By Suzi Dafnis, Australian Businesswomen’s Network

Whether you want to keep up with what’s happening in your industry or collect feedback from your customers, social media makes it easy to conduct business research.

Facebook now has an “Ask a Question” function, which makes it easy to survey your audience. If you’d like to send out a more complex survey, there are several websites where you can create a free survey, such as surveymonkey.com.

You can then place a link to that survey in your social networks – on Twitter, Facebook and LInkedIn, as well as Google+.

Easy research tips for:

• Twitter: Ask a poll question that just requires a simple reply. For a more complex survey, include a link to your survey on Twitter.
• Facebook: Use the Ask A Question function for polls. Link to a longer survey (set up in another program).
• Google+: Same as above for Facebook
• LinkedIn: Use the ANSWERS section of LinkedIn to asks your question. There is room to ask a complex question and LinkedIn users pride themselves on answer questions and being perceived as thought leaders and experts. You can also award the best answer as winner, adding clout to that user’s profile.

In early 2010, we were looking to name a new webinar series in which we’d feature best-selling business book authors. This series, now known as BOOKED for Lunch, was named when, after running a survey on Facebook members suggested names which we then put to a poll. BOOKED for Lunch came out on top and we thank member Linda Fairbairn for the suggestion of what is now a very popular series of webinars.

What sort of research can you do on Social Media?

Pretty much anything. As long as you don’t mind it being public.

I find that community members are happy to contribute if asked questions the answers from which they will also benefit. e.g., Ask them how you can improve your products and services or what new products/services they’d like to see?

So, go ahead and ask:

• Which logo do they like best?
• What’s a great name for a new product?
• What can you do to help them?
• What’s their opinion on an issue or topic relevant to your industry or business?

Be sure to thank and reply to all that respond!

Keep it simple

Keep your research simple. Social media moves so quickly and is often scanned rather than read. So, keep your questions simple and to the point. If you get a lot of interest, but need more depth in answers, you can always approach those who have shown interest and ask for more participation.

Do it well

And, if you want expert advice in structuring your survey questions then I recommend you contact Kate Tribe of Tribe Research who advises the Australian Businesswomen’s Network.

Researching competitor activity

Some business research doesn’t require active participation on your part. If you want to know what your competitors are doing, join their social media groups and watch as a passive spectator.

Start listening, and reap the rewards

Research is really all about listening. What are people saying about my brand? Are my customers satisfied? What are my competitors saying? What are the latest trends in the industry? Social media is an invaluable tool for listening.

Social Media is a great way to get quick feedback. So, go ahead and try it.

Had some success with research and social media? Comment and let us know.

MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY SUZI DAFNIS

• How to get Everything Done Before Christmas
• How Guy Kawasaki Enchanted Me
• Make Telephone Interviews Work: Tips for Preparing and Conducting Virtual Interviews

By Suzi Dafnis, Australian Businesswomen’s Network

If you’ve explored our website or attended any of our events, you might think that the Australian Businesswomen’s Network (ABN) is a large organisation — but we’re not. We’re a small business, a small team of six people on a good day. And the six of us have to cater to clients all over Australia because women in business are in country towns, rural areas, urban areas and overseas. They’re not always available to come to events, so we had to make our education and information available to them.

Because of this need to make our information widely available and easily accessible, we were very early adopters of many different technologies, and now we train our community of businesswomen to use that technology.

We rely on technology because we don’t have a lot of resources.

I’m sure that a lot of you can appreciate that. We have a small team, with one of our staff actually based in the U.S. and an off-site advisory board, so we need to be able to communicate, share files and collaborate efficiently, sometimes in real time.

We rely on technology to manage our inventory. We need to communicate with our clients every week because 16,500 women rely on us to give them new information about education and resources. As a business owner, I use technology to make sure that I’m updating my skills and have the right information to run my business.

I had the pleasure of attending the largest technology conference in the world this year, South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, where 19,000 attendees shared the latest technologies. I came back with so many great ideas about new technologies that can be used in small business. But so many people are not taking advantage of the most helpful technology: the basic website. For most businesses nowadays, if you don’t have an online presence, you do not exist. If I search for and cannot find you using Google or any other search engine, then you don’t exist for me.

The Internet has changed the way we communicate with our clients.

People expect us to be able to comment on what we’re doing, to collaborate with them and to acknowledge their opinions. We can’t just broadcast to them; you have to give them the opportunity to give feedback. In this way, you can co-create your business with your clients.

