Get Enoch | Blog

Main Street Deals Radio Broadcast–11/9/11

2011-11-09T17:15:26+00:00

My friend Cate asked met to call into her radio show “Main Street Deals” on K-talk Radio. This was the 8 minute segment that I did with them. Enjoy!

Download this Media File - (Right Click)

The Pillow Marketing Wake-Up

2011-11-04T15:28:00+00:00

If you are one of the many who have heard me present on the power of effective marketing you know about my obsession with being direct with your customers. May times I have quoted Barry Sonnenfeld’s movie Men in Black when talking about dealing with people:

Will Smith: People are smart! …
Tommy Lee Jones: A Person is Smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it!

All too often we take our marketing approach like we are dealing with a PERSON instead of dealing with PEOPLE. And for some things this works well, but for the majority of our products and services this is not the case. And nothing showcased this more to me than my recent foray in search of new pillows.

I don’t know of many products that have “everyone” as a target market, but pillows have to come close. Almost everyone in a civilized society uses a pillow (store bought or home made) to cushion their head against the harsh reality of surfaces. And it is such a “purchase and forget” product. Unless you’re a sleep connoisseur like me who enjoys looking at new nocturne technologies you probably do not think about it. Most people only look at new pillows when they need to look at pillows. As an amateur sleeper looking to go professional I am always on the lookout for that one piece of equipment that will put me over the edge.

Enter the Serta Gel Pillow. I first noticed this when walking through Sam’s Club and then later at Sears. What immediately jumped out at me was the “Perfect for Side Sleepers” tag on the pillow. I tend to sleep more on my stomach than on my side so it made me look at other options. And there it was … my vision of perfect marketing. It was the Serta iComfort series (newly created for 2011) which had in big bold letters, “Perfect for Side, Back and Stomach Sleepers.” Immediately I thought to myself, “What other type of sleepers are there? Isn’t that everybody?” The beauty of the statement however is not using the word everybody. It is making you think about how you sleep and putting you in that category to say … “That’s me! I sleep on my side!”

They understood the first key marketing principle of Men in Black: “A Person is Smart. People are dumb … If you had the chance to individually talk to each of your customers and clients you could very easily convince them why you are the best person to provide the product or services they are looking for. You could communicate intelligently with them because “a person is smart!” However, we don’t live in a world were we talk one-on-one with our potential customers and clients. So in our marketing materials we need to address this “People” world and delicately direct them to a thought process of how they use our services. Sure Serta could have said “perfect for everybody” but if you’re an elitist (like myself), individual (like myself) or iconoclast (no comment) then you do not want to be like everybody. So the message is lost.

So how do we take away something from my Serta experience? Simple. We break it down into simple steps to follow:

Understand your Products Unique Marketing Position: It’s important to understand what sets your product apart from the rest of the crowd. What solution does your product/service provide? How is that important to your intended client?
Identify your ideal client. You need to understand who is using your product. Not everyone is your ideal client. If you understand who your ideal client is then you can start thinking about how your product solves their problem.
Create the right message for that Client. Each ideal client can now have a specially tailored message to help fix their problem. This will make that person attract themselves to your product/service quicker and easier. Plus it allows them to imagine themselves using that product/service and see them having the success you are offering.
Direct those people to your product. It is ok to be specific. It is ok to be direct. As a matter of fact it’s better to direct the right people to your products than to assume they will find it magically. Always remember “A Person is Smart. People are …”

Once you implement a simple process like this you can create marketing materials that are successful and powerful. The downside: you lose that idea that you can sell to everyone; The upside: You start impacting the right purchasers and buyers of your product, you start increasing sales, and ultimately increasing revenues. Also … you can be seen as an expert servicer to the people in that specific demographic. And that brand management is powerful as well.

Who will I go to for “Stomach Sleeper” Pillows? Serta, because they spoke to me first in that language. And I also like Nick Park the creator of Wallace and Gromit and those Serta counting sheep. Now if I could just find someone who specializes in stomach sleeper blankets ….

Happy Marketing!

5 Things I Instantly Liked About Windows 7.5 (Mango)

2011-10-07T17:24:28+00:00

So around 2:30 AM on 10/7/2011 I was able to update my Windows Phone 7 to Windows Phone 7.5, codename Mango. There has been a lot of buzz around Mango because they truly optimized a number of items as well as included a number of user requests that we have been asking for a while. While there are some things people would like to see here is a list of things that I noticed right away that I instantly started to like!

1. Custom Ringtones

Now for many of you Custom ringtones is something EVERY phone has. When Windows Phone launched back in November 2010 it was oddly missing. Microsoft said, “But we have all these great included ringtones. Why would you want something else?” Which is interesting since the toted experience of Windows Phone is “Have it your way!” (Sorry Burger King). And sure there was an Operating System logic that made Custom Ringtones a little tricky, but to not include it seemed a little bit drastic. Luckily we are able to play whatever popular song we want as a ringtone … with a little work.

Here is how it actually works:

The ringtone has to be in mp3 or wma (windows audio) format
The ringtone has to be less than 40 seconds
The ringtone has to be less than 1 meg in size
The file cannot be under Digital Rights Management (DRM)
The file needs to include in the genre field a category of “ringtone”

So it’s not as simple as “Here’s my song, make it my ringtone!” But if you take a second to launch a GoldWave, Audacity, SoundForge, or any other audio editor you can have your own ringtones. This process may seem complex, but it has been the same process for custom ringtones in most Windows Mobile devices since 4.5. Once they are on your phone enjoy custom ringtone goodness!

Here is the Microsoft article about Creating Ringtones for your perusal.

2. Tasks Finally Link!

When Windows Phone was launched there was a shock to the world. No Outlook connection. You needed to move everything to Windows Live and move “To the Cloud!” So we lived with that idea, but when you moved to the could you lost a key piece of functionality: Tasks. Even if you synced with an Exchange Server you couldn’t sync up Tasks. Why? I don’t know, but it seemed like a key piece of functionality gone. However, It has returned with Mango! And this is good.

To locate tasks you need to visit your Calendar. And depending on the Calendar that you choose (Outlook, Windows Live, Google , Facebook, Yahoo) will depend on where your tasks are stored. Now there is a list of all your activities you need to do displayed in a new Pivot Panel title “To-Do List”. Now only if I can link my Remember The Milk account I would be in total geek love.

3. App Searching is faster and more grouped

So installing apps and trying to find them were a beast in Windows Phone, especially if you installed a bunch of apps. Sure you could pin them to your start screen, but even that was cumbersome. Now … the Applications Screen is grouped alphabetically and even has a nifty search button you can use to locate the app you want. No longer do you have to scroll through page after page to get to your infrequent applications. This makes life so much easier

4. Office.Live.com is Finally Connected!

Previously the Office application was cool on Windows Phone because of the extensive ability you had to manipulate documents and resend them back to users. Dealing with email attachments was awesome, but if you wanted to collaborate “In the Cloud!” it was a little more difficult. Microsoft introduced “Office Live” which was a service of Windows Live that allowed you to share documents “In the Cloud!” It synced up great with Office 2007 (with a plugin) and 2010 (natively). The problem? Windows Phone didn’t allow you to do the same thing. The only way to collaborate was if you had a Sharepoint server and managed your documents that way. Still a great idea, but requiring people to move to Windows Live for you contacts, email, and calendar is silly if you don’t included tasks and documents.

But now that has been rectified. If you use Office Live now you can see and manipulate your documents. As well as it has the function to use Office 365 the new collaboration tool Microsoft is pushing out for small businesses. Finally a true document collaboration solution!

5. Contact Integration with LinkedIn and Twitter

So at the get go Windows Phone was super easy to connect to Windows Live, Yahoo, Google, Exchange Online and Facebook. Probably one of the easiest experiences to install over any other device, but it was lacking. Twitter and LinkedIn were not available, and alas you couldn’t develop connectors to make them available. However, with Mango … we have integration. And even better we have tools to create connectors for other sites if the developers want to create them.

So your contact list can contain your LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook contacts and integrate them with your Exchange, Windows Live, Yahoo and Google contacts. And since they can all be connected in one account you will never lose that important information provided by your contacts. So if you are a Social Media aficionado you can have access to what is important quickly and immediately. And if you do not want to view all your contacts in your lists you can filter out the contacts that you want to see without losing the ability to stay connected with them through these other sites.

Finally, there are a number of cool features and upgrades presented in Mango that I will most likely discuss later, but these are the ones that jumped out immediately. And as a developer of Windows Phone Applications … I’m sure I’ll talk about some of the cool behind the scene things you can do as well. For those of you with Windows Phones … party on and welcome to Mango!

LDS Conference Talks–Windows Phone 7 App

2011-06-09T21:57:30+00:00

There are a lot of great applications out for LDS people in the SmartPhone world. The LDS Church even has some applications that are written specifically for the Windows Phone 7 platform like:

Gospel Library

LDS Tools

Here is the official Windows Phone 7 Mobile app page for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

So what is Get Enoch’s LDS Conference Application? During the General Conference of April 2011, I was sitting watching each session and thinking to myself … it would be cool if I could watch these again without having to install the videos on my phone.

So I started thinking about how to put the latest General Conference sessions on my phone. The problem I always wrestle with is an issue with space. How much does an average user use on their phone for photos, videos and other things. And if you do use your phone for those items do you want to have an entire conference session on your phone?

So I pulled open the website for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and started to read the HTML code. I wanted to see if there was a pattern to the way the Church does their codebase. Low and behold there was a pattern and I thought, “What’s better than having one Conference Session? As many conference sessions as I can get!”

This is how the LDS Conference Talks Application came into existence. Here are a couple of screen shots showcasing the application:

General Conference Listing

Conference Program Listing

The first thing to note about this application is that it uses your internet connectivity to get the information it needs from http://lds.org. It opens the General Conference Pages from http://lds.org and scraps the information to display it in the Windows Phone 7 UI. Each time it is needed the application opens the web pages from http://lds.org so nothing is saved on your phone’s device storage unless you add a bookmark, save a note or save a query. More about that in a second.

Text of Conference Talk

Audio (if available) of Conference Talk

You can write your own notes about each Talk

Watch the streaming video (if available) of each Conference Talk

There are a couple of different ways to view the Conference Talk .... if available: 1) Text, 2) Audio and 3) Video. Each of these options take the User to a different view of the Conference Message. Currently http://lds.org has audio and video media available for the past 6 years of General Conferences. However, on the website they start their Conference listings with the April 1974 General Conference! That’s almost 40 years of General Conferences …. pretty cool stuff

Quick Links in LDS Conference Talks

Searching in LDS Conference Talks

Search Results

After writing the views for the Conferences I thought it would be nice to have a way to search the Conference Archives and find talks on certain subjects. Once again … I went up to http://lds.org and looked at the HTML to see if there was a simple way to do this. Luckily the website had it exposed on their search form how to pull the information. So I took the functionality of the Advanced Search Page on http://lds.org and integrated it into this application. The only exception I did in the application was I force all the results to always return just the General Conference messages instead of all the full results you can get back from http://lds.org. I wanted to keep this application focused on just the General Conference Talks. There was also a cool feature in the search results that allowed Related Topics to be shown. I was able to integrate that into the search features as well.

In the end I think this app is pretty cool to get General Conference Messages on the go. Because of some of the rules around publishing to the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace I decided to make the app price $1.29 USD. However Everything about the application is free to use and there is a TRIAL MODE so you can demo and see what the application is all about before purchasing it. Here are a list of differences between the TRIAL and PAID versions:

TRIAL VERSION:

Read every Conference Talk available from http://lds.org
Search through http://lds.org to discover new and interesting talks.
Watch (if available) streaming video for General Conference Talks
Listen (if available) to audio for General Conference Talks
All information retrieved from http://lds.org so content is updated when the website is updated and nothing is stored on your device
Bookmark your favorite Conference Talks, Take notes on your favorite Conference talk and Save your Favorite Queries
Save up to 3 Bookmarks, Notes and Queries to quickly jump and use again
Share your favorite talks with friends via email or sms text links
Get uplifted on the go by listening to living Prophets and Disciples of our Heavenly Father

PAID VERSION:

Store unlimited Bookmarks, Notes and Queries
Give yourself a good feeling that you’re supporting independent development

It’s important to me and my team that we provide good products that can live without people purchasing the products. If you have a Windows Phone 7 device and want to install this application just CLICK THIS LINK! We had a fun time writing this app and hope you enjoy using it!

Quick Tip: One more before the year is out

2010-12-31T19:09:00+00:00

So we find ourselves at the end of 2010 looking forward to 2011 and I realize it is a great time to answer some of those last minute questions people ask me. I could go into a tirade about "Preparing for Success in 2011" or "Launch 2011 with a Bang" but there are a myriad of other people out there who do those emails better than I. So I decided to do the one thing I can during this end of year: be self-indulgent and answer your questions with my own flair! Here we go:

What Social Media Outlets should I use to promote my business? - Sue Robinson - Signature Promotions: This is one of the most asked questions I get when working with Small Business Owners. There are many outlets we know about (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, LinkedIn, etc.) and many others that we don't know about but what is going to be most effective? The problem with 2010 and Social Media is everyone jumped on the bandwagon and instead of clearly defining niche areas for our business we have created more outlets for consumer noise. I have helped increase revenues for many clients by doing three simple things before jumping into the Social Sphere.
1. First, analyze what you want to accomplish: Do you want to be an industry expert or an expert in your industry? (two Completely different things) Are you trying to increase sales or increase exposure? Do you want to bring people into your web store or brick and mortar store?
2. Second, Define your ideal client. Not everyone is your client. Layout the characteristics of your ideal client or clients (you can have more than one and if you have more than one product you have more than one ideal client). Discover where they exist in the marketplaces you want to infuse your message. Learn their language so you are speaking to them. It is important to understand your target audience!
3. Third, once you have your outcomes and your audience create the plan to hit your target. This is where people who understand the online world is really helpful to creating a strategy. Find those people to work with who jive with your company. They're out there ... I know!
You can jump into the online world anytime you want, but remember just because you throw your business into the waters of the online it doesn't mean it will swim on it's first attempt.
You're always sending me articles you found out about me online, how do you know about them so fast? - Caleb Chapman - Caleb Chapman Music: One of the most important things you can do as a business is know what the web is saying about you. People love Google, so we talk about how Google knows about you. I wrote a blog post Knowing how Google knows you that explains about Google Alerts. Anytime something happens that Google knows about (i.e. blog posts, articles, pages, message boards, etc.) you can get alerted about the information. This is a great little tool.
You spend a lot of time with gadgets and gizmos ... what are your favorite new toys from 2010? - Larry Stevenson - LDS Employment Resource Services: I do love gadgets and this year was chalk full of new things that came out. Some are video game related, but when it comes to business the coolest things to come out this year were the new smartphones. Google's Android phones took this year by storm and Microsoft launched their "Windows Phone 7" platform as well. Both phones are great equalizers to the mammoth iPhone and if used properly can really take your business to the next level. Now is a great time to get into a Smartphone to not only keep track of your contacts, but keep better track of your business.
Every time I go to one of your Microsoft Office Trainings I learn something new, but I haven't seen them in a while have you stopped? - Bryan Waldon Pope - Marketing Success Institute: In 2010, I did scale down the number of training events I was doing to focus on some client services, but I missed doing the trainings and have thought about bringing them back into the schedule. I'm looking at doing webinars, public trainings and other fun events, but am always interested in what my fans would like to see. Send me some feedback on how you think we should proceed with training events and we'll see about putting them in the schedule. Thanks!
Our business is doing great and we want to take it to the next level ... How do we work with you in more depth to get there? - Various Fans: That's easy. You can always email me enoch@getenoch.com or call the office number: 801.754.4429. I love helping out people and usually have an initial conversation over lunch because I also love food!

Before I close the last "Get Enoch" Email let me just say thanks to all of you who read these emails and give great feedback. There are many more people who ask questions and I respond to each email as I get them ... just not as fast as I would like at times. :) I wish you all a great "New Year" and here's to the next decade being better than the last!

Quick Tip: Channeling Your Holiday Music Desires

2010-11-30T08:56:00+00:00

Tis the season for a chilly outdoors, sales poking at celebrating a big, jolly red man and people asking me about what holiday music I enjoy playing . And this, my blueberries, is where you're going to get a little disappointed in "The Enoch" ... I don't listen to much holiday music. Music is such a big part of my life, but holiday music always puzzles me. Mostly because of the timing. I love listening to music all the year round, but you get strange looks from people when you are belting out "In Dulce Jubilo" on the highway.

That doesn't mean that I can't direct you to some great holiday cheer using some free tools out on the internet. There are a couple of great ones especially if you are looking for something to play through your store, hold music or phone. Let me break down some of the good ones out there:

1. http://IHeartRadio.com - "I Heart Radio" is a great service that streams radio stations from across the United States. If you are looking for some great online radio (one of my favorites is Rock 101 from Manchester, NH ... grew up listening to them) this is the place to stop. With it's launcher you have a simple and quick way to get a variety of radio stations that you may like to play in the background - for FREE! Oh yeah ... and if you want that "Talk Radio" stuff as well you can get it here. If it's on the radio "I Heart Radio" has it.

2. http://Slacker.com - Slacker Radio is a great way to listen to music you like ... FREE. The interface is nice and the music plays great. And with new artist, and most recently ABC News, putting up new "Radio Stations" exclusively on Slacker it is getting some great notoriety. However, like most online radio stations you have to use the application frequently before you get a great customized listening experience, but there are no usage limits so you can use it as long as you would like. Purchase an upgrade for a year @ $47.88 (or monthly for $4.99) and remove ads, get unlimited skips and remove other "Free Radio"annoyances.

3. http://Pandora.com - Pandora is one of the best free Radio sources out there ... with a couple of exceptions. The Free account only let's you listen to 40 hours. This may seem like a lot of time, but if you listen to a lot of music like I do ... 40 hours goes by in about 2 days. Even still, Pandora's has one of the best, if not the best, suggestion engine out there. And with the ability to have radio stations based on "Categories" and not just Artists it is a great way to find that holiday music you want. And if you wish to purchase a year subscription and bypass the 40 hour limitation it's only going to set you back $36.00. And with it's video series and exclusive video concerts ... that $36.00 is well worth it.

