So, where’s the disconnect? 

That’s a loaded question when you consider all the variables (industry, services, user demos, etc.).  But before you just abandon your social media efforts, let’s take a step back and try to bridge those gaps… Rebecca Corliss via HubSpot has some great ideas in “63% of B2B Companies Don’t Generate Leads From Social Media [New Data]“, offering  B2B marketers wanting to generate more social media leads.  

Our favorite tip?  #5. Follow the 10-4-1 Rule will help marketers looking to improve their structure and consistently!

Taking this into account, we were really excited to come across Todd Wasserman‘s examples of “6 Successful Twitter Hashtag Campaigns“.  The examples Wasserman gives readers includes hashtag campaigns that have been successful around the globe and even one that the Obama administration performed in late December 2011. 

Majority of the examples are B2C oriented, but they could easily be customized for B2B customers too… For instance, using Radio Shack hashtag campaign (#6 on Wasserman’s list) would be a great way to have your users vote on certain feature add-ons or event giveaways.

Which hashtag campaign do you think has made the most impact on the twitterverse?

Apple reached a milestone recently with reaching 25 billion App Store downloads.   Stan Schroeder gives us his take with ”These Are the Greatest Apple App Store Hits of All Time” via Mashable about Apple’s list of the of the most popular iPhone/iPad apps.  Many apps on the list would be considered a “given” like the social media networks, but we were surprised to learn how many children’s games and entertainment apps made the list too.  

What apps would you consider for a “best of” list?

Not all of ESPN’s fb fans can watch the live streaming video (restrictions apply), but this is a trend we’ll see increase over the year… Do you have videos on your business facebook page?  How would you leverage this medium within your page?

But before you finalize your board, check out Alyson Shontell ‘s article “A Lawyer Who Is Also A Photographer Just Deleted All Her Pinterest Boards Out Of Fear“… You might want to consider some of the legal woes you and your business could face for pinning other peoples images!

The New York Times in a article this week noted how Facebook has adapted to enable more granular group activity.

But sometimes any Facebook posting is just too visble… or perhaps you are trying to do something best done by TEXT for a small group…   The Times also highlighted other services:

Path allows a small group to share photos and videos…

Frenzy lets friends share links, photos, songs and other items in an invitation-only folder on the Web storage service Dropbox, effectively turning it into a private social feed…

Shizzlr lets a group of up to 20 people decide and plan joint activities together via text message…

GroupMe allows a specific group of people to communicate by text message simultaneiously using just one “phone number”…

Give any or all of them a try and let us know what you think in the “comments” below!

Care to explore other half-baked ideas? Do you have half-baked ideas of your own? Check out the “Half Bakery” at www.halfbakery.com. The Halfbakery is a communal database of original, fictitious inventions, edited by its users, and maintained by a dictatorial cabal of volunteers. It was created by people who like to speculate, both as a form of satire and as a form of creative expression.

My favorite half-baked idea? Custard filled speed bumps! They are benign at slow speeds, but solidify or even burst when a car travels over them fast. Wheee!

Of course, you may want to check out some REAL half-baked ideas, at FreePatentsOnline, which tracks legitimate patents as well as some considered a bit crazy… 

How about a Walt Disney patent on a device to communicate with porpoises?

It’s called “Live Mesh” and is offered by Microsoft at www.mesh.com.  So if you have an aversion to Microsoft because they dominate the PC industry (or for any other reason), this service isn’t for you; it gets you MORE involved with Microsoft, not less.  I have been using it for a while now, and it’s been great. 

SYNCH and BACKUP

How does it work?  In a nutshell, you create folders on your PC “desktop” and move your vital documents, spreadsheets, presentations, pictures, music, video, and anything else into those folders.  If you have an Internet connection, Live Mesh automatically duplicates all those files onto your private area of Microsoft’s storage servers (called your Live Desktop).  If you make any changes, additions or deletions to the folders, they will automatically be synchronized to your Live Desktop as long as you have an Internet connection.  (If you make changes when NOT connected, then all the synchronization happens later when you ARE connected.  Moreover, Live Mesh also allows you to add multiple PCs and devices to the party, including your work computer, your home laptop, your Mac, and to a certain degree even your mobile phone.   So if you add a document to a “Mesh” folder on your home PC, it is automatically replicated to the Microsoft server and then to your office PC.  All in all, this is file SYNCH and file BACKUP in one easy step.

I installed Live Mesh on my sister-in-law’s older PC recently as she was having some signs of imminent drive failure…  In her case, we just created one Mesh folder and moved all her document and picture folders into that as sub-folders.  Sure enough, her hard drive crashed weeks later (pretty much as expected) and she simply purchased a new computer…  Once the new computer was up and running, it took a half minute to install Live Mesh and another minute to synch up her new PC with all her content stored at Microsoft on her Live Desktop.  Magic!

