Someone I respect recently asked, “Why Blog? Who has time to read blogs? You people should quit reading blogs all day and go outside and do something.”

She’s right, I should get outside more.  But that doesn’t mean you can afford to disregard blogging and social media. You should embrace it. Why? Because you care about your customers, your partners, and your employees. It is not your job to talk at them, but to talk with them, and blogging allows you to do that, instantly, worldwide, on their terms.

If you want to know more about blogging and why it is important to your business, there is one blog you should read, Chris Brogan. It isn’t enough to just have a blog. You need to know why you’re blogging and how to best use the medium.

Everything you need to get started with social media is linked on this page:

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/best-social-media-advice-from-this-site/

• Community Development
• Social Networks
• Social Media
• Twitter
• Branding
• Creating Media

Ignore the new media at your own peril.

Also, if you are in marketing (or communicate for a living) read Brogan’s recent post directed to PR and Marketing Professionals.

There are over 100 million blogs on the internet. A lot of them are garbage and most of them aren’t meant for you. The trick is to find the ones that are relevant to what you do. The best place to start is with someone you trust.

My blogging promise to you:

As a blogger here at Ergotron, I hope to earn your trust, by promising to provide you with the best content and communication possible.

Steve Olson - Technical Manager, Ergotron, Inc. Blogging about Technology, Social Media, Lifestreaming, Productivity, Lifehacks and anything else that’s interesting.

Jane Payfer, Chief Marketing Officer @ Ergotron

Can you predict your productivity gain from dual displays?

At Ergotron we think we can, with your help. We spend the time to distinguish between what’s PLAUSIBLE from what’s POSSIBLE for our customers.

We know, productivity gains are possible when you use dual displays at the optimum position, aligned to your personal preference.  One Fortune 500 in-house survey showed a 45% time savings when using dual, instead of single displays. So we know what’s PROBABLE.

But we need to hear from you, because when we know more, we can help make your productivity gains—PREDICTABLE.

What results are you seeing from dual displays? Leave your comments below.

Tim Hager, Sr. Channel Account Manager @ Ergotron

Approximately one month ago I installed the Neo-Flex Dual LCD Lift Stand on the desk of David Thorman, President of NetMicro.  David is 6’ 5″ tall and was accustomed to looking down at his displays.

David loved the NF dual desk stand and was most impressed by the ergonomic height adjustment. He had this to say:  “I became use to looking down on my displays and accepting the discomfort.  With the Ergotron stand I can now easily adjust the screens height and now feel more comfortable in my day to day computing.  My displays now adjust to me vs. me to my displays, what a concept!”

Don’t accept fatigue and undo discomfort at your workstation.  Feel the difference!

John Cain, Design Engineer @ Ergotron

I installed an LX Arm at Blackhawk Tile and Stone for Steve and Brenda. Many people don’t really understand the benefits of true ergonomics in the work place. This became aparent during this installation. After having explained to a few of the people in the office that the arm system not only clears up desk space but decreases neck and back strain as well, it was like a light going on in their heads. Further explanation to include viewing distance from the user to the monitor as well as the height of the monitor was crucial.

Once installed, they loved the arm and learned something about ergonomics at the same
time.

Michelle Judd, Marketing Operations @ Ergotron

I like to write at home but have a non-wellness friendly desktop. Just take a look at the picture. No wonder my arm, neck, and back ache after a two hour stint on the novel.

Reading about how one blogger used Ergotron’s workspace planner in a Home Office Reorganization was a great reminder. I had forgotten all about bringing my calculations with me to the store as I begin looking for a new desk.

Although I’ve been known to cut the legs off of furniture before, I’d rather not. More to come on the quest for computing wellness @ home.

Do you love your job? I love mine, and I’ve found that not a lot of people make that claim. Typically those that do, don’t say it haphazardly. As a round-up-to-one hundred, empty nester, I’m quickly approaching the retirement phase of life, and I can’t quite envision myself there, because, as previously mentioned, I truly do love my job. I can’t imagine “shelving it” just at that time when I’m feeling I’m at the zenith of my personal, and professional productivity and creativity.

