“How You Doin’, Resolutions?” March Style

Normally, my “check in on resolutions” post comes the first post of every month.  But last week, I chose to write about my experiences with risk-taking because it was happening at that time.  How would one more week hurt my review of my professional resolutions?  Not too much.

My website design, so far. Gotta keep up with resolution #2!

For those of you just tuning in now, first of all hello!  Second of all, this post serves as a reminder of my professional resolutions for 2010 (click here to read from December) and how I can continue to achieve these goals.  As of February, it was so far, so good. Let’s see how March is measuring up:

1. Budget: It’s ok.  I still have two savings accounts, each with a portion of my monthly income going into each.  I decided that one will be saved for traveling since it’s becoming a passion of mine.  The other is earmarked for the future.  Other than that, seems to be going well.  I don’t eat out too much.  Don’t shop as much.  Go out once in a while.  And another student loan just went into repayment this month- horray (*please note sarcasm here. Thanks*).
2. Relearn Adobe Dreamweaver: I’m really wishing that I didn’t sell back my college book for Dreamweaver now.  Tutorial books are so expensive!  Then I realized that Adobe has tutorial videos on their website for free, which is a lot nicer than $25.  So I think I might invest in a book about CSS and use the tutorials on Adobe’s website.  I have to start building a website for myself and as soon as I have a free weekend, I will do so.
3. Consistently Update This Blog: So far, so good.  I’ve kept this blog updated once a week while managing a Posterous blog about fashion, which is updated 5-7 times a week.  That one is easier to update.  Less pressure, mostly just pictures and a few sentences.  These posts require a bit more thought.
4. Travel: Just made it up to NYC in February.  I should be heading back to NYC this weekend coming up as well.  It’s just so close, how can I stay away for too long?  I’m saving all of my money for Paris on April 1 :) I’m also planning another trip back to Baltimore, a visit to DC, and a weekend getaway to Atlanta where my best friend lives.  All in the works, though.  Nothing concrete yet.
5. Continuing to Freelance: My freelance gig from the beginning of these posts still isn’t finished yet, so this resolution is going well so far.  I also might have another project with a company I used to work for.  Hopefully I’ll be able to build a website for my business (and this blog) soon, which will also be part of freelancing.

So that’s where we are in 2010!  I think I’m doing well so far.  There is clearly room for improvement, but I think writing out these posts is a great way to keep me on track with my goals.

How are your resolutions coming along?  Where are you doing well?  What can you improve on as we start a new month?

Online shopping from your Facebook news feed? Yes, it’s true.

Image from InsideFacebook.com

Well, almost.

Just a few moments ago, I read an interesting article from Inside Facebook about American Eagle. American Eagle and Aerie (their product line of dorm wear and intimates for women) worked with MediaFORGE to produce an “widget” for Facebook, and an interesting one at that. This widget lets you browse products from AE and Aerie if you are a fan of their company pages.

Image from InsideFacebook.com

According to Inside Facebook, you click the play button and you are shown a variety of products that the company is featuring or highlighting. Once you click on the link you see, you are redirected to the ae.com or aerie.com where you can view more details about the product and order it if you choose.  There is easy sharing among users in their Facebook statuses as well.  However, it is not possible to view multiple items at a time, at least for the time being.  I am sure something will come about and change that soon.  Since the launch of this app last week, both AE and Aerie have seen slightly higher activity on their fan pages.

This widget makes it amazingly simple to see AE and Aerie’s featured products, even if it is only one item at a time (for now).  While the article didn’t highlight any increased traffic to their websites, I’m sure the AE and Aerie websites saw higher clicks as well as the Facebook pages.

However, I hide fan page notifications and updates on my news feed for pages to update too often, as I find that incredibly annoying.  I do the same thing with people.  So for someone like me, this new widget is useless and ineffective.

Is this the direction in which all retailers should be going?  Where else should they be going?  What are other ways to reach Facebook users who hide fan page updates?