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Putting together a wedding is much like building a website, except you’re your own client and have to do all of the legwork (unless you have a great fiancé that’s willing to help where he can – thanks Josh!).

Josh and I started dating in December 2007, by May 2008 we were talking about getting married, and looking at engagement rings in July.  The project manager in me started planning ahead knowing that weddings involve quite a bit of time and preparation.  We wanted to get married in April 2009 – which didn’t leave much time after a September proposal!

I’ll admit, before Josh proposed, I was already looking at venues and photographers in the Atlanta area.  Luckily, Josh knew this and it didn’t faze him.  We knew what we wanted, I just had to get it all organized.

Like building a website, weddings are limited to the budget at hand.  While one might envision a $500,000 wedding, most often times the budget to match the vision isn’t equal.  When that’s the case, you determine what your actual budget is, and make decisions and compromise to meet that budget.  You determine what’s most important to you, and you spend more in that area and cut back in others.  Having excellent photographers to capture our special day was more important to us than having flowers everywhere – much like having a super creative website with less back-end development may be more important to one client, while some may opt for an amazing back-end with no need for a flashy design.

After the budget discussion, you have to map out a plan of action.  I quickly made a to-do list of things that had to take place in the order necessary – much like building a project plan (find the venue, set the date, find the caterer, etc.).  There are contracts, checkpoints with vendors, reviews, final decisions, and everyone’s favorites – invoices.  Project managers take a website from cradle to grave.  They help determine the scope of the project and the final deliverables.  Once it’s agreed upon, the timeline is put into place and must be kept to ensure the site launches on the big day.

Sure, hiccups can happen along the way – but if all team members (client, partner, or in my case bride) are flexible, they can be addressed and the process can continue.  Yes, there was confusion about the cost of the punch per person.  And yes, my vendor got my cake design notes a little confused.  But after speaking with the coordinator and baker directly, we worked it out with no problems.  In times like this, documentation and organization are key.  Having detailed notes from meetings can help remind all parties what was discussed and agreed upon, which can help keep scope creep from occurring.

Keeping it all together wasn’t easy, but the effort to do so made things run more smoothly in the end.  It also helped prevent any “bridezilla” moments from taking place.  While I might have driven Josh a little nuts with all the deadlines and decisions that had to be made, I think he’ll agree that I would have been hard to handle if I were disorganized and flying by the seat of my pants in planning our wedding.

In the end, it’s important to remember that developing a good plan (for a wedding OR a website) requires time and energy, and it can’t be rushed.  Taking the necessary time on the front end (i.e. engagement) to plan out tasks will keep everyone on track along the way – and lead you to a happy ending.

Where it all began for us!

As a huge fan (and three-year member) of the social networking site Facebook, I try to keep in the loop when updates are being made. Back in March (2008), Facebook noted that they would be making updates to the Facebook Profile. They created a “Facebook Profiles Preview” page to allow users to subscribe to updates regarding these profile changes.

Every week, The Facebook Team provided updates to their most loyal fans, seeking their thoughts and feedback on the changes being made. Screen shots were uploaded followed by over 600 comments with “I love it” or “I hate it” responses of varying degrees. As adjustments were made, they provided commentary and updated screen shots.

When Facebook first decided to change the layout everything, my initial thought was “Why mess with a good thing?” but quickly remembered the advancements made with the news feed, applications, etc. I figured I’d give the new layout a chance, and I found that I don’t hate it. It will definitely take a day or two to get used to the changes:

Homepage Before Screen shot | After Screen shot

The biggest difference is the layout and spacing of the different sections. In the old layout, content seems concise and put together. In the new layout, there’s a lot of white space on the page. I don’t know that I feel it’s necessarily cleaner…but it does take advantage of the amount of space on the page. Rather than having the secondary navigation (search and applications) on the left, everything is now on the right. Moving the search bar to the top right corner follows standard site design, so it’s not surprising to see this move. And the newest navigation change is moving from the ‘Profile’ button to a link using the user’s name.

Profile Before Screen shot | After Screen shot

The new profile design, in my opinion, is cleaner. You’re not forced to have all of your profile content on one page. It’s broken up to help you sort out the information you’re looking for. Rather than scrolling down the page to read someone’s wall – it’s the first tab you see. From there, you have the option of filtering what you see “All Posts”, “Posts by User”, or “Posts by Others.”

Next is the Info tab, which contains your basic, personal and information, education/work history, as well as groups/pages. Standard information, but not the most important to the users.

Photos are by far my favorite thing to look at/share on Facebook. Within the new layout, they’ve made it easier to access your friends’ photos, as well as your own, since they’re now located on their own tab too.

With the addition of applications, profile pages started getting messier and messier. Fear not, with the new profile layout – they’re on their own tab and no longer on the main profile view.

Overall, I’m pleased with the new look and feel of the site. The one thing that I haven’t seen Facebook promoting is that the changes are going to occur. For those users that aren’t part of the “Facebook Profile Preview” group – there was a bit of confusion when I mentioned the new layout. I think Facebook should look at past roll-outs and realize that making sudden changes that impact the site will cause uproar amongst users. They’ve noted the change will be in the coming weeks, but I think they should start preparing everyone for what those changes will be.

The other day I logged into MSN and decided I wanted to change the look and feel of my WeeMee. You may be asking what a WeeMee is, and the simple answer is that it’s an avatar-like character for MSN Messenger.

Many people in our office have WeeMee characters to portray their style or interests:

Amanda and I (right to left) have decided we’re WeeMee twins:

Josh is definitely a golf enthusiast:

And Greg is a huge fan of chicken:

So back to my original thought… I wanted to update my WeeMee and I saw a banner regarding my WeeMee’s hair, and noticed a partnership with Herbal Essences:

It’s a simple concept – partnering with a popular trend to expand your audience. While I don’t personally use Herbal Essences, I thought it was a really creative way to put themselves out there. At first I thought I might be shown the banner because of the already determined gender of my WeeMee. But when I asked a male co-worker to login, he noted he also received the banner.