At the ABN, we use an online editable website to collaborate on projects, so anyone on our staff can edit it and add content on a moment’s notice, from anywhere. We use YouTube to provide training videos on small business subjects, have our own Facebook page where we provide interesting articles and community updates, a Twitter account, as well as two iTunes channels where we publish podcasts: Social Media for Small Business and herBusiness – Insights for Women in Business. We use a lot of different devices and gadgets and we try to integrate them to give our clients multiple paths to the same destination. Technology allows us to connect with clients, educate ourselves and grow our business.

At this point in history, the question is not: “Should I be using these technologies in my business?” but rather: “How quickly can I adapt the most relevant technologies to grow my business?”

Start with a basic website, then use all those other social media tools to drive traffic to your website. From there, you can start to generate new leads and then communicate with those leads.

For new users, technology may be daunting.

I’m not really a tech-savvy person, but my business goals demand that I use new technologies. When I’m confused or overwhelmed, I may outsource a project to meet my goals. So, if you’re not tech-savvy (like me), don’t let that stop you from taking advantage of all the wonderful technologies available to increase your business.

Go to Google, start researching technologies relevant to your business and you’ll eventually come across a community of individuals in a similar position, looking for the same information. That’s how the ABN has developed into what it is today!

MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY SUZI DAFNIS

• Business Mentoring for the 21st Century
• What Should I Write about on My Business Blog?
• How Guy Kawasaki Enchanted Me

This week, Google+ launched its business pages which will compete with Facebook business pages as a way for organisations to manage online communities, to market and to interact with clients.

But is Google+ just one social network too many for us to manage and care about?

Last week, Chris Brogan, author of about-to-be-released book GOOGLE+ for Business: How Google’s Social Network Changes Everything was our guest on BOOKED for Lunch, the Australian Businesswomen’s Networks’ interview series with best-selling business book authors.

During the webinar (for which over 700 people registered), Chris pointed out many reasons why business people absolutely MUST start to use Google+, not the least of which is because Google indexes all public posts (your posts on the other social networks are not), giving you a lot of power behind your posts and the chance to integrate with other Google products.

Plus, Google+ has some fun features (Hangouts where you can video chat in small groups) and a better way to manage your contacts (Circles) than Facebook.

We jumped on the moment Pages launched and grabbed our page. We suggest you do the same. We use our Facebook Page extensively for business and I’m sure we will continue to — BUT that’s no reason for us not to also explore how to best use Google+ for business. (I bet you’re not lamenting that you now have a smart phone and not an old brick of a phone – technology and tools change and evolve and it’s important to keep evolving with them for your business to stay up to date.)

As Chris explained: “Google+ is more ‘open’ than Facebook, more deep than Twitter and more rounded than LinkedIn.”

And the fact that Google+ is tied to the number 1 and number 2 search engines in the world (Google and YouTube respectively) makes it a tool unlike the others.

So, there’s no time for fatigue. Register and grab your page today.

To help you make sense of it we suggest two things:

1. Watch the webinar on the Australian Businesswomen’s Network website (duration 1 hour).
2. Read this list of Google Pages how to guides compiled by Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop.

Here’s some comments from people who attended the live webinar:

– “I found Chris’s responses insightful and thoroughly convincing.”

– “Great ideas, which I’ll be implementing.”

– ”I enjoyed the targeted information that came out though the interview (which was conducted in real language rather than ‘business speak’”

– ”Practical tips and reconfirmation of the importance of social media.”

Watch the webinar here.

About Chris Brogan

President, Human Business Works

Chris Brogan consults and speaks professionally with Fortune 100 and 500 companies. He is a New York Times bestselling co-author of Trust Agents, and a featured monthly columnist at Entrepreneur Magazine. Chris’s blog is in the Top 5 of the Advertising Age Power150. He has over 11 years experience in online community, social media, and related technologies.

Read more about Chris Brogan.

About Google+ for Business (the Book)

In Google+ for Business, Chris Brogan guides you through using Google+ for promotion, customer service, community building, referrals, collaboration and a whole lot more. You won’t just master innovative new tools like Circles and Hangouts; You’ll use them to generate more customers and more cash!

OUT SOON: Order your copy today.

A good quality business photo is an essential part of any professional’s business toolkit. I have head shots that I use for publicity, speaking engagements, on blogs, websites and in articles etc. I have a selection of 3-4 photos that I can choose from depending on the situation.

