Obama’s campaign has taken his use of technology to another level with launching an iPhone application.  The free application is called ‘Obama 08′ and was launched on September 28, 2008 in Apple’s App Store. 

With iPhone 3G sales potentially being 10 million, this is a good move for the Obama campaign.

The Obama 08 application features the following sections:

• Call Friends
• Get Involved
• Receive Updates
• News
• Local Events
• Media
• Issues

Call Friends – All of the contacts in your address book are listed by state, with key battleground states listed in order of priority.  The state order in my iPhone is Nevada, Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, Arizona, Arkansas, California, and Utah.  After calling a contact in your iPhone’s address book, you can select a status from the following: Have not called, Called, Call back later, Left message, Not interested, Considering Obama, Voting for Obama, and Already voted.  Another interesting feature is the ‘Call Stats’ option that allows you to view the number of call you made, nationwide calls, top caller, and total active callers.

Get Involved – this section of the application uses the iPhone’s GPS features to find information about your local campaign headquarters, including phone number, address, and map directions.  There is also the ability to email the campaign information.

Receive Updates – allows you to sign up to receive updates via SMS and/or email by entering in your email address, mobile number, and zip code.

News – read national or local news related to the Obama campaign.

Local Events – allows the user to view local events such as a debate party or neighborhood canvass.  The name of the event, date, distance, and details are listed.  Links to ‘email this info’ and map directions are also provided.

Media – this section allows the user to view videos and photos relating to the Obama campaign.

Issues – read the details on issues such as civil rights, defense, economy/taxes, education, energy, ethics, faith, foreign policy, homeland security, immigration, and many more.   

Lastly, the application displays an election countdown on the bottom of the application and a campaign donate button.

Overall, I think this is a very innovative approach for a campaign to take in order to engage more people, in particular the younger demographic.  I was really surprised at the level of thought that went into this application.

Who uses Twitter?  That is a question with a never-ending answer, but Jonathan Kash (@time2simplify) of Fluent Simplicity initially created the Twitter Brand Index to begin to answer this question.  The Twitter Brand Index has since been moved to its own website, the Social Brand Index.  The Social Brand Index organizes all of the brands under the following top-level categories:

• Business
• Education
• Entertainment
• Executives & Notable Individuals
• For Consumers
• Government & Politics
• Media
• Non-Profit Organizations
• Service Providers
• Social Properties
• Technology
• Travel

 And, as expected, each category is further delineated by sub-categories.  For example, the Technology category is further categorized into

• Business News
• Certifications
• Enterprise Organizations
• Game Developers
• Mobile Applications
• Online Service Providers
• Open Source
• Platforms
• SaaS
• Search
• Software
• Tech Support
• Telecom/VOIP

I can only imagine the amount of time and research that went into compiling all of this great information. One thing that this evolving directory conveys to me is variety and diversity of businesses that is trying new and interesting ways to engage consumers, and doing it in a public forum that can be studied and picked apart by anyone to gauge its effectiveness.

It is extremely interesting to see how companies like CNN, NPR, AT&T, Ford, NY Times, Southwest Airline, and MGM are using Twitter as a new outlet.

It never ceases to amaze me of the creative ways that Twitter is being used.  If you need some inspiration, Chris Brogan has put together a list of 50 ways to use Twitter.  Chris offers some good insight on getting you started using Twitter effectively for business.  He gives steps on getting started, ideas on what to Tweet about, useful tips and tools to use Twitter more effectively, and how to handle Twitter negatives and turn them into positives.

 Of all the companies that I have come across on Twitter, one company stands at the forefront in being the epitome of how to leverage this popular service.  That company is Zappos. The company uses Twitter to not only build customer relationships and give you a glimpse into the service-oriented culture, but also to foster relationships between employees within Zappos.

Zappos has integrated Twitter into their website and it is an integral part of company communication from the CEO, Tony Hsieh (@Zappos), on down the chain.  What is interesting is that the company also offers classes on how to use Twitter, and I think that is awesome.   

Want to find out what all 444 (as of 9/2/2008) employees using Twitter at Zappos is doing?  Just point your browser at http://twitter.zappos.com/employee_tweets to find out in real-time what is happening on their public Twitter time line.

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Twitter icon from AODdesign.com

The estimated United States population by the census for July 2007 was 301,139,947. The Wireless Association (ctia.org) reports that there were 255 million subscribers at the end of 2007. Now do the simple math…255 million is what percent of 301 million? The answer is 85% of the United States population has a mobile phone. Most of these people who own cell phones are between the ages of 18-34, with 85% of them being active users of text messaging. One interesting think about SMS is that 96% of all text messages are read. Text message marketing is currently a $1.2 billion industry that is expected to grow to a $24 Billion by 2012.

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Ashley Furniture Boosts Sales Using SMS
Ashley Furniture used SMS and e-mail in July to inform customers about secret sales. Before a 12-hour private event, Ashley sent text messages and e-mails, allowing it to bring in $30,000 in sales during the one-day event.

