In this episode, I’m joined by Christopher Spencer, publisher of Ozarks Unbound, an online news and culture site for Northwest Arkansas; Jamie Smith, a freelance writer and blogger who was the education reporter for the Benton County Daily Record for 8 years; and Logan Lovelace, the youngest photojournalist for KFSM 5 News as well as a blogger & lifecaster.

One note: I’ll be working to improve the sound quality on future podcasts, but as always, it’s the content that is king.

Sociable Media Episode 1

I’ve been thinking about a new phone recently, as my mobile is old (Samsung A707) and not smart enough. (Will I get an iPhone? I doubt it. I’m already on AT&T, but haven’t been wowed by all the problems I’ve heard about with the iPhone reception, dropped calls, etc.)

One thing that I need to do before I go looking at a new phone, is back up the SIM card. All my contacts, etc. are on there. I also have a microSD slot, but there’s not a way to move all that data to the SD card. (Thanks, Samsung.) Right now, if I kill my phone or drop it in a glass of beer, all that info is gone.

Or worse, if my phone gets stolen, then someone else has all that stuff – and could text nasty notes to my friends, my clients, who knows? They could do some damage with my reputation, simply by having one little bit of technology. And heaven knows what they could do with my lil’ laptop, which has pretty much my life on it (backed up three ways, one of which is offsite).

The question now becomes: is YOUR data safe? Do you even know if you have a backup? Could you actually grab that data from your phone? Today’s the day to do something about it, ’cause tomorrow’s too late.

Oh, it’s an ad.

An Ad.

That says all you need is love.

What the hell are they selling?

Blackberry.

Listen… if all you need is love, you won’t need a Blackberry. What kind of message did you think you were sending?

Just go ahead and get an iPhone and stop whining about it, OK?

How much money did they spend getting the rights to that song? It’s the least-appropriate advertising song that they could’ve come up with. I’m no marketing genius and I figured that out the second I saw whose commercial it was.

Any idea where I can get a copy of that “All You Need Is Love” cover? It’s actually not bad. That’s something I’m willing to buy. Not a stupid Blackberry…

Both are talking about innovating your way out of a recession. Pepto’s example is recent, while Apple’s example happened eight years ago. What it comes down to is keeping that ball rolling, moving ahead, allowing no moss to gather. There are two states of existence in the world of business – growth or death. It’s your choice.

Often when I call my father, he’ll ask me what I did for my clients that day. Most of the time I have a good answer for him, although I struggle to explain all that I do as my Dad really doesn’t understand a lot of the technology that you and I take for granted. (He can tear apart a lawnmower engine in the dark and put it back together again, but he has trouble setting the time on his VCR. Try as I might, I don’t think he’s ever quite grasped the concept of the internet.) It’s an important point that he’s making, though – keeping my client’s growth foremost in my mind.

Move forward. Keep the ball rolling; do something that’s unexpected, take a chance on doing something outside your comfort zone. Warren Zevon said, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” I know that bed is awfully cozy, but don’t sleep today away. There’s a lot of different out there, just waiting on you  – don’t miss out on it.

As per any normal time off, I relaxed a bit; I’ve read some good books, heard some cool new music, seen movies (that might be old but were new to me), and I’m the kind of guy loves to share the good stuff, so you’ll see it here pretty soon.

My job search continues. Of course, I’m still hunting for my next adventure. In order to keep moving forward, I started my own consulting business! I’m proud that I’ve already engaged two clients. I’d always wanted to explore my entrepreneurial side, so I’m taking advantage of the time I have now.

I’ve also rethought what I want this website, my “office on the ‘net,” to be for the folks I serve. Long ago, a very wise man told me, “Change is the only constant,” and you know it too, don’tcha? So hang on, and let me know what you think as this site continues ch-ch-ch-changin’!

BTW, it may take me a while to post comments, but I would love to see ‘em. Right now, I’m dealing with a metric ton of comment spam, so a captcha may be a-coming as well. Yeesh.

I’m working on a redesign of this site, beginning with the blog and working thru the podcast. You’ll be seeing results of this in coming days & weeks.

Meanwhile, as I’m banging Wordpress themes together backstage, I thought you should check out Mr. Rubel’s words o’ wisdom about bloggers & beta.

P.S. See you soon!

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