photo credit: davef3138

Do you send emails without signing your name at the end?  When booking shows for my band, I have noticed that a lot of venues don’t have a name attached to their email addresses (example: booking@thebar.com).  To complicate the problem, whoever is sending/responding to emails does not include a name or signature at the end of her emails either.  In addition to being poor etiquette, this practice leads to confusion and a lack of trust (If they aren’t willing to share their name, can I trust them to pay me?).  So I don’t know if I’m talking to the owner, a volunteer, a friend of mine, or a professional booking agent that I have a professional relationship with.  As in any interaction, information about who I am talking to informs the way that I communicate.

Two weeks ago, I led a technology brainstorming session with many of the finest and most able educators in Minnesota.  These are the all-star teachers that every parent wants teaching their kids – highly-educated, caring, and always working to better their craft.  I was amazed to learn that not one of them uses MySpace as part of their teaching curriculum.  When asked how many of their students used mySpace, the answer was unanimous – EVERY singly student is on mySpace.  I asked them why none of the teachers use MySpace, and the answer was also unanimous – our administrators tell us not to.

So let me get this straight.  Teachers are always trying to connect with their students in helpful ways.  And here is a technology that EVERY ONE of their students is plugged into.  Yet the school districts are forbidding teachers from using the tool.  Hmmm….  Something is out of place here.

The interesting thing about all this is that millions of dollars are being spent by school districts across the country to develop tools that do exactly what MySpace does.  So, it isn’t the tool that is the problem, it is the administrators.  At a high level, those software development dollars could be better spent developing feature-rich applications for MySpace that serve a particular need of the students (as opposed to reinventing the wheel).  The dollars saved from leasing/buying MySpace clones at the district level could also be better spent training teachers how to use MySpace in the classroom.

I hold that it is better to meet students where they are at than to try to get them to learn a new tool and interact in a new environment.  The facts are that students know MySpace.  They like MySpace.  And they spend many of their waking hours on MySpace.  Why not add some value?

UPDATE 2/19/09: Check out this great post (and read the comments) for a great discussion on some University of Texas professors’ use of MySpace and Facebook in the classroom.

(Above: A Redbox DVD that is nickel-and-diming me)

5 days ago, I checked out a Redbox DVD from the local McDonald’s with the intention of returning it the next day.  For those of you who don’t know, Redbox is a DVD distributor that charges $1/day for rentals and has distribution outlets in all sorts of places.  Pretty convenient, eh? The problem is, I forgot to return the DVD and am now left paying $5 of what should have been a $1 bill.

This experience makes me much less likely to rent from Redbox next time around, because I feel like they are nickel-and-diming me (i.e. ripping me off).  I would rather spend the $4 to get a rental at Blockbuster and not worry about returning it on a certain date.

So, I got to thinking about my website design business.  I don’t nickel-and-dime.  That is, I am very up front about costs, and so long as my clients ask nicely, I will even make little tweaks to their websites for free that are completely outside of any agreement we may have.  I figure that sort of customer service leads to happier customers which leads to a better reputation for my business.  So I ask this of you: Are you nickel-and-diming your customers?

Inspired by Garrick Van Buren, I have decided to brainstorm and document some presentations I would like to give in the future. Here they are:

PRESENTATIONS I WOULD LIKE TO GIVE:

• Blogging for Beginners (I am scheduled to give this one in April!)
• Making WordPress Work for You
• Building Your First WordPress Theme
• Advanced WordPress Themes
• Harnessing the Power of Online Social Media; or How I Became Friends with Maria Shriver
• Computers In the Classroom: The Medium is Still the Message

PRESENTATIONS I HAVE GIVEN:

• WordPress for Beginners (at Minnebar 2008)
• Manipulating Classroom Space to Suit Pedagogical Ends
• Using WordPress as a Content Management System (at Unsummit 2009)

Yesterday, a colleague of mine said, “This guy kicks ass!” She was referring to a reliable contract worker who can get stuff done quickly.  As I wrap up a day’s work at 3:30 a.m. this morning, I am realizing that our definitions of a “kick ass” worker differ a bit.

For my colleague, a great worker is someone who busts her ass, making sure everything is done on time and to specifications.  But to me, a great worker is something else entirely.  I mostly don’t concern myself with deadlines much.  I believe that creative results take time.  Lots of time.  Creative people who adhere to client-imposed deadlines produce inferior products for the most part. You can see it in their work. I have seen great artists turn out total crap full of inconsistencies and errors, because they were rushed to produce a work. I have seen people pulling out their own hair (figuratively speaking) as a result of being stressed out from deadlines. And to what end?!