Did I mention the limit is 5 gigabytes and this is free?  No, there isn’t any advertising inserted in your files or on your screen.  The service is an offshoot of Microsoft’s Azure Developer Platform which facilitiates web-based commercial applications.  By using Live Mesh, you are actually helping Microsoft prove, refine and enhance the commercial platform.  They get to say to ther commercial customers, “See, this cloud computing technology works; we proved it with all these people using Live Mesh!”

You can learn more about the underlying technology on Wikipedia…  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Mesh

SHARE

One more feature of Live Mesh…  You can allow other Mesh “members” to add any of YOUR folders to their own Mesh…  So if I want to share some important file with my tax accountant, I can create a “tax” folder, put all my relevant documents there and invite him to share it.  The Mesh keeps track of who has updated what and when, helps you resolve any conflicts,  etc.  This tracking is especially helpful if lots of people share one folder.

ACCESS

Live Mesh also allows you to access your Live Desktop from any Internet-connected computer.  Just link to mesh.com and log on to your account.  This allows you to access an important document from a public computer or a friend’s PC.

A recent featured added to Live Mesh is the ability to work remotely at another computer in your mesh… just like PC Anywhere or other remote desktop applications.  Live Mesh Remote Desktop can open a window into your remote computer and give you access to even those folders you haven’t synchronized. You can also use any programs on your remote computer, even if you don’t have them installed on your local computer.  You can copy and paste files between your remote computer and your local computer, and even connect from almost any web browser.  There are times I am in the office and need to look up some personal expense on my Quicken at home; this would allow that!  I gave it a try, connecting from my office PC to my home PC…  The connection is much slower than our company’s Virtual Private Network Connection from my home to the office, but it does work well otherwise!

ALTERNATIVES

A popular alternative to Live Mesh is Dropbox (www.dropbox.com), but the storage limit is only 2 gigabytes and there is no remote desktop feature.  Otherwise, it is very similar.  It does allow you to store more than 2 gigabytes for a fee; that’s how Dropbox makes their money.

Russ Daniels is

The gist is that to a greater and greater degree, our use of computer applications will be less dependent on what we have INSTALLED or have stored in our own devices (PCs, handhelds, etc). Instead, we will be using more applications that reside in the Internet “cloud” and pay as we go for the services we actually use; our devices will be used merely to access and interface with the services. The economic case is made that we can spend much less money on hardware, software, services and personnel when all we really use is a fraction of each or all we really need is to use the service for a short time.

You can read more at good ‘ol Wikipedia (which is itself an example of cloud computing) at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

In the meantime, here are some examples of what this is all about:

SpeakWrite

When I was a corporate public relations professional, I used to support executive interviews with journalists. As a matter of policy, every interview was taped in its entirety — sometimes an hour or more — so there was a record of what was said. Experienced PR folks know there is actually no such thing as “off the record,” so the tape ran from the moment the reporter came into view to the moment the reporter was out of sight (and out of hearing range). The problem was that “CYA” tapes like this were rarely transcribed unless there was an issue — it was simply too expensive and time-consuming — so we missed opportunities to use transcripts to support journalists in developing their stories, as a learning tool for executives, as a source of information for others in the company or for any other purpose. In fact, I still have a pile of little microcassettes from Compaq executive interviews 15 years ago. Pretty worthless!

Enter Speak-Write.com (Click HERE). Today, you can use almost any cell phone or PC to make a .WAV file of any conversation (or deposition, or narrative, or seminar, etc.). You can easily transmit the .WAV file across the “cloud” to SpeakWrite and they will type it out within about 3 hours at 2 cents per word (or less) or about $7 per page. It comes back to you as a Word or WordPerfect document that you can use for any purpose.

SpeakWrite is run by Richard Jackson.

ProofreadNow

Once a document is transcribed, you can send it back through the “cloud” to ProofreadNow.com (Click HERE!), another new service that — you guessed it — focuses on proofreading brochure copy, direct mail, newsletters, etc. With many marketing and communications departments cutting back on their staff or resetting staff priorities these days, the number of people available for routine (but important) proofreading has diminished. Starting at $11 per page, two different, well-educated editors will read your document and report back all errors in spelling, grammar, clarity and even obvious errors of fact. For a little more money, you can get faster turnaround (as little as 60 minutes) and additional attention to tweaking the writing style.

They describe one customer who was ready to go with a 4-page mailing to 2 million customers. It was already proofread internally several times over, but someone decided to run it through ProofreadNow just in case. The proofreaders found 4 show-stopping errors that would have required a reprint of the mailing (at $400,000). Total charge: $44.

Just for the heck of it, I ran this ENTIRE edition of the Grapevine newsletter, including this article, through ProofreadNow. They made 60 suggestions to fix errors or improve readability — items that we had not found after at least three people proofread it internally. Total charge: $119.

