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Thoughts and things I care to shareSocial Media Breakfast – Holiday Edition 2008
Hi everyone! I thought I’d let you know about the upcoming Social Media Breakfast – Twin Cities on December 19th. It’s a Holiday version of the event, meant to be fun and unstructured.
We will be meeting at the Lake Elmo Inn Event Center, where we’ll have a full breakfast buffet with all your breakfast favorites (including bacon!), served during the entire event. The Lake Elmo Inn has great food, and is a consistent reader’s choice winner in Mpls./St. Paul Magazine, with great facilities and excellent food.
This is a pay event and costs $20 per person. Registration will be open through Dec. 16th and there are only 60 seats available, so don’t wait! Click Here to Register
We’ll be having a great morning with the story of Ratchet, related by Katie Konrath. If you didn’t hear the story, it’s one of community, social media, and compassion coming together to make something happen. One of the great examples of our interest and commitment to social media on a personal level.
Also, we will have an “open mic†for you to share your stories from past events, or to talk about things that Social Media Breakfast has enabled for you. Tell folks what exciting new ideas you’re working on or what you do.
Along with that, we’ll have much more time to talk and trade stories on a more intimate setting, with smaller groups and less pressure to adhere to an agenda. Bring your ideas or stories and share with the folks at your table or the one next to you.
So come enjoy our most exciting event, our 10th event in Minneapolis & St. Paul, our first full breakfast, and probably the best chance to simply connect with more of the SMBMSP crowd than you’ve had a chance to previously.
I look forward to seeing everyone who can make it! If you want to make it, but don’t have a ride lined up, direct message or “@” smbmsp on Twitter and we’ll do our best to connect a some folks together
When:
Friday, December 19th, 2008 from 8am to 10am 
Where:
Lake Elmo Inn Event Center
3712 Layton Ave. N.
Lake Elmo, MN 55402
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Why Google’s Android Simply Rocks
There are dozens hundreds user-interface or aesthetic reasons that I could list off about the T-Mobile G1 which runs Google’s Android. However, it’s the functionality that has really sealed the deal for me.
The form factor and the ability to quickly add such a wide variety of applications to the device really makes it more useful to me then previous smartphones I’ve used. The variety of applications and new ideas is exciting and fun to watch develop. It’s no secret that mobile app marketing is very successful, below I’ve listed a number of applications that I’ve loaded and find really useful.
Cool Apps to Check Out
- fBook – A Facebook client app, similar to the iPhone app. Makes quick work of keeping up on Facebook.
- Locale- Basically a profile customization utility. It can change profile settings based on location, time, system events, contacts, messages, calls, etc… Really useful
- Maverick – An IM client that allows you to connect to more Google Talk accounts than the one tied to the phone account.
- Meebo – A Meebo client that allows you to log into not only your Meebo account, but also into any other IM service that Meebo supports. The nice part of this is that the Meebo client uses the data connection for send/receive rather than the text-messages that the built-in IM client does for Yahoo, Live, or AIM.
- PF Voicemail + – Enhanced voicemail, similar to visual voicemail on the iPhone. Allows you to review your voicemails by caller so you can choose which one to listen too first.
- Phonalyzr – Nifty little utility that will graph your call usage by date, time, length, incoming, outgoing, and other criteria.
- ShopSavvy – Cool tool for use while shopping. It uses the camera to scan a UPC code and then look up that product online. It has the ability to generate wish lists, and alerts for favorable pricing.
- Mileage – Allows you to keep track of mileage and costs for multiple vehicles.
- Twidroid – Currently the best Twitter client for Android. That statement, of course, is entirely subjective. I like it and that’s all that matters right now. 😉
- WeatherBug – Great Android version of the desktop app. Well designed for the screen size with a smaller memory footprint than The Weather Channel app – which is also a top-notch weather client.
- TextEasy – Allows you to send an SMS text message to more than one recipient.
- Toggle Settings – The app to have! This great tool allows you to quickly and easily manipulate various settings and radios on the G1. Very important since we know how power-hungry the current G1 software stack is.
- wpToGo – Have a WordPress blog? Either on WordPress.com or self-hosted, this tool is a simple but effective blogging client for Android.
- Opera – Opera Mini 4.2 for Android. ‘Nuff said.
- AnyCut – Allows you to create a shortcut on the desktop for nearly anything in the system.
Other Good Apps
- Task Switcher – While you can’t close processes with it (or others that don’t have root access) it’s still nice to see what apps you may have left running.
- Voice Recorder – Quick voice notes. This functionality should have been built into Android.
- Video Player – Watch videos from your SD card.
- Solitaire – When you need to pass a few minutes.
- Pictoral – Ties into Picasa.
