Business Archives - Page 9 of 20

Must-Have Gadgets For Carry-On Travel

03/06/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Never is my carry-on shoulder bag completely packed until the morning of departure when all the gadgets and gizmos required to outfit my mobile office on the go is thrown together with cords flying and battery packs secured.

Because I always want the latest in tech gadgetry, although I’m still using Apple iPad 2 and iPhone 4S with Kindle Fire, the electronic accessories and awesome bags are what I look for to make me happier on the road.

If you could manage one back-pack of electronics and cameras with accessories, here are my picks for your carry-on luggage.

Bear with me as I change it up and we go shopping. What’s your favorite airport to snatch up a gadget? Nothing beats Chicago O’Hare and Denver makes me happy, too.

Gadgets for Business Travel

Wheeled Bag: $$$

Tumi gets my vote for luggage of choice for travelers. It’s durable, the handles withstand heavy ingredients, and the fabric is not easily ripped. Tumi has been creating more carry-on luggage for women in attractive colors, but the standard black for the men is also appealing. Mind you, the prices are not cheap, but you’re not going to replace these bags for 20 years! Quality begets cost savings, for sure!

Nikon J-1 Digital Camera: $$$

I purchased this a year ago and cannot say enough great things about this camera and video recorder. The clarity of images are better than I have ever had with other digital cameras, and it’s simple to use…truly a point and click experience. (Since it comes in red, pink, white, and black, I’m sure you can see why it has vast appeal, too! Here’s a white one with extra telephone lens.

iPad Case (all generations) With Bluetooth Keyboard: $

I bought this at O’Hare; what a perfect mistake! Had I waited to buy it via Amazon, I would not have spent way too much money. I adore this purchase; it has added new life to my iPad2 making it more convenient than ever to carry everywhere just like a light-weight textbook. The keyboard built in is such a dream; no more carrying cases for the Apple wireless keyboard. Very reasonable, too.

iPhone Camera Kit: $

If you don’t want the pricier digital camera (sometimes you need it), then do purchase a camera kit with magnetic lenses, a tripod and case to outfit the iPhone with some gear to keep your trigger finger happy taking photos.
I’ve been told my videos are shaky, so I have this ordered — a complete kit for iPhone 4/4S.

Pivot Power Mini: $

I hate looking around hotel rooms for the free outlet to plug in various devices. With this compact size adapter, you get two sockets and two USB ports; everyone is happy!

Ear Buds by Dr. Dre

This brand is so attractive; have you seen Dr. Dre everywhere? Ear buds are very personal, and you don’t have to invest in an expensive set to be happy. As a woman, I don’t want my curls smushed with a headset over my head and huge ear-muff circles. These are really sound absorbing; nothing comes in from the outside at all. I prefer the light-weight plug ins, and just got some of these at O’Hare (!).

External Battery Pack for All Smart Devices (all phones, devices)

You never should be without external battery packs with tips/adapters for all the devices and mobile computing systems you bring on the road. It will be years before adapters are uniform, so invest in a decent external battery back up so you’ve got power when stranded somewhere without electricity.

I own all of the above except for one item…the Tumi bag is on the wish list. Share your must-haves for business travel; everyone has something different.

Self-Publishing Infographic Via Shawn Welch

02/23/2013 By Jayme Soulati

One of my favorite books of late (for business reading) is APE The Book by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch. These two authors are readily accessible in Google+ Communities, on Twitter chats and via Alltop. Look at this awesome infographic shared by Shawn Welch about the reasons why you should self-publish your book. I’m heeding their collective counsel all the way to Amazon…are you?

And, just so you know, Shawn Welch is author of three books, including: APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur — How to Publish a Book, From Idea to App and iOS 5 Core Frameworks, speaker, iOS Designer/Developer.

The Basics Of Corporate Blogging

02/21/2013 By Jayme Soulati

English: This icon, known as the “feed icon” or the “RSS icon”, was introduced in Mozilla Firefox in order to indicate a web feed was present on a particular web page that could be used in conjunction with the Live bookmarks function. Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera and some other browsers have adopted the icon in order to promote a de facto standard. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are many many reference sources on how corporate blogs become successful. At the end of the day, companies need to realize that behind every blog is a person.

