The Ocean Agency

I walked into my building two days ago and wine and cheese was waiting for me in the lobby. The hospitality industry of Chicago was holding events to drum up support (and signatures) for a petition that outlined their backing of the 2016 olympic games. I definitely enjoyed the delicious Brie and Greg Norman Chardonnay.

The hospitality industry in Chicago wants the 2016 Olympics badly. They want rent prices to rise basking in the post-Olympic glow, they want to charge exorbitantly for hotels and have 2 hour waits at every restaurant. I don’t blame them. But this got me thinking, what would the 2016 Olympics mean for the Chicago tech community?

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Leah had some great thoughts on online quizzes and how to utilize them. Check them out below!

Quizzes: Tools for Building a Community Around Your Website

I am a bit of a procrastinator. I also really like answering questions about myself. (Yea, I’m honest!) And, guess what, I’m not the only sometimes-distracted narcissist on the web. When used properly, online quizzes are rewarding marketing tools that will increase your site’s interactivity and traffic.

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After living in Chicago for almost 6 years my girlfriend and I finally decided to take the famous architectural tour down the Chicago river. We loved it. I was especially excited because architecture and web design follow such similar philosophies. In fact, I compare architecture with web design almost on a daily basis to help clients understand our development process.

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In a recent post on Publishing Executive ,Rex Hammock dispels a few myths about blogs and magazines. Rex was both a magazine editor and blogger, so he actually knows what he’s talking about. Refreshing in it’s own right.

In any case, in the piece he stresses that blogs are actually the perfect compliment to magazines. Magazines generally come out once a month, and in his words:

“Blogs can break stories; magazines can explain stories. Magazines can survey and analyze issues; blogs can archive as much data as necessary to back up your analysis. A blog can fill in many gaps that a magazine schedule leaves wide open.”

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Today on Mashable , Jennifer Van Der Grove reflected upon the results of a a recent study. A study was conducted by Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at SDSU. The study surveyed over 1,000 college students, asking them about their social media use. In the national poll of college students, “57 percent agreed that that people in their generation use social networking sites (i.e. Facebook, Twitter and MySpace) for self-promotion, narcissism and attention seeking.”

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Today, many in the social media community have been writing about the box office success of Inglourious Basterds. It took home 37.5 million it’s opening weekend, which is pretty impressive.

Many in the tech and marketing community have been writing about a box office “Twitter Effect”. Essentially the “Twitter Effect” is amplified word of mouth, and has the power to sink movies in the box office (see Bruno) or create hits (see Inglourious Basterds).

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At the Ocean Agency the interactive marketing department and the interactive design department are separated by a wall. The room of designers is 100% male, and the interactive marketing department, minus yours truly, is 100% female. In the latest round of applicants for our interactive marketing and copy-writing internship, all were women. While this evidence is anecdotal, at best, it begs the question, why is our office split along gendered lines? It also raises a larger question ( inspired by a recent post on DShan’s blog): Do men and women use social media differently? Why?

Image via Audible Marketing

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Today, I had the pleasure of attending the first ever Chicago social media breakfast. It was an event designed for discussion, with panelists leading tables of between 8-10 attendees on a variety of different topics. I was placed at a table where the discussion focused on advancing your career through social media. Both inspired by this discussion, and recent round of internship hires, here are some tips to those seeking jobs in the interactive marketing or online space:

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