by Ron Miller

Free eBook - Finding Your Voice in a Crowded World: Personal Branding, Social Media and You

Yesterday marked President Obama's hundreth day in office, and I was listening to NPR interview people about what they did the last hundred days. I thought about it, and I've been pretty darn busy the last 100 days.

So excited and proud to announce another project completed in the last hundred days. This one is a new ebook called Finding Your Voice in a Crowded World: Personal Branding, Social Media and You by me and Julie Roads, the same team that brought you socmedia101.com.

We take a unique approach by providing the different view points of a technology writer (me) and a marketing writer (Julie) to explain how to build your personal brand online using social media tools. It's packed full of good information and it's visually stunning thanks to the amazing design work by Shauna Callaghan (who also designed socmedia101 for us).

Please download it, share it, enjoy it and talk about it. We would love to hear from you. Let us know what you think.

Apple-Verizon Negotiation Yields Some Interesting Rumors

While Apple was dancing with Verizon this week, an interesting rumor emerged buried at the bottom of a BusinessWeek story on the negotiations.

Read more on DaniWeb.

Photo by Redvers on Flickr

Google Makes Public Data Searchable

This is a really neat new service from Google that lets you access publicly available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the US Census Bureau. It puts incredible amounts of information into the hands researchers, students, journalists and anyone who is interested in learning about different types of data these two US government agencies track. Check out this video to learn more:

First Android Netbook Nothing to Write Home About

The Android is about to take the leap from the cell phone to the netbook, and much like the first Android-powered cell phone, the first iteration is a bit of head-shaker.

Read more at DaniWeb

Photo by Caitlinator at Flickr

Reaching Goals and Feeling Winded

My partner Julie Roads wrote  a wonderful blog post recently about observing her sister-in-law running the Boston Marathon. As we approach the end of April, I feel like I've run a marathon and when I look back it's no wonder:

• I published two eBooks of collected works. I have a 3rd, written with Julie Roads (all original material), which we are hoping to release this week.
• I launched a new web site with Julie Roads called socmedia101.com (designed by the incredible Shauna Callaghan).
• I bought a Flip camera, shot video and posted my first video on YouTube.
• I had my first public speaking engagement when I spoke on a panel on Social Media at the end of February.
• I shot my first video interview, which was presented at the Buying and Selling EContent conference earlier this month.
• I redesigned this blog with a custom header, new color scheme and new type faces with the design expertise of the fabulous Doug Eymer.

All the while, I publish on average 3 times a week for my DaniWeb TechTreasures blog. I write and produce the weekly FierceContentManagement Newsletter and I have a steady tech writing client.

I also have a family and I have to balance all of this and keep my priorities straight, which is not always easy when you are juggling this many balls in the air.

So if I'm feeling a bit winded as we close the first third of the year, I hope you'll understand. I've been a tad busy.

Photo by visualdensity on flickr.

1B Downloads Later: My Five Favorite iPhone Apps

On Friday, a 13 year old from Connecticut downloaded the one billionth app from the iPhone App Store. To mark that occasion, I decided to list my five favorite apps.

Read my list at DaniWeb.

Photo by robertnelson on flickr.

Microsoft is The Big Loser Among the Big 3

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer used the economy as an excuse for his company's first quarterly loss in 23 years as a public company, but if his big rivals were making money, it begs the question, why was Microsoft doing so poorly?

Read more on DaniWeb.

Photo by Sir Mervs on Flickr

Apple Earnings Continue to Defy Logic

In spite of what the IMF has called the worst worldwide recession since The Great Depression, Apple made money last quarter, but it wasn't selling expensive computers.

Read how Apple survived at DaniWeb.

Photo by Marcin Wichary on Flickr.

Can CMIS be Approved by Year's End?

Content management vendors hope to have the CMIS standard in place by year's end, but can they make it through the OASIS approval process that fast?.

Read more at FierceContentManagement.

Photo by DanielVDM on flickr.

If You Create a Rave, Sponsored Posts Are Not Required

Cover via Amazon

I came across a blog post today from Chris Brogan in which he once again came out in favor of sponsored blog posts. I had a gut reaction of course, that it was wrong on its face, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized my gut reaction doesn't matter because the true power of social networking doesn't require payments changing hands. The true power comes into play when a community of committed users carries the message for you.

As I've written in the past, I'm a big fan of Brogan as I wrote in I Want to be Like Chris Brogan Oh Yea, but I made it clear where I stand on the idea of sponsored posts in my post: Should Bloggers Write Sponsored Posts. I'm also a big fan of David Meerman Scott who wrote the book the World Wide Rave. The point of David's book is that you can put out an idea and let other people carry it forth for you, to create a rave about what you're doing.

That's right. You don't need to pay for ads and you don't need to buy space on blogs from influencers because if you create a good product something wonderful happens. The influencers find it and they write about it without be asked to or being paid to.

If I'm a reader which scenario am I going take more seriously; an honest assessment of a product written from the heart, or an opinion that's bought and paid for. David and Chris are both brilliant guys, but I think the sponsored post route is the wrong way to go. It waters down your personal brand. It reduces you in the eyes of your audience and it's simply not needed if you create a product or service that people truly need or want.

I'm also a fan of Seth Godin who suggests building tribes (groups of people committed to what you are doing). What's more powerful than that? In the end, we don't need to buy influence. We need to build communities of committed individuals and let those people carry the message for you.  It's a lot more sensible approach in my book and it's going to take your product or service a heck of a lot further.