Have you ever thought about how easy it is to get a glass of water? There is tap water, bottled water, filtered water…all conveniently available within the comfort of your own home. It is so accessible that we almost take this basic necessity for granted’ a basic necessity that is a key component to our everyday survival.
So what about those who live without clean drinking water? You see them every day and more often than not, glance towards the other window in hopes of a red light turning green.
One woman not only stopped to take a deeper look, but realized the hope and inspiration a simple bottle of water could bring to those less fortunate…thus, creating the I Am Waters Foundation.
“I knew I needed to ‘Bring water to the homeless†and not just any water, but water with special messages delivered by powerful words such as Love, Faith, Gratitude, and Peace. These words may be the only source of inspiration for a person on the street. My goal is to fill the hearts, minds, and bodies of all of the women, children, and men who don’t have access to life’s most basic necessities.â€
-Founder, Elena Davis
Elena Davis is quite a remarkable woman in the fact that it’s not just about the water…it’s about giving the homeless inspiration to succeed in life. It’s about sharing the real-life stories and the trials of day-to-day obstacles. It’s about Steven Higgins realizing his potential through one single photo…
This is the cognition of our world and it is refreshing to see a movement for revitalization.
So how can you help ‘bring physical and spiritual hydration to the homeless?â€
Please vote for the I Am Waters Foundation in the Pepsi Refresh Project contest – rewarding $250,000 in grants to those who are creating a positive impact in their community. If I Am Waters receives the funding, they would be able to extend their efforts in order to bring a human face to the homelessness problem in America, deliver water to American’s homeless, and revitalize the homeless with messages of inspiration.
Voting ends February 28th!
To find out more information about the I Am Waters Foundation, connect with them through Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube!
*The I Am Waters Foundation is one of Schipul’s newest clients and we are absolutely thrilled to be working with Elena!
Over the past two years, hundreds of thousands of blog posts, forums, and comments had speculated about Apple making a tablet. Last week, Apple did something they hadn’t done during that entire time span. They admitted they had designed a tablet computer. How did they create so much buzz?
While I think their new device is a real breakthrough in future computing, I find the marketing (or lack of marketing) for such an item much more fascinating. How does a company build up so much hype? Why are people so excited about something they didn’t even know existed? And why have so many critics turned negative on something that isn’t technically for sale yet? Let’s dive a little deeper to solve the iHype mystery.
Apple iHype
Apple, in its history as a company, has been known for releasing ground-breaking products that change the way we do things. It started back in the ’80s with the Apple II and the Macintosh, and continued in the 2000’s with the iPod and iPhone. The widespread obsession in the tech community over Apple rumors is fairly new, but the true Apple geeks have always been a hype-driven excitable bunch. The return of Steve Jobs near the end of the ’90s helped to rejuvenate this passionate group. The basics behind iHype are these:
Develop new things in ways that haven’t been done before.
Don’t publicly show prototypes or “proofs of concept”.
Make a polished, grand announcement of the new thing.
Ignore the negative critics.
Your business or organization may not make awesome tablet computers, but the principles of iHype can still apply to your business.
Develop New Things
Whether it is a piece of software, a book, a networking organization, or a physical item, your product or service stands out in some way. You may do lots of R&D for your new device, or you could simply offer a better way to manage alumni donors. Perhaps you offer public speaking advice or maybe you write code and build web apps. You can be a star by developing things that are new, fresh, and useful. Think like Apple and create things that people dream of using. Offer services that no one else can match and create your own category. To build iHype, you must build something to hype up.
Don’t show Prototypes
The biggest lesson here is this: Prototypes eat up all the hype. When you announce that your company is working on a new product to be released in 18 months, users will forget about it two days later. Not only are future predictions unreliable (see XKCD’s take below), you kill off all of your excitement by the time the thing launches. You effectively use your marketing window of opportunity to announce a future announcement.
What Prototype announcements really mean (from XKCD)
Imagine going to a party on July 31st that was solely to announce another party in 4-6 months (New Years Eve). You would likely kill any buzz for the real party and possibly upset your current guests. The exception to this is a short timeframe with a solid date. Announcing your new product that will come out at the end of the month is probably OK, but it’s better to announce things that ship today. (Apple occasionally announces things before their release to do patent and FCC filings which inadvertently announce things. If they could wait until the ship date, they would.)
The Grand and Polished Announcement
You won’t have the same stage as Apple, but you can deliver your message with the same gusto. If you are issuing a press release, than include graphics, numbers, and memorable quotes and taglines. If you are sending an email newsletter to current clients to announce a new service, give it a great subject line and pay attention to the details. If you are lucky enough to make your announcement in person as a presentation then practice, practice, practice. A boring and unoriginal announcement is likely to be forgotten. Tell the story of your great new thing. The time you spend on it will often mirror the amount of attention it gets from your audience, so put in the time it deserves.
Ignore the naysayers
Apple made their announcement last week and already many of the tech blogs are denouncing the new device. Apple has experienced the same thing happening with the iPod an iPhone, so they are not fazed by harsh words. You may not have the same experience so a negative review could be very painful initially. Do not let it get you down. Your new offering has taken you time and energy because you built it with intent and passion. If someone with a blog or an email account doesn’t like it, there is no reason they should kill any of your excitement. You are trying to sell your product to people who want it, not people who don’t. Do not forget this. Every product has a negative critic and unfortunately their voices can drown out the positive folks. Have confidence in your service and in your announcement, do great marketing, and the buyers will come.
You probably won’t get the same media level of hype that Apple gets, but there is no reason you can’t create stir of similar excitement with your followers and customers. Make something great, boldly announce it when it’s ready, and ignore anyone who talks down about it. These are the simple keys to creating your own storm of iHype.
Ever clicked on the top link in Google only to find a page that takes For-ev-er to load? Well, that page may not be a top site for long. Google is changing up how they are ranking websites and one of their new pieces of criteria is speed.
Example of Webmaster Tools Page Speed Graph
Page Speed
Google has recently released an entire sub-site to improve on website speed. The site includes a tools page which highlights among others Page Speed which is Firefox plugin for developers. The also showcase a new report in Webmaster Tools to show how quickly your site loads. Many of these tools give you stats about your site speed as well as suggestions on how to improve it. These suggestions include:
Google Page Speed in Chrome showing data load times
*This website embeds our Twitter feed, which requires an extra DNS lookup and can increase the load time. You will have to decide the importance of similar widgets for your site. We like our Twitter feed and Flickr pics, so we’ll take the small performance hit to keep those. But, we don’t include other widgets from most of our other social media profiles so we can speed up our blog. Finding the right balance for your site may take some testing and tough decisions, but speed is definitely something to keep in mind.
Social Search and Authority
Speed is very important to Google themselves. As the real-time web continues to change minute by minute, Google is beginning to bring some of that data into its results. You may have noticed that Google now displays twitter results at the top of some searches.
The first part of the ranking system is the time of the tweet. Google generally displays the most recent tweets first so searchers will have up-to-the minute results to their queries. This speed combined with link authority shapes how searchers can get the latest Glee news (or other important things of course).
Google Search with Twitter Results displayed above the regular results
As you can see, this search result shows twitter responses. While the exact science behind choosing tweets is not know, we do know that Google follows a similar model to their search results. Incoming links to a website can raise its ranking, and similarly more followers and incoming links to a Twitter profile can give that Twitterer more authority. There are similar theories out there, but we know that Google is ranking authority somehow.
The Facebook Factor
Google also has agreements with Facebook to bring your status updates and Facebook info to the Search Results as well. Before you freak out, yes, you can keep these things from the search engines using the Privacy features in Facebook. They have a dedicated page for Search Privacy Settings. I have mine set to Everyone, but I understand that may not work for you. Other options include Friends and Networks, Friends of Friends, and Friends Only. From the Search Privacy Settings you can preview your public profile, which will give you an idea of what information Google will see about you (see below).
Facebook Seach Privacy Setting Options
Google can also use this public Facebook profile to show authority. If you do not have your own website, doing a vanity search may show your Facebook profile as the top result for your name. I have my personal website (JMO), but my Twitter feed and Facebook profile both rank above it because of the authority those sites carry. I urge you to search for your name to see where your social profiles rank.
Tips for you
What steps can you take to insure people find you fast?
It’s tough pulling our eyes away from the news after hearing of devastating updates on Haiti’s earthquake victims. We wanted to share some resources our team uses when wanting to stay informed, but still keep our daily lives going and flowing!
Here are a few ways to keep up with the latest news and updates:
Google Alerts
Create a Google Alert with phrases like ‘Haiti earthquake’ or ‘Haiti relief’ and set to send updates as they happen.
Twitter Search
Watch the constant flow of updates on Twitter in one place by searching for #Haiti or #helpHaiti on Twitter search.
Breaking news updates to your phone
If you just want to hear the biggest updates, and have them come to you no less, you can sign up for services like Yahoo! Mobile News, CBS Mobile News or The Washington Post to automatically ping your cell phone with news.
And some links to reputable organizations that will go far in helping assist and eventually rebuild Haiti (beware of scammers!):
Options are good and now your Tendenci site even lets you pick how to show your dates!
In a fresh update from our Programmers, the new Tendenci date format editor in your site settings area allows you to decide how your visitors read your dates.
So whether you prefer January 1, 2010 or 1-Jan-2010, you're covered!
Sometimes sharing your Twitter stream on other social networks feels like running into a church with a bullhorn. Lots of confusing weird noise and people looking at you like you are cah-razy.
Perhaps you’ve experienced this – logging into Facebook to catch up with friends and seeing bizarre non sequiturs in place of more typical status updates: ‘ROFL @randomperson I know!!! OMG!!! Frogs ARE awesome!!’ Huh, wha?
We often advise clients to re-purpose relevant online content to a variety of channels (‘doing more with less’ isn’t always silly consulting babble), this helps reach audiences that may not be on Twitter all day, for instance.
But it’s important to strategically target your audiences, taking care to match them up with the content that matters to them. Just because Google now slurps up Twitter updates on the search page doesn’t mean that you want your Great Aunt Hilda seeing your late night bar Tweets on your homecooking blog ‘s sidebar.
Here are a few easy ways to make sure your Twitter stream is going where it needs to go:
Facebook:
Check out this handy Facebook ”Selective Tweet Status’ app makes it super easy to include only the Tweets you want to appear on Facebook. Update your Twitter account as you usually do, but end your Tweet with #fb to indicate that it has the go-ahead to show up on Facebook. Easy as pie.
LinkedIn:
Whether you are in the job market or just wanting to maintain professional relationships, LinkedIn can be a great place to frequently and easily update you LinkedIn status with your Twitter account. Two birds with on Tweet.
However, not all Tweets are created equal and you may want to take an extra special look at what your future employer’s HR team sees when they view your profile. No worries, LinkedIn puts you in control from the very beginning.
Your Tweet setup page gives you the option of how to share your Tweets – push them to your LinkedIn profile automatically or end your Tweets with #in to denote LinkedIn-safe content. Job applicant nightmare averted!
Blogs and Web sites:
I love seeing bloggers include a feed of their Twitter stream on their site – it gives me a peek at their Tweet-style and makes it beyond easy for me to connect with them on Twitter if I find them engaging.
But this doesn’t mean you want EVERYTHING popping up in a Twitter feed, especially if your blog is a bit niche and your Tweets are a bit random. Keep it focused and on-message by only pulling inthe content you want readers to see!
Create a widget for displaying an RSS feed that you grab after doing a keyword / name / brand search on the Twitter search page and embed it in your sidebar. For the more technically advanced, try creating a Yahoo Pipe that narrows your Twitter flow down to the subjects and hashtags you’re the most excited about.
Or crowd source the Tweets you pull in by including a feed of one of your Twitter lists using a simple Twitter gadget here. You won’t have complete control over who says what, but you will have a constant flow of information from trusted sources that your site visitors might find fantastic.
Merry Christmas! Well, almost Merry Christmas. A big thanks to all of the people who entered our Schipul Cheer ’09 contest. Most entries came in via Twitter which was both awesome and huge time suck for me.
Our lucky winner was picked by our random integer counter is the victory goes to entrant number 13, aka CosmoPolitician, aka Monica Danna! So kudos to her and we really hope she enjoys her spoils.
What did she get? A slew of stuff. Some books, a few toys, maybe some free coffee. We still want her to be surprised when she gets the stuff, so details will have to come from her.
Again, thanks to everyone who participated! We had a lot of fun looking at trees – even the hand drawn ones. This certainly won’t be the last contest I run, so make sure you stick around.
Quick Note: Our Schipul Cheer ’09 Contest ends at 5pm TODAY! So make sure you enter by submitting a photo of your Christmas tree in the blog comments or on Twitter with the tag #schipulcheer09!
Some people are harder to shop for than others, and not just because they have a stinker of a personality. This week’s gift guide will feature more unusual gifts that you can get for those people who have everything. Or those people who you kinda know, but wouldn’t really call them a friend because they are acquaintances and you have to buy them a gift because you heard that they bought you a gift.
Peanut Butter of the Month Club:
Om nom nom nom
This gift only works for those not allergic to nuts. While there are several “of the month” clubs, peanut butter gets added to the list simply because it is peanut butter and it is amazing that it can come in flavors other than peanut.
Did they call it a penguin because it looks like one? Or did they make it look like one on purpose?
Do you often drink water and think, “This could really use little bubbles of carbonation”? If so, this penguin is here to help. It will even allow you to customize carbonation to suit your taste.
The product description is so good that I am simply going to copy and paste it: Have you ever dreamed you were being attacked by a giant squid? Of tentacles wrapping around you, pulling you down to the depths, where an eye as big as a dinner plate looked back at you…
Now you can make your dream come true, without all the fear and discomfort of the nightmare realm.
Tea can only be made better by one thing! No… I’m not talking about vodka. I’m talking about literary quotes from folks like CS Lewis, Alice Hoffman, and others that you only pretend to know about. Great for book nerds and your friends who prefer tea over coffee (for some really insane reason).
Buy two of these. The first one will wear out in no time.
Perhaps the greatest thing produced this decade. No longer will people fight over corner pieces and edges. You can read through the unique features on the product page, but let’s face it, you saw it and knew it was a winner.
Comes in different colors of wood. Yes, wood comes in different colors. I was shocked too.
Coffee cuff! Both fashionable and practical. Wear it as a unique cuff and when you grab that hot cup to go, slip the cuff onto the cup as a sleeve. Not a good gift for absent minded people who may toss the cuff with the cup. Like me. Because I did.
I have no idea if this works, but the idea is cool.
Guys–well, mainly guys–can be a little weird about beer. They love it, can tell you where it came from, the type, how it can be improved, and so forth. But they can’t seem to remember where their keys are. Know a dude who might get a kick out of home brewing? Then this is the gift.
I wouldn't bother replacing the frames with real photos.
Yes, photo frames. How is this unique? It isn’t. BUT! This is one of those gifts that is great for people you may not know very well. Like… your mother-in-law. Or an Aunt that you got in the Secret Santa name pull deal.
Racing! Dune buggies! Obstacle course! You can actually purchase a mini Baja race ride! How cool is THAT? Screw giving it as a gift, I’m buying it for myself. Because, ya know, it is right outside of the Vegas strip.
Photos of architecture and nature that resemble letters are put together according to whatever name you type into a box. Done in black and white photos since everyone seems to think that pictures are more artistic without color.
It was a wi-fi camera on it. And microphone. But, I think the description on the site pretty much makes this product. It really sells you on the idea that you never have to interact face-to-face with family, collegues, or elderly people ever again.
Chocking hazard. GET IT? HAHA... ok, I watch too much CSI.
For anyone interested in music, this could make a great gift. Finally give a gift of jewelry without breaking the bank or making it seem like you are totally all for a serious commitment.
Forget the sailboat and having to deal with water – get a land sailor. Rather than selling you on this totally rad product, I would much rather mention that there are group meet-ups for people who land sail. Think Hells Angels with polo shirts and that whole not being hardcore thing.
This is a gift for those snooty wine people you know. Place a bottle of wine on one of these and through the power of sound waves and… stuff… it can enhance the flavor of wine. It even (supposedly) eliminates red wine headaches. Buy me this and a couple of bottles of wine and I’ll test that theory for ya.
Have a ring custom made with your fingerprint put on the inside. This is ridiculously awesome and thoughtful and my gosh, just amazing. Probably the most “special” gift on this list.
Why should you get someone a bottle of Fernet? Easy. Fernet can be used to prevent and/or cure hangovers. That is right, taking a shot of this bitter drink before a night out will keep you functioning in the morning. Just keep in mind that it generally tastes terrible.
There are wine snobs and then there are coffee snobs. Tell them to ditch their drip maker and give them this as a gift. Makes fresh coffee (if you have fresh beans and grind them) and is so much better than a machine doing the work.
The Houston Zoo (yeah, they are a client) offers people the chance to get close to large cats and feed them. Not only that, but the deal comes with a chance to hang out with the sealions and get your picture taken. I’ve done this and I gotta say, it is pretty awesome. Especially with cool Zoo Keepers.
Since Schipul is based in Houston, it is easier to list the Houston Zoo, but definitely check out your local zoo to see what they have to offer.
Looks a little like a camera. Just thought I'd mention that.
First, let me state that this is NOT compatible with the iPhone or iPod Touch. But outside of that, this is one hell of a nifty tool. You can actually transfer music between two different iPods in a matter of seconds. I mean, do I even have to say anything else about this? No. No I do not.
That’s a wrap! Submit a photo of your Christmas tree to win some prizes, take some time to do some online shopping, and stay tuned for next week’s gift guide! It’ll be brightly colored and the last one!
Whether it’s a palm, oak, fur, or a purple plastic seedling…everyone loves a good tree decorating session. This week Schipul had the opportunity to decorate a real live burly pine at the Houston Zoo, one of our beloved clients. Not be be boastful, but the view at Rockefeller Center pales in comparison…Matt Lauer, eat your heart out.
The Schipul Christmas tree is a unique blend of all things geeky. Between the branches and needles, you’ll find an array of discarded computer mice (spray-painted silver of course), Twitter birdies, and the handles of your favorite Schipulites.
The video below chronicles @cpembyrun and @houstonzoodude as they “skip it” through the Houston Zoo and explore the holiday magic within. Yes, there are talking animals…and it’s glorious.
The key to picking out a fantastic gift for a fantastic designer is to get something a little unique, a little thought out, and a little pretty. It also helps to know the personality of the designer you are purchasing for.
Some are more hipster/eco-friendly types who might appreciate organic design while others are the “I-usually-wear-black-shirts” and really like modern and minimalistic designs. Then there are those who are oddly obsessed with unicorns.
What was I talking about again? Oh right, the gift guide!
Have you ever thought about how easy it is to get a glass of water? There is tap water, bottled water, filtered water…all conveniently available within the comfort of your own home. It is so accessible that we almost take this basic necessity for granted’ a basic necessity that is a key component to our everyday survival.
