On Tuesday, I ran my first webinar--an hour-long session on time management. Not my topic of choice, but this was a long-time client so sometimes you do what you have to do. After the webinar experience I liveblogged a few months ago, the one thing I KNEW couldn't happen with this thing was death by Powerpoint. You might be able to get away with a bad PPT presentation if you're... Read more →

Note--I wrote this post on Sunday, right after I wrote my original social media spiral post. It further explains where I'm trying to go in regard to social media use and learning and thinking through how to help people use social media tools for their own professional development. After the post I just wrote on early adopters and the early majority, I think it may add more food for thought.... Read more →

On Sunday, I asked for feedback on the social media spiral I drew to represent my current thinking about how people transition from "old" media to new social media. This is a follow-up post to tease out some of the comments I received and integrate them further into my thinking. I will warn you that it's 6 a.m. and this is a little stream of consciousness. First, a few people... Read more →

One of the first things you learn as a trainer is that you have to anchor new knowledge in previous knowledge. That is, for people to understand new concepts and develop new skills, you have to start with what they already know. I've been doing some thinking about how to help staff make connections between new media and the older tools they already know how to use. In a long... Read more →

This week I'm sharing some of the tools and tips I've been using in my ongoing quest to achieve productivity nirvana. One tool that I'm really enjoying using is Jott. Here's how it works. Sign up for your free account. You'll be prompted through getting your account and phone set up. Once you're signed up, use your cell phone to call the Jott toll free number. Leave a message for... Read more →

It's the New Year and one of my resolutions is to try to get a better handle on my time. I'm also in the middle of planning for a time management webinar, so I guess I have productivity on the brain. This week I wanted to share some tools and tips I've been trying out as I suspect that I'm not alone in the desire to get more done in... Read more →

It was an electronics Christmas here at the Martin house. I sucked it up and bought my husband a new laptop, which he desperately needed after several years of using my own 7-year old refurbished cast-off. And he got me the new i-Pod Touch--basically an iPhone without the phone part, which is just fine with me. It's replacing my Nano and also giving me more memory that I sorely needed.... Read more →

Yesterday's post on the six reasons people aren't commenting on your blog was one of those things that takes you by surprise. One second I'm dashing off a quick post between calls and the next I'm watching my stats and comments go off the charts after Chris Brogan tweets about it. Of course the real beauty is that with all those comments, I got some great info and questions from... Read more →

As part of his Social Media 100 series, Chris Brogan is exploring the power of blog commenting by "writing" his post through comments. (OK, I'm a day late in seeing this in my feed reader). It's an interesting experiment that has me thinking some more about commenting, a topic I've explored previously. Many of the commenters in Chris's thread are complaining that they don't get comments on their blogs, something... Read more →

Although I don't know if stats back me up on this, personal experience tells me that one of the main reasons people are afraid to use new tools is because they don't want to look stupid in front of the world--and more specifically in front of their customers. I've been thinking a lot lately (again) about why there's still resistance to social media tools. I'm beginning to believe that some... Read more →