4. http://Last.fm - Last.fm is one of my favorite "Online Music" apps I have found. Sure it has all the perks that Pandora, Slacker and iHeartRadio have (favorites, recommended stations, create a musician profile, etc.) but the thing I love about it is not having to enter in the music I have in my collection. Last.fm is built upon the idea of Scrobbling, or seeing what you are already playing. They have scrobblers for Windows Media Player, WinAmp, iTunes and even iPhone and other Portable Media Players (PMP). This way you don't have to wade through a stream of junk you don't want to hear to get to music you want. It learns what you like by seeing what you are already playing.

But Enoch ... why do I care about these types of Radio Stations when I have plenty of 45's to play? Well person living in my head that I have to give mad props to for remembering 45's, There are a couple reasons why you would want to try an online music service. Here are some of mine in no particular order:

Discover New Music- There are a lot of new artists and cool songs out there, but I don't have time to track and hunt them down. Through recommendation engines you can discover new music that matches your musical tastes.
Sharing Music with Friends is Cool - Ok ... sharing is cool, but when you share your music tastes with other people you're able to open dialogs and break down barriers. I'm pretty sure all wars could end if we could get our government officials to take in a Smokey Robinson concert.
Play Music Based on Mood - If you like "Christmas Music" search for "Christmas Music". If you want music about breaking up with your girlfriend (How could you, Betty!) you can search for that. The power of categories and tags allow for many variations we might not have thought about.
Stream Music to Anywhere - With modern day Mobile Devices connecting online, Free WiFi hotspots and new gizmos having music you like at your fingertips is nice. These online services allow you to take music not just with you, but set you musical mood anywhere you like.

Also, especially with Last.fm and Pandora, there are wonderful gizmos (like the Logitech Squeezebox System) to bring your online music to a stereo system near you. And there are other great gadgets people are creating to connect your online photo collection to your online music station. Consider in your place of business a rotating stream of pleasant music and your online photo galleries as people walk through your facility. And when they leave they have a similar experience on your website and social sphere.

But most importantly, and the reason why I wrote this ... It's a great way to fill up on that holiday music you're wanting without spending all your hard earned cash on "Holiday Music" that you only bring out once a year. Unless, of course you're like me and like to belt out odd Christmas Songs throughout the year. The Doctor calls it madness when you sing "Silent Night" at the top of your lungs ... I call it being Enoch!

Quick Tip: Turkey Technology Tips

2010-11-23T09:02:00+00:00

Being that Thanksgiving is a couple days away I thought I would lay down some tips to help out with that cornucopia of food that becomes the annual thanksgiving gathering. I'm taking some highlights from the food network's article Top 10 Turkey Tips because ... well the food network is awesome! I mean come on ... it's a whole network about FOOD! Here we go:

Thawing a frozen turkey requires patience. The safest method is to thaw turkey in the refrigerator. Be sure to plan ahead — it takes approximately 3 days for a 20 pound turkey to fully defrost.
For crisper skin, unwrap the turkey the day before roasting and leave it uncovered in the refrigerator overnight.
A turkey will cook more evenly if it is not densely stuffed. Consider adding flavor by loosely filling the cavity with aromatic vegetables — carrots, celery, onion or garlic work nicely — or by carefully tucking fresh herbs underneath the breast skin. For the stuffing lovers, cook the dressing in a casserole dish on the side.
Before roasting, coat the outside of the turkey with vegetable or olive oil, season with salt and pepper and tightly cover the breast with aluminum foil to prevent over-browning
Don't be a peeping tom (no pun intended)! Once you get the turkey in the oven, resist the temptation to open the oven door and admire your handiwork. When the oven temperature fluctuates, you're only increasing the likelihood of a dry bird. About 45 minutes before you think the turkey is done, remove the foil from the breast to allow it to brown.
Tent the bird with foil and let rest for about 15 minutes before carving. If you need more time to make gravy, heat up side dishes, etc., you can let the turkey set for up to an hour without losing too much heat.

But Enoch, don't you come from a long line of Native Americans? Shouldn't you be talking about maze? Thank you voice in my head who spelled maize wrong! it is true that I am a proud Native American who loves corn, but my tribe didn't call it maize. In Nahuatl (pronounced Nah-Wa-till) corn goes by many names depending on the way you use it. Quite often when you read about corn it is described as a female persona akin to a goddess. It's sacred to grow and sacred to eat. But enough of that stuff. Here is some thoughts about corn for your cooking pleasure taken from an article Cooking Corn on the Cob from FoodReference.com.

Fresh corn should be stored at 35 degrees F. Use in 3 or 4 days maximum.
Fresh corn on the cob will lose up to 40% of its sugar content after 6 hours of room temperature storage. The sugar is converted to starch.
When cooking corn on the cob, be sure there is enough water to completely cover the corn, and that the water is at a good rolling boil before adding the corn. And never add salt, as this toughens the corn. Instead, add a teaspoon or two of sugar. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes and serve.
Instead of using margarine, butter, or salt on your corn, try fresh herbs, light dressings, and or lemon.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving. Eat heartily and let's chat soon!

Quick Tip: Website design ... thoughts?

2010-11-09T09:25:00+00:00

So I've been looking at LOTS of website lately (problem of sitting in front of a computer all day) and I've noticed a number of things which in my mind are mistakes. Let me lay some Website design thoughts on you all even though ... I'm a technical guy and not a designer.

Remember your target screen size! A lot of the more recent computers and monitors are moving towards a 16:9 visual ratio, but the original screen sizes were 4:3. What do these ratio's mean? It means that the width (first number) and the height (second number) is what you can see on your monitor. If you have a monitor that's an 800 width then the 4:3 height is 600 while the 16:9 height is 450. Ok so this is math, but it is important. Most old (and by old I mean 7 years ago ... what a dinosaur) computers where being built with the 4:3 ratio and very few were created with 16:9 in mind. The standard monitor size being distributed was minimum 1024x768. So when designing for websites, 7 years ago, you wanted to keep within an 800x600 size so you could capture the majority of your audiences.

Around 7 years ago the trend was to move towards 1024x768 being the standard monitor size. So websites were moving in that direction. However, with the recent trend towards widescreen monitors it is important to realize where the trends are taking us. It is also important to take into consideration that your browser uses some of that width when you include window borders, scrollbars, and extra sidebars. So even though a screen size may be 1024 you probably only have around 980 to get away with.

Remember your target folds! This term comes from the newspaper industry where the most important items were seen on the top fold. In the newspaper-less world (sorry newspapers) our "folds" are the levels of scrolls we need to see on a webpage. The "top fold" is what the user sees without needing to click on a scroll bar. This is where you need to stick the most important information and actions on your website. However, most companies waste this space with useless mastiff design. If I can throw-down an "Enoch-ism": Get over your Mastiff and Move on to your meet! I use "meet" here because you want your visitors to meet those actions that will increase your revenues. Mastiff's take up WAY TOO MUCH SPACE!!! Remember the more folds it takes for a person to get to your actionable items the more you will drastically reduce your conversions.

It is important to note that with WIDESCREEN monitors the ratio's of Folds is different than with STANDARD monitors. A 1200 width standard monitor (4:3 = 900 height) gives you about 748 pixels per fold (you have to add in application borders, toolbars, status bars, etc. into the equation) while a 1200 widescreen monitor (16:9 = 675 height) only gives about 523 pixels per fold. That's 225 pixels less or almost 1/3 of the fold gone when you move into widescreen. Something to think about

I have been noticing many website developers designing for one or the other of these thoughts but not for both. It is important to see what your website looks like through different views and not just rely on your monitor as fact. With that said let me tell you about a nifty little tool on Internet Explorer 8 (and 9 beta, but I don't recommend it yet). If you use IE8 and press <F12> you get the "Developer Toolbar" that floats around. Most of the things on this toolbar aren't useful to non-geeks with exception of one great tool. It is found under "Tools –> Resize". This allows you to Resize the browser into other sizes automatically. This will help you understand a little better what your clients may be seeing on your website.

But Enoch ... I have a great website designer who designs my website into a beautiful artistic masterpiece. Why would I want to listen to your advice? I'm glad you asked person who lives in my head who sounds like combination of Groucho Marx and the Vlasic Pickle Stork. Truth be told there is powerful things to say about artistic websites. But I'm not talking about the aesthetic pleasing nature of shaders and layers ... I'm talking about getting you more money. The fact is the harder you make potential clients work to give you money the less they will give. There is something to having functionality over graphics. And this is the side I always look at ... aesthetics don't matter as much as functionality. They are important, but make sure your website directs the traffic properly before you add a colorful graphic.

Remember we like simplicity in our lives. Whether it be in our websites or our ice cream ... after a deluge of internet flavors it's wonderful to sit back and revel in a simple flava bean!

Quick Tip: Focus Your Message ... Capitalize on Your Visitors

2010-11-02T09:36:00+00:00

A couple weeks ago I was having lunch with a friend, Bruce Rowe from Sebo Marketing. Bruce is an SEO specialist. I have to be careful here because there are a lot of people who work in the world of SEO, but Bruce specializes in SEO Productivity not just SEO Ranking. Here is the difference:

SEO Ranking - Getting to the Top of "Google" is not as tricky as you would think. It's time consuming and strategy based, but not tricky. There are many companies selling services to get you to the top of Google. It is a combination of keywords, placement, linking as well as other various web tactics you can employ. However, being at the top of Google search really doesn't do much for you if your website doesn't do anything to convert the visitors. Incidentally I don't Google very often because I rarely find what I want. I'm more a Yahoo! or Bing person.
SEO Productivity - (Enoch-ism) SEO productivity takes SEO Ranking one step further by looking at total process of a visitor to your site. Each unique visitor's traffic is detailed through the "flow" you defined to understand where conversions take place. If you are losing sales because your shopping cart is too confusing then "productivity" helps you redefine your shopping cart. If no one is using the "Buy Now" button, then "Productivity" is about repositioning or replacing the button so the visitor does click on it. "Productivity" numbers are drawn from conversions, sales volume, and revenues more than the nice rank in Google.

But Enoch ... I've heard this all before in your presentation "Increasing Website Conversions" ... Why are you telling me about it? Well, voice in my head who just allowed me to self-promote, it's because I think we need to hear it again. All to often I get asked what I think about "Facebook" or "Twitter" or this company's SEO strategy or that Email Campaign? I think there is strength in all of them and increasing presence is VERY IMPORTANT, but there are some other key elements to remember:

Traffic numbers can be variable ... Understand your current Position - It's amazing how numbers can be bloated. Whether it's through a simple coding error or an egregious data manipulation, numbers can take a significant jump if the data is not reliable. Make sure when you "work" with an SEO company you get reliable data and not something fed to you without understanding. If they are saying you're getting 1,000 more customers ask where those customers originated. Then check your website numbers to validate if it really was true. Don't assume the companies information is correct.
Refine your Message ... Qualify your Traffic - It's amazing how many business owners believe "everyone" is their target audience. It's not true. You're products and services do not work for everyone. Don't write content that targets everyone. Specify! Write material which hooks key individuals. It is better to get 30% of 100 people then 0% of everybody. Once you have a specific message down for a specific individual flow that person into the "points of profit" you desire. Don't clutter up your pages needlessly with information not intended for your target audience. You can have the pointers, but don't clutter up the page. Remember you can always create more pages specifically for other audiences. That will help with SEO as well.
Exposure is Grand .... Conversion is King - You should get yourself in as many places as possible, but being exposed does take time and work. Make sure when you expose your brand, products or yourself you take into consideration how to capitalize on the exposure.
- DON'T assume getting a click means getting business. DO Create Landing Pages to take full advantage of visitors and where they originated.
- DON'T assume more is better. DO take time to qualify your visitor's as often as possible; whether it is Pay-Per-Click, Email Campaigns or other marketing materials ... make your message count.
- DON'T assume a company will "increase your traffic" because they say they will. DO take every step to know your numbers so you can control the conversation with SEO companies.
Don't wait until it's Perfect ... Start doing NOW!! - This is a tough one for "The Enoch"! I want things to be as perfect as they can be, but the truth is there are many people who have websites making money for them that are garbage looking. The website doesn't look great, but their position does. They've targeted their audience, whether it be "best man toasts" or "custom poodle outfitters", they created the message and capitalized on it.

It really comes down to this ... Trust Yourself. Trust that your product and service is Needed. Trust there are people who need you to Resolve their Problem. Those people are out there and you can find them. Focus your message and create the exposure points so you can convert those individuals. Set aside time this Friday (say 3:00 PM) and target your message and strategy to capitalize on that message. It will do wonders for your business. I guarantee!

Quick Tip: Staying Above Your Competitors

2010-10-26T23:34:06+00:00

Today was wrought with news from strange places. Whether it was discovering Jon Stewart is No. 1 in the 49 most influential men in the world or finding out Chris Rock is debuting on Broadway next year, today was eccentric and odd. However ... it did get me thinking about you, my precious blueberries, and a Seth Godin YouTube (I'm so hip I can omit the word video) shared by my friend Mat Bushman from AlphaGraphics in Orem, UT!

It's a good video to watch, only about 7:41 secs, where Seth discusses the "tribes" phenomenon he's written about, why he doesn't use Twitter and other cool Seth Snippets. The part which resonated most with me is where he says, "If you went out of business who would miss you?"

So here is the part of the email where I say to my loyal clients, fans and friends Get Enoch is closing it's doors. No ... not really. I was just seeing if I caused a sense of "will you miss me?" in your minds. But as I type those words I think about what you can do as a business to cause a sense of ownership, loyalty or trust with your customers ... or possibly towards your customers.

Lately, a few friends have mentioned to me they have started writing thank you cards, which is something I talk about during my happiness presentation. It's amazing the response a simple hand written note will evoke from someone. My good friend sent me one recently, and even though we talk all the time at lunch and on the phone, it was a moment that really brightened up my day. Think about the simplicity of that gesture ... and the impact something like that can have with your customers, clients and business partners. And all for just 49 cents.

I'm reminded of a Client Retention presentation by Howard Fullmer of McMullin Fullmer Creative where he mentioned how a client of his really liked salt. Later, as Howard was on a tour of a salt facility, he picked up a large rock of salt around the size of a small watermelon and sent it to her as a gift. It was a momentary thought in his head, but that momentary thought of "I think Shirley would like this" is all it takes to solidify a relationship. Remember ... it's not about "I think my customer would like this," but "I think <specific name> would like this." All too often we think about the mass market without remembering the inner circle.

I'm not saying don't drive towards the mass market. That is important since it is what drives new business, but remember to cultivate and foster your current customers as well. This can be done through a variety of outlets depending on the size and services of your company. Holding a "Customer Appreciation" party only open to clients and customers of the past year. Sending each customer a small holiday ornament they can put on the fridge ... all about them with no advertising. Or even sending a piece of candy to your customer list, because everyone deserves a treat instead of a trick. These type of "just thinking about you" sentiments will grow loyalty within your customer/client base and make you more meaningful then those other fly-by-night operations.

But Enoch ... this really isn't a technology topic ... no respect! Of course it is ghost of Rodney Dangerfield channeled through Aretha Franklin. It's all about the technology of the pen an paper, postal system, or debt card transaction at Sam's Club. Remember, my blueberries, sometimes the best tech is low tech. Now I'm off to stream my Netflix Avatar 3D

Quick Tip: Facebook Privacy - Another Attempt at Confusion

2010-10-19T22:34:59+00:00

So last week I ranted about the silliness of Facebook Groups allowing people to be added without their notice. Well ... it appears yet another Facebook "privacy issue" has surfaced (although us tech guys have known about it for a while).

The Wall Street Journal on Monday the 18th ran an article Facebook in Privacy Breach talking about how the Top 10 Facebook applications share Facebook's User ID's to marketing firms. Not only was the User ID of the people using the applications distributed, but so were the User ID's of their friends as well. This may not seem important until you realize you can get most of a person's profile through the User ID.

Ok ... before we start pulling out hair and scream "This is an invasion of our privacy" let's break down some of the fundamentals:

Facebook is a Sharing Network: Every piece of code written for Facebook is built upon this simple premise. Even the games people play is about a sharing experience rather than a solo experience. Anytime you "share" information that information can be consumed by the listening audience. You've probably been in a restaurant where you overhear a funny conversation. That is sharing being consumed by unintended ears. Please remember when you "share" information there are people who can overhear what you say. There is nothing "secure" about sharing information over a sharing network Hence the catch-22 of sharing: Once it's out there ... there is no bringing it back!
Sharing NEEDS A Community: In order to "share" there needs to be another party. Sharing cannot exist in a solo environment. So ... Facebook creates a community by this generic "friend" idea. However, we all have different degrees of friends. Unless you take the time to modify your individual friend's settings (which you can do) so they can not see anything from you (which poses the question are they friends?) every friend has the same amount of information visible. It also means each friend's information can be viewed exactly the same way. Because of the sharing concept the term "friend" is more of a data retrieval point instead of a true "relationship".
Sharing Applications Attempt to Unite the Communities: So each "application" (Facebook applications included) attempts to unite communities through the "shared" experience. This is a double edged sword. Knowing how your friends use the applications creates a unified experience between the parties. However, this does mean the application needs to know how your friends and you use the application. Conclusion: there is exposure open to the application of not just you, but your friends as well.

Generally we don't think of these items as being a problem. It does come as a shock, for some, when we hear "Facebook is Sharing Your Information!" Truthfully it should be rewritten as "Facebook is Sharing Your Information You've Already Shared to People!" Or better yet, "Facebook is Sharing Your Information You Have Stored in a Virtual Account You Shared with Other Virtual Accounts that You Associate to People, Groups or Things that Don't Really Exist Except as 1's and 0's Stored in a Database!" However that last one is a little too long and doesn't roll as easily off the lounge.

Remember you've stored your information in a "Social Network" built around the principles of sharing. Even if Facebook is at fault, or you're at fault for placing that ill advised photo of you at your last company Christmas party, You (or your "friends") shared it with people and it's that "online sharing" were the problem lies. If I read that you love music by Rush and Kool Aid! you can't really fault me for giving you concert tickets and a year supply of "Oh Yeah!" because I read it on your profile. Some consider that "cyber-stalking", while others consider it "great customer service". It comes down to intent more than actions.

The Marketing Companies are constantly trying to understand the consumer mindset. It is that understanding of consumer thought that drives them to gather information by any means necessary. With the explosion of "Social Networks" (which I think is a horrible phrase, but I'll write about that later), businesses are trying to harness the power of these large platforms. Heck ... that is what "Facebook Ads" are all about. Taking your shared information and targeting advertising around what you say you like. It works great! Is it really any different then your grocery store giving you coupons based upon your purchases because you bought into "key-fob discount program?"

