Make a Flipping Book
Flipsnack is a great online tool that will turn any pdf file into an online book with pages you can turn. It’s a free service – but you have a Flipsnack advertisement up front. It’s pretty unobtrusive – you can see for yourself at my sample below. There are paid versions that willgive you extra features and remove the advert.
All you do is upload your file, click the button and Flipsnack turns it into a gorgeous book with pages you can turn. Below is a sample I put together in a few minutes using some posts from this blog. If you’d like to see a great example have a look at this Photography Magazine or some of the other samples on the Flipsnack website.
Collect resources online with LiveBinders
LiveBinders is like a 3-ring binder for the Web. It’s an online space where you can:
- Collect your resources
- Organise them neatly and easily
- Share them with others
The video below gives an overview of LiveBinders. You can see some examples and start your own binder here.
Collaboration site: Stixy
Stixy is a shareable Web-based bulletin board where you can collaborate with colleagues. It’s a bit like a wiki – only more visual. It’s easy to drag n’ drop tasks, appointments, files, photos, notes and bookmarks on your Stixyboard – organised in whatever way makes sense to you. They say:
Stixy was created to serve people who need to organize their lives – that is, virtually everyone – but who don’t have the time or inclination to adapt their habits to a piece of software. Stixyboards are designed to be instantly familiar to anyone who’s used a regular bulletin board.
You can save your Stixyboard and invite others to collaborate. You can view a Stixyboard here or make your own here.
Below is a sample Stixyboard thanks to iconolith on flickr.
Cool search engine: Spezify
Spezify is a cool search engine that displays your results in a visual way. Just look at their home page & you’ll see a creative array of information that others have written about Spezify.
I ran a search on Web 2.0 and below is how Spezify displayed the results. If you like your results to look good, then try Spezify for yourself.
History of Social Media
Here’s an interesting infographic on the history of social media dating back to the 1700s! Thanks to Skloog for this.
Coded Messages (QR codes)
You’ve probably seen those funny little square bar codes popping up in magazine ads, posters, online and even on business cards. They’re called QR codes and they look like this:
They’re pretty cool and can contain a whole stack of information.
QR stands for “quick response” and they were created in 1994 by a subsidiary of Toyota in Japan as a tracking system for vehicle parts in manufacturing. They’ve become popular recently and many commercial applications are appearing for QR codes.
QR codes can store a lot of data. Things like:
- Text
- Phone numbers
- Contact details
- SMS
- URL
All you need is an app on your smartphone to be able to read these. (I use i-nigma on my iPhone)
Your phone scans the code, decodes it, then displays the information. Here’s a video explanation.
Some examples
Here are some examples you can try – just open your QR code app & point your phone at the screen. This one will take you to a URL:
This one is a phone number. It won’t call straight through – you get the option to dial or save to contacts. (The number is not a real phone number.)
This will generate an SMS. You can add more to the message before it’s sent. (Again the number is not real.)
How to generate the code
Following are websites where you can generate your own code for free:
Or.. go to http://goo.gl/ and type in your URL. Copy and paste the shortened URL into a new window and add .qr to the end of it. This will generate a QR code for that website. (If that doesn’t make sense – watch the video above.)
What to do with the code?
This is the great question…..
Maybe you run a marketing campaign that uses a QR code to make an offer?
Maybe you add a code with your website to your business cards and/or website?
Maybe you think QR codes have no use whatsoever!
If you have any bright ideas for QR codes I’d love to hear them in the comments section.
Make your own Christmas video
It’s that time of the year when those of us in this part of the world are heading to the beach for a break. I’ll be back at my desk 4 January.
As well as wishing you a great festive season, I’d like to introduce you to a great little video making tool called Animoto.
All you do is load some photos and/or add some text, choose your music from their list & click the button. The smart people (or machines) at Animoto will mix your video in a couple of minutes. You can make unlimited 30 second videos for free or you can pay an annual fee of $30US for unlimited longer videos.
Here’s mine below – exported to YouTube. Click here view the original at Animoto – better quality.
Make your own at Animoto. (For the record I used the Pop-up Pandemonium theme.)
Why ban Facebook at work?
Should Facebook be banned at work? If this is a topic you’ve been grappling with, the video below might help to shape your thinking.
Dr Nicola Millard speaks about her frustration with organisations who recruit via social networks only then to block these in their work. She highlights the irony that they are banning the very networks they recruited them from.
Nicola speculates that the use of the word ‘social’ in ‘social media’ means that people often equate social media with time wasting when, in fact, using these tools can help people become far more productive and that social media is another tool much like email or the telephone – enabling their people to collaborate.
Social Media workshops
Broadreach is hosting a social media seminar and workshop in Sydney on December 17, 2010. 
This inspiring seminar and workshop will address how you can apply social media in your business.
Should I use social media in my business?
What are the most appropriate social media tools?
How do I design a social media strategy?
This seminar will introduce you to a variety of social media tools and enable you to design a social media strategy using the most appropriate tools for your business. It will focus on the use of social media to build brand awareness, communicate with customers and market your products/services
Date: Friday, 17 December 2010
Location: Level 5, 50 Clarence St, Sydney
Book: Click here to book
Introduction to Social Media: 10:30am – 12pm
This will be an introduction to the exciting world of social media and how it can be used to support your business and customers. In the session you’ll explore a variety of social media tools as well as look at ways in which these can be used. Topics covered in this seminar are:
- What is social media?
- Some facts and figures about social media
- Overview of popular social media tools
- Creating conversations with social media
- Examples of how others are using social media to engage
Design Your Social Media Strategy: 1pm – 4pm
In this workshop you will start to design a social media strategy for your business. At the completion of the workshop you will:
- understand how to use social media to engage with your customers
- know how to build trust and reputation for your brand
- have a five step planning process for HOW to use social media in your business
- begin planning your social media strategy
DONT MISS THIS GREAT EVENT: BOOK NOW
Illustration by Matt Hamm.