So, what was I thinking when recently I put my profile up on the CrossFit Games Open site? (The 2011 CrossFit Games Open is an international event that 35 members of our gym (and over 30,000 in total) are participating in. Though only the top 3 men and women’s scores count towards the team score, the rest of us – me included – are participating for the fun* of it and to support the team.)

To register for the competition I completed my profile on the CrossFit website, like to you do on many community websites, and added a profile picture. I went into autopilot and added one of my professional shots.

When I went to visit the site this week I realised how ridiculous I look. Others photos depict them in various stages of athleticism and me, I look like I’m posing for a glam business shot!

See Sample Pics here:

Sample Athlete Profile (She's coming first)

Sample Athlete (Female)

It was a doh! moment and highlighted to me the importance of being appropriate for the context of any community that you join.

Business is Business

While I made a blunder that is pretty pain free (the CrossFit community won’t judge my professionalism but may judge my athleticism from this pic)… had it been the reverse, and I had a terribly inappropriate pic up on my LinkedIn or Twitter page then it COULD impact on my credibility as a businesswoman.

Yet, every day I see examples of BAD photos used on professional networking sites, on article submission for our newsletter, within our very own Member Directory.  I’ve even authors who self publish using ‘home spun’ photos on their books. Yikes!

It really doesn’t do you any favours to use photos of you taken at social occasions (No. You at your daughters wedding is probably NOT the right look for a corporate picture. Nor is the one with your best friend (or glass of wine) cropped out of the pic, or a blurry or badly framed picture.

And, an out of date photo of a younger, smoother-skinned you can also create embarrassing moments when people DO meet you in person. [I just updated my pics in October after five years, which is too long.])

Me, I’m going to find a better photo for the CrossFit site (one that makes me look mean, lean and threatening – hmmmm, wonder if I can find one of those). At least it will be one that makes sense for this context.

What about you? What photo do you need to update? Do it this week.

Suzi

*The word fun is used here in the loosest possible sense. I don’t find this ‘competition’ fun. I stress each week before the designated workout and were it not for the wonderfully supporting environment at the gym I go to I wouldn’t be doing this at all. Each week should get easier though. I hope!

I met  Jenny Armato online. We were Facebook and Twitter friends long before we met in person when she was visiting Sydney in March. It was the first time we really got to ‘chew the fat’ (or sushi as it was) and I immediately asked her if she’d speak for our Growth Members and share with them about what she knows about generating  leads using social networks..

She really ‘knows her stuff’ when it come to doing business online and this week’s webinar is all about how to use social engines (Jennie’s word for social networks like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook) to:

• Get new clients
• Generate leads
• Power up business

I’ve been using social networks for a couple of years now and have had some success at generating leads from these network. But i KNOW that next week when Jennie presents the Social Engines webinar I’m going to have a whole lot of new distinctions on how to be more strategic about lead generation. I know that we’ll look at:

• How to integrate automated lead generation from Twitter, YouTube and Facebook with your web business blog.
• The 3 most effective ways to generate a steady flow of qualified leads on Facebook.

My invitation to you to attend:

I hope you’ll join me.

Date: 26 May

Time: 10.30am – 12.00pm

Venue: Webinar (all you need is access to the Internet)

Price: Free for Growth Members, $39 for StartUp members and $59 for Non-Members

REGISTER TODAY

How did an old show get to be (in my opinion) the best example Australia has of ‘interactive TV’ and the use of social media on television?

If you’ve managed to catch any episodes of Hey Hey It’s Saturday (Wednesday nights on Channel 9), then you’ll notice that they’ve done some really great work at integrating new media into the show.

The show’s formula and games are pretty much as they have been for many years. Simple and the kind of funny you kick yourself for laughing at but find yourself laughing regardless! Yeah for Chook Lotto, Celebrity Heads, Red Faces etc. The formula still works. That’s a given.

And now, the show’s masterminds (or some smart cookies involved) have harnessed the power of social media to engage not only the live studio audience but hundreds of thousands of people across the country.

I’m thrilled. Really.

The closest thing I’ve seen to this live use of social media is on US news shows when the Twitter stream is shown in the lower third. Nice, but boring.

Hey Hey has it right. Where once the studio audience would judge a ‘Red Faces’ act, now you and I can, from the comfort of our home, vote, share our opinion, debate and have a collaborative community experience that is unprecedented.

