Using Facebook – avoid the time suck!

fb-notifications

Facebook offers a seemingly unlimited  mixture of playful applications. You may find yourself building a family tree, caught up in a war or feeding farm animals!

This can become addictive and before you know it, your entire day has gone by and you have not accomplished one useful thing!

To avoid the time sink on Facebook here are five suggestions:

  • schedule your social media time each day and stick to it – set an alarm to go off when your time is up. You can download many alarm applications for your desktop.
  • optimize your Facebook profile to zone in on your favorite places on Facebook – news feeds for quick glancing then create lists of friends to check in on them as a group. (see below how to set up friend lists)
    How to create a Friend List on Facebook

    How to create a Friend List on Facebook

  • set up a separate folder in your email account and create rules to direct them to that folder,  then set aside time to review and respond from within your email account (see how to send your Facebook notifications to your email below)
    How to manage email notifications on Facebook

    How to manage email notifications on Facebook

  • “unfriend” or block ‘friends” that suck up too much of your time with posts that never interest you.

    How to remove or block someone on Facebook

    How to remove or block someone on Facebook

  • block applications in which you have no interest (see how to block applications below)
  • How to block an application on Facebook

    How to block an application on Facebook

Remember, be sure to limit your time on Facebook and, if you are using Facevook for business, be sure to distinguish between business and personal time.

Cheers!

gmssign 150x48 Using Facebook   avoid the time suck!

How to see everything on your Facebook wall.

profile-link-in-facebook

How many times have you had someone tell you that they posted something to your wall and you swear on ten stacks that you never saw it?

What about that great event you missed out on because you never saw the details posted to what I call your “personal” wall?

After conversations with several of my Facbook Buddies, it is clear to me that a lot of Facebook users are still not aware that their profile wall feed defaults to News Feed (what I call your “public wall”. And, just like any news feed, it feeds your wall with items from your friends, friends of your friends, fan pages that you have “liked” etc.

profile-link-in-facebook

Profile link in Facebook

So, just how do you sift through all of the clutter and see when someone has specifically added something to your “personal” wall? By clicking on the PROFILE LINK at the top right side of your personal Facebook profile page. Voila! Once you are in “profile mode” you can see everything that was directed specifically at you and added to your “personal wall”, clear of the clutter of the news feed.

Here’s to an improved Facebook experience!

Facebook for business.

Want to start leveraging Facebook for business? Here is a great video from one of my fav online communities, Hub Spot. After you’ve watched the video, if you have questions or want help getting started with using Facebook for your business, including setting up a custom fan page, please contact us and we will be happy to partner with you to make it happen!

Social Media Optimization

social+media2

I have been hearing this term pretty often in recent months and thought I would find out more about it so, I “attended” a Webinar where Brian Solis, shared his views on the subject and the slides from the webinar are below.  Seems like the new SEO to me to. Whadda ya think?

You can view the actual webinar using the link below:

VIEW VIDEO NOW

See ya again soon.

HootSuite Adds New Team Collaboration Tool!

hootsuite

HootSuite was originally designed for people who managed multiple social network accounts. Since then, they have added more social networks and additional ways to interact with account. They have now announced the release of the Team Collaboration Tools and from what I have seen so far, it’s a winner!

We have used HootSuite to manage several social networking accounts for several clients and cannot imagine my life without it! Best part? You guessed it, you can use all of the kewl and useful tools for FR^EE!!!

Twitter Analytics Tools

twitter

Want to know what people are saying about you on Twitter? A new tool called Reviewe’d was recently launched which helps you to review and distinguish between positive opinions from negative opinions. It provides a user friendly dashboard that gives users information based on specific keywords, titles, products etc. The developers say that unlike other analytical tools that provide complex details, Review’d provides “actionable” information that is more useful. It is a paid app and you can get a free 30 day trial.

Adobe Software and Avatar

Did you know Adobe Software helped make the movie Avatar?   That’s right!   Check out the video below, featuring Jon Landau, Producer of “Avatar”, and see how Adobe software was used throughout the production of Avatar.   In this single clip the following Adobe products were used:

Also, check out what these blogs say about Adobe and Avatar:

Adobe AIR Team Blog
John Nack on Adobe

Windows 7 Desktop Gadgets

Windows-7-gadgets-select

I reluctantly bought a new PC  loaded with Windows 7.   My tech guy insisted! (just like he did when I bought my last laptop with Windows Vista :-( )

This time I am glad I listened.  I am loving Windows 7.   Although Vista has many of the same features, the upgrades that came with Windows 7 just seem easier and more fun. (Or maybe I just have more time to play????)

[Read more...]

Create a Distribution List using categories in Microsoft Outlook

DistLists1

So you have several categories set up in Microsoft Outlook Contacts and every time you want to send an email to that group of contacts, you go into the contacts menu, search for the category then use the action tool to create a new email message to send to the group. Good for you. But, wouldn’t it be a whole lot easier if you could just select the list from within the email address field itself?

You could off course set up your distribution list the traditional way by selecting each contact one at a time to be added to the list but, who has time for that????? [Read more...]

