Beaconhill NW

It’s official…I’ve moved my blog to http://www.jimgrayonline.com

I’ve transferred my feed over there…but here’s the link to the  new feed…I’ll leave this post up for a few weeks to give everyone some time.

You can still follow me on Twitter , Facebook ,  Foursquare etc.

I’ve decided that it’s time to move this blog to another location.   I’ve owned www.jimgrayonline.com for sometime and will use that for my personal brand…should be moved by Saturday.

[ht to Bit Rebels ]

[ht to Freelance Switch ]

I was raised on the term “the customer is always right”

And yet, in the world of contracting no matter what industry you are in, inevitably, there will always be conversations about pricing.  You have to choose your battles carefully and make sure you don’t lose your shirt all at once.

[ht to Freelance Switch]

On Wednesday, Jive Software will host a live webcast titled:

Facebook for Spies:  Enabling Social Collaboration in a Community Trained not to Collaborate

In September 2008, the federal government introduced secure social networking capabilities to the US intelligence community to share insights, debate, and communicate. Called “A-Space” (Analyst Space), the initiative’s goal — like intelligence analysis in general — is to protect the US by assessing all the information available across the Department of Defense’s spy agencies.

DIA Program Manager Ahmad Ishaq will discuss the impetus behind A-Space and social software across an organization specifically trained not to share information, how A-Space was launched, the successes to date, future plans, as well as share best practices that are applicable to any industry or private company. He’ll also share how this secure community has helped unify a community to take advantage of intelligence, ideas, and innovations across multiple, globally distributed agencies.

Learn how to:

• Create low barriers to entry and improve adoption rates of Enterprise 2.0 initiatives
• Enable a governance model that works in the new social collaboration paradigm
• Align Enterprise 2.0 tools to speak the language of business
• Study community patterns and don’t be afraid to restart pieces that fail

Get free resources:

• Gartner, Inc. Report: 2009 Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workforce
• Forrester Wave Report: Community Platforms, Q1 2009

Get signed up here

Here’s my February desktop. I went to Smashing Magazine and had a hard time finding something without Valentine’s Day stuff on it. So I went with something that reminded me of my parents: The 8-Track Tape!

I was having coffee with a friend recently and we were discussing funny things that we tweet and how we tend to tweet.  We are starting to see social media as part of everyday life for work, home, and even church.

How is social media changing what you do?

I have a new role with PlainJoe Studios as Social Media Guerrilla.  PlainJoe Studios is a design studio in Southern California which specializes in Strategic Ideation, Interactive Media, and Environmental Design.We adopted this title from the idea behind guerrilla marketing.  It’s a mix of a social media marketing strategy and guerrilla marketing

Guerrilla marketing is an unconventional system of promotions that relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a big marketing budget. Typically, guerrilla marketing tactics are unexpected and unconventional; consumers are targeted in unexpected places, which can make the idea that’s being marketed memorable, generate buzz, and even spread virally. The term was coined and defined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his 1984 book Guerrilla Marketing.

Guerrilla marketing is needed because it gives small businesses a delightfully unfair advantage: certainty in an uncertain world, economy in a high-priced world, simplicity in a complicated world, marketing awareness in a clueless world.

Our goal is to integrate Social Media and Guerrilla Marketing strategies to help our clients tell their story even better.