Martin Brossman

Http://www.PokenRaleigh.com

Martin Brossman
http://www.ProNetworkingOnLine.com

Later, back at your computer, you plug your Poken using a standard USB port and the new contact’s info shows up on the screen, including their web address, social media sites, videos and photo.  If they change a website, a phone number, a job, or their picture, you get updated with the change automatically. The web-based system also records a timeline of when contacts were made, making Poken more enjoyable and practical than a desk full of aging business cards! 

Poken cost from $20 to $35 and may be ordered online from www.PokenZoo.com . Find them in the Triangle at Affordale Chic in Raleigh and the BNC Center in Cary.  Learn more about how to choose and use Poken at www.PokenRaleigh.com

 Source:  Martin Brossman   www.pronetworkingonline.com

Poken Puppy in his element! Click to see larger view.

Close-up of Poken Puppy, the new Poken Dog from PokenZoo.com

Poken Puppy on PokenRaleigh.com

Find this Poken Puppy at PokenZoo.com

- Martin Brossman
http://www.PokenRaleigh.com

More about Martin Brossman at ProNetworkingOnLine.com

Here is the link to the entire story:
NBC17 interview including Martin Brossman and Gary Alan Miller about Poken – The Social Media Business Card

More press about Poken Raleigh!

-Posted by Martin Brossman

Poken Raleigh Video on Poken.com

1st the What’s a Poken? was added to the Poken.com Fan Page. Video, done by Martin Brossman and the community. Special thanks to Amy Shair, Angel Lebak, Pat Howlett, Greg Hyer, Rob Laughter and Alex Ferguson .

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Martin Brossman gets it on Poken.com blog

2nd “Brossman Gets It” shows up on the Poken.com Blog!

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Poken America

3rd Greg Hyer’s Poken America in the Raleigh area shows up on Poken

- Martin Brossman
http://www.ProNetworkingOnLine.com

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BIG thanks to Poken International for all their support!!!!

http://www.PokenRaleigh.com

A Poken Spark

Preparing Your Poken For Use
Some Poken come set up and ready to go. With others, you need to remove a small paper tab before you can use them. If you have a Poken with a character’s face and a big white hand then you have a Poken Spark. If your Poken is long and thin and looks like a cool-looking USB memory stick, which is called the Poken Pulse, which costs more and has 2Gig of memory.

- If you have a Poken Spark, hold the head and carefully pull the hand away from the head. You may want to use your thumb resting on the top two fingers, pointing toward the head, and push your thumb between the hand and the head as you are pulling. Once separated, you are looking at the USB connector. If it was not pre-set up, there will be a little white tab for you to pull straight out from under the circuit board with little gold-looking lines. Next, look for the string and plastic connector and fish that through the small loop with a hole in the hand piece. After fishing this through, push the plastic connector though the loop that just passed through the little white hole and let it loop tightly around the connector. Put the head back on the hand and you are ready to connect to other Poken owners! In fact, you can connect to 64 people before you need to sync the Poken with your computer.

- If you have a Poken Pulse, look for the tab on the side of the white or colored base with the USB connector and pull it straight out. It may take some real strength to get it out. Next look for the string and plastic connector and fish that through the small loop on the shell. After fishing this through then push the plastic connector though the loop that just passed through the little white hole and let it loop tightly around the connector. Slide the shell back over the USB plug and you are ready to connect with other Poken owners! You can connect to an almost unlimited number of connections with this one before syncing, but you won’t want to because then you will not have those contacts in your dashboard to use.

Connecting With Other Poken Owners
You can use your Poken right out of the box , even before entering your information online. To connect with another person’s Poken—aka giviing a “high 4”—you touch the hands (of Poken Spark) or the hand emblems (on your Poken Pulse) together. Note that you come in slow and steady, because if you move too fast you get a blinking red light that tells you no connection was made, and you need to wait until it clears and try again. (Just like real life networking…if you move too fast, red lights come on!) When you come in correctly, you will see both Poken glowing a pale green light indicating that you have both received each other’s social media business card. You can make up to 64 connections before you plug it in to your computer.
Connecting Your Poken to Your Computer
On Poken Spark, separate the head from the hand. On Poken Pulse, separate the sleeve from the base. When you have internet access, plug your Poken into the USB drive. Pay attention and don’t force it.

