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New Year’s Resolution – Get Unstuck. There’s an App for That

12/28/11 Bill Handy Comments (0)

Unstuck, is a free iPad app available in the iTunes app store and fits into my favorite category - designed to solve a problem. Specifically, as the name implies, the app helps users get unstuck.

The app is easy to use. Users begin the process with the nice introductory cartoonish page at which time the app digs into your stuckness. You will answer a variety of questions & rank the elements of any problem. I’ve tried several times to confound the app and have yet to do so. The app does have limitations – 11 tools and more than fifty targeted tips to help users… yep, get unstuck. That being said I’ve yet to hit a wall and doubt most users will. Users can save up to five stuck moments all of which are kept private even if you share the iPad with others. Stuck moments can be deleted to make room for new ones.

A quick note about the privacy of the app. It seems they can track users but in accordance with iTunes/Apple they do so anonymously. The benefit is for both Unstuck and the user. A recent blog post provides some insight into how others are stuck. I personally hope this is something they will continue to share. It’s nice knowing how you stack up against the rest of the world.

Everyone gets stuck and there’s no shame in it. There are thousands of self help (biz and personal) books designed to walk us through any challenge. Unfortunately there is no feedback look so they are limited in their ability to truly help us get unstuck. This is where the app beats a book.

What I like most about Unstuck is the personal nature it seems to offer, asking the same question more than once to get to the root of your stuckness. Considering your thoughts, emotions and behaviors as you work through your stuck moment. There is also a a feel of relaxedness so as not to add more stress to your stuck moment.

I’ve launched several stuck moments just to work through a process. In every case the end result is what you would expect – a solution to my stuckness. Of course it is still up to the user to take action/move forward but the clarity of the solution makes even that easy – at least at that moment (ask me about my dogs and how they factored into a stuck moment. It seems I will forever be stuck on that one).

Call it a coach, mentor or an app – it works. Compared to hiring a coach it might just be cheaper – iPad included.

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Categories : Crap!, Education, iPad, proactive, Random, Research, tips, Uncategorized

Tags : App Store, Apple Inc., Business software, coach, Computing, Human Interest, IPhone, ITunes, iTunes app store, New Year's Resolutions, Technology/Internet, unstuck

Branded LinkedIn Links

12/01/11 Bill Handy Comments (33)

Which looks better this or a branded link (below)

I love LinkedIn and honestly find more value on this one social media platform than just about any other. Especially in a world of business to business, it can be critical for success. Even if someone doesn’t connect with you they might still visit your page (you can tell, but more on that later) to get a sense of what you are about. That single visit can be the make or break for any effort you are involved in.

One of the easiest tricks to polish your page is to brand your links. LinkedIn provides generic terms for the different places you can be found. Company or personal website, portfolio, etc. Most simply choose one of these options and plug in the information. This give their page the same generic look as any other. But there is a way to provide a bit more personal brand to the look and feel of this section. It’s as easy as choosing “other”.

I’ve created a short video tutorial on how to accomplish this and posted it below. Feel free to post your questions, comments and own personal tips below.

linkedin Links from BillHandy on Vimeo.
Creating branded Linkedin Links is easy… really easy.

Comments (33)

Categories : "public relations", Education, Public Relations, Research, Social Media, tips, Uncategorized

Tags : business to business, Collaboration, Community websites, Human Interest, LinkedIn, LinkedIn Open Networker, Online social networking, Social information processing, Social Media, social media platform, Web 2.0

Conference Housekeeping in a Digital Age

11/30/11 Bill Handy Comments (1)

I recently gave a presentation to the American Marketing Association Oklahoma City Chapter and began with this housekeeping request of audience members.

“Please turn on all cell phones, update your Facebook status, text some friends, take a picture and post it to twitpic, or Instagram if you prefer sepia tones. (I ask them to tag any images of me with the hashtag #silverfox, a brand am trying to create for myself without much success.) They are asked to turn on all computers and launch their favorite websites, watch a YouTube video… and share it with friends. If they are so bold they are asked to take a phone call, listen to their favorite song (with our without headphones), read, if anyone still does that, and connect with more people on Google plus.”

