Go to the source: engadget.com

Tamar Weinberg and Garrett Camp
Image by Tamar Weinberg via Flickr

Every year, I spend hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours reading articles on Internet Marketing for my annual Best Internet Marketing Posts blog post. The effort to find these posts, read them thoroughly, identify whether they meet certain criteria, and categorize them takes an incredibly huge toll on me, but at the end of the day, I’ve been proud to provide regular content to my readers. Over the last five years, hundreds of URLs have been carefully collected and selected for inclusion in this post.

The posts for the last five years are:

Each year, this post has gotten bigger and better, and for my 30th birthday, I offered 300 great links that can most certainly act as the only internet marketing schooling you’ll ever need.

If Tamar says this is the best, I’m all in!

John Jantsch says…

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, social media tools are killer for the small local business trying to drive people offline and into their businesses and to build deeper relationships with existing local customers.

For this episode of Local Color I met Scotty Wise an Indiana restaurateur and owner of Scotty’s Brewhouse that is has his business booming through the use of social media. The key in his case, and I think for any local business, is to move beyond simply building a Facebook page or Twitter feed and to look for ways to deeply integrate social media into everything you are doing.”

I say John rocks and if you’re a small business owner, sit up and pay attention while you watch the video. John goes on to say…

“In the case of Scotty’s Brewhouse, not only do they Tweet and use Facebook, they sponsor events that involve social media, use Foursquare to reward frequent customers and even built iPads into the booths at their newest store to allow existing customers to interact in deeper ways, connect on Twitter, sign up for their eclub and what videos of their meals being prepared. There’s even a Scotty’s iPhone app so you can order ahead, get coupons and learn about special events.”

Hello! Any small business owners listening?

“The new journalism (and the new Marketing) is about having a nose for news. It’s about being able to tell a story that will connect with people. If no one is following you on Twitter or posting to your Facebook page or watching your videos on YouTube, here’s the cold, hard truth: it’s not resonating. Watch the story of Ted Williams. Think about this videographer and the story they uncovered. There are more stories like Ted Williams – where the mass public will see it and feel it… and act on it. The new journalism (and the new Marketing) won’t be a as heavily reliable on the traditional media channels, because now we have other ways to get stories to spread and reach critical mass. We’ve been waiting for the Web to truly deliver on this promise… and now it can.” Source: twistimage.com

Comment or ‘connect with me’ so we can talk about how this applies to your business…

 
Two of my favorite points from the author?

“Small town people are carrying smartphones, playing location based games, and using Facebook even while out of the house. Visitors and travelers are using Google Local to find businesses in even the smallest of towns. Travelers and locals review small town businesses on sites like Yelp and Urban Spoon. All of this is happening now. Smart small town businesses are taking advantage of this, and 2011 should see more businesses in small towns offering coupons and deals through the established players like Google and Facebook. Mobile-friendly information and QR Codes will pop up, even in remote locations.” and “The wave of global outsourcing may have crested, and small town business can benefit by capturing more of these jobs through ruralsourcing. Rural service firms claim a number of advantages over global firms: shorter supply chains, better data security, intellectual property protection, cultural compatibility, and convenient time zones. Costs are lower than traditional urban firms, reflecting the lower rural cost of living. Those small town companies capable of partnering with large corporate clients stand to gain new business throughout 2011.” Go to the source to read the article: smallbiztrends.com

Smart rural economic development corporations, government leaders and business owners will pay heed and e1evation, llc can help navigate the technology issues. ‘Connect with me’ to discuss how this applies to your organization…

Go to the source to read the article: socialmediatoday.com

Image representing Gist as depicted in CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase

Here at Gist, we have embraced the phrase “connected people change history” as core to our mission and vision.  We believe that technologies are more accessible than ever to the individual and that the more connected we become, the more we are able to do amazing things.  Over the past couple years, we have talked to many smart people, learned a great deal from user feedback, examined how we work as a team, and looked forward to where we believe things are headed in the future leading us to the notion of  the “new workstyle.”

So, what is the “New Workstyle?”

The New Workstyle blends the latest technologies and tools with our daily activities allowing us to accomplish more in both personal and professional endeavors, accelerate ideas of our own, and lead more productive lives.

