Transitioning from hotmail to Gmail – Next up, Buzz please!
By Sarah Shehata | March 2, 2010
Exporting my contacts from hotmail was completed in 5 clicks. If you think that sounds easy, read on!
I went over to my Gmail account to see how I could import these contacts. To my surprise, it had its own set of steps that were much easier to say the least! One thing that really impressed me are the options it presented me with to further facilitate my transition. It allowed me to import my contacts, import my mail AND import any new mail I receive from my hotmail account for the next 30 days! In addition, once the import started, it let me know that I can close the window and keep using Gmail, or even log out and close my browser. It would still keep working in the background.
Now, I am one of those people who has been using hotmail for the past ten years. Being in the social media and marketing community has proven me otherwise. A few reasons I have decided to switch over to Gmail:
Google Calendar
Is web based and really easy to synch with your mobile phone. You can also create different calendars and color code them to your needs.
Labs
There are so many features that are being developed by the community everyday that further simplify your life. Two examples I found to be helpful are the Undo Send & The Title Tweaks features. The latter isn’t as clear so I’ll further explain it. It basically changes the order of the elements in the browser title bar from “Gmail – Inbox (10)” to “Inbox (10) – Gmail” which allows you to see if new mail has arrived even if the Gmail window is minimized!
Labels
I don’t know about you, but I like keeping my emails organized. You know those emails you get, the ones that have a tendency to fall into numerous categories? With the label feature, you don’t need to assign it in ONE folder! You can have multiple labels for it which is easier to search for should you want to refer back to it.
Archive
If you don’t want to delete the email, yet it is something you have already read, archiving it is the way to go. All archived mail remains in the archived folder and you can use the search bar to find it later.
Reader
Reader allows you to subscribe to websites you frequently visit and brings you their latest updates right to your email! You can also share your entire list with friends.
Documents
With this feature, you can create a word document, excel file, presentation and/or form all within your account! Not only does it allow you to do that, but also, you can share specific documents with friends and co-workers.
Go on, give it a try and let me know what you think!
Now that’s taken care of, I’m starting to buzz! – add me to your buzz environment!
Topics: Social Media, Uncategorized | No Comments »
LinkedIn Answers & Earning Expertise
By Sarah Shehata | February 15, 2010
If you have specific questions and are looking for various answers, why not use LinkedIn Answers? With this feature, you can ask questions within different industries and be sure to find an answer that will satisfy you! Thought-provoking questions that relate to others sharing knowledge they have is always great. This also gives SME’s (Subject Matter Experts) a chance to share their knowledge and will improve the quality of others’ answers.
How do I earn expertise when answering questions on LinkedIn?
This is what LinkedIn has to say:
When you see a green box with a white star on a Profile, you know that person has proven their expertise by answering questions posed in the Answers forum. They have had answers selected as the ‘Best’ answer and are given expert status. Answer experts can be found at the bottom of the Answer home page. To earn expertise:
- Find questions in the areas you know.
- Browse questions to find categories familiar to you and answer those questions.
- Every time the questioner picks your answer as the ‘Best’ answer, you gain a point of expertise in the category of the question. The more points of expertise, the higher you appear on lists of experts. Private answers don’t count toward expertise.
Once the question is closed the member can rate the answers that came in. Answers is a good way to share and exchange information.
What do I benefit if I am listed as an expert?
It is a great way to add value to your Profile by displaying your writing style, personality, organizational abilities and subject matter expertise to those viewing your Profile. If your answer is voted ‘Best’ it is hoped that it was because you provided the best information in a way that helped the member to resolve their query.
This will help you stand out amongst the crowd and will also draw attention to your business. People will keep you in their mind and will know who to not only go to for answers but for services!
Still not sure?
Start by trying to ask a question, yes, you are entitled to ask up to 10 questions per month and see what/how people respond back. And note the amount of time it takes! You will be surprised by the amount of people who are offering their knowledge.
Depending on how specific your question is, you will receive responses. One question I asked received 5 different answers within an hour time span while another received 10 within half an hour!
Keep in mind that questions you ask can also be flagged, reported and removed if they are inappropriate which might lead you to become blocked by LinkedIn from asking any more questions.
Best Practice- Make sure to thank the person who’s answer you ranked as best.
Topics: LinkedIn, Social Media | No Comments »
Facebook’s Facelift – Give it a chance!
By Sarah Shehata | February 8, 2010
Facebook’s recent changes have finally rolled out to me just today. Most of us almost always dislike new changes first time round. Having explored the new re-design however, I feel that it is much more user-friendly and has a cleaner feel to it. How do you feel about these new changes?
