling and inspiring, I was drawn to the following quote from Steve:

 Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

You’ve got to find what you love. Simple. In your career, in your relationships. Don’t settle. Don’t settle. It seems easier said than done. You can get comfortable in your career, thus never stepping outside of your own boundaries or pushing yourself to go above and beyond. I am blessed to be genuinely happy in my career path and, like Steve, have taken an odd route to get there. Steve says, “You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” I wouldn’t be where I was today if I didn’t fail a few times, get back up, dust off and continue down the road.

Steve, you are an inspiration to many and you will not soon be forgotten. Your legacy will live on forever.