And, to further exacerbate the situation, the major problem I face as the marketing team lead for Ergotron ( the title is VP - do titles matter?- that’s another whole blog) is that almost every time I watch t.v. or a movie, or peruse a magazine or newspaper, I see or come in contact with someone or some situation that could be improved through our human centered designed products. Sunday Morning on CBS is on right now. In a recent episode, they showed some researcher who had dual monitors on his desk, but they’re not positioned correctly; he leans forward to see the screen, hunched and crunched. It makes me wince - actually, it makes me crazy. Here someone was showcased getting national attention for their work on a life-saving research project, and the showcased work behavior is counterproductive to his own health and wellness. Which means there’s more work for us to be done, which means we’re really only getting started. Retirement around the corner? Not so fast. . .

When I was in high school, I went on a student government trip to Washington, D.C. We met Hubert Humphrey, who, at that time, had been Mayor of Minneapolis, Senator from Minnesota, and Vice-President of the United States. He spent over an hour with us, a motley crew of 14 students and two teachers from West St. Paul. predicting the impact television would have in our lives. The premise was that if a picture was worth a thousand words, how much more powerful, for the good, could a minute of television be. . .if the television content was developed correctly. This was the Vietnam era. The time when a picture captured a naked little girl, running away from a napalm bomb blast. It was a powerful image. And a haunting picture. She was nine. I was sixteen. His words, like that picture, have stuck with me ever since.

My boss frequently reminds me we can’t market like “Coke.” We’re not building a power brand. Ergotron’s go to market model is predominantly B2B. Even though we have many “consumer” products, we use the digital intersection of Mac, and PC computer and display market makers, to get our products into both commercial and consumer users’ hands. We’ve recently started working with a physical comedian here in Minneapolis, David Harris, to put a face to our company as “Tester Guy“. Tester Guy’s persona fits our company to a “t”. We are incredibly serious about the products we develop. We have safety tests, quality tests, environmental tests, tip tests, push, pull, prod and nudge tests at Ergotron, before we release a product to the world. Tester Guy puts a little light hearted fun into our own testing process, and then the functionality of the product takes him off into a fantasy world - a world that actually creates a touch point for the fun we have, doing what we do, trying to make the world a better place, at Ergotron.

While we haven’t gotten as many “eyeballs” on our video as we like, yet, we’re just launching the Dare2Dual program behind it on August 1st. I’ll let you know if its a successful attempt to build our brand. I hope Hubert was right. And that this 1 minute 40 seconds really tells a story, for good.

For reference I play video games on an Xbox 360 and usually Halo 3 matchmaking on Live.

Now, I’m an old graphic designer. I’m also a very old video gamer. I have created documents on an art board with paper, pen, and ink. I remember the Atari and Commodore consoles.

Changing the way I create art from the traditional tools to computer had its benefits and disappointments. While computers today with support for multi-displays have improved my work life greatly, the lack of screen real-estate in today’s games is problematic.

Take getting shot in first person shooter games.  I want to continue working on the target ahead of me, simply turning my head to see where my attacker is—not using an indicator that the shot came from the right, left, or rear.

Current display technology cannot provide the 180° view I am familiar with in real life.

I noticed a post recently on the Wide Screen Gaming Forum that has made me hopeful. Other gamers are finding this limitation frustrating too.

In this post Ergotron Neo-Flex HD & DS100 Monitor Mounts - WSGF Review the author has used Ergotron products to mount his displays for a panoramic view. He modifies the mounting hardware in a fashion not supported by Ergotron, but I would do the same if I had the idea. It makes me want to go purchase Call of Duty 4 for the PC.

Currently set-up of a “surround gaming” system is only available on computers. I’m hopeful that one (or more) of the console manufacturers will take note and find a way to port this type of configuration to their systems. 