If a window opens up, open the folder and then select “Start Poken.” If a window doesn’t open up, double-click on the new drive that says “Connect to Poken Website.” Either method will take you to the Poken website or Hub to sign up the first time. In the future you’ll just sign in.

In the process of signing up, if you don’t know what to fill in for an item, hit Skip. You can always come back and add data later. The most important items to include in your profile info are your website and your photo because yow don’t want a blank face with your name showing up on everyone’s Contact List!

Note: if you received the Poken directly or indirectly from me, Martin Brossman, you will see my information showing up on your Timeline and Contact List; you can choose to accept it or not. It is an indicator that I have set up and tested each one that I sell.
Working With the Poken Hub
There are 3 components to note: Your Card—on the left; Timeline—on the right and Contact List—underneath the timeline.
On the Timeline, you can have more than one connection with the same person, accumulating as you connect overtime. Don’t delete this, since all the person’s data will disappear completely. In the Contact List below there is only one listing of their data. When you or a contact changes any of your information, it changes on everyone’s Contact Lists. And there is no further cost or additional charge for the Poken service after the initial purchase of the Poken.

After you have synchronized a Poken Spark, it is empty and you can add up to 64 new connections before you can sync again.

The Battery Life
The estimated life of a Poken battery is 4-6 months, depending on use. It’s a standard button battery you can find at Radio Shack. Install it by using a small screwdriver or knife, separating the shell of the hand on the Spark and opening the drawer on the Pulse.

For additional Poken information and to learn about the Poken Raleigh Project, go to www.pokenraleigh.com. Feel free to contact me with questions: – Martin Brossman – www.ProNetworkingOnLine.com, (919) 847-4757 , Martin@CoachingSupport.com

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Share your photo with Poken

The Dynamic History of Poken coming to the Raleigh Area!
Share your part!
Comments from different people are welcome:

By Pamela St Peter:

“I know Pokens had started to make their appearance in Raleigh NC BUT I think they really got a boost thanks to one of the organizers of the RE BarCamp RDU in November – Merideth Morgan. For you see SHE is the one that as we were planning, looking for sponsors and neat “gifts” shouted I want a POKEN. From her mouth straight to Steve Delmont of PokenZoo’s (www.PokenZoo.com) ears.

When I contacted Steve to ask if he would help make our event special he didn’t hesitate a minute! He sent one to everyone on the organization team AND a bunch for the Thought Leaders to give away as “Gifts” throughout the day after their sessions.

I was bribed, threatened, and sweet talked as the day went on… everyone was talking about the Poken. Everyone wanted one! “Do you Poken?” was the fun chant of the day…

Thanks Martin for starting the group ~ so now I’m thinking it’s time to set up a Poken event… ”

By Martin Brossman:

I learned about Poken at the early part of 2009 from Wayne Sutton but did not get excited by it till RE BarCamp RDU in November when I talked to Hearth O and saw the slightly out of focus picture of a Poken that Amy Shair took. Then that evening I looked it up on Youtube and saw the video of the founder of Poken speaking to Google and realize this was a missing link in business networking! I thought how could we get everyone to use Poken in the RTP area and help as many people businesses along the way as possible. I got so excited that I made two You tube videos about Poken.  One was how to hook up your Poken to your computer and the other was What is a Poken? They were picked up by Poken.com with a very kind note about my videos from the founder of Poken. That is when I came up with the 2010 Poken Project of the Raleigh area. I build this website, the Poken Raleigh facebook page, @PokenRTP and the Flickr folder. Self promotion is not only allowed but encouraged as long as you show your Poken! If you want to contribute to this Blog please just let me know. Ideas of how to use the Poken to help the community are welcome. If you are an affiliate and sell Poken you are even welcome to post it here on Find a Poken. Add your perspective of how Poken came to Raleigh!

About the same time Greg Hyer got excited about the Poken ( www.LinkedinRaleighNC.com ) and Pat Howlett ( www.inSide919.com ) as well. They also will have poken’s available off their website and at events.

