On February 26 I gave a brief presentation co-sponsored by North Coast Small Business Development Center and the Redwood Technology Consortium’s Internet Marketing Group. As the title suggests it was a high level overview of the current state of social media marketing and my opinions on what works and what doesn’t. The slideshow isn’t that informative, but here it is in any case. Links to resources mentioned are below.

Resources Mentioned

• The Pew Survey on Social Media Demographics
• Coming and Going on Facebook (also from Pew)
• Google Alerts
• Google Analytics
• NetVibes
• HootSuite
• Buffer
• If This Then That
• Social Media Examiner
• Social Media Today
• HubSpot

I think the core of my talk is the section on Content Marketing. That’s the new buzzword but for years the mantra has been Content is King and it’s essentially the same concept: Create valuable content whether it’s with a blog, newsletter, training videos, white papers, case studies, even testimonials. Embed that stuff in your site (good for SEO) and then post about those things on as many places and platforms as you can.  Social Media Marketing should have 2 goals:

1. Get people to market for you: If you provide value they will.
2. Drive traffic to your site where you can control the experience (capture leads and/or conduct transactions).

I would love to hear your experiences with making social media marketing effective and efficient. And any great tools you discover along the way. Add your comments below! And as always, please share this post on your networks.

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The Social Media Landscape

Technorati Tags: facebook, google, pinterest, twitter

If you’ve paid attention to the news recently you might have heard of the death of Internet programmer and activist Aaron Swartz. This may be small solace to his family and friends, but his suicide  and the examination of his life and the issues he focused on could finally become the impetus for much needed changes to the way the Internet is governed and distributed.

Aaron Swartz from ragesoss on Flickr

I can’t begin to understand the causes that led to his suicide. I’m sure the reasons are complex and deeply rooted in Aaron’s personality as well as whatever outside pressures he was under. But as some of the emotional wave in reaction to his death subsides, I am seeing and hearing some really good discussion about the issues he was concerned with: Free flow of information, copyright law, open source, improved and economical bandwidth access for all. If you do much of anything on the Internet, these should be your concerns as well. A great discussion of Aaron’s life and legacy that reaches far beyond the events and causes of his death can be heard on this podcast from KCRW’s To the Point. Check it out.

Some additional links to good coverage:

• The Economist
• CNN
•  Time

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The Legacy of a Suicide

A couple months ago I spent several hours searching for speakers for my iPad. I read lots of specs and product reviews on many websites. I was looking for the sweet spot where price, features and quality sound converge. In spite of the horrible brand name (iLuv, puhlease!) I settled on this model (you can see it, sort of on the left there – it’s black, holding a black iPad on a black desk – not the best photographic conditions).

Command Center

Here’s why I like these speakers:

• The sound is good. Not great, but enough of a boost in bass and richness that makes watching video more pleasurable.
• Portrait and Landscape. It easily rotates so you can read in portrait mode and watch video in landscape. This is a really, really, nice feature.
• Flexible: You can change the angle of the screen holder to suit your needs.
• Charges the iPad while you’re using it.
• Compact: It doesn’t take up much space on my admittedly crowded desk.
• Price: There were cheaper models that didn’t have the features. And there were some very expensive speakers that I’m sure would have had better sound, but also had none of the features I like about this one. Sweet spot.

The quibbles are minor:

• As I said, the sound is OK. But what can you expect at this price?
• It’s a little tricky getting the iPad on the stand.
• I doesn’t have the “feel” of a product that was built to last a long time. If feels a little flimsy. But I have had no problems with it after months of almost daily use.
• There’s a remote which I have never used and now can’t find. It comes with an app for the iPhone. I guess that’s not a quibble. I just thought I’d throw it in because it’s part of the package.

Anyway, I thought I’d share. Could be a great Christmas present for your iPad owning pals. Here’s the affiliate link if you’re interested:

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I “Love” My iLuv

Interesting. Seems simple enough. I like that. Very quick.

Using it on the iPhone.

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Trying the WordPress App

Update: the app just received an upgrade with many improvements.

While sitting around waiting for a doctor appt. I decided to try out this WordPress app on my iPad. It’s quite simple to set up and connects with either a WordPress hosted or self-hosted site. this will be great for blogging on the run. Or while watching baseball. The one drawback I see is there is no way to insert an image. The editor has limited but adequate formatting tools and a way to insert a link without having to type link code. It also runs on the iPhone.

If you are a blogger using WordPress and have an iOS device, give it a try. It’s free, after all. What can you lose but a few minutes which, in my case, would have been largely wasted anyway?

