Tweet

Confessions of a Digital Nomad.

Written by: Ernest Barbaric

Article Overview: No longer chained to a desk in order to be productive, we are able to work from virtually anywhere that has internet access. And even that is no longer a real requirement as most people with iPhones and Blackberries are now able to tether their mobile devices to their laptop and get online. Speaking of which, that is exactly how I spent a good half of my summer vacation last year in sunny Christina Lake, BC. Thanks to a sudden surge of inspiration and fresh air, I was able to complete a web project using iPhone tethering, somewhat to dismay of everyone else… but hey, you have to strike while the iron is hot! Enough about that though… what does this mean in real world terms? Well it means the workforce of tomorrow is changing and even more accurately the way we spend our time is changing. If we dig down to marketing terms...

Confessions of a Digital Nomad.

Right now, as I’m writing this post I am sitting in a coffee shop with at least four other people keyboarding furiously on their laptops. We are all here as part of a new generation of workers, we are the digital nomads.

No longer chained to a desk in order to be productive, we are able to work from virtually anywhere that has internet access. And even that is no longer a real requirement as most people with iPhones and Blackberries are now able to tether their mobile devices to their laptop and get online. Speaking of which, that is exactly how I spent a good half of my summer vacation last year in sunny Christina Lake, BC. Thanks to a sudden surge of inspiration and fresh air, I was able to complete a web project using iPhone tethering, somewhat to dismay of everyone else… but hey, you have to strike while the iron is hot!

Enough about that though… what does this mean in real world terms? Well it means the workforce of tomorrow is changing and even more accurately the way we spend our time is changing. If we dig down to marketing terms… it means that digital nomads of today and tomorrow will be harder to reach through traditional channels as we just don’t consume media that way anymore. As I look around, pretty much everyone has headphones in and are grooving to their own beat while typing up that report or preparing for a presentation.

One thing that is pretty consistent though is that almost everyone takes a few minutes to check e-mail and more interestingly their social media networks such as facebook and twitter.

Where is the opportunity then? I believe that in terms of digital marketing for this particular crowd outside of social media marketing, it will be in geo-targetted campaigns. If you look at foursquare for example, it allows users to check in at a physical location. As a user (or a savvy businessperson) you are able to leave a ‘tip‘ or a ‘to do‘ at, or close to, your location. I noticed a great example recently when I checked in at a downtown coffee shop. Immediately there was a pop-up prompting me to visit a nearby bakery as they always have delicious, fresh our of the oven buns and fruit filled pastries. Pretty smart marketing if you ask me… and if you did ask me, I wouldn’t be able to answer as I chowed down on some of the best pastries I’ve had in a while.

Google Buzz (if it ever takes off) does an interesting number on this topic as well. The way I look at it is a combination of communication channels, including geo-tagged services. So when you make a post, you have the option of geo-tagging the location as well.

As I just got a call from a real estate education representative… it gave me an idea of how to leverage geo-tagging and mobile services for some really cool real estate marketing… but you’ll have to wait for that post.

On that note, I figured it might be interesting to share my mobile setup.

On the iPhone: QuickOffice Connect – allows access to files on my Dropbox and Google Docs. I can edit, create, save and send almost any file on the go… anywhere!

Evernote – Really cool tool for capturing and storing ideas on the go. It collects photos, voice memos, text, video (on 3Gs) and god knows what else. The app syncs with a desktop application and the cloud as well.

iTalk – this is the best voice recorded I could find… and I tested quite a few. Perfect for recording sales calls, interviews and conferences. Also comes with a free desktop app.

Dropbox – Think of this as your virtual USB drive. It syncs a folder from your computer to an online storage facility, giving you the ability to access those files from anywhere, at any time. 2GB of storage with the free account.

And of course a selection of social media apps: Facebook, Twitteriffic, LinkedIn and foursquare at this time. Speaking of foursquare, I’m a mayor of four places so far!

On the MacBook: Dropbox – This app runs in the background and does a live sync between your DropBox folder and online storage. Best free gadget ever.

Evernote -This is a full featured desktop client for the service. You’re able to create new notebooks, organize random thoughts, e-mail them and overall, just be awesome.

Adium – It combines numerous chat clients into one, easy to use app. MSN, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk, Facebook and pretty much anything else you can think of. It’s a great way to work quickly with a team, share ideas and files while away from the office.

TweetDeck – This is my preferred Twitter client. It allows you to receive feeds from Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. It also allows you to post to all three simultaneously. It’s a great micro-publishing platform and for the time being, I prefer it to Hootsuite.

Well there you have it. Some thoughts, some ideas and a full disclosure on my personal digital nomad setup. Use it wisely and check back often!

Ernest.

Related Articles
  Ten Confessed Marketing Sins From Clients To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
  A Small Step to Greening Your Business- The iPhone Digital Business Card
  Digital Branding is Great ... But Don't Forget The Strategy!
  How to Successfully Use Your Digital Footprint - Essential in a social media world
  Audio Evidence

Article Tags: app review, digital nomad, digital trends, geo marketing, geo targeted marketing, iphone apps, marketing trends



Related Forum Posts
Picking an external hard drive to backup my files - Does anyone here use an external hard drive to backup their computer files? And if so, which brand would you recommend? My friend suggested Western Digital or Maxtor... but I read some bad reviews about Western Digital on Futureshop.ca. And more importantly, would you trust buying a supposedly "brand new" external hard drive on Ebay? How could I really tell if it was used or not?
Re: Is smaller always better? - But as things get smaller, won't they also become more fragile and difficult to use? For instance, I'm a slim guy with bony fingers so I have no problem using my PowerShot SD630 Digital Elph. However, my friend who is 6'2 220lbs can't use my camera at all because his fingers are too large to press the tiny buttons.
Re: Picking an external hard drive to backup my files - This is so funny that I am reading this, because as I type I am saving all files onto an external driver that I just purchased. I just got the WD (Westernet Digital), it holds 698gb worth of files. In my eyes thats a hell of a lot. They had I think 570gb for about $140 and the 698gb was $150 (They had a special on it), so obviously the more logical thing was to get the 698gb. So yeah I have WD, that I got from BestBuy. Would I buy one from eBay, I doubt it. For something like this I wanted to make sure it was brand new and noone had access to it.
Re: What is your Business? - We are running a Online Marketing Firm and we have some good clients to which we are offering a complete Digital Marketing strategy like Search, Mobile Marketing, Branding and Design. I think in Online Marketing company online presence can be a wining factor for the success of the company.
Re: How to sale my product - [quote="marcos":yfn1vxwb] I have A brilliant product for online business that sales from the site itself, and my problem is to get to all this sites owners and to offer them my product. [/quote:yfn1vxwb] Could you tell us more in details? It is a physical product? Digital product? If you can explain to the rest of us little more in details, we can probably even suggest more. Warmest Regards, Takuya


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The Neglected Art of Receiving

Maximum Impact Restaurant Greening

In the Year 2020 . . . Process

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.