Don't Bang Your Head

Quick Tip: Amazing video not to be missed. Winner of America's Got Talent proves that man's ability to amaze never quits!

http://www.gingagadgets.com/youtube/view?key=qNJ02rxaNrs

How to Prepare for a Natural Disaster Using.....Social Media!

This past weekend, storms hit the NY/NJ area with an unexpected force. Trees fell on houses, basements were flooded and houses & businesses were wrecked. We all try so hard to be in control of our lives but every so often, mother nature (call it what you will) comes along and reminds us that we aren't.

But what we can do is be prepared. We need evacuation strategies, plans on how to meet and communicate with family members and co-workers, back up of all critical IDs and important paperwork.....the list goes on.

But what we need most is portability: the ability to retrieve all this information when we need it from wherever we might find ourselves. I used to have a waterproof bag with a list of all our policies, accounts, contact info etc. Great idea when there's warning of a disaster, but pretty useless in the unexpected. So this summer, I scanned in all this information to my private Google Docs account and threw out the bag. Now I can access whatever I need from my laptop or my cell phone.

Here's an excellent article that is a must read for every home, organization or small business.

HOW TO: Prepare for Disasters Using Social Media

Earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes — lately, it seems like there’s a new natural disaster wreaking havoc on poor planet Earth every week. From our television sets to our Twitter streams, it’s impossible to ignore the devastation these disasters leave behind. And, no matter where you’re watching from, it’s hard not to feel just a little bit helpless in the face of such colossal catastrophes.

But when it comes to natural disasters, modern technology is making it easier than ever to take control by creating your own emergency response system — no high pitched beeping required. There are tons of tools to help you create emergency preparedness plans, keep in touch during a disaster, and get your life back after one strikes. Nothing will keep you safer or saner during a natural disaster than having a good plan in advance.

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Create a Plan

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According to FEMA, the best way to avoid significant damage during a disaster is to prepare an emergency response plan in advance. The FEMA Website is a great place to get that process started. In fact, they offer an easy checklist of items you should consider when putting together your plan: Escape routes, family communications, utility shut-off and safety, insurance and vital records, special needs, caring for animals, and safety skills. It seems like a lot, but fortunately, there are plenty of resources to help make all that planning much easier.

Twitter: try it...you'll like it (or your business will)

Why Twitter, again? Look, we’ve all cut back on our marketing and networking since the crash of ’08. We’ve cut our advertising budgets, reduce the number of networking events we attend, eliminated  sponsorships for events, trade conferences and so on. And we’ve done this in a time when we need to find new revenue opportunities. We can’t count on repeat business from client/customers, many of whom are cutting back themselves or are no longer in business.  So we need to rethink our strategy and incorporate effective, cost effective tools to rebuild our revenues. These tools are different and on first glance, irrelevant. Well, we may not ‘get it’ but we need to because simply put, it works.

If you are anything like me (and if you understand the reference in the title, we have a lot in common), you originally went to twitter, created a LinkedIn page and maybe opened a Facebook account. You went back and nothing happened. On Twitter, you may have seen a page of disjointed comments filled with #,@, http://bitly.url etc, people you had no interest in seeing again tried to 'friend' you on Facebook and your LinkedIn page stayed empty. What a waste of time.

Well you are wrong. It isn't and you need to get on board. It’s that simple.

And Twitter should be a part of this new strategy. It works and it’s free (time consuming to get going but free). Watch the video below to see how easy it is to get started and then do it!  Once you’ve set it up, follow these 3 easy steps:

1.      Start building a following (over time): Add your twitter name @marcyhoffman to your email signature, business cards, websites etc. Look in 'Find People' on your Twitter home page for people you want to follow: friends, colleagues, connected people in your area(s) of interested and click 'follow' next to their name. Most of the time they will reciprocate and will follow you for a while to see if you a 'contributor'. Shmoozing, networking or tweeting on Twitterville (a phrase coined by Shel Israel).

2.      Set up alerts that will notify you via email every time anyone (even if they're not in your twitter list) mentions your company, your competitors companies or those keywords that are the crux of your business (shoes, ice cream, etc), topics that relate to your business (small business marketing) or a topic you enjoy (Fantasy Football, Poker, Belly Dancing...). I just saw an article 6 powerful LinkedIn Marketing Tips for Small Businesses) tweeted that I never would have found and it was so interesting that I now follow that Tweeter and her blog.

Tip: After you have set up a Twitter account (and please watch the video below) go to Tweet Alarm and enter in these keywords and you'll get an email every time one of your keywords is tweeted.

