This week in C-NOTES:

How to Get a Boatload of People to Pin Your Products to Pinterest
How Search, Social Media, and Content Accelerate Your Business
Help Your Employees Become Strategic Thinkers

If you want more useful resources and links than the eight we highlight in our weekly roundup, follow @corebizstyle on Twitter.

This week in C-NOTES:

3 Ways to Fix Your Broken Marketing
6 Things Comedians Can Teach You About Public Speaking
Networking Tips: Go From Awkward to Awesome
10 Winning Lessons From Maverick Entrepreneur Mark Cuban

If you want more useful resources and links than the eight we highlight in our weekly roundup, follow @corebizstyle on Twitter.

This week in C-NOTES:

7 Timeless Business Lessons You can Learn from Hollywood Screenplays
Marketing Tips: Build Your Brand on LinkedIn
5 Tips to Convince Editors to Say “Yes” to Your Guest Posts
How to Become a Blogging Superstar

If you want more useful resources and links than the eight we highlight in our weekly roundup, follow @corebizstyle on Twitter.

This week in C-NOTES:

50 Great Thoughts on Success
What I Learned About Great Meetings From Steve Jobs
12 Essential Tools For the Content Marketer

Managing a workforce is difficult enough, but doing it virtually can be downright challenging.

Luckily, technology has made the virtual manager’s job a lot easier. Combine the Internet with the collaborative qualities of the cloud and you wind up with a plethora of productivity and community tools to choose from.

Here are 12 virtual tools you’ll want to check out and add to your own management toolbox:

1. Skype 

A virtual communication tool that lets you make both voice and video calls for free online, Skype is a popular too for managers who are on the road, or whose workforces are out of the office a lot. Upgrade your account to Skype Premium and you can run video conference calls with up to 10 people (compared to 2 with the free service); have your own phone numbers; and use tools like group screen sharing. Connecting with employees and managers is also easier with Skype, which allows you to “see” if someone is online and ping them to ask if they can chat. You can also use Skype to record calls and send large files to one another. As an added bonus, Skype offers an IM service that helps you communicate with employees without having to call or email them.

2. Dropbox 

There’s nothing more exasperating than getting that “file too large to send” error message when sending important documents, graphics, and video files to your co-workers, bosses, clients, or business partners. Dropbox is a good solution to this never-ending problem. The free (for up to 3GB of storage space) online file storage service allows you to collaborate with anyone you choose to via the cloud. You can give people access on a folder-by-folder basis, allowing you to share documents with the team members who need to see them. For $99-per-year, you can upgrade to 50GB of storage space.

3. Basecamp 

If your online information sharing needs go beyond simple file sending, Basecamp may be an even more robust alternative. Basecamp is a web-based project management and collaboration virtual tool that allows users to mange to-dos, files, messages, schedules, and milestones. Pricing starts at $20 per month and the company offers a 45-day free trial.

4. Google Calendar 

If you haven’t signed up for your free Google account yet, do it now for at least one main reason: the calendar. It allows users to share virtual online calendars with specific people and groups. Set up one calendar for company and project deadlines (so that everyone knows when tasks must be completed) and then set one up for your own personal use (to create some work-life balance).  Attach files or docs to your event so you have the right materials when your meeting starts. Calendar sharing makes it easy to find time with the people you work with and the smart scheduling feature suggests meeting times that work for everyone. Create an event calendar and embed it on your website or set up appointment slots so customers can choose the best time for them.

5. ShoeBoxed 

When you work virtually, those receipts, notes, and collected business cards can stack up quickly. Use the ShoeBoxed online receipt management virtual tool to upload your receipts by mailing or e-mailing them to the designated recipients. The company offers free and paid plans (the latter starts at $9.95 per month), and also includes a feature that allows for business card scanning. Your data is secured by SSL encryption (used by online banks), backed up on multiple servers and available on a 24/7 basis online. Compatible with QuickBooks, ShoeBoxed is a great paperless solution for managing important slips of paper.

6. Yammer 

Ever wish your company had its own social networking platform? Yammer can help fill that gap. A Twitter-like utility that companies use to communicate securely online, Yammer is a communication tool, motivational tool, and social network dedicated to your own firm. Use it to connect people across your company; share status updates, ideas, announcements, links, files, photos, polls, events, and praise; create dedicated team workspaces for a project, department or cross-functional group; brainstorm ideas; and develop and share content.