People write blogs, and people read blogs.

When a company is writing a blog, there are basic elements to consider. These stand true for a brand new blog in planning and strategy phases or an existing blog with six months under the belt.

Tips for Successful Corporate Blogging

Team and Tone. When blogging for the company, ensure the team is solid. Typically, there are three good writers to assist with the company blog and one good editor to establish tone. It becomes apparent when someone writes drastically differently than peers on the company blog. Try to ensure there’s a solid thread between each writer so tone isn’t a swinging pendulum.

Topics. Company blogging runs the risk of being inside-out only. If a goal is to build a community of those who comment and follow, then be sure topics are engaging and invite others to connect and participate. If a corporate blog posts three times weekly, make sure 1/3 of the content is about external factors shaping the industry.

Goals. Like any new program, there needs to be clearly defined goals. Without that distinct purpose and consistent reference back to the goals, a corporate blog can go astray. Do not take goal setting lightly! This exercise drives success, growth, authority, and brand positioning.

Analytics. Behind every successful blog is a person and also good tracking! Without knowledge of how many people are visiting a company blog, there is no proof it’s working. Typically, companies cannot gauge success of a blog on comments alone; people lurk and refuse to add thoughts on a corporation’s blog. This means analytics are critical and someone to interpret them even more.

Bells and Whistles. There are basic elements every blog needs regardless of whether it’s a personal or business blog. Set up a decent commenting system with Livefyre or Disqus. Use Shareaholic, the best social media sharing tool on the channels. Add a way to organize archives via categories and chronology via widgets in the sidebar. Consider Zemanta which helps put other like-topics at the blogger’s fingertips to share beneath a post. Use images owned by the company. There are so many issues now with copyrights; companies need to develop their own image library for use online everywhere.

RSS and Social Media Follows. Regardless of how small a company blog is when it starts, having an RSS feed (Feedblitz is reliable) as well as social media follow buttons are critical. Every company has a LinkedIn page and ought to have a Google+ page, too. Start there and the rest will follow.

Subscribe Button. Capturing emails is the name of the game, but what will you offer in return? If people know they’ll get some decent content either on the blog or via a newsletter or other marketing collateral, they will give up their email address. Company blogs need to have this option readily available from the start. Little bit late to the party? No worries…add it and write!

SEO Pack. Blogs need to ensure articles are depicted appropriately and headlines aren’t too long. Using SEO Pack or Yoast are simple plugins to help streamline this without too much thought.

Which basic elements does your company blog have? Please share!

About Jayme Soulati

Jayme Soulati is author of Soulati-‘TUDE! which is a professional blog oriented to social media, marketing, PR, business strategy, and more. She is president of Soulati Media, Inc. and is an award-winning blogger and public relations practitioner. She is a past president of the Publicity Club of Chicago.

Dust Off Your Company Mission Statement

02/11/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Courtesy of Ben and Jerry’s

Before a company establishes a blog, it’s important to determine its goals. Maybe it’s to drive sales or strengthen a brand; or, perhaps it’s to become an influencer in a category or sector. Either way, a blog has goals just like program strategy has goals.

If you own or work at a company, having business goals are also critical. Everything implemented throughout the company is in alignment with business goals.

What of a company mission statement?

No matter the size of your team, if you’re a small-to-medium business (SMB), then you need to think strategically about your company’s purpose. What is the philosophy you’ll guide your teams with? With whom are you engaging and in what location? Do you have a product or service you want to particularly focus on that should be added to your mission statement?

I honed in on the word “mission” in a story by Crain’s Chicago Business when I saw the viral video by the Chicago Music Exchange called “100 Riffs.” The owner of the Chicago Music Exchange asked its employees to create viral video (I think you can only create video with the hopes of it going viral, really).

The video of 100 riffs on the history of rock in one take did go viral and is still being viewed on YouTube. The campaign was submitted to Crain’s Chicago Business and was featured in a story. The owner of the Chicago Music Exchange said the video aligned with its mission, was perfect for customers, and showcased the very essence of the Chicago retailer of music equipment.

In the Jan. 28, 2013 issue of Advertising Age, a story “How the usually dry annual report has become brands’ secret marketing weapon,” detailed how a bland annual report took the 2012 Cannes International Festival of Creativity by storm.

