Getting stuff done with Google Sites

Over at Lifehacker, they turn their noses up at it, but Google Sites has become a new favorite of mine for sharing info with far-flung staff and members. Basically, it's a wiki, simplified. Here's the tale of the tape:

1. Free. 100MB storage, create all the sites you want, make your sites accessible to as many people as you want. All free.
2. No HTML to explain. No wiki-speak to explain. It's all WYSIWYG.
3. Adding page elements -- drag and drop. No code.
4. Share it with anyone -- just enter their email. Share it with 100 people -- copy and paste 100 email addresses at once. No problem.
5. Add a picture. Change the colors. Add background. Simple, easy, fast.
6. Make a mistake? Revert to an earlier version of the page. (It's a really an undercover wiki in disguise, remember?)
7. Share updated files with everyone. Got a new version? It gets a new version number, so no one gets lost.
8. Shared structured task/progress lists.
9. Want some bling? Put up a feed from your Picasa web album. Add to your page basically any widget you could put on your iGoogle homepage.
10. Add a calendar -- any iCal feed will do.

I could go on. Check out the overview for yourself. Did I mention that it's free? Here are some drawbacks, at least according to the Lifehacker commenters:

1. URL is too long. Yeah, that's probably true. But when you invite someone, all they have to do is click on a link in an email, then add the page to favorites.
2. It's "only for those who don't know HTML," which is, ummm.. about all of my potential users.

Tagged: Associations, GTD, Google Sites, Collaboration.

The new tote bags are here!

The bags I ordered arrived today! If you attend the upcoming Agricultural Media Summit (July 26-30 in/near Tampa) your registration materials will come to you packed inside this nifty Farm Credit tote bag, with external side pocket and pen loop.

This will be my third year as an exhibitor and sponsor of the Ag Media Summit, and I'm once again very pleased to be sponsoring registration. (And if you're actually going to be there, then by all means drop by and see me at booth #107.)


Tagged: Associations, Media Relations, Meetings.

Proof of life

I'm here! I haven't gone away forever. Where did the entire month of May go?

Short answer: Farm bill.

Long answer: Farm bill, our reputation risk management project, business travel and some tight deadlines for some projects I've got coming up this summer.

Tagged: Associations, Blogging.

Dealing with flight cancellations

UPDATE: MCO's got the worst TSA lines I've seen since 9/11. If you're flying out of Orlando in the near future, factor in extra time and don't wear business attire.

So I'm at Dulles this morning, waiting for my rebooked flight. I was fortunate in that I had signed up for United's SMS flight alert system, which jolted me out of bed this morning at 5:05 to let me know that my 8:35 filght to Orlando had been cancelled. Not delayed -- cancelled.

Got on the phone right away and rebooked onto the 10:30 flight, arriving MCO 12:40 -- which is 40 minutes into the all-day meeting that I'm heading for. Others in my group were not as lucky.

The SMS alerts are good, but the downside is that if you're not a super-dooper-elite traveler you have to use the 800 number to rebook. That takes you into one of those interminable "automated" response systems, where the computer voice asks you a series of dumb questions and cannot understand what you're saying unless you shout at it using the tone of voice that I use to scold the dogs. Best course of action is to mash the zero button until it dumps you out to an "agent."

Tagged: Associations, Travel, Airlines.

Wasn't expecting THAT today

So I've been out of town early this month, on family business and then to the Media Relations Summit, and then I'm busy there with all the goings-on surrounding the farm bill, and I hadn't found time to crack open the new Associations Now magazine from ASAE -- and I'm in it!

Wow.

Look at my Technorati rank! Soon I'll be over 2 million and I'll be an even bigger deal than those funny cats!

Wait... what? Low rank is better? Like in golf?

Tagged: Associations, Blogging, ASAE.

Instead of customer surveys, why not just ask?

This is just an observation, but it seems to me that online "customer satisfaction" surveys are growing out of control. I've been asked about 10 times over the past month or so to participate in such surveys, all of them online.

And I haven't responded to any of them.

It's made me re-think whether an online survey like that will work for our annual meeting.

There are just too many of them. And when I do finally sit down to take one, I'm never told in advance how many questions there will be (which leads to me closing the browser window after the first 10 or so.) I know why everyone wants to do the online survey thing -- it's low cost and the answers get dumped into easily chart-able spreadsheets -- but I can't be the only one who's already given up on answering them due to volume. I would wager that, for the average "how are we doing" type survey, most fairly satisfied customers (3.5 on the 5 scale) select themselves out of the survey pool because they just don't want to take the time with the survey.

I appreciate that they want my feedback, but I can't help feeling like my time spent answering their questions is wasted. If I had a rave review or a big complaint or a truly relevant suggestion, I'd just email it directly to the right person.

Just my two cents. And it took less time to write this blog post than it did to take the last online survey I did, back in December.

Tagged: Associations, Customer Surveys.

Just back from the Media Relations Summit

Just got back from San Francisco and the Media Relations Summit put on by the folks at Bulldog Reporter. I'll have more later, but my big takeaway is this -- everyone says "traditional" media has now declined in importance to the point that getting those big placements is no longer the end-all-be-all of PR; but when it comes time to hand out awards or demonstrate one's PR cred, it's hard to beat getting that above-the-fold placement in the Washington Post or the New York Times.

Robert Scoble spoke and gave me new appreciation for Twitter, and convinced me that I need to sign up on Friendfeed. And Lee Aase convinced me that I have to finally give in and sign up on Facebook.

If I had any sense, I would have extended my stay and taken in more of San Francisco's sites instead of taking that red-eye back to Dulles.

Tagged: Associations, Public Relations, Media Relations.

Really difficult to believe the volume of sales pitches from ASAE Springtime exhibitors...

... when you consider, as I mentioned, I'm not registered nor am I planning to attend.

I've been getting a steady stream of postcards and letters for weeks. Now the email invites to receptions are coming in.

Tagged: Associations, Conferences.