What is your professional / educational background?

I’ve been in the e-commerce business since 1997 when I built the e-commerce department for Alamo Rent A Car. I’ve worked in the travel industry for 10 years and now three years in financial services. I have an undergraduate degree in International Marketing and a MBA. Stacy Gratz is the voice behind @hrblock. She has been in the interactive space for eight year. This is her second year with @hrblock and Twitter.

Did you start up the H&R Block Twitter account or was something already in place when you took over?

We launched the @hrblock account on Twitter in December of 2006. We were expanding our social media programs and wanted to try this new microblogging platform – although I would say it is more like a group instant message.

What Twitter applications do you use to post your tweets?

We mostly post directly through the web through Tweetdeck or coTweet.

What tools do you use to monitor the conversations around H&R Block ? ex: TweetDeck, Monittor etc

TweetDeck is the tool that we use the most. We have multiple brands, products and potential spellings. We set up various columns to monitor our brands.

Have you had to educate others at H&R Block about the benefits of Twitter? If so, how did that go and are they seeing the light?

We’ve had to educate the organization about all our social media efforts including Twitter. It helps with Robert Scoble and Biz Stone tweet that they are at an H&R Block office and we can respond. It also helps that the Wall Street Journal and mainstream media are now talking about Twitter. It was much more difficult to explain the value in Twitter two years ago.

We’ve been able to use Twitter in a variety of different ways. Customer service is important for any brand. We answer questions and help people with any issues they are facing through Twitter.

We also use Twitter to share important information and tax tips. These past two years have been challenging with the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 and the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009. There are a lot of things that consumers can do to better manage their tax situation. We’ve also launched contests and other promotions that are centered around products that we offer such as online tax preparation or Second Look.

We also use Twitter for listening. It has also been very helpful when we can instantly show what people are saying about our brand or an event. For example, we were able to see what people were saying about our SuperBowl ad seconds after it aired. We were also able to see brand sentiment after Timothy Geithner said he used TurboTax during his confirmation hearings. Actively listening to Twitter is a great research tool because it is real time and unbiased.

Does “management” ever second guess your tone or direction on Twitter?

No. We have a great brand and because we are engaging to share our tax expertise or to help our consumers our tone has always been in line with the brand.

What was the most interesting Twitter conversation you’ve had?

It’s funny – last year people were surprised that @hrblock was even on Twitter, this year they are looking for @hrblock to help them. We have a lot of Twitter stories where we were able to help people complete their taxes and A LOT of last minute tax questions on April 14th and 15th. My favorite tweet is from someone stating that they never thought they would be an @hrblock groupie!

How many hours in your day do you spend Twittering?

We are always plugged in, but, we collectively spend about four hours a day actively tweeting.

Are there certain times of the day you Twitter more often?

We tend to find that evenings between 7pm and 10pm are the most active for us, but, we are online all day.

Have you been able to “quantify” your social media efforts at all?

We are looking at Twitter and our other social media efforts as brand building activities. While we can measure the amount of followers, friends, or fans, the measurement tools today are imperfect. We can easily measure the quantity but getting to quality of contacts is more difficult. Even tools like Twinfluence are not perfect. We are looking at brand level measurements versus only transactional measurements.

What other online or social marketing efforts do you think have been most beneficial or successful for the H&R Block brand?

In general, I believe that H&R Block benefits greatly from being part of the conversation online. We have our own community site on hrblock.com that is continually updated with useful tax information and blogs. It has been instrumental to help people navigate through the Tax Stimulus Act of 2008 and the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009. We are also actively participating in Yahoo Answers. Our tax professionals are answering questions and demonstrating the tax expertise that H&R Block has at the local level. We also want to ensure that our brand is represented where communities are forming – through Youtube.com, Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. We tailor each of our programs to match the interests of that community.

For a more basic reflection tutorial find it here. To start, paste your image into a new Photoshop file. Be sure to leave some room at the bottom for your reflection.

