Marco’s Blog

How useful is micro-blogging? I have been using Twitter for a few weeks and I am still not sure if I will keep using it or HOW I will use it.

I like the fact that I can send a quick update via SMS to my Twitter account to let other people know what I am doing without the need to write a full blog entry. Especially now that I included the Twitter badge on my site, it’s easier for my friends to keep track of what I am doing. I just need to be more diligent about sending regular “tweets”. I know I could use other alternatives like an online calendar to achieve the same results, but my schedule tends to change quickly and my calendar doesn’t always get updated. So a quick “tweet” usually does the trick. As long as people know to look at my page to get an update, they should know where I am or what I am doing.

The micro-blogs are also an easy way to update your friends, customers or family of what’s happening in between your normal blog entries. Let’s face it, you can’t really write a full blog entry about going to Starbucks for a few minutes… Ok! Some of you could, but that’s beside the point.

I certainly don’t use Twitter to have a group of followers and I can’t really understand why someone would want to constantly track a micro-blog. But hey, I am no longer a teenager and maybe it’s just a “cool” thing to do these days. If I want to do something with my friends, I still use the phone or SMS to get in touch with them. Am I old fashion already?

Let’s just wait and see how micro-blogging evolves and how people will use it.

It’s hard to imagine that companies now a days don’t provide a URL on their products or packages. When I see a product of interest in a store, the first thing I do is look for the web address and when I go back home I can look it up and get additional details or specs about it.

It’s also frustrating when you visit the web site and you can’t find the product because the search engine doesn’t work or the structure of the site is unclear. If your company doesn’t have a search engine, make sure it’s easy to get access to the product page. You can either publish a list or a page enumerating all your products or create a sub domain specifically for the product being advertised (MyProduct.mysite.com) that will re-direct your customers to a specific section of your site.

So for those of you who work in Marketing or Packaging, please, the next time you release a new product add the URL on the box.

With the introduction of mashups and the availability of APIs for various social networking sites it is difficult to focus on how these sites will evolve with time. Just think of how much more powerful these sites would be if they could provide you with real time information about people around you.

Imagine this, you walk into a meeting with several people you never met before. You then activate the discovery mode on your PDA and all of the sudden you can access the profiles of all the attendees to determine what you have in common with them, their role, experience and areas of expertise.

Technology wouldn’t be a problem to get this done now - we have the hardware (PDAs with GPS, wifi and bluetooth), we have the networking sites (LinkedIn, FaceBook) and the glue for all of this could be a combination of mashups, XML/KML and presence technology (Unified Communication). Privacy issues would be in my opinion the biggest road block to implement such a concept.

For more info, take a look at the post from Michael Arrington - I Saw The Future Of Social Networking The Other Day

Is an 8 hour work day still required? Well if you look at some of the greatest leaders in history it would seem that a few hours of work per day combined with variety might be more beneficial for your productivity (and sanity).

Although corporate America might not be ready for this type of flexibility I believe employees can find various ways to balance their work day and increase their creativity and productivity.

Albert van Zyl, posted an interesting blog entry that talks about this in more details. Basically, the post says that we can learn the following items from some of the great leaders/thinkers:

- Don’t work long hours
- Take breaks
- Take even longer breaks
- Stop work and sit down for meals
- Don’t work in the afternoons
- Mix it up
- Aim low (don’t schedule every minutes of your day)
- Take time to relax
- Get up early
- Exercise

On the flip side of this, a lot of great leaders worked several hours per day. So I am not saying that you should reduce your work week to a few a hours but find what works for you.

I visit several web sites every day, but today I found a new site that will change (or at least improve) you radio listening experience. last.fm will monitor your listening habits and will taylor the content based on your preferences. You can also download a little application that will scrobble or send the track info back to last.fm and update your profile.

After listening and tagging several songs, you will eventually have a personalised radio station.

It’s a great alternative to Pandora who no longer works outside the US.

Happy Listening!

Yes, this is a new look and feel for my site. Hopefully, I will be able to populate this one with fresh content on a more regular basis.