This slide was created more than 2 years ago and modified to accommodate new social platforms. The intent of the original message remains, although I think people sometimes miss the point. It is a reflection of the times we live in and is an acceptance of the behaviors of today’s audience – acknowledging that the only thing which has really changed over the years are the tools used to distract. It is not an endorsement of the audience’s actions. Whether you are in a classroom or an auditorium, it is well documented that multitaskers do nothing well but multitask. Furthermore the cognitive retention of those multitasking is paltry in comparison to someone not so distracted.

While this slide is up I talk about the changes I’ve witnessed over the years, the evolutionary nature of the tools used (from notes and sudoko to facebook and Angry Birds) and point out the research regarding multitaskers. The irony is, when I use this slide it seems to reduce the number of devices I see being used for conflicting purposes. I’m not sure if it is the recognition of the negating factores at hand or simply that the audience is more aware of their actions. Regardless, it definetly sets the tone for a very interactive presentation.

Feel free to use it as your own.

Who do you trust? It’s not social media.

02/16/11 Bill Handy Comments (3)

There have been a lot of studies which pertain to trust, the most famous probably the Edelman Trust Barometer. If you haven’t read that stop reading this now and spend your morning being truly enlightened. If you have, then please read on.

A few weeks ago during what seemed to be a crescendo of online banter about Quora and how awesome it was to answer all your questions I became frustrated for two reasons:

What was once a great question site was quickly becoming spamish and narcissistic or dumbed down with ridiculous questions to which the answer could only be, ” it depends”, “yes”, or “no”.

For whatever anomalous reason several tweets and online comments crossed my desk with a common theme that everything you could ever need to know could be found on twitter. I can only imagine the person was simply sitting back and letting 140 characters at a time pass by absorbing the all-knowing information. My snarkier side wondered what these people would think about a surgeon with the same philosophy, “trust me everything I know about heart surgery I learned on twitter.”

I was curious about who would people trust to answer a very specific question of importance. So I put together a very nonscientific survey which simply asked the question, “If your job depended on getting the correct answer to a question which would you trust more?” The options, in no particular order, were twitter, blog, Prof. (with PhD), textbook, Wikipedia, Quora or a friend.

RESULTS
By a landslide textbooks were the winner. A Professor and Wikipedia tied for second and Twitter, blogs and friends barely made a mark.Quora, by the way, didn’t get a single vote.

Before you blast the results let me say again this was not a scientific study and most professors (one did) would challenge the question as not being valid. I agree and would add my sample was likely biased (most likely PR folks), etc. but it does give an interesting snapshot.

The uptake to all this, if you truly believe in the crowd, don’t trust them when your job is on the line and go buy a textbook.

Comments (3)

Categories : Education, Public Relations, Research, Social Media, twitter

Tulsa Library – Social Media University

09/20/10 Bill Handy Comments (2)

I don’t normally broadcast my own speaking gigs. Lots of reasons why but most of all I was taught you just don’t. I’m breaking my rule for three reasons:

1) The event is being put on by the Tulsa County Library and I would encourage everyone (EVERYONE!!!) to support them.
2) I owe them a favor… long story and an embarrassing one for me. I will share at the event but let me assure you I owe them big! I asked what I could do to make it up and they asked me to help (promote) fill seats.
3) I originally told them I couldn’t speak on the topic they wanted me to cover which led to a conversation about trivial uses of social media and how they were impacting the true/potential value of the internet. This led to my thoughts about social media, its implications to society and how we can use it to make the world a better place – yet most of us use it like television… or worse. They bit and asked me to present on this topic.

So….here is the skinny if you would like to attend:

Wednesday September 22 from, 2-4 p.m.
Aaronson Auditorium at the Central Library located at 4th and Denver http://www.tulsalibrary.org/central/

You can RSVP here https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3YM7ZDX

For information about other social media seminars visit http://www.tulsalibrary.org/foundation_center/services.php

More info about the presentation (from the Library website):
Seventy exabytes of data will be created this year through blogs, books, tweets, Facebook updates, new websites and more. It is the equivalent of 518,000Libraries of Congress. The risk to so much content is that it becomes worthless, which means we risk the Internet and social media becoming ultimately worthless.

Social media tools, however, also allow us to add value to our lives beyond simply connecting to our friends. With purposeful interactions we create information used for knowledge, which when applied equates wisdom. This is the value of social media.