To follow up after the 12-hour event, Ashley Furniture held a four-day secret sale. The morning the sale began, 6000 text messages and 28,700 emails were sent to customers. In the end, Ashley saw $138,460 in sales. What is interesting about the two modes of communication is that although the email channel was four times that of text messages, sales from the 6000 customers who received the text messages resulted in $85,438 in sales, or 61.7% of total sales.
Source >>

Armani Exchange
A|X Armani Exchange is using SMS to allow shoppers to enter a text-to-win promotion for an “A/X $1,000 Shopping Spree Sweepstakes.” Instructions on how to participate can be found on the retailer’s shopping bags. To enter, all the customer has to do is text the keyword AX to short code 276264 (ARMANI) for a chance to win a $1,000 shopping spree. The catch is that you also agree to receive up to a few SMS marketing messages a month. Not bad at all.

8/27/2008 Update: I just received my first AX SMS that “Armani Exchange End of Summer Sales starts TODAY.  Take an additional 25% off already reduced merchandise! Does not apply to existing promotions.” 
Source >>

NFL Saints Use SMS
The NFL Saints are using SMS to interact with fans during the game. They ask fans for there favorite player and display the results in real-time. As an added incentive, participants also have the opportunity to win Saints vs. Packers tickets.
Source >>

American Idol SMS Volume
AT&T shared that text messaging volumes jumped up to 78 million during the 6th season of American Idol, up from 64.5 million sent the previous season.

The book has been out for about a year, but I finally got around to reading Our Iceberg Is Melting by John Kotter-and checking it off of my reading list. If you have an hour to spare, this book is small and can easily be read over a lunch break or before going to bed. I found the story very entertaining, easy to read, and quite enjoyable.

Our Iceberg Is Melting is a fable about a colony of emperor penguins that has lived on an ice berg in Antartica for as long as they can remember. Fred, the main character, is very curious and has a keen sense of observation and notices over a period of time that the only home that they know could be in danger of breaking apart. The story chronicles Fred’s challenges as he tries to convey his information initially to the penguin council and then to the entire colony. Fred runs into roadblock along the way, but logically navigates them, ultimately convincing the colony to change its way of thinking, resulting in them changing their way of life for the better by never being complacent and always being prepared to adapt to new situations. I highly recommend this quick read by Kotter. I have included the eight step of change below…

The Eight Step Process of Successful Change:

Set the Stage
1. Create a Sense of Urgency
Help others see the need for the change and the importance of acting immediately.

2. Pull Together the Guiding Team
Make sure there is a powerful group guiding the change-one with leadership skills, credibility, communications ability, authority, analytical skills, and a sense of urgency.

Decide What to Do
3. Develop the Change Vision and Strategy.

Make it Happen
4. Communicate for Understanding and Buy In.
Make sure as many others as possible understand and accept the vision and the strategy.

5. Empower Others to Act
Remove as many barriers as possible so that those who want to make the vision a reality can do so.

6. Produce Short-Term Wins.
Create some visible, unambiguous successes as soon as possible.

7. Don’t Let Up.
Press harder and faster after the first successes. Be relentless with initiating change after change until the vision is a reality.

Make it Stick
8. Create a New Culture.

Hold on to the new ways of behaving, and make sure they succeed, until they become strong enough to replace old traditions.

The 2008 BlogWorld & New Media Expo will take place September 20-21 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. If you are a Blogger, Vlogger, Podcaster, Internet TV or Radio Broadcaster, Social Media expert or producer of any other form of new media content, you need to attend this one and only industry-wide tradeshow, conference, and media event dedicated to promoting the dynamic industry of blogging and new media.

Important Blogging Statistics from Blog World Expo:

• Over 12 million American adults currently maintain a blog.
• More than 147 million Americans use the Internet.
• Over 57 million Americns read blogs.
• 1.7 million American adults list making money as one of the reasons they blog.
• 89% of companies surveyed say they think blogs will be more important in the next five years.
• 9% of internet users say they have created blogs .
• 6% of the entire US adult population has created a blog .
• Technorati is currently tracking over 70 million blogs .
• over 120 thousand blogs are created every day .
• There are over 1.4 million new blog posts every day .
• 22 of the 100 most popular websites in the world are blogs .
• 120,000 new blogs are created every day .
• 37% of blog readers began reading blogs in 2005 or 2006 .
• 51% of blog readers shop online .
• Blog readers average 23 hours online each week .

After 10 long years, I have lost a true friend who has always been there when I needed him. My Swiss Army Knife has finally passed on to that great Lost-And-Found paradise in the sky. I did not know how much I really depended on my knife until I had lost it. It quickly become obvious that it was an integral part of my life. My Swish Army Knife was an invaluable tool that I could use whenever I needed to cut, pry, screw or unscrew, open a can or bottle, or needed a toothpick or tweezers. After a few days of feeling incomplete, I went out and bought a new knife to fill that empty void. I could not find the one I originally had, so I ended up getting the Victorinox Sportsman. When I opened the package and felt the comfortable and familiar grip of the Sportsman, I felt whole again. Now I am ready to take on the world!