7. HootSuite

HootSuite is a social media dashboard with more than two million users that helps you manage and measure your social networks. You can update all your social profiles, schedule future messages and tweets, track your brand via mentions, and analyze your social media traffic. Launch marketing campaigns, identify and grow audiences, and distribute targeted messages using HootSuite’s unique social media dashboard. Streamline team workflow with scheduling and assignment tools and reach target markets with geo-targeting functionality. Invite multiple collaborators to manage social profiles securely, plus provide custom reports using the comprehensive social analytics tools for measurements. HootSuite can be used with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and new Google+ Pages, plus a suite of social content apps for YouTube, Flickr, Tumblr and more.

8. Evernote

Collaborating online in an efficient and cost-effective way got easier when Evernote came on the scene. With Evernote, all of your notes, web clips, files and images are made available on every device and computer you use. Save everything cool and exciting you see online and in the real world to an Evernote page. Snap a photo, record some audio and add it. Save entire web pages to your Evernote account with nifty browser extensions. Keep all of your itineraries, confirmations, scanned travel documents, maps, and plans in Evernote, so you’ll have them when you need them. Consolidate information from anywhere into a single Evernote file and then share it with colleagues or employees.

9. BizPAD 

Having a hard time keeping track of your to-do list and delegated tasks? This applications helps you maximize your productivity, systemize your business, increase your business value, and streamline communication with your team. Create a project folder, identify tasks, assign them and then allow team members to see, update, and track progress all with BizPAD.

10.  Filocity 

Manage your documents more efficiently online with Filocity.com, a cloud storage application that allows you to organize and store all of your documents in one secure online file management system. Upload, edit, share and access anytime from anywhere in the world at any time. Filocity customers have complete organizational control over all their business files, email, and documents. They can get to everything to do with any client, case, patient, project or personal files instantly, and no longer have to waste precious time searching and hunting through cabinets or files, standing at copier or faxes or carrying flash drives.  All files are safely locked away encrypted and HIPAA compliant.

11.  GoToMeeting  

The days when teams sat around conference tables hashing out ideas are long gone. In today’s virtual work world, GoToMeeting fills the void by offering easy-to-use desktop sharing/web meeting space. Hold web conferences and conduct online meetings with anyone, anywhere. The company offers an “All You Can Meet®” flat-fee, subscription based model that enables individuals and businesses to use online meetings more often, resulting in increased productivity and a quicker ROI.

12. GoodToDo  

If you are worried that important tasks will be overlooked if they aren’t written down – and if you don’t have time to write all of them down – check out GoodToDo. After signing up for the service, all you have to do is send an email to them (or forward one from your inbox) using the date or day (such as “tomorrow”) as the “to” email address, and it will automatically appear on your to-do list. This is a particularly useful virtual tool for managers whose to-do lists stem from emails. Simply forward them over to GoodToDo. You can also receive a daily email reminder via the online application, or check out the mobile application, to manage your tasks.

With these virtual tools, you’ll never again be caught without a critical presentation, lose track of who was responsible for key tasks, misplace new product or service ideas, or lose touch with traveling team members. By centralizing idea sharing and tracking in cloud-based applications, your productivity and organization should dramatically improve.

What are your favorite virtual tools?

This week in C-NOTES:

Social Media: 40 Ways to Build a Loyal Audience
The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs
15 Business Lessons From Amazon’s Jeff Bezos

If you want more useful resources and links than the eight we highlight in our weekly roundup, follow @corebizstyle on Twitter.

Blogging

The Real Secret to 1000 Blog Subscribers in 60 Days or Less – You can still cultivate connections with powerful people and get yourself a 1,000 new subscribers in less than 60 days. Let me show you how!

How to Get More Traffic to Your Blog with Corbett Barr - Smart Passive Income friend and confidant, Corbett Barr from ThinkTraffic.net, joins me in a unique, hi-def video interview where I ask him a number of questions about getting more traffic to your blog, especially if you’re just starting out or you’ve hit a plateau and need to get off of it.

