SoCon 10 was held in Atlanta this past weekend. Desiree gives us a recap of the sessions that she attended and some of the takeaways from the keynote presenters on this week's Bella Buzz. This fourth annual event was once again presented by the Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University.
The event provides great networking opportunities as well as the ability to share best practices among other social media specialists. We are going to embrace the use of the term since, in this field, it is challenging to achieve "expert" status. Small business owners and others with marketing responsibilities would find this conference helpful for learning where things stand in the world of social media.
Our first discussion on the podcast revolves around the presentation of Carol Kruse, the Vice President of Global Interactive Marketing for The Coca-Cola Company. She indicates that major brands are starting to let their customer-base have a voice in some initiatives. It is helpful for her that she has been given an opportunity by the company to test and experiment to determine what does and does not work.
Facebook has been the best platform for Coke, they have some direct access to developers at Facebook as a way to build and deploy apps very quickly. In the past we have mentioned that the Facebook Fan Page was created by two fans well before Coke even appeared on Facebook. Kruse also indicated that they are heavily involved in geographic targeting of customers as you would expect from a global company.
One of the applications that Coke hopes that you will interact with on Facebook is about the Happiness Campaign. Details of the campaign can be found through the web site Expedition 206, about 365 days, 206 countries, 1 mission. By digging around the campaign web site you can see some of the features that they have built using Facebook Connect as a login and posting mechanism. There is also a tab on the Fan page in Facebook to follow the route of the "ambassadors".
A great analogy that Carol made was "social media is like a puppy, everyone wants one ... but they grow up to be dogs and need constant care and feeding." This is such a true statement that we want to call it out here. If a brand were to just abandon a social campaign, there would be a tremendous backlash within the general community, generating serious damage and lots of dollars incurred trying to correct it.
A very interesting presentation came from Dan Siroker who detailed the Obama Presidential Campaign's social efforts during 2008. His key message was to have definable, measurable success metrics before starting any online effort. For the campaign is was obviously donations and fund raising as the goal. They used the web site, email campaigns, and social apps as the tools that they used to reach out to potential donors. In particular, the speed of using a tool such as email in response to the competition was a strong method for achieving their goal.
Dan is currently working with his brother on a company called Optimizely.com, which provides web site optimization analysis using multi-variate (or A/B) testing. This approach to analyzing how a site, email, or campaign will perform is preached in many successful marketing circles, and with the help of Dan's company could be a more achievable objective for companies. We will be looking closely at the launch of this company in the future.
Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.
You can subscribe to The Bella Buzz directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.
It is time to talk about Email Marketing as a topic on The Bella Buzz podcast. We take a look at the rationale for adding this distribution channel into the marketing strategy, some of the vendors who can provide the services, and even have a direct example of what email marketing can achieve.
We take a look at email marketing as another form of getting creative content in front of the intended audience. There have been numerous occasions when we have focused on the ability to consistently generate new pieces of information that will attract an audience, no matter how you might want to define audience ie. customers, new business, fans, etc.. It must be considered that different people will consume content in different ways, so it is imperative for any business to deliver content via numerous channels. We have discussed content published on a blog where the intention is to attract traffic to the site via SEO and PPC tactics. We have discussed having blog content available via RSS subscription where a visitor to the site can receive items in a feed reader. Finally, it is time to take a look at how email can be another way of delivering content to a target instead of the target having to navigate to the point of origin.
Email marketing has become more sophisticated as technologies have improved, development costs have been amortized and the CAN-Spam Act has been enacted. Using a software program like Outlook is not sufficient for complying with these regulations, nor does it provide analytics to help make a more successful email campaign.
Bella Web Design uses Constant Contact as the vendor of choice for distributing email newsletters, and recommends them to clients. In Atlanta they have a local rep, Pamela Adams, who attends conferences and assists in training aspects.
Some of the new features Constant Contact has added to the platform include an events module where invitations, RSVP, and followup are all managed from within the system. There is also a survey program that can be integrated into the web site and emails through the system.
