What makes projects at PEI successful?

There are several elements that go into a successful project, but undeniably the most important resource for a successful project is the people.  I am not just talking about the excellent people here at PEI, but the IT teams and people that we work directly with at our client sites.  We work in close collaboration with these individuals throughout an entire project.  Some of these people are the best and brightest in their fields and we have the pleasure of working with them.  Here is an example of the top notch folks we work with.

Jay and Travis from New Belgium Brewing:  These guys go above and beyond to keep their organization and everyone in it a cohesive unit all working towards the same goal…to sell beer!  Travis and Jay told me once that they don’t match their colleagues to an IT solution, but quite the opposite.  They see how their co-workers operate and chose an IT solution that would complement their work ethics.  This is very admirable and merits great mention.  By keeping everyone working together as a single force to be reckon with, their organization continues tothrive.

-Andrea Leonhardt, PEI

My First Attempt at Blogging: Here Goes Nothing

I am slowly chasing behind the social media bandwagon but at this pace who knows if I will ever catch up! I have no idea how to work Twitter (to the point just a year or so ago I had to Google what Twitter was), my LinkedIn profile wouldn’t even get me an interview let alone a job (lucky for me I have one), and Google+ is just mind boggling! And I’m not even old! At the glorious age of 21 I should be an expert on bars and Social Media! But hey, at least I got Facebook all figured out, you know all of those status updates, likes, pokes, locations and what not.  Maybe not totally figured out but at least I acknowledge their existences… some seem slightly creepy and unnecessary- do you really need to know where I am? But some people like to share, can’t judge you for that! Sharing is caring after all!

Social Media has not only developed a cult following but it is now even an essential business tool. As a marketing student the topic of social media has popped up time and time again. I initially struggled making the connection, but that is possible because I myself kind of stink at using all the functions and outlets of social media that are available. However as the intern of PEI one of my responsibilities is to learn and monitor our social media campaign and I am starting to grasp that connection. (While we are on the subject, you all should all like us on Facebook please!) Working on this project has exposed me to the business friendly capabilities of Social Networking; Twitter is an excellent way to share new insight, blogs, and give quick updates to our followers, LinkedIn is a great way for people to gather up some quick information about the company, and Facebook (while ours is still in the works) is a great way to interact on a more fun and social level with our fans. It also is a great medium to show off some of our fun and unique events! Seriously, check out the pictures from our Steak- Storage- Shooting- I guarantee you will be wishing you were there! http://www.facebook.com/PEIBoulder

I am definitely still in the progress of learning how to effectively integrate social media, but I am already starting to see some of the benefits it comes with! I have learned to send messages on Twitter, build landing pages on Facebook, and use Facebook apps to send out blogs, I would say I am kind of catching up. Look! I even attempted blogging for the first time ever!

-Amy Nguyen, PEI

When is being social too much?

I’ve read numerous articles recently about Social Media and the detriment it could have on your job prospects and long term standing with a company.  This is especially true if you hold a high level or executive position within a company or have aspirations to do so.  It is widely known that placing anything negative about an employer or your job online is just a silly thing to do.  But did you know your ‘representation’ of yourself as part of a company through your social actions could affect your upward mobility or even keeping your job altogether?  Companies are increasingly blurring the lines between ‘social media’ tools and corporate outreach or publicity.  More and more HR or even management inside a company, agency or school district are checking to see if your ‘social’ life is representative of the corporate culture they are attempting to cultivate.  If you they feel you do not represent the corporate mission or message with your extracurricular activities it may be a deterrent from you representing them at a high level.  Though this may not seem fair to many it is a reality you need to cautiously protect.       

Here are six tips to avoid social media overkill and manage your online presence effectively from Rachel Farrell of Career Builder’s article Social media can kill your career — but not the way you think:

1. Add to the conversation
“Use LinkedIn to post your résumé online; contribute to industry- and occupation-specific discussions,” Neece says.

2. Have more than one account
Have two social media accounts, Sperber says. “One that is geared toward your desired industry so employers can see that you’re attempting to be active and another one for personal use.” Be sure to protect your profiles so they aren’t accessible to the public.

3. Score face time
“Use online resources to get face-to-face or voice-to-voice with another person. Each of us is most memorable and most influential in person,” Neece says.

4. Just say no
If your social media profiles are protected and a potential employer requests to follow you, don’t feel obligated to accept, Sperber says. “That’s what your other ‘professional’ account is for.”

5. Stay positive
“Don’t badmouth any of the companies that you’re applying to, especially if you feel the interview didn’t go well,” Sperber says. If you put something on the Internet, it’s out there for anyone to see.