Pete Segar, SVP Product Innovation & Chief Technical Officer, Ergotron

OK- I may be overstating it just a little- but I really do think that my computer workstation is one of the best in the world.   My computer workstation combines sit/stand ergonomics with dual monitor productivity all for <$1000.  It is an amazingly simple and convenient workstation that is perfect for the laptop road warrior.  

My workstation uses an Ergotron Neo-Flex Mobile Workspace cart fitted with a Combo Dual Monitor bow.  This allows me to position my 20″ Dell monitor next to my open laptop screen for a very nice dual monitor workstation.   When I come in the morning, I dock my notebook to the Dell docking station that is permanently mounted to the laptop tray of the cart, and open up the screen.  Then it is perfectly positioned for dual monitor productivity.   I find this provides a huge improvement in my effectiveness and prevents errors.  In my job, I am afrequent spreadsheet user, and the ability to have an email open in 1 screen, a spreadsheet in the other, and the ability to enter data into a spreadsheet without opening and closing windows is much faster and I am much less likely to make an error.

The cart has a 20″ vertical lift so I can easily sit or stand at any time.  I find that it really helps prevent back and neck problems to frequently reposition myself.   Plus, research has shown that you burn calories much faster standing vs sitting. There are many sit/stand worsktations that are commercially available, but they tend to be very expensive ($1,500-4,000) and difficult to use.  Motorized lifts need power, and take roughly 20 seconds to raise from sitting to standing-that can be very irritating.  Cranks are slow and very inconvenient.  The “Constant Force” lift technology is a smooth counterbalance that makes the lift very easy, simply pull up, it moves in place immediately, then it stays where you leave it.  Very intuitive and convenient.   Because it is easy to move- you WILL move it!

Finally, because this cart has nice smooth casters, it is really easy to reposition in the room.  I frequently pull my workstation out away from my desk, and over to the table in my room so I can share my displays during meetings.  We show presentation, meeting notes, etc, and then push it back to the desk when it is not needed.  This is really great.

The standard Neo-Flex Mobile Workspace cart works with either a notebook computer or else a flat panel monitor with a CPU.  I have a prototype configuration that uses the combination monitor/notebook mount from our new Neo-Flex Combo Stand to mount the monitor and notebook side by side.  I am very interested in seeing how much support there is for this type of product- so please provide feedback to my blog if you would like to see this product become available. 

I am issuing a “Dare to Dual” to you: combine a flat panel display with your docked notebook screen to achieve a cost-effective, efficient ergonomic workstation that will change your life! 

Will Townsend, Marketing Director, Global Accounts @ Ergotron

Coming from a family of commercial and investment bankers, I’ve always been fascinated by trading floors.  Impressive arrays of multiple displays and monitors, cramped work spaces, etc.  Feeding news, stock quotes, etc, it’s multi-tasking at its greatest.  Plenty of studies and articles support the productivity gains of using multiple monitors such as the NY Times.  Even PhD blogs exist on the subject.  But the real test subject recently was my wife Allyson.

Allyson’s  a typical “soccer mom.”  She manages the girls weekly activities with online calendars, does webmail, and recently started a home based Internet business.  I recently set her up with a notebook and second monitor mounted on one of Ergotron’s Neo-Flex Combo Lift Stands.   It’s not abundantly known, but it’s a fairly simple adjustment in Windows XP or Vista to run multiple monitors.  No special graphics cards are required.      

Needless to say my wife is hooked and usually has three or four windows open at any given time.  She claims she’s able to get through her email faster and spend more time with the kiddos over the summer break.  In my mind, that’s an investment well made!   And if she sees the benefit at home, I can only imagine corporate America must see it too…

Lynne Johnson, Sr. HR Representative @ Ergotron

This was the 2nd time I’ve installed this product (LX Dual Desk Mount Arm), so it was a lot quicker than the first time. Pat, my contact at TRG, would definitely recommend this product for any office environment.

Pat had this to say: I was very happy that Ergotron was able to save space on my desk and make working with my laptop more convenient. The product is designed very well, so using it is a snap!