Victorinox Sportsman 13 Functions:

1. Large Bade
2. Nail File
3. Nail Cleaner
4. Corkscrew
5. Can Opener
6. Small Screwdriver
7. Bottle Opener
8. Large Screwdriver
9. Wire Stripper
10. Reamer
11. Key Ring
12. Tweezers
13. Toothpick

Amazon.com Product Features:

• Lean to block soccer balls, swivel hips to power hoop twirls or balance to hold the perfect yoga pose. As you stand on the Wii Balance Board, included with Wii Fit, your body’s overall balance is tied to the game in a way you’ve never experienced before.
• Wii Fit also uses the Wii Balance Board for daily tests. These evaluate two key measures that a household can track via progress charts -
  Body Mass Index (BMI) - A weight evaluation based on a ratio of weight to height.
• Wii Fit Age - The Wii Fit Age is measured by factoring the user’s BMI reading, testing the user’s center of gravity and conducting quick balance tests
• Wii Fit includes more than 40 types of training activities designed to appeal to all members of a household. Training falls into four fitness categories.

I am sure the Nintendo Wii Fit availability will be similar to the Wii when it first came out, with no one could get one in a decent time period.  I am ordering my Wii Fit tomorrow so I won’t get left calling all over town trying to scrape one up.

The SEO Toolbook Keyword Suggestion Tool is powered by WordTracker. All you do is type in a keyword into the text field and click the Submit button and your keyword list comes back in a few seconds. The free keyword tool from WordTracker is good, but it only gives you two columns of the top 100 keywords, one column for keyword search volume, and the other column for the keyword. The SEO Toolbook Keyword Suggestion takes those 100 top keywords from WordTracker and adds a lot more value to the consumer.

I am just amazed ad the amount of information that they give on each keyword. One important feature is the “Export to CSV” hyper link in the upper-left corner of your keyword list. Click that link and you can save the keyword list to your desktop to open in Microsoft Excel. Once the file is open, you will see three columns that are labeled “Exact Match”, “Phrase Match”, and “Broad Match”.

Here is where the Google AdWords Traffic Estimator comes into play. Copy each one of the previously mentioned columns one at a time into the Google AdWords Traffic Estimator keyword field, making sure you only have one keyword per line. In section C of the Google AdWords Traffic Estimator, click on “All Countries and Territories” and then click the Add button to the immediate right, effectively adding the selected item into the “Selected Countries and/or Territories” text field. Now, click the Continue button on the bottom of the page to go to the Traffic Estimator page.

The Traffic Estimator page has some valuable information on it, in particular the “Estimated Avg. CPC” column. Click this column heading hyperlink to sort in descending order, making the down arrow appear. You should now be seeing the estimated average cost per click for each keyword that you could expect to pay if you were advertising in Google AdWords. On the flip side of Google AdWords is Google AdSense.

According to Google, AdSense offers contextual advertising solution to web publishers, delivering ads that are relevant to the content pages on a website. By knowing how much the cost-per-click ranges are, you can target only the high paying AdSense keywords by creating articles for your website or blog. For example, I searched for “Insurance” in the SEO Toolbook Keyword Suggestion Tool and copied the three sets of keywords into the Google AdWords Traffic Estimator. I sorted the keyword list in descending order by clicking the “Estimated Avg. CPC” column. The top 6 keywords are as follows:

Keyword Estimated Avg. CPC
=====================================
[auto insurance quotes] $28.61 - $38.50
[insurance quote] $28.23 - $36.19
auto insurance quotes $27.67 - $35.55
“auto insurance quotes” $27.63 - $35.56
[insurance quotes] $27.18 - $40.77
“auto insurance” $26.04 - $34.13

(Note: These keywords were copied from Google AdWords Traffic Estimator on 4/2/2008)

Wow! Someone is actually paying anywhere between $26.04 and $40.77 in AdWords to advertise with those keywords. Just imagine how much you would get if someone clicked on an AdSense ad that was displayed in one of your articles on “Insurance”. The really amazing thing is that you can pay a writer on E-Lance around $6 to $10 dollars per article, freeing up your valuable time for more important things, like using this method to find even more expensive keywords.

As you can see, using the free keyword research tools, you can get an idea about just how important picking the right keywords in both AdWords and AdScense can make to your bottom line and how much you make. I hope this little technique helps you find high-paying keyword to target for writing articles. Let me know your findings so I can share with others.

Free Keyword Tool Links:

SEO Toolbook: http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/
Google AdWords Traffic Estimator: https://adwords.google.com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox

If you are an AdWords user, also check the free Super Affiliate Helper