Category: Blog
Networking With Your Smartphone
It seems like the process of networking has changed a lot over the past few years with the development of new technology. Gone are the days of filing business cards and keeping business contacts on blocked social media profiles. Things have changed and the wide world of mobile apps has a lot to do with it. We’re using our smartphones to make our lives easier in every aspect so why not use them when we make new connections? Take a look at our top three mobile apps to help push your networking practices into the 21st century.
Hashable
Described as the “ultimate networking app,” Hashable offers a unique user experience that takes it roots from the check-in craze. Sure, all your friends are checking in to restaurants and TV shows, but have you ever considered the concept of checking in with a person? Luckily for us, Hashable has! As a user you can track your meetings, calls and other events either privately or publicly which makes it easier for you to remember who you spoke with and why. You can type in another persons email address or Twitter username to exchange contact information directly with them and you can even expand your network by watching who your friends connect with.
One of the great things about Hashable is it allows you to connect and network on the go through your smartphone so if you make a connection in an unexpected place, you don’t have to worry about not having a stack of business cards on you. What Hashable focuses on is tracking your strongest relationships and in a world so heavily dependant on constant communication, this free app makes the stress of networking and keeping in touch less of a burden.
CardMunch
Have you ever lost an important business card and in turn, an important contact? If you answered yes then this app is definitely for you! CardMunch allows you to take a photo of a business card and it then pulls important information like the name, phone number, email, website, and address, and creates a new contact on your phone in seconds so you’ll always have that contact’s information no matter where you go. Business card enthusiasts can leave their binders at home because this app will save you a lot of storage space! With a simple flip of your phone you can also view all the business cards you’ve snapped photos of in a beautiful rolodex style.
If you’re a fond user of Linkedin, you’ll be happy to know that CardMunch is owned by Linkedin so scanning a contact’s business card and adding them to Linkedin through the app is only a one-click process. As a user you’ll also have the option to use the search function if you’re looking for someone but can’t quite remember his/her name. As for storage, CardMunch can either add your contacts to your iPhone address book or create a separate CardMunch address book to keep you more organized; the choice is yours. On top of all these features is peace of mind. CardMunch automatically backs up all the contacts you’ve added through the app on your web account so you can log in anytime, anywhere, and retrieve lost data.
I think the best part about this app is that it’s completely free! As networking professionals, we’re always looking for tools to make mundane tasks easier and to integrate social media into our every day lives so CardMunch is definitely worth it!
Quora
Networking online can be a difficult process. It’s never easy to find the right people in the right place and as a business person you never want to scare them away with a sales pitch. The folks at Quora must have asked themselves, “Why doesn’t the internet have a place where professionals of any ranking can ask business questions and participate in conversation?” After some intense brainstorming and planning, Quora was born! As a networking professional, using your skills online is important and Quora helps connect you to a vast array of people including CEO’s of major North American companies and even business enthusiasts who just want a place to connect and talk.
Using your knowledge on a specific subject to help another business person in need, is better than any hard sale tactic that would typically drive them away. What Quora does is give you an opportunity to show others what you’re made of and have intelligent discussions about topics that are near and dear to you. As a user you can ask or answer any questions you want, you can follow topics that interest you, communicate through messages, add connections and create a biography. You can log in via the website or through the free app for your smartphone. This is one social network you can’t afford to miss out on!
Blab’s Social Media Oscars 2011
After spending a few hours watching the Academy Awards and catching up with the red carpet gossip on Twitter, we couldn’t help but wonder what the Oscar ceremony would be like if instead of actors and actresses, the crowd was filled with brands and businesses vying for the top spot. Imagine McDonalds rubbing elbows with American Express, and Chapters walking down the red carpet with Ford. In honor of the yearly event we’ve decided to nominate businesses that truly deserve a Social Media Oscar for their dedication and creativity.
The Best Interactivity
There’s nothing better than visiting a social media fan page and being able to truly interact with the brand by sharing content and helping to build the community online. This Oscar belongs in the hands of Mountain Dew. Their wall is filled with posts giving suggestions on new flavours or campaigns, people confessing their love for the product and sharing photos, videos and stories of their experience with the brand. You can’t fake brand loyalty like that.
