Strategic Online Marketing
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Featured in Google Enterprise Blog
May 16th
I was recently contacted by FreshBooks to see if I’d write up a little blurb that could be featured on the Google Enterprise Blog.
The question I was asked to write about was: “How Google Apps and FreshBooks help you run your business”. I was really excited to do so because I have been evangelistic about both technologies for years. Why? You can read the original version of what I sent to Freshbooks here:
On the back of my business card you will find a famous quote attributed to Einstein: “Make everything as simple as possible but not simpler.”
As the owner of a small digital consultancy, I have to know where my money is all the time…but I can’t be required to spend a lot of time tracking it. For years I have struggled with financial systems that fit one or the other of these criteria but never both. Happily, this all changed when I switched to Google Apps and FreshBooks.
When I started my business several years ago I decided my internal systems needed to exemplify the streamlined cloud-based model I sold to clients. It wasn’t long before I began using Google Apps for everything–proposals, time tracking, email, voice and other communications–everything. I even tried to keep my books with a number of sophisticated Google Spreadsheets. As time went on and things sped up, I knew I needed a better solution…that would still integrate with Google Apps. I tried every single application that integrated with Google Docs. At the end of the search it was obvious that FreshBooks was leaps and bounds beyond anything else.
Here’s the post again.
Technological Socialism
Oct 28th
Steve Jobs had some interesting things to say in a message during his
F4Q10 Results – Earnings call back on the 18th.
Of course the iPad has continued to sell phenomenally. I expected that.
What I found fascinating was Jobs’ treatment of Apple’s “integrated approach” and its benefits over and against what describes as the “fragmented approach” of competitors, especially Google and Android.
The open vs closed issue, Jobs tells us, is “just a smokescreen to try and hide the real issue”, which he says is “fragmented versus integrated.”
What is so “fragmented” about Android, we might ask? Jobs gives evidence: Android OEMs come up with proprietary interfaces. Multiple versions of Apps exist. Multiple App stores are coming up soon.
By contrast, jobs maintains that Apple is integrated, citing the easy to use iTunes App Store and the speed by which developers are paid.
Jobs builds to a climax:
We see tremendous value in having Apple rather than our users’ be the systems integrator…. When selling to users who want their devices to just work, we believe integrated will trump fragmented every time.
This took me aback the first and second times I read it. Yeah, I thought, all we care about is whether it just works…
So we are very committed to the integrated approach, no matter how many times Google tries to characterize it as closed. And we are confident that it will triumph over Google’s fragmented approach, no matter how many times Google tries to characterize it as open.
The end. So much for Google’s little Android ploy.
Not so fast Steve.
I actually care about more than whether my device “just works”. I care about things like cost, customization, speed…and especially freedom.
Steve, what you’re actually advocating is socialism…the idea that “we the monolithic good-hearted organization have your best interests in mind and will take care of you. Just let us be in charge of your access to the things you need and your troubles will be over.”
My Droid Incredible is not as “integrated” as Steve’s iPhone 4.
But I can tether to both of my computers and use 100GB of data per month.
Socialism would be great in an ideal world. But in the real world, I’ll stick with Freedom.
Here’s a transcript of the rest of the F4Q10 message.
Find Out Your Next Appointments on Google Calendar by Texting
Feb 18th
A couple months ago I posted about how to add events to your Google Calendar via text message. You probably already know that you can receive notifications of upcoming events shortly before they happen via SMS, just like an alarm clock.
How do you find out what all your upcoming events are, though? Here’s how:
- text “next” to 48368 to find out what your next event in the day will be
- text “day” to 48368 to get a list of today’s events
- text “nday” to 48368 to get tomorrow’s events
If you need more information about this feature, it’s found at http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=37228.
Add to GC from your cel!
Sep 14th
Those of us who use Google Calendar instead of a paper calendar have often run into the problem of adding events to the Calendar when we’re away from our computer. Now Google has given us a way to add events by sending a text message. If you have GC set up correctly, it can send you a text message back, too.
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=37529&ctx=tip&hl=en
