Stay N Alive

Vlog #1 - JJ Talks About Holding the Cat

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Tue, 14 May 2013 09:30:00 PDT

While I have certainly shared many videos about my life and my family, I don't think I've ever called it a "vlog". Let's make this post the first - I officially call this "Vlog #1". In today's Vlog JJ talks about holding our cat #hashtag, and yes, we spell it that way! Enjoy, and please subscribe to our STAYTube channel!:

We've come a long way - Disqus is Now as big as Youtube

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Mon, 13 May 2013 22:14:29 PDT

It seems like just yesterday that Robert Scoble invited me to go with him to visit Disqus Headquarters with their founders Daniel Ha and Jason Yan out at their new offices in San Francisco. They had recently launched their new commenting platform for blogs the year before, and wanted some exposure from the Scobleizer himself (see the interview in 2008 here and here, where I'm in the background - filmed on Qik - remember that?). Just today, Disqus announced 1 billion monthly unique visitors -- yes, that's as big as Youtube!

While other bloggers are calling for the death of RSS, this puts a big dagger right in the heart in any of those claims, with Disqus seemingly at the heart of most blogs these days (and powering the comments on this blog as well). While there are certainly religious wars between the Wordpresses and Bloggers and Tumblrs out there, Disqus has managed to remain an unbiased layer that crosses all of these properties. I think if this statistic is real (and knowing Daniel and Jason I believe them), blogging certainly isn't dead!

If Facebook is the largest social network in the world with 1 billion+ active users (is that the same as monthly uniques?), and Youtube is the second, I'm pretty sure Disqus can claim to be the 3rd (or are they the 2nd, beating Youtube?). The cool thing about Disqus is they're a social network of blogs and blog readers. In many ways they've become a glue that binds together blogs across the web with actual people and conversations between those people.

Disqus certainly has competitors such as Janrain and Gigya at least in terms of the commenting space, but I don't see these claims coming out of those camps. If there's a winner in the blog-commenting category Disqus is it. Congratulations to my friends Daniel and Jason in this amazing accomplishment! I'm really surprised more of the big tech blogs aren't covering this.

Let's celebrate this by clicking through the link where you're reading this and commenting via Disqus below!:

On My Own Again - I'm Back in the Saddle

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Mon, 13 May 2013 08:00:00 PDT

When I started working for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with the first role with the title "social" in it (see my sum-up here), I came in with a desire to serve, but only planning to be there for 6 months. I had been on my own for several years at that point and really enjoyed my independence. I had no idea I'd end up there for 3 years, but thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent there and was able to help organize and shape the organization of social media within the Church. I learned of the Spirit there that guides the Church and its employees, and the wonderful things the organization works to accomplish. After that I moved on to Deseret Digital Media, a for-profit, top-25 digital news organization owned by the Church to manage social media.

While at Deseret Digital Media a short but very productive 6 months, we were able to double our social referrals in the short time I was there through means of a combination of integrating social more into our websites and building perhaps one of the largest social presences in the world with over 20 million fans worldwide and over 200 social media properties on a very limited budget. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and hope to continue advising them in their progress.

It's with excitement that after working for 3 and a half years for the Church and Church-owned entities I'm now moving on again, this time on my own full time to pursue building my own brand and publishing, speaking and some consulting efforts. Yes, I'm back in the saddle again and stronger than ever! I have no regrets and appreciate the experience the last 3 and a half years have given me.

What will I be focusing on now? My primary focus to start will be speeding up the number of courses I've been producing on Social Media for the the developer-focused curriculum company, Pluralsight. They're a great organization to work with, and it allows me to keep up my software-development chops. Make sure you subscribe now and check out my courses with them! I'll probably use this to get down and code a few things - maybe something cool for my new Google Glass (just ordered yesterday!)?

With that as my focus, I'm sure I'll have lots of spare time. Here are the things I'd love to work on:

Speaking! I'm hoping to bump up my number of speaking engagements and turning that much more into a business. Contact me if you're looking to hire a good speaker with real-world experience and true understanding of both the technical and marketing side of social media.
My next book. I have secured a wonderful agent with Waterside Literary Agents to represent what I hope will be a best-selling book on the paradigm change caused by social media and the things I've learned leading social media for major organizations as well as understanding the software behind them. Stay tuned for that (and any interested publishers please contact me!)
Youtube. I have 3 channels I'm focusing on currently, but will likely help out a few locals here in Utah on some more. My first is more of a vlog format chronicling my entertaining family of 8 - go subscribe to STAYTube here! Second, I'll be focusing on my more techy-focused Youtube channel at TheSocialGeek - don't forget to subscribe if you like tech! Lastly, I really want to chronicle what I'm learning in Gardening on my GeekGreens Youtube channel. Make sure to subscribe if you're looking for geeky ways to learn gardening.
Blogging! I miss updating this blog regularly! I used to update almost daily - I hope to do it again. Stay tuned for more updates here, and maybe every so often I can scoop MG Siegler on a Techmeme headline or two ;-) I'd also love to do more reviews here and through my Youtube channel - if you're a tech company looking to reach tens of thousands of people send me your stuff to review. I'd love to share my thoughts and opinions with my audience.
Consulting. I'm going to be picky in my consulting due to the time it takes - this will not be my primary income source so I want to help companies that really need me. However, I'd still love to give it a try - reach out if you need some help and maybe we can figure something out.

I'm so excited to have a little more time to focus again on what I love most - building, writing, and producing really cool stuff that can change the world! I'm excited to get back to writing and coding. I'm excited to share my real-world experience with more people. I'm excited to focus again on building this audience.

So if you get a chance, stick around and say hi. Let me know how we can work together. Come join my various communities and be a part of something big. You're all part of the Staymates/Social Geek community (join us on Facebook!) so let's make the most out of this!

The Death of Google Reader: Did Email Kill the RSS Star?

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:44:08 PDT

Alas, the day has come. We knew it was coming and we were all just digging in our heels waiting for the day. I admit I'm not as mad as before, as the dust has settled off since they killed sharing and replaced it with a very limited Google+ sharing feature (on top of the "send to" feature that was there before). At the same time we see other "social networks" of Google's (Youtube) hitting over a billion active users. Compared to that, Google Reader was minuscule.

With all that though, there's no doubt to those of us, the most devoted and perhaps heaviest users of Google Reader (I saw some stats that I promised not to share that suggested before Google Reader killed sharing I had some of the highest numbers of shares on the site), will miss the service. Like, a lot. So much that you see all of us bloggers that depended on its superior interface (which works best in Ninja Mode, btw) screaming from the house tops like little children. Many are even screaming that the death of Google Reader is the death of RSS and the beginning (or end?) of the death of "open". Truthfully, there is nothing else out there like it and most of us don't know what we're going to do.