I guess when it comes down to it the Wall Street Journal article isn't a shock. Of course these applications were sharing your IDs. Facebook doesn't allow it, but these are 3rd party apps developed by other developers with their own set of standards. And even though Facebook is developing a strategy to combat these guys ... there will always be someone who will work around the problem.

My solution: Don't "share" things with your "friends" you don't want the general public to know about. You can't protect your friends, but you can protect yourself with that simple common sense rule. And I guess I've always known that there are other places on-line I can get information about you without Facebook. And really ... isn't that more frightening that I knew all about your obsession with karaoke before we became Facebook friends scarier? I would think so ...

Quick Tip:Facebook Groups Change Yet Again

2010-10-12T22:47:00+00:00

So Facebook has done it again and redesigned a core piece of software upsetting the delicate balance of the cyber sphere. However, if you're like me and don't bother with "Groups" as often as I should then you probably won't notice the change. But as all good tips go, I should let you know what's happening so you are "in the know!"

Last Tuesday Facebook rolled out their new "Groups" feature and some people instantly discovered they were included into a number of groups without registering with those groups. Is this a security feature? Nope. These groups are operating by design, and that's the power of the new functionality.

The design concepts come from the idea that Facebook is a sharing community where people don't want to share everything with everyone. So the new Groups feature is designed to let you share information with people in a closed space. The trick here is to understand that when you create the group you add people to the group instead of invite people to the group. It is purely an opt-out function instead of the previous groups were under an opt-in philosophy. Sure once you're part of a group you can leave at any time, and you have the control to search and discover new groups to join ... but there is nothing preventing anyone from adding you to a group when ever a person feels like it.

For instance ... say you create a group for your family to send information back and forth. You can add all of your family members without them having to opt-in to the group, which is nice, but once their in the group, depending how the group is set up, they can add people to the group. Granted this is a setting in the Groups settings you can change, but remember YOU NEED TO CHANGE IT. Facebook isn't the friendliest about default settings so make sure you change the settings! ... or at least look at them.

However, the new groups functionality does have it's perks. One of them being the ability to share documents, sort of. Facebook is trying to get into the "collaboration" side of networking, but are falling short (yeah, I still suggest Google for online collaboration or my favorite Microsoft Live for collaboration). Another perk being the updates in the Groups do allow for visibility in the Group and also in the Main Feed. So now you can get both types of spam messages "Come to my Get Enoch Workshop" from a person's personal update and from an unwanted group to which you belong.

But Enoch I don't want to be a part of your "Get Enoch" spam group, just your "Get Enoch" spam "Quick Tips" ... because I love them so! Thanks for bringing that up voice in my head who sounds like the British Hulk. Don't worry. I promise as a business owner to never create a forum that is for pure spamming emails, but I can't say the same thing for other people. With the new "features" the Groups have to offer there will, and are, individuals who create spam lists and send messages to people. However, you will be able to "Opt-Out" of them. All I can say is remember integrity comes with utilizing strengths properly. It does go a long way by inviting someone to something they can opt-out of then just adding them without their notice. I wish I could tell you about some great checkbox that won't allow Group adding to occur, but unfortunately it isn't in the Facebook cards right now. Who knows what tomorrow will bring when they update again .

Oh, and I'm not saying that I don't like the new and improved (we'll see) groups. I'm frustrated with the way they've come about, but they are a change in a better direction. I have always disliked their implementation which is why I push companies to use "Pages" instead of "Groups". But that is for another email in another time. Speaking of which WARNING: SELF-PROMOTION AHEAD!!! here is the Get Enoch Facebook Page! Fan us and join the revolution!!

Quick Tip: Why is Web Development so Pricey?

2010-10-05T22:59:00+00:00

Over the past 10 years the explosion of "The Internet" has been drastically changed from Star Trek fanpages to actual full on business. Having a website in today's business climate is akin to having a phone number in the business world of the past century (yeah ... that was over a decade ago). However, even though it is as important today for businesses to survive the understanding of what is needed to create a website is not there. So let me take a few moments to enlighten you about Why website creation costs SOOOOOOO much!

First thing to understand is there are two important parts of web development. I'll explain these briefly, or as briefly as any Enoch post. :)

Layout and Graphics: having a graphic artist understand how to make a great experience on your website is key to having visitors. Sure you can manage with Get Enoch Quality graphics, but hiring someone who understands colors, design and flow is key. Layout and Graphics usually means understanding of some important elements:
- HTML: This is the foundation of web development. However, the importance of HTML has been drastically reduced with the creation of newer technologies. Still HTML is important because this language defines the layout of web-pages. It doesn't matter how much CSS you apply to anything ... if there is no HTML layout the CSS will not do anything.
- CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): This is relatively new technology created over the past decade. Yeah we had it in the 90's but the new millennium really added the power of CSS. CSS is the look and feel of the layout. It incorporates positions, heights, margins, widths, overlays, and other types of transforms. Understanding CSS means you understand how to make the webpage load quickly and optimized for any browser. It is the CSS that effectively positions the layout tags.
- Graphics: Probably the most important and least understood about webpage design. Graphics are more than just images and pictures, but Graphics can truly enhance flow and design. The world of HTML and CSS (and for all of computers in that case) is square. There is no such thing as a round edge. However, Graphics allow the squares to become round. They can make text come alive and can drive an emotional attachment to a web page ... without showing a traditional picture.
  with a good Layout and Graphics person you can dramatically change a unrefined page into a positive flow website to accomplish engaged audiences. And this is the reason why a good Graphics Designer people are so important to any website. However, a GREAT Graphics Designer is only as good as your relationship you have with them to your style. NOT ALL GRAPHICS DESIGNERS WORK WELL WITH EVERY COMPANY!! it is important to shop around and invest time in discovering which one works with your style so you accomplish a fliud look and feel. Graphics Designers can cost anywhere from $15 an hr - $3500 a project.
Website Programming: layout is a strong component of Web Development, but modern day techniques of eCommerce, content management and system transactions requires Web Programming. There are various skills and techniques to programming aspect as well. These include:
- Client Side Programming: this is how the content changes in the web-browser. For instance, when you mouse over a menu image and that image changes is due to Client Side Programming. And there are a couple of languages you can choose from for Client Side Programming, but the one everyone uses and knows is Javascript.
- Server Side Programming: this is how the content is retrieved before it hits your web browser. Server Side Programming is the core behind web 2.0 sites. The content of the website is stored in a database, retrieved when needed, and rendered into HTML, CSS and Client Side code. This is the bulk of what "programming" is thought to entail, when really it's one aspect. Server Side Programming is the saying of vague acronyms like "PHP, ASP, ASP.Net, ColdFusion, JSP, javabeans, etc." However, it is truly only one aspect of what makes a GREAT Website.
- o Third Party Applications: with the creation of HTML tags also came the advent of the <OBJECT> tag, allowing us to stick whatever we wanted into the web browser. Some companies took off on this idea (Macromedia and now Adobe) and created tools to overcome the limitations of static websites. Enter "Flash Developers", "Shockwave Animators", and more recently "Silverlight Developers" all creating applications (mostly games) that enhanced the web experience. These developers work outside of the limitations of "Web Technologies" but create enhancements which can be added to any webpage.
  with a good Website Programmer you can dramatically change the time to market and flexibility of website productivity. Most web developers tend to think functionally for a website and not structurally about a website. There are a lot of databases created for websites that are not optimized for transactions because of poor web programmers. However, if you discover a Web Programmer who has too much of an architect mindset they are generally seen as slow to market people because they are solving for best scenario development instead of quick functional scope. It is important to discover a middle ground to get the best results. Web programmers, based on skill and level, can range anywhere from $15/hr - $150/hr.

For the most part the skill sets do blur across lines of roles. There are those who are Graphics guys who dabble in Programming and visa-versa. However, usually one skill will surpass the other skill. It's tough to be truly adept at both worlds since they really do focus on divergent parts of the brain: analytical and creative.

It is also important to note that you do get what you pay for when you're talking Graphics Designers and Web Programmers. Just because you are spending less money per hour does not mean you will get a product you like ... or in some cases functional. I have had to work in many companies where a "Graphics" guy or "Developer" has been paid for services and have delivered nothing. Cheaper does not always equal Less Expense. The trick to lowering costs is to Research the parties you are getting involved. They are creating a brand for you, and image, a first-touch to your clients. You don't need to spend a million dollars to look like a million dollars, but you will need to spend more than the "price of a cup of coffee a day."

I should mention there are great tools to help you with all of these things without spending money on a "Graphics" or "Programmer" guy. Tools like WordPress, TypePad, Dot Net Nuke and many others are available, usually FREE, to get you running without the need of expensive "Programmers" and "Designers". The trick with using these systems is understanding the customization, but I'm going to leave that for another email. When you do use these site it is important to realize you are held to the constraints of the tool. Graphic Designers code to the tools theme templates. Programmers code to the tools API. It doesn't mean they won't do the job you want, but it does mean you do have to work in the rules.

But I guess at the end of the day we all have to work within the rules. If that wasn't the case I would do nothing but eat brownies all day ... and really what type of living is that? Heaven is what that is! :)

Quick Tip: Save Money on your Phone Calls

2010-09-27T16:30:00+00:00

Recently people who know me have noticed they are not able to get me on my home phone. Yes .. this is by design. After years of mulling it over I decided spending $60-$70 a month for my phone service was quite silly. I have the Internet and my cell phone ... people can get a hold of me if they need without the added expense. However, I hate talking on cell phones because most phones do not tend to fit into my head's physical dimensions (I have a BIG head :) ). And as much as people like bluetooth headsets (my favorite is Jawbone) I would rather not run around looking like I have a blinking growth from my ear all day. So I like headsets, and I love technology so I quickly transformed all my phone numbers over to Skype!

Here is what I did to get a phone number and unlimited long distance in the US for $60.00 a year:

Download Skype: Skype is a free VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) client giving you crystal clear calling, chatting and video conferencing to any other Skype application. I recommend using Skype with all of my clients to make conversing quick and easy!
Click on the Business Tab: This is the step I didn't do and I wish I did. Once your one the business tab you should see a "Sign into Skype Manager" link on the right side of the screen. It will just ask for your Skype username and password. Once there you can set up you business as a Skype business. This will give access to the business directory and other things, but that's for later ...
Purchase Skype Subscription: Once you're logged into the Skype manager you can purchase a Skype subscription. Skype subscriptions allow you to use Skype to call phone numbers across the world. There are different rates for different countries. You can pay for this monthly but if you pay for a full year you can get a 15% discount on your purchase. Here are the rates for US as of 9/27/10:
- o Unlimited US & Canada - $2.99/mo
- o Unlimited North America - $7.99/mo
- o Unlimited World - $13.99/mo
So if you purchase monthly US & Canada ($2.99/mo) that's $35.88 your paying or you make one lump payment for $30.50 a year with a 15% discount (2.99 x 12 x .85 = 30.498 ... I rounded up). So for a little more than $30.00 you get unlimited calls to US and Canada for a year ... I like it!
Purchase a Skype Number: Skype Numbers give you a phone number people can call to get a hold of you through Skype. Once you have your subscription Skype will automatically give you 50% off the purchase of a Skype Number. For a year the Number normally costs $60.00 but with your newly found discount you can get your Skype Number for the year at $30.00. And if you wanted to purchase out longer you can buy your number for more years (I believe 2, 3 and 5 year increments).
Go Back to Skype Manager and configure auto billing: The best thing about Skype is you can configure it to auto-renew your service when your time is up. They'll send you the invoice and confirmation, but you won't have to do anything ... just let the auto-renew happen. This is a great feature, but only possible when you purchase your Skype Subscription and Skype Number through the business manager. I made the mistake of not doing that and have to auto-renew a completely different way.

Skype is a great little service that makes telecommunications a simple and easy tool ... instead of paying TONS of money to phone companies where they don't really care about you.

But wait, Enoch! What about Google Voice? They're a free service like Skype with phone numbers and other services. Aren't they better?

I'm glad you asked that question, voice in my head who can't stop singing Barry Manilow! Google Voice is a great service that does one thing differently than Skype. They will translate, albeit a pretty junky translation but it's getting better, voice mail and send it to you via SMS or Email. The prices are comparable with Skype for long distance. The phone numbers are free, which is nice, but ... the service is still being built strongly. I like Skype because the service has been around since 2003 and have a telecom infrastructure that is very solid. My problem with Google is that they always try to do too much and don't offer amazing service in anything. Skype really focuses on the power of telecommunications and truly excels at it. Plus ... Skype has a number of "Plugins" you can get to extend Skype. One of my favorite items is Pamela for Skype which allows you to record calls and immediately upload them as podcasts!. It records both video and audio. And you can see all of the Skype Accessories by visiting the http://shop.skype.com store.

There are some other cool things you can do with Skype but I've bothered you with way too many Skype links for the time being. Just know when you Download Skype you can look for me by typing in Enoch Chapman or Get Enoch in the Add Contact link in Skype. I will be more than happy to be your first Skype call!. I may even give you a little treat when you do! :)

Quick Tip: Find Gratitude for Just One More Blog Post

2010-09-23T01:22:00+00:00

There are many books written about success in business, success in relationships and success in your life. After reading one of these books years ago I stumbled upon an idea called a "Gratitude Journal." The nature of the journal is simple; Take a notebook and write down things you you are grateful for receiving. As my education continued I found people making variances with the concept ... and my tip for you is yet another take on it.

Write down 10 things you are grateful for throughout the day, 2 things which made you smile, and 2 people you should thank. For some people this is difficult to manage, but for others they will discover this to be a simple idea. Make sure you items are specific and about the day if possible. It's great to be grateful for "the sun rising in the east", but it may be better to be grateful for "today's sunrise breaking over Mount Timpanogus with the right color of orange to set the morning ablaze." (Granted that was flowery even for my taste, but you get the drift) And there is a reason why this is important. But before I get there I want to share with you a little tool to help you along this path.

I just finished (so you get to be one of the few to know about it) developing the Padiush Desktop, which allows you to write your Gratitude Journal anytime on your computer. And best of all it allows you to store your information on the Get Enoch Website, so you can view your Padiush Journal using Padiush Online. Just use your Get Enoch Logon and your information is stored in a secure manner online. Oh ... and don't worry if you don't have an account yet ... you can create one through the Padiush Desktop application.

But Enoch ... this seems like silly new age babble. How will it help my business?

Thank you for asking person in my mind who sounds a lot like my skeptic English professor from high school who taught psychology. There is scientific research which delves into the mysteries of why this works, but it's way too much for me to mention here. I will mention instead three simple outcomes of following this plan over the next 21 days:

Your business will increase: Business is built upon relationships. When you start thinking in the world of gratitude you will inherently strengthen relationships towards a relationship of gratitude instead of a relationship of possession. This is something my friend Bryan Waldon Pope calls moving a customer to a client. As this thought of customer-to-client progresses your marketing will take a different shape. Your business messages will change and you will become more successful.
Your relationships will strengthen: Not only will the events of the above actions occur, but imagine if you became the vehicle for someone else's Padiush Journal. As you strengthen the brains functions of gratitude these actions will occur naturally and your relationships you have with your friends, family and clients will also be strengthened.
You will become happier with your life: One of the key scientific elements of happiness is the ability to look into your past with gratitude. When you keep a Padiush Journal you can take small moments and reflect upon those events, activities and actions that you wrote and find strength and enjoyment in those actions. This strength in reflection will cause you to have a different outcome and perspective and be more happier as an individual.

So take some time to become more Grateful of your world and your life. I promise you will gain in areas unknown to you as well as gain in areas visible to your eyes. Padiush Desktop was built upon principles of psychology as a business productivity tool for you to help you increase your success. I believe very strongly in this idea and hope that you use it and find success!

Quick Tip: I Want a Faster Computer ... What Can I Do? (Part II of III)

2010-09-01T21:45:21+00:00

So last time we talked about monitoring what is running on your system. And most of you who sent things in had no problems on their systems. In fact on person, Dan Broadbent of the The Jeweler's Bench, only real memory hog was that of FireFox which was taking almost 3 times as much resources as the system memory. But that's the problem with Web Browsers and Web Sites. We are constantly trying to make our computers run faster to speed up the internet while the websites are bogging down our systems so they can't run as fast. The Catch-22 of modern day computer use! :) But enough about monitoring your system ... let's talk about optimizing your computer start-up! As a warning: this is a long email ... sorry but the important ones usually are!

I love showing people this next trick. Partially because it makes people feel like they are "hacking" their computer, and partially it is an incredibly Technical piece of knowledge which is simple to do. It just takes a little bit of understanding.

Anything that is uber-technical in Windows usually deals with the system registry. Be careful when playing around with your system registry!! If you muck about too much in the registry you can make some odd things happen in Windows. Most can be turned off and on, but some things ... well ... let's just say I've played around in some areas and the only thing I could do was reinstall Windows because I really did some damage. So my friends, be careful ... but with that said: Let's understand the Registry!

The quick way to open your Windows Registry is <WindowsKey>+<R> and type regedit. The not so quick way, for those mouse users who don't like my keyboard commands ... you know who you are :), is Start Menu, then Run and then type regedit.

Once here we are going to look into two places for the program start-up information. Let's understand a little about what we're seeing before we drill down into the two locations:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT - Most of the information in here is about what files get opened by what applications. This is pretty confusing. I don't recommend venturing down this path in the woods.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER - This is where most of the "active" user's profile runs and operates. Each user on your computer will have a different registry block here. We will venture down this path, but not yet.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE - This is where most of the "machine" profile runs and operates. Every user on this computer has the exact same "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" so if you make a change here you make it on every user's account ... unlike the "HKEY_CURRENT_USER". This is another branch we will look at.
HKEY_USERS - This is where some of the "Users" Defaults reside as well as some other optional configuration. When you create a new user account this information is replicated. This Changes immensely with each machine and user. We won't venture down this branch.
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG - This is what is actively running and loaded on your machine right now. Most of all the applications configurations are run through the "HKEY_CURRENT_USER" so there really isn't a lot of information in this branch. Once again ... We won't venture down this path.

OK. The key to remember with the next step is that Windows is a piece of Microsoft software. Sometimes we don't think about it like software, but as how the computer operates. However, it is key to understand that Windows is software with it's own set of configurations and modifications. And this is how the Registry sees Windows ... as a piece of software from Microsoft.