Bill Handy, Visiting Professor at Oklahoma State University in the School of Media and Strategic Communications, will begin this presentation with the theoretical concepts of social media and guide us beyond the traditional and trivial uses. Attendees will walk away with a better understanding of the value of social media and the larger implications it has to our lives and to our society. The information provided can also be applied to organizational and business efforts to add value to their online footprint.

You can also check out their cool poster here: http://www.tulsalibrary.org/eventguide/events/RC_social-media-university-poster_10.pdf

That’s it folks, post any questions below.

Comments (2)

Categories : Education, Social Media

Sage advice from Photographer Bill Frakes

09/07/10 Bill Handy Comments (0)

If you are pressed for time simply jump to the video. Everything up to that point could be classified as rambling…

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to visit the University of Oklahoma and participate in Apple’s Creative Pro Solutions Briefing at the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. For those of you who are unaware of this university it is located in a small town just south of Stillwater, Oklahoma. I’m not saying it’s in an isolated area of Oklahoma but if you were to continue traveling south you would leave the state traveling 192 miles before arriving in a metropolitan city.

A few observations of the day:

I was surrounded by folks who understood, embraced and promoted the balance of technology and education and the critical role each plays to each other. That was a joy.
When I arrived I was feeling a bit burned out. A summer which was supposed to allow for a bit of recharging was filled with long days, stressful project work and travel for business which at times left me not knowing where I was going to be the next week. When I left the meeting I felt inspired, motivated and recharged. As an aside, at the age of 43 inspiring me is no easy task.
It was sponsored by Apple and when I arrived that morning I was a technology agnostic and didn’t have an affinity for any particular brand. I’m still an agnostic but I made the decision to purchase a Mac. More on this later.
I learned about Abilene Christian University’s Newspaper iPad app the Optimist, heard about University of Oklahoma’s focus on teaching tech from an under the hood approach (see image right) which I think is brilliant and even I had a chance to speak for a moment or two about the Oklahoma State University iPad pilot.
The highlight of the day though was the hired talent. It wasn’t only awesome, it was inspirational. During the few breaks which took place the conversations were full of depth, focus and an eye toward learning and sharing. No one was above another and that included the Dean and Assistant Dean in the room.

The final presenter of the day was a gentleman named Bill Frakes. When his name was mentioned as a participant in the day’s events it was always in conjunction with his work with Sports Illustrated. Not being a huge sports fan I went anyway.

Bill Frakes who has a very dry sense of humor, ability to put an audience at ease and makes everyone feel like they are in on all the inside jokes. A very unassuming man you would never know from meeting him that he holds threes degrees from three universities including his Juris Doctorate which we won’t hold against him. (Full disclosure, while I checked out his work prior to the meeting I never knew what he looked like. He joined our lunch table to chime in on an ongoing conversation and sat next to me. It wasn’t until he stood up to speak that I figured out I was sitting next to the award winning Bill Frakes. Memo to self, introduce yourself when someone sits next to you.)

He shared with the room what he can accomplish on any normal week. You can tell it is lots of long days but you can also tell he loves what he does and I’m not sure he would qualify his daily efforts as “work”.

I shot the video below for one simple reason: I wanted to bring some of Bill Frakes back to my students. I took the role of Chris Farley as the bumbling interviewer. Bill took the role of…. Bill. I left the first 1:20 in the video so you could get a feel of who Bill Frakes is (he plays himself very well) but the heart of his message can be found at 1:20 and beyond. It is a message that every aspiring PR pro, journalist, photographer, etc should take to heart.

The video was shot with my iPhone. No comparison to the equipment Mr. Frakes uses but sometimes you want McDonalds.

Sage Wisdom from Bill Frakes from billhandy on Vimeo.

For more on Bill Frakes please visit:
http://www.billfrakes.com/
His company http://www.strawhatvisuals.com
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0703/gallery.canon.frakes/content.1.html
http://www.apple.com/pro/profiles/frakes/

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Categories : "public relations", Career, Education, Journalism, marketing, PR 101, PR Communication Methods

Oklahoma State University to launch Apple iPad student pilot initiative

06/18/10 Bill Handy Comments (14)

Oklahoma State University president Burns Hargis announced this morning the University will pilot an Apple iPad initiative during the Fall 2010 semester with select courses in the School of Media and Strategic Communications and the Spears School of Business at both the Stillwater and Tulsa campuses.

