The mobile payment industry is about to find it’s pay day – it’s estimated that mobile payment will jump over 800%.  In 2009 mobile pay companies processed 68.7 billion dollars by 2014 the industry is looking at processing 633.4 billion, not a bad return on investment if you ask me.

So are you ready for the mobile payment world?  It’s coming, don’t  you think you should start to get ready now, why wait to turn away that first customer who wants to pay with their smartphone.

Share on Facebook

I love reading on my kindle and the transition from one page to the next is wonderful for reading, but hardly fast enough for any type of video.  Gaming would be a drag, as there isn’t enough of a processor in a kindle for much more then tic, tac, toe and I still question that would work.  Kindle will need to provide a much larger processor to provide the type of content most internet users has come to expect.  Would a large enough processor, make the kindle larger, heavier and more expensive?

The Kindles display is clear and photos look wonderful, but they are still black & white – Maybe Amazon is looking to bring back the black and white film industry?  Until the kindle is color, content development will be limited.

But, the thing I love best about my Kindle is how long I can go between charges – I mean if I pay attention to how often I download and how I stay connected to the internet, a single charge can last well over a week!   If Amazon starts adding different types of content that require an internet connection more often or use more power, then I’ll have to charge more often. I mean really, isn’t one of the benefits of the Kindle to be to charge once and go for days having access to my books, newspapers and blogs?  I can take use my kindle places that where I can’t use my smart phone or laptop?

I love my Kindle, but I’m not sure I would use it for gaming, surfing the web chatting with friends or even updating my Twitter – I have a smart phone for that.

What are your thoughts on the Amazon opening their software to developers for new content on the Kindle?

Share on Facebook

The thought of having my personal thoughts, watched, tracked, captured and limited by my government or to be used against me is frightening.

Censorship is, as we know, a way to control.  Control and manipulation is the corner stone to the survival of these Southeast Asian governments.  Public humiliation and use of force are additional tools they use.

China is one of the world largest economies and one of the largest users of censorship.  If political and security issues are highly scrutinized and social interaction watched closely how can social media work or survive? How can social media bring about social change in this part of the world? How do you get people to become activist, when their their government deems their activities unacceptable, and more often a direct threat to the status quo.  Governments are even censoring some internet tools  as being to dangerous to the existence.

However, like we saw in Iraq after the elections, these government can’t always out smart their people and their use of technology.   As these people become more savvy with new tools and the basics of grassroots activism we will see these government struggle more and more to maintain control.

The question is do we have a moral obligation to assist our brother and sisters in their struggle for freedom of speech and life?

Share on Facebook

Are you stuck on how to get started, or what to do once you complete setting up a profile?

We’re here to help!

iSHOUT interactive announces the introduction of the 2 quick start social media programs

• Social 101will evaluate your website and set you up on Facebook and Twitter.
• Monthly Maintenance will engage communities and support you marketing plan.

Go to Quick Start for more details.

Can you afford to whisper?

Share on Facebook

Evidently, I wasn’t the only one put off by the idea of posting fake or false product reviews  See this post by Brian Solis “Why Authenticity Matters”

Share on Facebook

Beth Kanter wrote a blog about things to do to get you overload back in line -  Beth is the author of Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media, one of the longest running and most popular blogs for nonprofits.  Here is Beth’s blog on information overload.

Happy Information Overload Awareness Day! Here’s Some Tips for Reducing It!

Today is Information Overload Awareness Day.  The purpose is to call attention to the problem of Information Overload, how it impacts both individuals and organizations, and what can be done to lessen its impact.
Here’s one way you might celebrate.  Take my information overload quiz.  Look at your score and ask yourself the following reflection questions.   Then pick one idea to reduce information overload in your life from this list.

Mapping Strategy to Metrics, Benchmarking, and ROI

• Do an annual ROI for your blog (and other social media activities) using benchmarking and metrics
• Learn to use the tools that help you measure success
• Don’t set up a presence on every social network in the world all at once.
• Do research first and implement one presence at a time with specific goals and metrics.
• If you’ve set specific goals and metrics to measure those goals over time, if after 3-6 months you have no tangible or intangible results, don’t be afraid to move on or change something.

