The New York Times yesterday had a very interesting article and accompanying diagram, which they referred to as the “Celebrity Twitter Ecosystem, ” showing which celebrities follow each other on Twitter.

Graphic Designer Lynne Boyer is often one of the first Hammock team members in the office each morning. On a typical day in the office, she stays busy designing and collaborating with writers and editors, but I stole a moment of her time today to find out exactly what keeps her going each day.

What is the fist thing you do when you get to the office each morning?
Check e-mail and read the CNN headlines.

Which meal fuels you better for the day, breakfast or lunch?
Definitely lunch. Just taking a few minutes away from the office to fuel up and clear my head goes a lot further than a bowl of cereal.

What communications medium helps you the most during the day?
IM. So often I just need a quick answer from an editor. I get faster answers with instant messaging than via e-mail, and it doesn’t clog up my or my co-workers’ inboxes.

What’s your favorite non-electric tool you use for work?
The Pantone color swatch book and my “reporter’s notebook” with many random facts and numbers.

What is your favorite on-the-job responsibility?
Feature design is the most challenging and fun part of being a designer at Hammock. It’s more free-form than working on recurring sections (departments) which follow a specific structure each issue. Type, photography and color are open for interpretation. It’s a great feeling when you can get all three to work together and complement the writer’s words, hopefully crafting a clear and visually interesting message.

Thanks, Lynne. IM me later!

Two of our magazine projects—the DAR’s American Spirit and the Marine Corps League’s Semper Fi–regularly include book review sections. Although publishers happily send cover images, we’ve found that photographing the books adds–as you might expect–a custom look to the page.
While several of us have done this job, lately we’ve called on designer Ben Stewart to handle the tasks. There are a couple of reasons for this: Ben originally minored in photography at Middle Tennessee State University before switching to graphic design, and his Canon Rebel EOS is ideal for capturing the quality images we need.

For some reason, I’ve been thinking about simpler times lately. Times when I was younger and I didn’t have a 401(k) to fret about. Times when all I had to worry about was remembering my locker combination, whether Keith Barnes liked me or not, and preparing for the English quiz Mrs. Hohertz was sure to give every Friday afternoon.

When my mind goes back to my English lessons in Mrs. Hohertz’s classroom, I can visualize the posters that she had on the walls like they were right here with me today. They had a very 1950s feel to them: the colors, the fonts, the illustrations. The posters that I remember helped me out on more than one of those Friday afternoon quizzes. Each poster focused on just a single word, and these are the ones I remember best:

With exactly 33 days until the Country Music Half Marathon and a long run of only seven miles under my belt, I need to start focusing on things other than how in the world I’m going to perform on April 25. That’s why I got super excited when a course change was announced last week.

Let’s just say there will be a portion of the race where I’ll be two-stepping, instead of running. That’s right, this year we’re going down Lower Broadway, past all the honky tonks!

Anyone who’s driven down Lower Broad in the daylight knows that the honky tonks blast music all hours of the day, so I can only imagine what they’ll do when 45,000 people run, walk or two-step down the street.

Race organizers say in addition to making the course more interesting and scenic, the change will help alleviate some of the congestion on the course up ahead. And I think it will probably bring out more spectators, as well.

How to use social media to recruit and retain members
In today’s economy we’re all trying to do more with less. Associations are no different. Budgets are being carefully monitored to ensure that any potential waste is eliminated. Tough choices are being made.
This leaves associations in a challenging place—with the need to minimize costs but find a way to retain and recruit new members. What are they to do in this environment? Although each association is unique, here are some ways to take advantage of the power of social media to effectively recruit and retain members:

Associations can take a few lessons away from the wealth of information doled out during the panels and core conversations that filled the days during SXSW Interactive in Austin March 13-17. The five-day conference brings together the best and brightest minds in social media, technology and design.

