One strategy is to have only the student co-teaching team keep their laptops open while they are helping me lead the class; one member of the team makes notes on the wiki, sketching in top-level headings that the other students will fill in AFTER class, another member of the team identifies words for the lexicon and adds them to the wiki (and again the class, as a whole, fills in the definitions before the next class), and a third member of the team looks up sites online and projects them (I have three screens in my classroom at Stanford).

You can read the whole interview here. I’m grateful to Shel Israel for getting this out of Howard. Nicely done, sir.

Photo credit One Laptop Per Child

That’s right: my library has become Blockbuster.

But no, not really, and let’s not malign this, because my library is adapting to what its patrons are demanding, and they evidently want newly released movies about the mafia and aliens and anything starring Nicholas Cage or Jim Carrey. And this gets us thinking about what a library’s mission REALLY is today.

My library has a half dozen computers with Internet access, plus free wifi. So they’ve given us pipes to the largest reference system in the world. They have media in paper and DVD and audio CD form, as well as links into all kinds of electronic document repositories (such as eBooks and the like).

In conversations over a year ago with some library futurethinkers, we discussed the possibility of libraries outside of the walls of the library. Why not use geotagging to drop rich data in the air beside monuments, to denote historic battles, to lay out political stories? Why not have geotagging tied to online video libraries that show me the ecological history of a place? Why not have bird guides that fly onto my iPhone when I’m standing in the nature reserve, versus that pesky distraction of visiting a building downtown that has become a video rental depot?

What do libraries really stand for today? Who do they serve? How should they evolve? What are your thoughts?

A Social Customer Request Sheet

1. Why do I have to learn your phone tree? Once I get into your system, let me punch in some ID (give me 3 ways to do this), and let me customize. The truth is, you KNOW why I’m calling. Don’t make me go through your messy tree. Let it be keyed to me.
2. Make your website all about me. Hell, Amazon.com goes about halfway there now. Why can’t you? If I’m a customer, then you have a sense of where I am and where I want to be. Can you help me get further along?
3. If you’re going to make communities, please align them to me and my usage. Meaning, if I’m looking to talk to other parents about how I use my dSLR and my video camera to capture my kids’ lives, make the community site about that and not your new amazing dSLR. I’ll be a parent much longer than that SKU will be relevant to your company.
4. Please give ME stats and don’t keep them all to yourselves. Why shouldn’t I know that I’ve called in 14 times and that I’ve had more than 24 agents working on my problems? I think stats would help alleviate certain customer service tensions, and they would give me more information to share, should the problem persist.

In short, if you’re going to think about social customer relationship management, then make it the other way around from the beginning. Make the customers the prime focus and not your company.

Could anyone do it? Not sure. What’s your take?

I see a revolution. You see software.

Photo credit, Kyle May

Ten Tech Solutions To Improve Your Productivity

1. Get a system. I’m listening to Stever Robbins, who just put together You Are Not Your Inbox, an audio program that will help you manage your email.
2. Get a proxy. Try out Jared Goralnick’s Away Find. It helps you with a sort of virtual message manager.
3. Practice keeping your inbox at zero. (I’ve explained how I tamed my inbox before.)
4. Learn shortcuts. Here are keyboard shortcuts for Firefox, Safari, IE7, Gmail, Google Reader, and I’m sure you can find more.
5. Cut down on your browsing. Lifehacker (and Julien Smith) pointed out Freedom, a Mac application. I’m sure there’s a PC version. See also Rescue Time
6. Use computer shortcuts and launches. For Macs, it’s Quicksilver . For Windows, I found 10 Quicksilver alternatives listed here. (Disclaimer: I’m not good with Quicksilver. I use Spotlight still).
7. Don’t read blogs directly from the website. At least not first. Start in a good feed reader. I prefer Google Reader. It’s fast, has keyboard shortcuts, and is flexible in letting me bookmark, share, and email posts that I find useful.
8. Find extra time and use it. One way is to use Jott on your phone to send brief messages, to leave yourself reminders, and to take notes for future use.
9. Set up text replacement. This lets you type a few letters and get back several words easily. For Macs, use TextExpander. For Windows, try Texter.
10. Keep good notes. I’m enamored with EverNote. I’ve used it to outline documents, plan conference content, store small lists of email addresses, and even tried the optical recognition feature for photos. It’s worth checking out.

You probably have several other productivity applications to suggest. We can put together quite a list in the comments, if that works for you. What are you doing to stay more productive?

Photo credit, Freshwater2006

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First, take away from this that the social network technologies you know about in the consumer space are being rebuilt inside the firewall for business. Why? Those apps are perfect for business, because they do a better job of communicating information the way humans figure it out.

Second, understand that there are people looking for more from their social applications than food fight and super fun wall. If you’re developing, consider what might make for good business applications.

Third, bear in mind that what you might be doing for fun and leisure right now on the social networks might give you an edge on using collaborative technologies in upcoming months. It might just be the thing you’re doing at work, and not just the thing you’re doing at home.

What do you think about all this?

I believe we’re going to shift back to thinking customer service and community management are the core and not the fringe. I believe we’re going to move our communications practices back in-house for lots of what is currently pushed out to agencies and organizations. I believe that integrity, reputation, skills, and personality are going to trump some of our previous measures of professional ability. I believe the web and our devices will continue to move into tighter friendships, and that we will continue to train our devices to interpret more of the world around us on our behalf.

I believe working remotely will become the rule, not the exception, and that we’ll replace some portion of office-meeting time with video now that it’s free-to-cheap. I believe that our business practices, processes, and output will modularize the way widgets have changed web design.

And not unlike Guy Kawasaki’s example of the ice blocks, to ice houses, to refrigerators analogy, I believe that the difference between how you perceive your role in all this and what will really make the difference is far apart.

It might be time to start thinking about jumping over a mountain. Because linear thinking won’t bring about what comes next. It will take a jet pack’s difference in your thinking.

What’s your prediction? How far off am I? What are you doing to get ready to jump over that mountain?

Photo credit, Jurvetson

Show Me the House

The first and most obvious thing I think the real estate world can (and should) be doing is buying video cameras and shooting their own walkthroughs. You don’t have to be a pro. You DO have to know how not to make something look horrible, but that comes with trial and error.

Pick up a Video Camera

If you don’t already own a video camera, two ends of the spectrum that I’d recommend for realtors are:

Sanyo Xacti VPC-E1 for a nicer rig (around $400) , or the Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder for around $160.

The Xacti is a higher end picture. The Flip is YouTube quality. Honestly, the Flip is the camera for the job, but some folks want the best, so it’s up to you. Me? I’d buy the Flip. (Personally, I use a digital camera’s movie setting to shoot most of my stuff).

Editing

Now, to actually do it, you have two options: learn how to edit things easily in iMovie (Mac) or Windows Media Maker (PC), or pay someone to edit what you shoot. Benefits of A are that you can do it when you need it and your time is all you pay. Benefits of B are that the editor will be good at what they do, will save you time, and will know what to do next. Drawback of B is that it costs and you have no control of when you get back your files, depending on how professional your person is.

Posting the Video

Last step to putting a video up is to find hosting for the video so that you can then embed it on your blog. YouTube makes sense for two reasons. One, it’s easy and most people can navigate it. Two, it becomes a second market for your homes if you’ve added captions at the end that show how to contact you.

If you want a different look and feel from YouTube, you can try Blip.tv, Brightcove, Vimeo and a gazillion other companies who host video and have a nifty player.

I could probably write a series on just how to add video to your world, but I’m in the middle of another series, so let’s leave it there for now. If you want helping DOING any of this, let me know and I’ll point you to the right resources.