6. Keep things to yourself
Don’t publicize that you’re going to an interview or just finished an interview at a company. Some companies do not like to have their recruiting process — or that they’re even having one — publicized, Sperber says.

-Jennifer Smith, PEI

The Power of Twitter

This morning I realized that our website was down.  There is nothing more frustrating than sitting there, watching helplessly, as your website sits there with an error message in your face.

I quickly contacted our website design company to see what was going on.  They informed me that Rackspace, our hosting company, was down and they problem was being addressed right away.

After pondering how to get this information broadcasted out to people that may be trying to get a hold of us, I though well of course…Twitter!

I went to Google and searched Rackspace and sure enough there were all kinds of tweets being posted about other people who were down as well.  The coolest thing about this is Rackspace was updating people via Twitter on the status of the outage, and estimates of when it was going to come back up! 

It was surprisingly comforting to know that we were not the only site that was down.  For the next hour I conversed with several different people sharing my frustrations with them about having a website being down.

The second that the problem was resolved I found out through Twitter before I even received an e-mail from our website design provider.  This experience just blows my mind to see information being shared between complete strangers in real time.

The power of social media continues to amaze me!

-Andrea Leonhardt, PEI

A Twit-ific Experience

For almost a year now I have been pushing for my co-workers to adopt a social media strategy.  I received push back, excuses, and skepticism.  Then something really neat happened that changed all their minds. 

I was on Twitter at work one day, tweeting about various technologies and product releases when I saw a tweet that said, “Putting together a calendar of tech events in the area.”  We just happened to be hosting a webinar the next week.  So I went to our Twitter account and responded to this Tweet with all of our event details, not expecting much to come of it.

Anyways, a couple weeks went by and we hosted our webinar.  I downloaded the information from the registrants that attended and paid close attention to the “how heard” column.  I noticed that several said a local newspaper’s website.  I was curious so I did a Google Search on our webinar and sure enough it showed up under the Tech Events Calendar that was mentioned in this tweet.

We actually gained a new client all thanks to a 140 character message streaming on Twitter.  This is my personal experience of how Social Media is not a fad, it is not going away, and if used correctly, the benefits are endless!

-Andrea Leonhardt, PEI

Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 7 has been panned by many since it went on sale in early November 2010. Many people have been criticizing the platform, saying Microsoft is too late the mobile market game, is selling too few devices and does not have enough apps available to sustain it in the marketplace. While some of these critiques may be accurate, the people talking are not looking at the big picture. Windows Phone 7 comes after the Windows Mobile 6, which was a big success in Asian markets and also had a niche following in the United States and Europe. By rebuilding the platform and making it more user friendly, Microsoft is hoping that the Mobile 6 users will take a gamble and go to 7. The odds are good, with Microsoft Office installed out of the box and tight integration with Exchange available, the users will not be disappointed. Also, Microsoft is hoping that the consumer market will take a strong look at devices running Phone 7. With integration with many social networking sites such as Facebook built-in, consumers have plenty to be excited about.

From a business perspective, Microsoft has taken a stance with the platform that is much the stance they have with their core operating systems, in that Phone 7 can run on numerous devices from different vendors. This is similar to model they held with Mobile 6 and a reason one of the product’s main competitors, Droid, is such a success. In the first six weeks of sales, manufacturers shipped 1.5 million phones and the “Marketplace” has over 4,000 apps available. Both of these numbers are ahead of where Droid was in its first six weeks. The apps count is ahead of where the iPhone was in its first six weeks. News is good for more apps as well in 2011, since the apps are .Net, many developers are planning on developing apps for the platform.

Let’s face it as well, Microsoft is not going to let Windows Phone 7 die. A $500 million ad company and the experiences we can take away from Xbox tell us Microsoft is in this for the long haul. With such strong support from companies such as Dell, pushing their workforces to the platform also gives it an instant corporate user base. I think there is room in the market place for Phone 7 alongside Droid and the iPhone…. but this is just another reason why the era of the BlackBerry is finished.

-Peter Cavanaugh, PEI

Looking back to know what is up ahead

Do you remember what life was like just ten years ago?  Gmail?  This was made public in ’04.  Facebook? Nope, that wasn’t even around until ’04.  How about twitter?  Nope, that was in ’06.  Wikipedia?  Yup, that was here 10 years ago, but it had just started.  Sure we had email, the browser, pagers, clunky cell phones and .v90 or .v92 modems.  Do you miss those days?  I know that I sometimes do since it meant that I wasn’t always on/always available.

