What’s the first thing you fire up on your computer or pull from your briefcase to take notes in a meeting, class or other place you need to capture information. Normally most people will fire up a text editor (like Notepad on Windows or Textedit on Mac) or a Word-processor like Microsoft Word.

I was in a sales meeting this morning and as I noticed the white board the instructor was using I got a flash of inspriation. Instead of using my text editor to take notes I would instead fire up my presentation software. I use Keynote on my MacBook Pro but the majority of you may have Microsoft Powerpoint which is the competing product. Why did I do this? For one I wanted to take advantage of larger fonts and get in the mindset or organizing the points into different slides so I could break up the different aspects of the lesson easier. Another reason is I will eliminate an extra development step if I wish to create a similar presentation based on my own thoughts and ideas, thirdly using Keynote to take notes gave me the advantage of sharpening my presentation design skills while at the same time staying focused on the content of lesson or meeting at hand.

Sometimes a camera may be one of the best and most efficient ways to quickly capture information, especially textual information that’s hard to remember. Ever see a phone # or web site address when traveling around town you would like follow up on later? Often we are driving around or in a position where we don’t have quick access to a computer or even pad and paper but more and more people have very quick access to a camera via their cell phone or PDA. Two example of how I used this in my daily life were; 1.) Taking a photo of the room number my father in-law was at in the hospital so I could quickly tell other friends and family members where he was so they could visit when appropriate. 2.) While driving around I saw a house and plot of land I was interested in buying. I took a photo of the real estate sign with the contact information and mail box that had the street address so I could follow up on it later. Sometimes we may want to direct people to a location and sending a quick photo of a building, street sign, etc. can help out a lot more than textual or verbal directions.

Finally I have made use of Internet blogging platforms (like this one) as not only a way to reach out and build community with my clients, local community and world at large but also I am using blogs like this one and micro-blogging services like Twitter to journal my daily activities, take notes, etc.

How does this apply to your business in terms creating content and also getting that content out to users? Think about the following; Could someone tell the story of your business via a simple presentation, could they quickly snap a photo with their cell phone to capture your contact information of get a positive image of your work? Are people twittering or blogging about you and your business either good or bad even as events are happening?

As you seeking to create compelling content for your web site or other media are you taking advantage of alternative methods to capture information or to put it into a form which will save you steps in the long run? What are some creative ways you are using untypical tools to get work done and the word out?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 11:35 am and is filed under Innovation, Organization, Semantic, Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.