How to Interview a Virtual Assistant

Although it is true that a professional Virtual Assistant is not typically an employee, it does not mean that you should skip the interview process, when trying to select the right one to begin a partnership with. Since most interviews of Virtual Assistants will not be face-to-face, here are the three most likely options you will use for the process:

ONLINE INTERVIEW

There are some very successful Virtual Assistants who do not have an online presence. However, since your partnership will be a “virtual” one, it is a very good idea to consider Virtual Assistants who have a website, since it gives you the ability to learn things about them that you would not, if there is no website. Once you’ve located the website, here are some clues you will want to look for: [Read more...]

Are you maximizing the Category feature in Outlook?

Outlook Contacts - General options

If you use Microsoft Outlook, chances are you are like a lot of people who do not take advantage of many of the features that are available.

As s Virtual Business Support Professional, one such feature that I find many people overlook is OUTLOOK’S 2007 CATEGORIES feature. Categories provide an efficient way for you to manage several functions like mail merge, distribution lists etc., messages, etc

For example, using Categories, you can send personalized emails (using documents or plain email) to a group of contacts at once. You can also create Distribution Lists using Categories.

To make the most out of the Outlook Category feature, you should assign every contact in your Outlook address book to a Category. Some categories might be: Family, Clients, Prospects, Acquaintances, East Coast, etc. Additionally, you can assign categories to e-mail messages, meetings, appointments etc. [Read more...]

Liven up your links!

Locating a URL

Are you wondering why your links are not “live” like the ones you see all over the internet in articles, social network posts etc.?

The answer is simple: you did not use an  actual Uniform Resource Locator, more commonly known as a URL and although a simple www.expertbusinesspartners.com entry will work in some environments, many platforms (like Facebook and Twitter)  will not make the site name live without an actual URL.

So what is a URL? According to the WEPOPEDIA, it is the global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web.  The first part of the address is called a protocol identifier and it indicates what protocol to use, and the second part is called a resource name and it specifies the IP address or the domain name where the resource is located. The protocol identifier and the resource name are separated by a colon and two forward slashes.”

[Read more...]

What’s up with Facebook Fan Pages?

Where Update from Fan Pages end up

In a recent exchange on FB and in another forum to which I belong, it became apparent to me that many FB  Fan Page owners  and Users may not know how the whole Fan Page thing works so I thought I would share this with you: (I do not purport to be a FB expert (although I do know so stuff :-) but have become quite enthralled with FB Fan Pages and have been using my own to grow my business).

Like most of us who have created a Fan Page one of the things that had us salivating at the mouth with this whole concept, was the ability to send updates to the droves of fans we attract. Well, I hate to burst that bubble but, when you send an update to your fan list, IT DOES NOT PLACE AN EMAIL IN THEIR IN-BOX , like the messaging and comments features do. Instead, it places them in a folder called UPDATES, which is hosted in the FB users FB in-box and is accessible by clicking on the UPDATES LINK at left.

[Read more...]

Playing tag on your Facebook wall!

tag

tag Playing tag on your Facebook wall!

Facebook recently released a feature that allows you to tag “friends” in your posts, which will show up on your wall. This is different from the original tagging feature which gave you the ability to identify and reference people in photos, videos and notes. The new tagging feature gives you a way to tag people and other things you’re connected to on Facebook — in status updates and other posts, which will appear on your wall.

It’s another way to let select “friends” know what you are writing about right away, instead of them having to wait to see it when they view your wall.

The way the new feature works:

“When you are writing a status update and want to add a friend’s name to something you are posting, just include the “@” symbol beforehand. As you type the name of what you would like to reference, a drop-down menu will appear that allows you to choose from your list of friends and other connections, including groups, events, applications and Pages. Soon, you’ll be able to tag friends from applications as well. The “@” symbol will not be displayed in the published status update or post after you’ve added your tags. Friends you tag in your status updates will receive a notification and a Wall post linking them to your post. They also will have the option to remove tags of themselves from your posts.

Happy tagging but please do not annoy your friends!!!!

99 days and counting……

Fall Leaves Calendar

Fall Leaves CalendarIn 99 days, it will be the start of the year 2010!!!! Can you believe it? Remember when that seemed like such a long ways of?

How will 2010 find your business?

If you don’t know, then now is the time to begin thinking about it and taking steps to ensure it finds it the way you want it to. Will you have met  your goals for 2009? If not, why not? What are you goals for 2010?

Here are a few things you should be paying attention to now if you want to greet 2010 with a smile :-)   or, you can ignore the opportunity to take action now then be filled with regret when you realize you let it slip away………..again!!!!

Twitter 101 – According to Twitter!

gmssignature

Millions of people use Twitter every day to share ideas with others, find information and create applications. From many well established, national brands to recent online start-ups, many business are turning to Twitter as an effective way to reach out to employees, customers and prospects.

[Read more...]

Are you Tweeting?

Like many of you, I was skeptical about jumping into the Twitter pool. But I am so glad I did and encourage you to take the plunge!

[Read more...]

Spinnable Welcome Text for Twitter

If you use Tweet Later to manage your Tweets, there is a great tool to help you create and send a variety of messages when Tweeps follow you, instead of the same generic message each time. This feature is called

SPINNABLE WELCOME TEXT

[Read more...]