I have been totally negligent in the Byte lately and I’m cheating today by sharing news, not a tip. I apologize but I wanted to send a heads up about two events that are coming up. Also I just posted notes from a presentation I gave today on telling a story using social media: http://tinyurl.com/ygh7k7g (It actually does contain tips.) It was a webinar and I hope soon to write about giving a webinar. It’s hard but I think I picked up some tips that might make life easier for you should you ever be in a position to present for a webinar.

Here are the events:
The Twin Cities Media Alliance will hold its 2009 Fall Media Forum on Saturday November 7, at the Hennepin County Library Central branch, 300 Nicollet Mall, downtown Minneapolis, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (It’s free.) The theme for this year’s forum is Networking And The New Media Landscape: Reporting News, Building Community, Making Money. Learn more here: http://twincitiesmediaalliance.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/tcma-fall-media-forum-november-7/

Realizing Our Broadband Future: Getting from Here to There
Wednesday, November 18 – Thursday, November 19, 2009 (Cost $105) held in Duluth
Blandin Foundation’s 2009 Broadband Conference will focus on the future of Minnesota communities, providing community leaders with the information and tools they need to position their communities in the future. http://tinyurl.com/n4gqvb  

In the next week I will find time to write up a tip!

Earlier this week I gave a presentation at the Minnesota Library Association. I spoke to Friends’ Groups about hot o use social media. It was a fun presentation. Some folks in the room were big social media users; others weren’t sure what a blog was.

One special and unexpected treat was running into a client – Learning ZoneXpress. I have been working with LZE on social media strategies – so I couldn’t resist taking a picture to add them to my blog. (Sometimes they offer free things and super deals on their blog, I’m just saying.)

I gave a presentation this week on how to use Twitter and Blogging to help with a job search. The quick answer is that both give you an opportunity to show off your expertise, build and/or show up your tech skills and through each you can subtly reach  out to potential employers. (Post a nice comment about them on your blog or start following them on Twitter.)

One thing that came up was an easy way to update your Twitter, Facebook, Linked… The answer is Ping.fm http://ping.fm Like most good tools, it’s free.

You sign up, you check the networks you would like to update via Ping – then you update Ping when you want to send a message to all of your networks. Now you just have to think of something worthy of such wide reaching broadcast.

Today I am giving the following presentation to a group of job seekers:

Here are some of the digested Bytes I plan to mention. I want to add links here to make it easier for folks to find them tomorrow.

• Setting up a Google Alert: http://byteoftheweek.com/2005/06/15/another-look-at-google/
• Setting up a Blog http://byteoftheweek.com/2007/12/12/starting-a-new-blog/ – some things may have changed with the latest version of WordPress but this should give a general idea.
• Twitter Shortcuts: http://byteoftheweek.com/2009/06/18/twitter-shortcuts/  

So you have a web site and you want your potential customers to find you on Google. The problem is you have a couple of clients who keep beating you out of the top places. Well the first step to beating them is finding out more about them. You can find out a ton with Keyword Spy: http://www.keywordspy.com

Keyword spy will tell you if your client buys any PPC (pay per click) ads. It will tell you what keyword phrases it finds when it scans the site, how often those terms are search and how much they would cost if you were to bid on PPC ads. It will also give you a list of the main competitors it finds.

Or you could type in a few keywords and it will start by telling you which sites do well with those terms, how often they are search, the bid amounts and from there you can get to the competitors’ site and get more info.

It will give you a good idea about what terms you should add to your site and how much you might have to spent on PPC ads if you wanted to buy your way to the top of the list.

The best part – you can access a lot of Keyword Spy with a free membership.

Two fun web sites today. First, thanks to Rick in Minneapolis for the Solid Waste What to do Site (http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/solid-waste/what-to-do-A.asp). OK fun might not be the operative word – but it’s super useful for finding out what you can recycle, what is potentially hazard and other stuff.

The second is Groupon (http://www.groupon.com) – it’s a super fun one-coupon-a-day service. I have been jealous of this service in Chicago and they are looking at expanding. My hope is that if we all sign up they’ll get going in Minneapolis a little faster.

Yesterday I got to speak with a group of business owners in Owatonna about social media. They are part of a CEO Peer Council sponsored by Enterprise Minnesota. They were a fun group of folks. Some had signed up for Twitter but never used it; most had kids on Facebook; some used YouTube, email lists and LinkedIn; most sent text messages; all wanted to learn more.

I’ll post the presentation I gave below. The group was also interested in some how-to materials so I’ve gathered a list of past Byte on how-tos for them:

• How to Start a Blog: http://byteoftheweek.com/2007/12/12/starting-a-new-blog/ – some things may have changed with the latest version of WordPress but this should give a general idea.
• Why Twitter: http://byteoftheweek.com/2009/06/10/why-twitter/
• Twitter Shortcuts: http://byteoftheweek.com/2009/06/18/twitter-shortcuts/
• Add Twitter feed to Blog: http://byteoftheweek.com/2009/07/08/adding-twitter-feed-to-blog-sidebar/
• RSS Headline Feeds: http://byteoftheweek.com/2008/05/14/rss-headline-feeds/

Today’s Byte is kind of a cheat in that I’m copying from a resource I found. Here’s a way to close lots of Word Documents at once – if like me you ever realized you have way too many open:

To save or close multiple documents at the same time in Word

• Hold down the Shift key while clicking the File menu option. This will bring up two hidden options in the File menu: Save All and Close All.
• Select the option for the task you want to perform.
  When you select Close All, Word will ask you if you want to Save your changes. Choose this option if you want to save all your work and close out of Word quickly.

I got this from Vicki’s Tech Tips: http://www.vickiblackwell.com/tips.html She has lots of simple and super helpful Word type tips.

Today I’m giving a presentation to the Professional Women in Real Estate group in St Paul Minnesota. I’m excited to talk with the group. I suspect that everyone is coming at it with very different levels of experience and expertise. Here is the presentation I’m going to use.

I think I’ll also mention the Minnesota Voices Online list – the focus is rural and more community building but I think it’s a good group for anyone looking to implement a social media plan.

Today’s Byte is only kind of tech related. It’s a fun site that will help you come up with recipes based on what you have in your kitchen.

Super Cook: http://www.supercook.com

You enter your ingredients and it will give you a list of recipes that requires only those ingredients.

It will remember your ingredients – you can modify the list easily. You could also ask for ideas for recipes that only require a few more ingredients. It will even kick out a shopping list for you.

I thought it would be a good tool for the first week of school