via makeuseof.com
Personally, I don’t have to both with this because I use Google Apps. In the past, I have used Plaxo to do this when necessary. You, however, might find this interesting…
How To Sync Contacts, Calendars & Events Between Mac & PC
Ummm. Helloooooo!?
This is why they say that a picture is worth a thousand words. The Oatmeal has communicated volumes about how the world perceives your email with one image:
You can move to the top with one simple tool: Google Apps! Google Apps allows you to attach Gmail and other powerful business apps to your internet domain in about 10 minutes…
Use it if you don’t want the world to think you’re a Yahoo!
21 Apps That Can Make You More Effective
Once again, Google tops our list with a host of tools to get you from nine to five (and beyond). By now, we are all familiar with Google Docs for collaborating on documents; Google Calendar for sharing schedules and setting reminders and tasks; Google Reader for ushering updated content from your favorite sites directly into your inbox; Google Alerts for keeping abreast of key topics as they appear online; and Google News for customized news.
via law.com
This article from law.com is chocked full of good social media apps, but not that Google and Google Reader top the list…
Facebook and Others Caught Sending User Data to Advertisers
The Wall Street Journal is reporting on what could be a major scandal brewing for Facebook, MySpace and other social networks: despite assurances to the contrary, the sites have apparently been sending personal and identifiable information about users to their advertisers without consent.
Large advertising companies including Google’s DoubleClick and Yahoo’s Right Media were identified as having received information including usernames or ID numbers that could be traced back to individual profiles as users clicked on ads. The data could potentially be used to look up personal information about the user, including real name, age, occupation, location, and anything else made public on the profile. Both of the aforementioned companies denied being aware of the “extra” data they were receiving and claim they have not made use of it.
The WSJ goes on to report that since raising questions about the practice with Facebook (
) and MySpace (
via mashable.com
I can’t say enough about Gist
Seriously! I’ve posted on Gist over a dozen times in the past few months — it’s that good! Remember this? I called Gist the ‘cherry on top of my social media Sundae’ back in February. The screencast features my ‘holy trinity’ of morning news aggregation; Google Reader, Feedly and Gist — Gist starts at about 5:25 [although the whole screencast is worth a reprise]…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFHGIoLhyQQ
Yesterday, I received notice that Gist was now available for another of my favorite tools, Google Apps! Here’s a quick overview…
All the Gist info I used to go to the website for is now available per contact at the bottom of every email adding ‘people power’ to every email I receive. I’ll still use the Gist dashboard every morning to see what my powerful network is up to, but this new Google Apps functionality is the bee’s knees…
btw, if you’re still stuck on Outlook, there’s been a Gist plugin for that too! Go to Gist.com and sign up NOW!
The Gist Gadget with Google Apps
via youtube.com
Sawheet! Gist continues to innovate…
It’s not easy being social
- Image by tysongoodridge via Flickr
Better said “It’s easy, but not simple”. Jay Baer’s got some great thoughts on adding social media to your mix…
“Social media isn’t inexpensive, it’s different expensive.
In the QA portion of recent speeches, I’ve frequently been asked this is great, but doesn’t it seem like it will take a lot of time?
Yes. It. Will.
Succeeding on the social Web requires daily participation. Whether it’s brand reputation management, PR and influencer outreach, customer service and social CRM, interacting with fans on a brand community, or just creating content that builds thought leadership — it all takes time.
Fundamentally, there are no shortcuts in social media, because the entire premise is that you’re interacting with customers one on one (or one on few). That is of course more time consuming than reaching hundreds, thousands, or millions of customers at one time with a paid advertisement. How could it not be so?
The only way America is even keeping its head above the global water line is by squeezing every last drop of productivity out of all of us. Please raise your hand if you’re working fewer hours these days than you did five or ten years ago. Exactly. Unless you’re somehow on Justin Bieber’s management team, you’re probably busting your hump like never before, tethered to the world by the iWhatever. So, I recognize that you probably don’t have the time to really commit to social media, and neither does anyone on your team.” Source: Nobody Said Social Media Was Easy Continue reading “It’s not easy being social”
Google Docs; the next generation
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_hJ3R8jEZM&feature=player_embedded
You can read about all the new improvements here. Just a reminder! If you’re already using Google Apps for your organization, these improvements to your product have already been made free of charge…
Google Apps. Again.
