Be the Change You Want to See

by Warren Whitlock on May 5, 2010 · 1 comment

I’m an optimist.

I refuse to believe that there are problems in the world that can’t be solved or resolved in ways we have not yet considered.

Some men see things the way they are and say “Why?”

I dream of things that never were and say “Why not?”

George Bernard Shaw

Change of attitude is what my college mentor Clyde Johnson would teach us in every class If you don’t like the answer, change the question.

Barry Nalebuff, co-author of Why Not? How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big And Small  strikes me as an optimist. Watch this video, and I promise you’ll be thinking of him every time you see a banana for the rest of your life

Watch it on Academic Earth

Amazing Dancing Old Man Brings The House Down

by Warren Whitlock on April 29, 2010 · 0 comments

My prescription for positive emotions.. a DANCE video every morning.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

I Don’t Want a “Fan” Page.. Why I’m Getting a Facebook Page

by Warren Whitlock on April 19, 2010 · 4 comments

I’ve been putting off doing a “page” on Facebook for as long as they’ve been around.

Fist off, I hated the term “fan page” from the start. I don’t want to be seen as a guy looking to get “fans” or establish myself as a guru.

Trouble is, the limits to connections on Facebook have kept me for interacting with more people and the “page” technology is perfect for allowing the loose connections with good stuff that I support and promote for authors and businesses.

Why I’m Setting Up a PAGE on Facebook

I’ve been playing with a page for the listeners of Profitable Social Media radio for the past few weeks and advises clients to set up page for every book and business.

After all, Facebook as over 400 million readers, pages have grown from 5 to 20 million in the past few months. This is where your readers are expecting to see you.

Today, I logged into Facebook and saw this at the top of my page:

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Introducing the Like button

Starting today people will be able to connect with your Page by clicking “Like” rather than “Become a Fan.” We hope this action will feel much more lightweight, and that it will increase the number of connections made across the site

I like being liked!

Watch for the announcement and links to my page here. I’ll be sure to put gobs of great new information on that page.. that’s the best way to grow a community.. GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT.

In the mean time, if you haven’t got a page already.. got get one. If you are technically challenged, let me know and I’ll direct you to some of the wonderful people we have doing Facebook pages.

Do you have a page? Comment below and let me know.

Twitter Book Author at Tweet House at NAB 2010

by Warren Whitlock on April 12, 2010 · 1 comment

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If you’re at NAB 2010 this week and interested in Social median in the entertainment industry come by the tweet house session.

Be sure to head for the Destination Broadband Theater in the Las Vegas Convention Center from 5-6pm on Tuesday, April 13th to check out these awesome speakers at the official Tweet House session at NAB:Twitter and the Entertainment Industry: How the Real Time Web is Changing Hollywood.

A complete rundown of the session and speaker here

NAB Blog Review of Session

Are We Using Smart Phones Too Much?

by Warren Whitlock on April 6, 2010 · 1 comment

I’ve been reading reports from Steve Baker (author of one of my favorite books The Numerati) about the move from broadband to smart phones.

Steve wrote on his blog (a must read) in a post called Korean wireless chief warns of data overload

"There are limits to the mobile network," he said. Traffic surrounding big news events, such as the suicide of former president Roh Moo-hyun, nearly paralyzed KT’s network. He predicted that the limits of wireless networks could strengthen the hand of the same carriers that are failing to build robust networks. With shortages, they might be able to start billing for megabytes, instead of the more common all-you-can-eat subscriptions. "The dreams of the wireless phone companies will be realized," he said.
The trouble is that handsets, like Apple’s iPhone, are picking up more of the data work from laptops. Lee mentioned on of KT’s customers, a gaming company, that gave iPhones to employees. In the first month, 60% of them moved all computing to their handsets and never even booted up their PCs. "Will the network sustain that heavy traffic?" he asked. "It will have real trouble." (A normal cell phone transmits about 20 mbs of data per month. With the average iPhone or Android, that number jumps to 400 mbs.)

Commenting on a Wall Street Journal article on SmartDataCollective.com

Before the iPhone, it used to be able to accurately forecast to the minute the type of phone usage each new customer would add to its network based on basic demographics such as age and income levels. The forecast always held true across cities and towns.

But with the iPhone, such bets are off, AT&T executives painfully learned. It now looks at a broader set of customer profiles to forecast behaviors. For example, in a metro area with a large proportion of students, the phone operator schedules network upgrades to occur outside of colleges’ nine-month academic terms.

…’I'm as interested now in what you’re doing when you’re not on the network’… said John Stankey, head of AT&T’s operations arm.

One interesting note from the article is while AT&T has taken its bruises in this data-intensive market, at least it’s learning. Some beleaguered users may jump to Verizon and other carriers just as those companies start to struggle with the same issues. It might be smart for Verizon to pay top-dollar for an AT&T engineer or two, just to get the know-how.

Following the series from Steve Baker, I’m still generally optimistic that data connections will improve.. especially knowing that some very smart people are watching this.

There Is Plenty of Food. Why Are People Hungry?

by Warren Whitlock on March 11, 2010 · 6 comments

It troubles me greatly to think that as you I discuss how over a billion people are hungry and have need for clean drinkable water, there will likely be another  child fall because of these basic nutrition problems.

Our modern world support billions of people and capacity grows by the day. And there are two facts staring us in the face:

  1. The world is covers mostly in water so we aren’t running out
  2. Our output in total calories of nutrition far exceeds the needs of 7 billion people.

Sometimes, it seems the best thing to do is to prosper, make a donation and hope you picked one that won’t squander most of the money. Frankly, when asked where someone should send a check to support clean drinking water, I’m never sure what to say.

