Something that struck me this morning: the internet grows bigger, driving us to go closer. We have tools that let us broadcast to unimaginable numbers. Yet it’s the personal that works. Even with thousands of Twitter followers (or more), the relationship is based on a one-to-one feeling of connection. Even large brands are trying to push into that space. It makes sense: none of us want to be just a number. Our marketing and PR tools need to be built focussed on creating that sense of connection.
Category: Digital Life
Social Media Success
One common element to successful social media campaigns: fun. Seems quite simple, yet it’s everything. Simply trying to make money, or gaining popularity, shows. That’s trite and pathetic behavior offline, too. But delighting in human interaction, in these discussions and conversations; connections get made. All those “success metrics” build out from there. Genuineness: social media’s gold standard.
Social Media Success
One common element to successful social media campaigns: fun. Seems quite simple, yet it’s everything. Simply trying to make money, or gaining popularity, shows. That’s trite and pathetic behavior offline, too. But delighting in human interaction, in these discussions and conversations; connections get made. All those “success metrics” build out from there. Genuineness: social media’s gold standard.
Saturday thoughts
Had a day to myself, thus many errands were run. One key one: adjusting my new glasses. Yes, I’ve crossed a key benchmark of life: progressive lens. Aka: bifocals. My first round of these and need just a bit of a tweak. Don, and his colleagues at Edmonds Vision Center have always taken exemplary care of me. This time, no exception. Plus, Don is a fellow Android fan, and he recommended a few apps which I’m looking forwards to trying out:
These look like great productivity tools. Should be fun.
Social Media Marketing Thought
Social media is a powerful marketing tool, but it’s about engagement & connection. It is only as effective as the effort, as the amount and qualify of work you put in.
Thoughts on Chrome, Firefox and Open Platforms
I’ve noticed over the past few days that Chrome became boggy and SLOOOOW. There are things I love about Chrome, but it’s propensity to hogging resources and, thus, degrading my machine’s performance have long bugged me. Being deeply enmeshed within the Google ecosystem might play a big part in that. But, the more I think about things, the more I’m concerned about my personal trend towards the Chrome/Google system.
I highly value the Open Source community and what they bring to the table. Even though I’ve worked for several large corporations, I really appreciate all that this community brings to the world. It’s more than simply free software, but also open standards. To me, it’s critical that corporations cannot lock out access to our data. So, utilizing open standards is critical.
With that, though, I look at tools such as Gimp, Open Office, and Scibus and see so much potential. For, say, image editing, wouldn’t it prove better to the world that the default image system wasn’t Photoshop, or desktop publishing InDesign? Dependence on one company causes me great concern. I really want to start pushing towards the adoption of open standards as the default for most industries. I don’t mean to disparage Adobe, Microsoft, or any one else. It should just scare the crap out of us to have only one real player in an industry.
So, going forward, I shall find open alternatives for my work (see the links above to start with). First, today, FireFox for browsing. I know this will also improve my system performance. And will I really notice any of the missing features. Heck, other than drag & drop attachments from Gmail to Windows Explorer, is there anything that is in Chrome but not available in Firefox? I’m not too concerned.
Digital Legacies
I just received an recruiting email, where the writer found me via my long neglected Indeed.com resume. It got me thinking about all the sites I’ve used over the years, that I’ve eventually abandoned, or at least dropped into neglect. Profiles on Monster, Indeed, NWJobs, MySpace…what do these say about me? To the recruiter emailing me about positions at Microsoft, what is there expectation of who I am, and would any elements of my current reality match?
On a somewhat related note, Om Malik recently posted You’ve Go (No) Mail. He talks about the sense of loss accompanying the ending of his Gigaom email. I’ve felt these twinges in the past, with the suspending of my Starbucks and Microsoft emails. But those were different at an elemental level. Regardless of my emotional connections to those institutions, I didn’t found them. They didn’t hold my name, they never represented me at the same level. The closest I could imagine is with this site, and the email associated with it.
carlsetzer.com is mine, it is me. If this were to become part of a larger institution, which subsequently failed, I expect that would hurt at a deeper level than the losses I’ve felt.