The Best Sense of Humor
It takes a lot to convey a joke through a status update but the people over at Skittles seem to be doing just fine. There’s nothing quite like a good giggle and there are no shortage of them on the Skittles fan page. Silly updates, questions, and just plain crazy antics cover their wall and their fans can’t get enough. Skittles has a quirky brand personality and it shows in their advertising and their social media efforts, which makes the brand not only entertaining, but cohesive across all platforms.
The Best Promotions
Everyone loves a great deal, especially when it’s available to a social media community. For quite some time now, Chapters Indigo has been rewarding their online fan base with exclusive savings that deserve a standing ovation! They’re always adding new tabs with discounts online and in-store that you only get if you become a fan on Facebook. It’s a great way to spark some conversation within the group and get people talking about what they plan to use the coupon to purchase. Partially rewarding loyalty and partially learning more about their customers buying habits, it’s a win-win situation!
The Best Creative Use Of A Platform
It’s all about what’s happening next, what’s trending next and what else is possible in the future and that’s why this Oscar goes to Threadless for outstanding innovation! As a Facebook user you can check out their new t-shirts, let your friends know what you think, and order them in your size right from the Threadless Facebook page. They also have a frequently asked questions tab built in to address user concerns about things like shipping and returns since they can buy directly from the page. It’s the integration of this technology that earns Threadless the top spot for creative use of the Facebook platform. Plus who doesn’t love t-shirts?!
The Best Overall Community
Winning this award was not an easy task but Mashable deserves it! In our opinion, the definition of the best overall community is a place where we can go to interact with other users, share opinions and comments freely, keep up with current news and most importantly, educate ourselves. With tons of resources and a great user environment, Mashable never fails to impress. Congratulations to the social media giants for winning over The Academy this year.
Which companies do you think deserve awards for their social media efforts?
Tim Hortons To Roll Up More Winners After Social Media Frenzy
This past Monday marked a milestone for Tim Hortons as they started yet another Roll Up The Rim event. This year was different though, the company was determined to change things and this sudden reaction came from a serious backlash through social media platforms in 2010. There were blogs simply dedicated to keeping track of how many coffees were winners, there were angry social media status updates and countdowns which undermined the company by stating that the odds were horrible and the contest simply wasn’t worth it anymore. With people all over the country getting fed up with Tim Hortons, the company knew they had to make changes fast for the next Roll Up The Rim event; and that’s exactly what they did.
As of 2010, Tim Hortons claimed that the odds of winning a prize were 1-in-9 and that these odds are audited daily when producing new cups for the contest. The number of available food prizes are part of the changes Tim Hortons made to the Roll Up The Rim contest this year. Last year there were 31 million food prizes and this year that number has been bumped up to 47 million to increase the overall odds to 1-in-6 and boost the number of winning cups by about 50%.
Tim Hortons has also decided to offer social media users something extra in hopes of drowning out the complaints. They created a photo builder on their Roll Up The Rim page that allows users to upload a photo of their choice with a frame and multiple statement options such as “I ♥ RRRoll Up!” They’ve even added a RRRoll up the Rim Roulette game on their website that gives registered users an extra chance to win every day by spinning the wheel for a $25 Tims card or the grand prize of free coffee for a year. If you’re a big fan, don’t forget to enter into the Longest Rolling RRR contest. All you have to do is record your longest rolling RRR right on the Time Hortons website and upload it with a photo. Your entry is automatically entered and posted to Facebook for fans to view. Who knew coffee could be so interactive?
It seems like the coffee giant has really taken a lot of things into consideration. I’d like to congratulate them on being so proactive by taking the time to listen to their customer complaints, researching their online brand reputation and using this information to move their business forward. This is a great case study for businesses of all sizes! Sometimes it’s difficult to research all the negative comments and feedback, but in the end, the more you know the more changes you can make to improve customer experiences and repair any damages your brand may have encountered online and offline.
