In the mean time, I had an interesting meeting with a prospect for one of my clients who reinforced my insistance on posting performance metrics. The team is engergized and ready to embrace metrics so I’ve been working on some interesting ways to use SharePoint for inputing and distributing information like on-time delivery rate, days without a lost time accident and percentage of rejected products. Look for an Arrow-tip on creating company dashboards to communicate performance metrics next.

Getting Started - Data Import

I have to admit that the transition of my old mailbox information in Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007 was completely painless.  I’m on Exchange so all I really had to do was set up my profile on the new laptop (MailStreet hosts my Exchange service and they provide excellent instructions) and the data populated into the new Outlook 2007 environment.  Everything was still there and even my custom forms seemed to port over just fine.

I’m still using my old laptop in tandem with the new one so I’m actually maintaining data for the same profile in both an Outlook 2003 and an Outlook 2007 environment - so far absolutely no issues.

Activities

Anyone who has attended one of my seminars can tell you that I’m a huge user of the Activities tab on the Outlook Contact form.  This tab allows the user to see all Outlook items including emails, appointments, journal entries, task items and other contact records that are linked to the contact - I find this feature invaluable for tracking activities and history of commuincation with a given client or prospect. 

The first omen that this feature might be problematic in Outlook 2007 was that the Contacts button and field which allows a user to link items to a contact is hidden by default in new installations of Outlook 2007.  This issue is easily resolved by checking the Show Contact Linking on all Forms box on the Contact Options window (Tools/Options/Contact Options button). 

From there its a good news/bad news scenario.  The good news is that other users with access to your mailbox folders can now see this tab on your contact forms.  This functionality was not previously available which was a problem in environments where sales assistants or managers needed to share data with members of the sales team.  The bad news is that this tab doesn’t always populate very well.  Populations of items on this tab has always been a little slow - especially for users with large item volumes (like email) in their mailboxes.  But now, my clients and I are seeing behavior where the same items will sometimes populate the Activities tab and sometimes not.  This behavior appears to be inconsistent and unpredictable - very frustrating!  If you have found a solution for this problem I implore you to post it in a comment.

Cool Stuff

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a few cool features that haven’t set the world on fire, but are useful:

• Improved searching - Since I maintain many levels of nested folders in my Inbox, it’s nice to be able to easily search not just my Inbox, but all my subfolders at the same time.
• To Do Bar - The To Do Bar or Task bar is now available in several folders complete with a nice little calendar shwoing an appointment summary for the current day.  I had a lot of clients clamouring for that dashboard like functionality prior to the release of Outlook 2007.
• RSS Feeds - I know I said before this wasn’t a big deal since Outlook 2003 gave you the ability to set a web page as the view for any folder, but really it is pretty cool.  I like seeing new posts as part of my unread mail.  CAUTION: don’t set up too many RSS feed folders or the volume of new posts will dilute the value of your Unread Mail features.
• SharePoint Integration - I admit that I didn’t use these features as much in Outlook 2003, but I find the integration and synchronization with team discussions and Tasks is very nice (see Arrow-Tip #45, Arrow-Tip #46, and Arrow-Tip #47for a three part serious on managing organizational tasks using Outlook , Exchange and SharePoint).

All things considered I’m glad I waited for some of the more troublesome bugs to be sorted out before making the jump.  But I sure will be a happier camper when the Activities tab bug gets fixed.  As always, I’d love to hear your experiences with the transition so please leave me a comment.

SharePoint tasks can be downloaded and synchronized with Outlook tasks by selecting Connect to Outlook from the Actions menu.  SharePoint will create a folder in your Outlook Folder list called SharePoint Lists and then a subfolder called Team Web Site - Tasks that will house SharePoint tasks. 

Although the SharePoint tasks do not show up in your default Outlook Tasks folder, you can see them in the To Do List views in your Outlook Tasks area if you are using Outlook 2007 (see thumbnail to the left).  Items get placed in the To Do List view if they are flagged which SharePoint automatically does for you when it downloads tasks to the Team Web Site Tasks folder. 

You can edit tasks either from SharePoint or Outlook and the edits will be synchronized in both places (you may need to refresh your browser in Share Point or click Send/Receive in Outlook for changes to show up).

I’ve been pretty happy with this arrangement and most of the team seems to have adjusted fairly well.  Probably my only issue with this methodoloy is that tasks from SharePoint do not sync on my Blackberry since it only syncs with my Outlook Tasks folder.  If anyone has a resolution for that issue, please leave me a comment.  This issue isn’t a huge deal for me though as I rarely manage tasks from my Blackberry.

Each week at Gulf Coast Welding Corp (GCW Corp.) we hold a staff meeting where we review the company production schedule as well as open tasks assigned from previous meetings.  We use SharePoint to manage information for these meetings like the agenda and minutes (topic for future Arrow-Tip), but we also like to use SharePoint to manage the tasks that come out of those meetings so that everyone can see their status and download them to Outlook.

SharePoint Tasks Area

One of the standard lists available for SharePoint team websites is the Tasks list.  We’ve added this list to our shortcut bar on the left side of the All Site Content view in SharePoint (see thumbnail to the left).  This is the area we use to house and manage our group tasks.

During our weekly production meetings, we normally keep our minutes document up on a computer with the display screen projected onto a whiteboard so we can all see information as it is posted.  Ideally we would toggle to the SharePoint Tasks area to review and update tasks right there in the meeting (see thumbnail to the right).  Unfortunately we don’t have interent access in our conference room so I usually just download active tasks into an Excel spreadsheet (Actions menu>Download to Spreadsheet) and then paste that data into a table in our Minutes document.

I find editing SharePoint tasks in the Datasheet view is much easier - to get to this view select Edit in Datasheet from the Actions drop down menu.  This view allows the user to update all columns row by row in SharePoint.

In Arrow-Tip #47 I’ll discuss synchronizing SharePoint tasks with Outlook tasks.  In the mean time I’d be interested to hear about your experiences using SharePoint tasks.

Option #1: Outlook Assignment Feature

Did you know that you can not only manage your own tasks in Outlook, but assign them to others and track their progress?  Here is how it works:

Step 1: Open a new task and input the relevant information such as subject, due date and importance.  You can also put details needed for the task in the note area.

Step 2: Click the Assign Task button on your Outlook 2007 Task Ribbon (for Outlook 2003 click the Assing Task button on your task tool bar or select Assign Task from the task Actions menu).  A To field should now appear on your task - type the name of the person you want to assing the task to in the To field. (double click thumbnail below)

Note the check boxes below the due date field giving you the option to: Keep and updated copy of this task on my task list AND Send me a status report when this task is complete

Step 3: Now click the Send button and the task will be sent to the person you assigned it to.

Step 4: The task recipient (the person you assigned it to) will now receive the task assignment in his Inbox.

Step 5: This message will have and accept or decline button either in the preview pane or the tool bar/ribbon (double click thumbnail below)

Step 6: When the task recipient clicks the accept or decline button you will receive an email notifying you of his response.

Step 7: If the task recipient accepts the task, it will show up in his Tasks folder along with other tasks on his list. (double click thumbnail below)

Step 8: You should receive updates as the recipient updates the task. (double click thumbnail below)

Step 9: As the task is updated and when it is completed, changes will also appear in the task in your Tasks folder (double click thumbnail below)

We’ve found this option very helpful for managing tasks within Advena Artemis.  If you’ve used task assignment in Outlook, please leave me a comment on how it has worked for you.

To be perfectly honest, the jury is still out on which is the best environment for housing tasks that originate from our regular weekly production meetings.  The real benefit to using SharePoint to record and track tasks associated with regular meetings is that all participants can see where they stand in terms of status and can discuss issues that need to be resolved in order to complete the tasks.  And, once I figured out how to update tasks more efficiently in SharePoint (select the Edit in Datasheet option off of the Tasks Actions menu) I found maintenance relatively easy. 

