Steve Jobs: Visionary

vi·sion·ar·y = Adjective: (esp. of a person) Thinking about or planning the future with imagination or wisdom:

Few people are true visionaries. We would like to think we are, but thinking outside the box is far harder than it sounds.  Steve Jobs simply made the products everyone wanted. And if they didn’t know they wanted it, they did after all the buzz that surrounds an Apple release. I admit, I thought early on Apple missed the boat keeping products in house while Windows spread like a wildfire (or a virus is probably closer to reality )  Obviously Steve Jobs knew how to control a brand and grow it into one the most lucrative on the planet.

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I started out a PC guy, and remained one until I bought my wife the mac mini when it came out. From there I was hooked.  I have since bought, 5 macs, and love the products.  With a PC your life is about anti virus software, and crazy executable files designed to ruin the world. With a mac it is about productivity.

And every release of an apple product helps me be more productive. As a web developer I spend all day on my computer, and Macs make that day more enjoyable, productive and profitable.

Then there is the iPad. I admit I wasn’t sold on it until I bought one for my wife. She uses it for almost all her needs. The product has revolutionized the industry and you better be developing websites that look ok on the iPad or you are missing a huge part of your market.  Travel to any board room and watch Senior Executives. They pull out the iPad.  The iPad also showed how the computer industry just wants to hang back, see what Apple does and create an inferior copy. It hasn’t worked, and the Pads which have come out, aren’t as good and don’t sell. Perhaps with Steve stepping down, other computer makers will actually think for themselves and create something great, to quote a great ad, “think different”.

So, with sadness, I wish Steve Jobs Godspeed.  Thank you for Apple and all you have done.  Few have really changed the world. You Have.

Client Advice: Social Networking is free, don’t ignore

The problem most clients have is finding the time to tweet or post to facebook.  So they ignore.  My response, you are ignoring something that is not only unbelievably popular, but free as well. I think tweeting things of interest, shows you are a SME (Subject matter expert) and can set you up for possible business down the road.

So, what should I tweet?  Tweet what you know.  I have a friend in my networking group who is a grammar expert and makes a living proofreading and giving grammar seminars.  As an example, I told her to do Grammar tip of the day.  She can automate her tweets*, one or two a day and literally has hundreds of tips she could give.  By utilizing the hash tag, #grammar, she can find an audience and hopefully gain business. If you are in retail, tweet what is on sale, or about new products. If you are a service organization, show what value you offer, and lead them to your website for more information.

But the time thing…..I think you have to treat your website and social networking as part of your routine. Schedule a recurring meeting with yourself to work on your web properties.  Hire someone to do the heavy lifting, and even to tweat for you, or post to facebook.  I do this for clients, and we have seen a real growth in followers due to our activity.

If you blog, make sure your blog is tied to your twitter and/or facebook accounts.  I use the rss feed from this blog to post to twitter as an example.

* Automation software is available to post tweets and to send posts to all your SN sites.  The purpose of this blog isn’t to promote any one company, but I am glad to help, shoot me an email for more info.