It seems to me that people who are overly-concerned about money get overly-concerned about deadlines.  The two are bedfellows – syrup & pancakes, beds & sheets, Facebook & stalkers. I am not overly concerned about money.  In fact, I am generally not concerned about money at all.  I don’t have any investments, my savings doesn’t generate much interest, and my wallet is generally empty. But still I have everything I could ever want while earning a lower-class wage. And I am happy.

The result of all this is that my clients who value idea cultivation, relationships, and patience get a much better experience with me (and me with them) than my clients who value deadlines over redesign. They are happier, I am happier, and my cat is happier too.

There is nothing worse than being in a situation where your pocketbook is at the mercy of experts in an area that you know very little about.  I just got back from a car-repair shop in Minneapolis, where I had to get my car towed due to its reluctance to start when I turned the key in the ignition.

I know nothing about cars, and car-repair shops are scary for that reason.  I cringed when the guy at the desk told me that it might cost $100 for the mechanic to simply open the hood (the coat hanger that I was previously using to open the hood fell out and was rendered unusable).  Then there was the fact that the car wouldn’t start up.  Oh boy, was I in for it!

Thankfully, AAA took care of my towing expenses, or else the final $174 bill would have been much higher.

As I was waiting for my car to get fixed, the dollar signs painfully whizzing past my brain, I had a moment of clarity.  Some of my clients probably feel the same way when they ask me to fix a website issue or build a website from scratch.  That is, my clients mostly know next to nothing about what it takes to build a website. That’s not a dig on them, quite the contrary.  We can’t expect to know everything about everything – that’s what experts are for!  So, we hire a mechanic to fix our car, a web guy to build our website, an accountant to do our taxes, etc.  All of these experts are to a large extent given free reign to charge what they deem appropriate (and what the market will bear), and we must grin and take it. We have no other choice in the matter, except to learn the trade in question, but who has time for that?!

Next time someone asks me “how much?”, I will have much more empathy for their situation.  They are probably scared, gripping their checkbook and bracing for the worst.  Like me at the car-repair shop earlier, they will have to trust the expert (me) to do a great job at a fair price.

After a month or so of softening up the boss on the merits of a company blog, I finally got a bite.  He emailed me to say that he is sold on the merits of a company blog and now wants to know HOW to impliment it.  So, it is now on my shoulders to deliver a blogging strategy that will make sense for a 30-employee-strong marketing agency in the Twin Cities.  I am still in the brainstorming phase of this project and would love some feedback.

Things we need to figure out:

• Who will write?
• How often will people write?
• What will the content be?
• Terms & Expectations

Who will write?
EVERY employee shall be required to post one blog every two weeks.

How often will the blog be updated?
Twice per day.  We need to keep to that schedule.  If 30 people are blogging once every two weeks, that’s 60 blog entries per month.  Shouldn’t be too tough, right?

What will the content be?
Every employee will be required to share expertise on a topic of interest to her.  This could be an exploration of a topic or more of a teach-in-style blog entry.  Any blog entries, so long as it is at least tangentially-related to the business will be accepted.

Terms & Expectations
The blog will share the same expectations as other company-branded communication.  That is, all blog entries shall be respectful of differences as well as support the mission of  the company.  Basically, that means that the blog will receive the same treatment as face-to-face, email, and phone conversations with colleagues and clients.

Summary
Obviously, I have a lot more hashing out to do in terms of this blog strategy.  I am sure that I left out all sorts of important things. Please feel free to offer tips and suggestions via comment below as we move forward with this project.  In turn, I will keep you updated!

Thanks!

I have used an iPhone for a couple of weeks now, using it mostly as an online social media device, and pausing sporadically to make a phone call on it. Generally speaking, it is a good device for connecting with friends on the major online social media networks. Of course there are some pitfalls, too.

The good:
Facebook
MySpace
LinkedIn
Pandora

The bad:
YouTube
Last.fm
Flickr

The ugly:
Twitter
Blogging

First, let’s talk about the Good. The free proprietary applications for Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn are all fantastic. All three provide an easy way to quickly update your status, check and send email, and connect with friends. Facebook even provides a way to chat.

