Equality. It’s a very broad stroke. For myself, it means that everyone is equal regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities—anything. It’s a goal that I firmly believe in, and I believe that the world would be a much better place if all people were treated as equals.

I’ve been dating a wonderful woman for nearly four years. She is my best friend and I would do anything for her, as she would for me. Early on in our relationship we discussed the topic of equality and what it meant to both of us. In particular, we discussed equality in a relationship and the importance of teamwork, communication, and cooperation—a small list of values that I would hope is relevant to every relationship.

She and I talked about marriage a lot in our relationship; it was something we wanted, but wasn’t feasible at the time. We were living in a city with little job prospects (a simple dishwashing job had over two hundred applicants—seriously). In order to build our family, our only option was to move from the city we loved and look elsewhere.

When I started my professional career, my dream was to work at an advertising agency. The one thing I understood very well about advertising is that it’s all about brand—personally and professionally. During our talks about marriage, we discussed a family name (something that usually arises when a couple talks about getting married). We talked about each option in great detail:

She takes my last name: The tradition here is that she is handed off as her father’s property to my property. While she values traditions, we both hated this thought. She isn’t my property, she’s my partner.

Hyphenate: This is somewhat modern, but what happens when our son/daughter meets Jane Doe-Smith and they get married. They’ll be named HerName-MyName-Doe-Smith. No dice.

Keep our names: This is another somewhat-modern solution but for us, we wanted one family name. We didn’t want to have to choose which last name our child takes, leaving the other parent as a bit of an outcast. Not only that, but practically it leaves something to be desired—the rules have become far more stringent when traveling to other countries with children; the parent who shares the child’s last name would have to provide written consent.

Create a new name: This is another modern solution that’s picking up, but our last names do not merge well. That, and we hated that idea.

I take her name: Regardless of gender, one person takes the other person’s name to create one family name; I believe this is actually traditional. It promotes equality whereas in almost every other option above, the female loses her family name. This way, we’re one family, our children will have the same name, and we’re not compromising our personal values.

Since I wanted to work in advertising, I decided to apply to jobs using her last name as my last name when we moved. I held off from telling any of my family members. I kept my Facebook account family specific, while my other social channels remained for professional use, avoiding mixing the two.

After a year incognito, I had the opportunity to tell my parents (and grandparents) in person about my decision. I’ve never been so nervous. Almost anything I could tell them would have been easier than the news I was changing my last name—a notion completely foreign to anyone from a small, conservative town.

Another thing about small towns—news travels fast; before I knew it, I was receiving Facebook messages from family members (and old friends of my parents whom I haven’t spoken to in years) about my decision. Comments such as it’s a bad idea, assumptions that my in-laws are putting me up to this, telling me my deceased mother would never approve of such delinquency—all-in-all, very hurtful things. At the time, I chose to ignore these negative comments.

Fast forward a few months, and the comments continued to spew forth. The wall I built to keep my Facebook account separate from personal and professional lives crumbled as these negative comments began to populate my office’s Facebook business page. I’m not arguing that this choice will work for everyone, but when ninety percent of women are changing their names, I want to stand up and present this as a legitimate option and talk about my own experiences. Together, my partner and I decided what was right for our family, and if our gender roles were reversed, nobody would think twice or question my decision to change my name. It wouldn’t be such a minefield of opinions.

At the end of the day, it’s a tough go—but there’s not one moment either of us regrets this choice. Earlier on I said I was a pretty private person—still true, but I hope my own coming out on this decision provides a bit of guidance, or at least reassurance, for other men considering it.

Edit – May 1, 2013 - Carly just informed me that this article has made its way onto http://apracticalwedding.com/ - I’d like to personally thank Meg Keene for posting my article and make it widely available for all to read.

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I want to say that I successfully completed my Google Analytics Individual Qualification exam this week. It was a long time coming, I just never seem to have found time until one day I said “Let’s do it.” There’s a lot of study material out there regarding the Google Analytics IQ exam, so I this post is to hand off all of my study notes to you.

