I wanted the video to highlight 3 things:

1)  Their innovative process of remodeling and upgrading existing cabinets and fixtures.

2) The dramatic before and after effect.

3) Introduce the owner and his son.  This is a family-run business and that makes a difference when shopping around for home improvement work.

Are you using video to showcase your business to potential clients? If not, you should be!   Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL are among the hundreds of Search Engines that give priority listings to websites that host video content.  In addition, did you know that youtube is the second most popular search engine next to Google?  And what about your competition? According to Borrell & Associates, “Online video spending is forecasted to account for more than 1/3rd of all online advertising in 5 years.”   So if you aren’t using video to advertise your business, chances are your competitor is.

I have been with Save the Children for almost a year and in that time I have helped generate awareness for the newborn and child survival campaign called “See Where the Good Goes.”  In 8 months, I have doubled the Facebook following to over 12,000 and increased the twitter following to over 1800.  I have helped to develop a strategy for fan acquisition and what the desired outcome is once we have those fans.  The campaign is about taking an action on behalf of newborn survival, we want our fans to write a letter to the president, donate money or sign a petition  to increase funding.

While building a following is a great use of social media, a strategy for what to do next is much more important.

I also do a fair amount of freelance consulting work for individuals and small companies in the southern Connecticut area. Currently I am working with an international health consultant to help her find new business using social media.  Her company, called “Here’s to Life Now!” succeeds in promoting life style change by putting its clients in control of their well-being through strategic planning, connection to resources and ongoing support.

Today, health workers use cell phones in the field to collect data on pregnancies, help with diagnosis and to send reminders to sick individuals to take important antibiotics.  Phones are so inexpensive that almost anyone can afford one, creating two way communications where there previously wasn’t any other than face to face. It is truly the first form of communications technology that can be used regardless if you are rich or poor.   People can reach health workers, any time of day, and ask medical questions or call for help.  I was amazed to find out that the camera on the phone can be used to take a photo of a blood sample and send it to a lab for diagnosis.  Through this use of mobile technology, millions of  people who live long distances from hospitals, doctors or health workers are not without some sort of access to answers.

Additionally, Geena Davis, who just helped launch the UN’s newest agency called UN Women, spoke of encouraging girls from a young age to pursue their dreams and criticized entertainment and the media for reinforcing negative stereotypes.  There is a global call to help girls realize they can stay in school, wait to get married and be who they want to be without feeling pressured. An educated girl is likely to have fewer children, meaning she will have more time and money to care for the children she does have, resulting in an overall healthier family. Most health workers are women who believed in themselves from an early age and realized their potential.  We need smart girls to grow in to strong women who can make a difference for those in need.

But there is more to global development than mobile technology and fighting stereotypes, I was struck by something that Archbishop Desmond Tutu said when he was asked how he stays so optimistic and why he devotes himself to create change for good.  He answered by saying “I am not an optimist, but a prisoner of hope.”

Hope was in abundance at the Social Good Summit.  At the beginning of the week I was still trying to understand why new technology was so important to people who didn’t even have clean drinking water or access to healthcare. I realized that in this country, our view of new technology is to create a convenience like a cell phone or an Ipad.  But in a developing country, new technology is really a tool for survival.

What is Bre.ad? from Bre.ad on Vimeo.

One of the great things is the ability to show a quick advertisement whenever some one clicks on your link. Not to mention a pretty good analytics system on the actual website. My worry is that people will think they have clicked on the wrong link and click on the back button, which would defeat the purpose of even sending a link out in the first place.

If you are not familiar with link shorteners and not sure what they do, they make a long url shorter so that you can post it on twitter where you are only allowed 140 characters. Bit.ly is a popular one, although I usually use the one that comes with Hootsuite. In addition to click analytics,  it can also look neater for posting on facebook and other social networks. Rather than a string of random numbers, letters and symbols, you get a much more manageable hyperlink. However, I recently read that you should not use a shortened link in a facebook post because people don’t trust those links.  What do you think?

I was initially confused as to what it actually was.  I had heard some early reviews of people who loved it and said it would take people away from Facebook, but I don’t see that happening any time soon.  I stumbled upon this video and while I like the look, the music and the laid back approach, it doesn’t really explain why I should start using Google+.  Let me know if you are using it and what you think!