Social Media Makes Breaking Up Hard To Do
It’s that time of year again and as usual, Valentines Day has created a stir of emotions online. It seems that people either love it or hate it, there’s no in between. With social media becoming a stronger presence in our lives, holding together a solid relationship is getting complicated. Before Twitter and Facebook breaking up was a simple task involving a phone call or face to face chat, packing up all of your ex’s items into a box and leaving it on their porch. If they tried to make contact afterwards you just didn’t answer their calls. But now, with breakups becoming extremely public and relationship status’ stirring up drama online, it’s difficult to hold things together for yourself and not let curiosity get the best of you.
In a world so consumed by technology where every detail of our lives is available for the world to see (or at least a large list of approved friends), it’s awkward to announce a breakup of any kind and then endure the questions and concern that come flooding in from people you forgot you knew. While these social networks get a bad rap for hindering communication in the real world, they are still excellent communication tools when used properly. After all, you can’t rely on Facebook alone to have a mature discussion with your partner. There comes a time when a good phone call or meeting up over coffee is the most appropriate thing to do.
Unfortunately this new technology makes snooping and spying a lot easier and as a result it becomes difficult to move on, even though we know it’s over. Let’s face it, we’ve all visited an ex’s page on Facebook, creeped their photos, and checked their status’ on Twitter. With all this information available at our fingertips it’s hard not to re-visit the past when it’s one click away. YourTango.com, a love and relationship advice hub, released a series of survey results that shed some light on how social networks have affected relationships. Seventy-four percent of people look up their ex on the Internet, 86 percent admit to clicking through photos of them (14 percent of those people are married) and 50 percent called, texted, emailed or IMed an ex when that probably wasn’t the most advisable move. Arguably because of all of this mess, 71 percent say that they think about their ex too much.
As a result of these responses YourTango created a “Break Up With Your Ex Day” yesterday, February 13th. They encouraged people to unfriend, unfollow, block and basically stop stalking their ex’s online. They even created an online badge that users can post publicly once they complete the required steps to cleanse themselves of their ex. For those of you who aren’t sure how obsessed you are with your ex, you can take the quiz and find out if you need help or not. YourTango’s website also has a good amount of pro-valentines day articles that will help you choose a date idea or a movie for the special occasion but they also have a fair amount of anti-valentines day articles that any sceptic would find entertaining.
Whether you’re dating, in a serious relationship, married, divorced or enjoying the single life, keep in mind that your past is never more than a click away and only you have the power to move on with your life and put a stop to the social media stalking. This Valentines Day, take the pledge and free yourself for good!
Facebook Profile Pic Hack Becomes The Next Big Internet Meme
Facebook is no stranger to Internet memes and with the introduction of the new Facebook profile, some users welcomed the change with open arms. Alexandre Oudin, a French artist, has been credited for starting the next big craze that has more and more people participating as each day passes. Since the creation of Facebook, users have always experimented with photos but the new profile redesign allows for seriously clever animations, typography and photographic magic.
By now there are tutorial videos floating around that teach users how to create some magic of their own and it seems like a Facebook banner application is also cashing in on the trend so it may only be a matter of time before this really catches on. In the meantime, we’ve searched the web and found the top 10 Facebook profile pic hacks. If you’ve been getting creative with your profile, we want to see it!
5 Ways To Get Linkedin Working For Your Business
Create a company profile
Take the time to set up a profile for your business on Linkedin. It’s a simple process that will give you a presence on the social network. When users search your company name or make generic searches within your industry, your page will be available. In addition, you can add your company name to your page as a current job and it will link back to the profile so if any of your connections are interested in learning more, they don’t need to leave the website. As long as you already have a personal page on Linked in, you qualify to create a company profile.
Get Your Employees Involved
Chances are at least some of your employees have a presence on Linkedin. Encourage them to add the company name to their current job title and they’ll show up on the company profile as an employee. This can help your business gain credibility and gives your employees’ connections a chance to learn more.