My biggest problem with using SharePoint for task assignment is that assignees have to keep up with tasks in two different places i.e. personal or individual tasks in their Outlook Tasks folder and group meeting tasks on SharePoint.  Keeping multiple task lists is usually a recipe for disaster - more on that later.  Another huge advantage to tracking tasks in Outlook is the ability to synchronize them with smart phones and PDA devices.  And there are some other real advantages to managing tasks in your Outlook mailbox tied to how they integrate with other folders like your Inbox.  I love being able to create tasks from emails using the SimplyFile TaskIt button which removes an item out of my inbox and at the same time carries over all the pertinent information I need to complete a task from the email into the task body.

Back to my biggest issue with SharePoint tasks - maintaining two task lists.  You do have the ability to download tasks off of SharePoint and transfer them into a task folder in Outlook.  Unfortunately this Task folder is not your main Tasks folder and so far it doesn’t look like task ownership is also transferred.  Plus there is the synchronization issue of having to update and maintain tasks in two different places. 

Given the pros for managing tasks in Outlook as opposed to SharePoint, my inclination right now is to go with Outlook for task management.  I would love to hear some of my SharePoint gurus weigh in on how their organizations use SharePoint for Task management.

We decided to roll out SharePoint shortly after our Outlook/Exchange implementation as an alternative to purchasing an on-site server for file sharing.  So far, other than some learning curve issues, that solution has worked well for storing shared documents such as our production schedule, time sheets, project man hour projections and various company forms. 

We also find the SharePoint Team Discussion board helpful for getting feedback from multiple team members on things like our latest web site design or new business process forms.  We find that it is useful for everyone to review the documents in private at their leisure and then express their opinions where everyone else can see and discuss them.

The SharePoint calendar has allowed us to capture events such as company holidays and vacation schedules that everyone needs access to.  However, for meeting invitations we are still finding that Outlook/Exchange works best since it allows us to store meetings on our individual Outlook calendars where alerts and meeting reply functionality add a lot more value than a central calendar.  I do believe that in a larger organization where resources such as conference rooms need to be managed, the SharePoint calendar can be a good alternative to public folders (see Arrow-Tip #20 Best Practices for Coordinating Vacation Schedules in Microsoft Outlook)

We do, however, use the Workspace area for recurring team meeting information and related documents such as meeting minutes, agendas, or other documents we may need before, during or after the meeting.  I prefer posting minutes on SharePoint as opposed to sending them to everyone via email where they clog up our mailbox (see Arrow-Tip #8 How Can You Speek Up Microsoft Outlook) and may or may not be easily found later when we need to refer back to them.  Maintaining these documents in a controlled area also offers the added benefit of keeping our historical document intact in their original form.

Task functionality is one of the areas that I’ve spent a little more time experimenting with and I don’t mind admitting I’ve gone back and forth a little.  In fact, I’ve spend enough time on this particular issue to inspire its own post so please check back soon for Part II on this topic where I will discuss what we decided to do about tracking Tasks.  And in the mean time, please share your thoughts on SharePoint vs Outlook/Exchange in the comments section - can’t wait to hear your ideas!

Official Mom 2.0 Summit Blog by Multiple Authors

It’s the End of Marketing as We Know It. And We Feel Fine., Mom 2 Summit Panel Video: It’s the End of Marketing and We Know It. And We Feel Fine. by Ed Schipul

mom 2.0 summit wrap-up by Karen Walrond

Mom 2.0: What I Learned by Cecily Kellogg

Thoughts and Notes from Day One Mom2Summit, Mom2Summit Day Two Part One, Mom 2 Summit Day Two Part Two and One Last Look Before It’s Back to Life, Back to Reality by Stacey Nerdin

Blog Conference or Not, Mom 2.0 Summit: Social Media 101, Selling Your Brand: Mom2Summit, Last Mom2.0Summit Session, Top 10 Things I Learned at a Mom Blog Convention by Tricia from MomDot.com

Mom 2. 0 Summit, Summing up the Mom 2.0 Summit by Robyn Popham

She’s Crafty at Mom 2.0 Summit, Mom 2.0 Summit case studies -big, small, NPO and in between, Business Makers radio interview with Laura Mayes and Carrie Pacini,  by Katy Laird

