BudURL enables you to create your own web address rather than being assigned a random one, as is the case with some companies. Additionally, BudURL allows you to change your link at any time after purchasing the domain, demonstrating greater flexibility than other services. According to its website, “BudURL is the only service to provide integrated short URL services, QR codes, and mobile landing page management into a single platform.”

Shortened URLs increase the space for your message in a Twitter post already regulated to a 140-character count. Your abbreviated link still directs your audience to the same web page that the longer version does, but now you have created more room for the message or information you want to share. BudURL also combines analytics with shortening. Shrink your web link to a smaller size and details like geographic region, along with referrers (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) are automatically tracked when people click on it. This way you know immediately from where your traffic is originating and from which channel your most engaged audience is coming. It’s also a great way determine what type of content is most interesting to your followers.

A shorter address is also easier to remember, which is a plus when you consider how a shortened URL link can help build your brand. You gain greater visibility when you can share a customized URL through your marketing materials, brochures and emails directed to your website. Customized URLs also benefit SEO, or search engine optimization, as the targeted keywords included in the address are used for determining relevancy and computing rankings.

A shortened URL helps put your company ahead of the curve and gives you a competitive edge. Ready to try a more-with-less approach? Ask us about your options for link shortening URL services.

The post Sometimes Less is More: Advantages to Shortening URL Links appeared first on Howard Miller Associates.

While some of us have dustier “to be read” piles than others, the HMA-ers are always reading something new and interesting. Since May is Get Caught Reading month, we decided share a few of our favorite and most recent reads.

“In thinking about the variety of business segments our clients are involved in and how those relate to the world’s water supply, I remembered a movie I watched several years ago – What the Bleep Do We Know. And that led me to go back and re-read the study Dr. Masaru Emoto did on how words, thoughts and emotions can actually change the crystal structure of water. I think Dr. Emoto’s work is fascinating. To read about how ‘The implications of this research create a new awareness of how we can positively impact the earth and our personal health,’ visit ww.whatthebleep.com/crystals.” -Rita Kissam, Business Manager

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“Currently, I am going through a Shakespeare phase and am working my way through Henry VIII. I chose to read this particular play for a number of reasons, the first being my love of all things theatre, followed by my overwhelming awe of Shakespeare and his ability to connect pen to paper in such a beautifully, moving way and lastly my obsession with Tudor England. I’ve always been interested in reading Henry VIII, because I know and have studied the story of Henry VIII so in-depth. I love to explore other thoughts on the controversy. Shakespeare in particular has a way of producing pieces that express pure human emotion but often have underlining messages and hidden innuendos ahead of his time. As he wrote this play so close to the reign of Henry’s daughter, Elizabeth I, I’ve really been interested in seeing how he was able to bring his thoughts and depictions across in a politically correct way during a time period where almost anything could land you in the tower for treason.” -Jamie Wilson, Account Coordinator

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“Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul by John and Stasi Eldredge focuses on the way women view themselves and how the childhood fantasies of romance, adventure and beauty are things most women only dream about when it comes to their life story. It compares the differences between the male (with excerpts taken from Wild at Heart, a similar book written for men) and female perspectives and how explores God can help write a woman’s story, capitalizing on the ‘essence that God has given to every woman.’” -Diana Williams, Traffic/Production Manager & Graphic Designer

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“I recently read Mary Oliver’s newest collection of poems, A Thousand Mornings, in which her love and quiet acceptance of the natural world is strongly evident. I am always restored after reading her work. Next on my ‘to be read’ stack is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. This book is a true account of a family who dedicated themselves to eating locally for an entire year. It tells the story of how their lives were changed when they vowed to eat only food raised in their own neighborhood and grown in their own garden–the rest they learned to live without.” -Kim Klugh, Copywriter

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“In addition to the wonderful blogs and web content my team sends to me each day, I am also in the midst of reading three books. The first, Planets by Dava Sobol, is a wonderful book about the formation of the planets with wonderful narrative about some of the myths and culture surrounding each one. As I seek the planets through my telescope at night, I am now also thinking about one of my favorite parts of the book–the description of the moon and planting a moon garden.