3.      Start Tweeting. Just start. Tweet about that new account, a new product that you found that’s an amazing time saver, an article that you found that you want to share, a cartoon that pillories your industry…information that you would want to hear about. You can tweet from your smartphone, or from your Twitter account. There are easier ways to post but let’s save that for a later post. Email me if you want to know what they are.

Take a few minutes and watch this:

How To Use Twitter For Business on Howcast

Verizon Bills Dead Man, Says 'Death Certificate' Not Enough To Cancel Service. A scary lesson for your business.

Funny (and sad) story but woke me up to a task I haven't even remembered to do. Before you read this post, make sure you have all the user names, passwords and PINS for every program, email, Facebook account etc. from every employee, consultant and your IT team put somewhere safely. At the bottom of this article there is a list of companies that provide this service and store this critical information securely. Nothing worse than having your IT guy/gal (I am a product of my times) missing in action and your server goes down or firing an employee and not being able to turn off access to company email, social networks or even their Quickbook access. Seriously, do this today.

Reprinted from Huffington Post

Don't die without sharing your PIN numbers.

That seems to be the lesson learned from Verizon's recent botched handling of a deceased man's account.

Bill Young of Calvin, W.Va died in June 2009, but Verizon Wireless continued to bill him until February 2010.

Young's daughter, Cynthia Lacy produced a death certificate for the company to certify her father's passing, but was told by a Verizon representative that without her father's PIN (personal identification number), she was not allowed access to the account, reports the St. Petersburg Times.

The Florida paper recounted the conversation Lacy allegedly had with Verizon:

'Well, there's nothing else I can do for you,' the representative said before laughing and hanging up the phone.

'This is wrong,' a frustrated Lacy said.

Selling whatever it is your company sells using Twitter. Yes Twitter

For those of you in business or running an organization, word of mouth (WOM) has always been the #1 key to success. You sell a great product, your client's project came in on time and under budget or your charity's run for success is signing up runners faster than you could have imagined. What happens next? One person tells the next and the next and your client list is growing, your sales are up and your charity has a few new sponsors.

Twitter= WOM X 27.3M (number of monthly Twitter users according to Quantcast.)

Now do I have your attention? Then take 5 minutes and read how small businesses are building their businesses using Twitter.

NYT: SAN FRANCISCO — Three weeks after Curtis Kimball opened his crème brûlée cart in San Francisco, he noticed a stranger among the friends in line for his desserts. How had the man discovered the cart? He had read about it on Twitter.For Mr. Kimball, who conceded that he “hadn’t really understood the purpose of Twitter,” the beauty of digital word-of-mouth marketing was immediately clear. He signed up for an account and has more than 5,400 followers who wait for him to post the current location of his itinerant cart and list the flavors of the day, like lavender and orange creamsicle.

“I would love to say that I just had a really good idea and strategy, but Twitter has been pretty essential to my success,” he said. He has quit his day job as a carpenter to keep up with the demand.

Too much info? How can I manage all the websites, articles I follow (and this blog) without taking Tylenol?

If you are anything like me, you read multiple online newspapers, websites, blogs and of course, Don't Bang Your Head and following them is time consuming and can easily give you a headache. The solution is called RSS and here's the simplest explanation...the Oprah Way!

How to explain RSS the Oprah way

Today, I’m going to explain how RSS can help you live your best life online.  We all have busy lives with very little time. Web surfing is fun but can take hours going to visit every single website and blog you enjoy. Wouldn’t it be fabulous if you could just get all the headlines of the most current stories from all your favorite websites and blogs in one place?  Well now you can, and it is called RSS feed. 

The Oprah definition

The technical acronym for RSS is “Really Simple Syndication”, an XML format that was created to syndicate news, and be a means to share content on the web. Now, to geeks and techies that means something special, but to everyday folks like you and me, what comes to mind is, “Uh, I don’t get it?”  So, to make RSS much easier to understand, in Oprah speak, RSS stands for: I’m “Ready for Some Stories”. It is a way online for you to get a quick list of the latest story headlines from all your favorite websites and blogs all in one place. How cool is that?

Today, I’m going to explain how RSS can help you live your best life online.  We all have busy lives with very little time. Web surfing is fun but can take hours going to visit every single website and blog you enjoy. Wouldn’t it be fabulous if you could just get all the headlines of the most current stories from all your favorite websites and blogs in one place?  Well now you can, and it is called RSS feed. 

