Archive for the ‘technology’ Category
This is a rare experience. Today’s post is a book review of The Facebook Era that I know will be read by the author, Clara Shih. I mentioned the book in a tweet a week ago and she contacted me, so I put the chances of her not reading this at zero. But what else would you expect from an author of a social networking book? I already gave Ms. Shih a brief review on Twitter, but 140 characters is not enough to really evaluate a book. So, Ms. Shih, here are my thoughts, 2nd edition.
I do recommend The Facebook Era by Clara Shih. Ms. Shih does a great job explaining how networking works through Facebook and how Facebook is useful for everything from a job search to marketing a product. Good info, if you can stay with it. The problem is sticking with it. Disclaimer: I read my professional literature right when I wake up. I don’t even leave my bed. I might have a shorter attention span and lower alertness that makes me likely to doze on a book. Hey, I doze without the book.
Still, there are some undeniable similarities between The Facebook Era and a text book, and those are notoriously sedative. For instance, Ms. Shih has helpfully provided lots of case studies, but she’s put them in grey boxes, exactly like text books do with their case studies… I skipped them immediately, a habit I got into at school.
On Twitter, Ms Shih asked me how to improve the book for the second edition. 140 characters is too short to really give good feedback, so here it is:
- You do a great job explaining how to use Facebook in advanced ways, but then you explain the simple principles of viral marketing. Your strength is in the tough stuff. Those who don’t get the basics should read Facebook for Dummies.
- The book needs more personality. We can tell from the Facebook photos of you that you have it, but the book lacks it. Please put more in. Stories of your experience to illustrate your points instead of the case studies in grey boxes.
- Case studies… and more case studies… in grey boxes… Maybe it’s because I recently graduated, but I hate text books with an unholy passion. This reminded me of those. However, this would be a great book to market to college professors, as is. Students have to buy your book, and they’d love you if you kept the price point the same (I distinctly remember $190 books. It’s just paper, publishers. Bring it down some, please.)
End summary: Good book. Useful information. Definetly worth a read. Could it be improved? Hell yes, but what can’t? I look forward to the second edition. Ms. Shih already has great info, next is emotion. Ms. Shih, I want to be your biggest consumer evangelist, just give me something to be passionate about.
Anyway, who’s to say I shouldn’t just have my coffee first so I’m no so critical?
Gadgets for the Pros
Posted on: December 13, 2009
I have been dreaming of a BlackBerry ever since I went and worked for Disney on the Walt Disney World College Program last year. Managers in the parks carry clunky BlackBerries with them wherever they go as a combo radio/phone. Not pretty, not glamerous, but my managers looked so cool whipping those BlackBerries out of those holsters (also known as belt clips). I had Phone Envy.
I finally got my very own BlackBerry Tour after my old cell phone company gave me a hard time replacing my dead phone. (It fell in water. Not the smartest thing I’d ever done with my phone.) So I went over to Sprint and signed up. I took my phone home, ripped open the packaging, and began messing with it. I knew what I wanted it for: the ability to check my e-mail and read attachments. I’m convinced this tool will let me run both my life and work in a smoother, more productive fashion. But looking at the newly minted phone, I was left with one large problem: I didn’t even know my phone number by heart yet, much less how to work the dang thing.
Which at last brings me to today’s topic: How to make the BlackBerry (or any smartphone) work for you. I have a BlackBerry Tour, and as a notable non-expert on the things, I cannot speak about any other type of BlackBerry, but hopefully this will show you how you, dear reader, could use a smartphone to make yourself more professional/productive.
First off: E-mail with Attachments! At last you can get your report revisions, group presentations, and PDFs on your phone as soon as they are sent. My BlackBerry Tour even lets me modify them. So here’s an example: I was sitting in a class when I received an e-mail via my phone. I checked it and discovered it was from my group whose presentation was the very next class. The presentation was done, but no one had yet agreed to present. I’m a fairly decent public speaker, so I decided to give it a go. With the PowerPoint on my phone, I was able to familiarize myself with the material before the class so that when I actually got to the presentation, I sounded pretty good (if I do say so myself). Now, this is a classroom example, but we all know how flexible you have to be for business life. This could have easily been a last minute presentation for my company’s CEO or a client, and with this phone, I would be able to nail any presentation.
GPS Directions: Don’t get lost going to an appointment. I’ve stressed before how important it is to arrive early to meetings and job interviews. With this, you can garauntee it.
Tasks in your Calendar: Control your meeting schedule and your to-do list by putting them together. This is a bit tricky, and it took me a lot of searching to figure out how to do this on the BlackBerry, so I’ll put the directions here for anyone else who needs it:
- Go to your Tasks menu and add in your task. Set a Due Date (if you want it continuous, like my Work on Blog, there’s a space for that. There’s also a Recurrence option to say Daily and an End option–mine is Never for this since I always want to blog)
- Go to the Calendar Application and get the Menu screen, go to Options, General Options, and enable Show Tasks. Now all tasks with Due Dates will appear on those Due Dates. As you Mark them Complete they will appear on the next day, or the next Reoccurence.
Okay, so those are my top 3 reasons for having a BlackBerry for professionalism/productivity. I have other reasons, of course. The Facebook app is very nice. But those are my top three reasons. What do you think? Is a smartphone worth it, or is it just a waste of money? Leave me a comment. I really do want to know.
Becoming Professional: A Blog 