So I am suggesting a new model, I’m not going to choose words that rhyme or begin with the same letter just for the hope that people will remember. If they agree with me, then the will remember. First off, I am changing the model completely because it all begins with the company as a whole. Before, companies kept to themselves, ideas were not shared, and customers could only interact through phone calls on hold and delayed emails. Now, now it is about interacting, exchanging ideas, listening to what your customers want, exposing yourself and your company. Transparency is the new black.

The greatest thing about it is this was a long time coming, large corporations and companies just had a difficult time figuring out how to initiate this, non the less embracing it. In 1988 Gareth Morgan found a problem with this model expressing “it unconsciously emphasizes the inside–out view (looking from the company outwards), whereas the essence of marketing should be the outside–in approach” in his book “Riding the Waves of Change”. It only took 20 years to have the ability to harness and finally see that “the outside-in approach” is the essence of marketing.
The 3 things that every company should embrace in today’s web2.0 world  Listen – Respond – Share. This sounds familiar, like what our parents tried to teach us when we were little. Sometimes the simplest lessons in life are applicable to some of the most difficult problems.

I am sure that these 3 things are not all that describes the new social media hungry customer, there are so many factors that contribute, I would love to hear your additions, please share.

The main idea behind Social Media Club Knoxville is the idea to bring people together who have an interest in social media. We thought it would be a great way to share ideas, inform others and network. This is such a great way to start a club or organization, there are so many helpful people from other chapters who are more than willing to share their experiences and let us know what works and what doesn’t. Which is great, because isnt that what this is all about?

The plan for SMC Knox is to get together once or twice a month to share with eachother our adventures in social media.  We will have speakers join us and share  their experience and knowledge as well. (Try not to think lecture – These will be a good time and interactive)

If you are interested stop by our Facebook, or Ning page and follow us on Twitter, @SMCKnox.

We are encouraging everyone in the Knoxville area (and anyone who wants to pull a road trip) to join us for our innaugural mixer to get to know everyone who is interested. You don’t need to be a social media expert to attend, if you have never heard of social media, thats cool – come and learn.  This is a very informal mixer where everyone just mingles, we will tell a little about Social Media Club Knoxville and you guys can let us know what you want out of SMC.

I think it will be a good time – it is at Barley’s in the Old City on June 3 @ 6:00pm.

Hopefully we will see you there!

You can check out and RSVP to the event on our Facebook or Ning page.

So on the Falcons site there is a Q & A widget.. I’m not sure why anyone has not thought of this before, gather fan questions, have fans vote on these questions to find out what people want to know. And give them what they want.

The team running the Atlanta Falcons site have been utilizing this widget made by Voices Heard Media. Last week they had fans enter their own questions that they want Thomas Dimmitroff, GM of the Atlanta Falcons, to answer. They could submit questions and vote for others that they liked. The highest voted questions were asked to Thomas Dimitroff in an interview about the draft yesterday.

They are currently doing a similar Q&A that runs until the 26th, http://www.atlantafalcons.com/News/Draft_Central/Draft_2009/Ask_a_Question.aspx. This one allows fans to ask questions to J. Michael Moore, who is a blogger on the Falcons site. I think that this one was a cool idea because it has less boundaries. I agree that asking the GM about his thoughts on the draft and to be able to pick his brain is awesome, don’t get me wrong, its just that J. Michael Moore doesnt have the unspoken rules and social norms that Thomas Dimitroff has. J. Michael Moore can answer with honesty and even vulgarity if he wants to, what the hell,  and has awesome experience and Im sure many opinions on what is going on with the draft.. by the way the Bears finally have a quarterback, Jay Cutler, pretty exciting first good QB in decades! … any way kind of got of topic there. So, this widget is pretty cool in my book, awesome way to find out what your fans really want to know, organize it, rank them and give it to them the way they like it! You can check it out at the falcons site.. maybe ask your own question..

So, we have narrowed it down to our top 9 names! They are listed on http://helpusnameus.com , of course . But here’s the best part…. Im trying to make it suspenseful…. don na dona na.. The jaws theme song always makes things more suspenseful (that was the Jaw theme song by the way) ..

We are giving away another Kindle2!

All you have to do (get to do) is vote for your favorite 3. We will pick one lucky person who ranked their top 3 and they will win a Kindle2! Easy as that.. it could be you!

Come on, help us out.. come on… come on… K, good http://helpusnameus.com

It began with BMW And Audi came back

This is my favorite part, Subaru wanted to join in the fun and did a great job.

So, we are looking to the world [wide web] for suggestions. To put in your 2 cents go to http://helpusnameus.com and let your creative juices flow.

We thought it would be a great social media experiment to find suggestions via the internet, where the greatest minds converse. There are perks for you too!! If the name you submit is chosen you will be rewarded with a free Kindle 2.

Creativity is much encouraged (try not to use the words Image or Communications). Your help would be awesome!

Thanks in advance for all who have contributed their ideas!

For those of you who are not familiar with CorasWorks Workplace Suite it is a modular application development software for Microsoft SharePoint. Workplace Suite v10 allows you to “design better, build faster, manage easier and accomplish more.”

CorasWorks has kept all of the best features from the previous release and adds many more to ensure that your organization can accomplish more.

Design better
V10 includes design tools to help ensure that the applications you build are high performing, stable and sustainable. CorasWorks has worked with thousands of organizations that are deploying SharePoint in order to supply the most useful tools.