Matt Silverman of Mashable does a much better job of explaining what I’ve been trying to tell you for years…
“Google Apps for business has a number of benefits over traditional business IT and desktop software. Using the full suite essentially places all of your data and entire workflow in the cloud, meaning you can access it all anywhere, any time, from any Internet connection.
At $50 per year per user, the fully integrated apps system is certainly cost-effective, and even adding the free versions of Gmail (Gmail), Calendar (Calendar Tweet), and Google Docs (Google Docs) into your workflow can keep your employees coordinated.
For more casual users, or even those who might not be acquainted with Google Apps, here’s a guide to how the software can benefit your small business.” Source: The Small Business Guide to Google Apps
Please go the source for his excellent overview…
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Google opens its Apps Marketplace
Whoa! Google Apps just got even better…
“Every day, thousands of businesses choose the cloud. More than 2 million businesses have adopted Google Apps over the last three years, eliminating the hassles associated with purchasing, installing and maintaining hardware and software themselves.
We’ve found that when businesses begin to experience the benefits of cloud computing, they want more. We’re often asked when we’ll offer a wider variety of business applications — from accounting and project management to travel planning and human resources management. But we certainly can’t and won’t do it all, and there are hundreds of business applications for which we have no particular expertise.
In recent years, many talented software providers have embraced the cloud and delivered a diverse set of features capable of powering almost any business. But too often, customers who adopt applications from multiple vendors end up with a fractured experience, where each particular application exists in its own silo. Users are often forced to create and remember multiple passwords, cut and paste data between applications, and jump between multiple interfaces just to complete a simple task.” Source: Official Google Blog: Open for business: the Google Apps Marketplace
Go to the source for the rest of the article. You can find the Google Apps Marketplace here…
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Handling Email; 5+ emails you should filter
- Image via CrunchBase
Email is such a simple tool but it makes or breaks so many people’s productivity and it breaks my heart to see how many people struggle with handling it…
“How many emails do you have in your inbox right now? Are you an inbox zero freak like me? Or do you have emails piled up and unread that you’re hoping you’ll get time to get to?
I’m not judging – I used to have as messy an inbox as anyone. And even now, if I go on vacation or don’t check my email for too long, I can get in a heap of trouble: the email piles up, and it can be a real chore getting back to my empty inbox.
I’ve got a few tips up my sleeve though to make dealing with email a little less painful – and I’ve found the best defense is a strong offense. In this article, I’m going to give you some concrete tips and examples to reduce the number of emails in your inbox instantly – and help you keep it that way long term with the use of filters.” Source: 5 Types of Emails You Should be Automatically Filtering – Stepcase Lifehack
Here are the 5 types:
- Newsletters
- Forwarded articles
- Comments and pings from my blog
- Facebook/Twitter/Social Media Notifications
- Store Promotions
- cc:’s [This one is my own — and I’ll explain later]
You’ll have to go to the source if you’re interested in the full rationale behind these statements. #6 [the one I added] comes from seeing how email is used as a CYA tool in large corporations. I have a friend — let’s call her Sue — Sue is an important mucky-muck at a large manufacturing organization and she’s stuck in email hell. She’s a slave to Outlook and her BlackBerry. I would venture to say that 70% or more of the email she receives is CYA. How much easier Sue’s life would be if she’d only use Outlook to put all the emails where her name appears on the cc: line in a special folder to read later when she had more time. Or used the filter on her BlackBerry Enterprise Server to only send her the emails where her name appeared on the to: line. Sigh!
As the author says, these filters work particularly well with Gmail or Google Apps [both of which I use] to manage mail effectively.
“Once you’ve created some of these filters, GMail (what I use) has an option to immediately run them on whatever you’ve got in your inbox. Use this to instantly filter low priority items away so you can focus on what’s important.
Going forward, your filters will be applied to any new email that comes in. This will keep your inbox clean so you can read the relevant, important emails first, before you head to your folders to deal with these low priority emails that may still be important to you – but don’t require as quick a response.” Source: 5 Types of Emails You Should be Automatically Filtering – Stepcase Lifehack
One more thought for those of you unlucky enough to be on MY emailing target list. I send ‘just in case’ info from my personal gmail account and important ‘just in time’ email from my e1evation account. If you’re smart, you’ll filter emails from toddlohenry@gmail.com and make sure emails from todd@e1evation.com are granted the HIGHEST priority! Those of you who are prolific emailers may want to grant your frequent recipients a similar escape hatch…
As always, I invite readers to comment, call or contact me and let me know what YOU think [or ask for help if they’re caught in email hell!]…
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- Top 10 email clients, according to Fingerprint (b2bemailmarketing.com)
- All Things Google: Using Filters to Manage Your Inbox (profhacker.com)
- Filters make things clean (justanasterisk.com)
5 reasons why Gmail rocks!
- Image via Wikipedia
Lifehacker says…
Email as a technology has been around for decades, and thanks to wide spread adoption and popularity, it isn’t in danger of disappearing. Check out the five most popular email clients to help you wrangle your email.
Earlier this week we asked your to share your favorite email client. We didn’t restrict the voting to only stand-alone email applications or web-based email clients, but we did specify that if you voted for a web-based tool it had to have distinctly client-like features—such as Gmail’s ability to fetch and sort email from other sources. The email Call for Contenders was one of the most popular we’ve ever had, with over 1,000 votes logged. Source: Five Best Email Clients – email clients – Lifehacker
The poll is one of their most popular ever and Gmail is kicking it! Here were the results when I voted…
I won’t lie — I have been a massive fan of Gmail since day one — I’m convinced [to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote on beer] that it is ‘proof that God loves us and wants us to be productive’. The benefits are too numerous to mention, but here are a few that pop to mind at this moment…
- The ability to search your email using a special Google syntax means you’ll rarely [won’t say never] lose another email
- Ample storage for all your email and documents online so that important stuff is always available
- The ability to use Gmail as your corporate email through Google Apps
- As a web-based product it’s completely cross platform and available from computers down to smartphones
- It gets better almost daily whereas other email clients must go through a long development cycle to provide updates
btw, I still use Outlook and Thunderbird daily, and I have used AppleMail and tried the Postbox beta [Note: you can use them all in conjunction with Gmail if you’d like]. None of them can touch Gmail’s ability to simply and effectively process that never ending river of correspondence. Nothing’s worse than knowing the answer is in your inbox but not being able to find it — I see colleagues wrestle with their email clients every day trying to solve problems that are simple for Gmail users. Sigh. If only they knew how to use Gmail like I do…
Comment, call or contact me to discuss how this applies to your business — I’d be happy to demo why I think Gmail is such a compelling product for EVERYONE…
Tactic #8: Use ‘branded’ email
I took a little time off from my ‘tactics and tools’ series — no one’s paying attention in December anyway, right? ;-)
Now that everyone’s waking up from the holidays it’s time to get back on track with tactic #8 — using ‘branded’ email. ‘Branded’ email? What’s that? ‘Branded’ email is email that comes from a professional domain and supports your brand. Excuse me for ranting about one of my biases for a sec, but it drives me nuts when I see an entrepreneur using their sbcglobal, att, charter, road runner, etc. isp domains for conducting business — especially when there’s a great tool like Google Apps for Business! Every email is a chance to advertise your business by using a domain that points to your Facebook page or website. Besides, there’s nothing that screams ‘mom & pop shop’ more than using your personal home account to try to bring in that big deal…
Here’s a quick overview of Google Apps:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_TzCpYGpzw
Google Apps hits the ‘good, fast and cheap’ trifecta. Simple, yet powerful! A couple of years ago, I worked with a local entrepreneur in Green Bay that had an office with 7 people. He wanted the benefits of Microsoft Exchange and Sharepoint for his team and spent $35,000 [first year acquisition cost of $5,000 per employee] for the hardware, software, licensing, and labor to acquire those benefits. Here’s the dirty little secret; there was no benefit he acquired that could not have been done better than Google Apps at the cost of $50 per user per year…
Consider the benefits of Google Apps:
“Google’s web-based messaging and collaboration apps require no hardware or software and need minimal administration, creating tremendous time and cost savings for businesses.
End users can use the familiar Microsoft Outlook interface for email, contacts and calendar as they transition to Gmail and Google Calendar. Source: Reduce IT costs, get less spam, and improve productivity – Google Apps for Business target=”_blank”
But wait, there’s more! Benefits include…
- Proven cost savings
- Email, calendar and IM access from any computer or smartphone connected to the internet, regardless of platform…
- 99.9% uptime reliability guarantee
- 50 times more storage than the industry average
- Information security and compliance
- Full administrative and data control
- Helpful 24/7 customer support
Go here to read more…
Wow! A lot of cool features you say, but is it safe?