At Fluid Media we use a service called AWeber. The dynamic form generation for collecting emails and the send message scheduling features are very attractive features.
One other company that we know of worth considering when researching for the most appropriate vendor is MailChimp.
In case anyone is thinking that email newsletters are yesterday's method of distribution, many of the "thought leaders" in the online space have reverted back to using email as the preferred format. Concerns about comment spam, a lack of intimacy with an audience, and inability to generate a dialogue have driven some to take a second look at email efforts. An email can easily be replied to, allowing for opening a conversation and it can easily be forwarded, helping to spread the information.
Some who have moved towards using email include Jason Calacanis founder of Silicon Alley Reporter, Weblogs, Inc., and Mahalo.com. Chris Brogan author of Trust Agents and Social Media consultant, and Christopher S. Penn co-host of Marketing Over Coffee podcast.
Desiree shares with us a response to the most recent email newsletter that arrived in her inbox as we were recording the podcast! It really brings the point home to our viewers that email marketing can be a very powerful communication tool.
Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.
You can subscribe to The Bella Buzz directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.
This Martin Luther King, Jr. day brings a special guest to the Bella Buzz podcast. Joining Desiree and Joe is Business Consultant and Author Tricia Molloy. She is here to share with us her CRAVE program and how it can be applied to social media practices.
It is a very relevant topic these days as many are trying to determine the ROI for social media and have literally jumped in with both feet without really knowing their personal goals. Tricia can attest personally that she had initially abandoned Twitter because of a lack of understanding the true opportunity. Desiree personally convinced her to return and she can be found as @WisdomDiva.
We talk about applying her CRAVE program to our own specific social media goals as we go through the conversation. Tricia has shared with us the pillars of her program and we use this guide to structure today's podcast.
CRAVE Your Social Media Goals!
Clean Out the Clutter:
Figure
out what tools work for you and what don't and focus on a few, instead
of spreading yourself too thin. For me, it's Facebook, LinkedIn and
Twitter. Use tools to make it easier without losing your personal touch.
We touch on Twitter as containing a lot of clutter when focusing too much on the numbers of followers. Desiree has an excellent suggestion to use Lists as a way to maintain quality content in the stream without limiting the numbers.
Raise Your Vibrations:
People
want to follow and engage with people who are positive and helpful and
generous. They also appreciate others who spend more of their SM time
promoting other people's ideas and services more than their own. These
practices raise our vibrations to attract other high-vibration,
successful people. (Being too commercial and boastful is a quick way to
lower your vibrations and theirs.)
We talk about it on the Bella Buzz a lot, but it is worth noting that many of the social media "rockstars" consider a re-tweet as a major factor in growing their online community. Having a positive approach to sharing makes this channel successful.
Affirm Success:
Most
of my profiles start with, "I love to remind people how wise they are!"
That's an affirmation that keeps me focused on why I engage in social
media. When I get apprehensive about technology, I affirm: "I embrace
technology!"
Tricia shares with us that humans have internal conversations approximately 10,000 times per day, and 80% of that tends to be negative as humans will look to protect themselves with "worst case scenarios". By taking steps to turn some of that negative into positive can have a great impact on success.
Visualize:
One
way to communicate your social media goals to your subconscious mind
(so it can seek out resources and opportunities for you) is by creating
a vivid picture in your mind, engaging all your senses and infusing it
with the emotions you would feel as if it were already true. A Vision
Board or Treasure Map is a great tool to accelerate the power of
visualization.
As many know, top athletes will use the power of visualization as a way of motivating for success. Tricia's nine year old son Connor even put the practice into his Little League efforts, when he "imaginated" catching the inning ending fly ball!
We also get to hear about the practice of using a Vision Board as a way to help the brain visualize. Desiree has shared her Vision Board in this YouTube Video.
Express Thanks:
Since
what you focus on expands and what you appreciate appreciates, take the
time to express gratitude for your social media successes and show
appreciation to those who engage with you and support your goals.
One of the most important aspects of all of these programs is to incorporate them as a habit more so than another task.