The second book is on my Kindle app and is by one of my favorite writers, Chris Brogan. Every Sunday morning, before church, I treasure the few minutes I take to read his weekly newsletter. Chris is an incredible guru of community, and his book, It’s Not About the Tights, was one I could not wait to get. Chris writes with the utmost honesty, and he really helps me to be brave in spite of myself.

The last book on my reading list is one I am slowly digesting, reading chapters two and three times to fully understand the content. Falling Upward by Richard Rohr is helping me live a fuller second half of my life. As I struggle to navigate my mid-life crisis, this book helps me understand what to do with my gifts and see how to move from grinding things out to growing.” -Drew Dorgan, President

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“I’m admittedly not a huge book reader apart from the ones that were assigned to me, but I do make a regular habit of reading Kevin Karpiak‘s weekly anthropology distribution at kevinkarpiak.wordpress.com. He has been an inspiration to me as an anthropologist and social scientist who specializes in writing about the culture of policing and technology and society in particular, which have also been interest of mine since beginning school.

I find his work is a perfect fusion of the now and the past. He uses a lot of old school theorists to situate everyday topics. So, you always feel like you’re learning, no matter what you’re reading about. Highly recommend!” -Kris Castner, Search Marketing Analyst

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“How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid is surprisingly not a self-help book but rather an introspective novel exploring the fierce rawness of humanity. Told in second person, the story’s protagonist navigates from an impoverished village boy to successful businessman on a quest for ‘the pretty girl’ and the growing scarcity of clean water. Hamid has a command for storytelling and provokes infinite emotion through his universal dissection of the human condition.” -Colleen Hofmann, Interactive Marketing Manager

Now tell us, what are you reading?

The post What Were You Caught Reading This Month? appeared first on Howard Miller Associates.

When 4 out 5 smartphone owners check their phones within the first 15 minutes of waking up, it’s easy to see why so much of this year’s SES conference was focused on mobile. (I’m told this can also point to a more over-arching, legitimate psychological disorder.) Did you know 40% of people will go to a competitor’s site after a bad mobile experience on your website? Or after waiting five seconds for a page to load, 74% of mobile users bounce? Yikes! So, how do you decrease the “I came, I puked, I left” metric as Avinash Kaushik so colorfully calls it, or your site’s bounce rate? Here are a few small tips I picked up from my sessions at SES:

• Optimize your website for mobile using responsive design and make it easier for users to convert.
• Create an app to establish brand loyalists and promote upsell opportunities.
• Focus on finding the audience in the right moment rather than just throwing money at channel x, y or z.
• Look for ways to better track the customer’s journey across screens and consider convergence events, the simultaneous use of multiple devices.

A lot of insights on how mobile users utilize your site can be gathered by using web analytics. However, during a session on landing page optimization, Angie Schottmuller pointed out that 25-40 % mobile traffic is lost or counted as direct traffic from popular web analytics tools like Google Analytics and WebTrends. She challenged her co-panelist Justin Cutroni, Google Analytics Advocate, and suggested using mobile analytics tools like Bango, Percent Mobile and Amethon.

As more traditional web analytics tools change the way mobile traffic is measured, we can better understand how various channels are used and customize experiences. It will be interesting to watch how quickly companies can adapt and perform the additional analysis needed to prepare for these types of changes. Those with more agile capabilities certainly have the advantage – at least until the next big thing surfaces.

The post Reaching Mobile and Multi-Device Traffic appeared first on Howard Miller Associates.

I’ll admit, before I started working at Howard Miller Associates, I never really paid too much attention to infographics. Yes, if I saw one that caught my eye, I would read it, but that was it. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago when we started creating an infographic ourselves that I really began to take notice of just how many infographics there are out there and how interesting they can be. I may be becoming addicted.

Surprisingly, infographics are becoming an extremely popular medium. You may think with digital and social media reigning supreme over the advertising world that infographics would be becoming obsolete, but the opposite is true. Digital tools and social media are the exact vehicles being used to share infographics across the web. They’re everywhere and cover every subject you can think of. Pinterest is littered with them on topics ranging from recycling and food consumption, to sharks, Harry Potter and even proper Twitter manners. They are even becoming interactive, such as one of my current favorites, Every Last Drop, created by Nice & Serious in London.  This infographic is displayed in a unique style using parallax scrolling. The site allows you to scroll while the images and messages change in the background, and it ends with a video giving you more information about the use of water. It keeps the audience’s attention and gets its point across in a quick, concise and fun way. I was so intrigued that I instantly shared it with all of my Twitter followers.