Let's traverse down the path of "HKEY_CURRENT_USER":

1. Open or Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER

2. Open or Expand Software - Remember Windows is a piece of Microsoft software

3. Open or Expand Microsoft - You should see a lot of different company names here, but they're in alphabetical order so just hunt for Microsoft

4. Open or Expand Windows - You should see a lot of different installed software here. Once again they're in alphabetical order so look for the software called Windows

5. Open or Expand Current Version - This is all the information about the version of Windows you are using

6. Click on the Folder Run - Finally we're at our destination

So What do we do here? Well once you're at the Run directory (and you don't have to expand this folder) you will see a listing of applications that launch when Windows starts up. Some of them may make a lot of sense to you (msnmsgr (Microsoft Messenger)) while others may look strange and odd to you (WLSync (Windows Live Sync)). Don't fret too much, but do be aware that these items are here. And the worst part is a lot of applications will install themselves into this registry key (that's what we call the folders) and we don't know about it, but they always start up. A couple rules of thumb about this directory:

1. Nothing you do in this key, directory, folder will harm your machine. This Key only tells windows what applications to launch when it goes through the start-up sequence. If you don't want something to start-up just remove it from this key ... On the Right Side of the Registry Editor

2. Each listing in this Key (right side of the editor) has three parts: Name (An easy readable thought about the entry), Type (they should all be REG_SZ ... it means string), and Data (which points to an executable file on the hard drive somewhere).

3. A Good Rule of Thumb: If the Name matches the executable name (i.e. msnmsgr = msnmsgr.exe) or the Name is a readable word or phrase ... the entry is ok to have in your computer. If any of these rules are broken REMOVE IT IMMEDIATELY. This is one of those locations that viruses love to hide because not many people know about it.

4. If you recognize something in this Key, but don't want it to start up when you start your computer ... just delete the key. I do this a lot for Apple and Adobe products because they add things in my startup directory that I just don't need like iTunes portable connector or Adobe Acrobat Updater. If I don't check this periodically I get this little utilities that just bog down my system and I don't like when that happens. :)

Perfect! Now you know one place where the startup applications like to live. The other place in the registry is down another branch, but it follows the same logic we did with HKEY_CURRENT_USER. The only difference is the starting point. This time we start with HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> Software -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> Run.

Once again we stop at a location with a number of startup entries. The difference is the "HKEY_CURRENT_USER" only looks at the active user on the computer. So if you have more than one user it will look different for each person logged into the computer. The "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" is used regardless of what user is logged into the machine. It is always loaded.

There is generally more entries in the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" listing because more applications want to launch with every user. The nature of application installation. But the same rules apply as they did on the previous Key. You can add and remove at your leisure to make sure you system is running at full steam when you start Windows.

My philosophy has always been with these Keys that you can remove them and replace them back anytime you want. Just cut and paste the Data value into a notepad or something else and if something goes awry ... open regedit and paste it back. Nothing horrible can happen in these two directories so add and remove whenever you would like. Because I know the locations can be tricky to navigate I uploaded a YouTube video for you to watch that shows the registry and the directories I'm talking about:

Well that was a long one, but I guarantee this will help with your knowledge of how Windows works and how you can optimize your system. And even though this was a long one ... I only did it because I know you're smart enough to understand it all.

Quick Tip: Why is My Computer So Slow? (Part I of III)

2010-08-23T20:05:00+00:00

Last week I went to a networking meeting where I met a young lady who's husband runs Legion Skateboards down in Payson, UT. She started telling me of a Virus she got on her computer. I listened to her talk and chuckled as I did knowing that the problem wasn't as horrible as she made it out to be, but during the struggle it always seems monumental.

So I thought I would let you ... my loyal email subscribers ... see a little about what I do to help out those with these struggles. Just so you know, this trick will only work on Windows machines. There is a misconception in the world that Apple Computers don't get viruses. THIS IS NOT TRUE There are security issues and threats attacking Macs out there in the world. Please make sure you get a virus scanner to protect your machines. Whether it be AVG, Microsoft Essentials or another program you love to use ... make sure you install something to protect your computer.

So here is the trick:

When possible keep Windows Task Manager open to see the resources your computer is using.

What is Windows Task Manager? It is a process monitor that tells you what processes, applications and little thingys are running on your computer. It also shows how much CPU (Central Processing Unit) usage is running at any given moment. It's a great tool to show what is happening on your computer.

How do I get to it, Enoch? Well thank you for asking voice in my head who sounds like me. There are a couple of ways. Let me spell those out for you:

1. <Right Click> on the Windows Task bar and select Start Task Manager

2. Press <Windows Key> + <R> and then type TaskMgr

3. or there is my favorite, because it can be done on one hand without typing ... Press <CTRL> + <SHIFT> + <ESC>

Now when the application comes up you can see what is running on your computer. For those with newer OS (i.e. Vista or Windows 7) you may see a button on the bottom of the application that says Show processes from all users. I suggest to click on this button so you can see the full version of what is happening.

For the most part this is a huge mess of processes and applications. Sometimes things make sense (like Outlook.exe) while other applications may not make sense (like SVCHost.exe). Each of these "processes" are running on your computer and taking up valuable resources. If your computer is running slow you can see what is happening to check what is hogging everything. Windows Task Manager is a powerful tool to help you discover what is running on your system.

Ok, Enoch, now I see these things ... what do I do with it? I'm glad you asked again voice in my head. Some of these processes are things you can turn off through Windows Services, others require you to look in the Windows Startup Directory, while other will require using the Registry Editor to find the solution.

Here is what I'll do to help you out. If you take screen shots of each pane on your Windows Task Manager and email them to me, I will give you a quick assessment of what you're running and what you can close. But here is the catch ... I will only do this for the first 10 people who respond to this email with screenshots (preferably <ALT> + <PrntScrn> screenshots and not full Screenshots).

For the remainder of you who don't take me up on this offer, but still want to know what to do ... each of these processes are running on your machine because they were started on your machine. Somewhere in the OS there is a command to start these processes. Digging into your OS can be difficult, but with the next couple emails I'll let you know where to go and how to look for things.

For now ... keep the Windows Task Manager running to check what is happening on those machines. It's a great first step to optimizing your Windows Machine! And it's fun to watch it go up and down in your icon tray. :)

Quick Tip: Embrace Your Audience with a Personal Touch!

2010-08-10T20:00:00+00:00

There is an interesting social trend discussed in social media circles: Give more than take. This concept isn't anything new, but has been lost on the business community over the ages. I remember my mom telling me "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you" (and yes ... my mom actual spoke like this). The golden rule is the standard used by many individuals to direct daily activities, but as business entities we tend to overlook the simplicity of the statement. Or ... if we do look at the sentiment .. we disguise it under shadow expressions like "Customer Service"!

Is "Customer Service" important? Of course, but sometimes there is an artificial placement of an entity. The Customer entity is no longer a person, but a statistic or metric. No one likes to be known as a number, but unfortunately we dismiss the person to find empirical evidence for what that person is thinking to mandate the direction we lead our business.

However, there are those exceptions. I want to share an email almost three years ago from a company called CD Baby. Even though this is an automated response it is a great example of how to make a person feel valued:

Enoch -

Thanks for your order with CD Baby!

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Monday, December 17th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as "Customer of the Year." We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Sigh...

Even though this is an automated response it did make me chuckle in a way that keeps me thinking about this email occasionally. When was the last time something in "Customer Service" made you recall it ... or even best want to share it. But that's the essence of Give more than take. Making the person on the receiving end value your words, value your opinions and value your worth. Once that occurs then this disconnected world of the internet feels much more unified and integrated.

But Enoch ... What does this have to do with technology tips that you've been sending me weekly which I love and forward on to all my friends? I'm glad you asked voice who lives in my head and sounds very similar to Salma Hayek. I'm glad you asked.

Technologically speaking there really is nothing more powerful then the pen and paper. Take sometime this week to stop for a moment and pick up a piece of paper and write a "Thank You" card to someone (a client, a business associate, a friend, etc.) and drop it in the mail. It doesn't have to be long. Just a simple message saying how much you were thinking about them and wanted to thank them for something.

Maybe it's a favorite customer who comes into the store all the time. Maybe it's a friend who helped you get your first job. Maybe it's a trusted mentor who is responsible for helping you become the powerful person you are. Then go get the 44 cent stamp (I had to look it up on usps.com). Take some time to show what really matters.

There is nothing like receiving something unexpected telling you how important you are. Plus ... and this is why I like doing it. It's a great way to take a break from your busy day and focus on someone else. Hey ... it's either that or video games ... and this is a little more productive.

Quick Tip: The Easiest Way to Intrude On Your Privacy

2010-08-03T20:16:21+00:00

I like watching procedural dramas. Don't know why ... but the problem solving and "forensics", you have to put them in quotes, keep my mind more alert than other shows. Plus they're great to play in the background while your working. Watching a lot of these types of shows you start to see trends in storylines ... The "Islam" episode, The "Mastermind" episode, and most importantly the "Identity Theft" episode. It was watching a number of these episodes lately which made me want to share with you something important to think about.

We hear a lot about our computers being secure to traverse the Internet. There are the big two (Norton Anti-Virus and McAfee) that come with most computers. Two programs I usually remove immediately because they are HUGE resource hogs and definitely not the best programs out there. Then there are some of my favorite free applications that I recommend to EVERYBODY! Here are a list of some of my favorites:

AVG - an anti-virus program that is fantastic to use.
Spybot Search & Destroy - one of the best spybot tools out there on the Internet
Microsoft Security Essentials - the new Microsoft anti-virus program to make things clean on any windows machine!

And I'm sure you have had experiences with other programs that are great. I would love to hear about them, but I wanted to speak briefly about a part of our lives which also needs safeguarding which we don't often think about: Our cell phones.

A friend of mine shared a conversation he was having with his brother-in-law who works for a government agency. It went something like this:

Friend: So how do you capture so much information about all these activities?

Bro-In-Law: It's simple. All you have to do is put a simple application on your cell phone and we can hear everything you say, see everywhere you surf on the web and access all your immediate history. It is one of the simplest things to do ... and no one thinks about it. It's the new generation of information gathering ... and most people aren't even aware.

So I don't want to scare you or even give you the feeling your phone is not safe, but it is an area where we should find some protection. Think about how much you use your phone and how much information is being used on it. For some people it is their whole life. Even more than their computer ... which at least has Norton or McAfee.

Of course ... I'm here to help you discover new things. And today I want to share with you Lookout.

Lookout is a cell phone security system to make you avoid unwanted hacks and threats (viruses). It is a simple app that downloads to most cell phones and allows a couple of really powerful utilities.

1. Anti-Virus. Much like anti-virus on your computer Lookout checks your phone for unwanted Internet usage and other types of security holes.

2. Backup. Each Lookout account get's 2 gig backup to backup data on your device. It backups automatically on a schedule or manually if you would like. Great to help you not lose important text messages, photos and other things you may keep on your phone.

3. Misplace Tools. If you misplace your phone Lookout has tools to help you. There is a "Locate" tool that will turn your phone into an alarm with a high pitched squeal so you can find it. Also there is an "Auto-Nuke" tool that allows you to wipe the system memory of your phone if it is completely misplaced. Don't worry you can restore your data from your backup.

All of these can be done via the phone application or on the Lookout website. Yeah, lookout is pretty sweet, and helps give a good piece of mind to know that your information is secure. Oh and the best part? It's FREE!

So go out there and get your FREE piece of mind. Know that your phone is the ultimate in "safe". Speak without hesitation or fear! I'm sure that you won't be dissatisfied. Plus ...It's just cool to stay up on new technology!

Quick Tip: Increase Your Revenues with Education

2010-07-26T19:41:51+00:00

If anyone has ever been to a presentation I've put on or listened to one of my audio programs, you know I love talking about education. Not only is it beneficial for you to increase your knowledge, but it is important for your customers to know how to work with you.

Most people understand the concept of "You-give-me-money-I-give-you-stuff", but a lot of people don't understand the "stuff" as well as they should. What are products? What are services? How do I work with what you offer? If I was to go to you to take my photograph ... isn't that something I can do on my own? Most likely the concept of lighting, filters, touch-up doesn't fall into my understanding. So are you selling the service of taking a picture or are you selling the expertise of the skill-set you've acquired over the course of education and experience? The trick is ... I won't know what I'm getting until I understand what I'm getting. Hence, your goal is to educate me.

This can be done through clever marketing (Pepsi is the taste of a new generation), but sometimes it can be done through other ways. Let's take Microsoft as an example of what not to do.

With the new version of Office 2007 Microsoft introduced a new "menu" concept called the ribbon. Most users HATED, (and I can't emphasis this enough), the new look and feel. The standard menu system users have used for years was now replaced with large images, nonsensical organization, and no way to understand where things went. Plus ... the standard options (Save, Open, New) where now hidden in the world of a big, honkin' icon in the top left corner. Totally confusing.

Microsoft launched a new tool and didn't give anyone a way to understand how to use the tool. Not only did they change something that WAS working; they created something that took TOO long to understand and was TOO complicated to catch on as easily as it should have. To this day I still get "Where is this function" calls.

So could Microsoft do anything to fix this problem? Fortunately ... for this email, they fixed a simple problem by creating a page on the http://office.microsoft.com site to give you some help. There is a page on the site called Learn where menu and toolbar commands are in Office 2010. This shows people who are still using Office 2003 where the commands exist in Office 2010. This is a great tool to help people who know where the functions are on the menu system migrate over to the Office 2010 ribbon. It give people a smooth functional migration.

So how can you utilize this type of concept? Think about how your clients should work with you. What should they expect from you? What does your service or products provide? What do you want from them (it's more than just money, but the relationship)? Now that you've written those ideas create pages on your website to help your customers understand those thoughts. Give them firm hard concepts and don't be afraid to use the following phrases:

Call our Phone at 555.555.1234
Come into our store and ask for John to show you our latest products
Purchase our product and improve your life

The trick behind this idea is to give the end user a simple way to understand how to work with you. It's not enough to just give information, but give directions. If your process is complicated think about creating an application to walk people through how to use the system (i.e.. Microsoft). If it's simple then make sure people understand exactly how to interact with you. Educate, Educate, Educate .... no matter how simple you think the process is. Do not make the assumption your consumers understand how to do something. Always educate so there is no mistake. You can't falter your customers for not doing what you want them to do if you don't tell them how to do it.

Remember: you didn't start off knowing 1 + 1 = 2. You had to learn it. But now that you know it you use it everyday: from finance, to inventory, to telling time. Similar thing with your clients. Your education can be as usable as 1 + 1, but it has to be taught.

And it can be that simple. The best things in life generally are. So go out and educate your consumers, customers and clients.I guarantee when you do ... you'll notice things will increase. 1 + 1 = 2. If anything ... that's an increase right there.

Build Your Blogging Audience with Consistency

2010-07-21T07:07:00+00:00

This is a quick entry today to help grow your audience. The trick here is to stay consistent so your audience knows what to expect and when to expect it.

It’s simple … creatures like consistency. We like to know when things happen. We love knowing DVDs and CDs are released on Tuesday. We like having new movies come out on Friday. We Tivo our television based on schedules. Why not give your audience and readership the same commitment. And don’t worry if you break your schedule … it’s not a huge problem. But it does give your readership a reason to ask you “Where did you go?” That’s a great indicator that your readers care.

Also post your schedule somewhere. Let people know when you are posting. This can be done with a sidebar widget or if you are using a calendar system (like Windows Live Calendar) you can add an event that will display on your webpage (this is what I do). Then people will know when you are posting and what you are posting about. It’s nice.

So you’re 10 minute tip of the day? Figure out what your posting schedule is going to be. It doesn’t have to be intensive. Start slow with a post a month. Then move to post every two weeks. Your schedule can change, but it should be consistent. And remember only do what you think you can do.

This will help immensely by giving your audience a knowledge of what you are writing. Once they understand what to expect from you it will help with knowing the quality of information they will be receiving. And remember … like G.I. Joe said … knowing is half the battle. The other half? Well that’s the information we need to know about.

So give me some information and let me know what your schedule is going to be. I could always use more ammunition.

Quick Tip: Reaching Out to Your Blog Readership

2010-07-19T19:41:00+00:00

In creating this month's "Blogging" topics I have been inundated with questions about "growth" and "attraction". Some by bloggers and other by people who find me rather adorable. (It's all about attraction, baby!). So I thought that I would pose a quick thought about growing your audience and attracting people to you.

First let's define a simple word: attraction. What is it and how does it work for us? As always I will head over to my favorite resource Dictionary.com.

2. attractive quality; magnetic charm; fascination; allurement; enticement: the subtle attraction of her strange personality.

Yeah, sure there are other definitions on the site, but I want to focus on this one for those bloggers out there. If you want to grow your audience make sure you give them something that attracts them. I have to agree with my friend Bryan Waldon Pope when he said to me, "No one is as interesting as we think we are." So why would someone care about what you are saying or the posts that you are creating? Because we NEED to find out what ATTRACTS our clients.

So here is where market research really helps. Take a quick look around your client list and ask them what interests them about your business. You really only need to ask a handful of people, but utilize what they like about you to attract more people to your blogs and articles.

Often we create posts or entries because we think they are great topics. Sometimes they are .. and other times ... not so much. We all hit and miss. But if we can create a strategy of what is attractive to our clients then, when looking at your entries for the first time, they will be more attentive to your writings instead of just moving along without paying attention.

There are things about your business that is fascinating, that spawns allurement, that is enticing. Discover what it is. Sometimes it's the stories of people who use your product. Other times it's the stories you had creating or developing your product. Sometimes it's the mechanics of the product as well. The trick for you is to identify what is attractive about your business. It's out there ... it may just take some time to discover.

Oh and when you discover what those items are ... let me know. I love seeing what you come up with and hearing about new things to discover. Plus ... you never know when I'll put your name in bold and mention you in an email. :)

Growing an Audience with Facebook Friends

2010-07-14T06:46:00+00:00

So you’ve been writing a blog and now you want to get people read it. Simple … send an email to your friends and tell them about your new blog. That will work … right? Of course it will, but how do you reach more people than just your email list? It can be accomplished by using your Facebook friends and let the world’s largest social network do the dirty work. Let’s talk about two simple ways to utilize this social giant.

First, let’s talk about the Notes Application. To get there you need to type “Notes” into the search box and then click on the “Notes Application” that pops up. This will take you to the “Notes” Application on Facebook. On the right side of the screen you’ll see a hyperlink that says “import a blog”. Once you click on this link it will take you to a page asking for an external blog RSS feed. This is a simple way to go about adding your blog to your news stream.

