All Entries Tagged With: "iphone"

Interview with ipadio CEO Mark Smith

No, it’s not a cousin of the ipad, and it’s pronounced  ”eye- paaaydio”, not “i -patio”.

It’s a terrific new technology that I love, and talked about a few weeks ago here. But I thought I’d dive a bit deeper and learn more. Earlier this morning, I interviewed the CEO of ipadio, Mark Smith. (good friend Aaron Strout also did a nice review of ipadio here as well)

Have a listen below. (if anything, us Yankees will love his English accent)

We talk about:

• The resurgence of audio use with mobile phones. How businesses and individuals can gather  and share real-time content using ipadio. (think news and sports reporting- you instantly produce and share interviews and updates. ESPN, CNN, NYTimes, take notice
• Quite simply, audiocasting, or as they call it, “phlogging”, is a easier, and much more efficient and and inexpensive alternative to video.
• Geo-location and ipadio.  The topic du jour. You’ll notice that this podcast originated in the UK.
• Everyone has a smartphone, why not use the smartphone for what it is optimized for?
• And take a peek at Mark’s favorite pastime- how does he fit into this car?!!!

7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers- Diane Hessan

It’s people like Diane Hessan who make me look forward to opening up my computer, firing up Twitter, and listening to her stream of of consciousness. She’s the best of the best when you think of CEO’s on Twitter. I’m honored to call her a friend, a mentor and one of my favorites in the  ongoing “7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers” Series. Thanks Diane!

About Diane
I am CEO of Communispace. We help many of the world’s most admired companies listen to, and get insights from, their customers — by building and managing online communities. We have about 100 clients and over 250 employees.

1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
I love to laugh.

2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do and why?
I hang out at the coffee machine with employees and find out what they are working on that excites them – because it inspires me.

3. What makes you efficient with your day?
I have the best executive assistant in Boston. He is patient and super smart, and he anticipates every possible thing that could go wrong with my day.

4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
First, my 12th grade physics book Concepts like momentum, critical mass, vectors, energy, and force are key to building a growing and profitable company.

Secondly, Customer-Centered Growth, which I co-authored in 1995, because it was an enormous intellectual challenge for an extrovert like me.

Thirdly, In Search of Excellence, written by one of my mentors, Tom Peters, which first raised the notion that some companies are intentionally more amazing than the rest of the pack.

5. 3 things on your desk right now/3 things you can’t live without
My blackberry
my laptop,
and my Red Sox Trivia Calendar (The record for the most strikeouts in a single season is Pedro Martinez in 1999).

6. Habit you want to kick in 2010
When I start our 8:30 a.m. bimonthly all-staff meetings, I say “Good Morning Everyone!”, which really bothers our employees in Europe and Australia.

7. Habit you want to form for 2010.
I want to pick up the phone at least 3 times a week, call a client, and tell them how much we value their confidence in us. I also need to take more vitamins.

7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers – Phil Johnson

To end the week in our “7 Habits Series” , let’s have a chat with Phil Johnson, one of the best creative minds out there. When he’s not jetting around the country with clients, friends and other marketing luminaries he’s at home in his Cambridge office, just steps away from Harvard Square. And if you have the time on a Thursday afternoon, take a moment to listen to his agency’s weekly radio show on Social Media with Mike O’Toole and  Hugh Kennedy – There’s alway something interesting happening over there.

About Phil
I’m the CEO of PJA Advertising + Marketing. We call ourselves an ad agency, but we’re really interested in all the ways that people communicate with each other, and especially how new technologies are changing our experiences and behaviors.

1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
I’m a talent groupie. Nothing gets me excited like meeting someone with a great mind, a wonderful imagination, and better ideas than me. Sometimes I can’t sleep until I recruit them.

2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do?
Well at PJA, we all punch a time clock. Just kidding. I don’t know exactly when the workday starts. After I drop my son at school, I start thinking about business. But once I get to the office, I’ve got to check to see if there are any donuts in the kitchen, then put on some music, and play around with Tweet Deck. Next thing I know I’m writing stuff, going to meetings, and talking on the phone. I think that’s work.

3. What makes you efficient with your day?
It’s sad, but I’m just not efficient, but I’ve learned a couple of tricks. Every day, I jot down three things I absolutely want to get done. I’m always happy if I do two of them.

4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
I’m not a huge fan of traditional business books, but here are three books that I really like, and they are kind of about business:

Fast Company, How Six Master Gamblers Defy the Odds – and Always Win, by Jon Bradshaw. These stories reveal tons about entrepreneurship and human nature.