Pandora’s app is simple, intuitive, and offers all the functionality of the Pandora website. One bad thing about this app is that the application closes and the music stops playing when you press the home button. I’m not sure if this is a limitation of the iPhone operating system, itself, or if this is a programming issue. But the iPod app continues playing until I manually close it or press “pause”. It would be nice for Pandora to have that functionality as well.

Now, for the Bad. The biggest disappointment, by far, is the YouTube application that comes pre-installed on the iPhone. It sucks. It is fine for playing videos, but it lacks all of the features that make YouTube a great online social media environment. You can’t view user profiles, post comments, make friends, send email, or really do anything at all, except watch videos.

Flickr does not have an official iPhone app. This is a bit of a black eye for this giant of the online social media world. True, you can still post photos to your Flickr account by taking advantage of Flickr’s “post by email” capabilities, but without the ability to comment on others’ photos and check my Flickr email, and see what my friends are saying about my newly-posted photos, what is the point?

Last.fm’s iphone app doesn’t do anything except stream music, making it a clone of Pandora’s app. Without the ability to check your neighborhood, your recommendations, etc., Last.fm is merely another online radio station.

Finally, we reach the Ugly. The iPhone app store is saturated with Twitter clients of varying abilities. I have only used two free ones – Twitfire and Twitteriffic. As I have said before, Twitfire is great if you just want to send a quick Tweet with a combination of text, location, and photo. But it does not have the capability of viewing other’s tweets. Twitteriffic provides a fantastic interface for viewing tweets en-masse and for sending tweets. Unfortunately, it does not provide a way to track specific friends in the timeline. Also, there is no way to find specific friends via a search. So, these applications are good at what they do, but have significant room for improvement.

Blogging on the iPhone is mainly limited by the keypad. The iPhone is great for short text messages and tweets, but it’s keypad makes it too cumbersome to write anything more than a sentence or two. There are probably kids who can type 60 words per minute on the iPhone, but I am not one of them. In fact, I am lucky if I get 20 words written in a minute. That said, the WordPress application is a gem! From time-to-time, I post short blogs with photos, which works exceptionally well. Also, the next iteration of the WordPress app will include a landscape (horizontal) typing feature, which might increase typing efficiency.

So, that is my experience with online social media and the iPhone so far. Please comment if you have anything to add!

(Photo taken with my iPhone)

I broke down and bought the iPhone a week ago for a number of reasons, but the main reason was for its online social media capabilities.  The tools that I use regularly include Twitter, WordPress, Facebook, and MySpace.  For the last few weeks, I have also been text-messaging (SMS) quite a bit.  Here are the free online social media-related iPhone applications that I use:

• Twitfire
• Twitteriffic (free version)
• WordPress for iPhone
• Facebook for iPhone
• MySpace for iPhone

Twitfire (a Twitter application): Of all my online social media-related iPhone applications, I use Twitfire the most.  I tried out Twitterific before I tried Twitfire, and based on my experience, Twitfire is much more stable.  Using Twitfire, I am able to quickly send tweets containing my current location, post photos (either from library or taken at time of posting), and do “@” replies.  Utilizing all of these features is quite intuitive, though the usability is a bit clunky. For example, the posting of photos takes a few minutes, and the “@” address book doesn’t have all of my contacts listed.  Twitfire has a built-in web browser that converts links into shortened links and allows me to easily place them into tweets.  One HUGE downside to Twitfire is that you cannot read others’ tweets.  To phrase that last sentence differently, Twitfire is used ONLY for posting tweets and NEVER for reading tweets. (Video review)

Twitteriffic is much more robust than Twitfire, but it hasn’t been very reliable, in my experience.  That is, it doesn’t load up half the time when I open it.  This is frustrating.  That said, when it does work, Twitteriffic is a fantastic product that does everything Twitfire does and MORE!  In addition to being able to post photos, geolocation, and tweets, Twitteriffic has a great interface for viewing and replying to tweets.  To summarize, if you can get Twitteriffic to work consistently, it is a much better product than Twitfire.

WordPress for iPhone is simply fantastic.  If you use either self-hosted WordPress or WordPress.com software for your blog or website, then you will love this application.  The current version allows you to manage and publish posts with photos and hyperlinks.  The next version has promised expanded functionality including horizontal keyboard, posting in the future, managing comments, and managing pages.  Unfortunately, the nature of the keyboard makes it difficult to type as quick as I am used to on my home keyboard, which makes posting long posts such as this one difficult to stomach.