OK! So I learned a few things:

• You can insert images by clicking on the Edit button on a saved post and then the image icon that appears at the bottom.
• You can edit pages as well as posts. So you could use the app to update any WP site. Not just a blog site.
• You can manage comments.
• You can get stats if you have the Jetpack plugin (or have you blog hosted at WordPress.com).

So anyway, it’s even better than I thought!

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Reviewing the WordPress App

Technorati Tags: apps, blogging

For fun we joined a sharing site for cyclists called Warm Showers. Similar to Couch Surfing. We’ve already had a couple guys from Austin stop by on their way down the coast to San Francisco, a trip I did myself about 25 years ago. They were great to talk to and we shared a meal.

Charles and Josh – from Austin

Looks like next week we may have a couple ladies from Washington.

And the great thing about the site? Made with Drupal!

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We Offer “Warm Showers”

Over the years I must have spent well over $150 on earbuds for my IPhone. They were always breaking. I admit I was hard on them: Dropping my phone which would pull the wires; getting the wires caught on door knobs or branches; wadding them up to stick in my pocket. Eventually one or both of the buds crapped out and I’d have to make a trip to K-Mart or Target to buy another cheap pair.

I’ve also spent countless minutes untangling them as got ready to run or exercise at the gym or work in the yard. What a waste of time!

I’ve thought about getting wireless headphones that run off bluetooth and had read a couple reviews of expensive ones ($80$120) and not being sure how they would work I hesitated. But a couple days ago I made an impulse buy at Costco for this Motorola set as it was only $50 and I must say I am really happy I did. I may look a bit more like a dork but really what do I care? Probably no more dorky that the earbud wires dangling from my head.

The sound is quite good (I listen to podcasts mostly, but even music isn’t bad). I thought I might have a problem of breakup if I put the IPhone in my pocket but the stream has been very consistent. Once the headset was charged and synced to my phone the first time it reconnected right away every time I turned it back on. It’s very light weight and comfortable and didn’t even bother me when I lay down on a bench to do some dumbbell work. So, unless I manage to break these which unless I run over them with my truck seems unlikely, I think I have found a gizmo that will really improve my life and end up saving money over time.

The affiliate link is if you don’t have a Costco nearby or maybe your Costco isn’t carrying this one. You’re welcome.

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Wireless Headphones – At Last!

Technorati Tags: headphone, motorola, wireless

I did a presentation for the Humboldt Internet Marketing Group/Redwood Technology Consortium, whatever it’s called (RTC/IMG? I dunno). This was a jam packed meeting and I only had a short amount of time. So this slideshow has only 15 slides. But I think it has some good material. I actually added some information that wasn’t in the live presentation.

I have been thinking about offering some workshops on specific topics. More in-depth, fee based. Maybe one focused on Twitter, one on Facebook and one on Google +. I’d be interested in knowing if there was interest out there in something like that, starting locally, here in Eureka. I would make it relatively low cost and high value.

The 2nd slide might need some explanation: I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. I don’t think that feeling is uncommon. We love it because we can connect with people we otherwise wouldn’t have. But it opens the door to lots of wasted time. And if you are a business owner you can’t really avoid the potential of reaching a much bigger market than you could otherwise. Facebook offers a lot of potential. But it also changes the rules of the game all the time. For most of us, it’s a huge chore to keep up with let alone use the system to any benefit. That’s what that slide is about. And the link embedded in it is well worth the read.

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Facebook Timeline Tips

Update: Apple’s Tim Cook Visits Foxconn IPhone Plant in China

Update 2: Apple Supplier in China Pledges Big Labor Changes

I have the new iPad. I confess. I have the original iPad. I have an iPhone, a MacBook Pro and we have several other  Mac desktops and laptops of various vintage and utility in our family. Ever since the New York Times series on Apple and its relationship with manufacturers in China came out I have been conflicted about my slavish adoration of all things Apple. Of course, I knew most of the devices I use were built in China and I knew the conditions were often harsh and sometimes deadly. Then I heard Mike Daisy’s dramatic story as presented on This American Life as I waited for the new iPad to be released and my guilt began to mount.

I also knew that the factories in China are not having a hard time finding workers because as bad as some of the conditions and pay are, they are much better than the abject poverty most of them face in rural China. I am aware that Apple is not alone among tech companies taking advantage of China’s low cost labor and efficient supply chains. Indeed, if I look around my house or probably your house, there are hundreds of items in common use that are “Made in China”.

So what am I supposed to do with this information? Should I refrain from using Apple products? What about all the other items built by “exploited” workers? What should my moral stance be? What should any of us do in the face of exported manufacturing jobs that will never come back to the U.S.?