Studying For the Exam

If you’re starting to study for the exam, chances are you’ve Google’d “How to Study for the Google Analytics IQ Exam” and chances are you’ve found the SEOMoz blog post, Google Analytics Certification and How to Pass the GAIQ Test. If you somehow found my blog before SEOMoz; I very flattered, but I highly recommend you go read it. At the end you can download a series of practice questions. In case you don’t want to give away your contact details, you can download the PDF right here – How to Pass The Google Analytics IQ Exam (PDF)

Answer these questions as best as you can and score yourself at the end. I ended up scoring about an 85% and that’s exactly what I passed the GAIQ exam with. While they state that these questions are only practice questions, I feel that you will not find anything as close as these. I recommend doing these questions at least three times over in a period of a week to really understand the concepts.

Regular Expressions

Regular Expressions (RegEx) is big in Google Analytics. I’ve always had trouble with it in the past, but Regular Expressions for Google Analytics (PDF) has made it easy to understand. I have a printed copy next to me at all times. I highly recommend using this document to quiz yourself on certain functions. Not only should you have this document open, but have Regular Expressions – A Gentle User Guide & Tutorial open when you’re ready to take the exam.

The Exam Date

This Google Analytics Individual Qualification Exam Reference Guide (PDF) cheat sheet was my saving grace. You will benefit greatly from having this file open during the exam. The CTRL/CMD+F function really helps cut down the time spent on any question you’re having doubts on. Just be aware that this file wasn’t built for strict study notes, however, it’ll be good refresher before going into the exam. You will also benefit from having these two Google tools open:

1. URL Campaign Builder
2. IP Address Range Tool

Don’t Panic

If you work with Google Analytics on a daily basis, you have nothing to worry about. There are some trick questions, but just stay smart. Answer the ones you know, mark the ones you don’t (at the bottom-right corner). Once you reach the end, it’ll allow you to go back to all the questions you marked or go back to every question. I highly recommend doing a full run-through when you feel you have answered all the questions correctly. Here is the process I used when answering my questions:

1. Read the question (twice) and answer or mark it.
2. Review all marked questions and answer them.
3. Review all questions once more, reading carefully and check the cheat sheet.
4. Submit answers.

Post in the comments how your exam went, I’d love to hear it, not too mention I’m sure it’ll help others who takes it in the future.

Good Luck!

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The “new” MySpace opened up today to the public. Funny enough, I’ve been anticipating this news for a long while. Ever since Justin Timberlake announced the redesign back in late September. I was never one for MySpace – it didn’t appeal to me and the design of the profile pages was just brutal. From what I’m aware, it eventually grew into focusing on music rather than a personal space. I’m not sure who still used it previously (if anyone did) but I have to say, this redesign has me really excited.

Initial Thoughts

The design is slick and really sets the bar for web design for 2013. The “cover” photo is an amazing piece of real estate, and makes my Facebook cover photo look outdated and fuzzy. The layout of everything takes a little getting use to, but I find everything is exactly where you need to find it. I haven’t had too much time with MySpace yet, but aside from the beautiful design, there are a few problems I have with the user experience:

1. Genre - MySpace has taken the approach to “discover” and find new music. This is great, but the lack of a genre dedicated column in the search function really is a disappointment. I searched for “Jazz” and up came a bunch of hip-hop artists and people who all had the name “Jazzy” in their name. Not nearly what I was hoping for…
2. Lack of Music - I realize I’m getting ahead of myself here as this is a social channel that opened up today. Since MySpace wasn’t used that much to begin with, artist profiles are really lacking on the music.
3. Album Sales - The opportunity for bands and singer/songwriters with MySpace is amazing. If this channel grows (which I suspect it will), it’ll be a great location where artists and fans can really connect on a one-on-one level. The thing that it lacks is the ability for artists to buy albums or songs right from their page. If MySpace can set up either their own music shop to buy physical and digital albums, this would be phenomenal. In the interim or from the start, giving the artists a chance to link to their own online stores or iTunes would also be a huge help.
4. Conversation - Again, I haven’t had a chance to really explore MySpace, but something I find it’s lacking is the ability to create conversation. The connections of one-on-one between artists and fans is easy to picture, but finding like-minded, interesting people is not as simple. I realize there’s music involved and you can search by musical-taste and professional type, but, no offence, everyone looks like douchebags. Maybe it’s just me, but you can only talk for so long about music. Hashtags (on Justin Timberlake’s page anyway) didn’t link to anything and I’m not too sure how you @mention to someone… This, in my opinion, is a serious lack.
   

