Strange, I used to attend...

Strange, I used to attend Tony watching parties & now I'm watching Baseball being all up on ESPN.

Posted via email from @aaronmclay

Quick Photos with Camera+ on the iPhone

Sharing great moments with your audience is a great way to start engagement. However, our current workflows require a "high-end" camera, a fast computer and high speed internet connection. Right? WRONG! I highly recommend you revamp your workflow thanks to the app, Camera+.

Camera+ boast a ton great features like Touch Focus & Exposure, Shooting Grid, multiple shooting modes, filters and borders and a new feature called "Clarity" which automatically process your image for the best possible result. All of these features enable you to capture a great photo quickly and let you share it with your community, instantly.

Perfect for events & promotions. Get people engaged and curious with great looking photos on the go.

Example Workflow

Here's a picture I took at a small press event for FIAT Austin.
Notice the first picture is dark and you can't see the people speaking.

Using the "Clarity" feature on Camera+ I get a much more useable photo that I can share.

Sharing Options

While the app has individual users in mind with sharing straight to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr you the professional have two options for sharing photos.

• Save Photo to the Camera Role


• Email Photo

I use email and email it to the Posterous Blog which autoposts it out to the correct accounts on Flickr, Facebook and Twitter. It's fast, it's simple and the pictures can look great.

As an added bonus, if you have the Camera Connection Kit you can suck those photos into iPad and use a service look HootSuite to post it out to your community.

Check out Camera+ on the iOS App Store. It's on Sale now for $.99

iPhone
- Apps to capture & report events
- Camera+

Check It: Is your desk getting in your way?

Check out this link from GTD Times about freeing yourself from the strain of an office desk. want a stand-up desk at work.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GtdTimes/~3/MAYxS2LshfE/

​

"When I started using a stand-up desk, not only did it inspire a more efficient movement in workflow, but it was a huge relief to know that there was a way for me to feel energized while doing my work, and not locked into one position all day."

Check It: Is your desk getting in your way?

Check out this link from GTD Times about freeing yourself from the strain of an office desk. want a stand-up desk at work.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GtdTimes/~3/MAYxS2LshfE/

"When I started using a stand-up desk, not only did it inspire a more efficient movement in workflow, but it was a huge relief to know that there was a way for me to feel energized while doing my work, and not locked into one position all day."

This has been cross post via The PR Mactitioner; a blog covering Marketing & Public Relations work using the tools in the Apple ecosystem.

Great Game Fundamentals - Time Keepers

The piece below is a writing sample from an internal employee newsletter. Some of the contents may have change to protect the innocent. Our goal with the newsletter is to reach a young audience trying to grasp the fundamentals of the Great Game of Business.

Great Game Fundamentals - Keepers of Time

Time Keeping In The Huddle

Keepers of Time Keep Us On Track

After all, numbers are simply a way of telling stories about people. -- Jack Stack, The Great Game of Business

In your huddles, a time keeper works with the group to assign time limits to each topic, helps the facilitator keep the huddle moving by reminding everyone how much time is granted for a subject, and asks the group to make changes if a topic needs a lengthier discussion.

Here’s a common example,  for the next 5 minutes your huddle is discussing ways to increase sales. The group decides on passing out crush’n cards in cow suits. The line owner is worried about weather and everyone discusses different solutions.

The timekeeper informs the group, “We’ve been talking about promotion ideas for about 4 minutes. Do we want continue the weather conversation beyond our 5 minutes?”

The timekeeper kept the group focused on the subject and informed them of the elapsed time. This can help your huddle make informed decision quickly, increase participation and may even accelerate the meeting’s pace.

Jack Stack has a great book that explains his approach to Open Book Financing and Management and you can get it on Amazon.

Writing Sample: Monkey's On Your Back

The piece below is a writing sample from an internal employee newsletter. Some of the contents may have change to protect the innocent.

Our goal with the newsletter is to reach a young audience trying to grasp the fundamentals of the Great Game of Business.

