Apple has announced that its content-syncing service iCloud is now live. iCloud is designed like a mobile hard drive on your web browser that automatically syncs data on mobile devices and tablets with data on your home or office computer. The service is especially useful for those preparing presentations and projects while on the go.

The new beta is available to anyone with an Apple ID, and includes Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Find My iPhone, and iWork applications. Apple’s cloud music services are not presently available. While the iCloud is similar to MobileMe in concept, the addition of iWork (the Apple equivalent to Microsoft Office) should prove to be extremely useful.

The interface is fairly homogeneous to MobileMe and retains the simplistic Apple template. iCloud will be competing with Amazon’s much cheaper Cloud Drive which allows 20 GB for $20 and is more musically focused.

iCloud is free for the first 5 GB of storage. Most will opt for the free service considering that they will not be storing music on iCloud. The free beta should prove to be popular among iPhone, iPad, and Apple computer enthusiasts looking to become more organized.

Time will tell, but I think cloud computing is going to be the eventual replacement for flash drives. It’s an exciting concept that whatever you are working on can be easily accessed again for reference on another device. The bad news is, the excuse of “I left my paper on marketing research analysis at home” will no longer be acceptable when my professor tells me to pull it up on my iPhone’s cloud connection.  E-mailing documents to myself is starting to get a little old, too.  As with any beta, though, the best improvements are yet to come for Apple’s iCloud.

The information in this post came from an external article on Mashable.

I’m a big Blackhawks fan, and I got this info from someone close to the organization (thanks Dave — though I’ll feel really silly if you’re getting back at me for the April Fool’s joke).  Anyway, here’s the info straight from the source:

Do you LOVE the Blackhawks and want to be an extra in a Vince Vaughn movie?

Open Casting Call

Casting Local Chicago Talent as Extras For Upcoming Comedy

Directed by Ron Howard and starring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James

Chicago based extras casting director Jon Kinnas is holding an open casting call to meet and greet those interested in working on the new Universal Pictures comedy from director Ron Howard that stars Vince Vaughn and Kevin James.

We want REAL Blackhawks fans for a scene we are doing at the United Center. This could be a fans dream come true, the United Center all to yourself, well you and around 750 other people anyway. We would like the real fans to come to our casting call.

Wear your Chicago Blackhawks gear (official NHL licensed jerseys, T-shirts, hats, sweaters, foam fingers, etc.) to the casting call and we will take your picture in your fan attire.

There is NO COST to you to be an EXTRA. WE PAY YOU. There is NO COST to come to the open call. Just show up in your ‘hawks gear and have a pen with you. We will take all of your information and get you booked to work on the scene. Shooting of the scenes are currently scheduled for the end of July.

The casting call on Saturday is mainly for the Blackhawks game scene. Everyone that shows up in some Blackhawks gear will be photographed and the WILL definitely be booked for the United Center scene. We did it in similar fashion for “The Break Up” and the Cubs game scene.

Anyone that attends the open call (Blackhawks fan or not) will have a chance to work on the movie, we will be using alot of extras. People who get to work the Blackhawks game may even be able to work on additional scenes in the movie.

WHEN:    Saturday, May 22 from 11:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.

WHERE:    THE CHICAGO ACADEMY FOR THE ARTS
1010 West Chicago Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60642

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE OPEN CALL AND UPDATES, PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT: www.atmospherecastingchicago.com/cheaters.html

Sure the economy is down and big budget Super Bowl ads are passe. But creative advertising doesn’t need a big budget. You just need a solid concept. This year all but three Super Bowl ads disappointed. Here are my top three favorites from this year, which isn’t saying much.

Good: The Simpsons Coca-Cola Spot
Yes, it was fun seeing the Simpsons do a spot for Coca Cola. But it was schmaltzy and void of any of the acerbic Simpson wit we’ve come to expect. Couldn’t Coca-Cola have allowed the writers to poke a little fun at those big love-fest Coke ads that taught the world to sing?

Better: The Betty White Snickers Spot
Betty White proves she’s as awesome as she ever was. But did you remember this spot was for Snickers? It, like many other Super Bowl ads this year, seemed to rely entirely on a gimmick that overshadows the product. Nevertheless, I do love Betty White.

Best: The David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey and Jay Leno ‘Late Show’ Spot
Clearly, the hands down winner for concept, casting and memorableness. The spot reprises the brilliant 2007 Super Bowl Late Night spot in which Oprah (pulling for the Chicago Bears) and Letterman (pulling for the Indianapolis Colts) are sitting on a couch together, in love, despite their longtime public animosity.

This ad was the brainchild of David Letterman, according to staff members of the “Late Show with David Letterman.” The spot done in a hurry last week. Winfrey and Leno — reportedly wearing a hooded sweatshirt, glasses and a glued on mustache — flew into New York to meet up at the Ed Sullivan Theater where the Late Show is taped. I can only guess the reason Leno and NBC agreed to participate was because they were taking a cue from Letterman himself who recently used his trademark brand of self-deprecating humor to successfully diffuse the fallout from the Employee Benefits Plan he was operating in the suite above the set of the Late Night show. While Leno definitely could use some diffusing of the Conan debacle this just ended up making him look sad — and Letterman a genius.