What is next?  Are you ready for a world where no matter where you are friends can know your location, how long you have been there, what you purchased or did there?  I hope so because that world already exists.  Both Microsoft and Cisco are helping us move business to an always connected, always available world with their Unified Communications suites.

Lync is Microsoft’s updated Unified Communications platform which I have been playing with for the past couple of weeks simply as an end user.  The user interface is clean, intuitive and easy to customize so that those contacts that I often interact with are easily found.  Co-workers can also find me and ask questions and get answers much more quickly since they already know my status and don’t have to wait like we used to with e-mail.  Call quality is great, as is the ability do all of this off of my laptop no matter where I am.

What do you see coming?  What do you use now on a daily basis that you didn’t 10 years ago?

-Josh Sidwell, PEI

Social Media 101: Tips and Steps to Developing your Social Media Strategy

Everyone has heard over and over again how important social media is in this day in age, but utilizing social media can actually hurt you unless you have a clear and concise strategy.  Jumping into the business of social media requires planning and strategy and most important commitment from all parties involved.  If you are missing one of these three key elements your plan will fail miserably!

There is nothing more annoying than clicking on a company’s social media links to find they are outdated, under-utilized, and inconsistent.  I am writing about this because I want people to learn from the mistakes that I made when implementing my social media strategy.

I have included some steps to implementing social media that I think are extremely useful. 

Step 1: Plan, plan, plan!  Establish a clear direction and purpose for your strategy and get buy-in and commitment from anyone that is going to be involved.

Step 1: Start with a blog and ONLY a blog.  Forget about using LinkedIN, Twitter, Facebook, etc., until you have a solid corporate or individual blog.  Only once you have a couple dozen blog posts that are again clear, concise, and with purpose, should you move onto other social media platforms.

Step 2: Pick ONE other social media platform to conquer.  I suggest Twitter, because once you have a few blog posts you can promote them by using Twitter and direct links to your site.  After you have a good following on Twitter you can move to the next step. 

Step 3: Add ONE more social media platform.  For us we chose Facebook.  (We are still mastering this one!)  Facebook can also be promoted using your Twitter account. 

Social media is all about mastering one platform at a time and no more than that.  Keeping social media up to date with fresh ideas takes time, and for small businesses you may only have one person controlling it.  If this is your case, stick to a number of social media platforms that can be managed correctly, opposed to overloading yourself with multiple social media platforms that may only be mediocre at best. 

If this is all new to you, I suggest buying a book or watching webinars to get some ideas that have worked for other businesses like yours, the better educated you are, the more success you should achieve! 

-Andrea Leonhardt, PEI

Tweeting: A person or program?

Until recently I have not been one to jump on the Twitter bandwagon, but after reading over and over again about how useful it is for a business I tried it, but how effective is it really?  When I first started using Twitter I was doing it the “old-fashioned,” way.  By that I mean updating our Tweets every 30 minutes or so, trying to make them all new and interesting.  After doing this for a couple months I discovered websites and programs such as TweetDeck and Hootsuite.  Now, this is my problem with the effectiveness of Twitter.  These websites allow you to pre-load a bunch of Tweets that will cycle throughout the day…well that is a great time saver for me, but if everyone does that…who is actually on Twitter?  I used to be on Twitter tweeting a million times a day, so I read what other people had to say, but now I barely need to actually be on Twitter at all.  So are these websites helpful, or defeating the entire purpose of using Twitter as a social media marketing tool?

-Andrea Leonhardt, PEI

Have you heard about Gist?

Gist is a new social networking tool to help one keep in touch with contacts (i.e., blogs, calendars, tweets, contacts company websites, etc.). With Gist’s cool dashboard, one may organize and rank information flowing in from disparate and meaningful sources.

Gist lets one use great tools to organize their content. Gist also has the ability to filter on date, content source, Importance, tag… to obtain the right amount of information. Gist also has intuitive tools to share articles right from the Dashboard. One may connect with contacts via email, post to Facebook or Twitter and reach out in a quick and personal way.

My favorite aspect of Gist is how it allows one to connect their calendar and prepare for future interactions. One can rapidly find a phone number, photo, news or an attachment for everyone that is meeting.

Gist is relatively new and they are still in a rapid improvement phase. For starters, they are working on improving their artificial intelligence like features. With all that the Gist service provides, they spend a lot of time tuning their data infrastructure. They are consistently releasing performance improvements and enhancements to the Gist Importance algorithm. Changes like these are rolled out in stages, so over time one will see more accurate importance calculation including improvements in the performance of the Gist service.

To find Gist, just go to http://gist.com

-Randy Trahan, PEI