yclmanager5, Author at Your Computer Lady

October 22, 2024 By yclmanager5

Social Media – It’s Only Networking

Micro View
If I attend a professional association dinner, I’m going to introduce myself as Your Computer Lady but I’m going to talk sports, make a joke about the rubber chicken, ask about Ron’s daughters or listen to the horror story about the building project in Tucson that one of my architect friends is working on. If someone asks me a computer question, I’ll give them an answer. Hopefully the person sitting beside them will listen in and think, “Oh, that’s a good answer. Pamela’s knows a thing or two about computers.” Down the road when either of those people have a computer project, they’ll think of me and give me a call.

Macro View
I set up a LinkedIn account. I introduce myself as Your Computer Lady but I’m going to talk about sports, make a joke about the rubber chicken, ask about Ron’s daughters, … …

Clear away the hype and fear of doing something new and social media is just plain old networking. You’re doing it on a grander scale (8 people at the dinner table vs 58 LinkedIn direct connections or 252,600+ with 3 levels of connection) but it is still networking.

Just like networking at an organization, networking online takes a little time. Joining a new organization means you’re seeing more new faces. You’re taking time to build the relationships. You’re gathering business cards and inputting them into your contact management system. But after those basics are done, maintaining the relationships is relatively easy and doesn’t require a lot of time. But you have to be consistent. If you only show up every six months, you’re always at square one. Once you’ve set up your online account and filled out your profile, started connecting with friends, you can switch to maintenance mode too. Show up once a week and respond to invitations, send some messages, add some info.

You want to use social media for the same reasons you network at a meeting. Get your name out there! Be viewed as an expert! We live in a big, high technology, information-explosion world. We want to – need to – connect with people. Social media gives your company the ability to do that. You can humanize your company. You can reach out person-to-person.

As Jennifer Maggiore of Maggiore Consulting pointed out, “There’s no penalty for being early to the game. But there is a big penalty for being late!” eMarketer reports that there was an 11% increase in the use of social media in 2008. 41% of all Internet users visited a social media site at least monthly. They predict that 79 million people (40% of all Internet users) will put content at least once a month on a social media site in 2009.

Your firm can start small. Encourage your employees to participate. All of the Fortune 500 firms have social media activities. 499 of them have vice president level and above participants. But any employee can assist the cause. Whole Foods has tweeters from several stores in addition to their central page. Build your presence. There are firms like Maggiore’s that specialize in social media. If you need to get to more in depth, locate your target audience or increase your presence quickly – you want to contact a specialist. This is an emerging technology. A guide can get you to the destination faster.

If you’re early to the game though, you can take your time.
1. Choose one, maybe 2, networks to join and build.
2. Get that network to the maintenance stage before you take on another one.
3. Tie your networks together. A post on my blog shows up on my LinkedIn page. A Twitter message shows on my Facebook wall.
4. Measure your activity and success. There are tools like TwitterGrader that help you measure what you’re accomplishing.

My recommendation is to start with LinkedIn. It’s a pure business site that is simple to use. You can make good connections. Then add Twitter. Those little 140 character messages have potential. Check out twitter.com/JetBlue, /Whole Foods or /ScottsdalePD to see some business results. Yes, you can follow John McCain now too. Then expand into Facebook, Yelp or some of the other sites.

The Arizona Small Business Association is doing a series of social media classes in April and May. Check their web site for details.

Connect with me:
www.LinkedIn.com/in/YourComputerLady
@PamelaBir at Twitter
Pamela Bir on Facebook

October 18, 2024 By yclmanager5

How A Typo Can Hurt Your Business

OK, I’m on my soapbox! I think proper spelling, punctuation and grammar count. In your web site. In your emails. In your marketing literature. Yes, even text messages. I did find an Urban Dictionary that explains all of the acronyms and shortcuts used today but you won’t see me using them. Words matter!

And Marketing Profs agree with me! Read their article about typos and their effect on your business.

Marketing Profs has a great email service giving you good market research and information. Sign up if you haven’t already.

October 16, 2024 By yclmanager5

We Need to Talk About Personalization: Evolution & Trends

“What do you think we’re talking about when we say the words “email personalization”? Are you thinking about merge tags or dynamic content? Segmentation and automation? Profile or behavior-based automations? Or all of the above?”

Click here to continue reading.

October 15, 2024 By yclmanager5

How To Get Emails from Website Visitors

One of the most important things your website should be doing for you is growing your email list. Think about it! Someone found your website out of all the billions of sites out there. You have the start of a beautiful relationship!! Now you want to stay in touch and continue educating them about your company.

Offer them something in exchange for their email!

Here is a very nicely done example of a company offering an eBook in exchange for my email. They offered valuable information I wanted. A list of foods to increase metabolism. They made the process easy. I had to enter only my email. They made the offer appetizing. A nice photo in the background. A simple, easy to read offer.

You can offer something pertinent to your business.