There are a couple of drawbacks to this solution. The first … there is no trackback to your blog on the note. So it looks like a quick thought, but no direct link back to your blog. This doesn’t help when growing your blog readership, but it does give you some exposure which is good.

Second, the post is only the summary of the RSS Feed. If your RSS is only pulling summary information and not the full post then you will only get the summary information on your note. Like this blog, when you subscribe to the RSS Feed you only get the quick summary information. I didn’t want to drown your RSS readers with a lot of data so I only put a summary of the post. If I import this blog into Facebook then you will only see the summary without the link to the full article.

So even though this is an option there is a better option we should discuss. And that is Networked Blogs.

Second, Networked Blogs is a Facebook Application that imports your RSS Feed into a nicer, user friendly (Facebook style of user friendly) way to view a blog post. To get there you need to type “NetworkedBlogs” into the search box and click on the application if it appears. If not then just hit enter. This is a Facebook application which means you need to install it. Just follow the standard “Facebook Application Install” settings and you should be fine.

Once you have Networked Blogs installed you can click on the “Register a Blog” button. When you do it will ask for a Blog Name, RSS feed URL, Three Topic keywords, language and description of the blog you want to claim. Once you do that then you are taken to your “Blog Page”. Here you can invite friends to your blog (which you will want to do to prove blog authorship). Once you have 10 people confirm you are the author you can get a syndication offerings where you can place the feed in your Notification Stream. Once you get 20 readers metrics are created to help you understand who is reading your blog entries.

The nice thing with Networked Blogs is the ability to track back to your blog entries not just on your notification stream but also on a Facebook Page if you have created one for your business. it appears with a thumbnail of your Blog, the title and the summary from your entry. Plus there is a link to “Full Article” which drives readers to your blog to help grow readership.

This is a much nicer and more elegant way to grow readership without being super intrusive.

So what is your 10 minute tip for today? Take some time to look at these two methods of growing your audience on Facebook and implement one of them. Remember to think about what you would like to achieve from a strategy and decide which offering works the best for you. Both solutions are good and have merit so look at what can occur and choose wisely. Remember if you are using your RSS feed look into using analytics. For more information on that you can read Put in Tracking Before You Grow Your Audience, last week’s post!

Remember … Facebook is about growing relationships. Don’t be overbearing, but also don’t be afraid to push yourself. Your friends who want to help you will follow what you’re saying and help you grow. Those who are only in it for business and don’t care about you … well those are people to talk about in another post.

Quick Tip: Rethinking your Customer Blogging Experience

2010-07-12T16:37:12+00:00

I have been told quite often that I'm unique when thinking about blogging. Partially because I'm a person who doesn't believe everyone should blog and secondly because I don't believe that blogging content needs to be something you write.

Let's look at the second part first: A blog is not something you need to write. Often qualified people with unique perspectives stop writing because they feel they have nothing to say. If we break the idea of a blog down into it's simple thoughts we find distinct characteristics:

Date Organized - Blogs have entries stored by a date/time stamp to show when the "latest entry" was created
Date Catalogued - Blogs are archived by date so they can be searched and found again
Categorized Information - Blogs have the ability to be grouped by "categories", either through categorized entries or user defined tags
Dynamically Generated - Blogs are created on the fly by the owner of the blog.

Just by looking at the "characteristics" of the blog you will notice no where in the characteristics does it say a blog has to be written. If we look at these simple ideas we can find other ways to create captivating blogs.

Blog entries can consist of Grouping of Powerful Websites, Showcase of New Products, or even Quick Sale Items. A blog can be created by a blog writer, an RSS feed aggregator or Blog Roll Importer. You can have a blog that contains nothing more than aggregation of other blogs together. We just have to remember the simple traits of our blog.

Secondly (the first part): Not everyone should write a blog. There are people out in the world who do not have a propendency to writing. Some people in their writing do more damage to their brand (image) then if they were to not write anything in the first place. If this is the case for you do not feel pressure to create a blog where you are writing entries. This isn't to say you shouldn't have a blog. Remember a blog is not something that you need to write. If you pull in ideas and thoughts from other places your blog can be an aggregation of important information. You need to figure out what your clients and customers are interested in seeing from you.

Remember: A blog is nothing more than a technical marketing trick. Utilize your time and energy to make the marketing efforts the strongest you need. It is important and will make you a more valuable presence. Plus ... it does become fun when you take the pressure off of your words. :)

Put in Tracking Before You Grow Your Audience

2010-07-08T04:28:00+00:00

A lot of people think about blogging as a way to catalog their life’s events. But some people look at blogging as a way to do business. When you think about blogging as a marketing tool it is important to understand where your audience comes from how the consume your information. If on the Internet call these statistics wed analytics. When it comes to your website using a web analytics software, like Google Analytics, to help you show where your traffic is coming from and where it is going. However, with blogs tracking the same information it is a little more difficult because of RSS readers.

An RSS reader is a tool that consumes your RSS feed on your blog. An RSS reader can be an application on your desktop or a web application, like friend feed. Unlike the analytics on a website when you consume the RSS feed you were not selecting a web page. So the standard analytics does not work. But of course there is a way to track who is consuming your feed. And once again we look to our good friends at Google to help provide as a solution.

Welcome to the world of FeedBurner. FeedBurner is a web application to help provide statistics and information on how your RSS Feed is consumed. It places tracking services on your feed, by replacing the RSS Feed with a new URL to have people consume the information. For example:

The feed address on this blog is http://www.getenoch.com/blog/syndication.axd?format=atom (yeah, I know it’s not pretty). Once I started using FeedBurner it created a new URL for me I use to track subscriber information. The new URL is http://feeds.feedburner.com/GetEnochBlog, a much more elegant URL than previously. Anytime I point someone to my RSS Feed now I point them to the new Feedburner URL instead of the old URL. The old RSS URL is still working (it’s how FeedBurner is pulling the feed), but I never use it. As long as all my consumers (web and people) use the FeedBurner URL I get analytics and traffic statistics.

Once you have your analytics in place you can see reports and layouts about what is happening with your RSS Feeds. You can track subscribers, applications pulling your Feed, and number of consumers. This can also help you understand what you need to grow your audience.

Discovering what the numbers do is a great way to understand what is happening with your marketing efforts. Once you have the numbers you can get a better understanding of what to do with the information. But first you have to get the numbers. How do you do that? It’s super simple.

First, you need your Gmail user account. Why? Because it’s Google and you can get into anything Google with your Gmail account. If you haven’t read my philosophy of using the web simpler than make sure to visit my entry Signing Up for the Big 3.

Second, you need to go to FeedBurner (the web address is http://Feedburner.com) and log in using your GMail account.

Third, now that your account is created you will see a Burn a feed right this instant text box. Just place your RSS URL into the text box and hit “Next”. After you’ve done that you will get a prompt to give a “friendly” user name to the FeedBurner URL. (once again this blog is http://feeds.feedburner.com/GetEnochBlog) You can create something as neat as that for yourself or your business. Just continue and your FeedBurner URL is up and running

Finally, replace your RSS URL’s with the new FeedBurner URL. You might have to go into your website to change this. Some systems, like Blogspot, put into their “configuration” a way to use FeedBurner URLs instead of their RSS URLs. This is handy, but each system is different so I can’t take all the time to show this as I would like.

So what is your 10 minute tip of today? Simple. Head over to FeedBurner and create your feed statistics. It takes about 7 minutes, but the last 3 you can use to update your Blog RSS.

Now that you have the information you can start monitoring the activity and see how people are reaching your information. Then once you have the numbers start creating marketing strategies to pull more consumers. Remember numbers are fantastic to help you point in the right direction. And once your headed into the right direction … it’s only a matter of time before you reach your goal. And that is something exciting to see. Happy blogging!

Quick Tip: Remember your heritage and Honor your Past

2010-07-06T16:24:00+00:00

The advent of the Fourth of July in the USA always makes me smile and fill up with pride. Yeah, I know that other countries have a 4th of July, but in the US we make it special! Not only is it the celebration of the signing of our Declaration of Independence, but it is great cause to grill meat, spend time with family and friends, and blow up a little of our country with explosions.

A brief overview of US History for those who forgot: thanks to the website State Handbook & Resources

August 3, 1492 - Christopher Columbus sets sail to find a westward route to the east.
May 14, 1607 - The first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States is established at Jamestown, Virginia.
March 5, 1770 - British troops fire on a rock throwing crowd (known as "The Boston Massacre").
April 19, 1775 - The Revolutionary War officially begins with the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
June 14, 1775 - The Continental Army is established by the Continental Congress
July 4, 1776 - The United States declares its Independence from Britain (by approving the Declaration of Independence).
October 19, 1781 - American/French forces win the Battle of Yorktown.
August 7, 1782 - Gen. George Washington creates the Order of the Purple Heart (for soldiers wounded in battle).
September 3, 1783 - The Treaty of Paris 1783 is signed by Britain and the United States, officially ending the Revolutionary War as the United States is recognized as a sovereign nation.
September 17, 1787 - The delegates at the Philadelphia convention approve the Constitution and sends it to the Continental Congress.
April 30, 1789 - George Washington is sworn in as the 1st President of the United States.

I love the United States of America. I don't know if it was my growing up near Boston, MA or if it was my acquiring citizenship, but I have always had HUGE amounts of Nationalistic Pride. Times have changed and causes come and go that uplift and tear the fabric of the people, but through out all of these situations one thing shines through: We are here because of those who forged a path before us. Sometimes it is people we know and other times it is unsung heroes. With this nation I know it will stand true and ring prosperous because of who we are and what Heavenly Father wants us to be.

My own experience with the USA naturalization process is an interesting story. One I won't bore you with in a quick email, but one I would gladly share if you're interested. Just email me. The part I will share is the act of friends standing up to prove I had the character to live in this great country. I always found that interesting. I needed two people not of my family to validate my credentials to a judge to show that I was worthy of living in this country. Because I was found worthy, my children and their children are found worthy. And that is a mantle I wear with pride.

I know this is not the "Tips and Tricks" you have come to know, but if I can urge you to try one thing this week it would be this: Celebrate those who have come before and Bolster yourself to Honor those who are yet to come. Your own history and path you've blazed stands as a testament to those you celebrate and honor.

And trust me here ... you are a person to be celebrated and honored! Happy Independence, USA!

Quick Tip: Overlooked Tricks to Gain Blog Followers - Part One (Writing Content)

2010-06-28T17:31:00+00:00

July is Blog Month with the "Get Enoch" team where we are focusing all of our efforts helping business owners, professionals, and families become stronger and more productive with Blogging.

Referring to the Business Side of blogging, there are three areas that should be looked at to become more productive in your blogging efforts. I like to break them up like such:

Writing Content
Growing Your Audience
Building a Business Model

Seems simple, right? Well it should be, and if you are following a similar model then Kudos to creating a strategy to be effective online. If you haven't followed a strategy hopefully I can help you with the beginnings of one today.

Throughout this month you will see postings on the Get Enoch blog and other email tricks to help you create your strategy. But for now I want to leave you with THREE overlooked tricks to help you write more effective blog posts.

1. Be Consistent - Find a time that you want to have a posting out so your followers know when you're going to give captivating content. It doesn't have to be daily or weekly, but it does have to be consistent. The nice thing about this is when you break your posting schedule it usually means that something exciting or different has occurred. So you don't have to ONLY stick to the schedule, but you do need to stick to A schedule.

2. Write to a Person - It's amazing how many people's blogs to ramble or seem sporadic in thought. Now there is nothing wrong with that concept, but if you are looking at using a blog for business different rules need to apply. Target your messaging to a particular individual so they understand what you are saying. Have a couple people in mind and use your relationship with them to benchmark your post content. I always write with four people in mind. Each of the four have different characteristics, skills and competencies. I know if I can enthrall each of the four then I've done something right. Since those four fall within my target demographic of people and they are happy then I know other people will be equally as responsive. Don't Ramble, Focus your energies!

3. Smile when you write - This is the silliest of all principles, but it works over and over again. Writing while smiling produces a different result than just writing. Doing anything while smiling produces a much more positive result. When you smile try to make it a genuine smile, but if you can't do that then force yourself to smile huge ... the Bigger the better. A few things happen when you do this: First, Your content will become easier to read. It's hard to be over complicated when your happy, I don't know why. Second, Your content will be more enthusiastic. This enthusiasm will give people reasons to return. People are attracted to positivity. It sounds so silly, but it works.

Well that's enough for now, but I will definitely be writing more as July continues. Let me know how you're doing and keep me informed about your content. Just hit reply and say, Enoch take a look at my blog! I like to read and usually get around to it at least once every 4 months. :)

Quick Tip: Subtracting to Stay Positive

2010-06-22T01:53:00+00:00

Like many people I do a lot of surfing and browsing this grand thing called "The Internet" in hopes to find valuable information. Some days it works while other days ... well you understand. I wanted to take a quick moment to engage you (I love that word, don't you?) in a technical thought few searchers understand: The minus sign (-)!

When you do searches using conventional search engines: Yahoo!, Bing or Google you can greatly enhance what you're looking for by using the minus sign to REMOVE unwanted results.

For Instance: There is a great "Google joke with the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button. Type in Google the words French Military Victories and press the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button. Make sure you press the button and not just hit enter. When you do a page "looking" like Google appears with a funny message. I don't want to ruin the surprise.

But what if you were looking for actual "French Military Victories? It's simple we can remove the search option by removing results.

By changing the search terms to French Military Victories -albinoblacksheep you remove the fake entry and get something completely different. Now if you hit the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button you should get something more valuable. The minus (-) sign removed results from our list of search results.

But Enoch why would you do that?

This helps narrow down results to something we want instead of something we hope we're getting. For instance, the search Volkswagen dealers utah -orem returns results of VW dealers excluding Ken Garff VW in Orem. So if you are looking for a VW Dealer, but don't like Ken Garff (for whatever reason) you can filter out results.

And there are other reasons outside of vendettas for the minus search. Photography Studios -wordpress -blogspot will return non-blog related Photography Studios. Sports Highlights -WorldCup will give sports highlights other than World Cup coverage. Health Care options -welfare will give you results for health care without any mention of welfare. Yeah ... the minus (-) sign really narrows down your results.

I suggest you use the minus in the beginning to help refine your searches. Search on a term to discover all that is involved. Then re-search to limit down the amount of results you get..It's amazing how empowered (another enoch favorite word) you feel after controlling what you receive from your searches.

Of course this way you do miss out on "French Military Victories" but that's the world of give and take. :)

Quick Tip: Managing your Social Networks easier

2010-06-14T22:11:00+00:00

To get ready and excited for this weeks FREE Lunch With Enoch (see left side bar) I thought I would talk about a quick way to help manage your Social Networks ... without having to keep opening a web browser.

I have a problem with most Social Networks (like Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter) because it always seems like it take effort to maintain and manage these silly websites. And once you're on the site then there is an odd obligation to rummage around other people's profiles to see what the buzz is.

Which is why I LOVE ... and I mean that whole-heartedly ... Digsby!

This simple application let's me stay connected to a myriad of Social Networks without having to always be logged onto web pages. Plus ... and here is why I REALLY love it. I can use Facebook Chat in a Client Application instead of the silly Web Chat.

So here is the Lowdown on Digsby:

Multiple Chat Client - Digsby has the ability to connect with a number of different chat clients including: Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Facebook Chat, ICQ, gTalk (Google), AOL Messenger, Jabber and MySpace Chat. The only one it doesn't have is Skype which is sad, but I understand why.
Multiple Web Email Client - Digsby has the ability to connect to a number of different Web Email Clients. This means that you can send an email using Digsby to using contacts from any of your email accounts and not just one. These email clients include: Yahoo! Email, Gmail, Hotmail, AOL mail, Pop3 Accounts and IMAP Email Accounts
Social Network Connect - Digsby lets you tap into different Social Network accounts including: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and MySpace. Digsby will then let you update your status, Get updates from friends and followers, and keep track of Social Mailboxes.
Unobtrusive User Interface - Digsby hides and shows alerts to you only when things happen. Once an activity alert is shown then you can comment, like or dislike, respond or whatever immediately through the alert instead of having to log into the website to respond. This makes you active in your community without having to be active on the website.
Incorporate Chat on your Website for FREE - Digsby allows anyone to add a widget to their own website ... for FREE! This means you can provide the power of support chatting to your customers simply and easily. It's all done through the walkthrough wizard. Check it out by visiting http://GetEnoch.com/digsby_demo.aspx and type me a little message. Free lunch with me at one of my favorite restaurants to the person who chats with me first!

So if you haven't gotten the jist of this email by now ... I highly recommend downloading Digsby and using it to help you stay connected. It is a great little tool that can be used in various ways. And it allows you to stay active on your Social Networks without having to stay online. And that leads us all to be more productive when we don't have to stay connected through a web browser!

Great Microsoft Office 2010 Links

2010-06-09T06:12:00+00:00

This post is a simple post to help get ready for Microsoft Office 2010. I will give a brief description about what each site is about so you can get a good overview. For your 10 minute tip I don’t suggest checking all the sites, but take a couple and then come back and check another set. Enjoy!

Microsoft Office Web Site
When talking about Office you have to showcase the actual Microsoft website.

Learn where menu and toolbar commands are in Office 2010
This is a great tool created using Silverlight to help people find where the old menu commands exist on the new “Ribbon” toolbar. This is a great tool to help people get used to the “Office Ribbon”.

Using Twitter in Outlook 2010
This is a great tool to incorporate Twitter into your productive Outlook world. This plugin creates mailboxes and puts your feed as “new messages” in your Outlook Feed.

Social Connectors for Outlook 2010
Social Connectors are great ways to connect your social sphere into your Outlook 2010. Each Connector allows your contact lists to be updated with the current information about their “social spheres”. Here some connectors:

OutSync – Sync Facebook photos with Outlook
This little tools allows you to update your contact photos with photos from Facebook.

Bing Travel Planner for Outlook 2010
This little tool helps you plan out trips using Bing maps and travel resources from Outlook. It is a help to anyone who uses Outlook to help travel for business or fun.

Quick Tip: Find Discounts for your Company

2010-06-07T22:07:00+00:00

So this week I created the Get Enoch Twitter account @getenoch so I can keep those interested on the latest and greatest Get Enoch activities and functions ... via Twitter!

So in honor of this momentous moment (I like the way that sounds) I would like to share with you a little trick I use when purchasing things online. I call it The Search Twitter for Coupons Trick.

