Stephen gives his impressions
I attended Social Media Week Chicago both in connection with my ongoing work as Digital Governing Analyst at Sprocket Websites and just for my own information and desire to keep up with the latest trends in search, social media and technological change.
Read on for what appear to be the most important trends.
DIY Sprocket Solutions
As the days start getting shorter we start feeling like we are getting less and less done during the day. There are never enough hours in a day to get everything accomplished that needs to get done. This doesn’t mean that we can’t use the time that we have to stay productive. We just need to shake things up a bit. So go on –grab yourself a cup of joe, splash some water on your face, and have yourself a stretch. It’s time to settle in and get some things done. What’s that you say? Running in circles with no direction as the hours pass by? Chill. You panicking about the 17 things you need to do but don’t have time for is definitely not helping.
We like hanging with a winner
The recently-rebranded DNN Evoq Content (formerly DotNetNuke Professional Edition) was given the People's Choice award during the annual evaluation event run by CMS Critic. Blogger Mike Johnston wrote that "it certainly was a hard fought battle but only one can be named." That's good news for business owners: content management websites are only getting better. And DNN is the best. Read
more about it.
The Sprocket Report
Celebrities hire publicists to manage their reputations by enhancing the celebrity’s best traits, downplaying the less attractive ones and monitoring what people are talking about. Your business has an online reputation like any celebrity. But who’s managing it?
DIY Sprocket Solutions
Listen, we've all been there. Running around like a crazy person putting out fire after fire, hopping from one project to the next, and spreading ourselves way too thin to feel like we're actually accomplishing any task successfully from start to finish. If every day is turning into a crisis in the workplace, you've got to take a step back and re-evaluate. It's time to take a look around and see what you can tweak, adjust, cut out, start doing differently, etc. to turn your hours of work chaos into meaningful time spent that doesn't leave you wiped.
The Sprocket Report
Jim Kendall, business columnist for The Daily Herald, related a too-common story in his post yesterday. He went to the website listed on a business card he received and found an out-of-date copyright, stale blog “news” and a phone number that didn’t work. “Is this business alive?” Kendall wondered. What does the look of your website say about your organization?
DIY Sprocket Solutions
On the 12th anniversary 9/11, I am reminded of the importance of compassion, respect, and validation not just from the every day Joe putting information out into the world, but also from the businesses, brands, etc. who are involved socially on the internet. Because there are times, both in life and in business, when we as people have to take a step back and assess the situation in front of us. We have to be cautious of our approach to sensitive situations and we have to remember that, although we are speaking through a brand, we are still speaking to other human beings during a very sensitive time.
But Our Clients Are the Real Winners
Sprocket Websites is proud to announce that we have been nominated for a 2013 Chicago Innovation Award in the category of website design and development. Sprocket's unique use of of-the-shelf technology and creative flair empowers businesses, not-for-profit organizations and governmental departments to do great things online while being good stewards of their budgets.
The Sprocket Report
Labor Day advertising always seems to feature some burly guy or gal wielding a massive wrench or mallet. Certainly physical labor is hard work, but those of us who wield keyboards and spread sheets work pretty darn hard as well. Even wrenches have been improved to make the job easier, so why not use technology to make your job easier, too?
DIY Sprocket Solutions
Customers. You've worked hard to build your business and you should have found out by now that there is a necessary component to your success. Customers. The common denominator between a giant rise to profit and the greatest plummet to failure. Customers. Here's my point folks, sometimes we build and build and build -finally get to that "hey, we're successful" part -and then seem to forget exactly who it was that put us in that position in the first place.