E-Life

On Sunday March 7th our premier soccer team FC Blackbird participated in the Keystone State Games (KSG) at Lanco Fieldhouse in Lancaster, PA.

KSG is a non-profit organization that was formed in 1983 in order to promote amateur athletics in PA. (www.keystonegames.com) Every year they host an indoor soccer tournament for adults and for the past three years we’ve entered a men’s team. In 2008 we took the bronze and this year we bested that by winning the silver.

FC Blackbird Wins the Silver

The day started off with a slow start and a 0-0 tie on the small field. (Lanco has 3 fields. Two the same size and one that is considerably smaller) We were then surprised by a team out of Philadelphia, Tavolino and lost 0-3. For our third and final game in the preliminary round, we decided to change our strategy and finally found the back of the net to win the game 2-0. This put us second in our bracket. So, we would have to face off against another local team, Epic Photography in the first round of playoffs. We blanked them with another 2-0 victory and advanced to the semi-finals against CASL out Elco area.

In the semi final game we struck first taking a 1-0 lead only to end up down 3-1. We climbed back to a tie, with the third goal coming in the final seconds of the game. So, we were headed to over time! The rules of the tournament state that in the case of a tie, the goalie is taken off the field and both teams play with only four field players. So, the object is to be the first team to shoot. We had the kick off and started toward the goal. We took a shot that was blocked, but Pahn who was playing forward, stole the ball from the defended and pounded it home for the win! Next stop the finals and CASL headed to play for the bronze.

Our opponent for the final turned out to be Tavolino, the only team that had bested us earlier. The game went back and forth. We were tied at 3-3, but in the final minutes Tavolino scored a fourth goal to take the lead. Then with a little over a minute, one of their players was ejected with a red card for cursing at the ref. We tried to take advantage of the numbers advantage, but they held on with four on the field to win the gold 3-4.

All in all it was a fun day and we managed to survive with out any injuries. (Last year we suffered a number of injuries.) Plus, we came home with the silver medal!

Go on FC Blackbird!

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from JESS3 on Vimeo.

There’s something exciting brewing at BlackbirdeSolutions.com…

We’re completely revamping our site to bring it up to date. We’re adding more social media integration, we’re changing the look and much more. We’re still in the very early stages, but here’s a little preview of what’s to come:

I was just reading an interesting discussion over on LinkedIn about Google’s efforts to create a natural language translation tool. Here’s the initial question:

“How many of you think that Googles anouncement last week of developing a speech to speech translation technoloy in natrural language in 2-3 years is feasible??” -Atiq Rehman

Here are some of the highlights of the discussion:

“You can find those statements from the 1950s on.” – Cerstin Mahlow

“As long as the sources of error are as great as they are now, I have trouble thinking of many contexts where people would be willing to tolerate the flaws. Maybe chatters who are only looking for entertainment and have no bottom line regarding accuracy. In war / emergency contexts, perhaps. In business, I think the problems just about doom the effort, unless a cultural adjustment makes people value “meeting” someone in this way even when the comprehension is shaky.” -John Rehling

“Underestimating Google is often a mistake, but, as an example, could I remind readers of the 2006 announcement by IBM of ‘Real Time Translation Services’” -Eric Janke

This is a very interesting discussion, as I work in both the technology and linguistic arenas I can see a bit of both sides.
On the linguistic side it is very difficult to imagine that a machine can replace a human when thinking of translation. There many different nuances to every language and the same word can often mean many different things. Getting the correct tanslation can be a very intuitive process. Let alone dealing with accents, dialects etc.
On the technology side it is a great and exciting challenge to create a tool that can intelligently translate language in real time. Computers are becoming more and more intelligent, and today they can logically solve problems that we could dream of 10-15 years ago.
I don’t believe that real time translation will be perfected anytime soon. It can be functional for very basic speech but as John said it must be very rudimentary. Computers can use context, formulas or other logical processes, but they just don’t have the ability to intuitively understand what is being said. Plus, pronunciations, accents, slang make it difficult as well. The speech would have to be very formal and correct to even have a chance.

What do you think?

You can check out the discussion Googles Recent Anouncement on LinkedIn in The Language Technology Group

I’m excited to announce that we kickoff the new social media plan we create together with TriStarr Staffing for Tristarr Staffing.

We have been working with TriStarr Staffing for quite some time, we first started with helping them optimize their new site and the relationship has continued to grow. About a year ago we helped them set up a Facebook page and got them started them with blogging. They also set up a Twitter account. As 2009 went on they realized they needed a bit more help to bring a full social media plan together, and make it a unified effort. They wanted to engage with their clients and potential clients better and reach further. So, Scott came to me looking for help.