To make the photo appear to be receding back, transform the top layer by selecting Edit > Transform > Perspective.

Select one of the corners and drag up enough to make the photo look like it is receding into the background (don’t overdo it) Once you’re done, hit RETURN.

In order to complete the perspective, you need to scale the photo so it doesn’t look stretched. Select Edit > Transform > Scale.

Select one of the side handles and drag over enough to make the photo look like it has maintained the original proportions (once again, don’t overdo it) Once you’re done, hit RETURN.

Next, duplicate the layer your image is on by right clicking the layer and select: Duplicate Layer.

Now select the bottom layer, and under edit > transform> Flip Vertical.

Use the selection tool and move the image down so that the bottom corner of the top layer is touching the top corner of the bottom layer.

With the bottom layer still selected, transform the bottom layer to match the edges of the top layer. Choose Edit > Transform > Perspective. Select the side handle and drag it up till the edges are touching the top layer.

Still using that same bottom layer, create a new layer mask.

Select the gradient tool, and make sure that your foreground color is black and your background color is white. In the gradient options, select linear foreground to background.

Make sure you still have the mask layer selected (you will see lines bordering the corners). Hold down shift and apply a gradient from the bottom of the canvas to the top of the bottom image (make sure you do this in the middle of the canvas.

Apply an opacity to your bottom layer (and crop the canvas if you’d like), and you’re done!

More reflection tutorials to come. Stay tuned.

If Imulus were a person, what would its personality be?
They would be someone who constantly tries to excel and push to better themselves. A person who would be a professional but also not have a bug up their ass. They would be so excited about their work, they find it hard to fall asleep at times.

Star Wars or Star Trek?
During my childhood years, it was all about Wookies, lightsabers, and X-Wing fighters. At 5 years old, my Dad and I soldered LED’s all over my Millennium Falcon. Although, as I got into high school and my love for science grew, I started watching Star Trek:TNG and also got hooked on the movies with the original cast. It’s amazing my brain has enough room for programming languages, OOP concepts, and database schemas with all the obscure, nerdy knowledge in there. KAHHHNNNN!!!

What is your most embarrassing story?
Blowing myself up. During my early part of college, my friend and I were filming a scene for a computer game we were making. I had strapped a home-made black powder charge to my chest to simulate a gun shot. We had put a little too much powder in the charge and after depressing the button to ignite it, a fireball the size of a beach ball fired from my chest. I wasn’t on fire but I went against everything I was taught by running around, arms flailing, trying to find water to dump on me. After the fiasco was done, my chest and neck looked like they had a bad sun burn. Thankfully, my Mom was there to comfort the wounds and the ego. The most embarrassing part is the video still exists out there. Somewhere.

If money were no object, what would you do with your life?
I would try to build a house. I know a little bit about most aspects in house construction but it would be nice having the money and time to figure it all out. Another area I would like to dabble in is creating independent computer games. Like game development, I’m ecstatic to be in a field where so many talented people can come together to produce a product from the idea phase to seeing it fully functional on screen. Or I can combine the two and build an old school arcade cabinet and then sleep on a hammock at the beach all day long.

What do you do for fun?
Listen to dirty talk radio with my headphones on causing my co-workers to look at me weird as I’m laughing out loud. Recently, I have found a love for cooking. My wife helped me discover that the art of cooking is really the science of chemistry. Someday, during some free time, I need to watch the dozens of Good Eats episodes saved on my TiVo.

Favorite Programmer joke?
“Keyboard not found. Press ‘F1′ to RESUME.”

Bonus joke. Warning… its very dirty:
4920736177206d79206769726c667269656e6420666f6f6c696e672061726f756e6420776
9746820616e6f74686572206775792e204920616c6d6f73742066656c6c206f66662074
6865206c6164646572206a65726b696e67206f66662e

What does curiosity smell like?
Smells like victory. Humanity has grown because we are, by nature, curious. We have made some pretty amazing discoveries because we were curious. I feel curiosity is how we learn where we are, where we’re going, and why we’re here. Answering 2 out of the 3 is a good average.

