Archive | February, 2011

10 Ways to Survive & Savor 24-Hours Tech-Free

Posted on 25 February 2011.

Written by Jessica Root

Taking the Unplug Challenge? Create an inspiring itinerary.

With the National Day of Unplugging approaching, I’m gearing up to make the most out of my tech-free 24-hours so they’re relaxing, rewarding and enriching. Basically, the antithesis of my myriad of days consumed by Facebook, Twitter, website updates, and blog posts. All things I love, but that all have the capacity to pull me away from the balance I seek between rest, play, and work.

The Unplug Challenge going on sunset to sunset, March 4-5, 2011, will be all about restoring my sanity—the balance. And here’s exactly what I plan to include following the event’s 10 principles (in bold below) with my own personal touch (not in bold). As the website states, the principles are open to interpretation so go ahead and create your own and feel free to follow mine!

1. Avoid technology.

e-reader photo

Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Create your own rules. Prep/arrange the day prior to avoid last minute stress. If work keeps you chained to your e-mail, even on the weekends (sound familiar?), set up an auto-e-mail reply so colleagues know when to expect to hear back from you. One tech-free exception I’ll likely make: indulging in my Kindle. I’m a self-confessed bookworm and reading helps me unwind.

2. Connect with loved ones.

couple snuggling photo

Photo: iStockphoto

Let everyone know ahead of time what you’re doing and that you’re possibly cell-free. If a hang out sesh is on your itinerary, plan in advance so phone calls can be avoided. Host a brunch, lunch, or dinner party or keep it simple with a rendezvous over a glass of wine with a friend or lover.

3. Nurture your health.

yoga photo

Photo: iStockphoto

This tenet is a built-in bonus. The act of disconnecting from gadgets alone de-activates the stress response. Why not take it further with a little yoga at home—or in class?

4. Get outside.

Rain, shine, cold or cool, I’ll be making a point to hit my local park for a stroll or bike ride. In Japan they call this shinrin-yoku or “forest bathing.” Recent studies have found that time spent among plants can lower levels of cortisol (which induces stress), a lower pulse rate and lower blood pressure.

5. Avoid commerce.

tea photo

Photo: iStockphoto

Yes, my lunchtime PureCitizen window web shop will be put on hold. I know stuff doesn’t bring happiness but I’m still a sucker for pretty things. Today, all things pretty will be in the form of nature, silence and sensory pleasures. All things (literally) right under my nose like trying a new recipe with items in my cupboard or enjoying a mug of tea.

6. Light candles.

beeswax photo

Photo: Rosemary Calvert/Getty Images

Or get crafty making your own. Isn’t it fun having time to kill? Just think. The sexy dim light can set the mood for that glass of shared wine, snuggle time or booty time.

7. Drink wine.

wine photo

Photo: iStockphoto

Well, if you’re going to twist my arm… I’ll be stocking up on an organic and/or low-carbon variety. Another cool idea: seek out a wine tasting or host your own. Here in my Brooklyn ‘hood on Friday nights, several local wine shops offer free tastings. It’s a great way to bond with a friend or circulate and meet neighbors.

8. Eat bread.

pizza photo

Photo: iStockphoto

Another arm twist…one that definitely calls for making your own pizza and pairing it with that tasty wine. Jerry over at TreeHugger has done all the work for you with his Green Wine Guide featuring Homemade Pizza with Cherry Tomatoes, Red Onion and Gorgonzola.

9. Find silence.

meditation photo

Photo: Juzant/Getty Images

I’ll do that in my morning and PM meditation sessions. Simply, meditation means directing your mind one-pointedly at an object. If you’re new to this, start with five minutes, practicing keeping your mind directed toward your breath. You can do it brushing your teeth, putting on your socks or practicing yoga. If it ends up rocking your world and becomes easier to sustain, slowly increase the time and perhaps take it into a cross-legged seat. It’s a boon for the heart, anti-aging, and increasing happiness, among other goodies.

10. Give back.

volunteer photo

Photo: iStockphoto

What do you do best or love to do? Share it with your friends, family or extend it to your community. I’ll be offering to my local yoga community, a free window of time to practice yoga at my studio space. If you’re all out of ideas, hit up VolunteerMatch. They’ve partnered up with the Unplug Challenge.

Want more? I’ve got a slew of other refreshing tech-free ideas in my post on The 4-Hour Staycation.

BONUS:Have you seen this…

Posted in Uncategorized

AN INSIDER’S GUIDE TO SOCIAL MEDIA ETIQUETTE

Posted on 24 February 2011.