Marketing

Game of Thrones: 6 Sales Lessons - What do you need to know before going into battle for a big deal? The HBO hit has a few lessons that might apply.

Putting the Social Back Into Social Media: 40 Ways to Build a Loyal Audience - Your content could be truly useful and valuable. But without one critical element, you could find yourself writing to the wind for years. What is that one element? And how do you use it to build an engaged and responsive audience?

58 Ways to Create Persuasive Content Your Audience Will Love - Would you like to become a better writer? Would you like to create content that people will remember, tweet, and plus? How about content that inspires your audience to click, subscribe or buy?

5 Ways Businesses are Using Facebook Timelines - Are you wondering how businesses are creatively using Facebook’s Timeline features?

Leadership Skills

The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs – The real lessons from Steve Jobs have to be drawn from looking at what he actually accomplished. Here are what I consider the keys to his success.

15 Business Lessons From Amazon’s Jeff Bezos - What does it take to create the world’s largest online retailer, amass a personal wealth of over $18 billion, and be chosen as Time’s Person of the Year? Better ask Jeff Bezos.

Learning to Flex Your Leadership Muscles – To be a great CEO, you’ll need to learn how to be a great leader, not just a great manager.  Here is a blueprint to make it happen.

The Lost Steve Jobs Tapes - A treasure trove of unearthed interviews, conducted by the writer who knew him best, reveals how Jobs’s ultimate success at Apple can be traced directly to his so-called wilderness years.

These are the links we think matter the most this week. What are yours?

This week in C-NOTES:

4 Ways to Use Twitter For Customer Service and Support
Why Your Marketing is Missing the Mark (And How You Can Fix It)
10 Lessons for Extraordinary Performance and Personal Excellence

If you want more useful resources and links than the eight we highlight in our weekly roundup, follow @corebizstyle on Twitter.

Blogging

A Systematic Approach to Writing Successful Blog Posts - You can work hard on building a blog without having defined your “success,” but if you do, how will you know if you’re progressing successfully? In this post I’m going to show you a system for creating successful blog posts, every time.

10 Lessons Seth Godin Can Teach You About Blogging – While many people view him as “America’s greatest marketer,” there is a lot to learn from him about blogging. Let’s explore 10 of those lessons.

Seven Link Building Mistakes You Ought to Avoid - If you were looking at your Google Analytics around the dates of March 21-23, then there is a good chance you saw some changes to your site. Some significant changes have been made through those updates that can affect your link-building strategy…so let’s explore those changes.

Marketing

Why Your Marketing is Missing the Mark (And How You Can Fix It) - We want to be happy. We want to have our lives improved, either through the addition of something positive or the subtraction of something that causes stress and hassle. ??Are you doing that in your business?

4 Ways to Use Twitter For Customer Service and Support - Do you have customers? Are they on Twitter? Are you using this amazing tool to support your customers?

5 Top Google+ Tools and Apps For Marketing Pros - Are you looking for Google+ apps and resources to enhance your marketing? This article reveals five categories of tools and apps you can employ to greatly enhance your Google+ experience.

Leadership Skills

10 Lessons for Extraordinary Performance and Personal Excellence - Learning from the best is one of the most effective ways to infuse successful strategies into your career. Here are 10 lessons that successful CEOs can teach you about getting results.

12 Ways to Attack Any Challenge - Stuck in a rut? Need to accomplish the impossible? Step right up. Here’s how to get started.

These are the links we think matter the most this week for extraordinary performance.  What are yours?

Learning from the best is one of the most effective ways to infuse successful strategies into your career. Here are 10 lessons that successful CEOs can teach you about getting results:

1. Put the customer first.  In PriceWaterHouseCoopers’ most recent Global CEO Survey, the accounting firm found that 85% of technology CEOs are confident in their ability to boost their firms’ revenues over the next 12 months.

   Despite the challenging economic conditions, these CEOs cite customer demand as the driving factor behind those increases. In fact, 84% of them say meeting customers is the activity on which they would most like to spend more time.

   Apple is an excellent example of a company that stays focused on its customers. They have created a working partnership with its customer base by letting them design applications through their App Store. Putting the customer first – determining what they want to buy – can significantly improve your company’s potential profitability in the short and long term.