White paper or eBook of valuable information – “Resources To Save You Time and Money”
Checklist of related information – “Checklist to Prepare Your Pool for Summer”
Special offer – 30 minute, no charge, no obligation phone consultation or No charge service quote
Discounts – 20% off your first pedicure

Your website should make you money! Email opt ins are a powerful option. Call Your Computer Lady for help on the offer or to update your website.

October 11, 2024 By yclmanager5

Copyright Images

Yes, there are 100s of 1000s of images all over the Internet. But just because you can see an image doesn’t mean you can use the image in your website, emails, social media or printed materials.

How to Check the Copyright Status of an Image

Look at and around the image. Often the photographer’s name or copyright will be in a caption below the image. If you see the notification, you need to contact the photographer or owner for permission to use the image.
Look for a watermark in the image. The photographer/owner will put the notification right in the image. DO NOT under any circumstances, remove or hide the watermark and use the image.
Look for metadata. Right click on the image in Windows and look at the Properties info. On a MAC, open the image in preview then look at Tools. The ownership should be deliniated there. Contact the owner before using the image.
Do a Google reverse search.
1. Open Google images.
2. Drag the image into the search bar.
3. Google will offer you the ownership information or a choice of Exact matches. Click the exact matches to look further for ownership.

If in doubt, don’t use the image!

There are bots that are used by companies and law firms to find their images used illegally. When they find an image, you will get a letter telling you how much you owe them for the use of the image. It can be anywhere from $20 to thousands. It’s pretty hard to fight that kind of legal action when you have the means to look for owner information. (NOTE!! There are some bad players in the world like Higbee & Associates who pretend to work on copyright issues. Beware!)

Creative Commons license

This is an image that is in the public domain and can be used by anyone.

Where To Look For Free Images

Google Images

Search for the image you want (EX: puppies)
On the 2^nd navigation menu, look for Usage rights.
Click the drop-down menu.
Select Creative Commons licenses.
This selection is not 100% dependable to keep your eyes open as you look at
specific images.

Unsplash.com

Getty Search Gateway

Pexels free and paid

Pixabay free and paid

Free Public Domain

Pinterest maybe, maybe not

Flickr maybe, maybe not

Adobe, iStock, Shutterstock, Getty will occasionally have a free image but not often. Be careful if you use anything from them.

If you are a rep or distributor or reseller for a manufacturer, your contact with them most likely gives you permission to use their images. They want you to use their images as often as possible! But, if in doubt, ask them!

October 9, 2024 By yclmanager5

How to Create a Newsletter: Best Practices and Examples

“Newsletters are a cornerstone of email marketing. They offer a direct line of communication with your audience—yet creating one that consistently engages readers can be challenging.

How do you create a newsletter that not only captures attention but also effectively supports your business goals?”

Click here to continue reading.

October 3, 2024 By yclmanager5

Password Protection

Confession is good for the soul, they say. So here goes…

Not long ago, I tried to log onto my 2 laptops and kept getting the “Invalid password” message. I type that password twice every morning. Pre-coffee! Of course, I knew what it was. I tried rebooting. I tried CAPS ON and caps off. I called my IT support who was going to come with his reset software.

I finally quieted down enough to try the password on auto-pilot as I usually do. Oh… yeah… there are 2 more digits to it.

Later in the week, my sister wiped her iPhone clean because she got confused about her phone password. She never turns off the phone therefore she never uses that password.

I use a password protector software but I had left my Windows password out of it. My sister uses a password storage software but it doesn’t have online access, only phone access.

Confession over. Let’s talk about how you can prevent either of these scenarios happening to you.

You ABSOLUTELY can not use the same password for multiple accounts! This is a serious problem. Please! It’s worth the effort to make your data safer. A data breach at Dropbox was just to gather emails and passwords, not for info in stored files. The hackers take the passwords, try them at banks, PayPal, Google, etc. to get access to your accounts.

Option 1 – I strongly recommend this!

Use LastPass.com to record and input passwords. Last Pass will create complicated passwords for you or you can make up your own. (See Option 2!) LastPass will fill in the user name and password for you on website logins. You can see the list from your computer, your tablet, your phone. You can access it online. You can store other info like social security numbers, spouse’s auto license plate number. I will help you set it up if you need some assistance. Basic service is free. Premium is only $30 a year. Using LastPass on your tablet or phone does make it easier to access sites from those small screens. And if the phone is locked up, you can access the password list from your computer.

Could online storage be hacked? Yes. A meteor could fall from the sky and land on your head. You could win the lottery. Similar odds so don’t use this excuse.

Option 2

Create a series / pattern you can remember but changes with each account. Should be at least 10 characters including a capital letter, a number and a special character.

Example: Series is 125chAracters3434$% (3rd character is always capitalized)

Then for your Google account the password is 12goOgl3434$%

for Southwest Airlines the password is 12soUth3434$%

for Yelp the password is 12yeLp3434$%

You can remember the series. Each password is different so that if a hacker gets the Google password they can’t access Yelp.

You could have a series for bank and financial accounts. Another for business accounts. Another for personal accounts. Or you can use one series for everything.

This is IMPORTANT! Call me if you have questions or need help getting set up.