Remember the Blackberry, the breakout smartphone on the market about ten years ago? Yeah, they're still around but they're also on a significant decline. In fact, they've been stalling for several years now. The story of the rise and fall of RIM, the maker of Blackberry, is an interesting case study in market conditions, corporate fortitude, and flexibility (or lack thereof). The following infographic from MBA Online shows the rise and fall of the company. It's worth a few minutes to review and then consider if there's a Blackberry equivalent in your company. You can learn a lot from other ... [Link]

Couldn’t have said it better myself: [Link]

Many of us have a love/hate relationship with the companies and brands we follow on Facebook. We like getting free stuff, we feel special to get the inside scoop, and we love interacting with the brands in a personable way. But when the brand wears out its welcome by posting too much, too little, or generally being uninteresting, most fans have no qualms about ditching them and making room on their news feed for a more worthy participant. A lot has been written on the rules that brands and businesses should follow when establishing themselves on Facebook. Many of these ... [Link]

One of the most important (and difficult) things a church technical director needs to learn is how to determine what is important. We have a never-ending list of things to do, work on, fix, set up, prepare for and take down. There are events to cover, volunteers to train, plans to make and systems to upgrade. Based on my conversations with dozens and dozens of TDs over the years, I think we could all easily fill a few pages with the projects we feel we need to work on. Obviously, can’t work on all those projects at once. We don’t ... [Link]

This Thursday I'll be leading the social media portion of the Social Media and SEO Bootcamp hosted by Digital Nashville. The event will consist of a morning session for beginners and introductory level professionals and the afternoon will be advanced level social media and SEO. You can come for the half day of your choosing or get a price break on the whole day. The price has been reduced to $124 for the full day or $74 for a half day session. The event will be at Dave Ramsey's offices in Cool Springs and will start at 9am. I'm really ... [Link]

Fact or fiction: Externally clocking an M7 makes it sound better. Tonight we find out. We also talk about some other cool stuff we've been working with including the Portico 5045 "magic box." More... [Link]

Tablet Use At Home: Living Room Most Preferred Spot When iPads first came out two years ago I wrote a post about how they were going to push for a new "lean back" approach to personal computing. According to a new study from Viacom, this is truly the case for tablet use in homes. The research shows that the number one room in which people use a tablet device in their home is in the living room followed by the bedroom. The full list of locations in the home is listed here in the embedded graphic. Facebook Is Preferred Social ... [Link]

Good news for all you worship leaders and techs out there – ProPresenter 5 for Windows worship software launched and is now available for purchase. ProPresenter 5 for Mac launched back in mid-February and many churches were eagerly awaiting the Windows launch. ProPresenter 5 is the evolution of Renewed Vision’s award-winning worship presentation software. This major upgrade to the software builds upon the incredible foundational capabilities they built in ProPresenter 4 and adds completely new functionality to make service preparation easier, and the overall impact of your presentations greater. Pricing Pricing is $399 for Single License and $799 for a ... [Link]

My friend Dave says one of the most important things we can do as audio engineers is to listen to music. Lots of music. Many different styles of music. And don’t just listen, break it down. How is it mixed? How is it arranged? Where did they put things, and how did they make it sound good (or fail at making it sound good)? I subscribe to this practice, though not as much as I would like. The other day, I was watching a Classic Albums show on Netflix. The subject of that episode was Phil Collin’s early solo project, ... [Link]

We all make mistakes and when it comes to social media, true statement? In his first ebook, Justin Wise admits to making many faux pas in the first days and weeks of diving head-first into social media. He’s put together a great 14-page easy-to-read ebook in which he shares his biggest mistakes so that readers can avoid making the same blunders. >>Visit Justin’s website and sign up for his free email list to get this great ebook download and save yourself some social media misery.<< As the (now expert) social media director for Monk Development, an Internet solutions company, Justin ... [Link]

It’s hard to believe that Easter was over month ago already. But indeed it was. And if you haven’t taken the time to de-brief that week and discover what went well and what needed improvement, it may already be too late. Our memories fade pretty quickly, and we often forget things we need to fix until, well, the next time it comes around and we remember why we wanted to do it differently.I know that I forget things after a big event, so I’ve taken to keeping a journal of any large event in Evernote. I like to use Evernote ... [Link]