Meta Love at Mom 2.0 and a Blogger Trivia Question by Deb of DebOnTheRocks

Awesome Takeaways from Mom 2.0 Summit 2009 by Danielle Wiley

Mom 2.0 Summit + Wardrobe Crisis, Mom 2.0 Summit Recap by: Allison Czarnecki

OK So I’m Apologizing Now Mom 2.0 Summit, Good Morning - Y’all, And, the winner is…, Here I am, working it…working it by Jerri Ann

Mom 2.0 Conference & Mom Entrepreneurs by Kim Christopherson

I got to meet Might Girl! by Imelda Bettinger

Mom 2.0 Summit 10 Most Memorable Moments, Women - Share Your 10 Most Memorable Business Moments (this was the story that Holly told about CarrerBags.com), How to Use Social Media to Market to Womena Part 1, How to Use Social Media to Market to Women Part 2, Truvia - I Have Your Next Marketing Campaign by Holly Buchanan

recap of #Mom2Summit by Surabhi Mittal

Engaging with your community, your customer (post based in part by her panel during Mom 2.0 Summit) by Susan Getgood

Mom 2.0 Summit, More Mom 2.0 by Christy Nelson

Photos on Flickr by Ziv Gillat

Photos on Flickr by Group Pool

Bloggin Moms by Dennis Spillman

Sweet Business Life * Some Great Gals Some Great Products & Some Great Fun * Mom 2.0 Summit by April

What a Great Mom 2.0 Weekend, Mom 2.0 Summit Videos - Just a Taste, Video Interview with Laura Mayes at the Mom 2.0 Summit, Twin Work at Home x2 - Video Interview with YouCanMakeThis.com, Barbara Jones Video Interview At Mom 2.0 Summit, Gwen Bell Talks About Marketing to Moms and the Mom 2.0 Summit, Here’s a taste of the delicious opera singer that had nursing bras flying, Guy Kawasaki Reveals The Secret Code to Marketing by Susan

Do Wonder Woman Pants Flashings +Nursing Bra Flingings Count as Link Bait? + The Other Top 20 Most Memorable Mom 2 Summit Moments, What is SEO by Gwen Bell

Summit Caters to Moms’ Online Businesses by Kristine Galvan

Mom 2.0 Summit: An Open Conversation Between Moms and Marketers by Heather Carson

Things I learned at the Mom 2.0 Summit by Jodi Grundig

My 10 Most Memorable Moments at the Mom 2.0 Summit by Isabel Kallman

Multiple Personalities by Kristen Chase

Mom 2.0 Summit Recap by Deb

Summing Up Mom 2.0 Summit by Marie

“Nobody Uses Linux” Is Note a Good Enough Answer by Katherine Druckman

Interview with Mom 2.0 Summit Attendee, April Atwater, Interview with Mom 2.0 Summit Attendee, Misty Khan by Stephanie

Paid Posts Blog Article by Matt Cutts by Shelly Fagan

Caption Contest Winner Announced! Congratulations “Two Busy” by Devra Renner

The Business of Being a Mom (featured articles from The BusinessMakers radio show)

Houston Business Connection and Mom 2.0 Summit by Misty Khan

I’ll keep editing this post as I find more and in the mean time, enjoy!

What a day yesterday was!  I started the morning off bright and early (7:00 AM!) by giving a short presentation on social media to a great networking group called the Houston Business Connection and then had the great privilege of attending the Mom 2.0 Summit where the real experts spoke about social media.  It was such a wonderful and informative day that I thought Arrow-Tips readers might enjoy hearing about some of my key takeaways from both events.

The Houston Business Connection

I’m fortunate enough to already be acquainted with most of this wonderful group, but even a total stranger would have felt welcomed by their warm and informal yet well structured style.  I knew some of the members were already on Facebook, Plaxo and LinkedIn, but I really didn’t know what to expect in terms of experience with these sites so I decided to make the presentation interactive and let the group drive the agenda.  Since most of the group was already very familiar with LinkedIn, We spent most of our time on Facebook and Twitter which are often a little more exotic to us professionals in our 40s and up. 