It's quite easy. Before I purchase anything online I pull open search.twitter.com and type in "Something Coupon Codes" or "Something Discounts" or something else to the like. I guarantee there are coupons and discounts for almost anything you're interested in purchasing in the cyber-sphere. The nice thing with this, since Twitter is a list of what is happening NOW you will always get the latest and greatest discounts. And trust me ... people put them out there all the time.

So the next time you're purchasing a domain name, electronic gizmo, video game or just flowers jump on search.twitter.com and look around for discounts. Simple. Short. And saves you money! Gotta love that!

What We Can Learn from the Wayback Machine

2010-06-03T05:33:00+00:00

I never liked sitting through history classes, but I understand the purpose and design. Most history classes that I was forced to sit through never brought purpose or reason to the action of studying the past. However, the fact we can learn from mistakes, see growth and understand where we came from are all reasons to view what was before.

When it comes to business it is also important to look and analyze what history has shown. Growth metrics, sales numbers and historical statistics are all trends we should be tracking. In business creating a bar graph or dashboard is extremely helpful in knowing whether or not your thoughts and ideas are on the right track. In most business circumstances we think about numbers like foot traffic, monthly sales, shipping metrics, etc. Most of these numbers are physical, tangible metrics, but other numbers we should follow are intangible. Impressions vs actions, persona marketing, and advertising reception should be gathered, but they are not as easily to identify in “traditional” marketing as say … marketing on the internet.

With most online strategies following analytics and metrics are important to measure success. However, change is important to keep your website fresh and alive. But sometimes when we change things we alter the success; for better or for worse. But there is a great tool to help us track what our websites have looked like and what type of response we could have gotten.

Welcome to the Internet Time Machine; an online repository of what the “web” looked like. When you go to the website you can enter in a URL and see what the website looked like in the past. This is a great tool to not only see your historical website, but to also see what worked for your competitors. Why would you want to see the past? Well think about these reasons and see if they help out:

See what Landing Pages worked for your website to increase conversions
Better understand the flow and progression of your landing pages
View competitors and partners websites to see what worked for them
Use historical context of past designs to help predict successful layouts to increase your conversions

So here is your 10 minute tip for today. Take some time to list your competitors and partners. Then open the Internet Time Machine and enter their URLs. Take a look at what they were doing and what might have worked for them. Take time to identify what you like and dislike about their pages. Use this time as research to help your business be successful. Print off copies and circle the thoughts you like. Then look at your website and see what you might be able to incorporate as thoughts.

I’m not recommending you “steal” ideas, but use the time to research concepts that you might have overlooked. It is amazing what type of thoughts you can create by looking at the past. And the nice thing is with the Internet Time Machine … you can see what our internet looked like. And that … is pretty cool.

Quick Tip: Correct Contact Information to Your Audience

2010-06-01T21:56:00+00:00

I was at a networking event last week and a friend said how much she enjoyed my sending of vCards instead of Handing out Business Cards to people. It saves so much time on the receivers' end because they don't type any information into their contact system. It also allows the sender to control the information sent, which can hold a lot more than a Business Card.

My vCard also contains a photo of myself so the recipient knows who it was they connected. I find this more powerful than a company logo, which I'm not suggesting you don't use, but a picture of me helps the recipient remember me stronger than a logo ever would.

Here's what I do:

Open Microsoft Outlook and go to the Contacts section
Create a New Contact and enter the information you want into this Contact
IMPORTANT:Take a photo (either professionally or with a camera) and add it to your Contact card
1. Click on the Blank Profile image next to the Name Information field
2. Select Image you want to display for the contact
3. Click Save button to add image to contact
Save the Contact Card.

Now start attaching this to people in your email messages instead of your "Signature" information. It's not bad to actually have both, but when attaching your contact information the receiver will no longer need to "add" a contact.Your vCard just imports automatically into their contact system.

How do you attach the vCard? Follow these steps:

Create a new Email Message
Depending on the version of Microsoft Outlook you should see an option to "Attach Item"
When you click on "Attach Item" you will see Business Card
If you haven't used this option before then it should just say "Other Business Cards"
After selecting "Other Business Cards" search for your contact information and it will attach into the email.

Once you have attached one card it will display in the "Business Card" list so you don't need to find the card again. Which is great. Also, as I mentioned before, the recipient will automatically get your information without having the need to reenter the information. Plus, if you are using Office 2010, that photo will be used in emails and other correspondence. Pretty cool stuff.

Enoch

P.S. Once you have a vCard created you can start using Microsoft Tag images for your contact information instead of just words. And it works great with Mobile Phones ... try it here.

Using the Web to Increase SEO

2010-05-27T05:29:00+00:00

There are a lot of SEO artists out there that tell businesses to spend money with them to increase their rankings in search engines. Whether you believe that they are worth the money or not the underlying principle behind any Search Engine Optimization is discovery. You have to be seen to be … seen.

Sounds silly I know but the simple truth is the more you are located on the web the stronger you will be seen by search engines. There are a number of companies that tell people how to do this and it is a growing business. Does more viewership mean more business? Not necessarily, but I’m not here to discuss that topic. If you want more information on how to help with that you can see Increasing Website Conversions, an audio product on how any business owner can produce higher conversions on their own website. No this post is to talk about how to make your website more visible.

The thing these SEO companies do have correct is that you need to be seen, and it is a full time job. With more and more posts, entries and pages being created on the internet, as well as new websites popping up everyday … how do you get “seen”. The simple truth is you need to be visible on places that ARE seen and then you can increase your product reputation. This can easily be done using Social Networks. Let me explain:

Let’s take Facebook for example. Facebook is a website that is used by a lot of people (maybe too many), but it is also seen as a website with a high reputation because of so many people using the tool (with google this is called Page Rank, Bing and Yahoo it’s called Relevance, and Alexia it’s Rank). If you had a page on Facebook that linked to your website that would be a good thing to help increase your listings as a valuable site.

So the first thing you should do is create a page on Facebook that can point to your website. But the same works for other websites. The more you are connected out in the cyber world the higher in reputation your website can become. You do have to be careful. There are websites that can ruin your reputation so make sure you check which websites are High enough to change how you are viewed.

So what does this mean? It means instead of hosting a photo gallery on your website … host it on Flickr and embed your gallery on your website. If you are hosting a blog on your website, submit your blog to social sites (like Technorati, or BlogCatalog) and increase your visibility. Use Social Broadcasting tools (like Twitter or FriendFeed) to help get the word out about your new posts. Using interactions like that will help grow your exposure on the internet and increase your SEO.

So what is your 10 minute tip for the day? Simple … start looking at your website and see what you can do to connect with other “Social Websites” that have an increased reputation. To make it easy on yourself don’t tackle more than one site in a 10 minute session. Take a look at Facebook, or LinkedIn, or Twitter and create a business account which will connect to your business. Use the tools available to you to grow your business.

There are more SEO tricks than just connection, but it is a strong trick to understand and utilize. There are keyword tactics and PPC (pay-per-click) strategies you can incorporate. But I guarantee if you follow the simple rule of connecting to great reputation sites your site will increase in rank. It’s simple and easy and works. It just takes time, but if you can spare 10 minutes … it’s all you really need.

Quick Tip: Improve Internet Explorer Downloads

2010-05-24T21:53:00+00:00

So my assistant was getting really frustrated with downloads using IE. I was having something similar .... a couple years back ... when I stumbled upon this little ~~Hack~~ Trick to improve the downloads in Internet Explorer. NOTE: You will not be a Hacker after this little Tip, but it does take a little skill to implement.

This trick requires you to add (or change) Windows Registry Settings. A quick thing about Windows Registry ... BE CAREFUL!!! You can cause quite a bit of "system funkiness" when you start changing things "willy-nilly" in the Windows Registry. If you are not familiar with Registry Settings then please JUST FOLLOW THESE STEPS. If you are familiar then ... You know what to do.

Here are the steps:

Open the Windows Registry Editor:
1. Press <Windows Key> + <R>
2. type "regedit"
3. Hit <Enter>
Open to "Internet Settings Registry Key:
1. Expand HIKEY_CURRENT_USER
2. Expand Software
3. Expand Microsoft
4. Expand Windows
5. Expand CurrentVersion
6. Select Internet Settings NOTE: You do not need to expand the Internet Settings folder (key). These TWO entries exist in this key.
With Internet Settings selected:
1. Add New Value (MaxConnectionsPerServer):
  1. Click Edit from Menu
  2. Select New option list
  3. Select DWORD Value option
  4. With new value highlighted change name to MaxConnectionsPerServer NOTE: Capitalize this word exactly. I suggest cut and paste.
  5. Hit <Enter> to save the entry
  6. Double-click on the new entry to edit the value
  7. Change the new Value (0) to 8 NOTE: Depending on the Version of IE and Operating System the default value for IE is 2, 4, or 6. If you are running at Cable or higher speeds setting this value to 8 will do great. Only set to a higher number if your internet speed is greater than Cable throughput.
2. Add New Value (MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server):
  1. Follow above steps 1 - 3
  2. With new value highlighted change name to MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server
  3. Hit <Enter> to save entry
  4. Change the new Value (0) to 4
Close Registry Editor and Restart Computer

Ok, so what did you do? Well ... first you increased the number of open connections to most web servers from 4 to 8 connections. This allows you to open more "Save As" windows and download dialogs. You also opened old web servers (those that use the HTTP1.0 Protocol) to have 4 connections instead of 2. This should give you the ability to download more things at any given time. This should also allow better browser experience when using Internet Explorer and other Microsoft Web Components.

Like I said before ... be careful with the Registry Editor in Windows. You can do a lot of things in there to cause problems for your computer. But as long as you follow some good technical people you shouldn't have a problem making your machine run like a champ.

Enoch

P.S. By the way ... there are settings in FireFox, Chrome and Opera as well to increase the speed of your browser experience. Each is stored in a settings file and not the registry. But those settings are for another time and trick.

Using a Photo Gallery to Show Your World–Photosynth.net

2010-05-20T05:03:00+00:00

Most people in this day and age are using digital photography. The world of finding just the right picture to make your statement has gone the way of the do-do. With digital photography we can snap a photo anytime we want and delete anytime we want. As a business owner this is great because we can capture events, products, and moments our business uses to display we are more than a brick-and-motor entity … we are REAL people.

Now there are a number of great photo gallery websites out there many people use: Flickr, PhotoBucket, Picasa, just to name a few. And with each of these online photo repositories you can create galleries and showcases that your company can use on it’s website. This is a great way to establish your brand in the social sphere without using your server space. It is also great for SEO, but I’ll use that for another blog post topic of discussion.

However, I don’t want to talk about the static “photo gallery” but I want to share a thought on spatial photo galleries. This came about because of surfing on a little website created by Microsoft Research Labs called Photosynth. Photosynth is an entirely new way to think about your online galleries. The best example is to showcase the online Notre Dame gallery.

This demo showcases what a Photosynth gallery can do. Not only do you see the one picture that is taken, but now your photos are projected within a 3D space which can be maneuvered through. Imagine having your storefront, business or consulting gig showcased in a traversable 3D space. Think of what your customers could expect to see if they were able to move about your business and see what it is that you really do. Imagine placing in your customer’s minds the experience of walking through your doors before they ever move in that direction.

The best part is all you have to do is take the photos. The Photosynth system takes care of the rest. As long as there are points of reference for the tool to find in common with the photos PhotoSynth will make the connections. So you take a couple hundred photos around your showcase and let the tool do the rest for you. And notice the granularity and detail you can create. Not only do you create a panoramic view, but you can zoom into detail and showcase items that are hard to see and PhotoSynth will create the zoom in detail for you. Not a bad tool … plus you can embed it into your website.

So what is your 10 minute tip of the day? Take your digital camera and start snapping photos that you think would be great to merge together. Maybe it’s the outside of your building, Maybe it’s the inside of your office. Maybe it’s a detailed spec of your products or brands that you sell. Then take your Microsoft Live Account that you created (if you don’t have it see Signing Up for the Big 3), create a PhotoSynth account and upload your files. Once that is done you can embed your new gallery into your website and have something pretty cool to show people.

Once you have that done make sure to tell people to check out your new tool to play with on your website. Not only is it fun, but it will help increase your traffic … and that’s pretty cool.

Quick Tip: Get More Blog Traffic Using Technorati

2010-05-18T17:31:00+00:00

People are always asking me "How do I get more followers to my blog?" Well the answer is simple, but not so easy to implement. Put your blog in places where people can see it. One of my favorite places is Technorati.

Technorati is a blog aggregation website delivering the power of a large blogging community to a user dashboard. The process is simple to follow to get your blog up and running.

1. Create a Technorati Account. Standard Username and Password stuff

2. Enter your blog url in the "Claim a Blog" text box

3. Hit Submit and wait for Technorati Email

4. The Technorati Email will tell you about a "Claim Code" you will need to enter into a blog entry. This is to verify you are the blog owner. Just do this:

1. Create a blog entry with the "Claim Code" in the entry

2. Your entry may look like this: G5H8S73F95VU

5. Sit back and let Technorati do it's magic!

Ok, so maybe you're not going to grow to 1000 new readers overnight, but at least your in a position for more people to know you exist. Getting people to know about your blog is key to growing readership. You have to position your blog in the right arenas ... and being on Technorati helps. After you have a starting position then we can start addressing optimization.

Facebook Privacy Settings – Stardate 5.14.2010

2010-05-14T21:55:00+00:00

So there has been a lot of buzz about Facebook and the privacy options happening as of late. I figured I would help clear some confusion with what is happening and hopefully ease your worried mind. In the words of Daniel Tosh … “Don’t worry baby birds … I’ll feed you!”

So first question: Where are the Facebook privacy settings? Well not in an easy place to find them but this link http://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy should take you there. Of course … if it doesn’t then the other quick way is to:

Login to Facebook
Go to your Profile
Click on Edit Profile Settings
Read the Sidebar on Left and see “Privacy Settings” link in description box

- or -

Login to Facebook
Click “Account” dropdown in top right corner of screen
Click on “Privacy Settings”

Nothing like making things obvious and easy for people to use. So then you are sent to five links that have different options. Let’s see if I can help you understand what is going on here. Please remember that this is only good as of May 14th, 2010. Facebook changes things often so I’m not sure what will happen tomorrow, but this is accurate as of this day!

Personal Information and Posts

Ok. So the first thing to note is the myriad of Drop Down offerings that are listed here. One thing to mention here, even though you can’t get to the privacy settings quickly it is impressive the amount of options you do have. Each of these drop down options gives the following dropdown values:

Everyone – Publicly visible by everyone on the internet. This means that you do not have to be logged into Facebook to see this information. Not a bad option if you are wanting to expose your information to as many people as you possibly can. For instance, if you want people to know you exist and have another point of connection by a high ranked website (SEO?) it’s not bad to expose.
Friends of Friends – This lets you be seen by your friend’s friends. If you are connecting to people through 6 degrees of connectivity this is a good option to keep in mind. So you know someone and they know someone you want to know. This option allows you to see them and connect to them. For some information this may not be good.
Only Friends – Only those people who are your friends can see the information. So only those people that you have connected with are allowed to participate, view, interact … whatever with your content.
Customize – Now here is where some cool interactions are available. When you select this option a dialogue box will appear that gives you the option to filter and only showcase content to specific people. You can display the content to specific people or block specific people from seeing your content. It can be pretty powerful if you are willing to put the time into the configuration.

Each option in the Personal Information and Posts pertains to your public profile and information entered. A couple of things to note in this screen.

First, Photo Albums. Each photo album has it’s own configuration. So when you click on Edit Settings you will be taken to another page to set your photo albums individually. Second, Allow friends to post on my Wall. This option is just a check box instead of a drop down. By checking this option it means you don’t want people to put anything on your wall. Not really “social” but I understand why people want to do it.

Once you are finished configuring your page you can see how it looks to other people by clicking on the Preview My Profile … button in the top right corner of the screen. This will display your profile with an additional box displayed.

This displays your profile as the public “non-friend” sees your profile. The tool bar will let you see how friends you have will see your information. Just enter in a name of someone and your profile page will change displaying how they see your information. Not bad for a preview of information.

Contact Information

This section pertains to just the connection points that you have included in your Contact Information: Email Addresses, Websites, Current Addresses, Phone Number and other items. It is usually a good idea to only display to the public information that you have public in other places. I’m a big believer in having certain ways for people to contact me. I don’t want everyone to have my mobile number, just those people I trust. I don’t want everyone to have all of my email addresses unless I want you to connect with me that way. Of course there are a couple of things here that should be noted for SEO and Social Connectivity thoughts:

Website – Listing your website to be public is not a bad option to have. This will let Search Engines find another link to your business through a high ranked website.
Add me as a friend – If you are trying to connect to people for business or socially then letting people “add you as a friend” is important. The only other way would be for you to add them instead of them adding you. This makes you be more proactive. Not a horrible thing, but it does mean you control how social you are instead of letting anyone who wants to connect with you control the social level.
Send me a message – Giving people a way they can communicate with you is important. Letting anyone send you a message gives the ability for communication through additional means. This gives anyone the potential to contact you regardless of social connection.

Once again you can preview the profile information or just go Back to Privacy once you have finished.

Friends, Tags and Connections

Now this is where things get interesting for Facebook. Letting people see your friends and family information. This section is primarily about connecting with people and using this information to let people find you. Education and Work, Activities, Interests, and Things I Like are all used to gather information for “Facebook Ads'” and “Friend Suggestions”. When you do a search it is this information that Facebook uses to help people find you. Let’s talk about some of these settings to understand a little further:

Friends – This is the ability to view your friends and who you are connected. This changes the ability of you being a friend “hub” to others when you limit this functionality. So when you tag someone in a photo and you have this view limited those tags will not be seen by others unless they are on your approved list.
Family – a little while ago Facebook allowed you to list “Family” members in your profile. I was hoping that meant you saw more of their information in your stream, but alas … that is not true. It does put them in your “See more” stream but does not expedite their information to your stream.
Relationships – This displays the relationship status, person in the relationship and anniversary if that is included. Thing to note … relationship status tell a lot of people about what’s going on in your world, good or bad. I have seen a lot of good and bad come from an “engaged” status and a “single” status.
Photos and Videos of Me – These are photos and videos that have been tagged with you. How is that tag displayed to people. Some people don’t want their images connected to their profiles. When you change this settings it will change how your tag is displayed. It will not remove your name from the photo or video, but it will change your name to a link so people can connect.
Current City – The name of the city you are currently living. This has change to be a “Fan Page” instead of just a listing. This also helps with your “suggested connections” by showcasing people who live in the same city and have similar friends higher in your “suggested” listings.
Hometown – Where you grew up, but applies some of the same rules as “Current City”.

