Robin Maiden – Leveraging New Media and Social Media

Just like you, I get lots of email.  Lots of links to articles.  Lots of tweets.  Lots to read.  Lots to consume.  All these bits of info swirl around in my head until I can synthesize something of value.  Here’s today’s synthesized nugget…

Here are four related items that popped up in recent days and are important to know in context:

• Microsoft is dropping the “new” Kin phone less than two months after bringing it to market
• Apple sold  600,000 iPhone 4s on the first day
• Apple’s market capitalization exceeds Microsoft’s for the first time.
• Jeff Walker just released the “Product Launch Formula 3.0″ [Read more →]

This question is for internal corporate communicators:

Do you have paper based communications you create and share digitally, or do you have electronic communication products people can consume any way they want including print?

“Take a memo!”  That is SOoo  1960.  This is 2010!  We don’t have typewriters.  Of course, we all have computers.  But, do you or your staff, craft a memo on a computer and then distribute it as an attachment to an email?  Do you post a PDF of the memo on your intranet?  Congratulations!  You are using the tools.  That’s good.  Unfortunately, you are limiting the capability of the tools by not having the right mindset.  You are still thinking “Memo!”

Flip it around!  Don’t think “I have to write a memo.”  Think, “I have some important information to share.  What will be my primary tool to communicate this?  What will be my backup channels?  How can these channels support each other?  Where will this information reside for the long term?” [Read more →]

Academy: 10 ways to say it with prezi on Prezi

When I work on a project, I usually whiteboard it, then work in outline mode of Microsoft Word.  I will sometimes use a mind map program like MindMeister to capture my thoughts.  The benefits of the Word outline mode  and the electronic mind map is that I can move whole sections around and show scale at the same time.

Prezi does all of this AND allows me to draw a path through it so I can show others.  What a fantastic tool.  It is THE  “mind map” and presentation tool.  I hope you agree.

April’s roll out of the Apple iPad overshadowed another special bit of computing history.  H. Edward Roberts, the designer of one of the very first personal computers died this month.  His Altair 8800 inspired Bill Gates and Paul Allen to develop Microsoft Basic which would become the world’s largest software company.  That’s 1975 to 2010.  Thirty-five years.  That’s all.  From a computer with no display screen to a beautiful display screen with a computer, times have certainly changed.

There is  a running debate whether the iPad is an appliance or a computer.  I say it doesn’t really matter.   The iPad opens the internet, email, and social networks to a whole new group of users.  They don’t need to be computer savvy; they just need to be iPad savvy.

Bringing more people to the internet, email and social networking is a good thing.  I’ll see you there.

For a few years now, I’ve been answering people’s questions with video.  It takes a little long to do, but it leaves them with a tool they can refer to over and over again.  In a way, it has made our lives easier.

Here is one I created on setting up the basics of a WordPress blog.

It is also a way for me to experiment with the video player tools that are available.

I’ve been looking at HTML5 as a way to get video to all those people who have iPads, iPods, and Touches. Up to this point all my audio and video web based players have been Flash based. Until now, that has been OK. The HTML5 standard isn’t widely adopted yet, so I will continue to default to a Flash player with a downloadable file that can be viewed “locally” on the reader’s personal device.

Here is a link to THE BEST discussion of all the gory details about video on the web.  My compliments to Mark Pilgrim.

Seth Godin‘s Book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? (affiliate link)
is a fantastic book. I finished it already and can’t recommend it highly enough.

Here are just some of the notes I made to myself:

• The world I got an education and training for doesn’t exist anymore.
• The rules of the game has changed
• I can’t look at the world through my “old” glasses
• I’m on the right track: blogging, podcasting, videocasting, social mediaizing (learning new skills and tools)
• Mediocre is easy
• Add charm to frustration to get “Linchpin”
• “By the book” stifles creativity and relationships
• Low attachment to outcome plus passion equals “Linchpin”

Here is a video from a Skype call with Seth at the Atlanta Blogger‘s Meetup in May.

Video Interview With Seth Godin from Atlanta bloggers on Vimeo.

I’ve got a mashup of ideas in my head, but that’s not new.  Here are the pieces bumping together right now:

• I just finished the Seth Godin’s book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
• This month is the 28 th anniversary of my graduation from the USAF Academy
• I saw this video from TED where Rory Sutherland mentions placebo education (If you much skip ahead, go to 2:40 minutes into the video).

[Read more →]

Click through to see a great compilation of photos for the Delta Heritage Museum Ship 41 – DC-3 which was restored at the original Hanger 1 at Delta Air Lines headquarters.

This is a video recorded by one of the attendees at the Podcamp. I had a great time meeting the whole Salt Lake City crowd.