With all that I can't help but wonder if the paradigm has just shifted. Users have spoken. While RSS is great for B2B applications of sharing information and likely won't go away, from a consumer perspective I think email has won this battle. If your site, which previously had a "subscribe via RSS" button on it doesn't also have a "subscribe by email" button, it probably should. It is evident to me that while many are searching for a new RSS reader that the answer for many trying to guarantee delivery of content will actually be email. In many ways Google Reader is forcing many of us to simplify.

The advantage RSS gave us is that for every site that implemented it it gave more than just a way for Google Reader users to subscribe and get updates one-by-one with their "j" and "k" buttons on their keyboards. It gave every user on the web a way to consumer information any way they wanted. And for that, I'm sad. Google Reader was the last straw, supported by a great brand that made it official.

As much as I hate it, I'm afraid we're headed towards the death of open ways to consume information. Every website is being forced to create their own APIs for accessing information, and there is now no good reason to use a common standard as simple as RSS to allow consumers to consume information on your site.

There will be a day when we all look back and remember "the roaring 90s/00s" where anyone could consume any data they wanted on the web. The problem is businesses found easier ways to make money and RSS never found a way to fight back.

I hope I'm wrong. I hope RSS makes a come-back. If not, I hope some other standard comes available that makes the web a more open and connected place again. I hope big businesses like Google and Facebook and Microsoft will fight for that and provide solutions to make these things more widely available. Thus far they have let me down though.

With the death of Google Reader, a little piece of me dies. But with it, another open standard, email, replaces its stead. My hope is that even while RSS is not as important as it used to be, we continue to see businesses and organizations and websites and mobile apps provide means to allow consumers to consume information, at a minimum, through the open standard of email.

Until then, I'm going down with the ship. I'm not giving up, and we'll find a solution that fixes this big mess we're in right now.

"The Chappys": How a Utah Construction Manager Built His Own Trending Awards Show on Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:02:19 PDT

I've talked before about how growing a Twitter audience is simple. It turns out it's even more simple than I thought - The Deseret News (owned by the company I work for) wrote today about a local Utah construction manager who created his own Twitter awards show called "The Chappy Awards". In his "virtual award show" Dustin Chapman awarded various celebrities and media "Chappy Awards" on Twitter, and before he knew it, #2013Chappys was a trending term on Twitter and hundreds were all getting in on the fun.

Chapman, who created the awards show to (according to the Deseret News) "encourage the media. When something happens, I'm on Twitter following reaction. I'm more likely to turn to news stations and media sources that post things regularly on Twitter than not."

And encourage the media he did. Awarding several local news celebrities a Chappy Award, he got numerous positive reactions from the award out of excitement (hey - who doesn't like to win something?). They posted to their Twitter feeds their excitement for the award, and their some times much larger audiences would then learn about the Chappy Award and Chapman's account @itschappy in the process. His Twitter account grew significantly throughout the day.

So if you're looking for more followers on Twitter, start your own awards show. Create a hashtag, pick some well-known people, and boom-instant followers as they thank you for your kind gesture.

Some day I too will win a Chappy...

Check out the Deseret News article by Landon Hemsley here!

Are You Reading This in Google Reader?

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 22:06:03 PDT

Google Reader is being discontinued on July 1st. Click through the post and comment below if you read this post in Google Reader.

Adobe Disrupts Enterprise Collaboration With New Tool for Marketers

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 09:22:16 PST

Enterprise collaboration is quickly becoming the future of communication within the enterprise. Using tools like Yammer, employees have been able to collaborate between themselves on internal "social networks" where links, photos, and information could be shared. Now we see tools like SalesForce Chatter which attempt to turn employee communication and collaboration into measurable results. Enterprise collaboration is evolving from simple "watercooler"-type chatter to results-focused communication and collaboration. Today Adobe took that further at their Digital Marketing Summit with their new UI for Adobe Marketing Cloud, which focuses on marketing-related collaboration between departments in enterprise organizations.

The entire interface of Adobe Marketing Cloud has been revamped to a very Pinterest-like interface allowing creatives, marketers, and analysts in the organization to all communicate together and come to results-driven design of each product within the organization. The entire design is focused on combining the best features of Adobe's Creative and Marketing Cloud products to allow creative professionals to play a part in real results for their organization.

Creative professionals can create designs right inside the Adobe creative products like Photoshop, and have their designs shared right to Marketing Cloud for the marketing organization to review, provide feedback, and send back to the creative employees for revision. Both creatives and marketers in the organization can all review new data in a Pinterest-like "feed" within Adobe Marketing Cloud, comment, make annotations, and collaborate around everything shared on the platform.

Not only can creative elements be shared, but analytics and other elements of the Adobe marketing suite of products can be shared as well. Charts, graphs, analytics, and other points all have "share" buttons now that allow professionals in the organization share into the Marketing Cloud feed for further collaboration. Each new element appears as a card in the feed for employees to collaborate.

Enterprise collaboration just took a new turn as it took even stronger and more focused growth through Adobe's launch today. The product is expensive, and will likely only be affordable by larger organizations, but for those that can afford it, the opportunities are endless.

The Power of Starting Something Stupid [Book Review]

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 08:49:07 PST

In my life, I have a rich dad and a poor dad (see Robert Kiyosaki). My poor dad is always keen to tell me that going out on my own and running my own business is "stupid", risky, and a bad decision. My rich dad tells me it's the most secure and rewarding decision I can make. Which one is it? The book, "The Power of Starting Something Stupid: How to Crush Fear, Make Dreams Happen, and Live Without Regret" attempts to answer that with a pep-talk, showing how "stupid" is the new smart.

If you're an aspiring entrepreneur that has a rich dad and a poor dad like me, there's a good chance you're going through the very same debates I did before going out on my own. While I must say there are definitely risks and a lot of work that goes into it, going out on my own was one of the best decisions I made in my life. The book, "The Power of Starting Something Stupid", by Richie Norton goes into these rewards in deep detail, and has lots of motivation to push you towards taking that leap and going out on your own.

It is not a howto book per-se. However, I found the principles taught in the book were a perfect "pep-talk" for reminding me why making decisions others call stupid isn't worth listing to those distracting me from my goals. In the book, it shows how some of the best ideas and businesses were called "stupid" before they became multi-million (and some times billion) dollar businesses.

If you're looking for some inspiration to get off your rear and go out on your own, this book shows you why stupid is the new smart. It's the perfect pep-talk for any aspiring entrepreneur. Go pre-order it now, and check out my GoodReads review! It is scheduled to come out in March.

Help Me Sell My New Book - Get Free Stuff!

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:16:21 PST

Who wants to help me promote Google+ Marketing For Dummies? I need volunteers to share my new book, now available on Amazon (http://stay.am/gplusmarketing) in the best way they are able. This can be through an ad that stays on your blog for a month, a mention to your audience as many times as possible over the next month, a shoutout in your email list - let me know in the comments what you're willing to do. Here's what you get if I agree to your offer:

1. I'll send you a free, signed copy of the book, and an extra book to give to your audience.
2. Some time in the next month (first come, first serve), I'll do a post on StayNAlive.com featuring a few items I notice with your website or social presence that I think you can improve (let me know what you'd like me to look over with your offer).
3. I'll give you a free code for 1 week on Pluralsight to access my courses (and others) on Facebook and Google+, and get a screencast-overview of my best tips for marketing on Google+.