Ways Your Blog Will Help

First, blogging about certain properties you’re hoping to move will give you an obvious potential return, but that might be limited. Instead, think of what buyers and sellers might need to know, and what they might need to know about you. You’re likely going to weigh this information heavily on the sell side, and that’s okay, so make your website a great place to learn about things like “curb appeal” and how to declutter a home for better show-ability. Give people ideas that have added thousands back to the sale price of your clients’ homes.

Testimonials

People are so itchy about asking for testimonials. Don’t be. Ask. Ask your clients with whom you’ve had a great business experience to comment. Want to get really edgy? Be willing to post someone’s negative comments about your business with them, and don’t be defensive. Instead, just thank them.

The Secret Sauce

As a media maker, you can do things that will add to one’s impressions of a potential new home. You can shoot video of the general neighborhood, add Flickr photos of some selling points of the town, record audio reports of people’s general feelings of the town. Can you imagine the impact that might make? You could potentially take a “normal looking” house and demonstrate the value of the home’s setting through media.

Will everyone care? No. WIll you have a chance to reach more folks? I’m betting yes.

What’s your take?

—

The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.

Get the entire series by subscribing to this blog, and subscribe to my free newsletter here.

Photo credit, dry icons

First: Professionalism, or Not

Before you even start in on this whole thing, determine whether you’re a fun-loving soul, looking to make a few extra bucks on the side, or whether you’re seeking to build a sustainable stream of revenue for you to sustain yourself and possibly a family. If A, skip pretty much everything I’m about to tell you. If B, read on.

Your Blog, Your Storefront

If you’re in the business of delivering a service, such as coding skills, design, marketing expertise, sales, etc, there’s a whole lot of factory work that you do that’s not easily displayed. And yet, you need a storefront to productize what you do (hat tip to my friend, Liz Strauss for talking with me today about her passion for turning what someone does into a product).

Ads, Sidebars, and Widgets

Before we get down to tacks, let’s do some cleaning:

• Kill “random” ads. If you’re a successful freelancer, why are you trying to make beer money with your site?
• Kill random widgets. To simplify, tidy the hell out of your blog so that it looks clean and professional-ish (you can have fun, and be engaging, but consider your buying audience).
• Kill the calendar thingy. NO ONE navigates by it.
• Look for useless widgets. Your “phases of the moon” graphic slows down your blog and diffuses your intent.
• Enable comments and make it as easy as possible.

Posting Ideas

Now, let’s talk about your blog as your business engine:

• Start writing posts that cover your space and establish yourself as the thought leader, only humble. Be the “thought learner.”
• STOP writing posts that are horribly off-topic, or at least keep it a 10:1 ratio of on- to off-topic.
• Link to other blogs that cover your space as well, and say complimentary things when you can. This is an abundance mentality space. Sure there are plenty of folks who aren’t the best like you, but when you say it, it makes you sound cheap.
• Make sure your passion shows through. That’s what people buy.
• The more you explore NEW ideas in your space, and further, explain right out in the open how people can make money, reduce costs, etc, the more business you’ll bring in.

About and Contact

Make your about page read like a great (somewhat brief) testimonial. People want to know first and foremost what you can do for them. Write it as if the person reading it is asking, “I like Sonia. How do I work with her?”

If you can, include a recent headshot. If you don’t have a great one, buy a throwaway digital camera for $20 and shoot shots of your head until you get a good one. It’s not THAT hard. Don’t do one of those scary Glamour Shots (no offense to the organization) or those grownup versions of school photos with the weird cloud background. Here’s one spot where you can be somewhat creative in what you put up there. Make it somehow reflect what you’re hoping to portray.

Put your CONTACT information everywhere. On the main page. On the About page. On the Contact page. Make it really easy for people to reach you and do business with you.

Promoting Your Blog

Here’s a quick list of ways to get a little more love and attention to your blog:

• Add your blog URL to your signature file for your email.
• Add your blog URL to your LinkedIn profile, your MySpace page, your Facebook profile.
• Use Facebook tools like FlogBlog and Blog Friends and Feed Heads. they all expand your reach.
• Get a Twitter account.
• Get a Flickr account.
• Join a few blog directories (google for these)
• Share links via email with folks.
• Use FeedBurner and put a “subscribe by email” option on your blog.