THE GREAT GAME
Monkeys On Your Back

Monkey on a Roof - Island Capture Photography

You've heard the expression, “Monkey on your back,” right? It's the origin of our company’s Monkeys (or Zombies) but what is a monkey? Let's explore a huddle and see how to identify and use a monkey. For example, you mention that the store is getting complaints regarding the cleanliness of the widgets.

Your huddles makes a line on the board to get fewer complaints by cleaning the widgets more often and assigns a line owner. Then you realize and say, “We don't have gloves to clean with. We need to get more cleaning gloves!”

This is a monkey, it's an action that needs to happen to make the line work. You then continue, “Since I?m closing tonight, I'll call “gloves” in with our nightly inventory.” That's your monkey. The note-taker will write it down and the line owner will follow up to make sure the gloves arrive at your store with the next delivery!

If you’ve not read up on the Great Game of Business and Open-Book Management, I highly suggest you take a moment and crack it open!

Posted via email from @aaronmclay

Auto-posting with Posterous – Flow Chart

This is my first draft of a flow chart showing how I used Posterous Auto-Post service to automate the distribution of stuff I like to share across the web. Missing a lot of critical pieces but it’s starting to take shape.

I've found that I have three posting contexts.

1. Personal
   
2. Professional
   
3. Professional Focused
   

Professional focused simply means that I'm writing for a particular blog The Mactitioner or company and I want to cross post to my “branded” sites. Fu.

/end

Aaron M. Clay

Sent from my iPad; please excuse the brevity & grammatical errors.

Posted via email from @aaronmclay

ReBirth for iPad - I wish I had musical talent.

Rebirth for the iPad makes me want to make music.

Aaron M. Clay
Sent from my iPad; please excuse the brevity & grammatical errors.

ReBirth for iPad

Check out this video of Rebirth for the iPad. It makes me want to make
my own kind of music. Just think how we are at the forefront of mobile
content creation. Neat.

Aaron M. Clay
Sent from my iPad; please excuse the brevity & grammatical errors.

Posted via email from @aaronmclay

Start With A Clean Slate

In my journey, I've seen many a Macs that contain desktop full of pictures, documents & files. It's creating a hurdle in your work. Let's start by taking your tools seriously, keeping them well oiled so you can focus on the client & your work. 

To that end Patrick Rhone, writer and curator of Minimal Mac, a blog helping people find balance between need, want and too much.  He's written a fantastic guide to decluttering your mac in a week (6 days).

Listen, I know your busy but each day only needs less than an hour of work. So, everyday this week, I want you to go through his guide and unclutter your Mac so we can get some serious work done. 

Unclutter Your Mac - Day 1 - http://bit.ly/cOG5pG

Unclutter Your Mac - Day 2 - http://bit.ly/cwQFiO

Unclutter Your Mac - Day 3 - http://bit.ly/8Aapgi

Unclutter Your Mac - Day 4 - http://bit.ly/8uSnw8

Unclutter Your Mac - Day 5 - http://bit.ly/6teEef

Unclutter Your Mac - Day 6 - http://bit.ly/8CfHNQ

I strongly recommend subscribing or bookmarking Mr. Rhone's site. Learning the art of just enough is no trivial pursuit. 

Bookmark MinimalMac: http://www.minimalmac.com

Follow the blogs Twitter: http://twitter.com/minimalmac

Artful & Purposeful Communication

I can't make you a better PR practitioner, but I hope this site sheds light on the power sitting behind the apple logo. The power behind the Mac permits anyone to create [digital] content easier than ever. Services, Automator & AppleScript can automate mundane tasks and enables you to focus on one thing: artful & purposeful communication. 

I believe:

• technology doesn't replace talent or hard work.
• the Mac & Apple ecosystems can enable beauty. 
• feature creep has caused more damage than good. 
• more with less (effort.)
• that simple tools working together creates flow...
• flow creates harmony 
• spend time creating; just creating. 