I like what they have done with the top menu and think it’s a great idea to have those icons up there for easier navigation. Even more, the concept of having the icon light up when a new notification/ message is received is a splendid way to grasp one’s attention.
Explore it and give it time, we only need to adjust to the modifications before being able to accept them!
Topics: Facebook, Social Media | 2 Comments »
Are you being LOUD enough?
By Sarah Shehata | February 5, 2010
Chances are you probably have several potential target customer groups. Have you stopped to think about how you are coming across to your audience? Are you being too sales-y? How well are you interacting with your audience?
A great way to start would be to set your tone to the audience as well as objective. Whether you prefer to be more professional, casual or a mix of both depends on what you are offering and to which target customer group.
Choose which to focus on by considering the 4 Ps.
Which audience will you be able to offer an eye-catching product to while also charging a competitive price and earning acceptable margins? Will one audience respond better to promotions than another? Are you able to reach some more easily with existing distribution channels such as Social Media than others? Which tone would be most heard within that target group?
By answering these as well as other questions related to the 4 Ps you will be better able to make marketing decisions and choose effective Social Media sites for your marketing plan.
Speak up loud and clear and reach out to your audience!
Topics: Social Media, Uncategorized | No Comments »
LinkedIn: Groups & Subgroups vs Custom Groups
By Sarah Shehata | January 29, 2010
Are you utilizing your LinkedIn to its fullest potential and using Groups?
To start off with, there are three different types of Groups within LinkedIn that you can create. The traditional Group, a Subgroup within the Group and Custom Groups.
LinkedIn defines a Group as your destination to find and join communities of professionals based on common interest, experience, affiliation, and goals. It is an excellent way to stay in touch with organizations, schools, and companies that you are and were a part of, network with professionals with similar interests and goals, and collaborate in a professional community online. LinkedIn does restrict your ownership to 10 Groups at any one time.
A subgroup is a group within an existing LinkedIn main group. The subgroup, or child group, provides you with more tightly focused arenas for professional discussion and interaction among members within the existing main group, also known as the ‘Parent’ Group. Subgroups are smaller than the parent group and have a focus that is more defined. For example you may find a parent group named Social Media Group’ and then subgroups named ‘Email Marketing, ‘Stumble upon your Facebook ‘and ‘Forever Twitter’. These subgroups are more exclusive in their membership and have news and discussions that are of specific interest to them. Parent groups can contain up to 20 subgroups. Keep in mind that members must sign up to participate within the child groups discussion forums.
Custom Groups is a new feature on the website that allows users to build subsidized collectives. This type of Group is now available for a monthly fee and enables companies to turn their discussions into elaborate marketing sites.
It has been said that businesses that create this type of Group can import content such as RSS feeds and videos within the group. This is also a great new feature since it allows you to better target your audience.
The growth rate of Groups has been increasing tremendously and not only does it allow you to take your online networking to a professional level but it also allows you to further promote your products and services!
Topics: LinkedIn, Social Media | No Comments »
Virtual Meetings
By Sarah Shehata | January 22, 2010
We live in an extremely fast paced environment and the need for virtual meetings has been growing fast. One of the best services I have come across and used is GoToMeeting.
GoToMeeting specializes in web conferencing, online meetings and online training. Some great features GoToMeeting has to offer that have come in handy are;
Desktop Recording which allows you to record your meeting. I found this a great way to save training sessions and sales demonstrations.
Specific Application Sharing that allows you to share specific applications rather than your entire desktop.
Drawing tools. These are practical when highlighting something of interest to your attendees. I have found that using these tools increases meeting participation and interaction.
Multiple Monitor Support integrates into GoToMeeting when using multiple monitor systems.
Attendance Reporting allows you to generate reports. This is convenient since you can track when attendees join and leave the session.
A One-Click Meeting button can be integrated into your email application.
Instantly Change Presenters. This is a great feature when you have multiple presenters. Giving another person access allows them to share their screen and thus share information with participants.
Instant Messaging Integration allows you to conduct quick online meetings directly from your IM service.
Chat allows you to interact with a specific participant in private before or during a meeting without disrupting the meeting in progress.
If you are still reluctant about it, you can give it a try for yourself – they offer a FREE 30 day trial.
I am interested in hearing of other online meeting services you use. Please comment and let me know!
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tracking your Tweets
By Sarah Shehata | January 15, 2010
There is no denying how big of a role Social Media has taken up in our lives. Along the way, the need for url shortners and tracking have grown higher. Since there are only so many characters one can use in Twitter for instance, people have reverted to url shortners. Some shortners worth checking out are bit.ly, tr.im, tiny url and the most recent goo.gl. These services are free of charge and allow you to shorten those extremely long urls that can be just hideous. Doing this not only allows for more characters while tweeting but also allows you to track your tweets.