Seeing all these infographics really sparked my interest and got me thinking about just how effective they are. So, I decided to do a little research on the subject, and guess what I found….an infographic, surprised? The straightforward facts point out that people are more attracted to visual information and are 30 times more likely to read an inforgraphic than a text article. In fact, the search query “infographic” was conducted on an average of 301,000 times/month last year, and, in March of 2012, #infographic received 56,765 tweets on Twitter (Customer Magnetism).

In my opinion, infographics are effective and will only continue to grow in popularity as digital and social media continue to grow. If you’re looking for an exciting and interesting way to convey information or increase brand awaress, infographics are definitely worth looking into. Do you have any suggestions for other great ways to communicate visually on the web?

The post How Effective Are Infographics? appeared first on Howard Miller Associates.

Why? Because designing a site that grants the ability to adapt to both the screen size and platform of the visiting user is an approach that addresses this growing mobile traffic. Specifically traffic that’s visiting your site.

This brings up the question—should you be considering responsive design for your website?

The HMA website recently took the responsive design plunge, thanks to an excellent “built from scratch” project, carried out by our savvy Interactive Designer, Jason Getz. A Pennsylvania College of Art and Design graduate, with his BFA in graphic design, Jason says, “I worked on and off the project for about two months, after Drew (HMA President Drew Dorgan) asked me to redesign the existing site. Then in late January 2013, it was ready to go live.”

Given my own abysmal knowledge of web design, I met with Jason to gather the basic background on this emerging trend. He describes responsive design as an approach to “designing one website that can be optimally viewed on multiple screens, using less horizontal scrolling.” This method takes the place of designing multiple versions of HMA’s website for each type of viewing platform.

Jason accomplished this for the HMA website by implementing a single design using fluid widths in percentages that’s able to be scaled up or down, depending on the demands of the screen resolution on which it’s being viewed. So, whether you’re reading this from a desktop, a tablet or a mobile device, the single design he created provides a successful experience for all viewers. If you manually resize the browser, you’ll notice how the screen resizes and adjusts, based on the width of the browser.

Not to get too hung up on the technical aspects, it should also be mentioned that fluid grids, flexible/responsive images or media, and media queries are the three basic components of responsive design.

Although it proved to be a “good challenge” for an interactive designer, Jason admits it led to some tedious problems—pictures got cropped out or overlaid the type; some things became “jumbled” or unwieldy. He says, “I stuck to a simple column layout, and everything but the home page is based on the same design—sidebar, main content, header.” In the end, he admits it’s one of his favorite portfolio projects to date.

At first glance, responsive design seems to offer the simplest way to reach your readers across multiple devices. However, based upon current articles written in regard to responsive design, the jury is still out; there are those who believe there are still too many restrictive/negative aspects to the approach while others, like Google, lend wholehearted support. Google’s in favor since it calls for only one set of code, making it easier to organize and sync redirects and links. Since users don’t need to access a device-optimized view, loading time is also reduced. In addition, with a single URL, Google’s algorithms can more easily assign the indexing properties for the content.

Responsive design is certainly not a one-size-fits-all method, and as with most decisions, there are pros and cons to weigh. Even though it has yet to become an industry standard, it remains an emerging technique worthy of consideration.

The following questions may be a good starting point as you explore the idea of responsive design for your own company:

• From what device is your traffic viewing your site content—desktop, mobile or tablet devices? What screen resolution is used for each device?
• What is the objective of your website? Are you providing visitors with informational content? Or do you feature dynamic or interactive media content?
• Will providing a better user experience for your mobile users significantly impact your company’s desired outcome?

So, what are your thoughts about this emerging approach? Have you taken the plunge, and if so, has it been beneficial? Still not sure it’s a good idea? Tell us why.

The post Is it Time to Consider Responsive Design? appeared first on Howard Miller Associates.

Have you ever read something, only to come away from it convinced that it could apply to your everyday tasks– but lack a specific ability to implement it?

So is the existence of a newbie SEO/SEM professional. I can’t tell you how many times I have read a fascinating article, only to be left bewildered or perhaps utterly confused as to how on earth I am supposed to apply its “simple” steps to my own work.

