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With each Success System you will receive all you need to get set up to begin tracking your daily progress.

Image  Did you upload an image onto Facebook or Flickr or add it to your blog?
 

Status update  Did you write a compelling engaging update that other people will want to read and comment on?

Comments - Did you add you thought on other people’s writing adding constructive thought and feedback?

People   Did you reach out and add a friend onto you social network such Facebook or business connection on LinkedIn, Plaxo, MySpace etc….

Share  Did you see some great content on the web and share it with you social network using the share button on the website

Video  Did you record yourself speaking or taking some amazing footage?

 Check-in Did you go and check in at the local gym, restaurant, museum and then post a comment with your check-in using Foursquare, Facebook places?

Blog  Did you write down your though and ideas on a blog where other can read?

Compliment  Did you write a testimonial for someone you did business with on LinkedIn, Did you write a store review on Yelp, Did you write a movie review to save your friend the aggravation of seeing a bad movie or to rush to the theatre in order not to miss it?

Tag      Did you tag you friends in a picture making them feel loved and liked, and automatically posting on their Facebook wall because they forgot you had a camera and actually took some picture at the family reunion, 10 year high school reunion, birth at the hospital, and the list goes on……

Social Media Success! Price: $16.99

Procrastination is old news

If you are like any other business person you know that one ritual that takes place when ever you meet someone new is the formal exchange of business cards. Now you know that I am a proponent of using advance technologies including taking advantage of apps such as ” Bump”. However for this posting I want to stay focused on the “traditional” approach to business networking and take a moment to talk about step two of the exchange of business cards.
After you collect the card what do you do with it back at the office? Place it on your desk with a bunch of other cards? Place it into a CRM program like salesforce. Perhaps even you reach out to the person and connect with them on a business social network such as LinkedIn or Plaxo? If so, give yourself 10 points since mot people do not. Most people just let the business cards pile up.
This is where CardMunch comes in. Who has time to it and type all the information into a database? Not I…. CardMuch does more than just type thing up for you. Here is a link to their ” How it work page. Take a look http://www.cardmunch.com/howitworks.html I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Changing the way the world connects

At the upcoming Business Network International conference to be held May 20th at the Westin Providence, members will be able to have a new way to connect and interact with each other using their smart phones and social networking on the go. Watch this short video Plugging In at the RI BNI Conference May 20th that explains how to get this new revolution brought by Mobinett Interactive for free.

Social interaction rather than performance

The Hanover Theater for the Performing Arts in Worcester, MA played host to one of the most successful people in show business today. Although throughout  his career Steve Martin has easily filled performance venues than can seat comfortably more than 10,00o fans, Steve Martin chose to engage with us in the comforts of the beautiful hall in Worcester with a maximum capacity of  3,500 seats.

You may be thinking perhaps Steve Martin is not that famous anymore. Perhaps he just can’t get the crowds. Wrong my friends. How many entertainers do you know who have been asked and agreed to, host the Oscar awards, being in front of more than a billion viewers multiple times? Steve Martin can and knows how to draw the crowds.  But, he is now taking advantage of the new hit in our world.

“A conversation with Steve Martin” is not about selling himself as he has done his entire career. Steve is here to engage and interact. His world tour enables him to use social media in ways only some brilliant minds as Steve Martin can do. He is achieving Tech Success, not through his comedy, but rather through the use of the intimacy of social media. The days of big venue performances might still be hot for some, but Steve Martin is a brilliant user of Social Media.  He understands that more intimate conversations in smaller groups lead to a greater “ripple effect”. Only a few of us had the chance to ask him any question we had for him.

Joyce Kulhawik was the other person on stage with Steve Martin. Now, Joyce is by no means a comedian but many folks know her because of her celebrity status in the world of media communication. Joyce did a superior job interviewing Steve Martin and making us feel like we were sitting on the sofa right next to her. Joyce had solicited questions from people who were going to the show, right on her facebook. Only those connected with Joyce Kulhawik on Facebook were fortunate to have Joyce select to add their questions into her mix of questions she asked Steve during the 90 minute conversation.

Just to emphasise this new approach to socail media engagement- here is status post from her facebook page:

I’m interviewing Steve Martin on stage in Worcester on 3/29 and will take questions from the audience! So what would you like to ask? I can actually take some of these with me and mention your name and town and ask them that night!

Guess what many did at the end of the show? Yes. That’s right, we went and posted something on our own social network. What was Steve doing? bringing us closer to him, telling us how he operates, thinks, creates as well as share memorable moment from his 50 year career in show businesses.

This type of engagement are the key to success in social media since social media engagement is about reaching the person sitting across from you on the sofa, or at the table. It is not the HUGE BILBOARD that you only see but can’t interact back. Joyce and Steve both brought us the ability to interact with them. each  day, millions of people, comment and interact on social networks. Steve Martin already is the center of conversation taking place on many Facebook updates, blogs like these, Video Blogs and of course Tweets.