ProofreadNow is run by Phil Jamieson.

TripIt

Once you get all your documents typed up and proofread, it’s time for a trip!

TripIt.com (Click HERE) is an interesting new service — still in beta testing — that helps you sort out all your travel plans… You just forward all your itinerary confirmation e-mails from your airline, car rental, hotel, etc. to one special address. TripIt interprets them, and builds out a trip itinerary that you can then share with family, friends and colleagues as you see fit.

This is an especially handy tool if you are going on a trip with many segments and destinations. You can manually add any kind of transportation, lodging or car rental, plus planned activities, meetings, restaurants, notes and articles. TripIt keeps track of your maps, the expected weather, etc. It can sync with your work and personal calendars and will work through your handheld device or a web browser.

Business travelers, frequent travelers and travel planners who support those folks will love this. It can also serve as a “dream trip” planner for those of us waiting for the economy to recover!

TripIt is run by Gregg Brockway.

What are your thoughts about cloud computing? We always enjoy feedback! Contact me at john.sweney@brookwoods.com.

—
(Cloud photograph © 2004 Michael Jastremski.)

A penny for your thoughts; maybe even more…

Have you ever wondered why the US continues to mint the penny? These days a penny won’t get you much – really it won’t get you anything at all by itself in monetary form, or face value; however, if you’re patient and know what to look for, a penny could be worth more than you may think! I thought with the anniversary of Lincoln’s birthday and the anniversary of the Lincoln cent, as well as, the unveiling of the new designs that this was the perfect time to delve further into the coin.

In our house we never spend our pennies – it’s against the law! The numismatic bug bit us and it’s actually a lot of fun.

The penny made its appearance long ago in different forms known by different names; silver in content and called novus denarius or drachma or cent or pence…the list goes on. The penny, originally pressed in silver and then reduced in weight over time, was finally pressed in the US around 1787 and first pressed in copper here. It is widely believed that Ben Franklin actually designed the first US penny. The image on the first cent was of a lady facing left with flowing hair symbolizing liberty. The look of the penny has changed over the years and if you have a penny of original design you may be pretty well set for retirement!

The penny’s many designs include the Indian cent which was 100% copper and the Wheat-back Lincoln cent minted long after the Civil War where the copper content was decreased to 95% and the added metal was 5% zinc. Throughout WWII pennies were made of steel with a zinc cover because the copper was necessary for military purposes. Today it costs about 1.23¢ to mint a penny.

Today’s penny is morphing yet again and the Lincoln cent is getting a face lift! In recognition of the bicentennial of President Abraham Lincoln’s birth and the 100th anniversary of the first issuance of the Lincoln cent, this year the US Mint is minting and issuing four different pennies with various themes including Lincoln’s birth and early childhood in Kentucky to his formative years in Indiana followed by his professional life in Illinois ending with his presidency in Washington, DC.

Many believe the penny should be done away with however economists warn that this will lead to rounding up to the nickel causing an increase in cost to consumers at every turn from the filling the gas tank to buying groceries. Pennies are important to our every day lives and to our nation’s economy.

Why not get a mint set for your kids? Check your change jars and see what you may have. You never know what you’ll find!

Interesting Internet sites to find numismatic information:

The United States Mint – The United States Mint was created by Congress on April 2, 1792. It receives more than $1 billion in annual revenues. The US Mint is a self-funded agency and turns over revenues beyond its operating expenses over to the General Fund of the Treasury. The primary mission is to produce an adequate volume of circulating coinage for the nation to conduct its trade and commerce.

Coinflation- This site put together by Alec Nevalainen is dedicated to daily updates pertaining to measuring intrinsic metal value of coins around the world. He coined, pun intended, the term coinflation and went on to define it as: Coinflation [koin-fley-shuhn] noun. 1. A persistent rise in the metal value of silver and base metal coins. 2. An inflationary effect on coins. 3. The difference between the metal value and face value in coins.

Pennies.org – This site is dedicated to inform and educate policymakers, consumers, and the media about the penny’s economic, cultural, and historical significance. This group, Americans for Common Cents (ACC) propagates penny fundraising initiatives that prove when pennies come together they sometimes add up to thousands of dollars.

American Numismatic Society – Organized in 1858 and incorporated in 1865 the American Numismatic Society’s original objective was “the collection and preservation of coins and medals, the investigation of matters connected therewith, and the popularization of the sciences of Numismatics,” have evolved into the ANS’ current mission. The current mission statement may be found on the site along with other great educational information on the subject.

I hope as you check out at the register and pay with paper money – a rarity these days – that you’ll take a closer look at the pennies you get for change. Who knows – you may find a penny that will change your life or have fun looking!

What are your thoughts about pennies? We always enjoy feedback! Contact me at trish.cunningham@brookwoods.com.