Let me know in the comments what you might be able to do to help sell Google+ Marketing For Dummies in the next month, and I'll contact each of you to arrange the above items as you're able to help out. I'm also open to other ideas if you have something grand planned!

Moving Forward From My "Mormon Moment"

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 10:22:16 PST

As some of you may be aware, I have spent the last, almost 3 years, helping to grow Social Media in what some have perceived as very much a pioneering role for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Consulting for them for years before, I started just over a year after Barack Obama was elected and Mitt Romney had lost the Primaries to John McCain, myself being perhaps the first person at the Church with the word "Social" in their title. My, thanks to the work of many, have we accomplished a lot since then! It is with sadness and a sense of completion and accomplishment that I now move on from that role, to now serve as Director of Social Media for Deseret Digital Media.

When I first met with the Church, back around 2007, the beginning of Twitter and Facebook, social media was new, and foreign. In many ways, in a time that pre-dates Romney's run for President, the Church was too. I still remember when Venturebeat "scooped" that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was trying to purchase Facebook (which, in case for any reason you were wondering, was completely and as far from the truth as you could come). What was funny was I had been on contract with Facebook shortly before that (writing tech docs for the company), and had been consulting directly with the Church at the time the article was written. I smiled as I saw the news, but mostly kept my mouth shut. These were 2 foreign organizations that people were very curious about!

Since that time, I remember the vision of a technology that could, just as in the Bible, and just as in The Book of Mormon (as Mormons believe complements the Bible), allow a religion's message to reach "every nation, kindred, and tongue", without the need for door-knocking, street preaching, or soapboxing. With these new technologies, one could truly reach the people that were actually interested in and seeking a message, rather than finding a needle in a haystack. The "small villages" of scriptural times were back with the advent of social media.

Within that time we were able to go from just a single Twitter account at Twitter.com/LDSNewsroom (now Twitter.com/MormonNewsroom), to now hundreds of Facebook Pages, Twitter accounts, and Google+ Pages, as well as Youtube channels with views in the millions. We worked on growing the strength and understanding of social media within the organization. I remember at the beginning much of my work was just in training people the value of what social media could do. Now that's no longer a question, but rather a point of "how has it helped us?"

We achieved Facebook "like" buttons on all articles on LDS.org and began to grow shares of our message. We built numerous campaigns. We were able to expand our advertising efforts. We built community. All of this was the work of many, and I appreciated every person I was able to work with and help in these efforts. I also appreciate the amazing trust people put in me as I helped each of those that needed it.

What I appreciated most during this period though were the individuals I was able to touch, both directly, and indirectly. From training individuals at the Church, to working with ecclesiastical leaders and those at the local congregational level. I appreciated the opportunity to reach out to people during the New Zealand and Japan earthquakes, and especially my dear friends in South Asia who so sincerely want to use these tools to spread a beautiful message to the people of India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Hong Kong, some of Social Media's largest audiences. I hope these relationships will continue as I move onto other professional pursuits. I feel the momentum is finally in place to where I can move on and help in my next pursuit.

What will I be doing next? As I mentioned, I have accepted a position as Director of Social Media for Deseret Digital Media. As some of my friends may know, I previously worked in publishing, and love the publishing industry. Deseret Digital Media, actually still owned by the Church (but keeps itself at a distance to an extent), owns the digital presence of KSL.com, DeseretNews.com, OK.com (a crowd-sourced movie and TV ratings site), and many other digital presences that span from Salt Lake only, to an entire global presence targeting wholesome, family valued content for its viewers and readers. It is a for-profit company of which I'm excited to begin work on finding ways to increase those profits, find new and better ad products for their advertisers, and to grow their presence to an even greater capacity globally and help families around the world connect better. It is a fun and exciting challenge for the next phase in my life, and one where I think I can again, just like I feel I did at the Church, make a dent for the good of the world. I'm excited to learn from, lead and grow with those I'll work with there.

I debated strongly in this move of going back to an entrepreneurial effort (where I was before the Church). For varying reasons including a family of 8, I felt I could accomplish more in this role, and could still on the side keep the efforts I have with SocialToo, this blog, my books, and my training courses on Pluralsight. I anticipate all those efforts, and perhaps more, to continue to grow and prosper as I push forward in this new role.

I will miss all those I worked with at the Church - from Church Ecclesiastical Leaders, to Managing Directors, to the employees getting things done and helping move the work forward. They were some of the most talented people I've ever worked with - former Novell execs, successful entrepreneurs, and Microsoft execs to name a few, to successful scientists, businessmen, and doctors. It has been one of the most amazing, rewarding, and fulfilling jobs I've ever had.

Lastly, on a personal note as a member of the Church, which I am still an active part of, my testimony of this Church, after working "in the trenches" and seeing it from the inside, remains stronger than ever. I have seen our Leaders - the President and Prophet himself (Thomas S. Monson), to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, to the members of the Quorum of the 70 that aid those with the keys, truly lead this Church through God. They are certainly not perfect, but what they have to say is important, and their callings and the mantle they hold is divine. They have my full support and love moving forward.

I can't wait to see where the foundation that has been laid for social media in the Church takes us. The future is bright, and full of opportunity - while "the Mormon Moment" may be over for me at least as an employee, the best of "the Mormon Moment" for the Church I think is yet to come.

The Microsoft Surface's Beauty is Only "Surface Deep"

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 14:20:25 PDT

As a long-time Microsoft fan (my first computers were all PCs), and with all my excitement about Windows 8, I was very excited about the Microsoft Surface. In fact, I was so excited that despite Press not getting complimentary Surface tablets (or even trial ones) at Microsoft's recent Windows Build conference, I went out and bought my own. With all the hype Microsoft was giving it - run all your Windows apps across every Microsoft device, in a beautiful, comfortable environment - I was anxious to try it out! It took a few days, but despite my initial excitement, today I returned my Microsoft Surface RT and will not consider a new one until I'm confident they fix a few things.

The Pros

When I first opened my Surface, it was a beautiful experience. From the Microsoft Store here in Bellevue, Washington (the busiest I've ever seen a Microsoft Store), to the packaging of the product, to the shiny, beautiful hardware that Microsoft had created with the Surface RT. Then, you turn it on. It has beautiful fonts. Beautiful colors. A bright, shiny beautiful screen that draws you in. It's not the Windows you grew up with.

Installation was a little slow, but I anticipate that's the Windows experience loading all the information it has on you in SkyDrive, as well as any new updates that may have loaded since it first launched (oddly, after 1 week from their launch, even after it first booted up, I still had 4 new updates in Windows Update to apply). All that was okay though because the interface was just beautiful. It is by far Microsoft's most beautiful device and operating system to date.