Community Building: Beyond Your Blog

Get active on other people’s blogs. Build relationships with other people in your space. If you’re a freelance musician, get really active on people’s MySpace pages, their blogs, their fan forums. Be where the people you need to reach are, and then be part of that scene. Some suggestions:

• Twitter – Say what you will, but Twitter is a way to get to know other people (mostly in the tech scene, but you’d be surprised. TONS of knitters on Twitter, for example).
• Ning – There are plenty of groups and shared interests in this white label social network platform, and more and more people using it.
• Facebook – Groups there can be active, and/or can go quiet fairly quickly (my experience, overall).
• Yahoo! Groups – Don’t forget this very 1.0 method of reaching active communities of people.
• UPDATE: Laura and Jeremy said lots of people get a great community– and business! — out of LinkedIn.

Real Time Social Gatherings

Now more than ever, opportunities to meet and connect with people in the real world are important and valuable for your ability to meet and do business with others. You don’t have to go in like oldschool networkers, eager to suck in as many handshakes and business cards as humanly possible in the shortest amount of time, but you SHOULD consider how this will all relate back to your strategy of building business relationships that might result in appropriate work opportunities for you. To that end, some thoughts.

• Conferences are great (I produce them for a living, so of course I’ll say that). Get to know lots of people in a short amount of time, while hopefully being educated on topics that matter to you. Check Upcoming.org and Eventful for lists of conferences that relate to your space.
• Make decent looking business cards. Your hack job Staples photocopy cards are quaint, but immediately tell me that you were unprepared. (I’ve been this guy twice over the last 2 years). And by decent looking, “clever” only seems interesting while I’m shaking your hand. Cards that tell me how to reach you and how you and I might do business are awesome. Provide your cell number, no matter what.
• Write some great blog content the days leading up to an event, so that when people read your business card and see your blog prominently displayed there (you knew that, right?), they’ll check you out and realize you’re the right person to hire for that blog redesign project.
• Go to more than just conferences. Attend social media gatherings, local events, meetups. Don’t be afraid. LOTS of new folks show up. If you can, find a Twitter user or a blogger or someone you can learn about ahead of time. Build the relationship BEFORE you go, and that will help with some of the anxiety.

Rich Media- Video and Audio

If you’ve got the time and inclination, make a podcast or videoblog about the space you’re passionate about. Want to hear a great marketing podcast? Check out Marketing Over Coffee. I’d here those two guys in a heartbeat to train a traditional team to do new stuff. Want to know about a great personal development trainer? I’d check out The Bigg Success Show.

Video? Gary Vaynerchuk is the poster child for demonstrating authenticity while building trust in his personal and business brand. Another great example overall would be what Ben Yoskowitz is doing at Standout Jobs. Learn from that.

Video and audio are great tools to build up an experience with your potential audience. It gives people a sense of how you might be in person. Even though you could edit the hell out of your media such that you’d still show up as polished and professional, it’s one more wall coming down between a “no” and a “yes.”

Some might ask whether this opens people up for potential discrimination. Absolutely. I have no doubt. That was what kept LinkedIn from putting up optional profile pictures for a long while too, but after a while, it’s a question of whether or not you just want to put who you are out there and call it good. That’s your call. My take? They’re going to meet you at some point, right?

Strategy Point: Give to Get

In the world of freelancing, my take is that the best way to build relationships and get more business is to help other people get business. This has nothing to do with social media. It has everything to do with humans. If you’re helpful, and if you’re out there giving people ideas, tools, insights, and passing on connections where you think they’ll do the most good, you’ll likely be in someone’s mind when something good comes along.

