Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 1.29.2010 Special Event Websites & Logos for your Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Wedding, Sweet 16!

Mutt Media New Offering: Special Event Websites & Logos

muttmedia.net creates custome websites and logos

Start the buzz early with your family and friends by sending them a link to your upcoming Special Event. A great way to get the word out on

• “Save the Date”
• Schedule of Events
• About the Guest(s) of Honor
• Accomodations for out-of-towners
• Set the entire tone with your colors, font choices and images customized just for you.

Send an inquiry to info@muttmedia.net to get your custom quote.

Mutt Media | Daily Bone 11.12.09 Social Media Revolution

This weeks’ inspiration…….

Mutt Media | Daily Bone 10.1.09 My Woodbury Magazine Article on Social Media & Internet Security

Click here to read the article Beyond facebook ©2009

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Mutt Media | the Daily Bone 9.7.09 uSocial services to “buy” your Facebook friends

Mutt Media disusses stealth marketing using uSocial

Usocial was just launched  but  has already caused a stir. Facebook is claiming that uSocial violates its Terms of Service which prohibit users from sharing their passwords with a third party. What does this mean? A user can have their account taken down if an allegation such as this is proven. Mr. Hill has stated publicly that not only is this unlikely, but that

“Unless they actually say anything, unless they make it known to Facebook or Twitter that they’ve actually bought my services, there’s absolutely nothing they (Facebook or Twitter) can do.”…In the end the thing is that I’m not actually ever doing anything against the terms of service — it’s the actual users who purchases my services (who is),” he said.

Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 9.3.09 Ikea changes it’s font typeface after 50 years. Will anyone notice?

Ikea changes font from Futura to Verdana

After 50+ years, the furniture store IKEA has changed it’s signature font from Futura to Verdana. For those of you who do not already know this (and why would you?), Verdana is a what we call web-friendly; this means that when you view it on your computer screen, it will appear as the designer intended and further, this will apply to all computer screens, using all browsers and operating systems.

With a font like futura, which was designed way before there was an internet, the words (or logo) will not look the same on the screen as it would in print. Then the designer must make a decision – what font would be a good replacement for the web?

Well, Ikea doesn’t need to worry about that any longer since Verdana is nothing if not consistant. Apparantly, this caused quite a stir on the internet. Google Ikea font change and you will see a host of articles from the Associated Press to Business Week and many assorted blogs.

Of course, I cannot present a piece of tech “news” without a little commentary.

While it seems on it’s face to be a somewhat insignificant news item, Corporate Identity is a really important component of any business. Ikea’s 50-year run with the Futura font has ensured that the logo and associated catalog, advertising and other printed media is instantly recognizable and associated with the Ikea brand.

Some of the online commentary has been in the vein of “who cares?” while others (typofile.com) proclaimed it “a bad day”. Change can be a very good thing, but when it comes to your corporate identity, you’d be surprised at how it can affect your customers and your bottom line.

Case in point – did anyone else notice the huge change in the Tropicana Orange Juice packaging? I did and I can say that it was lost on me. They have gone back since to get closer to their “roots” and it’s better now, but for awhile it was looking like the generic supermarket brand. Tropicana is a premium product and the package redesign simply did not reflect that. Consumers were in an uproar and so the decision was made to pull the plug on the new look.

Take a look and let me know which you prefer. No matter what your preference, we can all agree that the change was dramatic and the end result was not the desired one. No one wants their well-established brand to mistaken for something else.

A good lesson.

Re-designed Tropicana packaging

The preferred "oldie" version of Tropicana

Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 9.1.09 Special Announcement: “Beyond Facebook” article in Woodbury Magazine Fall ‘09 issue is now out

Mutt Media featured as Contributor in Fall 2009 issue of Woodbury Magazine. Check out article on page 84 "Beyond Facebook - Your primer for understanding the changing language on the World Wide Web"

I am so excited to announce the publication of Woodbury Magazine’s Fall 2009 issue. Not only is this a publication that I personally support for all of their fundraising for wonderful causes (Autism, Breast Cancer), great parenting advice, fashion tips, buzz on hot new restaurants and vacation spots but now I have just one more reason to feel the love….the issue hitting stands now (I already grabbed mine at Country Carpets this afternoon) features yours truly as a Contributor!

Here’s me sharing:

Join in supporting the magazine’s fight against Breatst Cancer by attending their annual Cocktails for the Cure Event in October at Posh @ the Garden City Hotel. I go every year and it’s a wonderful night. Click here for more info.

Follow Woodbury Magazine on Twitter. Just click as I’ve provided the link.

The column I wrote talks all about social networking, your online image, privacy concerns on the internet and much more. All things that I discuss here every day but also full of current data and useful how-to’s for your web-based exploration.

I urge you to pick up your complimentary copy if you live locally and check it out!! I will be posting a downloadable pdf version shortly for my readers outside of the Long Island area. I also designed a brand new ad for Schlessinger Eye & Face that appears on page 33.

Today was also a big day as I sent out the first Mutt Media Newsletter via an email blast. If you did not receive it, that means you haven’t yet signed up and registered on my site. So go do that right now!!

If you’d like a copy of the email sent, just drop me a line and I will forward. Contact me at info@muttmedia.net.

Happy September

Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 7.23.09 Facebook usernames can now be changed!

Remember several weeks ago when I blogged about the addition of a new feature on Facebook and urged you all to claim your unique user name?

There were screams of caution during this process as Facebook warned you to choose your name wisely and carefully, as you would be stuck with it forever.

Well, forever is sooner than we all thought. You are now able to change your facebook username if you did not choose wisely and carefully. This is great news if you selected that you find unbearable and cannot live with. The not-so-great news is that there is, as time goes on, less and less of a selection to choose from.