We're just scratching the surface. Creativity exists outside of Photoshop & Microsoft Word so clean off that desktop, organize your folders innovation awaits!

Script the Easy Stuff

I scripted my cleaning routine and reduced the process by 15 minutes. Cleaning, like many tasks in your business is simple and with a little thought & tweaking you can increase energy & time dividends.

For now, I just started with the bathroom. Many cleaning & life hacker blogs post how most maids are taught to clean from top to bottom and left to right. So, Looking at my bathroom I scripted the actions I was going to take.

Gather my cleaning supplies and an empty caddy.
Supplies: disinfectant wipes, magic eraser, 2 bleach cloths, old newspaper, glass or multiple purpose cleaner & toilet bowl cleanser.

I started by applying toliet bowl cleanser and let it sit. Moved to the mirrors, wiping them clean using old newspapers and glass cleaner. Next I threw all my toiletries into a basket, trash to the waste basket. Used the magic eraser to clean the counter and faucet. Used a bleech cloth to clean up excess water. Reorganized my toiletries, wiped the toilet, brushed the bowl, and finally swept. Done 15 minutes. Normally takes me about 30 minutes due to unorganized actions.

So what? If I can save 15 minutes a week; imagine what your business can save and reallocate in cost & labor? All by thinking through and tweaking the "simple" stuff. Look at your business and find the processes that seem easy and make them so dead simple they can be completed in half the time.

Open-Book Management

I'm new to the whole notion of open book management concept. The company I work for, Amy's Ice Creams, practices open-book management and The Great Game of Business. I've begun reading the book of the same name by Jack Stack.

Standouts from the introduction:

...[the] idea is to create an environment in which people can continuously learn & grow.

Is a manager going to dangle a carrot as motivation instead of sparking passion for my profession. God save the next manager that says, "All people want is money." Wrong. Note: Motivation is not spurred by money but by the pleasure & passion that learning and achievement from adversity provide.

After all, numbers are simply a way of telling stories about people, as well as a means of keeping score.

I can't stop thinking about examples of how true this is. The artist in me wonders what art would be like told through the story of numbers. I fear, for myself, the truth that it may reveal and am I ready to accept that truth. No.

*Just a few notes I wanted to share.

E-Set Wants You to Fear Viruses

via tweetie

Posted via web from @aaronmclay

Facebook Fan Pages Greatly Diminished by Redesign

Cleaned Up

Facebook for better or worse has always tried to enhance the user interface to benefit their users. It's almost always meet disdain until people get used to it and go back to enjoying their daily interactions on Farmville.  I've loved almost every single iteration of the user interface, as each has been a much needed face lift; until now.   I don't like the new user interface for one reason: Fan Pages are ushered to the back of the bus to quietly rot away -- and groups have prominent placement? (Groups will be an entire other post. Fail.)

Small Business Fan Pages Sample Use Case

For most small businesses fan pages were used to connect user with that businesses product & brand value. Pages status updates, links & photos could be shared with the entire community and slowly but surely you could keep constant interaction with a growing fan population.
For the business I work with we would update our status almost daily. We would talk to our clients and provide tips and tricks to enhance the service they received or will receive soon. Each of these interactions generated a news story on Facebook and in turn generated pages views and more fans.
We asked current clients to join our Fan Page on Facebook, most had already joined and they informed us that, "because stories were created in my news feeds I was reminded to make an appointment." Awesome.
Great, now we are generating revenue & brand awareness...then things change.

Change Is Good?

I was excited when Mashable broke the story regarding the UI change. Without testing it I thought it would help put Pages (FB Mail) Updates in a more direct location. After a week of waiting I finally received the update and was astonished to find that most of the pages I fanned seemed to be missing from all of my feeds. I could only see random Fan page updates inside the home page under "Most Recent."
I am a highly organized Facebook user, in fact, I have over 25 friends lists to organize who I interact with. However, I know that I am in the minority of people who even use friends list. Which means that if your clients, customers or users want to catch a fan page update they must be on the "Most Recent" tab on the home page OR create a friends list for your pages, assign pages to the list and remember to check it for updates.