- PAC-MAN – Is there anything to say?
- Orienteer – Makes use of the digital compass in the G1.
- Fitness – Uses the accelerometer in the G1 as a pedometer. Kinda works, and the developer is getting closer and closer with each release. Neat to see new app ideas like this.
- HotSpot Locator – Locate T-Mobile WiFi hotspots close to your location, either by GPS or by Wireless.
- inetwork test – Get a quick result on the 3G or EDGE network performance in your current location.
- Convert That – Conversion tool for nearly anything you can think of.
- Bubble – Mostly a demonstration app, it’s a level that uses the accelerometer in the G1.
- aTweeter – Another Twitter tool. A bit lighter weight than Twidroid, but improving quickly.
Of course, I don’t have all these installed right now (though almost!). I’ve been testing and experimenting with these apps and many more. The available application options have grown significantly over the past month. A great indication of a healthy & robust development ecosystem.
If you’re thinking about an Android device – don’t hesitate. Sure, the G1 may not be the one for you, but watch the next one or two devices that come along on your network. I promise, even the iPhone doesn’t hold the amount of promise that Android does long term.
Status Update – Nov. 2008
Hi! Sorry I’m not posting as frequently as I had been. I’m working on that, but am a bit sidetracked with my current client in Minneapolis. Its funny how some clients can take up not just time, but more importantly energy from your normal pursuits.
Sometimes it’s hard to work at client sites, where you don’t have the connectivity, or freedom, or time to keep up with the daily routine. Other times it’s just a rollercoaster of energy absorption that the client takes up so I don’t have any left for personal endeavors. Its a really frustrating experience when I think about it.
So, I’m trying to “partition†my client work from my personal work. That was something I thought I had gotten a handle on awhile ago, but must have forgot somewhere along the way. At any rate, as I work through rebalancing my work/personal time, I’ll be working on posting here on the blog again.
Stay tuned.
5 Things – Happiness
Like Jon Swanson, I’m not really big on memes, but since the 5-Things meme is a long standing blogging tradition, who am I to refuse? So in his 25 Things post, Jon tagged me with “Five Happiness Reasonsâ€, I’ll bite and hand off to another couple bloggers.
Here are my items for the “5 Things†meme: Reasons to be Happy:
- The change of seasons
- Our ability to overcome challenges
- Your family & friends
- Being part of the community
- Doing something for someone
So now I’ve got to tag another 5 bloggers eh? Well, I’ll tag Mykl Roventine, Todd Jordan, Josh Kahn, Mike Keliher, Garrick Van Buren. What’s the five things? Since it’s that Thanksgiving time of year – how about 5 things in social media to be thankful for? Participate if you like guys.
Photo credit: Leo Reynolds
Posting From My G1
Hi there – getting back
Hey there! Yeah, I’m still around. I’ve had a heck of a down week this past week. It started out just fine, got back from a great little weekend getaway with the family and started the week just fine. Got out on Tuesday and voted, but that’s about where it ended.
I’d spent the rest of the week trying to work through one heck of a nasty cold. Finally here on Sunday, that’s really lifting. I usually don’t get the common stuff that floats around, including the flu – but this one got me real good. Oh well, it’s about done and I’ll be getting back to business this coming week.
What’s been fun though was meeting more great people involved in social media here in Minneapolis & St. Paul and helping them get connected and able to meet each other. I wish them well as they work on the ideas and projects they create together – fun stuff.
I’ve been wondering about this recent meme on the death of blogging. What rubbish. A great way to drive traffic though – which is what those kinds of memes are for anyway. Though I will admit that all the social sites have diluted the waters of the blogosphere and have pulled many bloggers off their game and kept them from focusing on their goals. I know, I’ve let that happen here as well.
Ok, that and work – having to keep up with a full-time consulting gig at a fortune 100 company can really take up a significant portion of your time. However, that’s all good, should be getting better too I would hope.
Anyway, I just wanted to check with folks and let you know I’m around, a quiet mainly because of time constraints, but still here. Drop a line if you’d like and let me know what you’re up to.
Election Day 2008
GO VOTE!
Personal Branding Magazine – Volume 2 Issue 2
Personal Branding Gold Rush – That’s the theme of the upcoming issue of Personal Branding Magazine to be released on November 1st, 2008.
From publisher Dan Schawbel:
Volume 2, Issue 2 is a call to action. Now is the time for building your personal eBrand. Laggards will be lost in a Google cloud of dust, while early adopters will rank #1 for their name. Stop watching everyone else steal your gold (your THUNDER) and get involved today. Many people are scared to develop an online presence, yet it’s the only way you can safeguard your brand and have “job security.” This issue will highlight Gary Vaynerchuk, who will passionately force you to get involved in the GOLD RUSH. As you read each page, you will gather the knowledge needed to not let these opportunities pass you by.
