App developers know that Facebook’s restrictions on application emails have made the use of email as an effective communication channel much more challenging. Tonight, there is good news: Facebook is announcing several new features for developers to employ in their application emails. Here’s a quick summary: Many new formatting tags are available for the first time. For a complete list of which HTML tags developers can use in their emails, see the Developer Wiki page. Demographic restrictions are now available in email through FBML Personalization is now available in subject lines through FBML (”Justin, your latest updates…”) Internationalization tags are...
As we noted yesterday, Election Day was a really big day for the spread of political information and influence through the social graph on Facebook. This afternoon, Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg released final stats on election-related activity on the site, and they’re quite impressive: 5.4 million people shared that they’d voted with friends on Facebook 2.4 million people joined Facebook’s Election Day event 1.5 million people mentioned Obama, McCain, Palin, Biden or Election on their Facebook wall 15 million people of voting age in the US logged in on election day Virtual Gifts and the Day After It was also a...
The day after the presidential election, when everyone else is celebrating or mourning, a transition team will be working to prepare for the day the new president will take office. The process itself is extremely complex and will happen during a short, three-month period. With this handover of power involving an unprecedented amount of information and requiring fast, effective communication, the team must make the most of modern social technology to shape, coordinate, and run the transition process. What’s the Transition Team? The transition team has many responsibilities. These include staffing the White House, vetting potential cabinet members, developing...
The leading sentence is a key tool to effective communication. Whether you’re running a Galactic Empire (such as myself), or a small business – people are inundated with information. And the higher the position you are, the more information you get (daily reports, Emails, documents, status, blogs, etc…). Look at me, I’m running a multi-galaxy organization, can you imagine the amount of Empire Mail (aka EMail) I get? So obviously keeping your communications succinct, simple, and clear is of extreme importance. There’s only so much brain time someone will dedicate to any given communication, so you need to deliver the...
An airline with a blog, a Twitter account and its employees saying really good things about its new Terminal 5 which opened for business this week? No, it’s not the T5 you might be thinking of, the one that presented the airport operator and airline with a PR nightmare when it opened to the public last March. Oh alright, I’ll name names – that was Heathrow T5, BAA and British Airways. The terminal I’m talking about here is the new T5 at Kennedy Airport in New York, the new home for JetBlue, an airline that is no stranger to...
Today, I speak to Bert Decker about effective communication, including the significance and some useful tips for successfully communicating your message to others, in and out of the workplace. This is clearly a very important topic to go over, especially because people have short attention spans, make quick first impressions and enjoy good presentations. Why is effective communication important, not just in the workplace, but in life in general? What makes it such a significant quality for developing a personal branding? Bruce Barton, founder of BBD&O and a great businessman and author said, “Talkers have always ruled, they will continue...
Effective communication is all about connecting your message with the right people, right? That was what someone at Twine was trying to figure out, kinda. What’s Twine? you ask. Check this out and determine which description resonates with you. This one, from Twine’s website: Here’s the description: Twine is a smarter way to keep track of your interests. Use it to collect and share bookmarks, notes, videos and other content. Twine organizes your content, learns as you use it and recommends new things to check out. You can use Twine alone and with groups of people who share your interests....
One trick to creative thinking is to explore different ways to express an idea. Instead of just writing it down, why not make a sketch? Or draw a diagram? There are thousands of ways to represent an idea, and representing it in the most effective way can make the difference between getting the green light, and going back to the drawing board. I have a background in design, which means I compulsively pick up most books on visual thinking and brainstorming. I was recently quite pleased to discover Dan Roam's book, The Back of the Napkin. The premise of...
The 2008 Philippine Blog Awards was concluded Saturday evening with the awarding ceremonies at the Esplanade in Pasay City, Metro Manila. Finalists in the 23 categories were narrowed down from hundreds of nominees, with winners selected by judges from various fields, mostly in the new media industry. With the aim of recognizing notable Filipino-owned blogs in different niches, the Philippine Blog Awards was launched in 2007 to showcase notable blogs with quality content that engages readers from around the globe. This second year of the event marked the inclusion of network blogs written by Filipinos, blogs written by mainstream...
Tech news that instantly spread beyond the blogosphere to the mainstream media is yesterday’s announcement from Google about Google Chrome (link not working as I write this), a new browser that’s expected to be launched in beta sometime today. Already there are hundreds if not thousands of blog posts and media stories, together with thousands of opinions as comments, about Google Chrome and its likely impact on the web. The best bite-size chunk of commentary I’ve read so far is Darren Waters’ take in dot.life, the BBC’s tech blog. Two things I find especially interesting are how Google’s announcement...
Five Step Method of Protecting Yourself From Negative Influences : Wednesdays Wednesday is about communication. Correct communication, in the traditional sense, means speaking with purpose. Clear your mind if your schedule permits, and grab your media library. Indulge in a short movie clip, song, or personal saying that emphasizes ways of communicating effectively, powerfully, and helpfully. Maybe it’s a romantic clip from a favorite movie or a moving speech from an orator. Perhaps it’s part of an audio book or a memorable sermon from your religious service. Pick a communication example that shows communication that makes a difference, that inspires...