Austria Solar submitted what looked to be a completely blank white book as its annual report. The pages were solid white with no ink…until someone took the book outside and exposed it to solar rays. The sun’s rays reacted with the specially treated paper to bring the words inside to light, literally.

Here’s the hitch…the article stated, “While it could have come across as gimmicky, it was a solid concept that conveyed the company’s mission in a single, startling moment.”

Think about that a sec…here is a reporter making the connection from a highly creative annual report the likes no juror at this international competition has ever seen to the company’s mission. When do reporters draw that bridge? When something so extremely innovative makes someone connect the dots to the company that launched it. Fabulous, eh?

We can draw the same correlation to the Chicago Music Exchange video, too. It asked the staff to develop something that showed customers its equipment, talent, knowledge, and love for music — all part of the mission.

We rarely see mission statements of companies; they’re oft hidden on websites or buried deep in a dusty file cabinet. Every so often, pull your mission statement off the shelf and see if your company is adhering to that original intent, philosophy, and strategy with highly creative products, services and actions.

Book Review of APE By Guy Kawasaki

02/05/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Guy Kawasaki, American venture capitalist and one of the original Apple Computer employees responsible for marketing of the Macintosh in 1984. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Content marketing for business development purposes is critical. Businesses need to draft authentic and fresh content and make it available via calls to action on a website which turns into a landing page and then a thank you page and everyone’s happy.

My first e-book was written in December; a collection of blog articles I’ve written about blogging — one of my favorite topics.

And, then this monkey book came to my attention. I am screaming from the rooftops:

RUN AND BUY NOW!

If you don’t already know about APE, uhmm, well perhaps you’re under a rock? No offense…this book is everywhere on all the social media channels and being reviewed by everyone. I would be remiss not to join in and share the excitement for this book. If you have any designs whatsoever, even if it’s a germ of an idea, to become an author, then please, please go get this book.

I downloaded this book by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch and read its 500+ pages over a few nights all the while highlighting and bookmarking pages for future reference on my Kindle Fire.

I knew, prior to finishing the book, I had to go back to the drawing board with my e-book which I’ll share about in another post. This book is that good; it’s making me take the time to redo and do it right to become a self-published author.

Why You Should Read APE

This book is written in a friendly and easy-to-understand style and tone. It has a ton of detail about all aspects of publishing books. Although I am only interested in self-publishing, the book is a great resource for traditional publishing, too.

Each chapter addresses the basics about writing, formatting, designing selling, and working with publishers. What it does extremely well is tell the truth about the quagmire that is self-publishing.

This industry is nascent, and there are no real standards yet. People who self-publish should really consider using Adobe InDesign publishing software (used by professionals and $$), and they also need to learn and understand the various formats for the various booksellers. I never knew a thing about MOBI, EPUB or PDF file formats. I also never knew there are four major players with which you can work to sell your e-books (via Google Play, iBookstore, Kindle Direct Publishing, and Kobo).

How about pricing a book? Don’t forget how much it costs to design a cover, proof and edit a book, too!

APE-Book-Cover For serious authors, this is probably a piece of cake; for first-timers like me, it’s a nightmare…time consuming and fraught with tech issues one can’t control. Did you know that each file format handles tables of contents differently? Don’t even think about having nice images, tables or bullets in your manuscript without ensuring they look decent in the final form…these don’t import well, either.

That’s why this book is worth every penny. Each and every one of the issues above are addressed in this book. Even if you merely want to publish a PDF book for downloading on your website, you still want to read this book. Who knows? That PDF book might become hugely popular, and then what should you do?

The other good news about this book is the website the authors built for the book, Upon going there, with one share on social media, you’re privy to tools and downloads that help you write and self-publish your own book. Guy and Shawn self-published APE, and it’s offered on Kindle Direct Publishing. How cool and clever is that?

You know what else is awesome? is featured in the book with her own chapter! She’s the and of 12Most.com, and she also manages a (by request only), too. It’s really wonderful when the people who have guest starred on this blog show up in nationally acclaimed books.

Run, as I said, and get this book. Its a top read for every would-be author.