Social media is one of those things that seems deceptively simple. You open a Twitter account and send out some Tweets. Perhaps you’ll start a Facebook page and auto-feed in some content. Maybe you’ll upload some videos onto YouTube. These are all uses of social media tools — but using them doesn’t constitute a plan. And using social media by itself doesn’t constitute an online marketing plan.

This month a study published by Greystone.net found that 9 out of 10 hospitals are involved to some degree in social media — but only 1 in 3 has an actual plan in place. Greystone’s two month-long study surveyed over 100 hospital and health system marketers. The study also found some interesting facts:

1. Most hospitals and health networks use fewer than 3 people do social media — and those people are usually from the technology or web department. What does this mean? It means most hospital’s social media programs aren’t run by marketers — probably because those in charge either don’t understand the value or importance of social networks. In many ways social media requires more marketing knowledge than traditional advertising. Instead of developing one large message for thousands of people social media requires you to make thousands of smaller messages for thousands of people — and then interact with them one-on-one.

2. Most hospitals report they aren’t seeing results from social media. I’m sure after reading the first point you’ll be able to guess the reason behind this one. If you don’t create an effective program and allow it to be run by knowledgeable people, you can’t expect to see results. Only 12.5% of those surveyed said they were experiencing success with social media. The results of other more finite goals are pretty much what you would expect. Only 16.7% said they had been successful with community relations, 8.7% said they had success with customer service and employee engagement and only 4.7% said social media helped with crisis management.

So if hospitals aren’t using the tools of social media (or even staffing them) correctly it’s no wonder they’re not experiencing results. Especially when social media is only one facet of a full online marketing plan.

Above A sample of a graph that is included in our Spark Report. We track every single spike and dip in traffic and attribute it to a specific action, event or link.

Social media isn’t enough on it’s own to get results. We’ve designed a comprehensive online marketing program called Sparking. It includes social media — but social media can’t work by itself. Before we begin we meet with our clients to determine their goals. Then we develop a comprehensive plan that combines social media, interactive marketing, blogging, content creation, online events, advertising and reputation management all into one neat and powerful little package.

Here’s a funny take on agency life, especially during the holidays.  Enjoy, and have a great Holiday Season!

Yes, you read that headline correctly.  Fascinating isn’t it how social media and the interactive web world has been extended to allow average Joes the opportunity to contribute to a rock star’s body of work?  The Public Record invites users to collaborate with Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee on his new album by submitting vocal and drum tracks to songs on which he is working.

The downside?  All submissions become the property of Mötley Crüe, so say goodbye to the dream of making a fortune in royalties.

“If Led Zeppelin had done this, I’d have sent them my drum parts for sure,” said Lee in an interview printed on money.cnn.com.

I cannot stress enough that this interactivity is exactly where the internet is heading.  As time passes, we’re going to see more and more applications like this for everything from song writing to problem solving.  And it makes perfect sense — why tackle complicated things yourself when you can put a direction out there and ask others to help get you where you want to go?

When it comes to social media, we must continue to think about ways to involve our fan base in the discussions:  ask their opinions for decorating a new facility.  Open your blogs to product and service reviews.  Query your followers for new ideas.

Really, social media is about discussing what you’re doing with your market and learning from them how you can get better.

In the end, you, your followers and your company will be much better off.

I can only hope that Tommy Lee uses good judgment when it comes to picking the best fan submissions for his new album.

Partick Kane's Sentence

Special thanks to Dave Broucek.

Everybody has had a bad customer experience at one time or another. It used to be that you’d tell your friends, report a company to the Better Business Bureau or maybe even write a letter to the editor at your local paper and hope it gets published. These days it’s easier than ever to make your voice heard. Whether it’s on a site like Yelp, Angie’s List or just Google comments, people’s voices carry a much longer distance now.

Enter Dave Carroll. Dave is a singer/songwriter and the lead of The Sons of Maxwell, a band I’ve never heard of until this morning. In the spring of 2008 Dave was traveling with his band and had a connecting flight in Chicago. Dave and his band were sitting on the O’Hare tarmac, waiting for the baggage to be loaded. A passenger in front of them, who probably didn’t know who Dave Carroll or The Sons of Maxwell were, looked out the window and shouted out about how there are some United Airlines baggage handlers “throwing guitars” out there! After a year of phone calls and cold shoulders and no restitution, Dave wrote a song…

I first heard about this on WGN radio in Chicago this morning during a promo for the John Williams Show. Williams later linked to the video from his Facebook status feed and I watched it. And I must say, it is one of the most creative and funny ways to get back at a company for busting your Taylor guitar.

Will United Airlines respond to this? Probably not. Will they care that there’s this video out there? Fairly unlikely. Will thousands and thousands of customers and potential customers see and be influenced in some way by it? Absolutely.

What if your company or organization was the one being targeted?