Remember this is section is about how people can connect with you. Make sure you keep that in mind as you alter these connectivity settings.

Applications and Websites

So this section is the one that has caused the most uproar as of late. It is important to note that Facebook is a HUGE repository of information. A LOT of people are using Facebook on a daily basis adding lots of information about the “state” of the internet. So Facebook came up with a simple idea: Why have people incorporate similar data on other websites? We can be the repository of that information to make the Internet experience extremely comprehensive and powerful. However, a lot of people feel the information they place in one location should not be accessible to other locations. I have some problems with this logic, but that’s for another post. Right now … I want to give you the comprehensive overview. So let’s break down this information.

What you share – This is a link to http://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy&section=applications&field=learn which explains what Facebook is doing when you allow an application to interact with your account. It is important to understand any application you use, desktop (like Digsby), website (like Twitter) or Facebook App (like NetworkedBlogs), has certain privileges and accessibility to your information. Each application runs like you, so all the settings you changed does not affect the application accessibility. Each application will ask permission to post information to your wall and ask permission to update your status, but retrieving the information … that is open because each application runs JUST LIKE YOU! Important to note.
What your friends can share about you – This is an important link because it sends you to another page that shows what your friends can show about you. It is important to understand that “friends can share about you” translates to “Friends Applications”. Because an application runs as YOU and you have certain permissions to view friends information then the applications also have permissions to view your friends information. This screen will allow or limit what an application can share. When you see this for the first time it looks a little daunting. Just make sure you review the information and understand this is how the application shares your information.
Blocked Applications – These are applications that you do not want to have access to your information. REMEMBER: Not all Facebook developers maintain the same level of integrity. Some applications are malicious and should be blocked. Make sure when you allow an application to run on your system that you trust the application. DON’T ACCEPT EVERY APPLICATION INVITATION. Be selective
Ignore Application Invites – This page will give you the option to enter in an individual name so you no longer receive application invites from that person. So if you are getting invitations from people that you do not want, put their name in this box and you can stop all that invitation nonsense. This was important when most Facebook applications required 20 people to be invited before you could use the application. Glad those days are behind us.
Activity on Applications and Games Dashboards – This will showcase your “Wall Activities” to people you select. When an application posts to your wall you can have that displayed to different levels of people. This can also be removed by not giving the application access to post to your wall.
Instant Personalization Pilot Program – This little checkbox option is what has made so many people upset. When you click on this link it gives you a description page with one check box. Thus allowing external websites to use your Facebook information to help you with their user experience. However, a lot of people think this means they are stealing your precious private information for their own uses … which they are, but to give you what you want more accurately. Let’s give a simple example:
- Pandora, an internet radio network that lets you listen to new and exciting music opportunities gives you information based on your musical preferences.
- You use Facebook and have entered all your musical preferences by clicking on what you like.
- Pandora takes that information you’ve entered in Facebook and helps you discover new music to give you a better more complete experience. It also allows you to only enter information in one place instead of entering it in multiple locations.

So a lot of people have gotten upset because of the Instant Personalization Pilot Program. Is it because Facebook is trying to take over the Internet? Well … people aren’t too upset that Google is doing that, but when you include the term “Privacy” then that causes the uproar of individuals. I like to think of it as Internet Collaboration, but once again I go back to my original premise … Not All Developers have the same integrity. It would be nice to include on each website the same alert they have when creating a Facebook Application. “Would you like to connect to Facebook to get a higher user experience"?” That one simple option would have saved SO MUCH PAIN!!!!

Search

This next section is how you are exposed in searches on Facebook. This is important to understand depending on how you use Facebook for business or personal use. Let’s talk about these two options:

Facebook Search Results – This option is to see if your information is discovered in “Search Results” through Facebook. So if people are searching for your name, people with similar interests, professionals, jobs, etc. this option displays whether or not you will be displayed. If you are using Facebook for personal use only you may not want to be displayed in the search results. However, if you are using it as a point of connection you may want to be displayed through these results.
- Public Search Results – This will create a public profile that is exposed to Non-Facebook users. This allows Search Engines and other bots to find your information without logging into Facebook. Now if you have exposed the right information from above this is not a horrible thing to have available. Remember, only use the “Everybody” option if you want “EVERYBODY” to see your information. If you limit the views and exposure then having this option “checked” is a good thing that can build credibility for SEO. Facebook is currently one of a handful of websites that are ranked 10 on Google Rankings. Using your profile to help facilitate the SEO rankings can be very positive. However, you should only use this exposure if your other settings are correctly optimized.

Remember keeping the idea of exposure to the purpose you are using a tool. If you are connecting for personal then you may not want to have that exposure. If you are using it for business then you may want to be more visible. It depends on your strategy.

Block List

It is important to note you can define people you DO NOT WANT TO ACCESS YOUR INFORMATION. The Block list will not let that person see any content about you at all. You become completely invisible. Almost as if you do not have a Facebook profile at all … almost. Because Facebook has an open application API some developers do not follow all the guidelines they should. So even though you are blocked on all of “Facebook” functionality you may still see the person through similar applications. REMEMBER: Just because it is on an application it doesn’t mean the functionality follows the rules of the application. Applications are not all developed by Facebook but mostly third party developers. Some are credible while others … well … just be careful.

Additional Settings – Facebook Ads

So there are some additional “Privacy” settings that are not displayed in the “Privacy Settings” page. Why? Because it just doesn’t make sense.

The first is the “Facebook Ads information option. This can be found at http://www.facebook.com/editaccount.php?ads or by finding the “Account Settings” option under the “Account” dropdown in the top right corner of the Facebook mastiff bar. There are two options here worth noting.

The dropdown options are Only my friends and No one. A lot simpler than previously given on the dropdowns before. Let’s look at these options quickly, One at the top and one at the bottom:

Allow ads on platform pages to show my information to – Currently this setting doesn’t do anything except give you insight to the future of Facebook. If Facebook ads were able to run on third party applications this setting would govern that usage. It might be a smart thing to set this to No one just incase Facebook decides to activate it without your knowledge.
Show my social actions in Facebook ads to - This tells your friends that you liked an ad or have decided to become a fan of a page. If you do not want your friends to know about this interaction then you might want to disable this function. It is important to NOTE this only controls Facebook Ads (those banners on the sidebar) and not ads that display on Application Pages.

Additional Settings – Application Settings

With every application, Facebook, Desktop or Web, permissions are given to access the ability to Post information to your profile. These settings are located on the Application Settings Page: http://www.facebook.com/editapps.php. Another way to find this information is to Click on “Account” in the top right corner and click “Application Settings”.

When you click on the settings tab you will get a list of all the recently used applications you have on Facebook. These are not all the applications you have installed. To get that you have to select from the dropdown box “Added to Profile”. Either way with each application you have two options “Edit Settings” or “Profile”. If you select Profile then you will be taken to your profile page for that application. Let’s focus on Edit Settings.

The Bookmark tab has only one option: a checkbox “Add Bookmark”. This will place the application in your icon tray on the bottom of your Facebook toolbar. The Additional Permissions tab has much more interesting information.

Access my News Feed & Wall – This retrieves information from your News Feed and Wall to use in the application. This is not publishing just retrieving.
Access my data when I’m not using the application – This is a background process that lets the application pull information from Facebook when you are not using the application. This means that you do not have to be logged into Facebook to get your information in the application. Why would you let this occur? So that an application can get information and give you the most comprehensive Facebook experience without you always needing to be logged into Facebook.
Publish content to my Wall – This gives the application the ability to add Content stories to your Facebook wall.

Each application has these settings. So in order to maintain the highest level of control within each application you will need to check each application you have installed to see how these settings are enabled. It’s great to have that granularity of privacy, but it would be nice to have an overriding “Do this” function if you are running 100’s of applications. When you’re using that many it just becomes a nightmare to maintain.

Final Thoughts

So what does this all mean? Well for your 10 minute tip of the day you should open Facebook and review the privacy settings you currently have. Hopefully after reading this post you understand them a little better.

I wish I could tell you that these settings are going to stay the same forever, but with any web application changes are made all the time without the end user knowing about them. All I can do is promise if something does happen that I’ll let all you “Baby Birds” know about it.

Quick Tip: Get Your Events in Your Clients Outlook

2010-05-10T22:10:07+00:00

This little trick is something that is showcased on the official "Office 2010 and Sharepoint 2010 Launch" happening this month (May 12th @ 9:00). Getting people to your event by having it appear on their calendar with a simple click.

Most business owners are using a productivity suite, like Microsoft Office, to help manage daily activities and appointments. To help them know about your events make it known how to get to the event by making it a simple click for them to access. Here is an example:

This Wednesday, @ 11:30AM to 12:45 PM I am hosting another Lunch With Enoch event. Now I can send you an email with all the information and hopefully have you enter it into your calendar so you can join us. Or ... I can have you click on a link and have it included in your Outlook automatically.

Which is more effective? Which is Easier? Which will make you join this event? Hopefully by clicking on the link and being included in your calendar you will remember not to miss this great event. (By the way we're talking about Blog Distribution if you're interested in attending) Click Here for more information

So how do you do this trick? It's quite simple. Just follow these simple steps:

Create the event in your Outlook Calendar or other Calendar System
Save the Event by using the Save As feature and save it as an "iCal" or "Internet Calendar" format
Upload the File to your Web Server for your website
Start linking to that new URL in your marketing materials

Now you can use this as a simple URL like other things on your website. Create a catchy image. Put it in a simple email. Entice your audience to store your event with a simple click instead of them creating the event. It makes it simple and easy for them to get the information you are sending. It's not important to just send the information ... it's also important to make it easy for people to use. And nothing is as simple as a big button right?

Your Ideas are Revolutionary – Capture Them

2010-05-07T18:46:00+00:00

In one of my original posts Blogging in 10 minutes I mention a strategy to keep blogging simple by creating a list of topics you are interested in writing. It is a quick post about a system which can help any blogger, beginner or advanced, generate ideas and not fall upon the dreaded writer’s block which happens so often with people.

Why is this important? Because in using any system (goals, writing, diet, etc) a plan of attack is important, but tools to implement that plan is just as important. This is the trick behind accomplishing anything in life. Having a plan, utilizing tools to accomplish the plan and then the will power to stick to the plan. And it is the utilizing of these three actions, which grow on each other, that will ultimately give you success. Can you have will power without tools? Sure, but what are you implementing your will power towards? Can you have tools without a plan? Of course, but what good are the tools if you don’t know what you want to accomplish? No … these items definitely build on each other.

I can’t talk about plans (since I’m not sure exactly what you’re trying to accomplish), nor can I address willpower (since I may or may not know who you are), but I can address tools (since this is my specialty). Like I mentioned before … is it good to talk about tools without a plan? Probably not completely since different plans will provide different tools to accomplish the end goals. However, there are certain tools to help with idea capturing (and planning) that people should invest.

An Idea Taking Device – This can be a notepad and pen or as complex as a dictation machine. I like digital recorders. I have an Olympus digital recorder that allows me to capture interviews, meetings and inner thoughts. I also use notepad a lot to scribble down ideas and thoughts. Recently I’ve started using Sticky Notes on Windows 7. Problem is I take too many notes and my screen get’s cluttered too easily so I’ve resorted back to notepad and my digital recorder. Whatever you choose make sure you have something … and more importantly make sure it is only one or two somethings. DO NOT OVERDO INPUT DEVICES or else it can be daunting trying to retrieve the ideas.
Set Time each day to Retrieve Ideas – This is extremely important. Too often we will take notes, write them down and forget about them. Take the time EACH DAY to retrieve your thoughts. If you do this often you will never get into the situation of the overly cluttered sticky note situation that I find myself currently. But more importantly … you will understand what ideas are good and what are bad. Which ones need following up and which ones need throwing away. There are often many things I write down which are pure gold and look at them later and think … “Why did I ever write that?”
Categorize Your Ideas – Make sure when you retrieve that you categorize what those thoughts were. Create a system for yourself which you’ll understand. Some categories may require extra action. Other categories may just be thoughts to contemplate. It’s ok to have a “junk” category or a “random silliness” category. Look at your thoughts and idea and place them in the right bins so you can retrieve them and do something. You might surprise yourself by having the next best idea come from your “random thought” category.
Create action items and set plans – Turn your ideas (the ones that make sense) into actionable items. Then schedule moments to implement those actions. Some moments may be in places where you are already doing something (Exercise is a great place to read a book). Other moments you may need to schedule independently of other moments (Taking wife to Movies). Whatever it is make sure you create the action items and then implement.

So what’s your 10 minute tip? Take 10 minutes and start using this program … or another program … to capture your ideas. Get an idea taking device, set the time to retrieve, categorize, then create actions. Become more proficient at realizing your ideas and thoughts. Don’t let them get misplaced, mislabeled or misaddressed by keeping them in the universal ether that surrounds us. Make them tangible and (by making them tangible and real) make them actionable.

Once all this is done, you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish. And amazingly what can be accomplished in a moniker of time. This process sounds extensive and it may be on some days, but I guarantee with practice comes proficiency. It may take longer in the first stages of your development, but it does get easier. Maybe it starts with a 1/2 hour of retrieval and moves to 20 minutes or 10 minutes. Maybe it starts with 10 minutes and moves to 30 minutes. Maybe it is a solo process that migrates to a social process with a spouse or significant other. Maybe it is a holy individual process. You decide.

All I know is when you discover you have important ideas to say you will discover what we all know … You are important.

Quick Tip: Understand the Office Ribbon (in style)

2010-05-03T19:44:00+00:00

Honored "Get Enoch" friend, Enoch,

So with the official "Office 2010 and Sharepoint 2010 Launch" happening this month (May 12th @ 9:00). I thought I would send a quick tip out to help you understand the Office Ribbon better.

Let's face it. If you are like me and used to the menu system that has existed in all Microsoft products since Windows 1.0 (I have a copy if you want to see), then when you saw the Office 2007 Ribbon you threw your hands up and said something like "What is going on?!?!" Well Microsoft heard your cries of pain and did something about it ... for Office 2010. (Three years too late?)

On the Office 2010 site you can find this article "Learn where menu and toolbar commands are in Office 2010" that gives a "Silverlight" demonstration as to where your commands in 2003 map to 2010. Want to know where your favorite menu items went to? Just click on the Office 2003 interface and it will magically flip to Office 2010 and show you. Finally a little bit of understanding into where my favorite commands disappeared.

Remember that you can still download the Office 2010 Beta now, but once May 12th happens ... well ... then you're gonna have to buy it. Sorry.

Unless of course you know a Microsoft Partner that could swing you a discount. :) <wink, wink>

The Importance of Image

2010-04-30T17:18:00+00:00

Branding is important for any company. How does your company fair in the outlook of your clients? What comes to mind when you say your name? When someone says your name … what comes to mind? I have a great friend named Howard Fullmer, from TowCaddy, who has an impressive presentation about branding and how it goes far beyond a logo. Or even more importantly, how your logo IS NOT YOUR BRAND.

Old Twitter
Photo

From a group
photo shoot for
WABcon

photo from friend
a little more
professional

Current Headshot

Of course you branding experts out there understand this principle far better than I. However, the more I connect with professionals the more I notice we don’t understand this concept as well as we should. Case in point … profile photos.

I find it extremely interesting more “Business Professionals” do not use Profile Photos. There is something about putting a photo of you “online”. Possibly it is the idea of privacy, or possibly it is the uncomfortable notion of not taking a good picture, but not as many business professionals use photos in their profiles. Sure, put people on a social network like Facebook and people have photos of family activities and other candid things, but when it comes to being professional … somehow the image is lost.

I do a lot of volunteer work at the local LDS Employment Resource Center talking to potential job opportunists (a nicer way of saying job seeker) about how to use LinkedIn to aid them in their job searching. One of the first things I tell them is to make sure they upload a picture on their profile. This is important for a couple of reasons:

First, a picture helps define reality. Text is good and lets a reader shape possibilities in their mind, but a picture will solidify the mind’s eye. Think about J.R.R. Tolken’s Lord of the Rings. Millions of people loved the books. It evoked emotions, ideas and wonderful landscapes that could only be captured in their mind. When Peter Jackson directed his movies some fans were upset by the images because it didn’t live up to the impressions in their head while others were excited because it came awfully close. The trick here is to realize, even if you loved or hated it, the images solidified the reality. We know Middle Earth exists because we saw the images on the screen.

Second, images give context to personality. Remember a picture is worth a 1000 words, and one image can speak volumes about who you are. Your personality can shine forth from the right image. Are you an uptight individual? Are you creative? Are you happy in your life? The right image can capture positive and negative messages about you.

I have a HUGE problem with people “dressing for success” when most people don’t understand what “success” means. There is something to be said about positivity and happiness in the world. Just because you don an outfit it doesn’t mean you are the best person for that outfit. Make sure when capturing yourself in a photo that it says the right thing about you. Let other people critique the photo, but most importantly at the end of the day … let yourself ring true.

And Finally, Images give people something to hold onto. When a person meets you for the first time, or wants to meet you, or composes an idea in their head that you are a person to meet, then the image will give them a first glimpse of what to expect. Words help fill in the picture gaps, but the image itself … that gives the context of who you are.

So here is your tip for this week … create an image for yourself. If you’re on a tight budget get a co-worker, friend or spouse to take a snapshot. Make it something you’re excited about … it doesn’t have to be a headshot, but it should showcase you. If you have a little funds … find a professional photographer to take your picture.

Then once you have the image … use it. Put it on your Outlook vCard. Upload it to your LinkedIn profile and other Social Community profiles. Let people see you and connect with you on a more intimate and personal level. That’s what networking is about.

And remember … to change your photo occasionally. It’s good to let yourself ring through as often as you can. People want to attach themselves with real individuals … not just text. Plus, remember you are your brand. A very important part of your brand. Ring true and let people know you for you! It is important.

Quick Tip: Jump to Any Application without the mouse

2010-04-26T19:53:00+00:00

Most people have heard of <Alt> + <Tab> to switch between applications. If not then welcome to the first part of this tip. By utilizing this finger technique to move between applications you can speed up productivity by not needing to move to the mouse. A quick maneuver of this trick will jump you between two applications with relative ease. However, keeping the <Alt> button down will let you keep the application list open so you can cycle through your open applications. Hitting <Tab> repeatedly will select the application you would like to open.

