First, to give a clearer picture of what I’m talking about, imagine a simple mobile website with the following simple form:

This form is in need of some UI elements to explain what each of the two text fields is for, but with such limited space on a mobile form, it’s often not practical to add label elements either above or to the side of our textboxes.  So, the obvious solution is to put the labels in the textboxes themselves, like this:

This is a pretty simple function, but let’s take a look at the required functionality.

1. It needs to be simple to apply to any text field.
2. The “title” text should be visually different (in my case I made the text a lighter shade of grey).
3. The “title” text needs to disappear whenever the form element is given focus, and any text typed into the field by the user should be the normal visual style.
4. When focus is lost, the element should maintain any user-entered text, or, if the element is empty, the “title” text should reappear.
5. If the “title” text is still in the field when the form is submitted, the form should treat it as an empty field.

My solution is the jQuery plugin you can find here.  To use it, first add the .js file to your HTML page, along with the usual jQuery script include:

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.1/jquery.min.js”></script>

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”../resources/script/jquery.textboxTitle.js”></script>

Next, on your form fields, add the following class:

<input type=”text” class=”inputTextboxTitle” />

In ASP.net, it would look like this:

<asp:TextBox runat=”server” ID=”txtLastName” Width=”150px” CssClass=”inputTextboxTitle />

Last, add the text you want to appear within the textbox using the “title” name / value pair:

<input type=”text” title=”First Name” />

In ASP.net, the ToolTip attribute relates to “title” when the input field is rendered as HTML:

<asp:TextBox runat=”server” ID=”txtLastName” Width=”150px” CssClass=”inputTextboxTitle” ToolTip=”Last Name” />

And that’s it.  The class name is only used to make it easier for jQuery to find the form fields – all necessary CSS for the functionality is created dynamically by the plugin.  If you start typing in one of the fields, your text will appear normal (not the lighter shade of grey), and when the form is submitted, the plugin will remove the “title” text first, so the fields are truly empty when your server-side code tries to handle the submission.

I hope someone out there can find this useful.  I don’t usually blog this specifically about my code, but building this as a plugin was fun and I thought it might be of use to the community.  If you do find this useful, or have any questions about it, please let me know.

To me, success is about making a difference for good in the lives of others and in the organizations we support.  Helping people and organizations make positive changes is fulfilling work, and that is at the heart of success, in my opinion.  Perhaps the best measure of this comes from how much we would be missed if we were gone.  Wealth, fame, power, or stature do define success – making a difference does.

~Ken Kaufman - CFOWise.com April 2010

I hope that you choose today to work in a way that you would be missed and hope that I do the same.

Pam Capistrano
Status Not Quo
www.statusnotquo.com

A broker who is notified that they’re losing an account under management can react one of two ways.  One, continue to deliver exemplary service.  Two, check out.   Given the many reasons that could have driven the decision, such as a new executive’s personal relationships, the first scenario lays the ground for future business opportunities with everyone involved.  The second guarantees not only that those involved won’t consider them for future opportunities, they will recommend against them whenever asked with the specifics. 

On the other hand, let’s look at an employee who is “transitioned out” due to management changes (their manager is replaced and the new manager has their own team).  Again, two choices.  One, they conduct themselves professionally, don’t badmouth the company or management, and work to make the transition seamless.  This stands out, and will be remembered and talked about around the cooler.  It can lead to opportunities or clench the deal.  Or two, they check out.  They badmouth everyone involved.  And do nothing to assist the transition or worse, sabotage it.  Again, this will come back to bite. 

Bottom line, you determine everyday what kind of relationship you’re developing – and you need to decide if you’re going to build the relationship, or blow it up.  Your choice – and the results will be right behind you for the rest of your career.

This article offers a five-step approach on how to start on the social media world.

1 – Create a Facebook page for your business
Facebook is unarguably the place to start, with more than 800 million active users, more than half of whom log in on any given day, it’s by far the single biggest social network in the world. You may already have a personal Facebook profile, but it’s important to note that it’s against Facebook policy to use your personal profile for a group, organization, or business.

Once you created your business page, make sure you update your status regularly. The updates can be informative, educational, promotional, or just plain fun.

2 – Start tweeting
Twitter has 175 million registered users who tweet 95 million times per day.
You can use twitter to meet a variety of needs, from customer service to brand awareness. Setting up a twitter profile takes only a few minutes. The bigger challenge with Twitter is finding followers. The best way to gain followers is to tweet and retweet (repeating other people’s tweets) regularly. Specially retweeting tweets from industry leaders.