Although this is my typical frustration with areas that are new to me, something about my dilemma last week felt different. Somehow, things were starting to seem a little clearer. In my earlier posts, I’ve talked about how the world of SEO/SEM is an entirely different culture in and of itself. And despite my love of culture, I’ve never had much of a knack (OK, none!) for other languages. Unfortunately for me, SEO definitely comes with its own lingo.

Earlier this week, I was given the task of writing code for PDF event tracking through Google Analytics. Simple enough, right? Although it was great to start doing anything with coding on my own, it was a little daunting at first. Once I got the system down, I began to realize just how time-consuming this process truly is. I thought “What if we want to track PDF downloads for a website that has 100 PDFs? Do I literally have to write event tracking code for EVERY single one of them?”

That question was what lead me to my new, most favorite article of all-time. Basically, the author is a genius and figured out how to implement a script to automatically pull PDF downloads into Google Analytics with only one code. It also pulls newly added PDFs that might be placed on the site after the initial code is installed, AND it labels each PDF automatically. After finishing the article, I was convinced that I had to try it out for myself. My only problem? I only recently learned what JavaScript IS. Like…in general. On top of it, I had never actually dealt with it in any kind of “real” SEO way.

As any anthropologist maneuvering through a strange world that speaks a strange language would, I enlisted the help of a local translator to help me overcome my barrier. Colleen Hofmann, HMA’s real-time communications pro, happens to know a good deal about JavaScript (lucky me!).

The next day, I couldn’t wait to share the article with her. I asked if she thought she could figure out how to implement it so we could save ourselves a ton of PDF coding hassle. After a bit of practice on a test site (to my utter delight) she managed to get the code working! I believe it was my first, full-on SEO nerd freak-out…and boy, did victory feel good!

What was also awesome about this moment was the realization that it could not have been possible without some major HMA teamwork. Although I was able to find the article and realized that it might also work for HMA, things would have quickly stopped there without Colleen’s coding skills and knowledge of JavaScript. Working together, we were able to learn something new AND significantly boost our workplace productivity.

Although at times the world of SEO and SEM can get a little overwhelming for us beginners, it’s important to realize how many resources are available to you. There will ALWAYS be people (like article author Adam Buchanan) who will be smarter than you, and figure out cool tricks before you do. But more than anything, that is what I am most thankful for in this field– you are never truly learning alone. And if you work at HMA, there will always be co-workers ready and willing to help you out.

If you work in SEO and/or SEM, what are some of your favorite time savers? Where did you or do you go to learn coding languages, and which methods helped you to progress to the next level in your career?

The post Nerding Out: My First SEO “Eureka” Moment appeared first on Howard Miller Associates.

Every Christmas at HMA, Drew, the best boss ever, gives each employee an amazing book tailored to the person. For me, Just My Type by Simon Garfield. Yes, I’ll admit it. I’m a typography nerd. I like letterforms, fonts and typefaces, adjusting leading, tracking and kerning– loving both serif and non-serif fonts alike. (Sounds like I’m speaking another language, right?) And if you’re a nerd like me, you can even look at a billboard or an advertisement and name the exact font and typeface used.

Graphic designers are rarely famous. We see logos every day but have no idea who created them. We see interesting ads in magazines and on TV, see unique packages and think, “Huh. That’s cool.” Just another one of those underappreciated occupations. But the occupation that’s even more underappreciated is a type designer. Have you ever stopped to think about who designed the font you’re reading right now?

I don’t think we realize how much our lives are impacted by fonts – even just in our morning routine.  The alarm clock’s snooze button, whether it’s an old-school clock or your iPhone, features a font chosen by a designer. A product designer created the logo and chose the type on your toothpaste tube and on your face wash. A designer spent hours laying out your daily newspaper, whether it’s in print or on your iPad, and chose all the type styles to ensure the publications are consistent with their branding. A designer chose the size, line spacing and letter spacing for all of the instructions on the coffee bag. And you can probably guess how many months or more went into the design of the cereal box you tossed aside. Did you know through every moment in your day, you’re interacting with type, fonts and letterforms chosen for you by a graphic designer and created by a type designer?

In September, I returned from spending two years in the Peace Corps. My main assignment in Burkina Faso, Africa, was teaching computer science to middle school students. Computers in West Africa? If that was your first thought, you’re not alone. Well, I quickly learned that yes, my village school did have electricity (although not always reliable) and the oldest, missionary-donated computers possible.