So I decided I’d play around with my WeeMee’s hair using the “long luscious” styles provided by Herbal Essences. I didn’t see all that many to choose from, but it was still fun to play with. Here’s the outcome of my styles:

My question to our lovely blog readers is: have you seen any other partnerships like this out there? I’d be curious to see how many brands are using this approach. If you can share links/examples – please do!

A rockin’ good time!

We recently returned from our annual company trip. This year, we took a trip to the Bahamas via Royal Caribbean’s Sovereign of the Seas. This year’s theme was “What Happens on Spunlogic’s Cruise, Will End Up On YouTube.” While we’ll certainly make good on this theme, the video is in post-production. As soon as it’s available, there will definitely be another blog post.

In the meantime, we thought we’d post a couple of the favorite stories and pictures from the trip.

The first 5 comments on the blog (from non-Spunlogic employees who provide their email address) will win a Spunlogic Cruise t-shirt in the size of your choice (see design below near comment box)!

1. Amber Thomas – Thank You!

This year, Jamey Halpin took over Mike Richard’s legacy for dollar bets. For his initiation, we bet him to walk through the entire main dining room and thank all of the non-Spun tables for coming on Spunlogic’s cruise. He took this in stride, and jumped up to make good on the bet. Though he didn’t make it to all 300 tables, he did manage to reach all of the tables that surrounded the Spun area. Guests were amused, as he went from table to table, shaking hands with complete strangers and thanking them for their patronage. (Joe took a picture of one of the Non-Spun tables by accident too):

2. Jay Jhun – The Best Lobster and Conch Salad Ever

Above and beyond the great time my wife and I had dining and hanging out with the Account Managment team and fellow Spunnies, our best memory will be the sweetest, tastiest chunks of savory lobster tail that were battered and fried to perfection at a shack in the Arawak Cay Fish Fry – a neighborhood filled with mostly restaurants that serve fresh seafood, Bahamas style.

Our host was a boisterous and friendly Bahamian named Eddie. For $50, we had healthy portions of lobster, red snapper, conch fritters, conch salad, beer and beverage. Plus entertainment provided by locals talking about Barak Obama and a brew-ha-ha about the local authorities towing away cars (if we understood things right) just because they felt like it.

This Bahamas junket has become my annual 3-night date with my wife where we get to sleep in, do no dishes, answer to no children, and do no laundry – all because Jeff wants to thank us for the work we do.

Memo to Jeff: No, no…Thank you.

Fellow Spunnies

If you’d like to share one of your favorite stories from the cruise, or a photo album on Facebook/Flickr/KodakGallery/Shutterfly/etc – please do so! I know we have lots of pictures to share!

Want a Spunlogic Cruise Shirt?

Again, the first five people to comment (and provide an email address – we won’t spam you) will win a t-shirt with this year’s cruise design:

(front)

(back)

Ever since I could remember, I’ve watched the Super Bowl strictly for the commercials. Not being a huge NFL fan, the game doesn’t really all that much matter to me (however, I did pull for the NY Giants this year). But in the past few years I feel like the commercials have gone downhill, and from what I can gather, I’m not the only one. This year I took notes on the commercials and did a bit of analyzing.

Of the 60 commercials I kept tabs on (I excluded all FOX commercials and may have included locally shown commercials), it broke down to 41 brands who spent the dollars (approximately $2.7 million dollars for 30 seconds!) to air several sub-par commercials. It wasn’t until yesterday that I realized there wasn’t much integration with the online channels that many of these brands have created. Only 23 brands listed URLs in their commercials! You’d think with spending that much money on a commercial(s), they’d do everything possible to extend the brand experience online. Of the 23 URLs displayed along the way, 13 were direct links to the brand’s website, 3 were URLs that either mirrored or redirected to the same page used as the homepage, and 7 were microsites dedicated to the campaign.

What’s even more surprising to me is that many recognizable brands didn’t include their website URL on their commercials (Coca-Cola, Bud Light, Budweiser, Victoria’s Secret, and Gatorade). Yes, we’re familiar with your brands, but are we familiar with what you’re doing online? Maybe, but why chance it? With the way marketing is heading, it’s safe to say all of the brands have a website, but is the URL known? Make it easy for consumers to find you and put your address in front of them when they’re captive!

I have to admit, my favorite commercial was the Tide-to-Go talking stain, it was priceless (and so true). I have a hard time focusing on what someone is saying if there’s a stain on their shirt, so distracting! In case you missed it, you can view the commercial here. The microsite allows visitors to watch the ad again, participate in contests, as well as take part in filming a spoof and interacting with their channel on YouTube. To me, Tide-to-Go got it right this year: entertaining commercial, microsite dedicated to the commercial, and social/interactive/engaging aspects of the site. Way to go!

And in case you missed any of the other commercials, you can view them on MySpace – they have them hosted for your convenience. And if you’re interested, I’ve listed out the brands (and linked to their sites) that make up the numbers mentioned above.

Brands who listed website URLs:

Planters
Under Armour
Sales Genie
Bridgestone Tires
GoDaddy
FedEx
Cars.com
Toyota
Garmin
Career Builder
ONDCP
T-Mobile
E*Trade

Brands that used URLs that mirror/redirect to site:

Doritos
Taco Bell
Sunsilk

Brands who listed microsites:

Tide to Go
Audi R8
Sales Genie
Hyundai
Dell
Sobe Life Water
Pepsi Stuff