Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Friday, April 13, 2007
ALI Social Media Conference
Some of the speakers have blogged good reviews of the conference, including Lee Aase and Mark Jen and Christopher Barger.
A long Hiatus
Friday, May 19, 2006
An HR RSS Mash Up Goes Live
It's an great way to keep tabs on thousands of blogs and websites related to HR without having to set up your own RSS feeds.
Podcasts Are Taking Over The World
Maybe that'’s a bit of an exaggeration -– some might say satellite radio is really taking over, but it'’s less so than you might think for the podcast.
I was in a local ice cream shop last weekend after my daughter'’s softball game and, low-and-behold, the shop was promoting their podcast series on new ice cream flavors. I kid you not. Take a look, I mean, listen for yourself.
One of the benefits of podcasting is that it's audio -- —and an attribute that'’s shared by no other communication medium is the ability to listen while you'’re doing something else. Unlike video or text, you can listen to podcasts when driving, surfing the web, or working out (I don'’t do the latter as much as I should).
A few interesting stats on podcasting:
- the creation of podcast feeds has averaged 15% growth month over month
- podcast circulation is consistently growing nearly 20% per month
- iTunes is the clear favorite for podcast subscribers, a healthy 43% of the market (even thought an iPod is not required for listening to a Podcast --– any mp3 player will do).
A medium that'’s less than two years has already amassed a lot of media coverage and a listener ship of close to 1 million; Forrester Research expects that number to grow to 12.3 million households by 2010. A year ago Business Week covered Podcasting with equally optimistic estimates.
These estimates may be low, since more and more mainstream media outlets are podcasting their recorded content and will undoubtedly promote its availability.
While company news or CEO broadcasts are commonly thought to be good candidates for turning into podcasts (they are), there are other uses that will be particularly handy as we move into benefits enrollment season this fall.
HR can use Podcasts to discuss upcoming changes to the benefits programs, and use voice -- which his a powerful communication medium -- to reinforce messaging around health care "‘consumerismÃ" issues, escalating costs, and how employees can get the most our of their benefits plans.
Creating a Podcast
Let's take a look at just how easy it is to create a podcast -- with the understanding that the most difficult aspect of podcasting (like blogging) is the content --– the script or plan for what you want to say,– not the technology to record it. Two good podcasting tutorials are How To Podcast or on Feedburner.
If you want to create a podcast for an external website (maybe to go along with your blog, or as companion for all those vacation pictures you just uploaded for your relatives), there are many free services, including Yahoo! and Podcast Alley.
If you want to create a podcast within your company, for posting on your intranet or internal blog, you'’ll want an enterprise version (which isn'’t free, but is amazingly inexpensive). Some options include www.podcasting-tools.com/podcasting-software.htm, www.podcastingnews.com/topics/Podcasting_Software.html and www.podshowcreator.com/.
Here'’s another novel way to create a podcast -- Skype. That'’s right, Skype. The free computer-to-computer (and until year end, free from computer-to-regular telephone) service (which eBay bought last year for $2.6 Billon) has the ability to record conversations (and so does services like WebEx) .
Once recorded, turning the recording into a podcast is as simple as using the aforementioned podcast creators to ‘"convert" the recording into a podcast format.
Now that you know what software to use to record your podcast, all you'’ll need is a microphone for your PC or laptop.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Executive Blogs - Deal or No Deal?
Last year a few brave soles started blogs - GM, Boeing, McDonald's have been widely highlighted as pioneers (for good or bad).
Business Week covers the issue head-on in the "Managing" column (not the technology column!) about what Boeing did, the push back they got, and how it's helping turn around a secretive, traditional old-line manufacturing company.
If traditional companies like Boeing and GM, both operating in highly competitive and often industries like aerospace and automotive can find value in using blogs for internal and external communication, just about any organization should see the potential for this channel.
Monday, May 15, 2006
Google Health - Check it Out!
Rumors have been flying for weeks now that Google would launch a health search site, akin to their Google Finance model. USA Today, TechCrunch, UK site "The Register" have all been speculating.
Now you can give it a try at: http://64.233.167.99
While the banner doesn't hint at anything special, go ahead and search for anything health related, and see how the search results are categorized.
For example, when I searched for "Sore Throat", the listing at the top of the search results page said
Refine results for sore throat: | |||||||
Treatment | Tests/diagnosis | For patients | From medical authorities | ||||
Symptoms | Causes/risk factors | For health professionals | Alternative medicine |
Sore Throats
Sore throat is a symptom of many medical disorders. Infections cause the majority of sore throats and are contagious.
www.entnet.org/healthinfo/throat/sore_throat.cfm - 41k -
And, of course, the sponsored links were just what you'd expect:
Wild Cherry Coffaway
Natural Cough Syrup Formula
by 7th Generation Cherokee
www.trilightherbs.com
Get rid of Sore Throat
Complete treatment for common cold,
flu & fever. Homeopathic Medicine.
www.biogetica.net
"This Magic Tea Cures"
Research shows this rare Okinawan
tea has magical curing properties.
www.OkinawanTea.com
Personalized Newsites - The WSJ Weighs In
Wow, what a radical move! OK, seriously, this has been going on in mass all over the net for quite some time- except on sites from major content publishers (except such experiments like Newsweek private label version of NewsGator).
Clearly the pressure from MySpace (and alike sites) is pushing hard on these publishers to move a step closer to the 'self-publishing' aspects of the social media sites.