Have you incorporated social media tools to engage your loyal fans in the most intimate way?

That's what friends are for

I loved  reading the Peanuts comic strip. My favorite scenes were when Charlie Brown would come to ask Lucy a question and get her advice. We all have a friend like Lucy. The truth is that we have so many friends we rely on to give us simple advice from relationship questions, what clothing do they think I should get, or even what movie should I go and see.

Our friends are our world, our trusted advisors for times of joy and thankfully there for us at times of sorrow and stress. We have all turned to ask questions such as: ” What should I do about my aging mother? What should I do about my work situation? What do think I should tell my son/daughter about…. Friends are the best thing for us. And at time, even though we may not admit it out loud ( only around our friends) they are closer to u then our own families. Not to say that some of u are not best friends with our families.

If you grew up like me, in a culture where everyone, including people who were not your friends or relatives ( such as in My Big Fat Greek Wedding) loved to tell you what you should do. Well, today, March 26th, 2011 Facebook has finally made our lives much simpler or even more stressful since now we can not only ask our friends for answer, but we can get their friends friends answer as well.

As the saying goes, there are always two side to every coin. I for one am thrilled that now I have an application that can let me not only get the opinions of my closest friends but also have their closest friends, and their closest friends give me their opinion

I think facebook has again given us a wonderful application to use and eek out ” words of wisdom” from our most trusted supporters, our best friends. Let me know what you think and what are the typical questions you tend to ask for advice from you bet friends.

And by the way, if you would like to enable the application on your facebook  just click this link. You will see it as an option in your status bar.

Selling and Buying homes using social media channels

I have invited Kathleen Cooper to be a guest blogger on Tech Success. Kathleen shares with us some examples of how she has been able to successfully incorporate social media use in her world of Real-Estate.

Being in the real estate industry today means adapting to a lot of changes that don’t only pertain to the market.  The past few years have brought a change in technology and the way we do business.  We have been introduced to social media and those that embrace it are the ones that will shine.

I am well known in my area for my use of Facebook, Blogs, Twitter & Foursquare with real estate.  I have been described as a social media expert and know my way around to generate leads and business in my industry.  I use social media for prospects, but also as a way to brand, strengthen business relationships and gain referrals from out of the area agents.

How do you keep up with all of this and still have time to sell real estate?  As a mother of 4 I don’t have time to waste!  I keep a strict Google Calendar that dictates what time I will work on my blogs.  I use HootSuite to link my Facebook & Twitter accounts so I only have to post one time for it to go to both places.  My fan page and blogs are linked to Twitter so they tweet automatically each time I post.  You would be amazed with how much you can get done in an hour or less per day.  With today’s mobile phones you can update any of your social networks on the go.

The secret to being successful with social media is to keep it interesting.  Don’t be too controversial.  Pace yourself to have a steady drip of posts, but don’t over do it or you will start to lose followers.  Advertise and invite others to join you on your social networks.

Social media is fun and full of energy.  I highly recommend every real estate professional use it in their business to climb to new heights.

To follow me and learn more about social media for real estate you can visit my blog at Sleepless in Sturbridge.

Forget about making one phone call! All you have to do these days is use your favorite application to “check in” at a location and “Shazam!” your entire connected social network of friends or business associates now know that you are at a specific location. Next thing you know, a few texts, messages or a tweets roll in  saying something like: “Hey, I didn’t know you’re in town. Do you have some time to get together?”

Thanks to the pioneer efforts of Foursquare, with a growing list of 7 million users, your connections can know where you are every time you check in.

Do you see me know?

As they say, great ideas are always mimicked.  After a short time Facebook with its massive network of 500 million users jumped on the bandwagon with the “Places” application.

Geo-location use continues to rise. If you are in a concert or convention you may see who among your friends are at the same place you are at. One of the other great tools of these apps is the ability to read the recommendations left for the location by other people you may not know. Let’s say you check in at a new restaurant and you want to know what’s great on the menu. You may want to Check In with either application and see what people have recommended. Hey, you may even find that this is a popular hangout of your friends!  So, which app do you like using when arriving at a destination Foursquare Check-in, or Facebook Places? One thing is certain, we love hearing where we are and what we think about the places we travel to.

Trustworthy

What do we find so special about trust that we value it so much? After all, trust is something we consider to be most important. How do we define it and how does it come to play in our daily lives? Most of us work hard to earn it but often find that we have to spend lots of of time and resources to get to where we would like to be with earning someones trust. The greatest question might be is not “how” do you earn it, but rather what is the best path that can be taken to earn it? There are many things that have changed over the years with the advancement of technology. Still, there are certain things that remain unchanged. Our social habits and systems are still key components in the process of  acquiring trust.