I listened to This American Life’s retraction show on a drive up from Santa Rosa where, among other things, I visited an Apple store and had a very good experience. But the retraction show was more about the journalistic integrity of the Mike Daisy story and NPR than it was about the core issue. At the end, the question still hung in the air. How are we to feel about the conditions of Chinese factory workers? What are we to do to make it better? BTW, the retraction show is an incredible listen. In some ways, more moving, powerful and thought provoking than the original broadcast.

To add to the mess Apple, the richest company in the world, decided to spend some of it’s amassed wealth by giving dividends to investors and buying back stock, further driving up it’s share value. At first, I thought this was outrageous in the face of all the bad publicity around the China story.

But then I thought, maybe Apple is laying the groundwork for doing something much more radical than creating a new product that changes an entire market. Maybe Apple is paying off its investors while it plans a bigger gamble. Maybe Apple is going to lead the way in transforming the global manufacturing market by forcing its contractors to improve conditions and pay for all their workers. Not in just a small way, but in a big way.

What might happen if Apple did this? It would force other manufacturing contractors to raise their conditions and pay in order to compete. It would help create a bigger market for the very tech toys we in the U.S. gobble up as more people would be able to afford them. It would create a higher base for manufacturing jobs around the world that would then make our own worker pool seem more competitive (though there are other more complicated issues than labor cost involved in helping bring those kinds of jobs back to our shores) and it would further burnish Apple’s image as a company that “Thinks Different”.

So, this is what I can do. I can keep buying the gadgets I love. And I can write this blog as a tiny effort to encourage Apple to become an even more visionary company that helps transform global economics. After all, what else does it need to prove? Maybe this will be Steve Jobs’ true legacy.

I’m sure my logic is flawed and my reasoning is really rationalization. If you think so, let me know in the comments.

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Confessions of an Apple Fan Boy

Technorati Tags: apple, china, IPad, iphone, Mike Daisy, this american life

I love working with Drupal. But it has lots of drawbacks. Mainly, that it’s not easy. Even for developers. We often run up against things that just don’t work as expected. So, time is spent figuring out why and how to make it work. We can usually find a way. But it sometimes costs more to find the solution than is reasonable for a specific project. I have found the same thing with WordPress which, of course, runs this blog. They both have limitations. They both have good core platforms and active communities striving to develop, improve, and extend their platforms. To me, there is no going back.I hope I never have to build a site without either one of them supporting me and giving clients extra value in engaging with the world via the Internet.

I wish I were at Drupalcon this week. I’ve attended a couple and they are full of energy, excitement, friendship and learning is fabulous. But I can enjoy some of the event from afar. Here, if you’re interested is the keynote delivered by Drupal’s founder Dries Buytaert. It’s a little a bit about where the project has been. And a lot of about where it is going.

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Drupal Convention Keynote

Technorati Tags: cms, content management systems, dries, dries buytaert, drupal, drupal 8, drupalcon, web development

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Anchor Text Explained

Technorati Tags: anchor text, bing, google, link building, search engine optimization, seo

Two cool tech stories this week got me a little worried. First there were was this one about self-guided bullet accurate up to a mile. Then there was this nano copter swarm:

So nano copter swarms armed with self-guided bullets seems the next step. If I were Dr. Evil. Unfortunately, there are lots of Dr. Evils out there.

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Nano Copters and Self-guided Bullets

For some odd reason I agreed to be in a play. I haven’t acted in a real play in many years. It’s less than 2 weeks to go before we open in Look Back in Anger at the Ferndale Repertory Theatre and I am still working on my lines! I am only in one scene. But I have a lot of lines in that scene. It’s been a real struggle for me. It may be age. It may be lack of practice with the specific skill of line memorization. But it may be that I rely on external sources to store and and provide instant retrieval of information so that the muscle of memorization of has atrophies.

I rely on my IPhone to remind me of tasks, appointments, birthdays, anniversaries. I have Google and Wikipedia to provide near instant facts and information that my old brain cannot possibly hold on to.

I’m getting there, with lots of extra work and help from friends and family. But you never know. My brain still freezes at moments and lines I know simply disappear in the ether. So, you could come to the play just to see if I will crash and burn. Kind of like going to a NASCAR race. I may get by with a little paraphrase here and there but you wouldn’t know unless you have memorized the lines yourself. I might pull it off without a hitch. In which case, you might even enjoy the play for it’s own value. You’ll recognize me. I play the old guy.

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Memory, or Its Lack

This is a slightly edited and enhanced version of an article that appeared November, 2011 as part of the Times-Standard/Redwood Technology Consortium Tech Beat series.

