Are you afraid of trying new things?  I am not talking about a new flavor of sugar free Jello… I am talking stepping out of your comfort zone. That was me last week…  venturing into the world of (three doom-y crashing chords - Duh-duh-durr!) Public Relations (audience gasps with fear).  I am pretty much a  multi-tech geek, but writing and delivering PR that creates a desired results is not one of my strong suits.  But I have to be a man of integrity and walk the walk, practice what I preach, Do the Dew…  using traditional media techniques to promote myself and my business!  (Did I mention that I’m teaching a class at Waubonsee  on Marketing in the 21st Century on February 10th?).

Who Dey?

As most of you know I donate as much time and money as I can to my community.  Next week is the Souper Bowl of Caring at Jewel stores all around the Fox Valley.  This is organized by Fox Valley United Way (Deborah Collins) and supports the Aurora Interfaith and Kendall County Food Pantries.  Last year we collected 7000 pounds of food and $5000 cash.  Sounds like a lot but when divided up, would only last 2 weeks at each pantry…  and the need is even greater this year!

Another project I’m working on is Ride IV Reasons.  I was approached by Mike Meyer (UWFV not the Wayne’s World guy) to help with an event happening in April.  George Hood is an ex-Marine (been in Afghanistan) ex-DEA, and ex-World Record holder of riding a stationary bike for over 177 hours.  Some dewd in Belgium broke that with 192 hours?  George is not the kind of guy you want to mess with (what was that guy thinking?)… but rather than executing his covert operation (named ‘Operation Broken Knees’), he’s decided to break the record (rather than knees) again with a 300 hour (12 1/2 day) ride.  He is trying to raise donations for kids (through the United Way) and the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund and needed help getting the word out!

George could take down a bad guy with a stern look (Stay Thirsty My Friends), but his is just not that tech savvy…  Enter the Professional Geek!  In about 50 donated hours…  I helped George set up a whole bunch of Social Networking to help promote the event to a much larger audience.  We started with a Blog, attached to Georges site.  Next we created a Facebook Fan Page and Cause Page.  Then we linked any blog post he made to go to the Fan Page and his Twitter and Linked In accounts.  Finally I coached George and his manager Mark on how to use all this stuff (like the blog admin).  As I am writing this, George is on a stationary bike doing a 28 hour training ride, and blogging about it!  With one post he is now reaching millions world wide!

Now back to my original point…  This is a news story (in some’s eyes).  So I hired a writer (thanks Shirley) to get the press release in proper form and make it a bit more news worthy.  Here’s the part where I had to step out of my comfort zone…  Use a PR service.

Some guys (like Jim Kendall) are worth the price of admission because of the local connections they’ve built over the years and the improved chance your story will get picked up!  But this story is a world wide record breaking story and I felt it needed a service that would get the message out to a very wide audience.  I choose  PRWeb (click here to read it) and with some effort on my part (building the page in their system) and $200 (part of my donation to the Cause) it went out last week.  The jury is out on the effectiveness of this method, but you can see the hits I dot on the map to the right and it did get some hits in my google alerts.

If you would like to follow George or get involved (maybe by riding along with him) or volunteering (My Band Dough! is playing) at the event in April…  Contact the United Way at 630-896-4636 or join his Facebook Fan Page and Cause Page!

Apples & Tab(lets)

Unless you were under a rock last week, you’ve probably heard about the new Apple IPad. It’s their foray into an untapped computing genre. The IPad is a 9.7 inch tablet computer that integrates technologies from both the iPhone and the app store, and works like a Kindle (digital book reader)… and more.

There was an incredible amount of hype before it was released, and an equal amount of criticism after it was announced.  I had a few people ask me my opinion and if I was going to get one.  As to part two of that question… the answer is no, but that does not mean I can’t see the benefit of having one.

I think where some people are confused is… they’re thinking of this as Apple’s netbook… but that’s not what it’s all about.  This is a mobile media reader, game machine, photo frame, e-mail and Web server, and more.  A netbook is a cheap mini dumbed down laptop that allows you to run most programs and surf the web.  The difference here is how Apple has integrated a multimedia experience into a very portable device.

Most of the criticism comes from things that the IPad does not have.  It’s missing a camera, and SD slot, a microphone, and a few other features that were expected.  People were hoping for an iPhone on steroids, but this is a new class of computer and is meant for completely different audience.  What Apple did here was change the game.  You have a very functional device for $499 (that’s $100 less than I paid for my first iPhone – which I did get $100 rebate on), and it doesn’t require you to pay $30 a month for a data plan. You can (if you so choose) upgrade to a wireless 3G version and pay $19.95 a month for AT&T access, but I think this will be for a smaller group of power users. This is more of a Kindle on steroids than a netbook or iPhone…  and with the app store and all the games that are available, it will also be like a Nintendo DS on steroids.

I really can’t imagine anybody selling their iMac or MacBook Pro on eBay to get one of these (hence why I’m not getting one), but if you ride the train or plane, or head into your local Starbucks (sometime in May or June), you’ll be surprised at how many you see.

So the jury is still out, but I’m fairly certain that Apple knows what it’s doing. Sometimes you just have to experience it to get, like my buddy Jim in Arizona. He was talking to me yesterday and telling me how much he loved his new Apple TV in his entertainment center (and just a few weeks ago he didn’t even know what it was or that it even existed).

Finally I believe there’s a lot more to this story.  Traditionally, Apple has made huge announcements at MacWorld in February (last week’s event totally focused on this new IPad).  I believe in the coming weeks you’re going to see a whole bunch of new stuff from Apple including updated IWork and other software, upgrades to iTunes and potentially other devices like MacBook’s, Apple TV and maybe even a new Mac Pro. It’s going to be an exciting time to be a geek and you just gotta love it!

Bonus Video of the week!

People love their Starbucks (while surfing on their new Apple IPad).  So this video fits right in!  Enjoy…