No matter the subject of the hundreds of panels and conversations that were going on, several topics kept coming up again and again, and associations can learn valuable lessons from those discussions:

1. “What’s your blog address?” If your association hasn’t started a blog yet, today is the day. A blog provides your association an easy way to disseminate information and receive feedback all in one place, and helps build credibility by giving visitors a glimpse into a more personal side of your company.
2. Respond to every email. Members and potential members of your association, along with members of the media and just curious web users, are likely to contact you online. No matter how crazy or far-reaching the email is, answer every single one. This will not only reiterate good customer service and response on your end, but it will let the folks behind such inquiries know that there is a real person behind your web presence. Recruit other members on your team to take on this task because it could get overwhelming.
3. Create great culture. What’s the atmosphere like within the walls of your association? Do you provide free soft drinks to staff members? Is everyone required to wear a suit every day? The culture within your organization will be very evident, and it will trickle down in the interactions—both online and offline—that you have with members and potential members.
4. Start the conversation. Your members and potential members are online. They’re blogging, tweeting and having conversations across a wide variety of applications and platforms. Jump in! Start the conversation and get information about your association and the benefits of membership out to a new group of readers online. Not sure how to get to started? Blog about a new benefit. Tweet a question about the best place to schedule a business dinner. Post pictures from a recent event to an online photo-sharing site.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Are you wearing your green? Many of us here at Hammock are. While we may not all have Irish ancestors in our family tree, we love any excuse to get together with friends and family and indulge in good food, drink and stories—which is exactly how many of us like to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Though we tend to associate the day with green beer, pub crawls and corned beef and cabbage rather than the 5th-century Christian missionary for whom it is named, the holiday has a long and rich tradition in America.

With less than seven weeks to go until the Country Music Half Marathon that Jamie, John and I are running (and probably walking for at least a few minutes), it’s the perfect time to reflect on what motivates us to take that next step on a training run or finish our early-morning walks (and by our, I mean Kerri Davis’). For most of us, it’s music. Here’s what’s on our iPods:

• Jamie Roberts listens to “4 Minutes” by Madonna and Justin Timberlake at least four times in a row during an average workout. So that’s actually 16 minutes!
• Emily McMackin, who needs tunes to help her get through spin class, also relies on the same Madonna and Justin song. But only once. Then she moves on to other motivational hits like “Circus” by Britney Spears and “You Shook Me All Night Long” by AC/DC. (AC/DC and Britney Spears in the same sentence, who knew it could happen?)
• Megan Pacella, who participated in the half marathon with Team Hammock last year but has yet to commit this year (although I’m sure her announcement will be coming any day now) keeps her workouts on the cutting edge with the psychedelic sounds of MGMT. She responded to my query about what she listens to with this: “Kids by MGMT!” So I can only assume that she, like Jamie Roberts, puts it on repeat until she’s finished exercising.
• Kerri Davis, our resident daily walker, says Beck puts a pep in her step every morning.
• Barbara Logan prefers podcasts to music. “It keeps my mind occupied,” she says. “Some of my favorites are NPR’s Marketplace Money, the Splendid Table and Fresh Air.”
• Bill Hudgins gave me a great song suggestion that I actually bought the moment he told me this story: “Years ago when i did aerobics, the big peak pulse song was ‘Holding Out for a Hero’ by Bonnie Tyler. Almost five minutes long, it would either kill you or make you stronger.”
• Also bringing us a blast from the past is Summer Huggins, who turns up—among other songs from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and today—”Copacabana” by Barry Manilow.

Great, now I want a piña colada.

In this economy, magazine advertising sales can be a challenge. That’s why it’s more important than ever to make sure your ad sales team is getting the support they need from you to be successful. We recently held an annual advertising sales meeting for the sellers of MyBusiness magazine, which we publish for our client the National Federation of Independent Business. We partner with the advertising sales rep firm the James G. Elliott Company on the advertising for MyBusiness. With our recent meeting still fresh in my mind, here are five tips to consider when conducting your annual magazine sales meetings: