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Posts Tagged: Technology Speaker

A 12-Second Lesson on Why You Should Start Your Own Blog

Gina Schreck, social media for business, facebook for business, technology speaker

Don't Get Caught with Your Goods Inside

Today I got a notice that 12Seconds.tv was shutting down. If you had never used this service, it was basically Twitter on video. You created a short (well, 12-second) video message using your webcam or mobile phone and it went out to your friends. There were many people who spent a lot of time crafting and creating thousands of these short diddies and many people who created at least a few of them, and now… bye bye. They are allowing folks to download or pull their videos off of the 12Seconds.tv site until October 22. I had signed up for their service when they first launched 3 years ago but never actually used it (that’s probably what did them in! They would have had WAY more traffic had I just gotten on board!)

It is sad to see an innovative company close their doors but it is a good reminder to all of us who post great juicy nuggets of our content on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and any other site other than our own… that your content is not your own unless it is on your own site. Sure you can post to Facebook and Twitter and every other social site in the universe, but let it also have a home on your blog. How many people thought there would never come a day when MySpace wasn’t king? Who can imagine a time when we wouldn’t be loading all of our treasured memories and content on Facebook? Your photos…your videos…your content. Be sure you have a back up plan just in case Mark Zuckerberg decides to pack it all up and move to Farmville!

Farewell 12Seconds.tv may you REST IN PEACE!

Gina Schreck

@GinaSchreck

Gina Schreck
President & Chief Hooligan at Synapse 3Di

@GinaSchreck

October 4, 2010 | Filed Under Blogging, Brand Management, Facebook, Facebook PAGES, Gettin Geeky, Social Media, Technology, YouTube | Leave a Comment

SPINNING SOCIAL PLATES: Using Facebook LISTS to manage personal & professional connections

Gina Schreck, Social Media for Business, Technology expert, technology speaker

Spinning Social Plates

We want to stay in touch with family and friends, but is it wise to use one social site to manage all of our connections? We have our professional contacts sharing business tips and our best friend from junior high school posting photos of herself on her boat. This can’t be good for our professional image. Many people create two accounts on Facebook to try and separate the two groups but find it starts getting confusing when they have friends that become business contacts or or vice versa. What’s a person to do?

Relax. Although you do have one life to live, social sites like Facebook allow you to segment that life into LISTS for easy brand management as well as time management. Aside from the fact that creating two accounts goes against Facebook’s terms of Agreement, this is just too hard to manage.

You can take all of your contacts on Facebook and place them into LISTS like FAMILY, SCHOOL FRIENDS, BIZ CONTACTS, CHURCH. You can get even more segmented by breaking your professional contacts into LISTS such as, ASSOCIATION CONTACTS, WORK CONTACTS, perhaps even TOPICAL EXPERTS. This allows you to then go in and customize your privacy settings to ensure everyone does NOT see everything.

I can place photos into albums and have some albums set to only be seen by FAMILY list members. I can customize my settings to ensure anything that gets written on my public wall (Your main profile page on Facebook) on my wall is only seen by ME. It’s also good to remember that the newsfeed or status updates you receive are only seen by those who are connected to the person sending the update. So if my business client is NOT friends with my daughter, the post I read about her homecoming dance is not seen by my client.

Lists will also help you save time when checking in and reading the updates. You can log into Facebook and choose to only read the updates of those in a particular list.

To place your Facebook contacts into lists, simply go up to the ACCOUNT link at the top right, select EDIT FRIENDS and then you will see a CREATE A LIST button at the top. Setting up the lists and adding friends to them does take some time, especially if you have lots of connections already. The key to maintaining this, is to add people to a list right when you connect.

Before long, your plates will be spinning smoothly…at least until Facebook changes the setting again )

Share how you keep your lists organized or how you have set your privacy settings to manage this double life we all live–Me, Myself & I are all interested in hearing your ideas!

Gina Schreck

@GinaSchreck

Let us help you connect to your community! Our team is AMAZING & TALENTED.

Gina Schreck
President & Chief Hooligan at Synapse 3Di

@GinaSchreck

September 27, 2010 | Filed Under Brand Management, Facebook, Facebook PAGES, Gettin Geeky, Social Media | 2 Comments

GRAB YOUR KIDS & SMALL PETS: Smart Phones Take Over the World

Last night as I drove home from the airport, I got to thinking how many gizmos and gadgets I had sitting in a pile (my new tech museum) in my office that were now rendered useless because of my phone! Just eight short months ago, the new Google phone entered my life and at the time I had no idea it would reek so much havoc among my other gadgets.

Gina Schreck, gadgets, technology speaker, technology business, conference speaker

Gadget Graveyard

I used to bring my TomTom GPS wherever I went not only to talk me through directions to my destination, but to tell me what time I was expected to arrive (which became a sort of game to see how many minutes I could shave from the initial projection). I had grown quite close to my GPS, even naming her Gloria Petunia Schreck. But now, Gloria has been replaced, or RIGHTSIZED, by my phone’s navigational system. My Nexus One (Nexie for short) pulls up the location, gives me turn-by-turn directions, with a slightly more robotic voice than the old Gloria, but it gets me there all the same. It even allows me to play the “shave the minutes” game.

I have a fabulous 10 megapixel Nikon DX camera that I would somehow fit into my purse whenever we went on trips, or I would carry around in my car, because you just never know when you might see something picture-worthy. Now, Nexie is snapping pics and videos that are almost as good with the built in 5 mega-pixel camera everywhere I go. My big Nikon camera has not moved from my dresser top in months.

I have just about every iPod version Apple has put out: The original fat white one, a tiny green nano that clips on your shirt, a yellow bigger nano with a video screen, a metallic Shrek green wider bodied model and more. They sit in my office museum. Nexie has music downloaded onto it and with a sync application that brings songs from my iTunes library right in.

Videos no longer need a DVD player, we don’t need to carry a digital voice recorder, video games don’t have to be played on a dedicated device like DS players, no separate calculators, flashlights, pedometers, or travel alarm clocks are needed, and even webcams are not really needed with the new iPhone 4′s forward-facing camera.

Last night I was reading in USA Today’s travel section about Holiday Inn rolling out its Mobile Key, that allows guests to bypass stopping by the front desk when they check in. After making your reservations, you are sent a code that tells you your room number and then opens your door. Check out the video demonstration here:

Now as Tom Bodet would ask, “Will it leave the light on?”

With so many mobile apps being developed and our devices doing so much more more than make and receive phone calls, it’s no wonder we call them MOBILE DEVICES instead of just CELL PHONES. What does all this mean? Is it like iRobot, where our phone will rise up and take over the world? Well if it will cook dinner for me, I may not mind. But what it does mean is that the trend is not stopping any time soon. Our devices will get smarter and do more, but how will you use this trend and the power it has to reach new audiences, in your business? What services can you provide through these devices?

Gina Schreck, Technology speaker, social connecting, social media for business, mobile technology, trends

I'd like to make a hotel reservation please.

I know one thing for sure, those who learn how to develop the applications and programs that we continue to load, will be in greater demand than ever before. Sign that kindergardener up for app development classes NOW!

Will we still carry these devices around in our purses and pockets or will we soon wear them? Let your imagination run for a moment and share your creative ideas on what else can be replaced by these SUPER SMART gadget killers.

Gina Schreck

@Gina Schreck

Let us help you use today’s technology to connect and engage YOUR community!

Gina Schreck
President & Chief Hooligan at Synapse 3Di

@GinaSchreck

September 23, 2010 | Filed Under Future, Geolocation, Gettin Geeky, Mobile Technology, Technology | 3 Comments

Skype 10-Way Video Calling & Some Pink Duct Tape

Today we tested Skype’s Beta2 that allows you to make 10-way Video Calls…well we attempted it and learned a few things along the way!

Let us know if you have tested the new service and what your take aways were.

Let us help you connect with your community…We’ve got lots of Duct Tape!

@GinaSchreck

September 9, 2010 | Filed Under Gettin Geeky, Social Learning, Social Media, Technology | Leave a Comment

Your Face- Your Brand! Tips for Great Social Media Head Shots

I suggest that people take new headshots every couple years or more often if your look dramatically changes. It’s always awkward when a conference speakers or someone you have known through online sites walks through the door and not only do you not recognize them. How many times have you met someone, looked at their picture on their business card or social media site and said “WHOA- they need to update that photo” ?

I took my own advice and scheduled a photo shoot with marketing expert AND photographer, Neil McKenzie for some fun new Geeky Girl shots! After our shoot, we sat down and I asked him what makes for a great pic. We talked for almost 30 minutes but I had to edit it down to 10 (YouTube limit is 15 min but your attention span is closer to 2 min) Here is a recap of what we discussed, a few of the pics and the video of our chat:

Basic Headshot

Know the brand you are trying to convey BEFORE you begin. Is your brand about serious leadership or green resources? Fun family activities or corporate innovation? What message should your customers or contacts get when they see your picture? Make a list of messages you want people to get just by looking at your picture. This can help you focus your photo shoot time and ensure your picture is congruent with your messaging.
Take time to get to know each other. The more your photographer knows about what you do and how you will use the pictures, the better he or she can snap the right shots. You want your personality to shine through in the pictures, so be sure to show a little of that before the shoot begins.
Bring a bit of your environment with you. If you use gadgets or have props that will add to your photos, bring them along. If you’re a realtor, perhaps you want a SOLD sign with you. If you’re a professional organizer, have some of your tools with you, and as you will see with Neil, if you’re a photographer, perhaps you want your camera with you!
Aim for the eyes! Neil explains the importance of capturing the sparkle in the eyes. Make sure your headshot is close enough that you can see your eyes. Some people crop the picture to really allow people in (I’ll warn you, with HD technology there should be a warning sign similar to your car’s side mirror, “WRINKLES ARE SMALLER THAN THEY APPEAR!” -HA!)
Create a series of shots. If you end up with 4 or 5 different shots and poses you will be able to use them more creatively. Perhaps you have one standing or jumping in the air (one I forgot to do!), one close up for a good basic headshot, one laughing or a bit more relaxed, and one with some of your props. You will be able to sprinkle them from websites, blogs, social sites with different pictures and yet same look and feel. This creates a consistent branding message while allowing for a bit of personality of the particular site.

Gina Schreck, Technology Speaker, Social Media, Learning, Synapse

Fun with props

Lastly…have FUN! This should not be the old Sears photography studio shot where you sit and give that cheesy smile while holding your glasses under your chin (Is that supposed to make you look smarter?). Let go of those negative thoughts of hating every picture you are in and allow your great personality come through and be captured.

Do you have other tips for great photo shoots as it applies to branding and social media use? What do you love to see in pictures?

If you or your organization need help getting your message out contact me or one of our brilliant Synapse team members! We LOVE helping people use today’s tech tools for BIG business success!

Gina@Synapse3Di.com

@GinaSchreck