Check out the interviews with, Gary Vaynerchuk, David Allen, Keith Ferrazzi, Robert Cialdini, and 26 additional informative and entertaining articles.
Not sure about a subscription yet? Check out the sample issue available right now at http://www.personalbrandingsample.com
Social Media Breakfast with Jeff Pulver
Guess what, my social media friends in Minneapolis & St. Paul? Jeff Pulver is going to be hosting a Breakfast with Jeff Pulver and Friends here in the Twin Cities on Nov. 20th, courtesy of Best Buy.
In place of our regular Social Media Breakfast – Twin Cities, everyone is invited to join Jeff Pulver for breakfast at the Best Buy headquarters campus in Richfield, MN. We’ve booked space in the large atrium dining & conference area at Best Buy called “Sandy’s Place†and will have room for quite a few more folks than we’ve had in the past.
I’m glad to be able to work with Jeff and Best Buy to bring this opportunity to MSP – our social media community is quite active and has gotten a bit of notice these last few months. Jeff’s version of a social media breakfast will include a number of fun differences from our previous events such as live social tagging, and the personal social networking toolkit.
Registration
Registration for this event is through Facebook, which is probably the easiest way to keep up with Jeff Pulver in any case. This will require a registration process on Facebook if you don’t already have one, but if you’re at all interested in learning more about social media and social networking, you should have one anyway.
Click here to RSVP for the Minneapolis Breakfast on Facebook
Personal Social Networking Toolkit
There are some great things that Jeff does at each of his breakfasts, and has a video primer that will get up up to speed on Facebook, here.
There will be a social networking toolkit for each attendee, so be sure to check out the video above on how it all works.
While this is really Jeff’s breakfast, we’ll chalk this one up as SMB – Twin Cities 9, since this was the original timeframe for our event in November. We’ll have the same opportunities for networking and sharing ideas, and trust me, Jeff is looking forward to meeting folks from Minneapolis & St. Paul and building relationships with the community here.
You can find Jeff Pulver on Facebook and his blog.
Photo credit: Jeff Pulver
Sponsored by Best Buy
Personal Branding in a Down Economy
How have you positioned yourself? Have you been building your brand? How are you prepared to take advantage of opportunities in a down economy?
While you listen to the gloom and doom of the mainstream media, naysayers, and general pessimists, remember that only you have control of your career. Just like leaving your financial future in someone else’s hands, doing so with your career is a recipe for disappointment or worse.
Perhaps your position at your company is secure, and you don’t have to worry much. Perhaps it’s anything but secure. Either way, the realities of today dictate that one takes a more proactive approach to staying relevant to your industry, and maintaining visibility in your market.
The great part is that both these things are quite easily accessible to everyone. All you have to do is take the initiative and begin. Sure true training courses by “certified†learning facilities cost real dollars and take up real business hours. However there are other alternatives – search them out on the web. You may already be doing this on a daily basis online or through RSS feeds.
The bigger part, though, is to be making sure to gain visibility in your market. To do that, you’ll need to explore the avenues of “web 2.0†and social media. The tools are plentiful, easy to use, and low to no cost. Most of the ones that give you the most value are going to be the no-cost options, with only your time as an investment.
The time investment is creating and maintaining your presence. It could be one site or network, or it could me many. The more involved you are in sharing information and ideas, the more likely you’ll be to gain both mindshare and authority within your market and industry.
The important thing about working towards this goal, is to make yourself more marketable, more appealing to potential employers and clients. So it’s important that you give examples of your expertise as much as possible. Don’t worry about giving away shared knowledge, every industry has a shared knowledge pool at every level of experience. You need to demonstrate that base knowledge and build upon it. Showing what makes you stand out in the process.
The demand for quality, well-rounded, experienced people never diminishes. The more polished your skills are, and the more people know about them, the more valuable & desirable you become to any organization. And you need to have those qualities visible to the public to take advantage of that next opportunity.
😢
“We are not enemies but friends.”
Live your life.
Completely.
Without fear.
Live it with Love, compassion, empathy, tolerance and joy.
Treat every person with the kindness, respect and dignity they deserve by the very virtue of being a human being.
Out riding this rainy, wet spring. Got 1,000 miles on the clock with more to come this season. #IMRG #IndianMotorcycle
Watching early seasons of #GoldRush. Fun seeing @GoldrushRick in season 3! Hope his new season is off to a good start!
Oh yes I did! https://www.instagram.com/p/BsRDO9ogSO0/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&igshid=1kha5yzhjq3ot