We need to end the podcast by diving into the question of how Tricia came to write these successful books and ebooks with the motivational programs that we discussed. In many ways, the universal principals of visualization and affirmation were something that she had done even as a child. Once she had moved into a marketing practice for herself she used these practices with her clients.
As a writer by trade, she realized that she could express herself well in the form of a book and then determined that it was a business itself, where she could mentor and speak about putting these principals into practice.
Tricia realizes that the work that she does "is her purpose in life". What a great situation to be in! Isn't it all anyone can really ask for?
To find out more about Tricia Molloy, visit her web site at TriciaMolloy.com and follow her on Twitter @WisdomDiva
Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.
You can subscribe to The Bella Buzz directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.
Its hard for me to take Seth Godin seriously in his new book, "Linchpin." I have the privilege of reviewing the book before its official launch on January 26th because I'm a member of www.triiibes.com, a group built around his last book Tribes. Don't get me wrong, I think Seth is brilliant. He's a marketing genius. He points out facts that support how we've been programmed by the media, government and school system to not stand out and share our genius with others and follow the status quo. It's a message he knows we're afraid to hear, but a message we so desperately need. It's about how we have a choice to ignore this mindset and make a difference in our world and to others. However, it's hard for me to relate to this message when I see his own lizard brain stopping him from using social media tools to connect with others and make a difference on a larger scale. This prehistoric resistance has caused his own credibility to waver and flies in the face of the main lessons in his book. (Just Google "seth godin and twitter" and you'll see I'm not the only one talking about Seth resisting Twitter and other social media platform.) In his introduction, he states, "Linchpins don't work in a vacuum." and, "...indispensible work is work that is connected with others." Isn't that what using social media tools like Twitter and Facebook are all about?
His new book, "Linchpin" is a case study about how indispensable we need to make ourselves because the world of being just another cog in the wheel (as we know it) is over. He talks about connecting with humanity in your work and being an artist--sharing your gifts with others. Yet, when you go to his Twitter page you see:
BOOM! This is a pretty high wall he set between himself and his followers. It smacks of "I'm protecting my identity. Nothing to see here. GO AWAY." The lock is a great visual exclamation point on this message. Nice touch. For a guy who talks about connecting with others and sharing wisdom and ideas in this book, this is a real shame and a roadblock to this particular book's true message.
Generously connecting with others is what his book "Linchpin" is all about. He states on page 235 in the Summary, "Every successful organization is built around people. Humans who do art. People who interact with other people. Men and women who don't merely shuffle money, but interact, give gifts, and connect." Yet Seth is not participating actively. Sure he connects on his blog every day, but he doesn't allow comments. No interaction.
The reason I call Seth a lizard brain is because he dedicates an entire chapter to it between pages 101-149 in a section called "The Resistance." In fact, the letter which came with the book encouraged us to bookmark that particular section in the postscript. What's funny to me is he's using the same worn out excuses to explain why he doesn't participate. Take a look at the 9:00 minute mark in the video interview between him and Loic Le Muir below and you'll hear Seth's lizard brain state:
I don't have time for more important things if I tweet.
I can't do it well or be "remarkable" at it like Chris Brogan.
I don't want to hear people yelling at me.
I'm too late to the party.
Nonsense lizard brain! (Pun intended.) Don't think I haven't heard these excuses before. A lot of other business owners feel the same.
However, please understand Twitter is so much more than what you posted about it on March 24, 2009:
Who likes me?
Is everything okay?
How can I become more popular?
What's new?
I'm bored, let's make some noise
For me, Twitter is the "good mornings" I share every day with new people and people I've followed from the beginning. It's a place for me to share ideas and learn from others mistakes and wins. It's instant answers to burning questions. It's research and testing ground. It's human connection on a very primal level, yet more advanced and prolific than you can imagine. It's keeping up with news and events which I might be able to share with others and wouldn't have found otherwise. Twitter has become a place for me to connect with human beings I would have never had the chance to connect with if it didn't exist. It's made my offline
connections even stronger because I've been able to shorten introductions, learn from others and share insights such as this post
instantaneously. Ready to be shocked? I do all of this in less than one hour per day and know a lot of others who do the same. (I won't even go into how quickly the Red Cross was
able to raise over $5 million for recent Haiti victims because word spread so
quickly (hours!) using social media tools like Twitter and the SMS platform.)
