Hiking goes a little social

I am always looking for new technologies to help small groups and organizations be more social and share the experience of being a member or attending an event.  Smilebox.com provides a simple way to build a slideshow with music and text. It was very easy.  What it doesn't have is an upload to Youtube which would make it that more shareable.  For that I prefer Animoto.com since they make that part easy.

This free slideshow made with Smilebox



Google's Page is not crazy

I don’t understand why everyone is so fired up about this. He isn’t threatening their salaries or their jobs – he said their BONUS was at stake! Any company I have ever worked for, from Fortune 500 Ingersol Rand to a marketing firm, bases salary and bonus on performing your job to meet the business goals of the organization. If you don’t eat the dinner you don’t get the desert.



Besides, there are lots of people looking for jobs these days through no fault of their own. If Google employees can’t develop social, or if they can’t learn how to become a social business themselves and be pertinent, then people should not get paid. They should worry about their jobs. Other Enterprise organizations are clearly taking this seriously like Kraft Food and Cisco, etc. If you want to have a competitive advantage you need to become a social business and transformation can be difficult.

Amplify’d from gigaom.com

I don’t understand why everyone is so fired up about this. He isn’t threatening their salaries or their jobs – he said their BONUS was at stake! Any company I have ever worked for from Fortune 500 Ingersol Rand to a marketing firm bases salary and bonus on performing your job to meet the business goals of an organization. If you don’t eat the dinner you don’t get the desert. Besides, there are lots of people looking for jobs these days through no fault of their own. If Google employees can’t develop social, or if they can’t learn how to become a social business themselves and be pertinent, then people should not get paid and they should worry about their jobs. Other Enterprise organizations are clearly taking this seriously like Kraft Food and Cisco, etc. If you want to have a competitive advantage you need to become a social business and transformation can be difficult.

Dear Google: You Can’t Threaten People Into Being Social

There have been signs over the past few months that Google is feeling the pressure to step up its social efforts — the +1 features it announced a week ago being just one of them. But the clearest indication yet is a memo from newly-minted CEO Larry Page that told employees their bonuses are effectively on the line if the company’s social efforts don’t work. The Google co-founder may see it as a carrot, but many of his employees are likely to see it as a stick — and you can’t threaten people into being social.

Will Larry Page’s attempt to rally the troops and incentivize them to get social actually have some tangible impact on Google’s ability to succeed in this area? That remains to be seen, but I’m skeptical. I think Google staffers are more likely to resent these moves rather than feel inspired, and resentment isn’t a great foundation for a new social effort. Read more at gigaom.com

 

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/gQB6c7

Tips for consultants! Protect Your Brain

I think I will post out the tips - in fact the entire article, and include this as an every day read so I don't forget. I have worked hard to get where I am and why should anyone else get it for free - at least from me.

Amplify’d from blogs.forbes.com

No, You Can’t Pick My Brain. It Costs Too Much

I love giving advice. I write blogs, articles and a newsletter. I host a radio show. I tweet, Facebook and share nuggets of advice almost daily. So what is it in all of that, that would make anyone think they can still have the right to “pick my brain”?

Not gonna happen, sorry. My brain costs money to maintain. There’s training, classes to attend, reading (I have to buy books), gaining certifications, costs of memberships so I can network, attending conferences and mastering my skills that all cost me money.

I have to protect my investment. How fair is it to me to give away all the knowledge I have acquired that I use to make my living, pay my bills and eat? Read more at blogs.forbes.com

 

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/g7Ignb

Social BOOM!

Jeffery Gitomer's new book SocialBoom! has a section from Mitch Joel, my favorite author on social media since he is so enthusiastic about what he does.

I see this as the cup half full

This report actually represents an opportunity to help through strategy. These CMO see the need for social media, but its hard to fully support and be transitional without embracing social media yourself. Ever try to explain to someone how a piano sounds?



New companies like Social Business Consulting Group (Sobizco) which just recently launched with senior level certified social media strategist will bring that unifying methodology to CMOs so they can implement globally across their organizations - cross functionally and cross country.

Amplify’d from www.businessinsider.com

The Top 20 Social CMO's Of The Fortune 100 [Infographic]

Many are calling 2011 the year of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).  I can assure you, it will not be called the year of the Social CMO.  In our analysis only 15 of the 143 CMO’s and Chief Communication Executives (CCO’s) in the Fortune 100 we studied have active Twitter Accounts. Worse, 15% of them have a net zero social footprint (meaning no social activity).

Yet in a survey by the MarketingSherpa team, Social Media budgets are expected to increase in 53% of the organizations surveyed.

Moreover, "US marketers will spend $3.08 billion to advertise on social networking sites this year," according to eMarketer. "Spending will be up 55% over the $1.99 billion advertisers devoted to social networks in 2010 and will rise by a further 27.7% next year to reach nearly $4 billion."  Read more at www.businessinsider.com

 

See this Amp at http://read.bi/hW7ebi