Apple iPad Questions

January 28, 2010 | 1 Comment

I have watched the videos of the presentation of the new Apple iPad.  I think I will buy one - this is the device I wanted 10 years ago.

But I do have some questions - and these may be obvious for other people but they are not for me.

Steve Jobs mentions that it will run iPhone apps.  Great.  But will it run normal apps?  I may not keep the iPhone when my term expires because I do not feel like hacking it and the out of the box phone is not easy to develop for.  I want to build my own apps easily.

I guess what I am really asking is - how restrictive or open is the Apple iPad?  I find the iPhone too restrictive to meet my business needs because there are barriers to development.

Also, do I need to buy the same iPhone app twice for two devices?  Sure they are cheap usually, but going back and buying them again will not be fun.

If it turns out the Apple iPad is just a big iPhone without the phone, and custom applications are not easier, I will be very disappointed and not buy it.  That is just me because I like to play with this stuff - but the early adopters or products like this are people like me, so that could mean trouble.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog 

Twitter in Decline

January 26, 2010 | 2 Comments

For about a year now, I have been telling people that, while I like twitter, I think it is too full of SPAM and I just do not participate anymore.  Today I saw an article that says Twitter may be in decline.

What is especially interesting about this is that Twitter is one of the big three in social media.  So I am not sure what the alternative is.  However, I knew from my own habits that it just did not have longevity with how it currently operates.  I think it is great for celebrities and such, but following lots of people just does not make sense because it ruins your experience very quickly.

So in some ways, you need to ditch your old account and launch a new Twitter account and be very selective in who you follow.  I know the activity I do most now on twitter is to unfollow people.

What do you think?  Is twitter in decline or transition?

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog 

Custom Murals for Business Marketing

January 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment

Today you can get nearly everything POD (Print on Demand)

For example, you can use family vacation photos to print custom kids murals for the kids rooms.

You could also really do some wonderful things with your office - if you think about it.

Go play with the custom mural design site and think about the possibilities.

You could do a mural of your corporate mission.

You could do a wall mural of your team at a team building event. Luckily, they are removable so you can take it down later when people leave.

You could mottos and inspirational quotes.

You could do a dinosaur - with a caption about how it will eat you if you are late.

If you have read my earlier posts and seen my business card, you know that I am a big fan of taking the traditional and making it stand out. Custom murals are one way you could make that happen.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog 

Non Profit Board Management

January 21, 2010 | 1 Comment

I am on 5 different non-profit boards.  I am not bragging.  It is a lot of work that I rarely get paid for.  I would never intentionally be on 5 - it just happened because they interest me.

One thing I have noticed is that they do not always understand how to best utilize and communicate with their non profit board members.  If you improve the communication and clarity around how your board members can contribute, you will have happier board members, more productive board members and better results from your board.

People on boards want to contribute.  Often, the non profit may think that the board is not contributing as much as they would like.  But the non profit also needs to understand that their board is involved with a lot of things.  So you need to make things as simple and as clear as possible.

Here are tips to improve non profit board management and utilization

  1. Aggregate Communication - Some non profits will send me a flurry of 5 or more emails all on the same day.  That is fine if you do not want me to open any of them.
  2. Prioritize Communication - It is important to have FYI stuff, but make sure board members understand which messages are critical and which messages are just keeping people in the loop.
  3. Simplify Communication - Summarize a message at the beginning so I know if it applies to me.  If you send me a newsletter, make sure there is a good table of contents.  I will not read the whole thing.
  4. Be Specific - Inaction by board members can often be attributed to a lack of specific requests.  For example, if you wanted more people to help get the word out about a fundraising event, you could make an appeal for every board member to invite all their friends.  However, you would get better results if you said each board member is responsible to bring 2 guests.  While not all will bring 2, a larger group of board members will at least try to bring several.
  5. Clear Goal and Clear Value - Your non profit must be able to articulate the goal that the organization has.  It is why people serve on your board.  You also must understand and publicly recognize how board members help the goal.  For example, I help the organizations make better technology decisions and marketing decisions - often saving them a lot of money.   It pumps me up and gets me excited when this is mentioned, because I do not always feel like I am doing enough.

Simplify - All of this focuses really on one overarching principle.  You must make it simple for board members to be good board members and contribute in meaningful ways.  Simple goals, simple specific requests and simple missions will help you create a simply fantastic non profit board.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog 

CNN Typos and Your Blog

January 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment

First off, I am not casting any stones here.  If I write a post on one of my blogs and there are not mistakes or typos in it, it is the exception, not the norm.  I enjoy writing and I enjoy teaching, but I have never been a natural good speller.  When my book went to print, I found a misspelling on the cover and had to pay to have it reloaded.  And I was being careful that time.

I get the question all the time when doing blog speeches.  How careful should I be with my writing standards?

Well, I just came from reading a news article on CNN and it had several obvious mistakes in it.

I do not care.  I understand it is breaking news.  I respect that they are putting out new stuff all the time.  But it did make me realize that it is not just us bloggers that are guilty of lower editorial standards.  The web moves fast and more content (if it has value) is better than less.

So Should You Worry About typos?

The answer is that it depends on what you want to achieve.  With typos, some companies have very high standards because of protecting their image.  If I was a lawyer or an accountant, I would not want to be sloppy because I am in a field that requires attention to detail.  If I sell writing services, then I would also not want to have typos because one typo will jump out at people and kill sales.

Ultimately, it depends on your audience and your desired outcome.  I am fine with typos in breaking news, other people will rant and rave about lower journalistic standards.  How important is it that you make everyone happy?

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog, Buzz with Blogs 

Lenovo Tablet

January 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment

I have to say that for about 6 months I have been looking forward to the new breed of tablet computers coming out.  I just saw the demo of the Lenovo Tablet at CES on CNN and it looks pretty cool.

I worked with some of the earliest prototype versions of tablet computers many years ago.  They were so early, that they actually only had instructions in Japanese.  It sounds cool, but they did not do much back then.  But I saw the potential years ago and have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of really good tablets.

In many ways, the smart phones, like my iPhone, have paved the way for tablets.  Anyone that has gotten into the habit of using a smart phone will have experienced that feeling of not really needing a laptop now, but still kinda needing one because the phones are too small.

I have needed a new laptop for about two years, but have kept putting off a new one in the hopes of something really interesting coming along.  (Plus, the old one works, it is just heavy, old and needs a new battery)

I am not sure which one I will buy this year, but I will buy a tablet.  I look forward to running my business from a small, light clip board that is connected to everything.  I think this will be fun.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog 

Kent State University Marketing Course

January 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment

Next week I will be teaching a 3 credit hour Marketing course at Kent State University.  I designed the marketing course and will be working in an intense, intersession setting where I will do 40 hours of teaching in one week.

It is going to be fun, and I hope really valuable for the students.  It is interesting because the University came to me because they see that there is a merging of Internet, PR, Marketing, Technology and Advertising but they are not well equipped to quickly address it.  The marketing department does not have tech savvy people.  The technology areas do not understand marketing.  Journalism is a different school and crossing over is difficult.

At some point, it seems like some of these traditional schools/departments would need to be rethought.  With citizen journalism, word of mouth marketing and it being easier to create things on the web, people really need to be more interdisciplinary than ever.

My hope is to help them create a whole interdisciplinary marketing certificate that would address these issues.  But right now I am focused on this marketing course and doing a great job there.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog