Pierpont Communications, Inc.

From Angry Birds to Carbon Foot Calculator, there are more than one million mobile applications available for your consumption. With so many options, it is hard to know which applications are worthwhile and which ones are better left in cyberspace. Below are five must-have applications that are sure to make your busy work days a little easier.

1. Dropbox - Similar to iCloud, Dropbox is a digital storage service that allows you to consolidate all your files - from all your devices - into one place. Any file you save to Dropbox instantaneously saves to your computers, phones and the Dropbox website in an easy-to-share format. This application even keeps a one-month history of your work, so you can undo changes and undelete files if you make a mistake.

It’s also very collaborative – you can invite friends, family or coworkers to a folder and everyone can view and edit the document from the DropBox folder in real time. And it doesn’t just have to be work stuff – I used it to share photos with my family and friends after a vacation.

Price: based on gigabytes of storage, pricing ranges from free to $19.99 a month

We hope you and your family have an amazing Thanksgiving this year filled with joy and good people.

The Pierpont family took some time to list out things we are thankful for before the holiday. These are some of the things Pierponters give thanks for:

My dishwasher - because I will cook for and feed about 24 friends and family at my home on Thanksgiving. – Randy Pruett

I’m thankful for a loving, supportive family, amazing, encouraging friends and good health. – Sarah Zomper

I am thankful for my beautiful wife, wonderful family, amazing friends and awesome little dog, all of whom make every day exciting, rewarding and inspiring. – Mike Gehrig

I'm thankful for the gifts of family, friends and health. And for our armed forces veterans, who have sacrificed so much. – Eric Whittington

Our lovely new office, of course. And a great team who is creative, reliable, hard-working and fun – even through our time together in a glorified closet. – Stacy Armijo

I’m thankful for my husband, family, friends and faith. – Lindsey Garner

I’m thankful for my husband! Kyle and I were married in October, and are still in a cocoon of newlywed bliss. – Lisa Pirtle

Cooler weather and the Boston Celtics (even though there probably isn’t going to be a season this year due to the lock out)! - Subhrata Barot

I’m thankful for the amazing people in my life, technologies and programs that allow us to access the world and really good cover bands. – Brian Block

I am most thankful for my family and friends. They provide an irreplaceable support system, keep me grounded and bring a tremendous amount of joy into my life. I am thankful also for being able to offer the same to each of them. – Michelle Kelley

I'm thankful for being a Pierponter and for the latest addition to my family, my new grandson Jordan Carter who is now two weeks old. – Kathy Nethercutt

Jimmy Kimmel discussed National Unfriend Day for Facebook the other day. I completely missed it, but these days, every day is National Unfriend Day. Go through your lists of people you’re connected to on any network and determine if you want to keep them or not. I say, if you haven’t spoken to them in a year and are unlikely to connect with them in the coming year, it’s safe to drop that hot potato.

And now, the Digital Influence Weekly…



Hopefully you have heard something about the Stop Online Piracy Act as it could put your online activities to a screeching halt. This bill has its good points such as working to put an end to online piracy and illegal content from foreign sites. Copyright infringement is serious business or otherwise serious lost business for the entertainment industry.

However it would also require domestic sites to be shut down that happen to host content that commits copyright infringement. For example, YouTube could be shut down for hosting a video that commits copyright infringement. At the moment, YouTube, like many other sites and social networks, will remove content that commits copyright infringement once notified. But the whole site isn’t taken down.

Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Twitter, AOL, eBay, Yahoo and Zynga sent a letter to elected officials involved stating their concerns over SOPA.

They state, “While we work together to find additional ways to target foreign ‘rogue’ sites, we should not jeopardize a foundational structure that has worked for content owners and Internet companies alike and provides certainty to innovators with new ideas for how people create, find, discuss and share information lawfully online.”

While we wait to determine how this all comes out in the wash, it might be a good time to review your online marketing strategy as it pertains to sites that would be affected by SOPA. Let’s say you put all your online marketing efforts into Facebook and they get shut down, then you are up the creek without an ePaddle. But, if you spread your marketing across multiple sites, then the loss of one network will not be your downfall. Don’t put all your user created eggs into one basket, so to speak.

Even if SOPA doesn’t go through, you never know when a site will go down during a crucial time or if it will be bought out and completely gutted. Take some time to review your social media marketing plan and determine if there are additional sites to be utilized or if you can put a little more effort into sites that you seldom use.

For some additional reading on SOPA I suggest reading these Techcrunch and Wall Street Journal articles.

Some people say it is not possible, but I think Pinterest will soon be more addicting than Facebook! Pinterest (www.pinterest .com) is a social network for your favorite “things.” It goes beyond the typical posting, commenting, and “liking” of Facebook through a community of “pin boards.”

So how exactly does Pinterest work? To join Pinterest, you request an invitation straight from the website or have a friend invite you. From there, you can upload or “pin” your favorite pictures, webpages and online videos onto your “pin” boards. Each user can create his or her own unique names of boards with various interests/hobbies. For example, someone with a board about cooking could have a board entitled “recipes to try” or a fashionista could have a board entitled “must-have outfits for fall.” Pinterest users can then “repin” items onto their pinboards to share with their followers.

Pinterest has been successful in capturing the attention of users because it is easy to maneuver, provides useful information and easily connects to Facebook and Twitter. The number one complaint about Facebook is that it is constantly changing – once users get a hold of the new format, it changes. Pinterest is very simple and to the point. (Or at least, it is now!).

People that use Pinterest will tell you, myself included, that it is super-addicting – but through the addiction comes useful information and ideas. Users can go on Pinterest and find inspiration from users’ unique boards, or use pins to come up with ideas they never would have thought of before. The best feature for social media die-hards is the fact that when you “pin” something to one of your boards, it will ask you whether you want to post it to Facebook or Twitter as well, so you can share it even with those not on Pinterest.

Pinterest, because of its various uses and functions, is quickly becoming the social network to be on. Now, the only question is, how fast can you get your invitation?

In what Apple is claiming to be their best update ever, iOS 5 has added 200 features to their mobile operating system. So, can iOS 5 make you more productive and save you time? Here are 5 things featured in the new update that will help boost your productivity.

Reminders – A new app with iOS 5, Reminders allow users to organize simple to-do lists with due dates, a reminder (either date/time or location), a name and a note. Personally, I’m super excited about the location-based reminder feature. I can’t tell you how many times I think to myself, “Don’t forget to buy milk at the store!” And with the location reminder, I can set a pop up to remind me to but milk when I pull into the parking lot of the grocery store.

Wi-Fi Syncing / iCloud - No more searching for the USB cable! With Wi-Fi Sync, every time you connect your device to a power source, it automatically syncs any new content to iTunes via WiFi. In addition, iCloud automatically stores your music, photos, documents and more, and wirelessly pushes them to all your devices. I’m excited about not missing any calls while my phone is plugged in and syncing. In addition, the daily “cloud backups” make me less worried should my iPhone get misplaced.

Keyboard Shortcuts – Feel like you type the same things over and over? Well, the new ‘Shortcuts’ section allows users to enter phrases and get a shortcut to them. For example, whenever I type my shortcut “hhd,” the expanded phrase “Hey! How is your day going?” will pop up in the auto-correct bar and insert wherever I type it on my phone. What phrase would you love to shortcut?