This isn’t a funding problem.

Friday night, I’ve invited James Talmage Stevens, the best selling author in the preparedness industry on my Profitable Social Media radio show to talk about his education campaign to help families be prepared for any situation. His book Making the Best of Basics, has sold 770,000 copies and is now out in a new edition.

However, I know we’ll spend a lot of time on a passion we share, getting clean drinkable water for the billion plus people suffering right now. Listen to my show here

Looking For Better Explanations.. Better Ideas About Food

I spend an hour each evening reading and searching for new ideas like the one shown here. The following, Dan Barber: How I fell in love with a fish was one I just about passed on. I never eat fish! But OH, how glad I am that I watch this.

These Ideas Will Help You In Your Marketing

When I’m stuck on a problem, looking for a creative solution for my clients or wondering how I’ll work out a situation that seems insurmountable, I often think back to folks like Dan Barber.

If you’re like me, you’ll have a notepad out and several action items before you finish watching this short video.

I hope you will share your ideas with us.

Not Information Overload.. I’ve Got a Use for All That Data

by Warren Whitlock on March 4, 2010 · 1 comment

When you change your frame of reference, and take a 10,000 foot overview, you see thing that you may have missed

Gary Flake shows how we can get out of the pile of trees that we have seen as the Internet and view the forest of knowledge assembled for us.

More on PIVOT:

Google Energy: How Much Power Will They Have?

by Warren Whitlock on February 21, 2010 · 0 comments

Froe Mashable: Google Energy: Google Can Now Buy and Sell Electricity

Google’s ever-expanding empire has added another branch: subsidiary Google Energy has been granted an order by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to buy and sell energy at market rates.

Does this mean Google is set to become your power company? Not yet — instead, Google wants more control over the high energy costs of its many data centers, and also aims to become carbon neutral. A Google spokesperson told CNET: “Right now, we can’t buy affordable, utility-scale, renewable energy in our markets. We want to buy the highest quality, most affordable renewable energy wherever we can and use the green credits.”

Google has been working toward energy autonomy for years. Green power, nuclear discussions, geo thermal and more.

Google has become a major user of power, and a powerful force in the world.

Will they now buy and sell electric power too?

“Give Me A Call. I’ll Be Out All Day”

by Warren Whitlock on February 18, 2010 · 0 comments

Way back in the world before computers and cell phones, one of my favorite funny lines from TV was WKRP salesman Herb Tarlek assuring a client that everything work out OK

Del, goshdarnit I’ve got to go, but if you need anything, anything at all, I’ll be in my car somewhere.

Back then, if you didn’t stick around to see what happened, you really didn’t know.

Are you still using 1980’s Technology for Phone Calls?

herbtarlek[1]Now that we have voice mail, cell phones and instant messaging, we don’t have to be tied down to a location. Herb Tarlek can leave the remote broadcast in the hands of Dr. Johnny Fever and the crew, keep the phone on and get more done.

There’s a lot of places where we need to be. Many relationships that can grow stronger when you show up with more connections and more business, we end up with more of these opportunities.

Yet, many end up sitting at a meeting with their phone or computer tuned into someplace else. After all, it still takes time to check in to voice mail, email, Twitter and wherever else people are trying to reach you.

Rethinking the Multiple Points of Contact Theory

I’ve talked to many a busy person who comes up with one way or another to manage all these contact points. If you have an assistant screening, you can get down to one point of contact, but that isolates you.. sometimes good, sometimes bad.

Others drop one medium for another. This week, I’ve seeing announcements that a new service is great and a user suggesting that no on try to reach them on the old one “cause I won’t be checking in”

That may work for some, but I’m convinced that the future of marketing, business and living is to Listen and Love.. I want to know when people are reaching out to me, filter out the noise and respond to real human to let them know I care, and what I can do to help.

I think the answer is a universal in box. Google has several initiative in place for this, Google Buzz in our Gmail accounts, search for just about everything, and Google Voice to replace voice mail.

Here’s how it works:

Most of my calls end up going to voice mail, with Google Voice, they are instantly transcribed and available to view and respond to… right in my Gmail account.

While I’m getting a lot less calls as people learn to reach me via email, buzz, Twitter or blog post comments, there are still a few that pick up the phone every time they think of it. With a universal in box, I can respond quickly.. often sending back an email before I get off the conference call I’m on or while waiting in line at one of those 3 minute intersections here in Vegas.

You can import contacts and forward numbers, so Voice can be integrated with just about any other system you’ve been using. It’s free. Some suggest Google is using the massive data points gained from transcribing messages to improve voice recognition and search algorithms. So I suppose you don’t want you billion dollar secrets left on a Voice Mail message (even if it’s a old fashion answering machine)

Last I checked, Google Voice was still BETA, but it pretty easy to get an invite and may well be open for all now.

Everything Economists Tell You is Wrong

by Warren Whitlock on February 13, 2010 · 8 comments

I do hope you don’t think I’m a wacko for the headline today. (there are so many other reasons that you might use that label though).

It’s just time I share a few thoughts on the futility of paying them much heed.

Here’s a list of a few of the misconceptions we get listening to economists

  1. The recession is bad, worse, staring, over (all their numbers lag)
  2. There is a record number of unemployed (many more employed that a few decades back)
  3. what the President says will affect the economy (only if you are a day trader)

Wacko enough for you? I’m just getting started.

OK.. to be fair, I don’t have enough data on any of the above to claim that I know any better than and economist In my defense, I don’t make a living telling you I do.

Here’s a wonderful film about Marilyn Waring, a woman who chose not to assume that the economist knew what they were talking about. Not some wacko.. a very nice lady.

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