My initial impressions were pretty good. In fact, they lasted for a day or two after first opening it. This device really takes several days to really do a good review. The biggest excitement for me was the ability to be able to run Microsoft Office - on a tablet! As a writer, my publisher has specific templates I have to use for my writing, but some times I like to just sit in front of my TV, or maybe even the beach in Hawaii, and write in places that aren't always convenient for a laptop. Having a fully functional Microsoft Office was very exciting for me!

Then there is the SkyDrive integration. I was able to integrate all my favorite social networks, all built into the operating system, and have SkyDrive remember the authorization for each. Then, under the "People" tile, it would show me the updates from my friends and I could respond right from the OS, no other app to install! The thing is this thing almost doesn't need a Facebook app (Facebook hasn't shown interest yet in building a Windows 8 app) - it's built into the operating system!

In addition, I could pull in my photos from Facebook and Flickr and elsewhere and load those, right inside the OS. When I need a photo for a blog post? Facebook and Flickr now become options on top of the other folders on the drive. It all integrates seamlessly and smoothly into the operating system.

The touch keyboard turned out to be very nice. I was a little worried at first, but as I got used to it I started to realize I can actually type faster on the touch keyboard than I can on my laptop or a traditional spring keyboard (Microsoft sells those as well) because my fingers don't have to go down as far and I don't have to press as hard. I don't know how that works ergonomically, but I could definitely type faster, once I got used to where the keys were.

Here's why I'm selling it

There were a few other features (Microsoft Music is pretty cool, for instance), but that's where it ended. The thing is, with the exception of the touch keyboard, all of these are Windows 8 core features anyway - none of them are very unique to the Surface itself. And Windows 8 is still pretty cool! The Surface however, I soon found, would lag as I typed. It was slow. Very slow, and it didn't take much to achieve that.

I found that something as simple as using Google Reader, as I hit the "j" and "k" keys on my keyboard to go back and forward through items, it would go quickly at first, but then after I went through about 20 or so items on the page (I read hundreds of news feeds a day - follow Twitter.com/Jesse to see my shares from that) it would slow down, considerably, to the point that it wasn't even usable.

I noticed this on other websites as well. I also noticed it within various apps, such as browsing through photos, or watching videos. Microsoft Office tends to lag. Mail doesn't respond well.

I really wanted to like it. I really did like it for many reasons on the surface. However, when it comes to what lies beneath - the hardware, I'm afraid Microsoft put this operating system on a piece of hardware that just isn't powerful enough to power it. Microsoft launched this thing too early - period.

On a $200 or $300 tablet, I would likely forgive these things. For the UI itself, it's worth keeping at that price. But at the $700 price point for the 64GB version I purchased, Microsoft should do better. They're trying to compare themselves to Apple at that price point, and have specifically done so in their demonstrations and advertising. If you're going to compare yourself to Apple, your entire experience needs to work together fluidly, fast, and smoothly. Unfortunately, with Microsoft, it's not what's on the Surface that counts - they've got to be paying attention to how fast it can run.

Will I buy one later? I want to see if Microsoft fixes these slowness issues. They can do this with both operating system updates and through perhaps the upgrade of the Surface Pro, which should run on a faster processor (scheduled to come out in January). I may give it a try then. Until then, Microsoft has lost my trust with this one - I feel they tricked me. And with that, it's going to take some effort to gain my trust back again.

Maybe they can try installing some of these to make it go faster?

Photo courtesy Justin Allen.

You can also see I'm not the only one with this experience:

Chris Pirillo's review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gQhhtvuZwVg
TechCrunch's review: http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/01/microsoft-surface-rt-the-sad-treadmill-of-overhyped-expectations/

Microsoft is Finally Achieving What it Set Out to Do With Passport - the Key is Consistency

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 10:40:35 PDT

Back in the year 2000, before "the cloud" was even a marketing term, Microsoft launched a product known as "Passport", a product touted to be the end-all-be-all of identity services that developers could integrate into their products for identity and storage of personal information. I remember because I was a developer at that time and I recall looking into what the company I worked for at the time needed to do to integrate it into our product.

The problem at that time, however is that most people only had Desktop computers and therefore not as much a need to have a consistent identity as they do in today's mobile-centric, "post-PC" world. The product pretty much failed, and was revived a little later as Live ID. It's safe to say that Microsoft, like Marty of "Back to the Future" was ahead of his time. With the release of Windows 8 however, it looks like Microsoft is finally back in their own time, and the future looks sweet.

A Consistent Experience

The one word to describe Windows 8 as opposed to the former Windows is consistency. In previous versions you had Pocket PC followed by Windows Mobile followed by Windows Phone for the mobile experience. Then on the Xbox you had an entirely different experience. And on the Desktop it was just "Windows".

Windows 8 fixes that, however. With Windows 8, now all Microsoft devices will be powered by the same operating system, same underlying architecture, same SDKs for developers to build their apps under, and even a consistent cloud architecture through Azure and SkyDrive (for users) that follows you across each device you use. Microsoft is also building apps for 3rd party devices to continue that experience there as well. The result is a brand that follows you wherever you go.

Good for Developers

Finally, developers can "build once, write everywhere". When building apps to put in Microsoft's new Windows Store, it takes only a few tweaks to format those apps to work on the Surface, on Windows Phone 8, as well as even Xbox and any other device that supports the Windows 8 experience.

Expect games like Halo on the Xbox 360 to have versions that work on your phone, your Surface, or your Desktop. Even the Xbox controller and Kinect SDKs are consistent, and simple to integrate for your apps across multiple devices.

A Writer's Dream

Through Microsoft Office 365, I can now have all my books, posts, and writing sync'd across multiple devices. I get the experience that most people expect, meaning I can use the same interface my publisher wants me to use for the templates they provide for my books. Finally, I can write my books even on my phone or tablet device - that's pretty powerful!

Passport is Back, With a Vengeance

Microsoft Passport is finally back, in this case the form is as your "Microsoft ID" or "Windows ID". It's accompanied by SkyDrive, and now whenever I log in with my ID, all my preferences follow me from computer to computer. This even includes authorizations I've given to Facebook and Google and Twitter, and all my friends in those place! My photos follow me. My lock screen will even follow me if I want it to. All my settings can follow me wherever I go.

I'm loving the new Microsoft, because it means that all of the sudden your desktop machine or phone or tablet are all just "Windows devices". In the new Windows world it shouldn't matter what type of device you are on - all the apps you love on Windows follow you wherever you go.

Microsoft is finally where it wants to be, and it will only get better from here.

This post was typed entirely on my Microsoft Surface - something I bought with my own money

Selling Developers Was Easy. Windows 8's Big Challenge Will be Selling Press

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 12:41:25 PDT

Most of these "surfaces" are running OS X

When it comes to technology, I love going to developer conferences to meet people, see the people building the platforms I'm studying, and overall understand the best ways to integrate technology for the people I work with on a day-to-day basis. I actually normally attend as a developer when I go to these events, because I have full access to what the developers are seeing (I often pay my own way, as well, although as disclosure that is also comp'd at times). For the Windows Build Developer conference this year though, I came as Press because they sold out of developer passes in minutes. It was very clear that developers wanted to come to this conference (I'll explain why in another post). I noticed some very interesting things this time though, at my very first Microsoft conference. The Press just aren't converted yet, and despite Microsoft's new focus on marketing as Steve Ballmer committed to today, they have some work to do.