3 – Posting videos on YouTube
YouTube is the 2nd most popular website in the world, with 790 million unique monthly visitors and 100 billion page views. Besides its popularity, YouTube offers a tremendous opportunity to gain a foothold in Google search results.
Setting up a YouTube account takes only a few seconds, but you need to make sure you choose a username that ties closely to your business identity, so people can find it when they search for your business. Thanks to modern technology, making digital videos is easy, with an abundance of tools available to edit them.

4 – Social media aggregation
So you are on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. Maybe you took a step further and signed up for LinkedIn and Google+. Now you’re faced with keeping them all up-do-date.
It’s simple to connect your Twitter to your Facebook and LinkedIn, so whenever you tweet something new, it gets posted to your wall on Facebook and becomes your latest status update on LinkedIn.

An even better solution is to sign up for a social media aggregation site such as TweetDeck, HootSuite or FlipBook. These display all of your accounts on a single page, allowing you to update your status and easily track them all.

5 – Online reputation
As social media becomes more and more popular, reputations are increasingly being built and managed online. But considering the velocity at which information spreads on the internet, this can either be your worst enemy or your best friend. Take advantage and publish and promote your brand online.

The very first steps to be taken in establishing a proper online reputation is to have a presence on all well-known social media platforms, which will go a long way towards driving down unwanted search results. Also, setting up a Google alert utilizing search terms that identify your business as well as any other keywords you feel are important.

Social media is about people, it is about relationships, and it is about communications. A social media presence is about educating, engaging, and growing your audience, and potentially improving the bottom line of your business. If you haven’t started using social media as a marketing tool for your business, the time is now.

Tati Santos
Executive Vice President
Status Not Quo
www.statusnotquo.com

Zombie Wonderland 2 will be available on the iTunes store for iPhone and iPad this Friday (actually, it’ll be available on Thursday, but Friday the 13th sounds so much better for a Zombie game don’t you think?).  The game will arrive very soon after for Android users as well.

Check out the trailers here:

Happy Hunting!

Pam

As we approach the New Year, I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for visiting our Blog throughout the year.  During the past year Status Not Quo has had tremendous growth and prosperity and we feel extremely blessed.  We have more than doubled in size, opened two new offices, and entered a new industry:  Mobile and Gaming Application development.  It’s been a “whirlwind” to say the least.

During the past year, we have enjoyed many exciting and challenging engagements and have reveled in the professional and individual growth these have fostered.  We pride ourselves in the relationships we have built with our clients and are incredibly blessed to have become good friends with many of them over the years.  We are so thankful to our clients who continue to partner with Status Not Quo in their business success.

Finally, I want to take a moment to say a very heartfelt thank you to both our employees and partners.  We have such an amazing team and words can’t express what it means to us as a company to know that all of our team members are willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done right.

May all of you find many blessings in the New Year and Prosperity to us all!

PS (Ok, so maybe it’s not a post script yet) – We’ll be launching our new Game for Mobile Devices on Friday the 13th!  Look for Zombie Wonderland 2: Outta Time! in the iTunes store and the Android Market.  It’s amazing!!

Warmest Regards,

Pam

www.statusnotquo.com

We joke about being in management and getting those so-called big bucks – but there’s a reason we have that title, and there are responsibilities that go hand in hand with it.  Sometimes it sucks, and seems the rewards are few and far between. But that’s part of the job.  As the manager, our responsibility is managing our team, and reviewing their work.  If something goes wrong, it’s our job to step up, take responsibility and then ensure that it doesn’t occur again.  We don’t throw the junior to the wolves, and blame them.  We have the final responsibility to make sure it’s right.  And that means making the ethical, responsible choice to suck it up and take responsibility regardless of the fact that we didn’t actually make the mistake – bottom line, it’s our responsibility to manage the team in such a way that the mistakes get caught before they get out of the department.

And when things go right?  We give credit to the team members who delivered.  Always.  Say thank you, and then highlight the players.  Never take credit for someone else’s efforts.

Think about the type of manager you’d want to work for, or the kind of colleagues you’d want to work with on a project.  Your colleagues, your team and your executives are aware of more than you may realize – and the respect you garner as a mentor, a team player, a great manager and a trustworthy person by acting in such an ethical manner is worth more than words can say – because actions always speak louder than words.