So my job – teaching students to properly use the mouse, keyboard and some basic Microsoft Word – was easier said than done, especially in French, a language I learned during my first 3 months in country. Once we finally got through how to move the mouse and how to type, it was on to Word. And you can only guess from my background what I taught them after the basics of saving and saving often – typography!

I can now brag that my 200+ African middle school students understand the difference between serif and sans-serif characters and can distinguish script and decorative typefaces as well. Plus, they know when to properly use them all. And, thankfully, they know if you TYPE IN ALL CAPS IT LOOKS LIKE YOU’RE SCREAMING! (Try teaching that to girls who know it’s easier to type a language, like French, with all of its accents in all caps instead of fighting with the grave accent, cedilla and circumflex. I might have had to demonstrate the screaming in class just to make my point.)

Type – a very underappreciated thing but something vital to our lives. Just remember, choose and choose wisely, and stay away from typing in all caps. Oh, and avoid the fonts Papyrus and Comic Sans. But more on that later.

The post On Typography appeared first on Howard Miller Associates.

A few months ago, I decided I’d had about enough of my exploding work email inbox. I used Rescue Time to analyze how I spend my time on my computer, and I realized one of my biggest time sucks and inefficiencies was Gmail. Determined to rescue myself, I worked to maximize my email productivity by any means possible. Rather than spending hours reacting and responding to emails, we all just want to be proactive and address our own priorities, right? Here’s a short list of my top five extensions and applications I use to increase productivity when it comes to my email inbox.

Minimize distractions and interruptions

Probably one of the smartest things I did to save my productivity was mute my Google Notifier for Gmail. While its ominous icon still lives up in my menu bar, the task-interupting chimes and distracting pop-up messages for every new email are no more. This nearly cut the time I spent looking at my email every day in half. In half, people! This was a serious gain in productivity for me.

Achieve Inbox Zero

For some at HMA, acheiving Inbox Zero is equivalent to discovering the legendary unicorn. I envy HMA-ers like Katie where Inbox Zero is constant state of being. Mailstrom saves me from banging my head into a wall over email aggravation. The web application analyzes your inbox organizing message by sender, subject, time of receipt and message size. From there, you can delete, archive or move messages to folders. I almost can’t remember what life was like before discovering Mailstrom.

Cut out the clutter

What about all the irrelevant emails you receive every day? Maybe you want to read them later, but right now you’re disgusted by all the clutter. Unroll.me to the rescue. It combines all your noisy newsletters, deals and other bogus commercial emails into a single email. Now you can sort through all your emails at one time rather than leaving them flounder in your inbox. Unroll.me organizes my inbox and makes checking my email less painful.

Save it for later

There are times you might not want to send an email right away. You could be composing emails on the weekend or communicating with a client or colleague in a different time zone. Right Inbox allows you to schedule your emails for optimal send-off times, track views and clicks and even send reminders so you remember to follow up on important emails. The “Send Later” button fits in so seamlessly with Gmail’s interface I often forget it’s not actually part of Gmail. I’ve also heard wonderful things about Boomerang. It functions very similarly to Right Inbox and is now available to use on your phone.

Get more out of your email

If you tell me you’ve never Googled a new business contact before meeting with them, I won’t believe you. Today, it’s almost expected that you conduct some mild internet stalking prior to a meeting. Rapportive makes things a little easier on you. With this fantastic extension, you don’t even have to leave Gmail to get dirt on your contacts. Immediately see what the person looks like, where they’re located, what they do and connect with them on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo and more. Rapportive is an even more powerful tool when paired with link building and outreach.

So what are you waiting for? Install these extensions, enjoy some email serenity and get more work done. What other Gmail extensions or applications make your emailing more efficient? I’d love to hear about your email setup in our comments.

The post Reclaim Your Inbox and Improve Productivity appeared first on Howard Miller Associates.

Diana Williams, one of the newest additions to the HMA team, chose to donate $100 to the Peace Corps Burkina Faso Country Fund. “As a returned Peace Corps volunteer (2010-2012), it means a lot to me to be able to donate to the country that gave so much to me over the past two years. The money will be allocated to the Camp G2LOW (Girls and Guys Leading Our World) fund, a camp I helped organize in 2010 and 2011 focusing on gender equality, leadership and healthy lifestyles for middle school boys and girls.”