“Google applications provide a variety of security features, says Eric Ogren, a security analyst with the Enterprise Strategy Group. For one thing, “you have to have authority to get in. Users can determine policies of who looks at a particular document, the amount of collaboration offered, and users have the flexibility to store data on their corporate laptop or have Google do it for them.”
In addition, he voices the security argument most commonly heard about SaaS solutions: “The customer’s IT department doesn’t have to maintain upgrades, so you don’t have to deal with patches with Google Apps, and that’s a nice feature.” Source: Google Apps has its advantages, but is it secure? – SC Magazine US target=”_blank”
Google Apps for Business is THE killer app for entrepreneurs, small businesses, non-profits, schools, and political campaigns. If I didn’t make myself clear, comment, call or contact so we can talk further about your particular situation…
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Maintaining “Inbox Zero” with Google Apps
- Image via CrunchBase
This is the article I wish I had written about how Google Apps, Remember the Milk and Firefox work together to make you more productive in email…
“If I have more than 30 unread messages at any one time, I break into a cold sweat. So as a result, until recently I couldn’t imagine maintaining my maniacal level of control over my inboxes without a desktop email client’s notifications, rules & plug-ins.”
Inbox Zero is an important discipline in this day and age that few have mastered — click here to read more…
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Welcome to Google Sites
I didn’t blog this morning because Google rolled out Google sites yesterday and I got caught up in creating an extranet for a client. Google Sites is an incredible addition to Google Apps for Domains and yes, it’s free [again]…
“Google Sites, a new offering from Google Apps, makes creating a team site as easy as editing a document. Use Google Sites to centralize all types of information — from videos to presentations — and share your site with just a few people, your entire organization, or the world.”
Just one more reason to love Google Apps for Domains! Click the title to go to Google sites…
3 ways for small businesses to save money on IT
Regardless of what the government says, most business owners feel we’re still in a recession…
“The recession is cutting into small and midsized businesses’ IT spending, and some industries are hurting more than others, according to the results of the latest IT Effectiveness Index (ITEI) survey.
The ITEI is a benchmarking tool that measures the technology effectiveness of small and midsized businesses. (Small Business Trends is one of the partners of the study.) According to the latest survey, the manufacturing industry has been hit hardest, with 66 percent of people in this industry delaying, halting or canceling IT projects, and a similar number reducing capital expenses.
Also hard hit were the communications industry (at 55 percent), wholesale businesses (52 percent) and service providers with 48 percent reporting an IT spending slowdown. Not surprisingly, the computer industry was the least affected — only a third of the respondents in that industry said their IT projects had been affected by the recession. And the woes don’t end there. Half of the manufacturing industry respondents said their IT operations were either understaffed or critically understaffed. Thirty-three percent of service providers said the same, as did nearly a quarter of the respondents in the computer industry.” Source: SMB IT Budgets and Staffing Hit Hard by Recession | Small Business Trends
From where I sit, most small businesses squander money unnecessarily by not thinking about saving money where possible on IT. Here are three easy ways to stretch your technology dollar…
- Outsource your email and back office collaboration to Google; Google Apps is a powerful, cost effective way to communicate both internally and externally.
- Explore using a Content Management System like WordPress as a website; link it to social media outposts to drive your internet marketing.
- Get off the Microsoft licensing treadmill; no one NEEDS Windows 7, in face, most end users haven’t mastered XP and 2003 yet. Consider buying older computers on eBay, using Ubuntu, OpenOffice, and other money saving strategies and tactics.
These are just a few of the many ways small businesses can stretch their IT dollars and smart business leaders look to months like December when much of the world loses focus to implement ideas like these. Let’s talk about how you can start the new year with more cost effective tools for IT…
Google Apps for Small Business
Use it! I do…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNOh24VrKQo
Making the switch from Microsoft Office to Web apps
- Image via CrunchBase
‘For him who has ears to hear!’ as the Good Book says. It’s possible to have a powerful computing experience without using a single Microsoft product [or paying a single penny to Bill Gates]…
“The only reason I’ve opened Microsoft Outlook or any other desktop e-mail program in the last year is to test tips. Since I added my ISP account to my Gmail in-box, and moved my Outlook appointments to Google Calendar, I get all the information I need in my browser.
Now I’m getting ready to boot Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for their Web alternatives, but before I bail on Office entirely, I stuck a toe in the Web-apps water by using the free ThinkFree Online service irregularly over the past few weeks. So far, I haven’t missed Word, Excel, or PowerPoint one bit. In fact, I appreciate the comparative simplicity of their Web counterparts, which have worked without a hitch–so far, at least.”