Let's start with the Press section at today's Keynote. I was surrounded by Macs! Myself included. My neighbors all had iPhones. I saw iPads. I could tell this was a different culture to the Press I was surrounded with.

I've been at many conferences, and sat in many press rooms and sections, and I can vouch for that - the Press is part of the Mac cult. They love Mac. And if they don't love Mac, they love their iPhone. And if they don't love their iPhone, they love their Android device. I'd hate to say it, but Windows comes lowest on the Press totem pole.

What's odd is that, while perhaps normal for a conference like this, the conference gives out free devices (at this one a Phone, a Surface, and SkyDrive space) to "all attendees" (the developers), but at least at this conference, the Press are excluded. In fact, as I sit in the Press room writing this I don't see a single Surface. I don't see a single Windows Phone. I do see a couple Windows laptops, but they're surrounded by Macs and iPhones and other Apple devices. In fact, I inquired about even borrowing one and was told I'd be put on "a waiting list" to even be able to spend some time with one trying it out. Yet, upstairs they're handing them out like candy to every developer you can see.

I'm not bitter I don't qualify for the free devices. I'll probably just go up and buy a Surface from the company store (assuming they're even available to me) to play with because I like trying out new stuff. I know others in the Press won't just buy devices like this to use primarily in replacement of their other devices though. It would seem Microsoft would benefit from focusing more on ensuring every member of the press is engrossed in Windows. If I were Microsoft, each member of the Press would have a Surface, pre-populated with their favorite writing tools (something Microsoft is really good at), and they'd all have their Surfaces open writing their blog posts. I guarantee you'd see a different story in the media when that happens.

In the meantime, I sit here writing this post on my Macbook Air, on a Google product (Blogger), and will likely check for your comments on my iPhone after I hit publish. If Microsoft is going to have a stronger marketing focus, they should really start with the Press.

UPDATE: Turns out you can't even buy a Microsoft Surface at this conference. Not even the company store will sell members of the Press a Surface.

Switching to Windows 8? Better Not Get a Fitbit.

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 16:12:49 PDT

I'm currently using the Windows 8 Release Preview, and so far I'm impressed! Thus far I've had very few issues and really love the new interface (formerly named "Metro"). I'm very excited for the final version to be shipped to me by Microsoft. However, there's one thing that consistently hasn't worked for me on Windows 8 - my Fitbit software.

Right now when I try the account set up on my Fitbit software installed on Windows 8, it consistently, after I click "login" with my Fitbit account, redirects to a 404 not found page without logging me into the service. I've Googled and Googled, not seeing any solution to the problem. I can't change the default browser it uses, assuming maybe it's an IE 10 issue, so I can't try to see if having it login to Chrome will fix the problem.

So I tried to email their support. Here's the response they sent me:

"Hello Jesse,

We are sorry you are having problems with our software.

We’re aware that Windows 8 pre-release is available to the public. We do not yet formally support this environment and we do not plan to validate our software and device on Windows 8 until it is commercially released. However, once validated, we will update the product specifications page on our website.

Thanks for getting in touch we hope this helped you, if you have any more questions do not hesitate and reply us back.

Sincerely,
Lis and the Fitbit Team"

That's it. Not even willing to try to figure it out. If you use Windows 8 or are planning to use Windows 8 (or have pre-ordered like me), your Fitbit won't work, and they're not even planning for it. It seems odd to me that something as simple as authentication would even rely on the operating system or browser type to get you logged in, but I guess that's their choice, and it's my problem, not theirs.

I was very disappointed with the customer-no-service approach I received from Fitbit. I will very likely be selling my 2 Fitbits and Aria Scale soon, in favor of the Nike+ system. I've also been very surprised of all the responses I've received on Twitter and elsewhere of the poor customer service they've received from Fitbit. Sorry Fitbit, but you've very likely lost this customer.

DressCode - the "Suit Guys" That Come to You

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 16:00:03 PDT

I wrote previously of my fitting by DressCode, my new "suit guys", that made me a custom-tailored suit and put me in tip-top fashion amongst my colleagues. They came to my house (they'll also come to your office), measured me, and within a couple weeks I was wearing a top-quality suit that in traditional tailors would cost me $1,000 or more. Because they outsource the tailoring and have streamlined the process to focus on in-person service and fashion, a typical suit like mine goes for around $300. My last post covered the fitting. I wanted to do a follow-up post about how much I like my suit from them.

Never before, even with my custom-tailored suit that I got in Hong Kong last year or even my Bangkok, Thailand tailored suit I got years ago when I lived there, have I received comments on how nice my suit looks. I actually stand out in the crowd now. People ask me where I had my suit made. They notice how nicely it looks.

The thing is, the suit DressCode made me fits me like a glove. It doesn't have baggy parts in certain areas that make it look like it doesn't fit. Even my Hong Kong-tailored suit has a bit of a "baggy" look to it. Not my DressCode suit.

And the details - the details are amazing. They suggested a custom lining on the inside. But not just a nice silk lining - they suggested a little colored strip that separates the lining from the suit, adding just one more touch of detail. They added extra pockets, so many in fact that I'm not even sure what to use them all for (they could definitely tell me the proper use for the pockets though, if I asked - their service is tremendous). They touched it all off with my name on the inside coat pocket, to personalize the experience.

Add to that the in-person service. I shared the experience of getting fitted before - with a simple click of a button on their website, they come to your home or office and fit you. But they don't just take your measurements. They give you tips and suggestions for ways the suit could look better on you. If you want to explore outside your boundaries, they will help you embrace new and upcoming fashion trends. They'll teach you about all the different parts of a suit, and help you decide what will fit your tastes best. They are in many ways the Zappos of suits!

I am very impressed with DressCode. I'm headed to Hong Kong next month, but this time I don't have any desire to buy a suit from my tailor there. For the same price (almost), I can buy a much better, even better tailored suit from my friends here locally at DressCode who will come straight to my home or office to fit me. Now that's pretty cool.

Give them a try - they have reps in a couple states already, and I hear they're doing a "Popup" shop in Los Angeles soon. They can also come do "Popups" at your business or in your area if they have enough interest. Do what you can to get them in your area - it's very worth the service!

Disclosure: My first suit from them was free in exchange for some promotion - I'm very glad I tried it though! I will be ordering, and paying for more suits from them in the future.

(sorry for the blurriness - my kids took these pictures!)