My key take-away from the presentation was that you really need to make sure you get with your corporate HR and/or marketing department before you start a professional online presence.  Many companies do have policies regarding what employees can and cannot post about their professional life online. But the real questions were focused on copyrighting - is your professional blog content your property or the property of your company?  You can view the presentation on slideshare.

Mom 2.0 Summit

Unfortunately I only got to attend the first day of this wonderful conference, but I’m so grateful for the experience - what an amazing group of people (yes, there were men there too)!  The Summit started on Thursday evening with registration and drinks at Massa’s where we got to taste Israeli wines courtesy of Israeli Wine Direct and chat with some of the great sponsors and attendees.  I thoroughly enjoyed learning about YouData which brings customized and relevant marketing to users (think Amazon for everything) with some great fringe benefits - I’m working on getting my MeFile set up already.  I also got a chance to catch up with the always interesting Adam Blumberg of Mass Mutual and Kelsey Ruger of Pop Labs.

Despite forgetting my purse in my rush to make the Houston Business Connection meeting and having to swing back home to collect it, I made it to the Mom 2.0 Summit just in time for opening remarks by how-cute-are-they organizers Laura Mayes of Kirtsy, Carrie Pacini and Marla Trevino of OpMom, and Amber Roussel author of PureAmber - seriously, if you are in the market for an event MC you can’t go wrong with Laura that’s-how-we-roll Mayes.  Also helping organize the summit were the indispensable Monica Dana and Matthew Wettergreen - with a crew like that how could the event be anything other than a huge success?

First up was Karen Walrond interviewing Guy Kawasaki- talk about starting with a bang!  Ok, this was a great conversation which I tweeted about quite a bit, but here were two of my favorite take-aways from Guy’s interview: 1) Tracer is a great new product by Tynt which helps track when content is copied from your web site and also automatically tags it with your URL so that you get credit. 2) Twitter Hawk - which allows you to automatically create responses to customized twitter stream searches.  Have to admit I also enjoyed Karen’s questions “Is blogging dead and if so did Twitter kill it?” - to our relief Guy emphatically responded “No.”

Next up was a great panel on the Economics of Women Centered Digital Media moderated by one of the youngest successful venture capitalists I know (besides all around great guy) Blair Garrou of DFJ Mercury with BlogHer founder Lisa Stone, Mom Talk Radio’s Maria Bailey and The Soccer Mom Myth author Holly Buchanan.  Some great stuff came out of this panel, but one of my favorite points was right at the beginning when Holly spoke about the power of the cupcake.  Holly held up a marketing piece on a stick stuck into a very yummy looking cupcake and then stated that its that cupcake (the one that looked pretty good at 11:00 PM last night) that is often missing in marketing today.  What’s the cupcake symbolize?  Its the emotional connection with the brand that makes us pay attention to marketing and maintain top of mind awareness. 

I had the great pleasure of finally meeting Chron.com tech editor Dwight Silverman at lunch where we shared a table with Nikhil Nilakantan, Ed Schipul and his lovely wife, Imelda Bettinger, Katie Laird, Brian Rutledge and blogger Deb of Deb On The Rocks.  Our lunch discussion centered around the fact that if you are an entrepreneur into the social media scene, Houston has definitely got it going on!  And aside from when I thoroughly embarrassed myself by mistaking Maggie Mason for Angela Dawn (hello, I had just bought Maggie’s book No One Cares What You Had for Lunch), it was a great lunch!