I think Seth's lizard brain is scared to death and a little selfish. (There, I typed it and lightning didn't strike me, yet.) Yes, he states in the video he responds to every email he receives. That's a wonderful thing, but if you read my post about the Flight Attendant Effect and how people observing one positive interaction creates a planeload of happy passengers, you'll understand why I think Seth is keeping his light under his hat. Email isn't a one to many interaction, its one to one. If he can respond to an individual and allow his wisdom to touch not only that person, but many people with a few keystrokes, that to me is a gift. Is there garbage out there? Oh yes and a lot of it, but the gold nuggets and positive interactions far outweigh the negative crap. (Twitter lists help sort through the junk a lot!)
So, Seth, I'm throwing down this gauntlet. If you really stand by the "Linchpin" premise of doing things that might be uncomfortable and ignoring your lizard brain, start Tweeting. Just once a day. I promise, it won't take you but 5 seconds to post something interesting, share an anecdote or say "good morning" to someone new. You'll even have time to comb your hair. Start sharing and connecting with others and take that silly message about protecting yourself your tweets off your page. Open up to the possibility that using this tool might change even one life and encourage someone to ship their art. Who knows? You might just enlighten a whole new generation of linchpins!
After all, I've put myself on the line and shipped a post which is probably going to bring a whole lot of interesting interaction my way. (Or maybe it won't.) Your book gave me the courage to resist listening to my own big, bad lizard brain say, "Don't post that. Seth is not going to like you. He'll avoid you at parties. Triiibes members will tear you apart. Its not popular to criticize someone of that stature. Stay safe and don't write the post."
Thanks to you and your book, I'm not afraid to point out something that has bothered me for awhile. Although you're right about our current state of affairs, we need more people like you interacting and sharing good things with others on all levels of engagement. I hope you will respect my view. I hope you'll see that you've taught me something important and your message got through loud and clear. Keep in mind the world won't change overnight once you start, but someone's world just might.
I'm just a business owner who reads your books and considers the possibilities of your message in my own world. Why should I really care about this? I'm excited by the possibility that, just maybe, I can give you a small gift today as precious as the ones you continue to give others through the wisdom in your blog and books. Open your world a little more. Don't hide your brilliance. Reach out and make an impact on people who don't know you yet but need to read your message. Be a even bigger linchpin. Your opportunity awaits and I think you know I'm right. (Just don't tell that lizard brain. He may not like it.)
It's all about Wordpress and the WordCamp Atlanta on this week's episode of The Bella Buzz. Desiree braved the icy roads of Atlanta to attend the Conference on Saturday for a chance to network with over 200 attendees interested in hearing about best practices and upcoming enhancements to WordPress.
The Wordpress platform can be called a blogging tool, a publishing platform or a content management system (CMS). Whatever the terminology, it has become a factor across the web for developing vibrant web sites.
The open source tool was first launched in 2003 by Matt Mullenweg, and according to WikipediA as of September 2009 is being used by 202 Million websites worldwide.
Bella Web Design and Fluid Media both use the Wordpress platform as part of the tool kit we use with clients who are looking to establish a solid web presence. Based upon the flexibility of design and functionality, it has become a logical choice when looking for ways in which to present content.
(Attention: Wordpress designers you can enter a contest the Bella Web Design is hosting, check this site for details and how to enter.)
When considering the use of Wordpress as your web platform, there are choices that you can make based upon needs. Plugins are available to add practically any functionality that you can imagine for your site, and from a design standpoint you can look into Themes. Themes are available for free that can be easily implemented into a site for a nice graphic feel for visitors, while advanced implementations can include custom themes designed to achieve specific graphic standard requirements you may have. It can be an interesting business model for a designer to focus exclusively on building and marketing themes via the "freemium" model. Freemium by the way is a term coined by Venture Capitalist Fred Wilson for when web services are offered at a basic level for free, with the intention of moving users into paid versions with additional features.