Stumbling On Happiness, by Daniel Gilbert. Understanding how we pursue happiness is very helpful if you’re in the business of influencing people.

Here Comes Everybody, by Clay Shirky. This book helps explain how all these cool web 2.0 technologies that we love are redefining society.

5. 3 things on your desk right now/ 3 things you can’t live without
Diet Dr Pepper
PJA note pads
My tiny Bose speakers.

Those things, and my MacBook, are all I need.

6. Habit you want to kick in 2010
I think I’ll start with trans fats and then move on to butter, sugar, excessive amounts of empty carbohydrates, and alcohol.

7. Habit you’d like to form  for 2010
I wish that all of us at PJA would connect to each other on a delicious network and get disciplined about tagging the content that fires up our imaginations. We’ve got a collection of really interesting people, and their collective knowledge is very powerful. I’d like to do a better job of harnessing it.

7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers- Mike Schneider

Many of you may not recognize this photo of Mike Schneider because he spent the better half of the fall growing a moustache for “Movember“. Now that he’s clean shaven, he is setting his sites on bigger aspirations, like being one of the Top 20 Karaoke singers at SXSW’s “Cog’aoke 2“. While he’s not mastering the art of social marketing and more, he’s QUITE the entertainer, and likes to “sing in the shower and in the car and on stage and at the mall and in meetings and on the phone”. If any of you are reading this and heading to SXSW, please vote for him.

On to interview # 17 of the “7 Habits Series“…

1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
Fearlessness. I am just not smart enough to understand that there are things that cannot be done and that I should not be able to do them. I rarely shy away from a challenge and do not accept “no” or “can’t”. I heard those a lot growing up in the Midwest. I wanted to learn Chinese as a kid and I remember people telling me “that’s impossible”. One day I just decided that that line of reasoning was something that I could not tolerate and that if I wanted something, it would be better to take a risk and make it happen.

2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do?
I think. I start in the shower. I also think in the car, preferably with some new modern rock blaring. I let my schedule whirl around in my head a little bit and usually a few good ideas fall out from between the dates and times.

3. What makes you efficient with your day?
Efficiency. The bar is set very high for me. My efficiency role model is my best friend, Gregory Ng I’ve never seen anyone ideate, create and deliver like that guy. Assuming I’m somewhat efficient: devices, gadgets and software help me attain efficiency. I love the shiny. Evernote, a tool that syncs thoughts, notes and audio clips between devices is one of my favorites. I am using it now because I suspect I won’t finish this task before I have to move on to the next. If I cannot, maybe I will bang out a few questions from my iPhone later. DropBox is brilliant for sharing. Heaven forbid I ever forget my machine at work (power cord is another story), but if I do, the most important files are accessible via DropBox from any machine. As a look-ahead guy, I am aching for a tablet. I can imagine a bunch of ways that will make me more productive, particularly in sharing concepts in groups and in content consumption.

4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
That’s like asking my favorite song of all time. I will not be able to answer with just one.

The Art of War.
Groundswell has a few good points.
Wisdom of Crowds and Black Swan are also highly worthwhile for any measurement / experiment junkie. Empirical thinking for the win!
And of course I enjoyed #Crushit by Gary VAY NER CHUK.

5. 3 things on your desk right now/ 3 things you can’t live without
Flip/Zi8
iPhone
moleskine

6. Habit you want to kick in 2010
If I can do something, one of my tendencies is to go ahead and assign the task to me. That’s not always good.

7. Habit you’d like to form for 2010
Balance. A little less work. A little more family, friends, beer and modern rock. Oh. Flossing. I need to floss regularly.

7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers – Colin Browning

Colin Browning- Photo Credit Jim Storer

He’s # 15 in your scorecards, and number one in your hearts, ladies and gentleman, THE Colin Browning…..

About Colin
Colin had recently left New Marketing Labs to join IDG. He now designs marketing programs for leading technology brands as a part of IDG’s Strategic Marketing Services team.

1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
I started as a photographer. I learned from the beginning that to stand out, I needed to see things differently and to make others see things differently.

2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do and why?
My work day starts when my eyes first open in the morning. I do some of my best creative thinking as I make my cup of coffee and take those first sips as I am thinking about the day ahead. My morning coffee ritual and day mapping is a critical part of my successful days.

3. What makes you efficient with your day?
Getting a solid 8 hours of sleep the night before, followed by a morning workout – then no matter what the day throws at me – I am can take it head on!

4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
I have to say, I have been much more inspired by reading the bios of great artists lately like Arthur Danto’s bio of Robert Mapplethorpe or a biography of Andrew Wyeth (can’t recall the author). These have inspired me with their singularity of focus, dedication, and talent.