Written by chrisbrogan

Cocktail Party At The Imperial Hotel

I receive a lot of questions about various points of etiquette with regards to social media. I also observe instances where I wish people knew some of the more common etiquette, because they seem like wonderful people, who maybe have made a mistake because they didn’t know better. To that end, I thought I’d give a brief set of ideas around social media etiquette. You’re very welcome to add to these in the comments. There will be a mix of do’s and don’ts, and remember this above all else: you’re doing it wrong.

SOCIAL MEDIA ETIQUETTE: YOUR APPEARANCE
  • Your avatar picture shouldn’t be a logo. We don’t meet logos at parties, do we? You caninclude a logo, but make it you.
  • Unless you’re a fictional character, more often than not, your avatar should be you. Amazing Simpson-like renditions of you are interesting for about four hours.
  • Your Facebook profile pic can be not you, but it often means that others might not accept your friend request. It feels creepy friending a four year old kid (avatar).
  • Your picture can be you from 10 or 15 years ago, but that first face to face meeting is going to be jarring.
  • It doesn’t take a lot of work to take a decent pic. Why use those “me cut out from posing with someone while I have red eyes” photos?
SOCIAL MEDIA ETIQUETTE: FRIENDING
  • You’re not obligated to follow/friend anyone. No matter what. Not even your mother. (I follow my mother, btw).
  • If you decide to unfollow someone, don’t make a big stink and announce why. Just leave.
  • It’s okay to let the competition follow you. It’s okay to follow the competition.
  • Famous people don’t always want to follow back. I’m looking at you, Justin Bieber!
  • You can set your own rules on Facebook. I’m in the process of moving everyone to a fan page and just keeping VERY close family and friends.
SOCIAL MEDIA ETIQUETTE: CONVERSATION
  • Commenting about other people’s stuff and promoting other people’s stuff is very nice.
  • Retweeting people’s praise of you comes off as jerky. Just thank them.
  • If you retweet something interesting, always give credit for who found it first.
  • Facebook wall comment streams can get long. Don’t grumble. If you’re along for the ride, it’ll end some day.
  • Promote others more often than you promote yourself. My long-standing measure is 12:1. (If it doesn’t work at first, it’s because maybe you’re not sincere in your promoting of others).
  • Listening is important and commenting is important. Be the #1 commenter on your blog. (See next one)
  • It’s okay to NOT comment back for every single comment you receive. It’s nice when you can respond, but don’t litter the comments with a bunch of “Thanks, Judy.” People know you care, if you’re doing it right.
  • If you are talking about someone in a blog post, link to them. Steve Garfield is a pro at this.
  • If you’re really nice, you’ll think about link text and help them even more by linking to Internet video expert Steve Garfield. Make sense?
  • Links do matter to Google and to the people you care about. When you can, give them a link.
    SOCIAL MEDIA ETIQUETTE: DISCLOSURE

    (Note: I’ve written about disclosure before).

    • If you’re writing about a client, add (client) to the tweet/post/update.
    • If you’re selling me something with an affiliate link, disclose that in the tweet/post/update.
    • If there’s a material reason (or perception of such) that you want me to take an action or click a link, tell me.
    • Tell me once in the post, and once again on a disclosure page. I use part of my about pagefor disclosures. See also: one of my other favorite disclosure pages (for cheekiness).
    • Make sure your audience comfortably knows your motives, and everything goes better.
    SOCIAL MEDIA ETIQUETTE: PROMOTING
    • Promote as if you’re at a cocktail party. It’s not the same as your email blast list.
    • Promote others, and it’s much more likely people will help promote you when it’s your turn.
    • Leave room for retweets. Writing 139 characters won’t get you anywhere.
    • Promoting on Facebook is MUCH nicer on my wall than in my private messages. (Do you agree?)
    • It’s probably okay to promote something 4x a day on a social network, so that you hit all the time zones appropriately. In the last hour, you can always give it a couple more pushes, but that’s about it.
    • Direct messaging people for promotion help is often annoying. It happens much more than you know.
    • Your cause isn’t always our cause. If we don’t want to help, don’t badger.
    • Things where you have to get 1,000 tweets to raise money are litter on Twitter. Things to get 1,000 “likes” on Facebook are fine. (Remember, however, that a “like” gives your demographic data to the thing that you’ve liked, plus permission for that page to message you privately.)
    SOCIAL MEDIA ETIQUETTE: CONTENT PRODUCTION
    • You can post as often as you want on your blog. It’s your blog. Monthly will probably fade from our memory. Weekly could work. Daily is my favorite. Some people post many times a day. It’s up to you.
    • You can tweet as often as you want, but people unfollow “noisy” tweeters (I get unfollowed often).
    • You can update Facebook often, and if you’re running pages, you might want to update 3-4 times a day, I’m starting to observe.
    • Depending on your blog’s purpose, be wary of over-selling. (I ran into this personally.) Make sure you’re still providing great community value.
    • If you find great content from other places, use it only after you understand whether you have permission to do so, and under the terms that the people have set.
    • If you’re linking and sharing someone else’s blog post (which is good to do), it’s also wonderful when you add something to it. Add some commentary. Add a thought or two as to why it matters to your community.
    • If someone’s work inspires your own post, it’s a nice thing to “hat tip” them with a link to the post that inspired you, somewhere in the post (usually down at the bottom).
    • If you go a long time between blog updates, don’t write a “sorry I haven’t written lately” post. No one cares. Just publish something good.
    SOCIAL MEDIA ETIQUETTE: SHARING IS CARING
  • Every blog I know has a share/like/tweet/stumble button at the bottom or somewhere. They’re there for a reason. If you like the article, pushing those buttons is a “tip jar” for the artist. Push it. It doesn’t take long.
  • If you’re reading in Google Reader, sharing is as simple as “[SHIFT] S” and that goes to everyone who reads your shared items.
  • Tell the blogger when you love something they’ve done. People’s #1 complaint to me when they’re starting out blogging is that they lack any feedback. It’d take you 30 seconds to do, and would change a person’s perspective for a whole day.
  • Comments in Twitter are temporary moments in a stream. Comments on the blog post itself are forever, in the best (and worst) of ways.
  • The web thrives on links and social sharing. The more YOU do to participate, the more people will create material for free for you to enjoy.
    YOUR MILEAGE WILL VARY