“This pilot initiative will provide valuable insight into the research benefits of the Apple iPad in the classroom,” said Hargis. “The iPad has had an amazing impact since it was introduced last April and we are excited to be able to put this powerful and creative tool in the hands of students and faculty and see what happens.”

The Pilot will be led by myself and Tracy Suter, associate professor of marketing in the Spears School of Business. Each of us will integrate the iPad differently but will focus on specific measurable outcomes.

The iPad pilot will be launched this fall with approximately 125 students in five different courses and will be focused on fields of study where we believe we can best determine the higher education value of the iPad. We will evaluate the academic enhancement to the courses, how the iPad and its specific apps and web-based tools can be integrated in this capacity, and perhaps most importantly, how the integration of these mobile tools can expand the tactical abilities of students as they enter the workforce.

The iPad and other mobile tools are already integrated into daily business use. In both schools, the iPad will be used for academic purposes and to explore innovative uses and tactical uses specific to each school’s industry needs.

Professor Suter offers this perspectives, “In addition to mobility, the iPad will allow us to work in real-time. For example, data collection and analysis in a research context can be a multi-day to multi-week process. By using the iPad, we can replace paper-and-pencil research with the immediate process of data collection, review and summary over a Web interface.

I certainly have ideas of how I would like to use an iPad. But collectively we will discover new uses a single individual might not have conceived independently. Putting the newest technology in the hands of students allows them to stretch the limits of how it can be used.”

Cost savings for students will also be evaluated. In one case, students using the iPad in a single course will save more than $100 on a single textbook, which can be downloaded in an ePub format.

OSU is leading the way in the integration of technology in the classroom. It is already using a variety of tools such as iTunesU and YouTube, along with other collaborative tools. OSU is also exploring the development of mobile applications to integrate current publications into an online and app platform, offering expense savings and enhanced distribution.

Members of the media interested in more information can contact me or Carrie Hulsey-Greene | 405.744.9081 | Carrie.hulsey_greene@okstate.edu

I would be remiss if I didn’t add, “Oklahoma State University is a modern land-grant system that cuts across disciplines to better prepare students for a new world. Oklahoma’s only university with a statewide presence, OSU improves the lives of people in Oklahoma, the nation, and the world through integrated, high-quality teaching, research and outreach. OSU has more than 32,000 students across its five-campus system and more than 19,000 on its Stillwater campus, with students from all 50 states and about 110 nations. Established in 1890, OSU has graduated more than 200,000 students who have made a lasting impact on Oklahoma and the world.” That and GO POKES!!!

CREATE – INNOVATE – EDUCATE – GO STATE!

Stay tunes, more to come…

Comments (14)

Categories : Education, iPad, Oklahoma State University, OKState, Research

Tags : coursesmart, epub, iPad, Journalism, Oklahoma State University, okstate, pearson, Research

Apple iPad – My Personal, Business and Educational Experience

06/17/10 Bill Handy Comments (12)

I’ve had the Apple iPad since it was delivered that very first day. You may not believe me when I tell you I really wasn’t excited about its delivery but I wasn’t. You can ask my wife who asked the same question about a week before delivery and my response was similar to others who asked the question, “Its just another piece of technology and have learned not to build it up to be more than it really is.” In fact, the day it was delivered it sat in the box for more than eight hours while I painted the kitchen. I am a man with priorities.

A few facts you need to know about me. I’m no fanboy of apple. I would consider myself to be technologically agnostic and really look first at what will accomplish the objective at hand with a normally limited budget. My first smart phone was a BlackBerry and even poked fun at those with an iPhone using the often quoted statement that BlackBerry was for business folks and iPhones were for (fill in the blank). I now have an iPhone which you can all thank Jamie Russel who, while talking with him at a meeting, commented that he had been loosing weight and getting in shape and attributed it to his iPhone. The comment that resonated was that he had never had a piece of technology which had changed his life. Neither had I and I wanted in.