Include the Linkedin Widget on Your Website
Take advantage of your presence across multiple platforms and use the Linkedin widget on your company blog or webpage. The widget allows visitors to interact with your content and re-post something they like to their own Linkedin connections therefore spreading the word about your business. The more people share your content, the more likely you are to attract new visitors.
Join Groups
Linkedin is more than just a profile page; it’s all about interaction with your connections and learning to network on a new platform. Groups are designed to attract niche users who enjoy discussing certain topics. For example, as a graphic designer, there are many groups you can join with other established graphic designers that act as a forum for questions and niche networking. You can also join groups based on your location or groups designated for a specific event. Participation in groups is a great way to generate leads without seeming pushy and it can help you establish a solid base of potential connections for the future. As a group member you can participate in any discussions as well as start your own so if you have a question you’ve been dying to get another experts opinion on, this is the perfect platform. You can also submit articles, search for jobs or even post your own job adds if you’re looking for new employees.
Say Active by Asking and Answering Questions
Linkedin Answers allows users to ask questions to other members or answer questions that have already been asked. Participating in an activity like this can really show others your expertise and knowledge on a certain subject which can help provide solid business leads from members who require your services. This area of the site also presents a great opportunity to learn more about your industry and stay up to date on the latest trends by gathering knowledge and insights from other members. If you answer enough questions where your answer is selected as the best, you will eventually earn the title of expert and an expert star will be added to your Linkedin profile. This can increase your exposure on the site and lets your connections know just how credible you are.
Trend Alert: The Social Sign-in
As more and more companies are turning to social media for a presence online, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube are giving way to the next big trend for these established companies; the social sign-in. This new form of sharing information allows customers to login to a website using their social media login credentials rather than registering for that specific website separately. Because Facebook’s registration and platform provide so much user insight, retailers are excited to embrace the social sign-in as it will give them access to this detailed information that they wouldn’t normally be able to retrieve from a simple website log-in. Preferences and likes are very important to retailers because their strategy is simply increase orders, attract new customers, and minimize returns. Thanks to the social sign-in, they can begin using this data to learn more about their customers and to ensure they’re providing users with the best possible experience.
From a customer’s perspective, not having to memorize 26 different login passwords and usernames can mean a lot less time and frustration. But on the other end of the spectrum, people are becoming increasingly more protective and weary about their information online, and for good reason. For the time being, retailers are treading lightly with social sign-ins so customers don’t feel like their privacy is being violated.
Although the concept isn’t brand new, only a few ecommerce websites have implemented the social sign-in so far. A report from eMarketer states that 18% of online retailers have implemented this technology for their visitors as of August 2010. Another 18% reported that they were in the process of implementing it while 32% planned to roll it out sometime in the next 12-24 months.
With the world of social media ever-changing, it will be interesting to see if this new trend catches on with retailers and how the platform may change and evolve over time. Most importantly, will customers be willing to sacrifice their privacy for a convenience like the social sign-in and if so, will it be worth it in the end?
Infographic provided by Gigya
Tweets, Beats and Eats
If you’re a local Windsor business or entrepreneur Tweets Beats and Eats is a great way to get out and show your support for a local event while in turn networking and seeing how important and useful Twitter really is! This Wednesday, January 19th at 8:00pm, Windsoreats will be hosting Tweets, Beats and Eats at Motorburger on Erie Street. The annual event encourages guests to use Twitter during their meal to express their thoughts. The tweets are then shown live on screens that are placed around the restaurant so everyone can see what’s being said. Check out the video of last year’s event documented by Windsor Eats.
It’s easy to think that Windsor is falling behind and that no one really grasps the concept of social media but thankfully, that’s no longer true. This event is unique because it’s based on pure entertainment and I think Windsor needs more of that in the future. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing bad about a solid business strategy and a serious networking event, but sometimes people just want to have fun. I think enabling people to interact with these social media platforms in a fun and relaxed environment is the best way for them to learn and really experience using the tools that can help improve their business.