2. Develop a consistent leadership style.  Steve Jobs regularly delivered on what he promised. And, if he didn’t think he could achieve it, it didn’t get announced or shared publicly. That was his leadership style – underpromising and over-delivering.

   Being consistent in his actions and words helped to strengthen his CEO brand and build his reputation with key stakeholders. Over the decades this commitment evolved into a consistent leadership style, which shaped Apple’s strategy, marketing, and product development. This alignment further solidified Apple’s brand image as well as his own CEO brand.

   Decide what you want to be known for as a leader and then determine how that reputation can be transferred to your business.

3. Open the door to your office.  You can’t get results as a CEO if you don’t have the support of the people around you – from the warehouse worker all the way up to the C-level executives. James Sinegal grew Costco into a discount powerhouse by maintaining an open door policy, inviting all employees to collaborate, share ideas, and offer up growth strategies.

   Keeping your office door open signals your personal openness to idea sharing and internal collaboration: something every employee values. The fact that you are willing to spend time talking with them makes them feel appreciated.

   You build a stronger company with a steady stream of new ideas.

4. Have vision.  Steve Jobs was a true visionary. He was also focused on results. He wanted to change the world and how people lived, and he achieved that goal with every product he introduced. His vision became the beacon of his CEO brand and where people turned when they wanted something new. Steve Jobs used his vision to be a game changer.

   What would you like your business to change about how people live or work? Being a breakthrough thinker is a valuable attribute for all CEOs who are striving to get results.

5. Focus on both short-term and long-term objectives.  Daily tasks are a must-have for all leaders, but it’s also important to develop – and share with your team – long-term objectives for your company.

   What are those short-term tasks building toward? Become preoccupied with the short-term consequences or tactics and you will lose sight of what the company’s future could become. If you’re going to build the company, you have to have a long-term view five, ten, or even 15 years out.

6. Empower leaders.  Don’t just take the company by the reigns and expect to be able to lead it to greatness on your own.

   Empower those around you to become excellent leaders, too, and you’ll wind up with a team that’s not only focused on results, but that also is capable of achieving them on a daily, monthly, quarterly, and annual basis.

   You want people in your company influencing others, from customers, to clients, to the community. The more leaders your company has, the greater your impact on the company.

7. Learn from your mistakes.  Costco’s Sinegal says his philosophy in running Costco was “not to make the same mistake five times.” Borrowing a page from his book, remember that mistakes are both relative and inevitable. Your business will never grow or become successful if you aren’t innovative about how to expand its reach or boost your bottom line.

   You’ve got to take risks, and with risks come investments or efforts that don’t work out. Use mistakes as learning tools instead of simply adding them to your “failure” pile.

   Convey that message to your team as well. They need to feel comfortable taking risks and proposing unconventional ideas knowing that they won’t be penalized if the results aren’t what they had hoped for.

8. Know your tolerance levels.  Know where you stand on issues and make sure those around you are aware of those tolerance levels. This will help your team ferret out the areas where they can innovate and excel while steering clear of those opportunities that will waste your time … and theirs.

   Communicate to your managers and staff on where you stand on certain issues that are particularly important to you – don’t just leave them guessing. If you’re committed to becoming a greener organization, be clear about how green. Setting expectations and limits will help your company move forward in a targeted way that has a better chance of success.

9. Hire smart.  It’s been said that you are only as good as the people around you and nowhere is this statement more true than in the business world – and in particular, at the highest ranks. As a leader you must recruit top talent.

   Have the self-confidence not to worry about whether they will pursue your job. To get those individuals to stick around, you have to cultivate your team to success, stoke innovation, invite collaboration, and reward individuals for their efforts.

10. Execute your plan.  Having a headful of great ideas isn’t enough. You have to select the best of the best ideas, create plans around them, and then execute on those plans.

    “All too often we confuse great strategy with a plan that isn’t well executed,” says Virtual Instrument’s Thompson. “I would take a well-executed plan any day over a well-developed strategy. Even if the strategy isn’t perfect, a well-executed strategy is better than a perfect strategy poorly executed. Leaders need to focus on the execution side.”

No matter what your current position is within your company, you can apply what top CEOs have learned to improve your performance.

How do you succeed within your organization?