And, and using less ‘social’ media,  Lavinia has a laptop on hand to get any new emails that are worth commenting about. What a great way to engage viewers! “You mean I could have my email talked about on live TV? Wow…”… and so Mary Smith from Tewantin in Queensland chimes in and takes part in the conversation.

I used Hey Hey as an example at three speaking engagements in the last week. I’m so ‘chuffed’ at how well they’re doing this. (Being LIVE they have a rare opportunity, on Australian TV, with Social Media but others have had the same chance. They are just the first, I think, to really get it right.)

As at this morning Hey Hey had 432, 936 fans on Facebook. How exciting.

This week the show used #chook (I think) as the tag for those watching to follow the conversation on Twitter.
(The Twitter following is at the mo’ just 3,123 but that’s okay. I think Facebook is more suited to what the show is doing.)

When ‘they’ told us about ‘interactive TV’… I don’t think ‘they’ knew that this would be it… a LIVE show, with Australia participating alongside the show’s activity.

Congratulations Hey Hey.

I’m watching (’cause I think you’re fun) AND because this ‘old dog’ has certainly learned some new tricks.

Visit the website

Hey Hey Facebook Page

Follow Daryl on Twitter

by Suzi Dafnis, Australian Businesswomen’s Network

I’d like you to meet social media’s new identifier.

How do you introduce yourself in professional situations? Your well-honed 30-second elevator spiel could well be redundant. The new way to introduce yourself is a powerful window into your online social presence. You most powerful business card is now the @ symbol.

“Hi. I’m @cool-name-goes-here.”

Earlier this month I attended the South by South West Interactive festival in Austin Texas. The annual festival features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events and insightful lectures on what is new and different in media, publishing and technology (and soooo much more).

A common structure at all the sessions is for a Q&A session to follow a presentation or panel discussion.

I noticed this year that something had changed about the way people introduced themselves before asking a question. A person would walk up to a microphone and rather than say

“Hi, I’m Mary Smith from Fabulous Frocks…..”

she’d say something like:

“Hi. I’m @fabulousfrocks….”

It happened time and again that people identified themselves as their Twitter handle, their digital profile.

I think this says a lot.

If I introduce myself as my @ symbol then I’m saying that if you went to @me and took a look at what I say and share, if you connect to me via my social network presence, you’d know what you need to know about me to determine if you want to stay in touch, do business, network etc.

I love this concept. It calls for us to:

• be congruent in our online profiles (What you see (read) is what you get.)
• let our online profiles ‘do the talking’ when it comes to introducing our products and services
• be better communicators

Exciting times, people!

Twitter's CEO Evan Williams Interviewed at SXSW

By Yvette Vignando, www.happychild.com.au

Leading up to the launch of a new site, I’m researching everything about the power of social media. Before I catapulted myself into the Twitterverse, I confess I cynically suspected it would be full of people updating me about their breakfast, their political views or be a series of automated marketing pitches.

Well, I was right, and it’s actually fantastic. The power of Twitter is that you can authentically and personably connect with people on the same wavelength. And I love that it’s a platform with fast, 140 character, very digestible pieces of information.

As I get to know people personally, including their breakfast menu, I get a sense of how I can help them and actually build a community of ‘real Tweeple’. Those tweeple might be interested in what I have to say, or have information that is helpful for my own personal and professional growth. Even though I’m not a fan of automated tweeting, I still appreciate the efficient sharing of information by the rich source of tweeple I have met during my 140 character visits to the Twitterverse. And I firmly believe that the quality of your Twitter followers is the key, not the quantity.

5 Twitter Lessons I’ve learnt:

Give to Get

Like most venues in life, on Twitter you need to give to receive value. This means:

• Tweet personable information about yourself that is relevant or has synergy for some of your followers. You can keep this non-identifying but still real. For example @SuziDafnis discloses with a picture that she has a penchant for terrifyingly high heels “Just said no to temptation… I can always change my mind. http://twitpic.com/178vfu”
• Tweet links to interesting blogs and news articles. They don’t need to be all your own.
• Re-tweet the tweets you find funny, useful or informative.
• Keep your self-serving links to a minimum but share the ones you are proud of such as your latest blogpost, or in my case recently: “A link to my 5min pres on why there needs to be more emotional intelligence in school http://bit.ly/b6aTzI #ignite”

Read the #FFs With Interest

On Twitter, #FF stands for Follow (on) Friday. Tweeters post Twitter identities of people they think are worth following. Usually this means they’ll be people of interest to you too. Click on their profiles, read their short description and latest tweets and if you’re interested, follow them.