The WordCamp Atlanta Conference was a multi tracked event with beginner, intermediate and advanced tracks, with many quality presenters including locals such as Amani Channel, Dougal Campbell, and Rusty Tanton. As well as national figures such as Mitch Canter and Aaron Brazell.
We will update this post as the video presentations from all of the sessions are posted in a single location, but check out the Speakers page of the Conference web site to see who presented so you can search for presentations.
If you are interested in seeing what other people are saying about WordCamp Atlanta, search for the Twitter hashtag #wcatl.
Our discussion veers into a little segment about the changing role of "spec" creative in the design world. In the past, any client who asked a creative shop to provide designs prior to awarding the work was looked down upon or simply avoided. Today, the approach has changed to where entire web sites such as Template Monster and Boxed Art have sprung up to handle the demand of creative work distribution.
As we turn the corner on 2010 and get into conference mode, keep an eye out for the next Metro Atlanta event SoCon10, January 29 - 30, 2010.
Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.
You can subscribe to The Bella Buzz directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.
We're very excited today at Bella Web Design and on the Bella Buzz to announce a contest to find our new WordPress designer for an event we've sponsored for the past 3 years called Chocolate for CF. It's an event held every Summer in Atlanta to raise funds for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Last year we raised almost $100,000.
The contest is called the Chocolate WordPress Design Contest. We're giving away $1,000 and 2 tickets to the event to the winner and YOU, our audience, will get a chance to vote on the finalists.
This year, Chocolate will be held on June 17, 2010 at Villa Christina. Its a beautiful party which features the top pasty chefs in Atlanta giving samples of chocolate creations you haven't even dreamed up yet and some old classics. Sponsors include Macy's, Coca-Cola, Solvay, Vitamin Water and American Airlines to name a few. Last year's Emcees were Vicki Locke and Steve McCoy from B98.5. The silent auction is incredible with amazing sports paraphernalia, vacations and art featured.
The contest is open to anyone in the U.S. More details can be found by clicking right here. We're holding the contest in conjunction with the opening day of WordCamp Atlanta. You can also find details on our Bella Web Design Facebook page.
If you're reading this and thinking of entering, go for it! We're already excited to work with you on this special campaign. Your work will be featured on all of our websites, blogs, podcasts and social media channels as well as at the event. Its a great way to get your work out there and also work with a successful and exciting web design company in Atlanta. Deadline for submissions is February 12th. Good luck!
When I turned 40, I treated myself to a new car. Nothing fancy, just a 2005 VW Beetle convertible. It was a dream for many years to own one and had a prominent place on my Vision Board for a long time.
I loved the car but the only thing missing was a place to dock my iPhone to both charge and play music. I asked my car salesperson about how I could get a dock installed and he told me about Spec.Dock. I went for it, had it installed and it was one of the best technology decisions I've made! I love being able to play and charge the iPhone at the same time and dock it in a place that would be safe. The phone stays in place and doesn't slide all over. Plus it looks pretty cool sitting there with the screen on my dashboard. Passengers always take a second look when they see it which is funny. (I have to actually take it out and show them its not actually part of the car!)
After close to a year, the trouble began. The iPhone would sometimes jiggle and skip songs when I hit bumps in the road. I thought it was the iPhone itself until I took a closer look and saw the metal fitting that the phone actually docks into was loose. It looks like the end of your typical iPhone charger that plugs into the bottom. I pushed on it to see if it was loose and it went right into the dashboard. YIKES! I was not happy. I definitely knew that that metal piece shouldn't have disconnected itself that easily. (Although I did start thinking maybe I docked it too hard a few times, hmmm.) Here's where the Facebook part comes in.
