Viaspire - Define.Innovate.Maximize.

Team Viaspire is Grateful

2008-11-27T06:00:00-08:00

Every year, Team Viaspire participates in a brisk and jubilant 10K run in Sacramento benefiting the Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services, called Run to Feed the Hungry. This year, we will be one of over 26,000 people all walking and running for this great local fundraising event - perhaps even topping the charts this year, officially, as the largest Thanksgiving Day run nationwide.

It is on this day that we are reminded about community, participation and cause. There is so much we can do collectively. So many great things we can accomplish and make better. So much we have to be grateful for.

We are energized and appreciate every day that we are a part of the industrious and entrepreneurial spirit of Sacramento and Bay Area communities. Today, our thoughts turn gratefully to those who continue to make our progress possible. We are thankful to our clients, partners and online virtual community of friends, followers and fans!

To all of our readers in the U.S., we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. To our followers abroad, thanks for your readership and being a part of our ongoing conversation.

Best wishes & thank you!

Working Through Screens - 100 Ideas Worth Reading

2008-11-26T12:19:58-08:00

There is an amazing downloadable book out by Flashbulb Interaction that comprehensively reviews 100 Ideas for Envisioning Powerful, Engaging, and Productive User Experiences in Knowledge Work. It is probably one of the most exceptional publications I have read and re-read in a long while.

The thorough approach, concepts and flow of information designed in this eBook is truly an amazing investment in creating real value in this information age, specifically for knowledge work.

Jacob Burghardt writes Working through Screens: 100 Ideas for Envisioning Powerful, Engaging, and Productive User Experiences in Knowledge Work as a reference for product teams creating new or iteratively improved applications for thinking work. Written for use during early, formative conversations, it provides teams with a broad range of considerations for setting the overall direction and priorities for their onscreen tools. With hundreds of envisioning questions and fictional examples from clinical research, financial trading, and architecture, this volume can help definers and designers to explore innovative new directions for their products.

Quick and Easy SEO Tips

2008-11-24T12:49:05-08:00

Jacob Morgan’s blog on Social Media, Technology, Marketing, and Life is featuring a new series of quick and easy SEO tips that I think are good for anyone maintaining and fine tuning their metadata to optimize traffic to their site. Check out Morgan's latest posts on Title Tags and Meta Descriptions to learn more.

View SEO for more posts this topic>>

Social Media Wave 3 - Impacts, Trends, Context

2008-11-17T09:36:23-08:00

Just reading Kyle Lacy's post on 20 Reasons Why You Cannot Ignore Social Media. He outlines the importance of understanding the impact and importance of social media in reach and engagement opportunity and references Universal McCann's latest research on Social Media Wave 3.

Universal Mccann International Social Media Research Wave 3

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: socialmedia research)

FLF 11.14.2008 - Focusing on Good Customer Experience

2008-11-14T10:40:52-08:00

Happy Friday! We thought this was a great animated short on creating the perfect customer experience. Mr. Lux exemplifies a customer-centric approach in service.

Continued Growth of U.S. Blog Readers Estimated

2008-11-14T10:31:58-08:00

eMarketer reports that by 2012, more than 145 million people—or 67% of the US Internet population—will be reading blogs at least once per month. In eMarketer's latest report, The Blogosphere: A Mass Movement from Grass Roots, eMarketer analyzes the growing social and economic impact of this once niche-communications channel.

Learn More >>

Celebrating World Usability Day Today

2008-11-13T00:05:00-08:00

This year, World Usability Day focuses on exploring and creating awareness for global transportation -- making lower carbon travel changes easy.

According to UPA, "transportation means moving products and people in its broadest sense. Usability in transportation speaks to the interaction of people and the vehicles, the challenges and issues infrastructure and modes for moving around in our environment. . We spend time repeatedly, everyday getting our things and ourselves from point A to point B. It varies by day, by location, by time and by need and requires us to utilize many forms of transport."

Check out the latest information and events that have lead up today from around the world in recognition of World Usability Day! Consider every element of transportation and how usability plays an important role from road signs to safety and security or infrastructure design

World Usability Day was founded in 2005 as an initiative of the Usability Professionals' Association (UPA) to ensure that services and products important to human life are easier to access and simpler to use. Each year, on the second Thursday of November, over 225 events are organized in over 40 countries around the world to raise awareness for the general public, and train professionals in the tools and issues central to good usability research, development and practice.

iMediaConnection: The art of self defense against brand-jacking

2008-11-11T19:17:31-08:00

As a follow up to our earlier post today, we came across another good article further emphasizing the need to actively monitor and protect your brand.

Tim Lynch, senior experience design specialist at Molecular, explores the concept of brand-jacking. "If your brand is online, it's susceptible to consumer influence -- both benign and malicious. See what steps your company can take to mitigate the risks."

Economist: Companies & Social Networks - Losing Face

2008-11-11T10:02:15-08:00

The Economist tells a cautionary tale of companies who find out after the fact that their employees are revealing or misrepresenting their employers' brand online with their own posted indiscretions, gossip or exchanges on community sites like myspace, Facebook and Twitter.

It's a must read for organizations who currently have not addressed social networks usage policies - not only "at work" usage policies, but also "general usage guidelines" that are highly recommended to manage your brand and online reputation. The article has three important recommendations to consider:

[Create] and reiterate online guidelines frequently
Monitor online activity closely to ensure that rules are respected
Frequent “online watering holes” where people exchange gossip and views [to be fully aware of what is being posted directly by employees or through their affiliation with the organization].

Read on>>

Why Email Starts Fights

2008-10-24T15:05:49-07:00

BNET has a great video on how email needs to be used appropriately for communication. Words, tone and visual cues are very important in 1x1 and group communications. With ninety-three percent of communication being nonverbal, email is not always the optimal medium for effective interpersonal communication.