    For every idea above, there’s an exception. For every idea above, there’s a great reason to do the opposite. If you’re doing it differently than above, you’re not wrong. You’re doing it your way. Okay, I lied: you’re doing it wrong.

    I look forward to your thoughts, disagreements, counter-posts, additional thoughts, sharing, and more.

    • Bonus: If you’re Forever Alone…

    Posted in Uncategorized

    7 Reasons Why You Should Buy An Android Phone Instead Of An iPhone

    Posted on 23 February 2011.

    Written by Steve Kovach

    Google booth slide TBI MWC 2011

    Image: Dan Frommer, Business Insider

    There are so many options when it comes to choosing an Android phone. With the release of the Motorola Atrix, every major U.S. carrier has at least one premium Android device to choose from.

    Despite the large variety, there are still several common factors in choosing that most Android phones have that could be reason enough to choose one over an iPhone or other competitor.

    We found some of these reasons from Unplggd, and included a few of our own based on our experience with various Android phones.

    Get a larger screen

    Get a larger screen

    Image: Gizmodo

    With iPhone, you have one option for screen size: 3.5 inches. But several Android phones such as the Atrix, Droid X, HTC EVO, and Nexus S offer screens 4 inches or larger. That extra space is excellent for users who like to watch movies, play games, or view full web pages on their phone.

    Customize your home screen

    Customize your home screen

    Image: Dan Frommer, Business Insider

    Android phones give you a ton of options for customizing your home screen. You can add live widgets that receive constant updates on weather, RSS feeds, and Facebook or Twitter updates. You can also bookmark your favorite contacts directly on the home screen so you can dial them with just a tap.

    Use a camera with more power

    Use a camera with more power

    Image: Gizmodod

    Many Android phones like the Droid Incredible and the HTC EVO 4G have 8 megapixel cameras and shoot 720p HD video. While the iPhone 4 can shoot HD video, it only has a 5 megapixel camera.

    Play HD video on your TV

    Play HD video on your TV

    There are many Android devices that offer HDMI ports for playing HD video on your big screen TV. Since it’s unlikely the iPhone will ever have a port other than the standard iPod connector, you’ll never be able to watch true HD on your TV by plugging it in.

    Expand your storage

    Expand your storage

    Image: Tested

    Most Android phones will allow you to expand and swap your storage with a removable SD card. This is useful for those who want more space for music, video, and apps than their phone allows out of the box.

    Enjoy faster processor speeds

    Enjoy faster processor speeds

    Image: Tested

    Starting with the Atrix, we’re beginning to see Android phones sport dual core processors that can offer amazing speed for your phone. We put one through its paces and were impressed with the results. The downside? All that processing power will kill your battery.

    Take advantage of 4G data speeds

    Take advantage of 4G data speeds

    Image: Verizon

    There’s a huge wave of 4G Android phones hitting the market this year. And that’s on top of the handful that are already available from Sprint and T-Mobile. The consensus seems to be we won’t see a 4G iPhone until 2012 at the earliest.

    Bonus: Awesome note left on my truck after after lunch.

    Posted in Uncategorized

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