5. 3 things on your desk right now/3 things you can’t live without
I am going to cheat and write things in multiples (I hate rules):

Photos of my family & friends (iRoadtrip!)
iPhone
notepad & pen

6. Habit you want to kick in 2010
Evening TV – like many, I do tend to get sucked in.

7. Habit you want to form for 2010
Spending more of my evenings playing with the kids and then reading a wider range of material: fiction, non-fiction (not just the social media stuff) and biographies.

7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers- Scott Henderson

In Interview #12 of the “7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers” we have Scott Henderson, an Indiana native (sorry about the Colts Scotty) and someone who will soon be moving east to Boston. Will Scott join Red Sox Nation? Only time will tell.

About Scott
Scott is Principal of  Rally the Cause and CauseShift.com-Game changing ideas for causes, companies, and charities.

1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
My delusional optimism has helped me jump off many cliffs without thinking of the reasons why not to do it. Most of the time, I do pretty well. But sometimes, I’ve had to be scraped off the canyon floor.

2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do and why?
I review my inbox, Twitter, and blogs to collect any action items. Then, I review the list of action items I created the night before and make sure I’m focused on the most important one before I start.

3. What makes you efficient with your day?
Scheduling my days in blocks of time when I’m not traveling. As much I can, I use the first half of the morning for planning, writing, and organizing, while the late morning is for phone calls and in-person meetings. Over lunchtime, I take about two hours to workout and eat. I structure my afternoons much like my mornings. In the evening after my son goes to bed, I will sometimes spend time writing and organizing because of the lack of interruption.

4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
I’ve learned more from reading Machiavelli’s The Prince than from any contemporary business book.

5. 3 things on your desk right now/3 things you can’t live without

MacBook Pro
iPhone
Headphones

6. Habit you want to kick in 2010
Checking email and Twitter as often as I do.

7. Habit you want to form for 2010
Spending more of my evenings away from the computer.

7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers- Libby Delana

Ok, Interview #9 of the “7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers” series. Today’s interview is with a new social media friend (and neighbor here on the North Shore of Boston) Libby Delana. Libby had the brilliant idea of answering these questions in the genre of the day- 140 characters or less (very Twitter-esque of you Libby)

About me
Founding Partner, in a Next Generation brand development firm named M E C H A N I C A.

1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
A sunny disposition, a fierce belief that just about anything is possible and a touch of discipline

2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do?
I do a few things first…MAKE cup of tea, CHECK Twitter, HuffPo, NYT, FB, Mashable, Slate, GoogleReader,  WAKEUP teen children, RUN.

3. What makes you efficient with your day?
Old school.  Moleskine with graph paper and iced tea.

4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
Not a book but an specific moment working with Paul Hawken in the early days of Smith and Hawken “Listen openly and very carefully to your angriest customers, they are giving you very clear direction on areas for improvement”

5. 3 things on your desk right now/ 3 things you can’t live without
Hot tea, iPhone, moleskine, favorite black pen, and a pile of optimism

6. Habit you want to kick in 2010
Taking too few photographs

7. Habit you’d like to form for 2010
To create an even more wildly open, experimental, brave, human, connected, collaborative, and optimistic environment.

BONUS: A picture of Libby’s office- very cool space.

7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers- Christine Major

photo credit: CC Chapman

Ok, Interview #8 of the “7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers” series. Today’s interview is with none other than Christine Major.  When she’s not knee deep in Social Media, she’s quite the  stand-up comic! If you have some free time, check out Christine doing her routine here at the Comedy Connection…

About Christine
I am the marketing communications manager for Awareness located in Burlington, Mass. Our social marketing software powers online communities for brands such as Kodak, ASOS and JetBlue. I like to consider myself to be a serial networker (thus the name of my blog). This means I get out there, a lot, and love to get people together through the several offline events I plan in the NH and Boston areas.

1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
Positive attitude. I truly believe that having a positive attitude through life can get you through anything. During even tough times, I always try to see the positive.

2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do?
After going through my email, I always review my to-do list for the day and figure out what I am going to accomplish that day. I love lists and I love crossing things off my list even more.

3. What makes you efficient with your day?
Our marketing team at Awareness has recently implemented an agile marketing process. You may be familiar with agile if you are in engineering and we applied the same process to our marketing activities. We meet as a team on a daily basis, go over activities completed from the day before and discuss what the focus will be that day. This process helps us all stay on task while allowing us all to see what everyone else is working on.