If awesome social media events can happen in big cities like Toronto, why can’t they happen here? Hopefully 2011 will bring a change of attitude for everyone and a new outlook on the possibilities in Windsor. I see an amazing amount of opportunity in a small city where people are eager to learn, adapt and keep up with the big cities. Just because we’re small doesn’t mean we can’t be creative and explore social media in new ways! I think it’s time that people start to set higher goals for Windsor and put their faith in its entrepreneurs and small businesses to set the city apart from all others. There is so much potential here but a lot of it remains untapped and we hope that the New Year will bring about courage in the citizens of Windsor, courage to think outside the box and push the boundaries so we can show this country what we’re made of!
How Information Insurance Can Help You Bridge Mortality
What if you died tomorrow with a secret or confidential information and passwords locked away inside your head? What if your loved ones can’t find your bank accounts or your coworkers can’t access hidden files? Deathswitch.com offers a solution to bridging mortality with its information insurance plan. A deathswitch is an automated system that prompts users for a password ( at a frequency of your choice) to make sure you’re still alive and well. When you fail to enter your password for a certain amount of time, the system continues to prompt you again several times. If there is still no reply, the computer presumes you’re dead or severely disabled, and your pre-written messages are automatically emailed to those named by you. You can create email messages, attach files and specify recipients and your messages are automatically sent after your switch is triggered.
The free account offers 1 email recipient and no attachments. With the premium account ($19.95/year) you get 30 messages with up to 10 recipients each and the ability to attach files such as videos, photos and documents. Some users have found a deathswitch to be very convenient for funeral instructions, bank account information, computer passwords etc. The company even boasts a free trial so any interested users can set up a fake message to another email account, stop responding to the prompts and see how it all works. Luckily, if your recipients change their email addresses, you have the ability to edit your information every time you answer a prompt.
The company boasts encryption technologies and high security measures to protect your messages from hackers but you help but wonder, how safe is this process? Most importantly, how necessary is this process? It’s interesting to see how companies are beginning to use technology in innovative ways and in this case, capturing the attention of the password/secret junkie who is constantly worrying about the information they carry around in their head on a daily basis. There is no doubt that as society progresses towards a technological takeover, information insurance and services like the deathswitch are becoming more feasible.
Mac App Store Unveiled
If you’re a Mac user, yesterday was a big day and chances are you’ve already spent a few hours exploring the new software update that included the App Store feature. Basically this means that you can now download Angry Birds on your computer as well as your smart phone…oh and there’s other apps available for download too. The store is very well organized and the concept is exciting because it means the world of apps is progressing even further, stretching from smart phones to personal computers. If I didn’t already have a Macbook, I’d want one now, and that’s exactly what Apple was hoping for, increasing consumer demand for their product and keeping current users happy with the ability to extend game play and app usage to another platform.
You can find programs like iPhoto and Keynote as well as apps that appeal to musicians, graphic designers, fashionistas, serious gamers and everyone in between. Apple has now pinpointed a very specific sector of the market that they, for the longest time, did not have control over. Why would I go to Best Buy and purchase a computer game for anywhere from $20-$40 when I can purchase something very similar (if not exactly the same) right from my house and pay $5-$10? Once again Apple dominance has exerted itself but it seems to be a serious benefit to the consumer. It’s always nice to have a choice and now I do.
After exploring for a while I’ve come up with a few recommended apps. First off, Twitter is a must-have and not having to log in online makes me very happy! I’ve never been a fan of tweetdeck or hootsuite, I found they gave me nothing but problems in terms of functionality so this is a breath of fresh air! Second, I love the simplicity and effectiveness of Caffeine. Anyone who frequently gives presentations or watches videos on their computer will understand how convenient it is to have a switch in one spot to disable the screen from fading or the computer from sleeping/turning off. Lastly, Booxter looks like an excellent way to keep track of your books, movies, music and comics. Any collector can appreciate the simplicity and the organization this app offers.
Will the app store translate well to personal computers? Will users participate? Is this just the beginning? There’s no way to know for sure what the future holds but there’s also no denying the power of the app! I for one am very excited to see what possibilities lie ahead and exactly how much computer memory I can consume with download apps.