Blog
Fitting Social Media into your day
Recently I wrote about the Social Media coffee shop. I promised to follow up with some tips on how you can fit this stuff into limited time, like your coffee breaks. Here goes!
Getting familiar (without getting overwhelmed)
If you’re new to social media or even a particular aspect of it, it can seem like a foreign country — one with strange language, etiquette and tools. It’s a good idea take on only one platform at a time (blogging OR Facebook OR Twitter). Also, begin when you can afford that bit of extra time, know that you’ll be spending more time than normal to start with it, and relax about that. Read more
WordPress Security & Upgrade Tips
I’d been thinking of sharing some of my tips on WordPress security, and this weekend’s alerts about hacking of older sites has pushed it to top of the post-ideas pile.
I definitely don’t claim to be an expert on security. But I have found the following to help me sleep a bit better at night and make events like upgrading or even possible hacking less stressful. I hope you’ll share any tips or questions of your own in the comments so we can all learn from each other. Read more
Do you have time for coffee?
A different way to think about, and make time for, Twitter & Facebook
Recently my Pilates instructor mentioned that she’s looking for an admin assistant, in part to do Facebook for the centre. In this conversation I heard two thoughts commonly expressed about Facebook and Twitter:
- “I just don’t have time for all that.”
- “Facebook is like another kind of email.” (By which she meant, a means to broadcast messages to her clients.)
I believe there is a more effective way to think of these things we broadly call “social media”. Read more
Fun with Moo Business Cards
As part of my recent branding efforts I needed some new business cards. As much as I love an awesome old-style letterpress card, that wasn’t the way to go for me. At least, not yet. I needed something that:
- was fairly inexpensive and quick (wanting them to arrive before an upcoming conference)
- therefore I could design and order myself (and I wouldn’t call myself a print designer)
- was nonetheless a well-designed product on a decent card-stock (thin cards suck!)
I was inspired by some moo.com readymade cards by Benrik with quirky phrases on them such as:
You seem like a serious business person. Let’s collaborate.
I love how these inject fun into the interaction of giving someone your card. Read more
Insight into right and left brain thinking
TEDTalks videos are such a wonderful resource. Every talk is so touching and inspiring in some way.
This one is by Jill Bolte Taylor, neuroanatomist — a student of the brain — who had a first hand experience of a stroke. She wrote a book called A Stroke of Insight about her experience.
Her talk really makes me understand the difference between right and left brain in a much more visceral way than I ever did before. It makes me understand my need for creative endeavours all the more. In fact, the need for all of us to foster these experiences for the good of our souls and our planet. What do you think of it?
Choosing an e-mail list manager
Recently as part of my volunteer work for Habitat for Humanity Sunshine Coast I researched options for an email marketing tool, and here’s what I found. The information is based on their websites and asking around, not on my personal experience with their services. Nonetheless, I hope you find it useful!
All of these services seem to be quite comparable/competitive, so rather than recap the features I’ve mainly commented on differences. All do the standard things you might need, at least at first glance.
If you’re shopping around you should confirm whether the service allows you to import and export your subscriber lists. The first big ones I looked into claim to, others I’m not so sure about.
Pricing and features may change of course so you should get the most current info from the providers’ websites. If you have anything to add, please do… personal experience with these services, errors, updates, etc. Bring it on!
Google Elements – Widgets for your website
Just released today: a new tool called Google Elements that allows you to easily embed a Google map, spreadsheet, Calendar, and more in your website. Using their tool you’ll generate bits of code which you can paste into your website editor or code. If you’re not sure how, and you’re running WordPress, my recent post on how to add a Google Calendar to your website may help. (Though admittedly it’s not a full tutorial on pasting in HTML stuff – maybe I should do one of those…)
The nice thing with these tools is there’s less need to edit the HTML – just select one of several sizes for the widget and you’ll get code to suit.
How to add a Google calendar to your website
Louise’s great suggestion for putting your business on the Google map reminded me of another way to use Google’s tools for your business: a Google Calendar. You can share your calendar with selected viewers, say, to keep your family or partners in the loop. If you want the whole world to know when your Tupperware party is, you can make your calendar public to anyone with just a few clicks. (Do they still have Tupperware parties? OK, maybe you want to list your naughty toys party instead. Whatever floats your boat…) Read more
Web Tips
I’m combing through old web & WordPress tips from my personal blog; I’ll be moving some of them over here. Here’s a few that didn’t make the cut but you might still find useful.
Functional AND Pretty
Recently a friend shared a link to a little website he’d built. He admitted that design is not his thing, but said the site was “meant to be functional, not pretty”. I’m sure it was an off-hand comment, not meant to insult the worth of good design. But nonetheless it illustrates how some people think that design is just putting a pretty coat of paint on things.
I could go off here and discuss how interaction design is so crucial to a good user experience. But instead let’s talk briefly about “pretty-ness”.
The article “In Defense of Eye Candy” is a great discussion of why design is so much more than an inconsequential coat of paint. The aesthetics of a website (which the author argues is not just visual but also other sensory perceptions), affect how we feel. And studies show that how we feel cannot be separated from how we think. For instance, in one study, users rated identical search results better or worse depending if they thought the results came from Google, Yahoo, or other search engines. The association with a particular brand (a matter of both aesthetic perception and past experiences), affected a thought process which one would expect to be entirely logical.
So I think that this article supports what I already believed: “pretty” can indeed make things more functional. What do you think?
“In Defense of Eye Candy“, by Stephen P. Anderson