One feature bit.ly offers is real time link tracking. This is a great way to analyze how many people click through to your link. It also tracks how many other tweeple have retweeted your tweet as well as where they are located in the world.
Utilizing these websites has only proven to be beneficial and comes in handy especially for businesses that are active in the Social Media world. Get started today if you have not already!
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Backup your online Accounts
By Sarah Shehata | January 11, 2010
I have a tendency to worry about losing information and data on my online accounts. A co-worker of mine brought to my attention an online service that has the ability to backup all my online accounts. After doing my homework, I came to the conclusion that it is secure, user-friendly and free of charge throughout the month of January 2010!
Backupify allows you to protect your data should your online accounts crash. Amongst others, Backupify supports Twitter, Google Docs, Wordpress, Gmail, Facebook, Flickr and Basecamp.
It took me less than a few minutes to set-up my account. I was worried about entering my log-in information for all my accounts since those might also be saved. Digging deeper, I came across a section where Backupify mentions log-in and password information is locked away and secure. They also mention in their privacy statement that everything you back up is your data and will never be shared with anyone. Having read that, I was sure this was a service I need!
Check it out and let me know your thoughts.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
The Black Hole
By Sarah Shehata | December 18, 2009
Do you have an efficient way to keep your e-mails organized and your inbox empty on a regular basis? Many people have trouble prioritizing their emails and along the way emails sometimes get lost amongst the ever piling new one’s (which can lead to some unpleasant consequences). If you are reading this and nodding, it’s time to rethink your processing methods!
Believe it or not, it truly is possible to keep your inbox organized, the key lies in evaluating, prioritizing, labeling, and organizing emails into folders.
We have all had those times when we have opened an email and weren’t sure what to do with it and up leaving it for later. That is how emails accumulate.
Try some of the below approaches to help you gain more control over your emails, keep up with due dates, and improve your response time.
Where to store what information
Something I recently found to be beneficial is to sort out your emails initially into two categories:
Reference information – these are emails that contain information that is not required to complete an action but rather, information you need to archive for reference should you need it again one day. (Which over the years I have learnt I do not need half of the emails I store)
Action information – these are emails that you need in order to complete an action.
Come up with a system to archive your reference information and label or create folders for them for easy access later when searching for these emails.
Silence is Golden
It’s almost impossible to get anything done when you allow for constant disruptions from people stopping by your office, constant phone calls, and of course, instant messages. It is critical that one sets aside some designated time per day for emails. It is alright to scan your e-mail several times during the day for emails requesting immediate attention. (Those usually come from the boss)
One thought to get in the habit of doing this would be to create a re-occurring calendar appointment in order to set aside some time and show this time frame as “busy”. It is only natural that this will take some time to incorporate in your day-to-day life, but over time will turn into a habit. Don’t lose hope just because you didn’t stick to it the first time round. This habit will become religion once you see the value in it and find how organized and efficient you have become.
Somebody’s Gotta Do it
Coming up with a method to handle emails isn’t everyone’s favorite thing to do. A tactic I learnt to approach this is to start from the good old top and work your way down. Resist the temptation to jump around in no specific sequence. This usually results in loss in focus and concentration. Rather, try sorting them out by the order in which you want to process and categorize them. I personally prefer filtering emails by the person it’s coming from, however, others prefer filtering by date or subject.
Apply the 4 D’s principle
While going through your inbox, decide what you want to do with every message by applying one of the following choices to it:
- Delete it
- Do it
- Delegate it
- Defer it
Using the 4 D’s model can, based on stats, allow you to process up to 100 emails per hour. All you need now is to designate that time of day for it.
Over half of the emails one typically receives throughout the day can be deleted or archived. The other half can usually be delegated, completed (in a few minutes) or deferred to your to-do list.
Do you have another effective way you deal with your inbox? We would love to hear it!
Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Who’s Managing?
By Sarah Shehata | December 4, 2009
Electing the right person to handle your LinkedIn Group can be a difficult decision. Group owners and managers have numerous ways to administer their groups. Among these are; accept or decline requests to join, create and manage subgroups, and edit group settings.
It is crucial that you choose a person who is dedicated and fully understands the role, tasks and responsibilities that come along with it.
Setting guidelines to help the person you promote within the group can be helpful. For instance, the regularity of accepting/declining pending members’ requests to join reflects on your firm’s figure and activity within the group. Since owners and managers do not receive notifications of requests to join the group, it is a good idea to be checking the group on a regular basis. Monitoring discussions posted as well as comments can help you figure out your member’s interests. Once you have established that, it is easier to commence appropriate discussions based on how your audience responds to topics.
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