But how do you go back? You have 20 apps open and you don't want to cycle through them all by hitting <Tab> repeatedly. Simple. Hold down the <Shift> key while you hit <Tab> and you will move backwards through the listing.

But the photo is too small to see ... can I make it bigger? Of Course ... sort of. This trick only works if you are on Windows Vista or Windows 7 ... and have the Aero Theme enabled (usually by default). By holding down the <Windows> key and <Tab> you will bring up a bigger screen shot that floats. This effect requires bigger video card and RAM ... so if you have a slower machine you may not see it, but it was a feature in Windows Vista that got a lot of attention. I think it's silly compared to <Alt> + <Tab>, but it does give a larger snapshot.

Is there a way to cycle through without having to hold down <Alt> or <Windows> keys? Yup! For those of you who don't want to hold a key and cycle through you can hold down the <Ctrl> Key at the beginning of either function and it will make the application cycle "Sticky". Then you can move to your window using the arrow keys and hit <Enter> to open the app you want. In Windows 7 this will let you see the application before you select it.

Happy Jumping to your applications!

Rethinking Social Media Marketing Productivity

2010-04-24T03:20:00+00:00

One of the questions repeatedly asked me is “How do you quantify Social Media?” Depending on the different people you talk to the power of social media is the ability to connect to multiple streams of people. Other people will say the power of social media is instant communication to your intended audiences.

I have spent a number of hours listening to different people about why you should use, what is happening if you don’t use and how to use the offerings in the world. I have seen articles from people saying “why you can’t measure all social media” and “Integrating Social Media with Offline Marketing”. Articles written by intelligent people who have powerful insights. Insights unique and different to each individual. I’m sure through your research you can find similar articles and insights from other people that you follow and trust.

The key here is the trust. In both of these articles each contributor talks about how a certain company benefited from actions. One directly and one indirectly. Both authors talked about how they interacted and did business with a company because of something they heard about through social media (one Twitter another Google Wave). Both talked about the power of social media and how it influenced their purchasing decisions. Both make a powerful argument about using the technologies and gaining business from them. However ….

I have a small problem with these articles. There is a brash assumption made by both articles, and also by other social media “experts … your audience understands how the technology is being utilized. Even though social media is becoming a larger part of our lives, most people don’t understand what is happening with the technology to fully utilize its potential. Is Twitter about communication? Is Facebook about interaction? Is Google about searching? To best utilize these tools for your business it is important to understand one simple concept: Know how your audience uses a tool to best capture how to use it.

Videos are great, but only if your audience knows they’re out there. If BlendTec created Will It Blend without telling anyone, would it have been as popular? Well if no one saw it …

Twitter is great, but if your audience doesn’t know how you use it then will you get business from it? Does your audience actively listen to you or are they just letting the stream of information wash over them and don’t care about interactions? Active communication is only as powerful as the parties who actively communicate. If people are not using it in that fashion then will it work for you?

I have done a lot of consulting on this concept and strategy. I always say it is important in presentations to know the two sides: Presenting to the Audience and How the Audience Infers the Information. It is important for people to understand how you use the technology so they know what to expect. I liken it to what Tommy Lee Jones says to Will Smith in Men In Black, “A Person is Smart. People are stupid.” This is important in two ways:

It gives your audience an understand of what you are doing
It allows you to measure how you do something – It helps you set the goal

Remember in business: Every action you take should result in some metric you can measure. That’s how you create Return on Investment and increase productivity. If you are using Twitter to communicate, set a goal on how many interactions you want to incur during the week. Incurring means people talking to you, not just you initiating the communication. If you are using Videos to promote a product setting goals to see how many times the video is watched and the conversion that video creates is important. Always make a plan so you know what the interaction outcome can be measured.

So what is your 10 minute tip? Take time to set a strategy of how you will use your marketing. Social media is just a tool. It is a mechanism used to connect information. If you are using it in a marketing capacity then make sure you have a plan that will allow you to capitalize on the information. Setup a metric that can be captured and measured. Set a goal that can achieved. Set a conversion you want to reach. Make a plan of attack to move forward with your marketing and then execute. Realize this 10 minutes will be repeated with each tactic you want to employ. Also make sure you set in your action plan defines a way to capture the metrics you need to measure success. Utilizing social media doesn’t have to feel unsuccessful, but it does require understanding.

So there is research needed for productivity. How do your customers use these tools? How do you want your customers to use these tools? And how do you want to use these tools? Understanding these key components will help you define your strategy. Plus it should make your business more productive at the end of the day. I mean, you should think about these aspects in your other marketing efforts … just because the term “Free” is used doesn’t mean you should stop utilizing productive techniques.

Oh and my final thought … connect with people who are influential in the social media world. Getting them to talk about your products and services will really help. They will be able to get your information to a mass amount of individuals you don’t know. Just be genuine and helpful and don’t ask until they know you. But that’s networking … and that topic is for another post.

Quick Tip: Remember System Maintenance

2010-04-19T19:56:00+00:00

So I've been racking my brain trying to figure out how to best use the "contact list" that has grown over the last little while at Get Enoch. I've decided to offer a weekly quick tip that can help out business decision makers get the most out of the technologies that you use.

This tips will be quick and dirty so you can quickly read and move on with your day. I know you're busy and need to stay working to be productive, but I do want to offer simple help when I can. I am using ConstantContact for my mailing list so feel free to activate or inactivate your accounts, or forward on to friends if they might find this helpful.

Here's the tip:

Take the Evening to Defrag or Scandisk your hard drive.

After days, weeks and months of use on your computer it can be bogged down with disarray and disorganization. If you do not have your computers on a schedule maintenance program ... your system might be a time bomb waiting to explode. By having a maintenance program routinely checking for computer anomalies you will protect yourself against unwarranted hard drive failures and could possibly save that important piece of data you need.

To quickly find Defrag or Scan Disk open "windows Explorer" (<WindowsKey + E> or "My Computer" or <WindowsKey + R> and type explorer or ... you get the picture), right-click on the C Drive and click on the "Tools" Tab. From here you should see Error-Checking, Defragmentation and Back-up.

Before you go to bed at night start a Defragmentation of your hard drive ... even if the analysis says you don't need it. It never hurts to organize. Also schedule an Error Check of your system the next night. This will require a reboot of the computer, but that's ok ... you're going to bed. When you get back in the morning your computer should be running quicker and more happy.

Put this into your routine maintenance schedule at least every two - three weeks. More if you use the hard drive more. Keeping your machine happy and running routine maintenance will allow for fewer "crashes" and keep things running quicker.

I promise future tips and tricks will be much quicker. :)

Use the Power of Applications to Write Your Blogs

2010-04-16T06:22:00+00:00

There is something about web browsers. They are a portal into information. They render views of data and allow manipulation using standard ideas utilized in desktop applications since user input has been included on computers. Each browser renders information differently based upon the rendering engine. And there are as many browsers in the cyber sphere as there are developers creating new ways to render the information.

Each browser has different functionality. Firefox, Internet Explorer, Apple Safari, Opera Browser, and Google Chrome all handle the rendering and functionality of HTML, CSS and Scripting languages differently. Each has their idiosyncrasies and unique traits. Each has security holes and problems. There is no perfect browser …. only people who like using a particular type over another.

This is the reason why I like desktop applications instead of web applications. When developers create websites usually they have a certain browser in mind. ASP.Net developers think about Internet Explorer. Apple guys think about Apple Safari. PHP Developers generally use FireFox or another Mozilla type browser. There is nothing more frustrating than going to a website and not being able to navigate because it has only been certified by one browser. I’ve known many small businesses who have nephews or cousins or brothers who know how to develop websites whose final products only work on one specific browser. If you have something online, please download these browsers and check your site to see if it actually works. That’s a tip I give to you for free

So to get back to my desktop applications. Desktop applications tend to have a certain structure developers follow to create productivity. Granted, they are harder to update, harder to patch fix, and harder to maintain, but … applications give a sense of control. Since I’m not running online it feels like my security is not shared through the collective cyber sphere. Which, if not being sent over a secure line, is shared over the collective cyber sphere. Of course, doing any interaction with the cyber sphere can be intercepted if not sent through a secure line, but an application doesn’t give you that feeling.

But the real reason why I like desktop applications … especially well thought out and developed applications. Keyboard shortcuts. This is something that web applications have recently been starting to incorporate, but there is a flaw with that design. Remember: Web Browsers are portals into rendered information. That portal has keyboard shortcuts. And if you have a browser that allows developers to extend functionality (like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera Browser, Apple Safari and Google Chrome) those extensions may have keyboard shortcuts. So what may be a <ctrl> + <o> keystroke to make a simple action may have stumbled upon a whole slew of different functionality. When you use a desktop application the functionality is contained inside of the application. The nice thing about extensions for applications is generally developers know the keyboard shortcuts and do not “step on” functionality of the application.

This can be troublesome when you are creating a blog post because most blog engines exist in the browser world. But if you are using a blogging system that uses a standard blogging API (ie blogger.com) you can use an application to help create a blog post. One application I like to use is Windows Live Writer (but I also like Microsoft Word). However, if you are looking for a FREE option then Windows Live Writer is the way to go.

The nice thing about Windows Live Writer is it is a small footprint on your machine, but it is also a simple application to use. It looks just like a document editor. So you think and type. It provides the red squiggly lines for misspelling, but also allows you to control layout of images, placement of objects and even “add-in” functionality to increase the blogging experience. And … it plugs into many different blogging engines that are used around the internet: TypePad, WordPress, Blogger.com and other blog engines that use the MetaBlog API. It has a quick mechanism to create categories, tags, slugs and previews. And, just like in standard Microsoft fashion it has a number of extensions you can download at http://gallary.live.com. Plug-ins to Del.ico.us, Digg.com, Facebook, Flickr, and other social networks across the internet.

This makes it a great little tool to write posts and so you do not have to keep a browser open. And … and this is important … and you can create a post, save it without publishing (which you can do on most web applications) and store it on your hard drive. This allows you to recall your post without being connected to the internet. This means you can create posts, store them for editing, and ultimately let you publish whenever you decide instead of feeling like you need to push that “submit” button on the web page. Finally a tool that you can use to make your blog posts easier on you!

So your 10 minute tip, if you haven’t figured it out already. Download the Windows Live Writer and install it on your computer. Then plug it into your blog. Then … start writing your next post. Of course if you need a refresher on how to create posts in 10 minutes you can see my Blogging in 10 minutes it can be done post. If you are using a tool like Windows Live Writer, it makes this process incredibly simple. It only takes 10 minutes to setup and start using. It really is that simple.

Once you start using this cool tool you will start making posts faster and easier than you ever thought. Plus once you start to understand some of the keyboard shortcuts … it will really start making your blogs quicker. It’s the reason why I use the tool for all my blogs. It just makes it so simple.

Previewing the Future of Internet Explorer

2010-04-10T05:59:00+00:00

Normally when Microsoft releases a new Internet Explorer it becomes one of those things that consumes your old browser and makes life difficult to have multiple environments. I guess they have finally learned their lesson because Internet Explorer 9 preview is self contained and doesn’t remove anything from your system.

Why does this matter? Well there is a lot of press around the new HTML 5 and the possibilities it contains. For most business people it doesn’t mean a thing, until you realize what it can offer you for your business. Looking at the Internet Explorer 9 preview will help you see what type of features and functions you can implement on your website.

Here is the trick behind new technology. Most people don’t understand it when it comes out. Technology nuts, developers and the people who do tinker and play will understand, but the majority of the world doesn’t care. They just want things to work. But, as I have mentioned repeatedly in my Social Interneting presentation, it is important to understand technology even if it is just a surface, cursory glance.

So a quick 10 minute tip for today. Download the Internet Explorer 9 preview and play around with it. Take a look at the new features and think about how your business websites might utilize some of the new technologies. Most people work with standard content managers like Wordpress, Droopal, or TypePad, so you don’t really have to worry too much about this. But for those of you who host your own websites and have developers … seeing the future of the web is something to be aware.

Remember: Information is important to know. To increase productivity and revenues for your business it is important to see what is available for you to utilize. But do your due diligence. Don’t just jump into something because someone tells you it is important. See if it will work for your strategy and then implement. Think about GI Joe … Knowing is half the battle. The other half is strategy and implementation. Go Joe!!

Be an April Fool for One Day More

2010-04-03T05:46:00+00:00

So yesterday was April 1st, meaning a lot of web jokes permeated the cyber waves. Jokes are good and fine, but understand … we’re in business which means we need to be productive. We really should be paying attention to jokes.

This is why I NEVER look at non-productive websites during April 1st. Everything is about productivity. So I never look at things like:

Think Geek – April Fool’s day products
Google – A different kind of company, a different kind of name
YouTube – YouTube goes Text Only
Video Game Jokes

So my 10 minute tip for you this day? Just because I’m always productive doesn’t mean you should be. Take 10 minutes and have a break. Find something funny and laugh a little for a day. And if you find some other jokes across the net … leave them here so other people do not have to be unproductive.

Remember it’s good to have fun occasionally. And 10 minutes is a good time to have a little fun. No more though … stay productive.

Writing Without Typing for FREE

2010-03-27T03:17:00+00:00

There are a lot of people who want to write, but have a hard time typing. With Windows Vista or Windows 7 there are simple ways to do this without purchasing expensive software. There has always been Dragon Natural Speech from Nuance, which is a great application, but retails around $199 and if you are on a budget then it might be a little out of your price range. However … it doesn’t mean that you are out of the Speech Recognition world completely.

With Microsoft newer versions of Windows you may have noticed a little tool called “Windows Speech Recognition”. If you haven’t noticed it then, if you have a Windows Vista or Windows 7 machine, open the Start Menu and type “Speech” to see what pops up. If you have never used it before then the Speech Recognition Wizard will open up and walk you through the initialization process. This will walk you through setting up your microphone, learning some recognition commands, and start the voice training.

A couple things to note about dictation. Dictation works best when you train the computer repeatedly. In other words …. the more you use it the better it will become at recognizing what you are saying. So say you talk with a speech impediment … like myself … the application will begin to distinguish the different words you are saying. So with repeated training the computer will start to understand how you talk and pick up on the subtle nuances of your speech patterns.

Second, with dictation you need to remember the software is listening to everything you are doing and trying to translate it into actions. If no action is said, then it will assume that it should “type” the word you are saying. This can be a little daunting at times if you are dictating words that are action items … like “open” or “save” or “close”. Context is important so if you say the phrase “The door should remain open. (period)” then the words should remain fluid. If you say the phrase “The door should remain … open” then the application might translate the last word as a command instead of a word of text. Speaking in a smooth conversational tone is important.

Third, remember punctuation is important. With dictation you need to put in punctuation. Vocal inflection does not mean anything. So the lilt in your voice in a question, the shortness of exclamation, the pause at the end of a sentence means nothing to Windows Speech Recognition. You need to add those items into the dictation. This is good and bad. Good because you have control over the punctuation in your document, but bad because you have to remember to always say “period”, “colon” or “tilde”. However, one of the nice things, if you are saying foreign words, is different languages will get punctuated correctly. This saves time.

Actually, the whole usage of speech recognition saves time. it is about 3-4 times quicker to talk to your machine than it is to type to your machine. So if you are embarking on writing a document then using speech recognition will save you time. Even if you have to take the time to do the training. The more you train the quicker you will become.

So here is your 10 minute tip. Open “Windows Speech Recognition” and start training your computer. It takes only about 10 minutes. Make sure you have a good headset to be able to use. Some people use web camera microphones or computer microphones. If you are starting to use more intense speech recognition then investing in a head set microphone is important. So you may need to take 10 minutes and search for a good headset microphone. I really like Logitech’s Premium Notebook Headset. It’s the one I use and never have had a problem.

Then start using Speech Recognition. It’s really simple and easy to use. Plus … it’s FREE. Which is a great word for people who are on a budget. Once you have a little more cash flow look at investing in Dragon Natural Speech. It is a good upgrade with some additional functionality, like transcribing from a digital audio recorder, but for a free productivity tool, Windows Speech Recognition is a great asset to use.

Present your Insights Online – SlideShare.com

2010-03-20T02:24:00+00:00

I’m a firm believer information is something not unique to an individual. There is nothing in this world that is wholly unique to any one individual when it comes to information. Tony Robbins, Stephen Covey, Dave Ramsey and others don’t really say anything that other people haven’t said before … but how they present that information … that is wholly unique. If you feel your insights are not important it is important to realize your insights and presentation of information is unique to you.

Get your own Widget

What is a simple way to present your information to the world? Slideshare.com.

SlideShare.com is a simple tool that allows you to upload PowerPoint presentations and make them displayable and embeddable on websites. Now that is nothing that is impressive per se, since there are a number of websites doing similar options, but SlideShare.com does integrate cool functionality that other sites do not offer.

Being able to have a presentation automatically play through with audio instead of clicking, being able to see transitions instead of just clicking through static slides is impressive. Also, being able to be listed as an active presenter through the SlideShare.com which is nice for people like myself who give a lot of presentations and want to keep informed with what I presented.

However, there is a problem if you just upload a presentation. Most of what people find useful is not the static presentation, but what you say to reinforce the information. SlideShare.com allows you to upload audio and have that audio sync with the presentation so your information makes sense to people who are using it.

This is a great way to give meaning and context to your information. Education techniques tell us that including as many senses as possible is a more effective way to keep your information retained. So if you are giving a presentation including audio and visual components is powerful. And SlideShare.com offers the ability to have both options included in your presentations.

So why is this important? Because it gives your information a way to get to people in a way other than just text. Pictures and audio moving through a presentation that you created will help you get your point across more clearly.

So what is your 10 Minute Tip for the day? Other than signing up for a SlideShare.com account, think about information you use in your business and create a presentation. Use a presentation tool like PowerPoint or Google or whatever and upload it to SlideShare.com. Then you can use their embeddable widgets to put the presentation on your website instead of you hosting the application. As you create your presentation (and it should take longer than 10 minutes, but you can start the thought process) think about the script you are using to make the information flow. Upload your presentation to SlideShare.com and share it with people. Once you have the script created, record and update your SlideShare.com presentation with the audio.

Then if you are placing more information and presentations let people know. You can connect your SlideShare.com information to Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. This will help get your information out to people who will find it important. Plus … it is always fun to connect your information to the world. We need more people giving insights because even though your information isn’t unique … your insights are. And that is power.