These footprints we leave across the web, and that the web leaves upon us. Intertwining, weaving with all those others, those we love, those we don’t, and the masses we’re unaware of, the active and neglected, loved and forgotten, all blend into this thing: the internet.
Growing Healthier
A few years ago, my weight crept past 220 lbs. With clothes tight, belts tighter to the point of needing replacement, I felt fear. In my mid-40s, all the diseases associated with obesity stared me coldly in the eye. Even more frightening, I noticed a few people, slightly older than me, with major mobility issues. All that lead to a call to get healthy.
Now I didn’t race for the nearest cross-fit course. I just added back some things I love: cycling and walking, also attacking some dietary “low hanging fruit” (limit soda, cut back on sweets, smaller portions) and ten pounds dropped quickly. But each additional drop presents challenges. So I adopted several smartphone tools, the main one now being MyFitnessPal. And I keep looking for better tools.
About 6 months back, I noticed my wife’s Fitbit laying unused and asked to try it out. I hated the thing! It displayed, in great detail, my sedentary life. So, I parked the thing. Then, around New Year’s, my fallow account got friends connecting to me. Funny, that motivated me to find the Fitbit and relaunch the tool. Now, though, the lack of activity challenges me to grow forward. I’ve been trying to add more activity to my life, deliberately so. Small steps, small steps; pun completely intended.
Last night I noticed the nutrition tab in MyFitnessPal and was, again, horrified. Too much fat and carbs, too little of myriad key nutrients. For sometime I’ve thought about building a menu about achieving great nutrition. Well, time to up that. So, a brand new life project. Got ideas, suggestions, etc, let me know.
Automating Your Blog? No!
Just got an email that promised to “put your blog on autopilot”. Of all the things to automate, pawn off, whatever, with social media, this NOT a solution. EVER! The closest thing I will ever do is suggest a copywriter. However, this is YOUR voice. It’s better to spend a few minutes a day on this than rehash commodity content. Oh, and there are SEO considerations as well.
Personally, I’ve seen blogs that are publishing the same content as others. Occasionally the EXACT same posts. Those sites lose all credibility with me.
One person I know experimented with one of these services. Their blog’s rankings grew rapidly, for a brief time. Then, abruptly, their rankings and page views plummeted. I believe Google sees when you’re pumping out the same content as “everyone else”, and you get banished to SEO hell.
It’s better if you can just do this yourself. Blogging shouldn’t be that deep or time consuming. Share your expertise, your value add, how you see things. Really, that’s it. A copywriter can figure out your voice, your unique take on things, and create relevant and distinctive content. As someone who loves to write, and loves to help people find their place/their audience on the internet, I love to do this for folks. What’s most important is putting forth that unique voice. That’s what distinguishes you from all the others who do the same sort of thing.
Living La Vida Browser
This morning I popped onto my computer to get some work done. After a bit of work (some email, updating social media, zap out a few blog posts) I’m struck the fact that nothing on my computer is open safe Chrome. I also have my task manager open, and a document for my son (for school). My browser has really become the center piece of my computing.
I’ve noticed this coming for some time. Yet, today, it gives me deeper pause: how will this affect us going forward? One obvious piece: tablets & phones. The more tools available via browsers (at least those optimized for HTML 5), the more effective and powerful these devices become. More and more of my work gets done on my tablet. I expect this will drive us more into the world of such tools as Chromebooks as well. Hard-drive space will become less critical for the average user. I expect the demand for laptops will whither, much like desktops have. Don’t get me wrong: there will always be demand for laptops and desktops, but the average home user won’t need the power features. Email, documents, Facebook simply don’t demand the power of your average laptop.
I know, also, that there are affects coming that I can’t predict right now. That’s the thing that excites me. Some right, perhaps right this second, is thinking of a new way to do X with this new reality. And it will change the way we live. This might define a key part of “me”, this excitement. I see change and feel the possibility. Hence, I gaze towards the future and see possibility, delight, wonder. Happiness, then, consumes me. I wouldn’t want it any other way.