Android is Finally "Enough", but I Still Miss My iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 12:55:10 PDT

I've written a few times on this blog about my trials with Android and dissatisfaction with devices under Google's operating system. The fact is, lack of consistent experience because Google doesn't own the experience, means they will likely never have a leg-up on the experience iOS gives users, considering Apple controls and owns the entire experience in their OS. Google proved me only partly wrong in this though, with their latest release of Jellybean and the Galaxy Nexus, yet I still find myself missing my iPhone. I'll explain.

At Google's recent developer conference at Google I/O I was given a Galaxy Nexus to try and play with as my device. I've been using this as my primary device since around May, and for the first time ever, I find myself actually enjoying the Android experience. The voice controls are solid. I love the animated background and the new widget layouts. Google Play predicts my travel and tells me how long it takes to get to where I'm going, when I'm going, without me ever needing to ask. Gmail is seamless and provides an experience that I just can't get on iOS. Google Calendar and other Google products work seamlessly. The battery actually lasts this time.

Yet I still find myself missing my iPhone. The thing is, it doesn't matter how many cool features and integrated components Google adds to the Android experience. Because Google doesn't own the phone - even on their stock experiences such as the Galaxy Nexus - they can't control the full experience of the user. On my Galaxy Nexus, which is supposed to be the stock Google experience, I find the camera to be sub-par. It takes about 5 extra steps just to make a phone call. The phone gets triggered on every time I put it in my pocket, occasionally pocket-dialing people.

Then there are the apps. Google doesn't monitor their Google Play app store like Apple does with theirs. Google doesn't provide stock controls like sliders, scroll buttons, etc. to developers like Apple does, so app experiences aren't consistent. As a result, I'm finding apps to be much more buggy than their Apple counterparts. I find apps crash a lot more in Android than they do iOS. In some cases the apps are available for other Android phones, but not my Galaxy Nexus. On Apple, almost always, apps are always available for every Apple iOS device. Until Google controls both the hardware and app store experiences, they simply won't be able to compete with the experience Apple provides.

I think that's okay to Google though. Google will always have the masses, very similar to the approach Microsoft took in the Desktop market (until Microsoft figures out the mobile market and competes with Google). They will always be sub-par to Apple I'm afraid, unless they can solve the problems I mention above.

Do I love Android? I still do! It's a beautiful OS. It does some things much better than iOS. For an overall experience that will save me the most time though, I'm still looking forward to my iPhone 5 shipping tomorrow, and I will likely use it as my primary phone moving forward. If this ever changes you can bet I'll be the first to write about it and tell you right here. As a lover of technology, it's great to see the competition! I just hope Google can take this as feedback.

What do you think?

Originally posted on Google+!

Ancestry.com Buys Top Facebook App We're Related

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 00:10:35 PDT

In the early days of Facebook's developer platform (2007, to be exact), as apps were going from 0 to 2 or more million users in just a matter of days, family history apps were among the first to rise to the top. The link between family connections and friend connections seemed like a natural fit for apps that were built to connect one another. It appears that, according to Ancestry Insider, one of the pioneer Facebook apps in this industry, We're Related, was just acquired by Ancestry.com for an undisclosed amount (both are Utah-based companies where I am located).

We're Related quickly went to the top of the Facebook app store as number 1 where it sat as the top-used app by users worldwide on the Facebook Platform. The app, founded by Paul Allen (ironically the founder of Ancestry.com), intended to show how Facebook friends were related through their family history. The app allowed users to enter their family information, and would then notify family members that they had been added to one's family tree, asking them to confirm the addition. This "peer-pressure" amongst family members no-doubt led to the app's popularity on Facebook.

The app was soon expanded to the site, FamilyLink.com which built a standalone site around connecting families through their social networking connections. Shortly after Facebook started imposing restrictions on how app developers could advertise, the app started losing money and FamilyLink had to pivot to more of a site-based model.

According to Ancestry Insider, FamilyLink was sold recently to MyHeritage.com, but the assets of the We're Related Facebook app were retained by Paul Allen. It would appear that some time before July, Paul Allen sold the final assets of the We're Related app to Ancestry.com for somewhere under $11.7 million. According to the SEC Form 10-Q filed by Ancestry.com, "In March 2012, the company completed two acquisitions for a total of approximately $11.7 million in cash consideration. The company acquired the DNA assets of Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, a non-profit organization with a diverse collection of DNA samples and corresponding genealogical information. The company also acquired We’re Related, LLC, which operates the We’re Related Facebook application." It is unclear how much of that $11.7 million went to We're Related.

Ancestry Insider also notes that Ancestry.com also has started their own Facebook app, which operates somewhat similar to the We're Related app on top of Ancestry.com data. It's unclear as to whether Ancestry.com has used the assets of We're Related to create their own app.

This acquisition marks the end of a golden era of Facebook app development. This was an era where apps could integrate with every element of the Facebook.com experience, advertise as they wanted, and see incredible results as a result. The playing field has since shifted to a much cleaner approach by Facebook of focusing on the News Feed, while encouraging developers to integrate Facebook Platform outside of the Facebook environment. These apps were truly the pioneers in this era, and deserve all the credit they can get.

Disclosure: We're Related was one of my first clients when I went out on my own as an entrepreneur. I helped them with some initial wireframes of the app, and later on with some help in publicity for their app. This app is near and dear to my heart.

Can't get Google Wallet to Work? Have an Expanded Battery Pack? That may be Your Problem.

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 18:05:06 PDT

I've been beating my head around why every place I've gone to so far with Paypass (Home Depot, McDonalds, Best Buy, 7-Eleven, you name it) hasn't worked with my new Galaxy Nexus phone that's supposed to work with NFC and Google Wallet. I searched all the forums and just couldn't figure out what was happening. The guys at 7-Eleven said it worked with every other phone they tried it with.

Then I remembered - I had an extended battery pack that I bought off Amazon that was on the phone to extend the battery life. It made the back of the phone a lot bigger, I'm guessing preventing the NFC signal from getting through. I actually found a unique way of testing it: The Nexus Q actually supports NFC. If you hold your phone up to the Nexus Q your phone will open up to the Nexus Q app in the Play Store. So I ran an experiment.

Just as with 7-Eleven and all the other Paypass stores, the Nexus Q didn't register when I'd hold up my phone to the Nexus Q. When I removed the extended battery pack, sure enough, the phone would buzz, beep, and then open up to the Nexus Q app. That was indeed my problem!

So if you're experiencing this same issue, try putting back in the original battery. I'm betting this fixes a few issues, and it's odd that I'm not seeing this warning anywhere in the Galaxy Nexus forums or docs. I'm surely not the only one with a battery pack! And how does it work with thicker cases?

If this helped you, let me know in the comments!

Shared first on Google+!

UPDATE: I'm being told on Google+ that the NFC is actually in the battery on the Galaxy Nexus, so that would explain why this happens. I wonder if there are expanded battery packs that have NFC in them so this doesn't happen. If you know any let me know in the comments!

