By Clemens Rettich, on October 26th, 2011 
The Goods
Xobni is add-on software for Microsoft Outlook (and other platforms). After installing Xobni, connecting it with your various social accounts, and letting it do its data-gathering thing, it sits to the side of your Outlook window.
Xobni can store all of your data in the cloud where you have syncing capability with almost every device and platform you use (Pro version). It puts any other form of contact data syncing to shame.
When you click on an email in your inbox, in a sidebar Xobni shows you:
The social media accounts that person has (including their most . . . → Read More: My Favourite Social Tool: Xobni
By Clemens Rettich, on October 11th, 2011 
This morning, (October 11, 2011) IBM (TSX: IBM:US) released a valuable study into the pressures, stresses, and some successes of corporate Chief Marketing Officers trying to come to terms with the rapidly shifting ground-rules in their worlds.
IBM conducted face to face interviews with more than 1,700 chief marketing officers from 64 countries and 19 industries. This study, entitled From Stretched to Strengthened is part of an ongoing work called the C-Suite research program, interviewing 15,000 CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, CHROs and CSCOs.
Over the next few days I will be exploring different facets of the CMO study; it has . . . → Read More: 2011 IBM Study: What Keeps Your CMO Awake At Night?
By Clemens Rettich, on October 5th, 2011 
In my world, digital largely rules. My business, and a good chunk of my social life, are to be found in my Blackberry, my laptop, and an endless assortment of software. But one of my favourite things is my notebook. This goes with me everywhere, and is the primary repository for my client and meeting notes. And even with the growing avalanche of the next wave, tablet computers, I don’t see that changing any time soon. I love my paper notebook.
Let’s get the first question out of the way: “Sure, use a notebook, but why exactly Moleskine?”
. . . → Read More: One Steam Punk Indulgence: My Moleskine Notebook
By Clemens Rettich, on September 9th, 2011 
As humans we seem to be wired for games and keeping score. Even when there is no material reward, we want to know how we did compared to others.
Perhaps that drive is connected deep down to some kind of evolutionary imperative where competition for food, mates, offspring, or just the number of people watching our backs for saber tooth tigers meant the difference between walking upright or remaining a threatened knuckle-dragger. Accountants and comptrollers aren’t the only bean counters out there. We all are.
Whatever the root of the counting instinct, it is the cause of much distraction . . . → Read More: Vanity, Vanity – What Social Media Metrics Don’t Tell You
By Clemens Rettich, on September 2nd, 2011 
I really want one of those guys they get on certain AM radio stations to announce the title of this series in that super-manly-EQ’d-for-testosterone voice they use for monster car shows.
That would be fun.
This is part 2 of my totally subjective series on tools and techniques that make my online work easier. I am not a full time social media/blogger person, but I use social media to support my work and relationships as a coach, speaker, and teacher. These are the tools and approaches that help me do that in my ‘spare’ time, and still be effective.
LinkedIn Groups. . . . → Read More: Nitro Pack 2: 4 More Social Media Power Tips and Tools
By Clemens Rettich, on August 30th, 2011 
There is a constant flow of new tools to support the challenging work of managing your social media work. Managing the lists, posts, schedules, and conversations that create an effective social media presence for a business is a huge time and organizational commitment. Some of the tools created to support that work are wonderful, others not so much.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be writing about some of my favourite social media power tips and tools. These are all things that make it possible for someone like me, with a family and a thriving business with flesh-and-blood . . . → Read More: Nitro Pack 1: 4 Social Media Power Tips and Tools
By Clemens Rettich, on August 14th, 2011 
In this humorous and revealing short article (The Klout Death Spiral) on Social Media Today, Leigh Dow explores the weird and wacky world of Klout.
Klout is a web site that purports to track your social influence on sites like Twitter and Facebook.
Here are some of my thoughts on Klout:
It doesn’t measure clout in any way that means anything to most independent professionals. What matters most to us is how engaged and valuable we are with and to our clients and potential clients. Case in point: in June, I was over the top supporting and acquiring clients. . . . → Read More: Klout and Clout. They are NOT The Same Thing!
By Clemens Rettich, on June 22nd, 2011 
Once, while on a run, I saw a guy taking a picture of an apple core on a picnic bench. He was using his cell phone.
I thought “People take pictures of everything now.”
Our hunger and capacity for recording the world around us, and our role in it, seems bottomless. Perhaps we should dispense with the labels like the information age or the digital age. Since the consumer adoption of the 45 RPM record after World War II, we have really been in the recording age. Digital technology has just taken recording capacity and availability to astonishing levels.
. . . → Read More: Vancouver: Riot or Reset?
By Clemens Rettich, on June 20th, 2011 
Each week I bring together a few articles that add value to our work of becoming better communicators in business. Short on time? Watch for the *Must Read* where I think you’ll get the best bang for your reading buck!
Networking: Make It A Daily Habit
Touches on my basic three rules of networking (listen, follow up, use social media) and adds additional useful tips. Read more…
5 LinkedIn ‘Must-Haves’ *Must Read*
If you are on LinkedIn, and as a professional or B2B business you should be, this is a must-read article. The 5 things this author says you . . . → Read More: On Message:The Best of Business Communication – June 20
By Clemens Rettich, on May 19th, 2011 
A confession: I hate being asked to use silly, stuffy, or infantile words when ordering or describing something. I’m more comfortable with European languages is better than most (I’m a Canadian with German as my first language), but it drives me a little mad to have to order something in grande or venti from a Seattle-based coffee chain (especially when grande doesn’t mean large!). What the heck is wrong with medium? And if there is a burger joint that sells a ‘dubbleyummy moomoo burger’, I’ll just ask for “the third one down on your list, please.” I always say . . . → Read More: Do Real Men Tweet? Twitter Deciphered
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