Those two solutions won't fly. Users are not going to change their browsing behavior. =( If you're a small business you are going to see a large dip in traffic to your page and perhaps to your website from Facebook until something changes.

Possible Solutions.

So here is my solution for small business owners who need to promote their goods and services on Facebook.<

1. Redefine your marketing goals with Facebook put greater emphasis on generating action outside of Facebook.


2. Continue to update trying different peak times for your target audience so that they'll see you in the "Most Recent" column.


3. Create an App or Interactive Page to move people to your website


4. Focus on using Facebook Connect to facilitate communication interaction on your website.


5. If you create a Facebook App -- make sure it has a Bookmark feature for easy access on the left Dashboard.


6. Focus on getting user to sign up for Email Campaigns or RSS updates. (ugh)


7. Encourage Brand/Business Employees to bring your message to their circle of friends and clients.


8. Talk to your Marketing folks, I follow a lot of them and everyone has a few good ideas.

Facebook's 400 millions users can't be ignored and FB ad's only go so far. I'm interested to hear your ideas or to see what your business's fan page is going to do. Good luck.

Neil Corp's Serious Business!

Before we begin, I’m angry with Dan Pink or ignoring me on Twitter. I saw him in the lobby. I was going to say something to him but he was preparing for his speech and I wanted that to be ateast good.

You get a pass today @danpink but ignore me again and it’s on! Now, on to the show…

Our Hotel's Little Surprise:

Even though each of us brought our entire supply of Aveda products we were surprised to find a little surprise in our restroom. We're staying at the Renaissance Hotel. It's a beautiful room and the Aveda products are even better. Now if we only could find our way through the thousands of football fans covering the seats!
More to come soon!

Morning Breakfast in the Roosevelt

Opening Ceremony is about to begin!

November is shaping up to be very busy.

Oy!

Posted via email from @aaronmclay

Tumblr vs Posterous

I'm trying to decide between Tumblr and Posterous. Why? I am moving away from Wordpres as a blog and want to use www.aaronmclay.com as a Business Card type site w/ a link to my "blog." Let's list the pro's and cons for each shall we?

Posterous - Pros

• Autopost Feature !!!
• Commenting Feature (with autopost to twitter/facebook)
• Multimedia Support
• Nice Picture gallery
• Email seems pretty easy
• Google Maps intergration makes my heart happy.

Tumblr - Pros

• "Lifecasting" - RSS Import !!!
• Customizable Themes !!!
• Multimedia Support
• Photosets are pretty freaking cool
• Can Add more "stuff" to sides
• iPhone App

Right now I'm leaning towards Tumblr because of all the cool features but, Autopost and comments are a high priority. I can solve both of those problems but they won't be easy. I'm going to start with Tumblr and see where I go. More soon.

Love,

Aaron

Posted via web from Aaron M. Clay via [Posterous]

Leo's MacWorld Keynote

I finally got around to watching Leo Laport's MacWorld Keynote. Leo has some amazing insights into the current state of mass media. If anyone is into Market, Advertising or content creation you definitely need to check this out.

I specifically like his statement at 15m 25s where he says:

What advertisers are starting to realize is that they can't come to an audience as a salesman...a pitchman. They have to come to the audience as a member of the community. An equal member of the community.

*I should mention that the quality is subpar as someone was recording this using their cellphone camera and the Qik software. The content is well worth the listen until and IF MacWorld puts his keynote up on higher quality.

WWDC Keynote Set-Up

This is how much of nerd I am. I was off from work and I got so into the WWDC 2008 Stevenote that I had 6 Blogs Open, Twitter and 2 live feeds including TwitLive.Tv. /Sigh.