Part of this goes into the space of thinking about “free.” Don’t be so eager to get paid for every little thing you do. (Disclaimer: I’m teetering on dirt broke most of the time, so maybe this isn’t sound FINANCIAL advice.) I believe that there are lots of “long tail” opportunities out there. It just becomes your duty to decide which ones are eventually going to pay off, and which ones to stop doing.

So that’s my sermon on free.

Lastly, Ask for the Sale

If you’re not out there LOOKING for customers, don’t moan that you don’t have many. Don’t be overly aggressive and barracuda-like, but by all means, if someone’s courting you a little in the comments section or the email section, ask if there’s something you can help them work on. It’s not rude. It’s not overly aggressive (okay, maybe on first contact, but if you’ve been playing email footsie, then go for it).

If you’re saying you want to use your blog and social media tools to get business, ask for business. I promise, the results will improve on that front the moment you get over that glitch.

Summary

If you’re a freelancer hoping to use social media to get work, here’s a quick summary:

• Make your blog your storefront.
• Kill all the extraneous stuff from it.
• Write posts that establish your experience and abilities in the industry.
• Write other posts that promote other people, too.
• Contribute beyond the walls of your blog.
• Attend real time events, too.
• Consider if you want to add audio and video.
• Give to get.
• Ask for the sale.

What else do you successful freelancers ( a strong segment of people who come to my site) want to share with people seeking Starter Moves? What’s your take on this advice? What can YOU do to help freelancers?

—

The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.

Photo Credit, Thowra_UK

Contribute Where You Can

Brian Solis is an upstanding member of this new world. He’s been in it for almost 10 years with his forward thinking new-PR company, Future Works. When Brian comes to a gathering, he brings his monster camera and a great eye, and he snaps TONS of photos. But it’s what comes next that proves my point. Brian shares his photos on Flickr, and he shares them with Creative Commons permissions such that you can pretty much use his photos for anything, provided you give him credit.

You can contribute somewhere in the community ecosystem. Maybe it’s by sharing your photos. Maybe it’s by offering small business tips for new budding freelancers. Maybe it’s offering presentation advice. Wherever you can, offer up (for free and easily) stuff that YOU can bring to the community.

Communicate When You Can

The Zulu greet each other by saying “Sawubona,” translated literally to mean, “I see you.” It means, “I know that you’re there and I acknowledge you as another person.” The response back is, “Ngikhona,” which is literally, “I am here.”

Visiting people’s websites and/or just reading their RSS feed isn’t enough all the time. Make a point of commenting, of saying “I see you.” Sometimes (okay, often) I receive email from people saying that they don’t get any comments on their website and they wonder why they should bother. MANY people have the feeling they’re out in the wild doing nothing important. You might be contributing to this feeling by not commenting, even on occasion, on some of the places you visit.

So when you can, share a little “I see you” with the places where you interact. Because it will matter. It does come back to you. People do care.

Create What You Can

Participating, building, creating are all possible with these tools and with this way that people are seeing the landscape of work. We have the potential to be more connected to each other than ever before. And from this, we now have the opportunity to lighten the burden of others by creating things that others can use.

Some ways to create are to build things for people who don’t necessarily have the skills but you can see their need. Another way is to add value by contributing to an existing project. Other times, it’s as simple as organizing a gathering (either online or in the real world) of people with like interests, such that you can help catalyze the conversations and the shared experience. Create. Make. Do. And share.

The Community Ecosystem Isn’t About Money or Not

It’s not the question of free and hippies vs. money making capitalists. These things I’m mentioning work in both ways. You can do these things in the space where it’s just “nice,” and you can do these things in the space where the value comes back to the company in some other way. That’s not the point, because the skills required to contribute into this ecosystem are necessary in both places. In fact, they’re interchangeable.

So, how are YOU contributing? Where are you communicating? What are you creating? Come see us.

The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.

Get the entire series by subscribing to this blog, and subscribe to my free newsletter here.

Photo credit, Brian Solis, killer photographer