4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
I really don’t have a favorite business book – at least not yet. I am reading several now and recently finished GaryVee’s CrushIt which I felt was a great motivational book and validated my belief that if you aren’t happy in your current situation, then you have to change it.

5. 3 things on your desk right now/or 3 things you can’t live without
My MacBook, My iPhone and my laptop

6. Habit you want to kick in 2010
I would like to try to actually get out of my chair and go to the gym at lunch time. I can’t tell you how many times I have brought my gym bag into work and said to myself “this is THE day I am going to workout at lunch” and every single time that bag just sits there. Hey look, it’s there right now….

7. Habit you’d like to form for 2010
Slowing down. Like many people, I am typically working on several projects at once. Sometimes if you just slow down a little you can actually be more productive.

BONUS: A picture of Christine’s office- what makes her so efficient!

7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers- Melanie Notkin

Ok, interview #3 of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers. Please give a warm welcome to my friend Melanie Notkin, a.k.a “Savvy Auntie”.

About Melanie
Melanie Notkin is America’s premier Savvy Auntie, empowering the nearly 50% of American women who are not moms to celebrate all they do for the children in their lives, while living their own lives to the fullest. She launched SavvyAuntie.com, the Webby Award nominated community for aunts and godmothers, in the summer of 2008 to wide-acclaim. She’s a child lifestyle expert and tastemaker, and is the author of the upcoming book: The Savvy Auntie Guide to Life. She can be found at http://Twitter.com/SavvyAuntie.

1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
I love to read business, motivation and inspirational books. It’s rare that I can get through a chapter of a good one without popping over to my desk to share a quote, write a note to myself about a new idea inspired by the book, or learn more about the author.

2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do and why?
I check email, Twitter and Facebook to see if anyone is waiting for a response. I’m a one-woman customer service and client services team, and my first obligation is to make sure everyone is taken care of and I’m meeting their expectations, personally and for my brand.

3. What makes you efficient with your day?
Lists. If it’s not on the list, I probably won’t remember to do it. The challenge? Remembering to look at the list!

4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie is a big one because it reminds you how simple behavioral changes can change everything.

5. 3 things on your desk right now/3 things you can’t live without
My Latitude e4300Laptop and 20″ monitor from Dell. Dell believes in supporting women in small business and offered me this work station to keep me going strong. I also have a vase of flowers to keep me happy and the notes from my writing consultant on my book chapters. I call her my Fairy God-Writer because she helps me make my writing more meaningful.

6. Habit you want to kick in 2009
I’m trying to get off my chair and workout more often. It makes a huge difference to my energy level. And while I feel like I’m taking a precious hour out of my work day, I’m actually adding more energy and getting more accomplished.

7. Habit you want to form for 2010
I know it’s going to sound strange, but saying “no” is my new effective habit. I’d love to meet with all the smart, ambitious people who want time to connect with me, but with all the obligations I have to my business, publisher, clients, family, friends and myself, it’s impossible to say yes all the time and achieve my goals. Saying “no” can be an effective habit. (I just hate to do it!)

Dialogue in New York- a quick recap

Last week, I went to the city for several new business, client and partner meetings. Now, when I say the “city” I mean New York City. Growing up outside Manhattan for 14 years there really is only ONE city- and it’s New York. As a Bostonian and now suburbanite, when I head into Boston, I head into “town”, but I digress…

Some quick thoughts to share:

• Don’t bother bringing your iPhone. Seriously, it’s dead weight in your pocket, the AT&T network is simply too overloaded
• Be sure to visit the new “underground” Apple Store on Fifth Avenue- across from the old Plaza
• To save a few dollars, and to get some much needed exercise, I walked most of my way through Manhattan. Grand Central to 90th and 2nd. 90th and 2nd to 86 and Lex (through park), Wall Street to 16th and 6th. Best decision I made.  You simply can’t spend time in taxicabs or the subway when you’re in the city, you “feel’ the city by walking through each neighborhood.
• The site of the Twin Towers is still very much an empty space. Hard to believe it happened 9 years ago.
• Can’t wait to bring the family there next week, next month, or very very soon!
• Interesting fact of the day: I traveled to NY from the Greenwich train station. More people go IN to Greenwich to work, then go OUT of Greenwich to head to the big Apple- who knew?
• If you are a small business owner or entrepreneur, seriously consider switching over to Apple.  While your iPhone doesn’t work, you can still do lots at the Apple Store (there are five of them in Manhattan) While at one of their stores, I was able to get an hour of training on some new company software, recharge my latpop, warm up (it was 29 degrees out) and enjoy the company of some genuinely nice, friendly people. It’s practically like having a remote office in every city.