tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57256056279208831012012-02-16T10:39:10.683-07:00Pinnacle ThoughtsIdeas and discussion about communications, technology, marketing, and new ideas for business and organizations.About our Organizationnoreply@blogger.comBlogger151100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5725605627920883101.post-74926740701391787482012-01-11T16:36:00.001-07:002012-01-11T17:55:08.693-07:00Free QR codes and Short Links are Big with BitlyEver get links inside emails that are so long they wrap around and around? All too often they don't work. If you want to shorten a web page address, use bitly.com. Unlike some other url shorteners, bitly tracks click-throughs and creates QR codes too! And for more prolific or public entities, bitly lets a corporation brand its own shortener. While that gets technical, here's two introductory About our Organizationnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5725605627920883101.post-56297482624054258342011-12-18T19:52:00.000-07:002011-12-18T19:53:22.512-07:00Facebook gets Timeline mostly right.Who is Andy Sparks, you ask? Watch this short video from Facebook and you'll know! In one-and-a-half minutes you see his whole life (to-date), from birth through grade school, marriage, and raising his own child.
And now you can have your whole life on-line too in pictures, video and posts through Facebook's new Timeline profile view. In beta-testing for awhile, as of December 15, it's About our Organizationnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5725605627920883101.post-58736782096917927522011-04-30T14:10:00.010-06:002011-04-30T14:54:54.614-06:00BlackBerry PlayBook has the bells, not all the whistlesWell, I'd been waiting and following the release of BlackBerry's PlayBook tablet for months and finally it was released April 19. Why PlayBook and not ipad? Mostly because I wanted 3G connection without having to buy another monthly data plan. Both come with WiFi, but that's not always available when travelling or meeting outside the home or office. So PlayBook tethers wirelessly through About our Organizationnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5725605627920883101.post-18194658219667799882011-03-29T11:50:00.007-06:002011-03-29T12:25:55.967-06:00QR Codes Smart for Business MarketingFinding out which ads capture the attention of customers has always been a challenge for marketers. Getting results is usually an accumulation of a variety of tactics including advertising, trade shows, web promotion, media coverage, business cards, networking, referrals etc etc. Now, with QR codes, everything from business cards to brochures, from t-shirts to tattoos can be tracked for their About our Organizationnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5725605627920883101.post-74067023232256143682010-09-27T21:26:00.003-06:002010-09-27T21:39:50.314-06:0010 step checklist for small business starting in social media I talk to small businesses everyday about social media. They email me questions, ask for presentations, tutoring, help with setting up accounts, etc. The nuts and bolts can take a lot of time for small business, the services are always changing, and even once all the accounts are set up and integrated, they find themselves spending more and more time updating statuses and tweeting links with About our Organizationnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5725605627920883101.post-36666955041459849442010-09-13T09:12:00.009-06:002010-09-13T09:51:56.014-06:00A radio station isn't a radio station anymore, it's a website!I can't believe it's been nearly two months since I last blogged. I just got word that an out of town client wants to delay my road trip this morning, so I've gained an hour or so early in my day. Still, rather than working on social media presentations this week for a Rotary and municipal groups, I have a greater interest in blogging at the moment.We recently had a new radio station open up in About our Organizationnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5725605627920883101.post-4636453636478793702010-07-18T12:28:00.007-06:002010-07-18T13:26:02.614-06:00Newsletters, snoozeletters?This week seems to be all about newsletters for my clients. Email marketing is great, but what if no one's reading it? Businesses and organizations of all sizes need to make sure their resources are being expended to bring results. Sometimes we keep doing things because we always have and it's hard to remove a communications tactics once it's established. There is a fear that stopping could About our Organizationnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5725605627920883101.post-30756760833159659492010-07-03T01:03:00.007-06:002010-07-08T23:41:17.612-06:00Looking for communications coordinator to join the team!Pinnacle Communications & Media Inc is recruiting for a new position in our Vernon BC office. Get all the details http://bcjobnetwork.com/PLanding/5010351 Posting closes July 14. About our Organizationnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5725605627920883101.post-72431812437653478792010-07-03T00:17:00.004-06:002010-07-03T00:32:55.399-06:00#RDtweetup Red Deer Tweet Up brings out crowdsWell, it was a small crowd, yet an enthusiastic crowd. As one of the organizers, along with Dean Owen of RDTV.ca, I was delighted to see those @twitterpeople greeting each other in-person; exchanging stories about the benefits of social media to their business, their personal and professional brand, and the opportunities for business promotion; and most of all sharing a lot of laughs. Sure, we About our Organizationnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5725605627920883101.post-67255483500020974062010-06-07T15:59:00.009-06:002010-06-07T18:43:05.451-06:004 ways to Improve Stakeholder RelationsWhile it's easy to define "Stakeholders" as individuals or groups affected by the actions or policies of an organization, identifying stakeholders is left up to the organizations preparing to communicate change. A recent project I worked on involved identifying a list of stakeholders for consultation purposes. Not every group of potential stakeholders was listed, nor was every listed group About our Organizationnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5725605627920883101.post-77758623644703084942010-05-17T00:29:00.006-06:002010-05-17T00:43:06.820-06:00Social Media WorkshopRegistration is now open for my upcoming Social Media Strategy workshop to be held in the Red Deer Chamber of Commerce JA Room.It's a hands-one all day session designed for business and organizations who want to get started developing their interactive on-line assets! Registration is limited, so don't delay. You will come away with finished product, and a workable strategy for your About our Organizationnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5725605627920883101.post-50949748612180103712010-04-13T14:02:00.007-06:002010-04-13T14:42:27.367-06:00Rearranging the Four-Quadrant Priority SystemSomedays, the to-do lists are too full of random and uninspiring tasks. It becomes too easy to procrastinate. I've tried the four quadrant tactic -- the one that plots to-do activities on a matrix of important-to-less important and urgent-to-less urgent. And while I haven't given up on it yet, I always seem to do only what is urgent anyway. So I've decided to try and motivate myself by getting About our Organizationnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5725605627920883101.post-72856028937648209662010-04-10T12:17:00.004-06:002010-04-13T14:02:45.472-06:00Using social media sends messages to employees and customersWhat would a communicator’s blog be without a reference to Marshal McLuhan? His famous pronouncement that “The Medium is the Message” is a consideration in all communications strategies. The medium (advertising, news conferences, newsletters, radio, events, websites, are just some examples of mediums) is as important as the timing, and whether live, in-person or virtual, the medium sends a About our Organizationnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5725605627920883101.post-74894780764927746052009-08-26T22:59:00.005-06:002009-09-05T15:15:04.588-06:00New business model needed for traditional mediaIn 1979, British new wave group the Buggles released the song Video Killed the Radio Star. The lyrics nostalgically referred to the 1960s when technology threatened the ability of radio to create stars and many lamented that children would grown up without the magic of radio. (Wikipedia). Appropriately, the song’s music video was the first to be played at the debut of MTV in 1981.The same could About our Organizationnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5725605627920883101.post-53818372492128155422009-08-16T22:55:00.003-06:002009-08-16T23:04:33.098-06:00Thoughts on Plenty and PleasureI had the great pleasure of eating fruit with friends while on holidays recently in the Okanagan and on the island. We ate peaches and apricots and blueberries and strawberries and bananas for breakfast sometimes with yogurt and toasted pecans. It was so good, it was almost sinful.I question why we don’t let ourselves enjoy fruit for breakfast more? Growing up, fruit was a treat reserved for About our Organizationnoreply@blogger.com0