Manage Easier
Everyone who builds or manages applications knows the time and effort that is spent managing and maintaining the applications. CorasWorks has introduced their “one-touch management system” which includes a broad set of tools and capabilities that increases the manageability and maintainability of SharePoint environments and applications. It reduces the time and effort required to manage and maintain your SharePoint solutions. It allows for system admins to make environment wide changes to navigation, display, data connection, end-user actions, and workflow capabilities. Along with the option for components and application to be locked down, giving users the ability to work with information, but not alter the underlying configurations. In addition, Global Links make it easier to promote your solutions from development and testing environments into production.

Build Faster
The modular, component-based architecture of the Workplace Suite allows for a speedy process. It includes Web 2.0 technologies and wizard-driven building tools that enable you to build rich Internet application with mouse clicks, not code.

Workplace version 10 is worth checking out, it allows you to reduce the total cost of ownership of your SharePoint environment and solutions.

If you are interested in checking it out, you can learn more at http://www.corasworks.net/WorkplaceSuitev10/index.aspx

Keli began with a feeding of 4 mice to her albino corn snake. Interesting show, we all knew at that point it would be hard to beat. There was little tell involved in this show and tell item, but the show said it all.

Nicole then broke out her snuggie to wow the crowd. As most have not seen one in person.

But then, out of left field Kervie one upped her and presented his snuggie, book and book light and remote control so we could get the full feel for the use and benefits.. as seen on tv.. ofcourse.

Josh took a more educational approach with a desert rose, as sang about by Sting. It was quite beautiful but the crowd was obviously more swayed by humor and gore. He had the right idea, but wrong crowd. 

Ed  then broke out his skills with balloon animals, constructing the office a beautiful parrot. We were pretty impressed, as we are all amused easily.

My showing was not very impressive, I brought in a figurine of Christmas carolers. When you turn them around one of the guys is grabbing the girls butt. It is pretty amusing, at least I thought so.

1st place went to Keli, Exodia and the 4 blind mice

2nd place was a tie between Ed’s balloon animals and Kervie’s snuggie presentation.

And so it began. We decided to do it every week,  because it got us all excited to come in the office. So, now when you win you get your picture of your sweet outfit and employee of the week certificate put on the wall.

The next week we went with preppiest, because we all are far from it. These days are even funnier due to the fact that we are in a temporary office because ours is being built out. So, there is a receptionist that we don’t know, and we share a floor with a bunch of people we don’t know. I’m pretty sure that they just think we are crazy. Every Friday, we come in looking like some random theme. Ha I think its great.  So this week, Nicole won the preppiest award with her very brightly colored outfit.

The Friday after we had best t-shirt, they ranged from awkward japanese translations to mullet slamming. The winner was Josh by a landslide with his very tight and very pink high school musical t-shirt. It even lit up when you pushed the flower, he looked very pretty.

As each week passes the competition became stiffer and stiffer. Eash person trying to win their place on the wall and make their fellow employees laugh at the barriers they push.

Then Valentines Day came around the corner, so we did best Valentines day outfit. Keli blew us all out of

the water with this sweet outfit. Our boss was out of town this day also, so we had to take a group shot and let him know what he was missing

This week, and by this week I mean today, is 80′s day. It was a close race between Kervie and I. Kervie showed up with an afro, headband and wrist bands,  and sweats it was pretty great. But I manged to pulled through with the win. Yay! I feel rediculous.

The winners of each day get lunch bought for them by the rest of the office. Which means everyone has to wear their outfits out to lunch. You get some stares and whispers, but it is pretty funny.

Next week we are taking a break from theme days, and introducing show and tell. It should be interesting. Who know what people will bring in. I sure don’t know what I am going to bring. I will post them next Friday .

Benefits:

• Cheaper – Colocation is very cost effective and has higher bandwidth compared to a business grade DSL.
• Reliable – Colocation facilities have better protection against outages.  So, after a large storm, a back up generator may not have enough power to keep your server running.
• No downtime - If you move, your server stays put. It will stay up and running the entire time.
• Security – It’s their job to protect your baby. They store and maintain your server in a secure environment. Have you even seen one of these facilities? It is like the type of building you see in James Bond movies.
• Service – A colocation facility comes equipped with 24/7 operation and specialized expertise.

Usually colocation facilities give you two options either to bring your own hardware and management experience. Or some facilities acquire the servers and allow you to select which managed services best suit their needs.
You can find more facts about colocation hosting here http://www.myhostingreviews.com/colocation-hosting-facts.htm

A major problem that many businesses have is finding a colocation facility. There are some great companies that provide this service; Rackspace, Carpathia Hosting and Terremark are all very reputable companies.

However, in this article I am going to lean toward the recommendation of Carpathia Hosting. I was just reading about a few benefits that they offer in response to customers needs for colo+, managed and optimization services. They created a “ColoConfigurator”, a tool for building hosting solutions.  They refer to this tool (which is free) as the Carpathia ColoConfigurator, or C3 for short. These tools make it easy for customers who are unsure of exactly what they need. It comes in two modes:  Expert or Wizard.  The C3 Expert is for those that already know their hosting requirements and the C3 Wizard is for those that need help building a custom hosting solution.
The C3 Wizard will take you through a five-step process, which includes planning, inventory, logistics, build and verification/testing. Carpathia will then contact you to discuss the best practice that’s right for you.

These are the benefits that make it easier than the rest;
•    Launch of methodology for on-boarding customers IT infrastructure to datacenters.  Five step process includes planning, inventory, logistics, build and verification/testing
•    Online wizard to help capture relevant information
•    Detailed proposal returned to customer within 2 business days including best practice for ensuring a safe migration to datacenter hosting
•    Discounted network, security and backup services offered for colocation customers.

For more details, here is where I found this information… press release

Before you choose a colocation facility it is important to do your research. It is important to check out their network architecture and the security levels they provide. An easy way to check up on a facility is through review sites such as, http://www.hostreview.com/showcases/colocation-hosting.html .