When someone says to you “trust me”, how do you really know if you can trust them or if they are just trying to convince you to do something or buy something? As a society most of our activities with other people are based around exchanges. These exchanges occur in our business affairs and any type of relationships that we keep with others. Since trust is built upon reasonable expectations by more than one party we have now been able to use technology to help us better identify who is or can be trustworthy.

You will find that more than anything else people rely on their friends  and family for advice. The more feedback we can gain from a large group of “trusted advisors” the more likely we are to  being trustworthy of a person or business/brand. In order to become trustworthy we must make certain that we, as and individual, or as a business that is promoting a product or service are remarkable. Its not that we need to be “spectacular” (although that would be nice) it’s that we are able to have as many people as possible from within the “trusted group” start remarking about “us” (the individual or the brand).

The ability to harness social media channels enable “us”  to have “ourselves” exposed by giving the “trusted advisors” the opportunity to remark  in as many social channels such as: facebook, Twitter,Youtube, blogs, LinkedIn , Yelp, Foursquare and so many other social platforms that provide the “trusted advisors” the means to share as much information as they wish about “our” uniqueness and the value we can provide. Exposing ourselves (as much as possible) lets us become remarkable by the ever growing group of individual we tend to trust. Tech Success works on bringing the social elements into use by providing guidance and support to business of various size. At Tech Success the understanding of human nature helps our clients better succeed in becoming trustworthy and truly remarkable. According to a 2009 report by “Nielsen” 70-90% of online users make purchasing decisions based on recommendation they received from people they know and also from reviews written by people they don’t know but still the same  have left their remarks.

Is it time to rethink the advances of technology?

Little can be said for certain about the facts of John Henry’s life, but his tale has become the stuff of myth. He has embodied the spirit of growth in America for over a century. But his legacy cannot be solely summed up in the image of a man with a hammer, a former slave representing the strength and drive of a country in the process of building itself. Something within his story established John Henry as a fixture of the popular imagination.  “John Henry” is the single most well known and often recorded American folk song.

Steel-drivin’ men like John Henry used large hammers and stakes to pound holes into the rock, which were then filled with explosives that would blast a cavity deeper and deeper into the mountain. In the folk ballads, the central event took place under such conditions. Eager to reduce costs and speed up progress, some tunnel engineers were using steam drills to power their way into the rock. According to some accounts, on hearing of the machine, John Henry challenged the steam drill to a contest. He won, but died of exhaustion, his life cut short by his own superhuman effort.

In 2008 as part of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicle John Henry is brought into the picture. John Henry is a sentient computer built by Catherine Weaver’s Babylon team at ZeiraCorp. His initial hardware and software were the Turk chess computer built by Andrew “Andy” David Goode. He is named John Henry by his psychologist, Dr. Boyd Sherman, after the mythical steel driving John Henry of American folklore. John Henry is given complete control over the building’s electrical service at Weaver’s insistence, so that he can route electrical power to his servers as necessary to develop his mind. Input is provided electronically at first, and later through voice recognition. Initially, he has no textual output, and can express himself only with visual imagery. Once connected to Cromartie’s T-888 body, however, he speaks and also see through the lab’s security cameras.

In his brief time working with John Henry, Dr. Sherman is not able to instill ethics in the computer. John Henry is aware that Dr. Sherman is suffering when John Henry routes the building’s power away from the security and climate control systems, and causes a trapped Dr. Sherman to die by hyperthermia, but does not care. John Henry does not understand that death is permanent for humans. He is aware that Dr. Sherman is dead, yet summons emergency medical personnel to revive him. James Ellison who, like Weaver, tends to refer to Biblical scripture, suggests to Weaver that, as John Henry is a computer and can be given commands, she should start with “the first ten”.

In the season finale, after Connors’ confrontation with Catherine Weaver, Weaver admits that she built John Henry AI to fight against Skynet. It’s also seen that John Henry is no longer connected to the server farm in the basement, gaining mobility via what seems to be Cameron’s chip.

In Science Fiction series anything is possible. It however our curiosity that bring Sci Fi into reality. In Mid February we saw another jump from what can only be another step towards making fiction everyday reality. In a special Jeopardy program Watson, the IBM super computer won a three day competition against the  show’s greatest champions: Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.

At the end Watson, the machine built by humans, earned a total of $77,147. Jennings collected $24,000 in three days of competition, while Rutter garnered $21,600.“I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords,” Jennings humorously wrote on his video screen, ceding the Jeopardy battle to his mechanical competitor.

Watson’s victory is the culmination of years of research and development for IBM. Watson calculates hundreds of algorithms simultaneously to parse human language complexities such as puns in order to find the answer through its massive database. The machine is powered by 90 32-core IBM Power 750 Express servers with a total of 16 terabytes of memory.

The battle of man vs. machine goes back to the 1800 with legends of John Henry. Today we see the the machines continue to work harder than mankind. And we have to admit that we have just seen another step in our ability to build machine who can supersede us in our thoughts. It’s official: The machines are smarter than mankind, at least when it comes to game shows.