Typically, I don’t write book reviews. Yet, I found The Now Revolution so relevant and filled  full of actionable information that I felt compelled to let you know about it. I first “met” Amber Naslund on Twitter (@ambercadabra) about 3 years ago. Early on, Amber was a great help to me as I started my blog and began my “social”  journey. I am a regular reader of her Brass Tack Thinking blog and last year Peter van Aartrijk and I interviewed her for our Insurance Journal “On Point” podcast. What I appreciate about Amber is her ability to link a new technology or social trend back to a relevant business strategy or tactic. When I heard that she had partnered with Jay Baer (@jaybaer) and was writing a book I could hardly wait to get my hands on it. A couple of weeks ago, I downloaded the Kindle version and finished it on a flight back from Vegas.

The Now Revolution provides readers with the business context that is missing from so many social discussions. It is a handbook of sorts – maybe even a survival guide for anyone who is navigating the social landscape. It does a great job identifying and underscoring the cultural shift being fueled by “social” and its impact on business.

Technology by itself is not magic. If magic is to happen it requires a business to do “new work” in “new ways”. That is, reinventing or creating new strategies, processes, and procedures, as well as, transforming the culture is mandatory in order to fully leverage and benefit from the promise and opportunity presented by new technology. Amber and Jay understand this and explore “7 shifts that can make your company faster, smarter, and more social.” They are the shits needed to position your company to compete and thrive in today’s digitally connected real time world.

As an example, the second shift “Find Talent You Can Trust” covers topics such as how to build and manage a purposeful team. how to hire, needed  skill sets, organizational structure, education, and the need to motivate are discussed in the context of finding, developing, and keeping talent you can trust. Besides outlining the process and providing strategic guidelines, the book is filled with “Now Hear This” notices that offer all kinds of actionable and  tactical suggestions. As an added bonus, the book is enhanced with Microsoft Tag Technology. Thus, using your smart phone you can gain access to bonus content including videos, tips, discussions and various other resources.

I couldn’t agree more with Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs who in her testimonial stated, “Jay and Amber have penned a book that truly isn’t a social media book. In other words, this isn’t the book you pick up when you want to create a blog or Twitter feed or Facebook group; rather, this is the book to read when you need to understand how our newly social and connected world has disrupted business as usual, and why you need to bother thinking about that.”

Yes, I highly recommend The Now Revolution. If you have already read it , please comment and let us know what you think.

More precisely, what do you think will be the key technology trends that will have an impact on the insurance industry in 2011?

The reason I am asking is that at the IIABA Agents Council for Technology (ACT) meeting in Tampa on February 19 there will be a Strategic Future Issues panel and breakout sessions discussing this question. I serve as the Chair for the ACT Social Web Workgroup and as such am very interested in the outcome of these discussions.

Over100 representatives from carriers, associations, and agencies, as well as, technology and media consultants will attend the meeting. This is the choir so to speak. While these folks are really smart and have plenty of informed ideas and opinions – here is your chance… I would really like to hear what you think. I encourage you to leave a comment on this post. Tell me what you see as the key technology trends that are and/or will have an impact on your business. How are you coping with the rapid advancement in technology and all the change it is bringing about? Is (or how is) new technology helping you grow your business?

I will make sure your opinion becomes part of the Strategic Future Issues discussion.

QR codes are everywhere. On my last trip through Denver International, I noticed a bank using QR codes to link to Sedoku games. They had a large advertisement displaying QR codes and were encouraging travelers to scan the codes with their smart phones. By doing so, they would be re-directed to the Sedoku games.  Pat Alexander had a guest post by Mary Biever on her insurance Ecosystem blog covering QR codes, which helped further explain what QR codes are and how they can be used. While catching up on articles in Google Reader this morning, I saw that Chris Brogan had done a short post on using PingTags to create a QR code that links to your Linkedin account. I have been messing around with QR codes this past week and it caught my attention. Interesting? Anyway, I had to give PingTags a try.

Using PingTags is really easy. You simply allow them to connect to your LinkedIn account and they automatically generate the QR code. Now what? Well, as they suggest, you might add this code to your business card. Perhaps you can have a bunch of tee shirts printed up with your code on them. Put them on any print ad that you do. Actually, this would be a great way for vendors at a convention to provide company information – at least much better than loading everyone up with a bunch of brochures.

PingTags is only one example of an easy way to generate your own unique QR code. If you search Google for QR generators you will find many others. In fact, Google Places allows businesses to create them and link such information as reviews, contact information and even coupons.

Ok, that is how you create your QR code. To use them on your phone you need a scanner/reader. Again, search Google for “QR scanner (make of phone)”. Some phones have the reader built in. I downloaded one of the free Apps for my iPhone.

That is pretty much it. Oh… The QR Code in this post is the one from PingTags. By scanning it you will be taken to my LinkedIn profile – try it.

Are you using QR codes to promote yourself or your business? How?

If  your week was like mine last week was a slow “work” week. The Aartrijk team was officially on Holiday and while several of us were still attending to work related stuff – it was at a much reduced activity level. Besides enjoying a all the special holiday events with family and friends, I also had time to attend to a whole host of housecleaning and organizational tasks I had been neglecting. Here is what I did.

1. Chrome: I switched my browser of choice from Firefox to Chrome. I am not yet sure the change will be permanent but so far I am liking the “clean” feel of Chrome.

2.Gist:  It was getting harder and harder to manage my growing list of contacts, as well as, all the ways I could connect and communicate with them across social sites and email. I am finding Gist a very useful tool. I now have one unified list which contains a rich profile of everyone which includes news, status updates, blog posts and all their means of contact. Needless to say, I added the Gist Extension to Chrome.

3. Twitter: More than anything else my Twitter feed was out of control. I spent time cleaning up my list of followers and then set up  new lists on several topics I am interested in. The TweetDeck extension is perhaps one of the best extentinos on Chrome.

4. Diigo:  Perhaps you heard the rumor that Yahoo was planning on shutting down Delicious? I have been using the social bookmarking site Delicious for several years to bookmark, tag and share links to sites and articles I found interesting. Well, it may be in fact just a rumor but to be safe I decided to create a Diigo account and transfer all my Delicious Bookmarks. Actually, Diigo lets you post to both sites simultaneously – which is what I am doing.

5. Quora – From ” About” “Quora is a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it. The most important thing is to have each question page become the best possible resource for someone who wants to know about the question.” I am not sure about this yet – but it is interesting. It feels a bit like Facebook meets Wikipedia.

5. Google Reader – Over the years I have subscribed to lots and lots of RSS feeds. It was time to clean out the blogs that had gone inactive or that I no longer had any interest in. Ahhh…That feels much better.

6. Paying attention to the ideas of Content Marketing and Content Curation. Without question we are going to hear a lot about these topics in 2011.

7. Read some great articles on Trends to watch in 2011

A List of Trends, Ideas, Predictions for 2011

The New Next: 2011 Social Media Influencers Predictions by TrendsSpotting

Seven Digital Media Trends of 2011 | Social Media Today

What new stuff are you using to stay “organized”.  - if you are using any of the tools mentioned above let me know what you think.

I am not sure I feel completely organized or all caught up. Yet, I feel reenergized and ready for the opportunities, challenges and surprises ahead in 2011.

Happy New Year!