So the next question is, does this mean the death of the Adobe Flash platform completely?  Well, Adobe is trying to make sure the answer to that question is “no” by taking two pretty important steps.  First, they have released a new, free tool, that will translate animations created for Flash into HTML5.   This is huge because it allows Flash developers to work in their favorite environment, but the results of that work can still be delivered to Apple devices.  Second, Adobe has launched their FlashBuilder platform, which is an application designed to build iOS and Android apps using a Flash-like interface, and the familiar scripting language behind Flash, ActionScript.

This is a very savvy move by Adobe.  Not only does it extend the life of Flash technology in general, but it also opens up a new market to developers like me, who prefer to program on a PC (as opposed to a Mac).  Also, and let’s be honest here, Objective-C, the primary object-oriented programming language for the iOS, is pretty clunky.  Now, with FlashBuilder, I can do just about everything the Mac-based programming environment would allow me to do, at least within the realm of mobile devices, without having to use Objective-C.

Now, that’s not to say that the Flash environment, and now, it’s bigger brother, FlashBuilder, don’t have their problems, too.  Ultimately, I think that Apple made the right move by restricting Flash from their devices.  The argument Apple has always made is that Flash isn’t stable enough to use in an environment with such limited resources as a phone or tablet, and that Flash security is sub-par.  I agree completely with both of those points (especially the security one – I once had my World of Warcraft account hacked and stolen because of faulty security programming in Flash).

However, I also think that Flash still has a place in the world of the modern web.  For example, HTML 5 has a very nice new tag that allows me to display and control video files within a website.  The tag, very appropriately called <video />, can be set up to use multiple file types, and will play the first one in the list that the browser is capable of interpreting.  It even has a section for displaying alternate HTML if the <video /> tag isn’t supported by the user’s browser.  That’s all very clean and cool.  But, it’s not very customizable.  What if my client doesn’t like the way the HTML 5 video controls are displayed?  What if I need some special functionality, like an overlay that will pop-up over part of the video playback at a certain frame?  If all I have to work with is HTML 5, I’m either out of luck, or I need to do some pretty sophisticated Javascript acrobatics to accomplish my goal, but with a Flash movie player, all of those tasks become simple.  In this scenario, even if my user’s browser supports the nifty new <video /> tag, I’m likely to try to get them to display a Flash movie first, and then fall back to HTML 5 if that’s my only option (i.e., on Apple devices).

Also, the last I read, the Flash platform achieved better than 99% market penetration for desktop and laptop computers that are web-enabled.  That’s just staggering, and frankly, there are plenty of applications I can think of that can make good use of Flash simply because the intended audience isn’t using the application on a phone.

Here at SNQ, what all of this comes down to is that nothing has really changed.  We’ll continue to evaluate the available technologies with each new project we face, and just like before, if that project will have a mobile audience, Flash won’t be our first choice, but that doesn’t mean that it’s time to throw away all of the knowledge and expertise we’ve worked so hard to gain, either.  We take pride in never letting the technology drive the direction we want to go with a project – rather, we look at the goals and decide on the best technologies to serve the need.  With that perspective in mind, I’m sure I’ll be running Google searches on some obscure ActionScript command again before too long.

We created this based on a growing demand for companies to have a corporate Facebook presence. People often mistakenly think that a company presence on Facebook needs to pertain to selling or doing something on Facebook. Not true. The real reason is very simple – expose your company to the millions of Facebook users who probably wouldn’t need your company’s services while they’re playing Farmville, but may need you when they get back to their “day job”. Once you’ve gotten their attention, the company page just needs to get them to visit your primary marketing asset – which is your corporate web site.

All interesting, but why did I name this entry “The Facebook fishing pole”? Glad you asked. We also created a Facebook sponsored ad campaign to promote the plug-in. If you haven’t worked with one of these before, it’s very interesting. Our first ad targets Facebook users who “Like” WordPress and PhP (which is a web language with a connection to WordPress), live in the United States, and are over 18. Apparently this ad targets 140,600 users. That’s a pretty big pond. And with that, we cast out our line.

Time will tell how this method works, but I absolutely know it requires fine tuning – the demographics, the interest filters, and even the geographic focus. However, I can say that within 30 minutes, the ad had been seen by 3,840 users, and even clicked through 4 times. Not a great ratio, but nibbles none the less. Stay tuned, and if you would like to make our day by checking out the plug-in, here’s the ultra-colorful website – with lots of fun mascots. Thanks!

Scott Capistrano

President

Status Not Quo