I posted my dilemma on my Facebook page. I also posted it on the new Facebook page the guys at Spec.Dock. Immediately Matt Turner contacted me via Facebook and told me to come over anytime and they would replace it FREE, no charge for parts or labor. I was floored. That was something I didn't expect! These days I might have heard, "Well, you shouldn't have put it in your dock so hard." or "Its not under warranty anymore." No, these guys were proactive and honest. They admitted they didn't glue the piece in correctly the first time and even went as far as upgrading the dock's software to the latest version which worked even better than before. It can ready my playlists now and my Audible books don't start over again every time I re-dock. Both music and books start right where I left off when I took the iPhone off the dock to answer a call. I was so happy! That piece doesn't budge now either.
So, to take this further and "close the circle" so to speak, I'm posting this story on their Facebook wall and on my own to thank them for taking the extra time and effort to make me a happy customer. I will recommend Spec.Dock to anyone I know looking for a great solution for charging and playing music from the iPhone or any iPod. Facebook can be used as a great customer service tool and another avenue to listen to your customers. If they're happy, it becomes viral and they can easily share it with thousands of others as I'm doing right now. Thanks Matt!
When it comes down to the airline industry and Twitter, there is a huge aisle between those who have embraced the medium and those who are trying to largely ignore its importance. If you study how different airlines use Twitter, it serves to teach us about the power of transparency and the impact Twitter has had on an individual industry.
My own personal study of airlines using Twitter came about because I was curious how my old employers (United and Delta) were playing in this space. The results were both surprising and predictable at the same time. Both airlines I worked for were very conservative. Its hurt them in this space. Read on.
The first airline that really embraced Twitter was @jetblue. Their first tweet was in July of 2007. Since then, they have built a following of over 1.5 million followers who tweet a mix of questions, praise and complaints every day. The employees that monitor the account answer all of these questions and even the negative comments immediately and with answers. Tough questions are usually jetted to a Direct Message status.
To further demonstrate the power of Twitter has for JetBlue, they ran an All You Can Jet pass special this summer which sold out 36 hours before the deadline to sign up directly because of Twitter. A JetBlue spokesman, is quoted as saying, “Within minutes (of the
Tweet), we could see the response start to trickle in…We were just
watching the hits come in on Twitter. They were coming in by the
dozens. It really got its jumpstart in the social media world.” JetBlue always has someone monitoring the account and they are able to help passengers and curious travelers with questions. Customers rave about JetBlue's Twitter campaign and a lot of news stories have been written about the company embracing their tweets and the company has gone on to build other Twitter accounts like @jetbluecheeps which posts deals.
On the other side of things, it was a shock to learn @deltaairlines didn't have the foresight to set up their own Twitter account. A vendor did it for them and offered to run the account. The account was then abandoned in June of 2009, then picked up again by Delta in December. (Take a look at the dates below.)
Delta has a following of only 16,000. A Delta insider also shared with me the airline had to actually fight Twitter to get the account back under their control. The fact that no one was keeping up with the account for 6 months hurt them and they lost both trust and followers. They are desperately trying to make up for lost time. Delta has a lot of ground to cover to
win back the trust of those who followed the account from the
beginning.
Delta is not prepared to use Twitter as a customer service tool
although they are setting up a listening station within their company
to better serve customers in the future. Delta claims not to have enough people to keep up with the number of tweets which I find pretty funny. They have a ready-made in-house staff of experts in their reservations department (I used to be one!) or airport customer service department who would gladly help. Also, the airlines slow down after evening hours on normal operating days. Surely there would be people willing and available to take over 3 8-hour shifts or even 6 4-hour shifts. Excuses, excuses. This is a perfect case of how companies who are unwilling to embrace social media
and didn't form a plan early on are getting left behind.
Content matters as well as regular posts. @southwestair is winning at the social media game with almost 1 million followers. Their upbeat posts and funny pictures keep passengers as entertained as they are on their flights. Here's one of a first flyer posted today http://tweetphoto.com/8091291. They even point out great places to eat in various cities. @unitedairlines comes in with only 43,000 followers. Most of their posts are about their promotions, bad weather and flight delays. This goes without saying, but positive posts will get more followers on social media and more interest in general. Content is still, very much, king.