Have more, a different perspective, something to add… let me know!

Martin Brossman
http://www.ProNetworkingOnLine.com

Martin@CoachingSupport.com

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Poken Spark and Pulse

Understanding the Poken which represents the next generation of business cards by Martin Brossman

This is a new electronic business card that stays up-to-date and includes Social Media links as well as your picture. In the old days we traded business cards that were often hard to read, when we got back to the office we had to type or scan into our computer and used paper from trees (NOT Green).

Today instead of the business card we use the Poken which costs from $20 to $35 (much less then a bunch of quality business cards) . You meet someone, touch your Pokens together, and that, with short range wireless, transmits a code to each Poken. You plug your Poken in to your computer back at the office using a standard USB port and all their info shows up on the screen including web address, social media sites, videos and their picture. You can export this data electronically to any other system you want. If they change a website, a phone number, a job, or their picture you get updated with the change automatically! It also shows you where you met them in time.

The Poken is much, much more than just an electronic business card sharing device. It is a fun way to share your social media and contact information with someone you meet who also has a Poken. It can include your photo, all your social media sites, your websites, phone, address..whatever you want to add. Links are active hyper links AND they don’t have to type your contact info into their computer. You can have it on you keychain and when you find someone you meet that also has one and you would like to share information with them, you just touch your Pokens together. They glow and that means the transfer of the ID’s occurred. Next time you are at your computer you plug your Poken into the USB slot and it transfers all your contacts to the web based Poken contact page. It is a new product by a new company that is already turning a profit. I believe this or something like this will be used more and more in the future over just a business card.

Their are two models of the Poken and the Hub:

* PokenSPARK: Cost less (~$20.00 + shipping ), are the the little things with the big hand, has no extra memory.
http://www.poken.com/spark

* PokenPULSE: Cost a bit more (~$35.00 + shipping), looks like a USB memory stick and had 2Gig of re-usable memory as well as the Poken electronics and storage for the Poken data. To see the PLUS:
http://www.poken.com/pulse

* PokenHUB: This is the website you use to maintain and keep all your contact data. Since it is web based you can be a different computer and both view and update it. No charge for using the HUB, all you have to do is buy the Poken. To see more about the HUB:
http://www.poken.com/website

Benefits of the Poken:

* Don’t have to type in their contact information or re-check check scanned in information like a business card.
* If they change their connections or content information your information on them is automatically updated.
* It includes the time / date when you met them on a time-line.
* Their photo is included.
* You can easily export the data to other electronic devices.

What is required to make this work for you:

* You both have to have a Poken.
* You both have to have internet access.
* You need to carry it with you.
* Every 4 to 8 months you will have to open the little case and change the battery that you can find at Radio Shack.

Some resource to lean more about the Poken
A videos about the Poken:
http://vimeo.com/6985456
More about it: http://vimeo.com/6955476

More about the Networking concept related to Poken:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61jYzrR5MN4

What the Poken looks like inside:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js2R6E4Q82k

Text explanation of the Poken including the manufacture and technology from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poken

Blog post comparing the Poken to other Digital Business cards:
http://technology.inc.com/hardware/articles/200906/businesscard.html

To get questions and answers about the Poken and community support:

http://getsatisfaction.com/poken

Place to buy your Poken!:
http://www.pokenzoo.com

Also you can get them from a link on inSide919.com
At FindaPoken

And I am often carrying around a few that I will sell at $19.95 for the PokenSPARK and the PokenPULSE for $34.99 (you don’t pay shipping).
Call me for info (919) 847-4757

Now that you own a Poken, how to connect it to your computer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-JFOqeULU0

Hope this was informative and please post your additions and comments. If you have a Poken let us know! I have a new list on Twitter called Poken Owners of RTP, if you are one and want to be on this list send me a tweet! Here is the link to the list: http://twitter.com/martinbrossman/poken-owners-of-rtp
Post a note here or to my Twitter account: http://www.twitter.com/martinbrossman

Martin Brossman
ProNetworkingOnLine.com
Raleigh NC