There’s Serious Potential

The “new” MySpace has serious potential and I believe that if they focus on the delivery and return for users, it could grow into something great. While I love the profile page and the music player, the depth of connecting with like-minded people is lacking. I’m curious to see what others say in the first few days, and see what growth MySpace will work towards in the coming months. Don’t write it off as a marketing tactic just yet, I think they’ve got something up their sleeves.

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I’m calling it right now, 2013 will be the year of Google Plus. Sure, you’re probably laughing at me, but I’m sticking by this and this blog post will convince you otherwise.

Social Media: Not a Buzzword

First of all, social media should no longer be a buzzword in your vocabulary. Social media is a communication tool and there are literally hundreds of different social media channels to choose from – all tailored to personal interest. Some examples are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, FourSquare, Dribbble, etc.

During the Don Draper era, Television was the buzzword. Television has long been considered a communication tool and there are literally hundreds of different television channels to choose from – all tailored to personal interest. Some examples are Food Network, Discovery, HGTV, Treehouse, etc.

It’s All Relative

Television is a communication tool, Treehouse TV is the channel, the demographic (for simplicity-sake) is children under five, the message is in a form of a video (known as a “commercial”).

Social Media is a communication tool, YouTube is the channel, the demographic can be segmented into any interest imaginable, the message is a form of a video (known as a “video ad”).

Notice the difference? Television makes it easy to determine who your audience is, whereas social media requires research, understanding, and a strategy. You wouldn’t post a video tailored to young adults on Treehouse TV, would you?

Social Channel: Google Plus

So back to my original argument of Google+ and it emerging victorious in 2013. Everyone (including myself) has made fun of the channel at some point or another. Perhaps you called it useless, maybe you didn’t want to manage another social media channel, or it was pointless because nobody was using it.

DO NOT underestimate Google Plus, because this channel contains a power far greater than that of Facebook or Twitter. They have the power of Google Search. Each channel (whatever it is) is relevant in their own way, and Google Plus has the upper-hand with Search Engine Optimization.

One of the key phrases (pun intended) that I keep hearing from clients is “I want to be number one on Google!”

Sure, there’s a myriad of things you need to do before you even consider driving traffic to your website – the biggest being the quality of your content, but if you believe the user experience is where it needs to be and you want to dabble in social media I recommend Google Plus as your starting page. Learn the in’s and out’s, become active, and get your customers to review your business. Those active on Google Plus are going to be weighted heavier in search rankings than those who don’t.

UPDATE 1 (01/13/13): I wrote this post a couple days ago, in that time, Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz.org tested to see if “sharing on Google Plus gets indexed.” Guess what? It did after 20 minutes. I’m not allowed to share the link he used, however, I can share with you the Google Plus post he used to test this theory, and theGoogle Search results.

UPDATE 2 (01/13/13):  Another Google Plus’er, Brandon Hassler, decided to try this out for himself. Here his the Google Plus post he used for his counter-test, and here are theGoogle Search results. At the time of this specific update, it’s been well over an hour with no indexing results. While it is possible that Rand has a higher page rank than Brandon, I’ll be following this test to see the final results.

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2012 was a year of many up’s and down’s, and I still recall saying that it’s going to be an awesome year for me. And it was overall. My partner and I moved from Halifax to Winnipeg right before Christmas 2011. I landed a job as a Digital Marketing Coordinator at an ad agency calledThink Shift for a position that I loved and I received a promotion to Campaign Analyst in November. It was a great year, but there were personal hardships also – none that I’ll write about here.

I’ve never been one for New Year’s resolutions, but yet, here I am, writing a blog post about it. A lot of people have the same things on their list, such as exercise  more often, drink more water or cut back on sugar intake. These are all great, and you should do that anyway, but in my opinion, I find New Year’s resolutions to be silly and setting yourself up for failure. Did you know that only 8% of New Year’s resolutions actually stick until the very end?

The Forbes article I linked talks about creating a shorter list of goals and creating a plan. I think this is a great point, but rather than focusing on the typical resolutions, I wanted to do something different. My father always told me “We’re always learning, and will continue to do so until the very end.”

I’ve always loved that quote, and it’s completely true. In May 2012, a 90-year-old man in the UK graduated from Buckingham University with a masters degree in Intelligence History. So here for you are my resolutions for 2013

Communication and Clarification

It’s a part of life, and today, there are many different ways to communicate to other people: email, social media, telephone, and in-person. Each channel is different, and I (and perhaps you) need to realize this. Just like in marketing, you need to choose your channel appropriately for your message.