We sat down together with TriStarr and discussed their goals and objectives that they wanted to achieve with social media. Then together we came up with a social media plan that fit their needs. Some aspects of the plan include bringing various social media platforms together and getting them in sink. For example: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. We also created a process for their new jobs. The process captures their new jobs, puts them into a feed and posts them to Twitter and Facebook. This happens twice a day so their fans and followers will be first to find out about the new jobs.

Today we will be kicking off the new social media plan and doing some training. The training will layout TriStarr’s objectives and help get everyone on the same page. We will also be covering the various tools that are available for the various social media platforms they will be using.

You can follow, become a fan and find out anything else you want to know about TriStarr Staffing in the following locations online:

Twitter: TriStarrStaff
Facebook: TriStarrStaffing
LinkedIn: TriStarr Staffing Company Profile

Blog: TriStarr Staffing Blog
Website: TriStarrJobs.com

On a cold snowy day in February a new site was born. While many people were snowed in and the north eastern United States grinded to a halt, we were getting ready to release a new website for our client: X-Treme Health Products.

X-Treme Health Products sells organic health products that help with health problems ranging from obesity, asthma, infections to general health. The products are developed by a Michael Combs a master herbalist and biochemist from Colorado. You can purchase the products online and have them shipped to your house.

In mid December Kim and Ron from X-Treme were introduced to me from by a mutual friend and they told me they were ready to start a push with there organic health products business. They needed help with updating their website and marketing their products online. We teamed up, worked quickly and developed a plan of attack. Then, on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 the first stage was completed and we launched the beta-site: www.x-xtremelifeline.com

As we continue to work together we will see changes and additions to the site, as well as other places on the web. So, stay tuned and join to see how X-Treme Health Products grows!

I was browsing the discussions in the E.Factor group on LinkedIn and I came across a post about social media. Because this is a field that I am actively involved in, I am interested in what others have to say about it’s usage.

After reading the first post I was surprised at the post so I posted a response. Then I did a bit of digging (which admittedly I should have done before I posted my response), and I realized that the discussion I responded to was a good example of how NOT to use social media. Actually it wasn’t really a discussion it was just a post, and well let’s be hones and call it by it’s true name: SPAM. I realized that the guy that started the discussion had a bogus position at a bogus company (position: Professional SEO Company, Website SEO at Professional SEO Company, Website SEO) and not only that, he has made a number of one sided posts including a link to what I’m assuming the website for where he really works. This is just a poor way to create links to a website. Can you guess what this guy is selling? Social media services!

The question is do we want this kind of activity in the group, and if not what should we do about it? Well, let me start by sharing my opinion of how social media should be used.

Social media is about building relationships. Yes, in the end you are there to promote your business and put your brand on display, but don’t let your ego run away with itself. It’s not about you or your popularity. Social media is not about one sided sales pitches or marketing messages. If people think that all you care about is yourself and pushing your product, they won’t stick around. Social media is about relationships and conversations. You need to spend time listening to what others are saying. Ask questions, get feedback and try to discover how consumers really see your company.

Another thing you need to do is make sure you are open about who you are and why you are there. There have been numerous cases where companies and/or executives have engaged in social media under false pretenses and were eventually discovered. You want to see how viral social media is? Get caught lying about what your doing and people will talk.

So, I guess there are a couple of approaches: The administrators can remove members who spam and or the users of the group can out the users that are spamming. I also believe that most people will see through the feeble attempts to self promote through social media spam, but spam is still annoying.

What approach do you think we should take?

LinkedIn Discussion: Engaging With Social Media vs. Social Media Spam and What Do We Do About It

I just commented on Are We Gulping Social Media Kool-Aid?

In the post Dick Lee argues that there are 4 things we need to concentrate on before using social media:
1. Improving processes to improve customer experience
2. Investing to determine what customers value and how much
3. Removing organizational impediments to delivering customer value
4. Getting your internal communication act together

My comment:

I definitely agree Dick there are many people out there that are preaching that social media is an end all of marketing and all things online. The fact is if you don’t have a sound foundation in your company, social media will not save you.

Social media is a tool. Right now it is very hot, partially because it is a relatively new phenomenon and partially because of it’s power. Social media usage continues grow in leaps and bounds and is definitely very powerful for reaching people. But, if a company is not based on sound principles and/or they don’t create a plan for social media, they will fail. You make 4 very good points which all lead to better customer service and customer relations. Social media has the power to extend this and engage your clients and potentials. Though without a customer centric attitude, the company will most likely miss the point of social media and it will be a further extension of their poor costumer policies. Which can even cause more damage than good.

Bottom Line: First create a strong customer centric basis in your company, then use Social Media to bring it to the masses.

I actually wrote about why companies fail at social media sometime ago: More Than 50 Percent of Fortune 1000 Companies Will Fail With Social Media, Will You?