How to Get Notified When People Talk About Your Website on Google+

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 09:00:01 PDT

Want a notification any time someone comments or posts about your website on Google+? You can do this with Google Analytics:

1. Go to the "Traffic Sources" section of Google Analytics for your website
2. Expand the "Social" sub-section.
3. Click on "Sources".
4. Click on the "Activity Stream" tab next to the "Social Referral" tab

Now you'll have a list of everyone posting and commenting about your website on Google+. You just need to create an email alert. To do this:

1. At the top of the page, click the "Email" link (next to "Advanced Segments").
2. Select the attachment type you want.
3. Choose how frequently you want to be notified (I choose "Daily" - it would be nice if they had an "Immediately" option).
4. Designate an email address for who will receive the report.

5. Enter some text into the body of the email that you want to appear in each email you receive.

Click "Send", and you'll soon be receiving notifications of every person that links to your website from Google+!

This #dummiestip will be in Chapter 13 of Google+ Marketing For Dummies

First posted on Google+!

The Marissa Mayer Era is All About Product

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 00:53:40 PDT

People keep saying Yahoo engineers and employees are going to feel less-likely to want to leave Yahoo now that +Marissa Mayer is the CEO. While I'm sure it will be a more comfortable environment, I would be worried right now if I worked there. Here's why:

Yahoo needs a complete reboot.

If Marissa's smart, she'll kill just about everything except a few core projects the company is good at, and start over. Yahoo's now the underdog, which means they need to move fast. They need to go back to startup mode. The mode Google was in when Marissa joined Google. They've got to be able to move faster, move better, and out-pace the likes of Google and Facebook as they move forward. They need a core focus as they do this.

For that reason I anticipate many employees being let go and Yahoo going back to core principles and values. Yahoo, more than anything needs to focus.

My Yahoo? Goodbye. Yahoo mail? Goodbye. Flickr? Goodbye. You can probably say most programs outside search, social, and perhaps mobile will go. Or, Yahoo will decide a different focus and get rid of everything that is not that. If they don't, Yahoo won't survive. They simply can't, nor can they move fast enough right now to beat the competition. In many ways, this is what Google did with Google+ (but Google could afford not to need to lay anyone off in the process). I bet Marissa does the same at Yahoo, at even greater scale.

Marissa's an expert at Product Management - that's what she did at Google. This means she'll pick a few products, iterate quickly, and move fast. Then, they'll expand from there and adapt as they grow. At the moment Yahoo's stuck in waterfall mode and Marissa's the perfect person to get them out of that mess.

Posted originally on Google+.

2012 Google I/O - Is This the 2007 Facebook F8?

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 14:11:46 PDT

All eyes should be on Google's Annual Developer Conference, Google I/O next week. As the first Google I/O with the Google+ Team, and a serious read/write API yet to launch, I predict we are about to see an explosion of social apps at a level we haven't seen since Facebook's F8 Conference in 2007 when they launched their platform to the world. The parallels are very similar.

Let's look first at the original APIs for both. Some may not be aware of this, but previous to Facebook's 2007 F8 conference, they too had an API very similar to the state of Google+'s API today. Called "Facebook Developers", the original API in 2006 was limited to a small number of requests per day, very similar to Google+'s current platform. It was mostly a read-only API, with, eventually, the ability to create widgets that could be embedded as apps on a person's Wall - a new feature of Facebook at the time. You could also access very limited data about a person's friend graph and wall posts. It wasn't until F8 of 2007 that Facebook really opened the floodgates for this, increasing API requests, opening up the ability for "Canvas apps", and giving full access to integrate apps into multiple "integration points" within Facebook itself. In fact, it wasn't until years after that that developers could really start integrating this data into other websites and mobile apps. Just like Google+, Facebook took baby steps to launch their API, but when they were ready, they launched big.

Google+ is in a very similar state today. Their platform is limited in the number of requests you can make per minute, and per day. They only allow a few select enterprise partners write access to the news feed. They've opened up a few elements, such as games, to a few partners to integrate right on Google+, but in very limited form. They're in a very similar state to Facebook in 2007. When Facebook launched though, developers came in droves, seeing user growth in the millions in a matter of days. Facebook itself grew significantly during this time.

It was during this time that I met Paul Allen, who was looking to launch his company, FamilyLink (originally called We're Related). He and I both saw eye-to-eye on the power of this platform, and while we both took our separate ways we saw first hand the power of platforms like these.

While I'm sure Google has had the opportunity to learn from Facebook's mistakes (Facebook has had to change their platform quite a bit since they originally launched), I anticipate we could see a similar flood when Google+ finally launches their full platform to the world. Will we see a Canvas Page-like approach? I'd guess we will - OpenSocial supports this and much of Google+'s current platform bases on OpenSocial standards.

I anticipate a number of integration points, a raised request limit, and as a result an increase in apps, and developers coming to the Google+ platform. There's one advantage Google+ has over Facebook though: Google+ has Google. Remember always that Google+ is just a social layer over all Google products. That means even their platform will likely some day extend across all of their products. This is exciting, and what will bring similar success to developers in the same way Facebook did back in 2007.

Next week is a very exciting week for Google+ and Google as a company! I'll be there every day of the conference, and I can't wait to see what gets announced. To me this is one of the most exciting conferences in the history of Google, and it will be fun to have a front seat to this moment in history. Keep watching my stream on Google+, and on StayNAlive.com to keep updated of the event!

(Disclosure: FamilyLink is a former client of mine)

Originally posted on Google+!

Why Changing Your LinkedIn Password Is Not Enough

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 12:59:57 PDT

The news is spreading today that LinkedIn's database was hacked, and millions of users accounts have been compromised. I keep hearing over and over again to "change your password." That's smart. I changed mine this morning. Something that people aren't saying though is that your other social networking accounts could be at risk as well thanks to LinkedIn's poor security policies. Here's why:

If you're one of the majority of people that use your password on more than one social network (yes, I'm looking at you, because you're likely one of them - there are even security professionals that make this mistake), the first thing I would do as a hacker once I decrypted the digested passwords obtained is not target your LinkedIn account. Instead, I'd start going through Facebook, Twitter, and even Google and start trying it there where I could do more damage.

Is it the same as your Gmail account? Sweet! I get some LOLz on your behalf, and I can now start making password requests, without your knowledge, to all of your other accounts. Now I can post to the Google+ Pages you manage. I can post to the Facebook Pages you manage. See where I'm getting?

If you were using the same password on LinkedIn as anywhere else important on the web, you need to go now and change your password there as well. Here are some quick tips as you do so:

Make it more than just a word and numbers. Make it a sentence, preferably with letters, spaces, numbers, and even non-alphanumeric numbers (like $ and * and others).
Keep it at least 10 characters long - if you take my above recommendation, that should be easy because sentences are easy to remember.
Use a different password for each social network. You could use a similar password, but add a different set of numbers or words to the end to help you remember which is which. Figure out a system that works for you and that you can remember.
If you can, rotate your passwords every so often. Change the numbers or words added to the end. Add a character or two. It's up to you. That will prevent this from being a problem in the future.