What made you decide to co-found a company?
My father was a big entrepreneur and I inherited that particular gene. Since late high school, I’ve started three businesses. Third time is a charm. When you start a company, you have to know your weaknesses and you need people to complement your strengths. My two previous businesses did not have the diverse talent needed to be successful. Given the opportunity to work with two of the most talented and well-rounded people I’ve met was a no brainer.

In one word for each, describe the 3 owners.
I have one word for all three:
Passionatededicatedinspirational (that’s a word right? I’m using it in Scrabble.)

What are you afraid of?
I’m afraid of losing a finger. It’s a little selfish I know, but I feel my productivity would suffer dramatically. When I code, I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts and it is second nature for me to use all my fingers for production. It would take awhile to re-train my body and mind to get back to the speed before an accident like that. That is why I never go bowling; those ball returns are dangerous!

If there was one place in the world you could travel, where would it be?
Tokyo, Japan. I would love to learn Japanese and visit Tokyo one day. Being a huge gadget man, what better place to visit!? It’s a country I find amazing with its culture and society constantly trying to better themselves. It seems like a beautiful place where architecture blends both ancient and modern ideas.

If you could sit in a bathtub full of something, what would you chose?
I first thought a bathtub full of money, but I’m sure the Secret Service would arrest me for mutilation of national bank obligations. My second option would be a bathtub full of foam. I imagine I would feel like I was floating and that experience would be very relaxing. My bad attempt at weightlessness.

What is your favorite/least favorite part of your job?
The thing I most look forward to is coming to our building and working on cool applications formed from the heads of some very talented people. I love thinking of smart yet simple ways to solve problems. It gets my blood pumping to find a solution and to write an elegant, reusable method for a project. My least favorite part of the job is the random bug. No matter how hard you try to reproduce it, it never shows it’s ugly head until you’ve THOUGHT the bug was annihilated. Then, out of no where, the bug is glowing on the screen, laughing in your dumb face, mocking you the whole time.

What’s your favorite movie?
Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Great sci-fi story with, (back then), state-of-the-art effects. What more could you ask for!

If you were a font, what font would you be? (Yes, this one is for the designers entertainment only. I realize you hate me for this.)
Fixedsys: Simple, down to the point, old fashion, and even funny to some.

Let’s face it. Today’s tech industry work ethic revolves around tight deadlines, top notch output, and dedication to your users. This performance hat trick isn’t an easy thing to pull off. If you’re like me you rely heavily on caffeine and weekend sleep to keep on your game. And, while sleep may not be plentiful during the week, it’s even worse when it’s restless.

Here’s the thing, even if you only get 6 hours of sleep a night you’re still spending 25% of your day asleep. That’s a fourth of your daily life that’s spent in an unconscious state. So, if you’re going to spend that much time sleeping you might as well make it good.

The quickest action you can take to increase sleeping comfort is to aquire a new pillow. I’m not talking cheap, I’m talking a quality of pillow that Zeus himself would use. The type of pillow that makes you feel as if you’ve been placed in a bed of satin angora rabbits.

My personal choice is this monstrosity of comfort offered by Bed Bath and Beyond. It’s fluffy but also large enough to avoid constant readjustment. It’s nice to wrap your arms around or place directly under your neck. If you’re not into down pillows another option is the selection from Tempurpedic. A bit sci-fi for sure, but sturdy and made to fit your exact curvature.

Realistically, the pillow type doesn’t matter, what matters is that you sleep better. I know way too many people who just aren’t willing to drop $100 on a pillow. Trust me, it’s worth it. You’ll be more refreshed and less sore. Your actions day to day will reflect this. Don’t buy it? Ask around. I guarantee a few of your good friends have learned the lesson of crap pillows: being cheap on comfort just isn’t worth it.

Twitter icon: Fluffy Bird from Imulus on Vimeo.