The power of Twitter is that you can authentically and personably connect with people on the same wavelength.

Re-Edit Your Short Profile

The short profile, limited to 160 characters is what people read when thinking about following you. I’ve amended mine many times and I confess it’s still a work in progress. Be informative, personal and disclose your personal style. If you have feedback on mine, I would really appreciate it. Currently it’s “Publish Parenting Info- Raising Children with Emotional Intelligence. A happy child makes a world of difference. Mum of 3 boys. No, they’re not always happy.” What do you think?

The Best Camera is the One You Have With You

I have totally stolen this line from Andrew Harvey at Ignite – the least I can do is share a link to his presentation. Tweeters develop their online brand by taking a quick photo with their mobile phone. This ranges from a sunrise to a pet rabbit or in @SuziDafnis’ case, a dangerous set of heels! A service you can use for this is Twitpic.

Use a Browser to Avoid Twitter Overload

Twitter can suck you in. If you want to scan through the important stuff quickly, download a Twitter browser to manage your lists of Tweeters. I use Tweetdeck but there are many others. Here are a few to check out: UberTwitter, HootSuite and Seesmic.

Hope that’s useful to you – I’m loving the learning that comes with my entrepreneur’s journey – see you out there in the Twitterverse.

There are probably a dozen iphone apps that I use regularly. Some are standard and functional e.g. Google Maps (a humdinger when I get lost in the city or need to get directions while overseas), Voicememo (often used to record messages to remind myself to do things) and the weather application.

While I have some fun apps e.g. Shazam (song recognition) and  Check Please (for calculating tips when travelling in the US), most of the apps I use enhance or enable my social media activity.

The applications allow me to post to my blog (and respond to comments), tweet, check my web stats, record an audio blog, instant message my contacts, create a video and post it with one click, add photos to my social networks – to name just a few options.

Here are 9 of my favourite social media related apps. They are not in order. All are in the itunes Applications store but I have included below links to the developers websites. Most apps are free, but a couple have a small (and worthwhile) fee.

AudioBoo - Create and share audio easily

Audioboo

This is an iphone audioblogging application. You record a message (up to 5 mins) and host it on the Audioboo site with the click of an icon. You can then use the embed code in blog posts or in statuses on Twitter and Facebook. Here’s a post where I’ve used the AudioBoo app during our 30 Days of Social Media program.

Analytics

The free version is sufficient for me to be able to check the traffic on our blog and website easily.

Tweetie

While I also have TweetDeck and Twitterific, Tweetie is the one that I find easiest to use to track Twitter conversations and add tweets.

What’s App

This is very cool. What’s App is an iphone to iphone messenger without text/SMS costs.

Gorillacam - Great added functionality for your iphone camera

Gorillacam

Just started using this app. Adds great functionality to your iphone camera. Paparazzi (3shot) option, self-timer, time lapse as well as a ‘press anywhere’ option overcomes some of the frustrations of using an iphone camera. Team it with a Gorillapod (a mini tripod for your iphone) and you have a pretty cool camera.

Facebook

You’ve probably got this if you’re on Facebook. It’s improved and easy to use to update status and stay up with news. Could use a little more functionality.

Dragon Dictation

This app provides voice recognition on your iphone. You can record and translate sound and then send to mail or txt. Great for quick memos.  [I have to share this as it made for a good laugh. When I was first using it I was speaking slowly saying "This is Suzi". The translation was coming up as "This is Crazy"… so I guess it needs a little practise to get it working write (or a feined US accent may help)].

Animoto

Select from pics on your iphone, choose a soundtrack from Animoto’s library and click a button – and you have a professional customised video, for free. Fun for holidays and capturing special moments.

FaceMic for Facebook

This is a new one for me and was recommended by Facebook maven Mari Smith. It allows me to record a message and post it to a friend’s Facebook page. Great for birthday messages.

BONUS – CAUSE IT’S WORTH MENTIONING!

CrushIt

You may have heard of Gary Vaynerchuck of Wine Library TV fame.The story goes that he turned a $5 million dollar business into a $50 million and has created fame and fortune online through his video blog. His book – Crush It - has been created as an app that is a vook (a video book). At the start of each chapter you get to see and hear Gary and then you can read the book Kindle-style within the app. It’s a great way for any author to deliver their content and I can see applications for many educators and content creators.