I ordered my iPhone and despite the concerns of my BlackBerry friends (and even some iPhone friends) that I wouldn’t like it because of the keyboard and a variety of other typical issues the truth was I loved it right out of the box – especially iTunes. It wasn’t a game changer and not even revolutionary in comparison to my BlackBerry. What it was was intuitive, flexible and consolidated a lot of my other pieces of hardware including a small iPod which was given to me as a hand me down from my daughter.

So let’s get to it, my review of the iPad. This post is based on all the initial reviews and concerns and my thoughts after using it for a month. By the way, I’m typing this post on it using the WordPress app.

Keyboard – It took me a about an hour to get the hang of the keyboard and I still prefer to type in landscape. I keep holding back on getting the external keyboard simple because it feels like I am not being true to the device. My friend Matt Galloway commented that adding a keyboard was basically an effort to turn the iPad into a laptop and I would argue the great value to the iPad is it isn’t a laptop.

Mouse - See Keyboard

Printing - Yep it can’t. I think theres an app for that but I haven’t gone looking for it. This one caught me completely by surprise – since using the iPad I hardly print anything. I’m not sure if its an awareness thing or the fact that I spend more time doing work away from my printer but my printing has almost come to a halt. Even when working on my computer (and HP) I still won’t print anything. Thinking about all the printing I’ve done over the years I might plant a tree this weekend as an act of attrition.

It doesn’t replace a laptop – Yes and no. First no, it doesn’t replace my laptop. I still need that for some heavy lifting such as editing video, etc. And would I want to type a three hundred page novel? Probably not. But for just about everything else it is awesome. Here is where it has replaced my laptop:

On business trips – files are loaded or saved on google docs, evernote, dropbox or some other platform for retrieval at the moment of need
Meetings - its not as obtrusive as a laptop and a weird observation – no clicking which always made me feel self conscious when typing away in a meeting. It was also tough pulling everything out, the production of opening the laptop, turning it on, etc. With the iPad I flip the cover and type away. One issue I will admit – you need to give an extra fifteen minutes to any meeting because everyone wants to ask about your iPad and the brave ones want to touch it.
Everywhere in the house - I used to drag my laptop all over my house to “work” which is code for check email or some other minimalistic effort. The iPad works great in this capacity and if you spend most of your time online, working on documents, responding to email or any social networking ditch the hot lap.
In bed – I add this in addition to the note above simply because I love to read but most of what I enjoy reading is online content – thus I brought my laptop to bed a lot of nights. This, for you young techlyweds is not conducive to a harmonious marriage. My wife is awesome and never said anything but I knew… The only complaint of the iPad is the bright light in an otherwise dark room. But here’s a trick. When your wife is asleep next to you and it’s 1 a.m. either go to sleep or go in the other room, regardless if you have an iPad. (enough marriage advice)

Here’s where it hasn’t:

My office - but even then I find I often use my iPad while my computer is sitting right in front of me. It’s just convenient sometimes.

It isn’t open – I love open source as much as the next guy and am a huge advocate, even encouraging my student to use free and open source software instead of paid for products (most don’t). I follow many open source advocates and yell my commitment from the pews. Apple is closed. So what. (start the debate below)

Let’s talk books – I haven’t downloaded too many books but for the ones I have I didn’t miss paper at all. The experience was fine. I wish I could search all books for my personal notes but I haven’t yet found a device to do that for my paper copies. One think I love – I’m able to lug around three text books (200 plus pages each) all in a product smaller than my favorite restaurant’s menu. Are there some trade offs? Yep. Can I think of one off the top of my head? Not at the moment.

It can’t multi task – Read any study on multitasking and you will see the one thing multitasking folks do well is multi-task. What they don’t do well is all the things they are multitasking. I know the new OS will allow multitasking. Meh.

Is there anything I don’t like about the iPad? – I am sure there are but nothing so glaring it is enough for me to turn it in, even if I could get a full refund.

Do I do anything different because of the iPad? – I spend less time at my desk simply because of the ease to do those trivial work tasks anywhere. I also spend a lot less time using my iPhone. Yep, it’s a huge iPhone which I can’t talk on (yet?) but where my laptop and iPhone weren’t optimal the iPad is. (update – clarification, being a huge iPhone isn’t a bad thing)

(note, I published via my iPad but edited in my browser to add font changes – you can’t do that with the WordPress app.)

Comments (12)

Categories : Education

Tags : apple, Education, iPad