Airlines using Twitter as a social media tool is a tough case study. They have to deal with a lot of things most companies don't have to worry about like people missing flights because of outside circumstances beyond their control, moving personal belongings from one place to another, policies enforced by government and strict airport and airline safety regulations. Being transparent is a balancing act they have to perform every day. Its not always straightforward and can be hard to control. The fact that almost all major airlines have risked their reputation by embracing public opinion on Twitter is a huge step. Its something most business owners can learn from.
All in all, when it comes to Twitter and the airlines, it seems the players that got in the game early are reaping the rewards and have flown onto other platforms like Facebook and YouTube to rule the social media skies. (Pun intended.) It will be interesting to watch how airline revenues will or will not be affected by this new transparency in the future. If you're still using the worn out excuse that your company doesn't have time or doesn't want to risk its reputation on Twitter, you might want to rethink your strategy before you miss your flight and your competition leaves you behind.
The first 2010 edition of The Bella Buzz Podcast of 2010 brings to light the computer operating system upgrades that both Desiree and Joe went through during the holiday break. Stemming from good advice accumulated over the years, reformatting the hard drive or conducting the manual process of updating the files and clearing the desk always makes for a fresh start to the new year. This year, we both decided to upgrade to the new Windows 7 operating system as a next logical step during our holiday break. This also provides the opportunity to try out the Windows Office 2010 Online beta that is available which is free until October for anyone willing to be a guinea pig. (We can say it works very well.)
Desiree went through an upgrade from Vista to the 64-bit version of Windows, while Joe was jumping all the way from XP to the 32-bit version, which is simply a limitation of the software and hardware combination.
Both went through a full install process, in Desiree's case getting an entirely new hard drive that she installed into the computer case, while the installation process for an XP to 7 jump requires a complete formatting of the drive to complete. This can be a very scary process. The key is to make sure all of the important data has been backed up to an external drive, getting the system drive to a clean state, installing the operating system, and finally re-importing all Settings and Data. All of the steps are clearly outlined in the accompanying documentation to Windows 7.
The real take away from our experience is that it CAN be done by anyone with a fair amount of know-how. (In Desiree's case, a screwdriver came in handy to take out the old drives and replace it with a new one.) Credit goes to the Microsoft team for making this a realistic process to successfully achieve.
NOTE: During the podcast we discuss the ability for Windows 7 to operate with a simultaneous Virtual XP mode. The reason as specified was to continue to use Quickbooks 2008. Since the time of that recording I have been able to install and successfully use my version of Quickbooks within Windows 7. The word from Intuit, the makers of Quickbooks, is that they do not "support" the version compatibility.
During this process, it was discovered that "it's not always what it seems". Some of the challenges with the use of the computer in the past were blamed on the old operating system, when in fact it really was a result of putting numerous Add-Ons in the Firefox browser. These additional programs for the browser can have some great benefits and are written by some extraordinary coders. However, in various combinations and configurations it can greatly reduce the browsers reliability, and since an enormous amount of time is spent computing in the cloud, the speed of a browser can be a major factor in effectiveness.
If you are considering making this upgrade, we recommend that you pay attention to which version of Windows 7 is best for you amongst the Home, Professional and Ultimate editions. They also have a nice three pack option which allows for upgrades to three machines with one license.
Desiree gets into her use of Windows 7 new feature Home Group a little bit. If you need to share files and printers among a group of computers using Windows 7, this option might be for you.
Please tell us about your experiences with upgrading to Windows 7. How did it go for you?
Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.
You can subscribe to The Bella Buzz directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.
Albert Einstein was not only a great theoretical physicist and scientist, he was a philosopher whose ideas and theories still ring true today. He's one of my personal heroes. One of my most favorite quotes of his is this, "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
So here we are on the first workday of 2010. Its 5:44 am and I'm already doing things differently. I've dedicated my first hour of the day to my blog and will continue to do so as many days as I can this year. You're going to be hearing a lot more from me this year. I hope you'll stick around.