The Oprah definition

The technical acronym for RSS is “Really Simple Syndication”, an XML format that was created to syndicate news, and be a means to share content on the web. Now, to geeks and techies that means something special, but to everyday folks like you and me, what comes to mind is, “Uh, I don’t get it?”  So, to make RSS much easier to understand, in Oprah speak, RSS stands for: I’m “Ready for Some Stories”. It is a way online for you to get a quick list of the latest story headlines from all your favorite websites and blogs all in one place. How cool is that?

How Small Business Is Using Social Media: it's in the numbers

I hear the same comment repeatedly: Why do I need social media (Facebook,LinkedIn,Twitter, etc)? I am a __________ (fill in your profession, occupation or organizations name), my clients/customers/members are local and over ____ (pick an age) and none of this will help me grow my business/practice/organization.

Yes it will. It's that simple. And the numbers are fascinating:

Here's an article by  Jennifer Van Grove reprinted from Mashable:

How Small Business Is Using Social Media [STATS]

The University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business looked at the relationship between social media and small businesses and found that the technology adoption rates in the U.S. have doubled in the past year from 12% to 24%. The data comes straight from the university’s third installment to its Small Business Success Index report and is based on a December 2009 telephone survey of 500 small business owners. Adoption rate calculations are compared against a baseline report conducted in December 2008.

The study concludes that one nearly one in five small business owners are integrating social media into their business processes — Facebook () and LinkedIn () were the most popular sites. In fact, 45% of surveyed respondents even believe their social media initiatives will pay off financially in 12 months or less.

Cloud computing part 2

Yesterday's post was read by a number of people who either copied it to their company blog or emailed me with questions. I put up a quick post from a friend who felt his company was safe because they used logmein rather than pc anywhere. I responded that irrespective of the product you use to connect to your office PC, you still rely on the server sitting in a closet at your office. It might seem safe and secure and your IT person (or nephew if your sister-in-law insists) assures you that he has it under control. It's duplicated on a separate drive in the server, or maybe on a second server, all the data is copied daily and the office manager takes it home....you hope.

And disaster strikes. A hurricane, a fire, the T-1 line to your building is cut and can't be repaired for 3-4 days... and your office manager is on vacation. And, you are out of business. Can't reach your customers/patients/clients, can't make payroll.....and, by the way, is your email hosted on an email server in your office?

We spend a sizable sum in protecting our businesses and our families; we add generators & smoke alarms to our homes, pay for every type of business and home insurance, run background checks on prospective employees but when it comes to the heartbeat of our business- our data, we depend on a single piece of hardware.

Many of you may still feel that your data is more secure sitting in your office and don't quite trust this elusive cloud, but remember that you are using cloud services when you search on Google, buy a book at Amazon, pay your bills online, research cases on Lexis Nexis or post an entry on Facebook.

Cloud Computing: What It Is and How To Use It   written by Bruce Rennels  is an excellent article that should be discussed with your IT manager.

Not to sound like a trip back to the 60s, but its time to move to the cloud.

A friend emailed me that they use logmein instead of pc anywhere stating that it is good, easy and safe. I'm sure it is but they still depend on that server at the office- and they can't work if the server if down for any reason. That is the beauty of working in the 'cloud'. no servers.

What's cloud computing and what does it have to do with me?

Remember those SAT questions: a bat is to a ball as a shoe is to a ____? Well, as much as we hated them, let me use this to explain what cloud computing (or Software as a Service/SAAS) is and how it can change the way you work. Here goes:

Cloud computing is to your office computer as a cell phone is to a land line.

We (okay most of us) remember what is was like to work before cell phones. Running.. running to grab the phone on your desk, running to pick up your voice messages or running to grab a phone at the airport the minute you got off the plane. Cell phones freed us from being tethered to the office. You can work from anywhere, at anytime. And for smart phone users, you have email, calendars & contacts with you at all times. Yes, its ubiquitous, but none of us want to go back.

Yet for all this freedom, we  are still tethered to our office computers and servers. The programs we use every day, our word documents & files, accounting, contacts... the list goes on. Smart phone users allow you to access your calendar and contacts, but I bet you still have had that 'oh no' moment when you had to run back to the office (or home computer for those who work from home) to get that file, the word doc, pull up an invoice, etc. You can use a program like PC Anywhere to log in to the office from your laptop, but its slow and limited.

Cloud computing simply means using web based programs to replace the programs you used to download to your computer. You can, safely and securely, manage an entire office, or organization, from any computer or laptop anywhere. Accounting, email, customer management, word documents, file sharing...whatever you need.

To see a video that best explains it watch this .