Who are we in Northeast Wisconsin?

censusdata051211.pdf Download this file

From the Twitter archives…

Google Chromebook med Chrome OS
Image by Martin Bekkelund via Flickr

Me? I use Google Reader to ‘listen’. You can follow the ‘via’ link above to get John Jantsch’s thoughts on the ‘single most powerful use’ and comment or connect if you’d like access to my executive briefing session on “How to be a Google Reader Rockstar!”…

picasa-logoThen join me in a free training session this morning at 10:00…

Recently I wrote about ‘rediscovering’ Picasa on my trip to Germany. I’m doing a free session for a couple of clients and friends and I’ll be opening up the remaining spaces to anyone that can join us. Here’s the login info…

1. Please join my meeting.
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/join/797914947

2. Use your microphone and speakers (VoIP) – a headset is recommended. Or, call in using your telephone.

Dial 712-338-7131
Access Code: 797-914-947
Audio PIN: Shown after joining the meeting

Meeting ID: 797-914-947

GoToMeeting®
Online Meetings Made Easy™

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Are you using Gist? It’s a pretty awesome tool — kind of like crm for all your social media contacts. Here’s a webinar on getting the most out of it…

Gist Webinar, “Tips on Getting the Most from Gist”, 1/20/2010 from Robert Pease on Vimeo.

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The Joy of Tech comic… Microsoft Skype retail boxes..

Image representing North Social as depicted in...
Image via CrunchBase

A client asked me what is the best way to include pdfs in WordPress. Since I really hadn’t thought about that for awhile, I asked the smartest WordPress guy I know what he does. He answered “I like to upload to the media library, grab the URL link and then link to it in the post. More work but better control over appearance and such.” Now I’m sure that works fine, but for now, I’m going to use Scribd [an example of which you see below]. Me? I’m always thinking ‘home bases and outposts’ [use the search box] so Scribd makes perfect sense for me. If I post my pdf there and copy the embed code here, not only do I get some powerful viewing tools [full screen, print, etc.] someone my find my blog because they found my document in Scribd…

Here’s his approach:

Here’s Scribd:

Either way works — which one is more effective depends on your objectives but I’m biased toward being ‘social’ and Scribd helps me accomplish that objective nicely. Questions? Feedback? Leave a comment or use the contact page to reach me…

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The original David of Michelangelo; the statue...
Image via Wikipedia
Here’s something to ponder this afternoon… 

The story has it that when Michelangelo was commissioned to do the sculpture of King David he looked at hundreds of blocks of marble before he decided on the “right” one. To most of us all those blocks shown to him would have looked more or less the same but for Michelangelo it needed to be a certain piece of marble – nothing else would do. Why was that? It was because he knew exactly what he wanted his David to look like. He could see the end result in front of his eyes.

When asked how he was going to create such a fine figure as King David out of such an enormous chunk of marble his answer was: “That’s easy. All I have to do is chip away everything that is not David.” Isn’t that incredible? And so easy…

But why am I telling you this story? Do you know what your David (end result) looks like? Do you know where you are going with the actions you take every day?

Did you know that about 90 % of us do not have a clear goal; do not have a clear vision of what we want?

But if we don’t have a very clear picture of what we aim at how can we reach it? How can we chip away at the rock to create our David if we don’t know what David is supposed to look like? That doesn’t make sense, does it?

Let me take a minute to illustrate a point. Because I use Google well, I was able to find a story to illustrate a point I’m trying to make for a meeting this afternoon. If I curate the content and post it to my blog, it lives on as part of MY site. Who knows how many times Google will bring people to my site to hear this story?

Just spent a couple of hours upgrading my site to increase readability and decrease load time. What do you think of the new design?

Comment below or ‘connect’ above with questions or feedback…

The logo of the blogging software WordPress.
Image via Wikipedia

Setting up a blog is not that difficult. In fact, most people can easily use WordPress or Blogger to set one up in a matter of minutes.

With the sheer number of blogs today, estimated at 126 million by BlogPulse, only a very small percent of them are actually active and good. The vast majority of blogs are dead or dying on the vine.

Like a garden, you must tend to your blog; water it, give it sunlight and proper care.

So how do you ensure your blog will grow like a healthy garden?

Avoid these 7 causes of blog failure and you are off to a great start. Check out the tips for correcting the mistakes and then see how other bloggers have expertly done so and have planted their seeds to successful blogging.

I don’t know why your blog is failing until I take a peek at it. I do know, however, that this blog is succeeding thanks to our ‘e1evation workflow’. It’s currently ranked very highly by Alexa as you can see…

The best part is that the success is all a part of a repeatable process so we can help your blog succeed as well! You can follow the ‘via’ link above if you want to know more about the 7 reasons but if you want a successful blog, comment or ‘connect’ so we can talk about how this applies to your organization…

SAN FRANCISCO - JANUARY 27:  Apple Inc. CEO St...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife

An interesting perspective from Jay Baer…

“If you read Convince & Convert, this probably doesn’t describe you, but if your computer usage consists primarily of email and the Web, I would seriously consider making the iPad your primary device. I think I sold about seven of them to older ladies on a flight from New York last week. They were instantly in a swoon over the size, light weight, and ability to do what they consider to be “everything” in one package.

I am considering with at least moderate seriousness getting rid of my iPhone and getting something that actually functions well as a phone (hello Verizon), and using the iPad for all the rest.

Now, the bad news.

The iPad is not a computer. Not even close. The virtual keyboard is barely better than the iPhone, and you still cannot touch type. You can’t save or store files. There’s no USB port. Or CD drive. Or camera. Or ability to run two programs at once. I would never, ever, ever write this blog post on my iPad (although people that bought the external keyboard for it might disagree).

As a content creation device, the iPad is pretty much pointless for anything exceeding a two paragraph email. The exception is content that is created by touch. The drawing apps I’ve played with are simply incredible, but that’s not really my line of work – and probably not yours either.” Source: The Truth About the iPad | Blogging and Content Creation | Social Media Consulting – Convince & Convert

Is Jay just cranky? What’s your take…

7 Reasons Your Blog Is Failing

Setting up a blog is not that difficult. In fact, most people can easily use WordPress or Blogger to set one up in a matter of minutes.

With the sheer number of blogs today, estimated at 126 million by BlogPulse, only a very small percent of them are actually active and good. The vast majority of blogs are dead or dying on the vine.

Like a garden, you must tend to your blog; water it, give it sunlight and proper care.

So how do you ensure your blog will grow like a healthy garden?

Avoid these 7 causes of blog failure and you are off to a great start. Check out the tips for correcting the mistakes and then see how other bloggers have expertly done so and have planted their seeds to successful blogging.

You can follow the ‘via’ link above if you want to know more about the 7 reasons. Comment or ‘connect’ so we can talk about how this applies to your organization…

Start a Blog at WordPress.com.

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