For me, blogging is a form of corporate therapy. It helps me think about things that have been on my mind lately and gives me a place to put my ideas into solid form. It also helps me to share ideas with my fellow business owners which might have an impact or help you see things differently too.
Without further ado, I'm going to share with you my own personal list of what I'm going to be doing differently this year at Bella Web Design, Inc. TM
Blogging daily to help my thought process flow, share great ideas with others and help build our Bella Buzz audience to over 5,000 subscribers this year.
Publishing a weekly newsletter instead of quarterly. This will keep our clients posted on what we're doing over here that might be helpful to their business. New services and clients will be featured in the newsletter as well as advice, quick tips and software/hardware reviews. If you want to subscribe by all means click here. We'd love to add you to our list!
Pulling back from social media conferences. There, I've said it. Last year, I learned some hard lessons from 4 major Atlanta social media conferences I attended. The biggest thing that stuck out to me was small business owners weren't there. Most small businesses are just learning about social media. When it comes to learning about social media, people want a personal touch, not necessarily another conference. My audience is attending personalized webinars and one-on-one sessions with trusted advisers. They don't have time for conferences where the back noise channel is the most entertaining distraction in the room when the presentations get too technical and boring. or worse, totally off-topic and self-promotional. They want real, practical and personal advice on how to use these tools which can be a little scary at times. Business owners have told me they want solid information about how social media applies to their day to day business, not just theories of application. Not every tool works for every business. That's why I'm here--to guide and share practical, personalized information and I'm glad certain circumstances pointed that out to me last year.
Hosting monthly webinars in which people can share and learn on their own time and in their own space. Webinars are great because you can attend them from anywhere you wish as long as you have a computer and a phone. You also don't have to get dressed up. Heck, if you're in your pjs (as I am right now) no one will know. They are also easy to host using tools like WebEx. We plan on sharing some great information this year and practical advice that you can really use in your business the very same day. Stay tuned.
The Bella Buzz podcast is going live! We're going to do a monthly video webcast from Forrester Media Studios where our audience can be involved as we broadcast live through tools like Twitter, email and Facebook. We're very excited about this new venture and will be taping our first show this month. Video is where things have moved as we've talked about earlier this year. Our podcast is almost 1 year old in March and we thought it was time to stir things up a bit. Again, doing things differently. You'll still be able to find Joe Magennis and myself here every week on our audio podcast (subscribe with iTunes so you don't miss an episode). This will just enhance the show a bit and make things more interesting. We want to get our audience more involved this year and we hope this will help us accomplish that goal. Our subscriber base is over 1,000 strong and we thank all of you who believe in what we're doing and have shared your enjoyment with us of the podcast. Hope you'll "watch!"
Sticking to the knitting web design. At the core of every online marketing campaign still lives a website. Its easy to get off track with all the shiny free social media and marketing tools we have and put our efforts there while ignoring our websites. I've seen this happen a lot this past year and we're just as guilty. We're a web design company and we always will be. People still need great websites which enhance their business and tell their story. That's what we do best. We'll always look for great enhancements for our client's sites like this nifty toolbar which allows visitors to share their site on many social networks, but all in all, it comes down to what message your website is sending both its visual message as well as the written content. People will check out your site eventually from LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or any other of the most popular networks. Do you like what its telling them? If not, its time to contact a web design company which understands good use of visuals and has writers on staff to craft a great message for your company.
An hour later and I'm done. (That wasn't so bad!) I hope you will take up pen and paper keyboard and monitor this year and make some changes of your own which stick. Please ignore your brain's pleas and excuses of "I don't have time." Its worn out and no one will believe you anymore because I've just proven you can find time to do anything if its important enough to you and your audience. The world needs your talent and knowledge. I hope this post inspires you to kill the insanity and take a different path this year. I hope you'll stick with me as I journey on mine. Thank you 2010!
Social Media Coaching, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Submission, Web Design, Web Hosting, Ecommerce, Corporate Blogging, Email Marketing, Database Development
3605 Sandy Plains Rd.
Ste. 240-121
Marietta, GA 30066 www.bellawebdesign.com
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