Friday, September 23, 2011

Government and Social Media - Take the Survey!

Market Connections, in partnership with my old firm, Strategic Communications Group, have organized a survey on the attitudes to and the deployment of social media in the public sector. Whether you are a government employee or a contractor, please help these fine folks out and take the survey! 

 


The results are going to be announced at an event in Tysons Corner, this October 18.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Big News Day- Apple, Facebook and Google

Kind of a busy day in tech news...

Apple is announcing its next earth shattering event will be held on October 4. Two big pieces of news? iPhone 5 and new CEO Tim Cook will be headlining the event, not Steve Jobs. Personally, I'm waiting for iCloud and cloud based iTunes. But that's just me...

Facebook revamped its interface. Again. It is proof that we are just slaves to Facebook that they make these changes and have absolutely no desire to let us know about it in advance. They simply don't care because they know they rule the world. Hubris, my friends. Hubris.

And Google opened up Google+ to the masses, including a big blue arrow on the worlds most expensive real estate, pointing right at it. Is Google+ going to defeat Facebook? I doubt it. It has some nice features, but it seems like whenever someone else creates a cool, new social networking tool, Facebook copies it and adds it to their platform. Thus, all the secret interface revisions.

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

This Recession is Boring

This recession is boring. I know we aren't really in a recession any more, but it certainly still feels like one. I am bored with the feeling. Time to flip the switch.

Businesses are waiting for smooth sailing before hiring and investing. Waiting for the idiots in the White House and Capitol Hill to behave a little less stupidly. Waiting for our European friends to deal with or ditch Greece, Italy and Spain, etc. Waiting for Americans to deleverage and pay off the debt of the 2000's. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

We can't wait forever. There are 17,000,000 Google results for "innovation during recession."  Everyone knows that the strong invest, innovate and take market share during tough times. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has had no trouble taking over the consumer electronics space. Whole Foods (NASDAQ:WFM) continues to rake in boatloads of cash. Read here:

I was just reading an interview of Whole Foods CEO John Mackey by USA Today. The most interesting part of the interview is his discussion of how Whole Foods is entering the health and wellness services business.
The company is open up 5 prototype stores with “Wellness Clubs” to expand their business into the services sector.
“We’re opening Wellness Clubs in five prototype stores. It’s potentially a new paradigm for people being healthy. All of the key diseases killing Americans can be largely avoided or prevented through healthy diet and lifestyle, but people don’t know exactly what to do. Whole Foods will help educate them."
I find this fascinating for a company with $8 billion in sales that is the clear market leader in its niche. Instead of resting on its laurels, it decides to innovate instead.
The whole economy is being held back by a lack of confidence, by just about everyone, consumers and businesses alike. Confidence, or animal spirits as economists like to call it, is a fragile thing and hard to build. When you don't feel confident, you should fake it until you make it.
The article How You Too Can Be an Optimist in Prevention points out, "In research at Wake Forest University, for example, scientists asked a group of 50 students to act like extroverts for 15 minutes in a group discussion, even if they didn’t feel like it. The more assertive and energetic the students acted, the happier they were".

Or...as Barney would say...

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Whoah...New Blogger Look and Feel

You can't tell by reading this but there is a new management interface here on Blogger. Apparently, Blogger has been at work on this new system for a while. Frankly, it is going to take some getting used to.

Read the explanation here on the Blogger Buzz Blog:

It’s been a few years since we made major updates to Blogger’s look and feel, and there’s a lot more to these changes than just shiny new graphics. We’ve rewritten the entire editing and management experience from scratch so it’s faster and more efficient for you—and easier for us to update and improve over time.


I'll let you know how it goes...I'm still getting used to my iPhone.