As I said earlier, these are just a few of the tools that help me manage and create social media content and which allow me to keep up with the conversations that I choose to be a part of – while I’m ‘on the go’. (Of course that is today… apps are being created so quickly some of these may be replaced by newer/better ones… in which case I’ll be sure to post any new discoveries.)

Got a great iphone app to share? I’d love to hear about it.

Best wishes,

Suzi

When you see the list of my top five books for 2009 you’re bound to notice a pattern. I’ve had a bit of a one-track-mind this year. Most of 2009 I studied online communities, technology and social media.

I don’t know exactly how many books I’ve read this year, but many of them have been on similar subjects. I immersed myself in podcasts (more on that in a few days), courses (both online and live) and especially books — as I endeavoured to learn and implement as much as possible about the changing online landscape. My goal: To master the ability to connect and work with my online community of business women – and to use what I learn as I implement the new information to pass on to the community skills and tools that they can use to run their businesses better.

Now… for the list.  If you’re working on building an online community, want to better communicate within your social networks, want practical ways to build your social capital, then I recommend these titles.

I’ve included Amazon links below so you can read up further on the books. Dear Australian Readers: Don’t write to tell me I should order from Aussie retailers – I’m yet to find Aussie bookstores that satisfy my book needs, who delivery quickly and inexpensively and who have the books that I need, when I need them.

The Whuffie Factor – Tara Hunt

After hearing Tara Hunt speak at the South by South West festival in Austin I ordered this book (which was released in July). It’s about how to build your social capital. The author offers a no-nonsense guild to how what grows and what diminishes your online reputation and how to educate and empower your connection. (Here’s a post I wrote about this book when it was first released.)

Trust Agents

Trust Agents – Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation and Earn Trust - Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

This one is terrific. The authors describe trust and the most important currency today. I’ve listed to the audio book (which is read by both authors) and am yet to devour the printed version. How to build trust, maintain a good reputation, build relationships online, what breaks trust and what empowers trust.

Free – the Future of a RadicalPrice - Chris Anderson

In the digital marketplace, the most effective price is no price at all, argues Anderson (The Long Tail). Great examples of companies using ‘free’ to build big businesses. The concept can be a hard one to accept and to see the application in you own business, even harder BUT get it and you can transform an industry and your business.

Crowdsourcing – Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business - Jeff Howe

How is collaboration (and the ease by which you can crowdsource using socialmedia) changing the face of business and product/business development? How to harness the power of the crowd. Great examples.

One of the many 'Dummies' book on my shelves

Facebook for Dummies - Leah Pearlman and Carolyn Abram

I love the “Dummies” books. I’ve purchased a number of the social media/tech titles (including ones on Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, SEO, You Tube, Blogging) because they are easy to follow and the authors walk you through many aspects of using social media tools or both business and personal outcomes. In this one you’ll learn how to optimise your profile, promote your business, create a business page – it touches the main aspects you need to master to get results with Facebook.

140 Characters: A style guide for the short form - Dom Sagolla

I haven’t yet finished this one but it’s definitely already worthy of being on this list. As relevant for status updates in Facebook and LinkedIn, the book covers basic grammar, creating your own style, writing for best effect using Twitter and other short-form vehicles.

If you have any book recommendations you’d like to share, I’d be happy to hear from you.

AUDIO VS PRINT BOOKS

I’ve been an audio book listener of a couple of years, but more so this year partly because I don’t want to wait (I can start the book now – I don’t need to wait to get the physical copy) and partly because of convenience (I can consume the material when I’m walking or driving).

These days I buy most books in both audio and printed version. The audio gets listened to pretty quickly. The printed version ends up more like a workbook with highlights, post-it notes stuck through it and as an easy to follow reference for implementation of the principles contained in the book.

To Kindle or Not to Kindle?

I haven’t bought a Kindle yet. I have the iphone app version of it and may get one (but I’m yet to be convinced of the extra benefits…. Right now I’m using my iphone to read/listen to the vook Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk (get the vook in the Apple Apps store). The iphone is plenty big enough for me to read on. Also, with the Apple tablet (hopefully) not too far away, I’ll be interested to see if that creeps into the same territory as Kindle.

Best wishes,

Suzi

Additional Resources

Tara Hunt on Twitter

Chris Brogan on Twitter

Chris Anderson on Twitter

South by South West Festival (I’m going. Hope you’ll be there too.)