The health industry in slowly adopting technology on a large scale, moving to electronic documents, computer generated prescriptions and information sharing. It’s been a rough road as standards and privacy issues have to be grappled with beyond the sheer technical problems. But the trade-offs in efficiency, accuracy and data gathering will be well worth the struggle. Mobile technology will play an increasing role in both institutional and personal health care advances.

An example of the convergence of data and mobile applications is the recent release of an IPad app for health practitioners by Practice Fusion a leader in electronic health records. The app allows doctors instant access to patient records in a secure environment from wherever they are as long as they are connected to the Internet.

While institutional adoption of mobile technology is starting to happen, another revolution in personal health monitoring is also taking place. An explosion of apps and add-on devices for mobile devices are putting a wealth of data gathering, sharing and eventually diagnosis in to the hands of ordinary people and health care workers in the field.

There are quite a few tools already, though in many cases they are still rather basic. Most of the consumer apps and devices focus on diet and exercise monitoring. However, the future is bright as developers begin to understand the mobile platform and stretch its capabilities At the same time mobile systems continue to become more powerful and flexible. Additionally part of the delay of the release of more serious apps and devices has been the long approval process required by the Food and Drug Administration. However, according to a recent article in Business Week that process should soon be streamlined allowing for a flood of new advances for both health care workers and individuals.

A Few Current Applications and Devices

An example of the type of advanced app that can improve health care is described in an article on GigaOm. The app was developed by Dr. John Moore at the MIT Media Group:

One such app enables HIV patients at Boston Medical Center to visualize how HIV develops into AIDs, how the virus attacks their T cells and what happens if they do or do not take their cells.  Using that app, he saw the percentage of patients sticking to their drug regime soar from 25 percent to 95 percent, Moss said.

Another application recently released is an ultrasound device that plugs in to a smartphone and allows a health worker to perform an on site scan.

My Medications, provided by the American Medical Association provides a convenient way for individuals to enter medical information such as allergies, prescriptions, and immunizations and to share that with primary care physicians.

AT&T recently released WellDoc Diabetes Manager that allows patients to monitor glucose levels and receive advice base on the input.

IBGStar is a blood glucose meter plug-in for the iPhone iPhone BGM plug-in will interact with a not yet Apple-approved iBGStar Diabetes Manager App that will help users track blood glucose, carbs intake and insulin dose.

In a more general consumer market, bluetooth phone device maker, Jawbone just came out with the UP, a wristband that monitors walking exercise, provides alerts for prolonged sedentary behavior (like sitting at your computer), monitors sleep habits and diet. The wristband is plugged in to the iPhone sound jack and the data is off-loaded to a free web app and can be shared on a social website.

ITriage is an iPhone/Android app that helps you answer the questions, “What medical condition could I have?” and “Where should I go for treatment?”

The Future is Near

It’s clear that we’re just at the beginning of this mobile revolution. In the next few years expect to see devices and apps become much

Live Long and Prosper

more sophisticated. Researchers are testing an MRI scanner attached to a smartphone that can detect cancer. And there is a 10 million dollar prize being offered for the development of a device that can scan a body and diagnose a variety of ailments. It’s called the Tricorder Prize, named after the device that Spock used in Star Trek. The future is coming fast. (FastCompany also has a good article on mobile health in the February print issue which I’ll link to if they put it online)

More Links

• Top 10 iPhone medical apps for 2011
• 7 medical phone peripherals you should know
• A Doctor in Your Pocket
• 5 Useful iPad Apps for Doctors, Patients and Med Students

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Healthcare and Mobile Convergence

Technorati Tags: android, gadgets, health, health monitoring, iphone, moblie, personal health gadgets, preventitive medicine, tricorder, x prize

Pretty much every day I listen to The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor. He always mentions the birthday of a few famous or infamous people. Today, he mentioned Elvis Presley, John Neihardt, the writer of Black Elk Speaks, and astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. He didn’t mention me for some reason. I also still don’t have a page in Wikipedia. What’s up with that?

Other than January 8 as a birthday, I don’t see much in common among these folks and me. Would some astrologist please explain this? I am sure there is some “reasonable” connection that would confirm the theory that the heavenly spheres and their relative placement affects our personalities and daily lives.

I am officially 60 years old today. I hope to be around for many more. But if you believe some theories it will be my last. And unless your birthday is after December 21, it will be the last birthday for all of us. If your birthday is 12/21 or later in the month, then you’ve already seen your last birthday.

So, what do astrologers have to say about this end of the world scenario? Thankfully, some are able to interpret the signs. For example, this guy:

Thanks man! It all makes perfect sense, now…

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Shared Birthdays and the End of the World