Next up was another panel called Building Communities: The future of success building relationships and engaging communities as you grow your business, image and reputation online.  The panel moderated by my friend Marc Nathan of The Houston Technology Center included Susan Getgood author of Marketing Roadmaps, Nelly Yusupova of WebGrrls, and Kyran Pittman author of Notes to Self.  I learned a lot about attracting online communities and keeping them engaged during this panel, but key take-aways for me were: 1) size really doesn’t matter - I believe it was Susan that stated that if you have the 8 most powerful leaders in the world in your community then you really don’t need anyone else.  The idea here is that it is more important to have members truly engaged in your niche than to have large numbers of casual users who will not get passionate about your community and keep it going.  2) I got to meet Tracy Mooney, Chief Cyber Security Mom for McAfee Inc.  Okay, I’ve never been much of a McAfee fan, but after learning about Tracy’s blog for parents of kids on the internet, I plan on giving them another try.  This is a tuff community as Susan pointed out because there are questions people are not going to want to post - but, you can always encourage users to don an alias that protects their anonymity which will make them feel more comfortable with questions that may be uncomfortable to ask otherwise.  3) The down economy has actually been a boon for online community participation.  People are feeling the need more than ever to network and connect in these uncertain economic times.

The next panel Case Studies - What Works. No, Really, This Works! including Candace Mueller of Quaker, Danielle Wiley of Edelman, Carrie Pacini of OpMom, Trae Nikelson of YouData, Lisa Albrecht of Laundry Tree and Susan Rafte of the Pink Ribbons Project.  Another great panel further illustrating the benefits of having a MeFile and some surprising take-aways: 1) Apparently champagne and oatmeal taste great together on inauguration day whether you are a democrat or a republican- Quaker launched a series of breakfast parties on inauguration day with mom blogger hosts from both sides of the aisle which were a big hit for their brand. 2) OpMom is rocking with a deal to promote Sony DVDs that is helping build loyalty for both the Sony and OpMom brands - go, OpMom! 3) Not only is YouData providing a great service for consumers, they are providing a great venue for both non-profit and for-profit organizations to better target their ad campaigns.  4) Honestly my favorite take away was the physical one - I won a gift bag from laundrytree as a door prize which I was just about to purchase on the prior break.  In addition to producing softer fragrance free laundry - this stuff is great for people with sensitive skin like my excema prone youngest son.  I tried it last night and guess what folks - it works!

We finished up the day with intimate discussion tables (about 6 to 12 people per table) which was a great opportunity for open discussion.  I got to sit with Catherine Conners of Her Bad Mother, Gwen Bell of Kirtsy, and my friend Erica O’Grady of Peanut Butter Media.  Catherine’s discussion topic was Social Media, Social Responsibility, and Social Impact and the key take-away from this group was that more and more companies like Quaker are partnering with charitable organizations and good causes to contribute to the community while also building an emotional bond and brand recognition (the cupcake).   We were fortunate to have YouCanMakeThis.com founders Kim Chrisophersonat Gwen’s table focusing on monetizing your site and what a huge success story her site is!  Kim found her monetization niche by providing a forum for other women to sell their patterns and designs.  My final discussion lead by Erica O’Grady was of course all about Twitter.com and the many ways twitter can be used.  I shared my husband’s US Naturalization Ceremony twit stream, but that was far eclipsed by Erica’s recital of Tara Hunt’s UPS experience(click the link - it is well worth your time to read the story).  Top take-away, companies would be wise to have someone monitor the Twitter stream looking for complaints about their products - not only is Twitter a great medium for getting feedback, you may just have an opportunity to redeem yourself.

Two more take-aways that I have to mention: 1) Had the pleasure of meeting Allison Czarnecki of Petit Elephant who was kind enough to give me one of her lovely candles - my son insisted I light it when he saw it and we all thoroughly enjoyed the aroma!  2) Italian Wedding Cookies - just one of the amazing gifts included in our conference goodie bag.  Between a late night snack on Thursday and breakfast on Friday those cookies were gone!

Unfortunately I had to stop at day 1 of the Mom 2.0 Summit due to a sick kid at home and another kid that just needed some mommy time.  I did get a chance to check the #Mom2Summit twitter stream a few times and it sounded like more amazing things were going on.  I’ll conclude this post with posing a question to Laura, Carrie, and Monica - 2nd Annual Mom 2.0 Summit?  just sayin….

PS: There are so many great blog posts out there regarding the Mom 2.0 Summit that I put together a Mom 2.0 Summit Link Post for all of them (please let me know if I left one out).