Email - I love email, but I don’t use it to its full potential. I’ll write a a long-winded email and expect people to read it because I put so much time into it, however, I probably read about 10% of my emails in full, and that’s after the second or third time I open it. There are a lot of different resources available for better email writing, and a simple Google search will reveal them all. Here’s an article I think may help me in the future. Writing Effective Email: Top 10 Email Tips.

Telephone - I’m know I’m not alone on this one. One of my biggest fears is picking up the phone and talking to a faceless person. You do not have body language to work with when you’re talking face-to-face, and you can’t rewrite what you say like you can with email or social media. I’m constantly nervous when I have to go into a conference call or picking up the phone  to introduce myself to someone I’ve never met (I much rather do this in person). The problem with that is, if the person you need to introduce yourself to lives in another city, you’re shit out of luck.

I read an interesting article called “Men, What Are You Afraid Of?” in the November 2012 issue of GQ. It goes on to talk about controlling your fears in the professional workspace. This helped me realize that using the phone shouldn’t be like putting myself into a lion’s cage, but rather, embrace the fear and use it to my advantage (of course, this is easier said than done).

Social Media - Facebook is celebrating it’s ninth anniversary in February, meaning I would have spent (roughly) one-third of my life in a social media world. I have no problems communicating within this space, but it should be noted that, in a professional setting, it’s probably the worst way to go about it. Keep that in mind.

Face-to-Face - This can be slightly nerve-wracking when you’re meeting a new client and going in not knowing what to expect, or having to deliver bad news and therefore having to control your fear (I refer again to the GQ article above). Unless there are other suggestions within the comments section about tackling this communication barrier, my New Year’s resolution is utilize the scout’s honour and “Be Prepared.” There’s nothing worse than going into a meeting and fumbling over your words and looking distraught. You know yourself and your work better than anyone else, so be proud and talk about it.

Keep In Mind - 15 minutes of reviewing a client’s profile or document you put together can save you an entire day’s worth of suffering. Believe me.

Over Commitment

I have a hard time saying “No” and I know this. I know my work better than anyone and I have a hard time “letting go” sort-to-speak. I always assume that saying “No” is a sign of weakness and discredits my ability to get the job done. The problem with saying “Yes” to everything automatically sets you up for failure. It’s easier to juggle three balls than it is to juggle seven or eight. You can only focus your efforts on one thing at a time, and you only have so many hours in a week.

Delegate

I know my work better than anyone else, and I fear that if I don’t do it, then it’s going to cost me more time and effort if someone else is doing it for me. This isn’t the case. Someone who’s helping you doesn’t need to know what you know, they just need to know the basics to help you get the job done. And once you teach them it once, it’ll be a resource you can use next time. Never assume people are too busy – you need talk to them and ask them. If they are too busy, they’ll tell you, if not, they’ll help.

Golden Rule of 2013

Never Assume Anything!

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McDonald’s. This is a very large company that spends millions (probably even billions) of dollars on their marketing campaigns. If you think back (pre-social media), you can probably remember some great campaigns that worked for them. I personally enjoyed this commercial as a kid because I loved Michael Jordan (like every other 90s kid).

About a month ago, Colleen showed me an amazing new marketing campaign from McDonald’s. What’s wonderful about the campaign is that it opens up transparency of the business. They started a website called “Your Questions” and left it to anyone who has a question about McDonald’s so they could have their question personally answered. You can see all the questions here.

After that initial viewing, I never really went back to the website. During this time, Isabel M. from Toronto asked, “Why does your food look different in the advertising than what is in the store?” Last week, my partner showed me a video that popped up on Mashable. The video is of Hope Bagozzi, the Director of Marketing at McDonald’s Canada answering Isabel’s question and actually showing the general mass how their picture-perfect sandwiches are made. While I never thought about asking that question, this is an answer I’ve always wanted to know.

The process was very neat to see and I commend McDonald’s on their new marketing campaign. In today’s social world, your brand isn’t what you say it is, it’s what the general population says it is, and being transparent with your clients creates trust between business and consumer.

Need I remind you of #mcdstories?

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