Click here to read more…
Catch the Wave…
- Image via CrunchBase
Google Wave be the most innovative email tool since the dawn of email itself and the first 100k users have received access…
“Google Wave is one of the most anticipated new products to come out of Google this year. Technology blogs have been abuzz with excitement about this new communications and collaboration tool since Google first showcased it in May.
But so far, Wave, a shared online desktop where groups of users can exchange messages, share and edit documents, drag and drop widgets and play games, has been available only to a select group of developers. On Tuesday, Google is rolling out Wave to a slightly-less-select group: 100,000 users, including developers, people who signed up early on and some users of Google Apps, the company’s package of online applications.
In a blog post, Lars Rasmussen, an engineering manager for the group that created Wave at Google’s Australian offices, said that since the product was first shown publicly, Google has “focused almost exclusively on scalability, stability, speed and usability.” But he warned that bugs are still likely: “You will still experience the occasional downtime, a crash every now and then, part of the system being a bit sluggish and some of the user interface being, well, quirky.” (Of course, well-established Google products, like Gmail, also have had frequent bouts of downtime recently, including last week.)” Google’s Much-Anticipated Wave Opens Up a Bit – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com
Unfortunately, no matter how much I begged, Google wouldn’t include me. Stay tuned for details as they become available…
‘Socialize’ your email…
No, I’m not talking about a plan for government to provide free email for all — that’s Google’s job! What I’m talking about is using your email to drive people to your home base or social media outposts. I advertise where I hang out online, what chat channels I use and what my latest blog post is with every email and all it takes is one, maybe two, free tools…
The first one is called Retaggr. Mashable says…
“What’s great about Retaggr is that it acts as the ultimate business card 2.0 for internet users who want to let people know who they are on the web as well as expand their personal brand. Likewise, Retaggr works as an ideal tool for bloggers who want their community of readers to get to know each other and participate more frequently.
With Retaggr, there is context around the comments on any given site. Names now become links that expand the Profile Card widget and showcase each owner’s virtual information without ever having to leave the site. Plus, blogs and sites that use Retaggr also get the photo tagging functionality which is similar to Facebook and Flickr, but takes it further by letting you see the names and Profile Cards of people in a picture all at one time.” Source: Retaggr: Stepping Up Online Activity with Super Business Card 2.0
Now here’s the cool part. Once you enter all your information into your ‘Super Business Card 2.0’, Retaggr gives you the embed code to create a cool signature file for every email client you use — Windows, Mac, Linux — makes no difference!
I have tested it with Office 2003, 2007, Thunderbird and Google mail — both Google Apps and Gmail — and it works like a charm. One catch, however, Google’s products don’t support html signatures so you need the second free tool which is a free Firefox addon called WiseStamp. The developer says…
“WiseStamp Firefox extension empowers your email signature on any webmail service (Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL, Hotmail, Google Apps…) Easily customize, Include IM & Social profiles, Automatically share your Blog posts, Quotes, News, Bookmarks and more… Enhance your personal and business email interactions” Source: Drive Traffic to Your Blog Simply by Using Your email Signature | WiseStamp Email Goodies
Using this approach not only makes it easy to reach me but also drives people to my social media outposts and ultimately draws them into my home base. Question is, why aren’t you ‘socializing’ your email?
Are you master of your own domain?
No, I’m not talking Seinfeld here. ;-) Do you own your internet domain? I thought I did, but when I purchased it, I made a huge mistake — I got it through Google when I set up Google Apps. Don’t get me wrong — I love Google Apps! What I don’t love is what happens when you purchase a domain through Google while signing up for Google Apps…
When you purchase a domain as part of the signup process, Google assigns the domain to one of 7 different partners on an automated basis and it falls into some automated bit bucket. In reality, the process is like the ‘Hotel California‘ — you know, you can check in any time you want but you can never leave. I recently spent the better part of a month trying to get my corporate domain transferred to GoDaddy — after two failed attempts, I finally became master of my domain a week ago today.
How can you avoid this nightmare? By all means use Google Apps, but purchase your domain through your favorite hosting provider where you will have full control over the domain THEN make the necessary changes from there. Me? I prefer GoDaddy although I have tried HostGator and they have a great product too [although they charge too much for their domains, imho]! If you want corporate emails or your own website and this is all Greek to you, then give me a call and I’ll walk you through it — I’ll help you avoid the same mistake I made…
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Bright, shiny objects! 