Colleen Hofmann said, “A little over a year ago my cousin Becky welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world. Around the same time she was diagnosed with an aggressive case of metastatic melanoma. So for Christmas, she asked only for gift cards to help support her husband and daughter.” Colleen plans to share $50 with Becky’s family and the remainder will go to a deserving individual in Lancaster. “Serving breakfast to the community in Lancaster City once a month, I encounter a lot of incredible people who go without many things we take for granted. So, I plan to purchase a heavy blanket or jacket and offer it to family in need this holiday.”

C.R. Hiestand will be donating to charity: water. “Too many people around the world are without access to clean drinking water. Water is something that we take for granted, and charity: water is working toward a world where this isn’t an issue.”

Drew Dorgan shared her thoughts on gratitude this season: “My friends at Saint John’s Episcopal Church have been collectively trying to live in gratitude, and I have been working to deepen my faith by following their example. To support our efforts to “walk the talk,” I am donating my portion of the HMA collective Big Give to our MDG group. From solar cookers in Africa to local single mothers, this group works hard to eradicate poverty. We have been very blessed this year thanks to our clients’ and teams’ hard work. For that I am grateful.”

LeMaire Lee plans to give his money to an organization very close to him. “Donating this money will be a good way of helping since I can’t get there to volunteer as regularly as I’d like.”

Jamie Wilson decided to donate her money to Shark Savers, an organization saving sharks and mantas by growing awareness, educating others and building sanctuaries. “I, myself, have been fascinated with sharks for as long as I can remember. Though most people look at them as killers and think the ocean would be safer without them, the truth is without them the entire ecosystem would be demolished. I hope my donation, in some small way, can help prevent these graceful, misunderstood creatures from facing extinction.”

Kris Castner chose to surprise an incredibly good-natured person she encounters every day. “I know there are so many deserving charities, but there is something I like about the idea of rewarding a hard-working, regular person. I’m sure this person never asks for anything from anyone else, or thinks about themselves before others. I really think this will make their holiday season special.”

Rita Kissam is sharing her money with two organizations she’s particularly grateful to be involved with: Freedom’s Call, a women’s ministry team, and LCBC Church’s Manheim Campus. “Through the women’s ministry team and study groups I have met amazing women of faith and am privileged to have made many new friends. When I walk through the doors of LCBC, I don’t just feel like I’m in church. I feel like I’m home.”

Mandy Myers is donating to the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society in honor of two  important family members. “I lost my grandfather to cancer in 2004 and my great uncle, Ernie, passed away after he had a heart attack in 2008. I hope these donations will contribute to research so lives can be saved.”

Zach Satko plans to contribute day-to-day supplies for the Humane League of Lancaster. ”Animals have always been a very important part of my life. Having adopted a shelter dog myself, it’s easy for me to have a strong desire to contribute to such a great cause. The Humane League of Lancaster prides itself as a no-kill shelter. It is always doing a ton of community outreach events to not only raise funds for the animals in need, but bring together a wonderful community of animal lovers. I’m excited to contribute to the Humane League, as they have an Amazon Wish List letting you see what your contribution is actually going towards.”

Pam Bronson is sending her gift to World Relief. “World Relief works with local churches to provide humanitarian aid, disaster and emergency relief, and community and economic development. They are involved in micro-lending, livestock programs, and training in marketable skills to help people help themselves. In the US, they rescue victims of human trafficking and help settle refugees. They also lobby for immigration reform and other good causes. And they keep their overhead low so almost all they’re given goes to those in need.”

Katie Klinger said, “Almost everyone who knows me, knows I love my one year old golden retriever as a mother loves a child. Dogs have such an innate ability to understand human emotions far beyond what we perceive. For this reason, I would like to donate to KPets, an organization with which Chingu will begin training when she turns two. KPets helps train dogs, so they may visit hospitals, hospice centers, nursing homes, etc. in order to provide comfort and love to others. I can’t wait to share Chingu’s love with such deserving people!”

Sherri Sims is providing Christmas for Cavin, his wife and the rest of his family. “Cavin’s eight-year-old son has stage four pancreatic cancer. So, a few of his old school mates and I are getting together to give them a Christmas to remember with memories to cherish forever.”