Tip: Pick a name that you don’t have to spell out for everyone, that is easy to remember and that reflects you or your business in some way and above all, will stand the test of time.

Caution: Facebook now claims that you will only be able to change your name once. I wouldn’t bet on that seeing as they reversed this policy so quickly after the launch of this new program, but in the interest of full disclosure, I thought I should mention it.

MySpace, in case you use it, also has this feature. It really does make it easy to have people who are looking find you.

So go forth and claim your (new) URL Just login to your account. Go to settings, then your account and click on change next to where it says “User Name”

You can find us at

facebook.com/muttmedia

myspace.com/muttmediany

Mutt Media | Daily Bone 7.15.09 Will Blog for Food: How the unemployed are spending their time off

Another Tip from Mutt Media NY

I’ve said it before but it bears mentioning over and over again. Need attention? For anything? A charity, pet project, shameless self-promotion? BLOG!!

Yet again -  this time this past Monday in the NY Post in the @work section, there appeared an article about how blogging has become THE thing for out-of-work people of all ages, shapes and sizes. I began blogging when I founded Mutt Media and I haven’t been able to shut up since. I find there’s plenty of things that I find compelling, interesting or just that warrant a comment or two and so, I write.

This wasn’t always so. Yes, I was an English major in college and writing has always come easy to me. Much easier than taking a conventional exam, I will admit but as a student I found writing to be a chore, a necessary evil. Now that it is no longer a so-called “requirement”, I submit to it voluntarily.

As a business tool, it can be invaluable. If you have good content, people will tune in and read – always a plus if your Blog is an appendage of your website. But it is more than that. In today’s climate of employee hiring, there is an abundance of competition for work. Prospective employers are using the search engines to find anything about their applicants. I personally know some who have found Facebook profiles and passed on calling the applicant for an interview.

As I said Bloggers come in all shapes and sizes. Here are some funny titles. I cannot vouch for the content but the names are catchy. Pinkslipsarethenewblack.com, yourunemployeddaughter.com, livingwithmyparents.com, whatssofunnyaboutunemployment.wordpress.com and unemployeddad.com just to name a few.

Moral of the story? Carefully craft your message and get it out there. Blog well and blog often. It works.

Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 7.14.09 Mac vs. PC & Vista security

Here’s a great video posted on YOUTUBE that totally brings home the point of yesterday’s blog topic.

I love these Mac vs. PC commercials….they make me giggle.

Mutt Media | Daily Bone 7.13.09 Google & Apple: Share-Share. Is that fair?

So, forgive me if I bore you with some of last weeks’ news, but I’ve been on holiday and not in touch. There are some things in the news that I would’ve blogged about in Real Time but sometimes vacation trumps work, and that’s a good thing, right?

So, first off, our friends at Google, in the midst of executing their plan for world domination and data-collection, have announced they will be releasing their own Operating System called Chrome. At first blush, I am excited about this, for a couple of reasons.

Google does seem to get it right. Their services are useful and free – two features I always find pleasing.  I like anything that works and doesn’t stress me out, as I am a simple girl. Their analytics and other applications function well and play nice with my MacBook. Life is good. Yay Apple & Google.

My husband is engaged in a brutal war at the moment with his new laptop that is running Windows Vista, an operating system that doesn’t play well with others. He needs to run a certain software for his business and Vista just won’t cooperate. Updates, tech support, patches and lots of nonsensical work-arounds have kept my husband up at night and his staff has logged hours trying to trouble shoot for him to no avail. He’s had to wipe out the hard drive and reinstall programs, download updates that in the end, set his efforts back and just yesterday, his laptop shot off a really low blow: just crapped out. During one of the mind-bending downloads and installs, during step 3 of 3, the screen goes dark but for 3 lines that read, “Running Step 3 of 3. 0% complete. Do not shut down your computer.” And so he waited and waited. Still 0% complete 45 minutes later but the graphics are moving like something is happening. But nothing does.

I used to work off of a Windows PC. You don’t realize how much of a nightmare it is until you switch to a Mac. I swear ONCE YOU GO MAC YOU NEVER GO BACK. (Knock on wood) My Mac & I do not have to battle resistant, mutating viruses, updates go off without a hitch and all of my programs load like butter.  Going on 2 years together and so far, it’s a match made in compuer heaven.

So, my point? Let’s take a look behind the scenes to see why my Mac (Apple) and Google apps work so well together. The common denominator here could be that they share a CEO named Eric Schmidt and another Board Member name Arthur D. Levinson, the CEO of Genentech.

Is this a conflict? Does this fly in the face of anti-trust laws, which are in place to safeguard against possible collusion between companies (and world domination).

An article in the Global edition of the New York Times from last Friday by Brad Stone speculates that the “Chrome Operating System is likely to create more questions for regulators”. Yep, this alliance is already on the radar of the Federal Trade Commission with the investigation going on for the last several months.

Under section 8 of the Clayton Anti-Trust Act specific limits are placed on the sharing of information between companies by common board members.

In the case of Schmidt and Levinson, both claim to recuse themselves during portions of the Board Meetings when the discussions turn to tricky topics.

Where is the overlap? Well, Apple makes the IPhone and Google has the Android Software (see YouTube video for info on Android and the “G Phone” below), Apple has ITunes and then there’s YouTube, Apple has the Safari Browser and now here’s Google with Chrome.

In the end, the FTC will decide whether these relationships are problematic. It all comes down to what percentage of the overall business is affected.

I don’t care. I just love my MacBook and my Google. Can’t we all just get along? (hello Microsoft!)

Then maybe my poor husband will get some sleep.