positive disruption by: Tom Martin | New Orleans based Social Media | B2B Digital Prospecting | Digital Strategy Agency

Three For Thursday - December 10

Google Goggles are incredible. They basically wash you in data with almost no effort from you the consumer. Just think if you had this on your phone when you're in a foreign city or just exploring your own.

Here is a cool tool to make my life easier. For those Saints playoff games tailgates we'll have to fund, I'm planning to use ChipIn so that all my friends can just charge their portion of the tailgate. No checks to deposit, everyone gets a paper trial and I just move the money once -- from my Paypal to my Bank Account.The widget can be put on any web page, takes all of 2 minutes to set up and is a wonderful tool for non-profits to utilize for fundraising drives.

 

Three for Thursday - Nov 13

Reposting this today because it didn't go live yesterday... so enjoy.

First up is Minggle which the really smart Jason Falls posted about recently. Like other multi-platform update tools, Minggle pulls all your various fees into one place and gives you the ability to post to all platforms in a single update. What I think is really nice though is Minggle gives you an option to selectively update. So for instance, if I'm about to do a marketing talk for a conference and I want to notify everyone, I can post that to LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter with one update. But if I just want to post a business update (mabye winning a new client) on LinkedIn I can do that too and it won't post to FB and Twitter. 

Second up is Readability. Earlier this week I commented on Twitter that it would be really cool if blogs had a "format for printing" button on each post so that I could just print a good post (especially longer ones) to read later. Luckily Mark Wanczack saw my tweet and shared Readability with me. It's a simple plug in for your browser. Get to any web page that you want to format for offline printing, click on the Readability button and presto, formatted for printing version. You can even set the type size, margins, etc. Very cool little tool. 

And lastly, another one from Mr. Falls -- StreamThatCause.com. This is a great, innovative way for non-profits, churches, or school groups to raise money. A very web 2.0 update to the standard selling of candy, wrapping paper, etc. But instead of explaining the whole thing, I'd prefer you just pop over and read for yourself. Great concept and I'm sure you or someone you know can use this service for good.

Let me know what you think folks. And if you have a great idea or you've found a really cool tool/site that you think my readers would like, please let me know in the comments, via twitter @TomMartin or email me. Link up there under my pic.

Can You Hear Me Now?

 
Do you ever wish you had more time to read blogs? If so, then you might want to go invest in a little app called Buzz Voice. I've been using it for a while now and have to say, it rocks.

With Buzz Voice, you don't read blogs, you listen to them. That's right, you can listen to your favorite blog right on your iPhone or iPod.

I love it because I can listen to blogs on my way to and from work, on long drives or while I'm walking to get a bite to eat. Basically, any time that I need my eyes but maybe not my ears I can catch up on my blogs. Though, if you're going to use it in the car I'd suggest getting an iPod dock so you can just listen through the speakers and not use the headphones. Trust me, your kids will love you for it!

Here is a video they made to show you how to use it in the car.

And now, you can hear Positive Disruption on Buzz Voice. The CEO, John Atkinson dropped me a note a few weeks back letting me know Positive Disruption had been added to the playlist under the Tehchnology>>Social Media category. 

 

I'm pretty excited about being added to a list of great Social Media bloggers but more importantly, I'm excited because this opens up Positive Disruption to folks that otherwise might not be able to read it without some kind of special equipment: the visually impaired. Now they can just hear the words with nothing more than a computer (yes you can play BuzzVoice blogs on your computer) or an iPod. To me, I think that is just awesome because once again technology is bringing a low cost solution to a big cost (losing access to knowledge is such a waste) problem.

So go check BuzzVoice out. I think you'll dig it and be sure to add Positive Disruption to your playlist.

Is your brand a destination or a convenience?

There is a great little coffee/sandwich shop in the heart of Lakeview (New Orleans) called Nola Beans.

When Nola Beans first opened I made a special attempt to frequent it because it was started by a bunch of friends of mine and I wanted to do what I could to help make them a success. But then a funny thing happened... I discovered their Egg Salad sandwich. It is fantastic. Better than fantastic, it might be the best I've ever had. And yes, I'm a big fan of the egg salad. But that isn't the point of this post.

The point is: that sandwich and the wonderful atmosphere of Nola Beans has made the shop a destination for me. There are a good number of great sandwich shops or coffee houses between my house and Nola Beans but yet I pass them up to go to Nola Beans. Why? Because I crave that sandwich. BTW - if you're ever in NOLA, their chicken salad is the bomb too.

If I'm craving Lebanese Tea, I head over to Mona's and if I want a stiff drink, I hit New City Grille. In each case, these establishments have gone from "convenient" to "destination" in my mind. I pass up their competition to get to them. In fact there is a bar I can walk to from my house that I bypass in favor of New City. Drinks are cheaper but not as good and it's smoke filled. But man, is it convenient. So don't be fooled.. it isn't because these establishments are the cheapest or most convenient that make me frequent them. Hell the price of a  drink at New City is as stiff as the drink itself. But I know that for my money I'll get a great drink, in a nice smokeless atmosphere. So in my mind, New City Grille has become my destination of choice when I'm looking for a good drink with no smoke.

Which brings me to the point of this post: Being a destination is important. It gives you a point of difference but more importantly it gives you a marketing angle that isn't price or location dependent -- the hallmarks of commodity establishment advertising. Destinations give consumers a reason to form a relationship with them and more importantly something to talk about with their friends. Kind of like I'm doing with you right now.

So what are you? Why do your customers frequent you? Is it because you're a destination or because your just convenient?

Best Buy's 3D Augemented Reality Ad

Today I wanted to share this very cool video where I demonstrate a 3D Augmented Realty ad from this week's Best Buy circular. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Cataloging Great Information

Note: I am not in any way affilicated with this product. This is just me pointing you to something I found and think is pretty cool.

If you're like me, you read a lot of stuff online. So often at the end of the day I have 20 tabs open on my Firefox browser, each with an article, site or blog post I meant to read that day. But then someone turned me on to Zotero.

Zotero is a super easy Firefox extension that adds some pretty incredible cataloging tools to your browser. I've been playing with it for a few weeks now and have to say, LOVE IT. It's so simple and easy and that is what makes it great.

After you add it to your browser, you just surf as usual. When you find something you want to save to reference later, you just click the Zotero link in the footer of your browser. It opens this:

and prepopulates much of the information for you. You can add custom notes, tags, and more. There is also the ability to load in bibliographic citation information in your preferred format and I think you can even save just sections of a page, but I havent' tried that yet.

Thus far, I have found this to be a great tool for saving and then finding (saved versions). Between the folder tree and the tags, you can pretty much find anything in a few seconds.

Check it out and let me know what you think. Are you using something else to catalog and organize the information you find on the net? If so, let me know what you think of it. I'm always looking for new tools.

Thanks.