Unlike workflow which is defined by scripted and static process for everyone to follow, workstyle is unique to the individual who calls upon information, technology, and connections as needed.

This definition along with our understanding of it will evolve as the pace of innovation accelerates and individual “style” is applied to work.  Jason Fried’s great presentation at a TEDx event about “why work doesn’t happen at work” is an exclamation point on our concept.

Go to the source to read the article: blog.gist.com. Oh, and btw, thanks for NOT using Gist — it gives me a competitive advantage over you and your firm! :-D

Go to the source to read the article: allfacebook.com

 

The 3 Most Common Solutions To Fix A Windows Computer That Is Always Freezing Up

Stuff I saved in ‘Reader’ on December 31, 2010

How to choose the Twitter client that’s right for you

Good, better, best

More than a third of all tweets are sent by people visiting Twitter’s default Web client. Which is too bad, because Twitter, as a website, is by far the least effective way to use Twitter as a network.

But even though just about any third-party client will provide you with a better way to use Twitter, picking the client that’s right for you can be daunting. Should you install a client or use one that runs in your browser? Which features are really necessary? Should you pay for any of these services?

I typically prefer browser-based clients because I think its easier to move between browser windows than separate programs, but I wouldn’t turn my nose up at an installed client with a really great feature set just for that. The best client for you is the one that fits your workflow — if you really need to be able to schedule tweets to be effective and a client doesn’t give you that option, then it’s the wrong service for you, even if everyone else loves it.

Agreed — browser based is the way to go. Platform independent and always available. Me? I’m a HootSuite guy — I love everything they do from the web to their Android app. How about you? btw, you can follow the ‘via’ link if you’d like to go to the source…

10 Ways to Get the Most Out of Technology

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Image by ismh_ via Flickr

“Your gadgets and computers, your software and sites — they are not working as well as they should. You need to make some tweaks. But the tech industry has given you the impression that making adjustments is difficult and time-consuming. It is not. And so below are 10 things to do to improve your technological life. They are easy and (mostly) free. Altogether, they should take about two hours; one involves calling your cable or phone company, so that figure is elastic. If you do them, those two hours will pay off handsomely in both increased free time and diminished anxiety and frustration. You can do it.” Source: 10 Ways to Get the Most Out of Technology – NYTimes.com.

You’ll have to go to the source if you want to hear the Times perspective on the 10 ways you can more effectively manage your technology in the new year — most of the suggestions are sound. You might also want to read this post for some things you can do to get a ‘new’ computer for the new year…

Stuff I saved in ‘Reader’ on December 30, 2010

4 Predictions for the Future of Politics and Social Media

Show me a modern political candidate who doesn’t understand television, and I’ll show you a loser.When TV became the dominant medium for Americans to consume news and entertainment, political candidates could no longer be successful without looking polished in televised debates, appearing on talk shows and spending big on commercials.Like the television boom of the 1960s, we are standing on the precipice of a big shift in how public figures are perceived and how campaigns are conducted. Our frontier is social media, and its impact on mainstream political culture is coming on fast.While my colleagues have been making their predictions about what’s on the tech and social media horizon in 2011, there will be no major U.S. elections next year. Here, we’ll be postulating about social media’s impact on the more long-term future of American civics.

You can read the rest of the article here if you’d like: 4 Predictions for the Future of Politics and Social Media.

Correcting One Thing at a Time

Corporate athletes have recently (in the last decade) been schooled in the concept of working on strengths and exploiting them to gain leverage in their careers (via such books as Now Discover Your Strengths).  In our early careers, we were likely (at least I was) told to work on our weaknesses. It was a challenge to always be focusing on the negative, to say the least.   Thusly, a strengths-based approach made sense.We know that top athletes have almost always worked on their strengths to the level of exploiting them for extraordinary gains. To be fair, they also work on their weaknesses, but when you look at sports like cycling you see climbers become better climbers, sprinters getting faster and more explosive, time trialists becoming increasing dominant in their discipline and so on.  I think that you get the point. More specifically, great athletes focus on winning at one thing first, and work on weaknesses and secondary strengths after they’ve honed their strength.

via Social Media Breakfast New North | Blog | Winning at One Thing First Correcting One Thing at a Time.

When Dana VanDen Heuvel talks, I take notes. You can follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and read the rest of the article if you’re interested in learning more…

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