Lauren Klahold will be sharing her gift with PAWS of Carteret in Morehead City, NC. “My family adopted our current dog from PAWS when we were down there for a holiday and the organization is very deserving. Hopefully my contribution will generate awareness around animal issues and help others discover the unconditional love pets have to offer.”

Jason Getz plans to give to the Pennsylvania Library Association because his mom used to be a librarian. In addition, he thinks “it’s a great organization working to make a difference in the world.”

Amanda Vera said, “Education is truly the key to so many things. No one should be denied the opportunity to learn, to read and to write. For that reason, I decided to give back to the Literacy Council of Lancaster/Lebanon. I admire the people who are a part of this organization, as well as those who seek assistance there because it shows they are driven to change and succeed by overcoming the challenges set before them. They are truly opening the doors to so many new possibilities.”

Karen Chiodo chose to donate to the local Alzheimer’s Association where her step-mom is an active member. “The organization is very active in raising both awareness and funds. The organization supported her as she supported my dad as he progressed throughout the stages of this difficult disease.”

How would you give gratitude by donating your $100?

The post Giving in Gratitude: The HMA Big Give appeared first on Howard Miller Associates.

At HMA, we take our holidays very seriously. After all, they remind us how fortunate we are to have an abundance of good people in our lives. Although most people immediately associate holiday season with family season, perhaps not as many include their “work families” in that equation. Here at Howard Miller Associates, however, it’s a different story.

One of the first things that struck me about HMA when I started here back in June was the general attitude of care and concern that HMA-ers have for each other. Because we are a small team in a close environment, this characteristic is not only impressive, but exceedingly rare. Typically, if you gather a large number of starkly unique people together in a small environment for 9+ hours a day, 5 days a week, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if it resulted in utter chaos, or attempts to hide effectively in one’s desk area- undetectable by co-worker radars.

Fortunately, our HMA conglomeration of employees has managed to beat the odds. Rather than clashing, our mixture of people have managed to become very close- a true “work family.” I decided to investigate fellow HMA team member perspectives around this to see what others had to say about the dynamic.

Our account coordinator Mandy Myers framed it perfectly, saying ”When you think of the word family, maybe you think first about your parents or brothers and sisters. Perhaps you think about your grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Maybe you think about friends who have become family over the years, but do you think of your co-workers? I do.” Mandy was also quick to highlight that, in any family, there are “the jokesters, the peacemakers, the ones you go to for support, those you look to for advice and the people who push you to succeed. And at Howard Miller Associates, I’ve learned that family can’t be measured by the years you’ve known someone. It can’t be authenticated by bloodlines. Laughter, memories, and the strong bonds that are built measure family.” Like many newcomers to HMA, Mandy explains that working here has given her a whole “new definition of what constitutes a family. We care about each other like family. We drive each other crazy like family. We work together like a family does. As we approach the holidays, I am thankful for my HMA family.”

Obviously, the definitional concept of family is a fluid one for HMA. But what about family members’ uncanny ability to “read” one another? It’s not unusual for a member of a traditional family unit to instinctively “know what’s best” for other members of the family- even if this is not immediately apparent to the person themselves until much later. This is strikingly similar to our president Drew Dorgan’s ability to know what’s best for members of the HMA team. This was reinforced by the words of our account coordinator Dan Jamieson who said, ”Drew is well-known for her ability to read people and understand the dynamics in the room. Her divination also extends to the HMA team, where she can be quite good at determining what a person’s interests are, where they fit in the team and what career path they want to follow.” Dan added that her “interest in everyone’s success, personally and professionally, definitely adds to the feeling that HMA is one big family.”

According to Drew, the family-feeling is mutual. As she mentioned, “I love my HMA team like family because they let me in their lives…Oh wait. Just like a real family, they don’t ‘let me in’, I barge in on their lives! I am thankful this holiday season for each of them and the fact that they share their gifts with me.”

This holiday season, we all can think of things in our lives that we are thankful for. Although home is where the heart is traditionally, at HMA, it has made it into the workplace.

What are you thankful for, and how does your own work environment brighten your holiday season?

The post A Very HMA Holiday: Family and the Workplace appeared first on Howard Miller Associates.