These tips should keep you safe, and they really aren't very difficult to do. You just have to build a system, and do it!

This article was shared first on Google+.

Why do I Think Marketers That Don't Embrace Google+ Will be Out of Business in a Year?

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:23:58 PDT

(Want to skip all this and get the courses right now? Go to http://www.pluralsight-training.net/microsoft/TwitterOffer and sign up now!)

As I mentioned earlier on Google+ (where you'll always hear tech news first from me!), I recently just finished a course on Pluralsight all about how you or your friends can embrace Google+ better for your business or clients (you can see what this course covers at http://www.pluralsight-training.net/microsoft/Courses/TableOfContents?courseName=googleplus-business). In a new series for businesses provided by the video training site, Pluralsight, we're doing a new deal that will expire this week where you can get 30 days to watch my videos for free. This is an excellent way to get your friends and family to understand the value of Google+!

In my new, 2 hour, Google+ course, I show why Google+ is about so much more than plus.google.com, and step-by-step demos on how you can link your website or blog to Google+ and instantly improve your site's presence on the web. You'll learn tips and tricks and techniques to get engagement flowing, and how to build your audience on the entire Google platform.

This new training course complements my already existing Facebook Applications course targeted at marketers and businesses to learn how they can do some very simple things to fully integrate Facebook into their existing apps and websites (see the overview for this course at http://www.pluralsight-training.net/microsoft/Courses/TableOfContents?courseName=intro-fb-dev). The 30 day free course is a super deal, and gets you 4 full hours of training from me on the subjects I know most about. I've put a ton of time into these!

To get the 30 days free, just go to http://www.pluralsight-training.net/microsoft/TwitterOffer, follow me on Twitter (@Jesse), then follow @Pluralsight, and they'll DM you a trial code to get the free access. Go do it now, and get your friends to take advantage as well so they can learn why I think Google+ is such a powerful tool!

This was originally posted on Google+.

Custom Tailoring 2.0 - "Dress Code" is Set to Become the Zappos of Tailoring

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Wed, 02 May 2012 09:00:01 PDT

Back in October I had the opportunity to visit Hong Kong for business. While I was there I decided to get a custom suit made. I'm a sucker for a good suit! While Hong Kong is certainly not as cheap as Thailand when it comes to custom-made suits, it is generally much cheaper than the typical run-of-the-mill tailor in the United States. In the United States it's typically "go cheap (as in poorly designed) or go broke (as in way too expensive for the 99% to afford)". In Hong Kong for about $300 I can get a pretty nice suit that is completely custom-tailored for my body type and size, something that would typically cost near $1,000 in the United States. I'd say that's a pretty good deal.

That's why I was a bit curious when +Chase Murdock from Dress Code heard about my trip to Hong Kong, and approached me to consider having them doing a suit for me. He and his partner offered to make a suit for me for free to show off what they're able to do that other tailors aren't able - create a custom suit is typically affordable to the average consumer. A free suit? Why not? I'll bite.

The arrangement through their site is simple. Dress Code has no physical stores. They're a pure e-commerce model. So I just visit http://DressCodeCustom.com, schedule an appointment by filling out some simple information on their site, and soon they're knocking on the door at my home or business to measure and consult with me on what I want them to make for me.

My visit with them was very pleasant. Chase and his partner came to my house dressed in very stylish clothes, and I could tell they knew what they were talking about. We went through some fabric books of theirs, and they gave me all kinds of suggestions and recommendations of things I would have never thought about. My tailor in Hong Kong just asked me the basics and went with it. These guys were much more thorough, and wanted to ensure every step of the way that every little detail was thought of. We went through number of buttons, tapering of the pants, and vents in the back of the suit coat. But they also recommended various linings for the inside of the suit, and even the color of the seam that ties the lining to the rest of the suit. By the end I was relying on them to be my experts, and I trusted their expertise to do so.

By the end of the appointment I asked them what a suit like this would normally cost. When they said "cheaper", I thought they would say in the range of $500-$700. I almost gasped when they told me $250-$300. That's not much more expensive than a typical, non-tailored suit!

I'm very excited to see what comes of this appointment. If the suit turns out as well as the service and simplicity of ordering that I experienced with Chase and his partner, I anticipate I'll be very pleased. The good news is if all goes well I won't have to travel overseas to get my suits any more. I'll just call my "suit guy" and he'll make me whatever clothing choice I want, all at a lower cost, and I barely have to make any effort to make it happen.

My suit is currently being made by their company at the moment. I should receive notice in the next couple weeks that it is done. When finished I'll provide a final review of their service and product for everyone to see.

If you're looking for custom clothing of any kind, these guys are worth taking a look at. They currently service Utah and Nevada/Las Vegas. However, they do take trips to Colorado, as well as the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas on occasion. Contact them and have your company get them to come set up a pop-up location to get your employees all styled up for cheap.

Stay tuned - I'll share more when I get my suit! Oh, and be sure to follow their style blog at http://www.dresscodecustom.com/blog - if you're into understanding the latest styles, this blog really shows they get it!

I got a free suit in exchange for doing an honest review of their services - while certainly biased, I am always truthful and objective in these types of reviews.

This was originally posted on Google+.

You'll Always Hear it First on Google+

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Tue, 01 May 2012 19:38:26 PDT

I'm starting a new experiment. From now on every post I make to StayNAlive.com will originate on Google+. This goes in line with my earlier post where I suggested that the Blogging landscape is significantly changing, and the blogs that want to survive will need to embrace social means of publishing and discovery. You'll recognize this trend immediately as you visit my blog and see the ability to automatically share the articles you read on StayNAlive.com to Facebook, and today I'm going to continue that trend with the strengths that Google+ provides.

The Power of Google+ Circles

One of the coolest features of Google+ is the ability to not only target posts by Circles and groups of people, but also the ability to send updates to specific email addresses and people. This opens up the ability for some really cool hacks. For instance, want to archive a post? Send it to your Evernote email address (Evernote allows you to send content to an email address and it archives right inside Evernote).

For all future posts on StayNAlive.com I'm going to use this same hack. One of the advantages to hosting StayNAlive.com on Blogger.com is that I can post to an email address, and it will post automatically to the blog. I'm going to set it to save my posts as a draft so I can go in afterwards, add links and pictures, etc. But you'll immediately receive updates on Google+ the minute I hit share. All other social networks will have to wait for the blog post to go live because I'll need a link to share those with.

The Best of Both Worlds

Now you can get the immediacy of Google+, while at the same time getting the RSS Feeds, and customized interface of the blog. If you want to subscribe via Google+, you can subscribe via Google+ (Go to http://profiles.google.com/jessestay to subscribe). If you want to subscribe via RSS, or receive updates to posts via Facebook or Twitter, you can go to StayNAlive.com. I still have a home base, and you have the option of getting real-time updates via Google+.

So come follow me on Google+ if you want real-time updates from the blog, or subscribe right on the blog - it's your choice.