seventhstorm

InfoCard | re:play Conference

 

How to Really Use LinkedIn

Inbound Marketing on the Rise

Video | Ron Klein (Grandfather of Possibilities)

Video Interview : Ron Klein
re:play Conference
To inform. To inspire. To engage.
Director: Ken Polotan
Produced by: seventhstorm.com
Execuive Producer: Kay Yoder / takingbacklives.org

Ron is knows as the "Grandfather of Possibilities."  Chances are you're using a credit card right now.  He invented the magnetic strip that contains digital information on the plastic. A consumate entrepreneur and inventor, Ron has rolled out many products/services which have made a positive impact on modern society.  It was an honor to have met and interviewed an icon like him. 

Is Integrity Dead?

Last week at a conference, I was presenting a talk about Personal Branding. In my view, brand identity is closely linked to a set of our own personal values. A value system defines the parameters of our own behavior and actions and provides the motivation for them. To this point, I asked the participants how they would define "integrity."

Silence.

It seems nobody is able to articulate what integrity means; how it looks and how it feels. Is integrity dead? If it is, then does it mean that people no longer care for their personal brand?

What do you think?

 

Facebook vs. Google [Infographic}

Web Video | Sarasota Open Promo Video

Sarasota Open Promo Video
Client:  Sarasota Open
Goal:   To create awareness and articulate value add of tennis event to community
Type:   Video  

Mail Me, Please!

Here's a wonderful organization that will hand-write your e-mail and send it for you.  Remember the good 'ol days?  This is totally odl school but heck, you will make a difference.  Try it!

Check them out here: http://snailmailmyemail.org/.

Web Video | Sarasota Open Marketing Pitch

Sarasota Open Fundraising Pitch 
Client:  Sarasota Open
Goal:   To create awareness and articulate value add of tennis event to community
Type:   Presentation/Animation Video  

 

CIO Branding

When it comes to personal branding “if you’re not appearing, you’re disappearing” — a quote by jazz musician Art Blakey — was the advice delivered to IT leaders at Sydney's 2011 CIO Summit. Former CIO editor and founder of the CIO Executive Council in Australia, Linda Kennedy, said that the development of a personal brand can aid CIOs looking for greener pastures or to widen their career prospects. “If you’re not communicating, nobody’s hearing you,” Kennedy said. Kennedy told the summit that three steps of brand strategy are Developing your brand Package your brand Communicate your brand

Day of Domains | A Lesson In Outsourcing

Today, I spent a significant amount of time consolidating various domains into just a couple of registrars.  In the past, my various online businesses ended up in a scatter of registrars from here to Melbourne, AUS.  

But I digress.

The impetus for the massive exodus was a negative customer experience with a domain registrar.  Apparently, this organization decided to outsource technical support overseas.  Not usually a problem until the service quality suffers.  I spent over an hour trying to accomplish one thing - forward an existing domain to a new hosting site.  The representative kept putting me on hold whenever I asked questions that I thought were pretty basic.  

Customers now have pretty good leverage.  The Internet has made available scale and ramped up competition among service providers.  The offerings themselves are fast becoming commoditized.  The level and quality of service has become the critical factor in customer loyalty.  Deciding to outsource services on purely cost reasons may make sense immediately.  But if the quality of service suffers, then the brand also suffers.

Each customer touchpoint - whether it's a website, tweet or phone support - is a branding experience.  Businesses would do well to tell a consistent brand story.

iCloud: "It Just Works"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Jobs keynote address at the WWDC was interesting.  It seems that Apple has a different take on their cloud strategy.  For them, the cloud should be transparent to the users.  Users don't interact with the cloud - they don't even see it.  Apps do all the work in the background.  And I think this is the right cloud model.  Let the apps do the legwork, instead of us.  Please don't make us interact with the file system.

He even poked at the competitions' cloud model, stating that "other think that the cloud is a big hard disk in the sky."  Perhaps this is the first iteration of cloud computing.  I may be dating myself but the Internet has always been a cloud.  I remember myself (and my network engineers) drawing schematics of network infrastructure and using the cloud icon to symbolize the Internet.

The cloud has always been with us.  It's just that now, Apple has decided we don't need to see it.  Great for us.

Strategy on One Page

This is a fantastic and high-level summary on strategy.  Simply put - this is as basic as it gets: