Creative Mind Consulting

Minnesota State Fair Parking Tips

The next gathering of the Social Media Breakfast - Minneapolis-St. Paul (#SMBMSP) is going to be held at the Great Minnesota Get Together, the Minnesota State Fair. Should be lots of fun, with bacon on a stick and everything ;-).

We used to live right by the fairgrounds, and in fact parked cars for 5 years. It was great fun, and we met lots of nice Minnesotans from all walks of life.

I offered some parking tips to a fellow SMBMSP member, and with that in mind thought it would be helpful to post those tips for others.

We lived on the west side of the fair, and were often amazed at how few people ventured to the back side of the fair...choosing instead to sit in stopped traffic on Snelling or Larpenteur. 

If the weather is nice, the first Friday of the MN State Fair is usually the first or second busiest day of the whole event, with parking affected accordingly.

Social Media Lunch Presentation to Small Business Owners Tomorrow

Looking forward to co-presenting to small business owners and entrepreneurs tomorrow with Pamela Muldoon from Next Stage Business. We're speaking at The Quorum on "LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter: Getting Started with Social Media."

UPDATE: A great time was had by all! So nice to meet everyone, and it was terrific presenting with Pamela. She's a great colleague and a dynamic presence on the platform. Looking forward to seeing everyone in the future.

Did You Know 3.0...The Future is Here

via www.youtube.com

Wow...great food for thought sent along by a colleague! Are you encouraging your student to study math and science (among other issues)?

Social Media Success Tip - Consistent Images/Pictures

Now that social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) is firmly a part of the Internet landscape, it's becoming more and more important to manage your online image effectively - particularly if you are a small to medium sized business owner, solo-entrepreneur, or job seeker. In those cases, you are hoping potential clients or employers will look for you online...and you want to manage what they are seeing.

Most social media sites now offer you the opportunity to post a small picture of yourself (sometimes called a "thumbnail"). This is actually a great feature, because it helps you personalize your online persona.

If you haven't taken advantage of this feature, I encourage you to do so. Not only does it help your old high school friends recognize you Facebook (!), a good picture lends credibility to your image.

It should be close enough to recognize that it's you in miniature, lack a distracting background, and be relaxed yet professional. A smile is also a positive feature. People will form conclusions about you based on your picture, so make sure it's sending the right sort of message. If you have a friend or family member who's good with a camera, have them take your photo with a digital camera and just upload. No need for a formal head shot.

As an alternative, many people are using "avatars" in place of a photo. I've seen lots of them in Facebook and on Twitter - and I've used one myself. But - as an entrepreneur, I wanted a more consistent image across all social media platforms. I encourage you to consider the same.

Fabulous Web Freebies - Evernote

Have you ever wanted a portable file cabinet for the Internet? A spot where you could gather together great articles, inspiring quotes, yummy recipes, to-do lists, etc?

I have a Fabulous Web Freebie recommendation for you to consider - Evernote. Evernote is a free online application that allows you to capture a wide range of information, store and sort it, and then retrieve it when you need it later.

You can grab web pages, snippets from emails, videos, photos, etc., and file them away for future reference. Tags and notes can be attached as well for easy retrieval. You can even take a picture with your cell phone and send it to Evernote - and it has a text recognition feature that I'm just starting to explore....

Lots of web applications do that, right? What makes Evernote innovative and different? 

I love the fact you can access Evernote via the web, from your desktop (Windows or Mac), or through your cell phone/PDA/Balckberry. Your notes are accessible, sync'd from one platform to another...easily accessible at any time. 

Currently, I use it is as a note clipper tool, to augment my set of bookmarks. I'm slowly migrating more and more of my ideas into Evernote, and am considering using it as a to-do tool.