Spring Sprouts
Spring has arrived in full bloom here in the San Francisco Bay Area. For communication professionals Spring doesn’t always arrive in late March. Increasingly, the landscape is shifting and it seems nearly every day new and interesting technology tools are springing to life. Some of these technology tools are extremely effective and some are not. Some are disruptive to old tried-and-true tools while others are complementary.
I keep my eye on this perpetual technology springtime by having a large, active, and diverse network of friends and peers. I frequent a variety of sites which preview and demo leading edge software and applications. And most importantly, I keep and ear to my clients needs and, when appropriate, go hunting for creative, new and effective tools to accomplish the task.
SPROUTBUILDER
The other day a friend sent me a link to a new product called SproutBuilder. Not only does this product hold lots of business and communications potential, it is also lots of fun to use.
SproutBuilder is a drag and drop, Flash authoring tool that enables absolute beginners - through seasoned pro’s - to easily build multimedia content. Why is this a big deal? Previously, layered, media rich applications and chunks of embedded code, (known as widgets, snippets, or plug-ins) have been the domain of the technically super-savvy.
With SproutBuilder this all changes and has the potential to facilitate many more innovative commercial and social uses for widgets.
SproutBuilder has a true lay-persons user interface, templates, and tutorials for building effective and useful widgets within reach of any company, group or individual. For example, the widgets below were built quickly and easily in SproutBuilder and then embedded into my WigDawg website.
Example #1
Example #2
As you can see, these are fully functional "mini-sites" designed to be interactive as well as shareable. SproutBuilder even comes with a tools allowing you to track where your wigdets are being embedded and shared.
Example #3
Just to show you how easy it really is I built the widget below highlighting a trip my brothers and I took to Viet Nam the year before last. It took about 15-20 minutes.
New technology tools like SproutBuilder and others are exciting. Still, in the end, they are simply tools. And any tool must be leveraged with thoughtful creative direction, well-written copy, and effective design, production, and messaging. WigDawg Communications can help you leverage new and old technologies to accomplish your communication goals.
Let us help you get your projects, Off the Leash.