This week in C-NOTES:

• 20 Days/20 Minutes to a High-Quality, Highly Engaged Twitter Following
• The Copyblogger “Secret” to creating Better Content
• 12 Smart Ways to Get Your Work Done Without Multitasking

If you want more useful resources and links than the seven we highlight in our weekly roundup, follow @corebizstyle on Twitter.

Blogging

3 Reasons No One Comes Back to Your Blog- and How to Fix It - There are three main reasons why people don’t come back to your site after they initially find their way to it, whether that’s via a guest post, Google, or social media.

5 Creative Tips to Increase Blog Traffic and Boost Your Business - Keep reading to discover why many blogs fail and what you can do to boost your traffic and brand.

How to Build Links Through Guest Blogging - Here’s how you can get the most out of guest blogging and link building to drive more traffic to your website:

Marketing

The Copyblogger “Secret” to creating Better Content - The “secret” might seem like common sense, but your fellow content marketers aren’t getting it right … which is a great opportunity for you.

20 Days to a High-Quality, Highly – Engaged Twitter Following (in just 20 minutes a day) - How do you get that quality following without buying followers or simply following 1,000 people and hope they follow you back?

What More Social Shares? Don’t Ignore These 3 Things - Making your content compelling and visually appealing in social streams is key for increasing shares and visibility.

Leadership Skills

5 Things Remarkable Bosses Never Do - What you don’t do can sometimes make a bigger impact than what you do.

12 Smart Ways to Get Your Work Done Without Multitasking - Read on and find out how to get your work done on time without any multitasking.

Best Procrastination Tip Ever - Your first thought as you look at this article will be, “I’ll read this later.”But don’t. Let the urge to switch to a new task pass. Read this now.

Contrary to popular belief, multitasking does not save time.

In fact, it actually hinders your ability to get your work done. Doing more in less time is a failed business strategy that doesn’t produce the kind of results we expected.

Multitasking is Counterproductive

Turns out, multitasking can be counterproductive.

According to a Stanford University study, individuals attempting to complete several tech-oriented tasks at once (watching online videos, sending email, IMing, etc.) didn’t actually get any of the tasks done better or more efficiently.

Using 100 students as a testing pool, the researchers found that those who identified themselves as “multitaskers” didn’t pay attention as well, didn’t switch from task-to-task as well as the mono-taskers, and had weaker memories.

Another study, from the University of California at Irvine, monitored interruptions among office personnel. Researchers found that it took an average of 25 minutes for workers to recover from interruptions such as phone calls and emails and return to their original tasks.

Multitasking is Inefficient

The inefficiency of multitasking underscores what we heard in high school: the human brain can only effectively process one stream of information at a time.

People assume that they can toggle between tasks quickly and efficiently, but such multitasking comes with consequences. It takes time for the brain to reorient itself to a new task.

Distractions can also take their toll, putting the multitasker at an even bigger disadvantage over those who work on “one thing at a time.”

Unfortunately, multitasking seems to have become almost a requirement in today’s business world.

Add technology to the mix and the need to double and triple-up on tasks becomes even greater as professionals are expected to manage email, deal with IMs, monitor cell phones, AND get their jobs done – all at the same time.

How to Get Your Job Done Without Multitasking

If you’ve fallen into this trap, check out these 12 ways to get your job done without multitasking:

1. Prioritize your workload.  A study from Florida State University shows that our willpower declines throughout the day. Knowing this, try and get the most important, pressing projects done first, when you are energized and focused.

   Then when your willpower deficit kicks in at 4 pm, you will have already completed your must-do tasks for the day. Fixate on what’s most important and put 100% into getting it done before those afternoon doldrums kick in.

2. Eat the frog first.  Having a hard time figuring out how to prioritize your workload? Take a 5 minute break and ask yourself:  What’s the most important task I need to complete today? Then take the advice of business author Brian Tracey and “Eat that frog!”

   Tackle the critical, undesirable task first – the frog– and the remainder of your “to do” list will line up nicely for the rest of the day. Your relief at having accomplished the most undesirable project will fuel you to crank through the rest of your work.

3. Always use a to-do list.  Flying by the seat of your pants is a surefire way to fail at mono-tasking. Instead of giving 100% of your attention to the most important task, you’ll be giving 10% of your attention to 10 different things.