Facebook for iPhone is FANtastic!  From the iPhone home screen, this application’s button has a slick, little icon that tells me how many new messages are in my Facebook in-box in much the same way that my “Mail” button does.  The application has interfaces for my “News Feed”, “Notifications”, “Requests”, “Friends”, “Chat”, and “Inbox”.  I am able to view photos and respond to comments and status updates.  I am also able to write and post photos on friends’ walls.

MySpace for iPhone allows me to manage my status, view and comment on friends’ pages, view and post photos, check and send email, and view friend requests.

Some other tools that I use regularly are the Twitter SMS functionality and Flickr email functionality.  Both of these tools allow me to send photos to Twitter and Flickr, respectively, from the photo management interface on the iPhone.

I just got back from the Verizon store, where I tried out all the features of the brand-spankin’ new Blackberry Storm smartphone.  While it has some features that are noteworthy, on the whole it does not stand up to the features of the iPhone and Google’s G1.  I compared the G1 to the iPhone in my last article, so let’s now see how those two stack up against this new Blackberry!

1. Keypad
   The clickable keypad on the Storm has many advantages over the iPhone, but it is a close second to the G1′s tactile keypad.  The iPhone’s keypad pretty much sucks, particularly when you are trying to send a text message and the keypad doesn’t turn when you turn the phone sideways.
   Advantage: tie between G1 and Storm
2. Touchscreen
   The “clickable” screen on the Storm is pretty darn cool.  Unfortunately, the Storm’s touchscreen isn’t very responsive to finger touches.  I consistently found that I could not select menu items on the first try.  Both the iPhone and G1 feature VERY responsive touchscreens.  So, ideally, the iPhone and G1 would adopt a “clickable” screen.  Nonetheless, they hold a lead over the Storm.
   Advantage: tie between G1 and iPhone
3. Speed
   It seems like the Storm has the slowest response time of the three phones being compared here.  That is, the time between when you click on a button until something happens seems to be longest on the Storm.  This is consistent whether you are trying to switch applications, browse the web, or choose a song from the mp3 player.  Both the iPhone and G1 are pretty quick.
   Advantage: tie between G1 and iPhone
4. Applications (software)
   The Storm comes pre-installed Facebook and Flickr applications as well as basic versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.  Unfortunately, you need to pay money to upgrade the Microsoft products if you want to create new documents.  The iPhone comes with email, calendar, Google Maps.  The G1 comes pre-installed with Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Maps (with compass).  There is a wealth of free software available for the G1, a bunch of free and expensive software for the iPhone, and some expensive software for the Storm.  The G1′s open-source Android operating software makes software development easy and open.  Apple’s software store is a bit restrictive, making it less attractive.  That said, Apple’s restrictions and limitations make for a higher-quality product.
   Advantage: G1
5. Quality
   The iPhone and Storm are heads-above the G1 in terms of physical build quality.  The G1 seems to be made out of cheap plastic, whereas both the iPhone and Storm seem to be made of a higher-quality material.
   Advantage: tie between Storm and iPhone
6. Ease of Use
   It’s difficult to find many faults with the iPhone’s intuitive touch-screen operating system.  Both the G1 and Storm offer second-tier imitations.
   Advantage: iPhone
7. SMS and MMS
   Storm outperforms both the G1 and iPhone in terms of sending images via text-message.  Neither of the other phones allow you to do this.  That said, the iPhone’s text-messaging interface is the most intuitive of the three.
   Advantage: Storm
8. Recommendation
   It is clear that each phone has its advantages.  Also, each service has advantages.  For example, T-Mobile’s monthly costs are FAR cheaper than AT&T and Verizons for standard voice/data/text plans.  This is probably the biggest hang-up for me as I think about purchasing one of these phones.  Most of the people I call are Verizon customers.  T-Mobile’s “Pick 5″ would suit me well.  AT&T’s monthly costs would greatly exceed the other two for me if I were to count voice calls.  That said, if most of the people you call are already AT&T customers, then the iPhone would deserve serious consideration.  Ignoring the voice plans, the iPhone offers the best user experience.  It is elegant, easy-to-use, and has a wealth of software (free and expensive) available for download from the  iTunes store.  I am anxiously awaiting the release of the next Google Phone and Storm.  They will surely be WAY better than the first generation versions in terms of build and ease-of-use.  For now, I recommend the iPhone.