With Mother's Day coming up this weekend it seemed fitting that this week's video would be a baby girl choosing her Mom as the favorite parent despite Dad's request. It's cute and funny. Enjoy the Baby Like Mom Better video. PS: Brief, fake, baby cursing in the video...apparently Dad thought that would be funny. Flash player required to view this content. Please install flash player. Read Entire Post: Video of the Week: Baby Likes Mommy Better [Link]

Last week I interviewed Mark Schaefer, the author, speaker, consultant, and professor who was kind enough to give me some time to talk about his latest book, Return on Influence. Mark is a great marketing mind in general and also has great perspective and insight on social media. He's one of the good guys who gets it in my view and is one of only a handful of social media authors/personalities I pay attention to. I think you'll see after this interview that his views on influence and what it means for business today is quite helpful. By the way, ... [Link]

Worship Facilities Conference and Expo (WFX) — held this September 19-20, 2012 at the Georgia World Congress Center — is a team of people passionate about helping and serving churches and other houses of worship. Their mission is to equip church leadership teams on the tools and technologies they need to support their individual ministry calling. WFX does things through a combination of education events and media products. WFX is primarily developed to serve and support usage in Christian churches, we believe we are directed to respect all people and so do not exclude attendees from other faiths. (Matthew 22:39). ... [Link]

During my thee years at Coast Hills, we’ve never had a choir—or anything approaching one. But for Easter this year, it was decided we had enough interest to put together a small choir. And indeed it was small, only 19 people. I have a couple of DPA 4098HB hanging choir mic’s in stock, but I was thinking this might be the excuse I was looking for to test out the newer 2000 series mic’s that were introduced at NAB last year. The 2000 series is roughly based on the 4000 Reference Standard series that has made DPA the go-to mic ... [Link]

Tumblr & Pinterest In Top 3 A new study from January, 2012 shows that the top social networks based on time spent by an average user in the month are Facebook, Tumblr, and Pinterest. The chart included here is particularly telling. Also, note that MySpace beats out Google+. Ouch! Mobile Emerging Email Platform This shouldn't be a surprise as smartphones continue to become more popular, but a new report shows that "email readership on mobile devices accounts for 30% of all opens, up from 10% a few years ago." Pretty interesting as you craft your emails. You can assume a ... [Link]

I first ran across Shure’s new ULX-D line at NAMM in January. Initially, I was indifferent, but as the rep started explaining the feature set, I became more intrigued. When I heard the price point, coupled with the facts that you can coordinate 14 or so channels in a single TV channel plus networking, I was hooked. I knew I had to try it. The ULXD4 Receiver We needed a few channels of wireless for a women’s retreat, so I called my Shure rep and asked for a handheld and body pack system to review. One of the systems seemed ... [Link]

Customers of LifeWay Christian Resources can now purchase the latest Christian book or Bible study, learn about upcoming events or read ministry articles on their mobile devices through the recently launched LifeWay.com mobile site. “This mobile-optimized site was designed to help customers find the information they are looking for when, where and how they are looking for it,” said Dave Thoma, director of eCommerce and LifeWay.com. Thoma said the mobile experience is a reflection of the full version of the site specifically built after studying customers’ mobile patterns and preferences. “User activity on smartphones differs substantially over PC or tablet ... [Link]

I switched to a Motorola RazrMaxx smartphone last week because I needed a better hotspot for when I'm away. I'd been using a HTC Thunderbolt and liked it a lot, except that it was a very weak hotspot (acknowledged by HTC). Here's a quick impression of the RazrMaxx compared to the Thunderbolt.Size & weight are similarRazrMaxx WeaknessesThe viewable image is unnecessarily narrow for the frameLocation of the Home button is uniqueThe Dock is not as niceThe Keyboard has smaller keys & no cursor keysNo kickstand RazrMaxx StrengthsGreat battery lifeHotspot performs wellProximity Sensor turns screen off when phone is next to ... [Link]

SEO, or search engine optimization, (according to WikiPedia) is the process of improving the visibility of a website in search engines’ “natural,” or un-paid search results. If your church has a website that you consider valuable and helpful, understanding how to improve your site’s SEO ranking is important. For instance, when someone searches for presbyterian churches in your town, and your church is presbyterian, you want your church’s website to show up fairly high in the search results. It might also be nice for your church to be listed if someone were to type in, “Christian church in XX town” ... [Link]