   But are they the right things to be doing right now? Unless you create a to-do list and prioritize your work, you could spend the whole day on unimportant work and ignore critical action items.

4. Record or jot down your random thoughts.  Business professionals and entrepreneurs are constantly coming up with great ideas, but not always at the best times.Keep a tablet or voice recorder on your desk and record those million-dollar ideas as they occur to you throughout the day.

   After you write them down, you can forget about them as you work on more pressing tasks. This way you won’t forget your brainstorms, but you also won’t become distracted and try to multitask.

5. Make note of where you are.  When the need to multitaskcan’t be ignored, because you have too little time to complete too many tasks, make note of where you are with the task at-hand.

   Use simple key words to help redirect your brain back to the key task and ensure a smooth transition from the distraction and back to work.

6. Don’t overschedule yourself.  In today’s busy world it’s pretty common for all of us to over-commit ourselves in our personal, family, and work lives.

   Leaving some time open on your daily, weekly, and monthly schedules ensures that you have ample time to get important tasks completed without having to jump into inefficient multitasking mode.

7. Use the Pareto Principle.  Founded on the theory that 80% of effectiveness is driven by 20% of our efforts, the Pareto Principle is a core time management theory that’s advocated in many of today’s business books.Put simply, only 20 percent of what you do every day really “matters.”

   That 20 percent, in other words, represents 80 percent of your results.The trick is to identify exactly what work makes up that 20 percent, and then focus tightly on those activities.

   This 80/20 rule should serve as a cornerstone for your day, and a reminder that 80 percent of your time and energy should flow into that 20 percent of tasks that are actually important.

   By channeling your energy into the “right” things, instead of multitasking your way through jobs and projects that produce little in terms of results, you’ll significantly increase profits and job satisfaction.

8. Group similar tasks and tackle them all at once.  A great way to get everything crossed off of your to-do list without having to multitaskis by grouping similar tasks to be done throughout the day.

   If you’re writing up a proposal, for example, you may want to develop the required PowerPoint presentation for that proposal at the same time – since your brain will be in the “mode” and won’t need to work too hard to switch from one format to the next.

   Or if you have phone calls to make to your team, or to clients, make them one right after the other, rather than spread throughout the day. You’re more efficient that way.

9. Don’t be a slave to email.  Email is one of the biggest distractions in our workdays. All it takes is a simple note from a colleague, client, or business partner to throw our brains into a whirlwind and drive us off course – and right back into multitasking mode.

   Rather than checking your inbox dozens of time a day (or, hour) do all reading and replaying at pre-scheduled intervals (9am, 12pm, and 5pm, for example). This type of “batching” can greatly improve productivity and ensure that you get your most important tasks completed without distraction.

10. Evaluate the time it takes to finish tasks.  You probably know about how long it takes to finish tasks related to your job or business. If you don’t, then now is the time to come up with some estimates.

    Knowing how long key activities take will greatly reduce the need to multitask because you’ll know in advance how much time to allot during the day.

    You can prevent compressing too many tasks into too short a time frame when you know how long each task realistically takes.

11. Put a “gone fishing” sign on your door.  It’s no secret that your co-workers, clients, managers, and other individuals with whom you interact take up a lot of your time.

    To allow yourself the time to get your tasks completed, put a “gone fishing” sign on your door and your phone(s) in “do not disturb” mode.

    Block off time and communicate this to the people around you. Over time, people will come to respect the fact that you are busy, and will come back at a later time (or, leave a voice mail for you).

    Being able to reclaim uninterrupted time will prevent the need to try and multitask.

12. Map out tomorrow, today.  Before you leave your desk for the day, map out tomorrow (and the following day or two, when possible).

    As mentioned in the steps above, put the most important tasks first, say “no” to over-scheduling, and manage your email and people distractions accordingly. Your brain will thank you for it!

The urge to multitask arises when you’ve overcommitted yourself, agreeing to complete the equivalent of 12 hours of work, or more, in an eight-hour day.

The only way to get it done is to double or triple-up your task completion. However, the results are typically subpar.

A better approach is to increase your efficiency, reduce your distractions, and plan your day in advance.

How do you minimize your multitasking?

Image courtesy of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/balusss/