Use Help Applications That Streamline Social Media Tasks

• If you are not reading blogs and web sites in an RSS Reader, make that your New Year’s resolution.
• If you are using a RSS reader,evaluate if it is still works for you.
• If you have started following too many people on Twitter by choice or accident, use Tweetdeck and create groups.
• Set up a social media dashboard with google apps for your listening, separate it from your work email and tools.

Make Time for Reflection

• Build in daily or at least weekly time for reflection on your social media strategy and use to make improvements.
• Ask, how much progress are we making towards our goals?   What are our successes and challenges?  What needs to change?
• Step back and hit the pause button every now and then to determine if you’re in a trench and how to get out
• Stop twittering from your cell phone in the bathroom and use that time to think about how you could be more efficient using a particular social media tool.
• Do a regular task analysis of your social media work flow looking for redundant actions or where you’ve simply lapsed into automatic pilot or bad habits.  For example, are you bookmarking everything you come across into del.icio.us by habit or just the resources you actually need to retrieve?  Are you impulse adopting tools?
• Learn from nonprofits and other organizations that have shared their social media case studies
• Starting a personal blog which is an excellent way to build reflection time into your day

Take Breaks

• Remember to turn the damn computer off and take a walk
• Try a “Day without YOU FILL IN THE BLANK.”  It can help you evaluate whether a tool is really valuable.
• Take a hiatus from using a particular tool (a Twitter Hiatus can be good for your resetting goals or understanding any bad habits.)
• Understand how information overload might be effecting you and take a break to assess and rethink
• Get a memory upgrade

Create Good Social Media Habits

• If you are just beginning a social media plan, use the Power of Less Challenge to establish good habits form the get go.
• Live in a tool or technique for at least month before adding something new.  Try tweaking the strategy for several months in a row by building in reflection time.
• Attend NTEN’s NTC Conference in April and attend the social media tracks
• Try to attend at least one social media industry conference (ask for nonprofit pricing or scholarship, if not already available)
• Attend some of the FREE social media gatherings or meetups in your city and network with other nonprofits like Net2Tuesdays
• Attend some of the FREE gatherings for social media professionals like the social media breakfast or Social Media Club and get advice or help learning.

Use Time Management Techniques

• Set a consistent schedule for your social media tasks and stick to it
• Use a time out timer to help you track time spent and keep on track
• Use Stephen Covey’s Pick the Big Stone’s Method and ask yourself if you only had time for three social networking sites what would they be?
• Allocate specific chunks of time for your social media execution.
• Don’t live on Twitter, your blog,  Facebook, or your email.   Check in once or twice a day.
• Write down your social media tasks and get those done during your social media time.  Avoid getting distracted
• Build in or schedule time for discovery and serendipity which is a good thing for social media, but not so good if you don’t track it or manage it.

Filter

• Be your own filter
• Understand what filtering means and why it is important for social media
• Be a digital curator with your electronic information, not a packrat
• If you’re using Google Reader, use the Reader Trends page to figure out what blogs you’re actually reading regularly and unsubscribe from those you are not.
• Use these filtering tips to make your social bookmarking and RSS reader more efficient.
• Get the most out of your RSS Reader so you can scan more in less time and get new ideas
• Use tools like PostRank to filter your feeds so you can easily pick out the best content
• Don’t limit high quality information, filter out the crap
• Rethink your relationship with information, goals, and work and streamline accordingly.

Simplify

• Learn the techniques of simplify and apply to your social media use
• Do you have a friending policy?
• Are you just accepting everyone on every network? Do you need to prune?
• Ask yourself, do you just want to collect friends on a social network or develop a deeper relationship?
• Figure out a following strategy on Twitter that works for you – so many people, so little time.
• Figure out what your optimal number of friends and followers for your goals
• Redesign and recharge your blog

Slow Down

• Explore tools that help you slow down that river of RSS information
• Rediscover your blog and blog at a snail’s pace or grow a slow online community

How do you avoid information overload and be effective using social media?

Share on Facebook