This brings us to one of the most important, and also most overlooked aspects of social media marketing: reputation management. Obviously, in this instance United Airlines clearly should have stepped in long ago and provided better customer service. Some might argue that they didn’t provide any customer service at all. But lets pretend your company has a disgruntled customer and even though your company has acted ethically and quickly, this person still feels the need to spend time creating a blog or YouTube videos about how he feels he was treated unfairly. What will you do?

The first step is catching it early. Monitor postings, blog entries, news feeds, comment forms and sites like Twitter constantly. An easy way to do this is through Google Alerts which will send you an e-mail every time a key word or phrase shows up anywhere on the Internet. That alone won’t catch everything but it’s a good start. Then get out there. Present your side of the story, be fair, honest, open and most of all extremely polite and respectful — no matter what was said or what tone was used. The golden rule is this: picture anything you write, either on a website or e-mail, posted everywhere with your picture next to it. If you can’t be proud of your stance then you should just keep quiet. Come back to it when you’re calm. It can be difficult at times, especially if you have a customer who is either just pain wrong, or worse, wrong and belligerent.

Don’t wait until something bad happens to become involved in social media. Having an active and happy online customer base will go a long way to helping you resolve issues. With any luck some of those customers may even stand up and help defend you. Remember, some people just need to be unhappy. Stay on top of the situation and minimize it’s impact before it grows out of control — or into a catchy song complete with a music video.

Below is an embedded video from YouTube. The link has been circulating for a little while now, but it is quickly picking up steam. Maybe it’s the message of hope that we all need to hear so badly in these trying times. Maybe it’s the daedal presentation. Maybe it’s another sign that social media brings millions of people together. Anyway, watch and enjoy.

My mechanic just saved me about $4,000 or more. No, he’s not my friend nor a relative. He’s my mechanic, and he’s been up to his elbows in my autos for about 10 years — which is exactly why he saved me the money.

You see, I know nothing about how cars operate and I’m not afraid to admit it. Heck, I was forced out of my small engines class in high school due to the 2nd and 3rd degree burns I got on my hand from grabbing a hot muffler (who knew that mufflers could get so hot?). I was also removed from woodworking class for similar reasons, but that’s a different post.

The point is, I’m helpless with cars.

But my own lack of knowledge, skill, expertise, and even common sense mean little when you know someone who can fill that void. The truth is I don’t have to know cars — I just have to know someone who knows cars. And I have to trust the person and get them to trust me because only then will we both benefit financially and mentally. We need loyalty, and lots of it.

Over the years my mechanic has called me with repair estimates that I admit seemed excessive. But my car was in the shop and needed only a few hours for the repairs to be finished, so I would nervously give my approval, hang up and hope the mechanic on the other end wasn’t laughing to his buddies about how foolish I was to believe him. Fortunately as time progressed, I realized the internet could validate my mechanic’s claims — and prices. And wouldn’t you know it, the guy was legit. Expensive maybe, but certainly legit.

Over time, he’s become my car guy. He’s right up there with my coffee guy, my home repair guy, my restaurant guy, my money guy, my decorating guy and my legal guy.

These “guys” have earned my trust, so they get my business — without scrutiny. Sure, they could take advantage of me, but it’s not that likely. I know how they work. I know many of their other customers. And I know they care. These guys are not looking to risk a good relationship just to make a few extra bucks in the short term. So it’s not worth my time or even worth the worry for me to even begin to doubt them. And that adds years to my life.

Now here’s the good part.

In showing my faith in them, and my loyalty, they have all returned the favor over ten-fold without my even asking — and not just for my benefit, but also to the benefit of my clients and staff. While they certainly aren’t the cheapest “guys” out there in their respective fields, the money I spend on them and the faith I have in them has certainly either saved me or made me more money than what I’ve spent on them. Really.

When you look at the big picture, one “guy” saved me $400 in concert tickets by introducing me to one of his “guys”. Another saved me over $1,000 by knowing someone who had a refurbished fuse panel instead of selling me a new one (as he explained, the fuses and wiring are new but the metal is old — and who cares if the metal is dinged up a bit if you save a bunch of money?). My accountant guy stopped me from buying a certain car and told me to buy a different, far more luxurious car because it would actually cost less due to the new 9/11 tax laws. I calculated it out and my guy’s advice saved me about $40.000 — plus I’m driving the car of my dreams. And my mechanic guy? He not only gave me advice on what type of used car to buy for my daughter (possibly saving me thousands), but he also offered to find me one that he services so I can be sure it is problem-free (again, saving me thousands) AND he also agreed to mediate the sale so that both sides would be comfortable — because that’s what this guy does for those who consider him their guy.

So now as the business world gets more desperate and people make more pitches than ever for your business, remember to trust those who’ve earned your trust. They might not tell you what you want to hear, but their role is to be honest and look out for you just like they have for years. And they may not be the cheapest source for you right now, but they do provide the best long term ROI. They’ve already proven themselves.

Last, knowing and using someone who is loyal to you is pretty stress-free for you — at a time when we call all use a little less stress in our lives.