Mobile is here for good, are you participating?  Most likely you are, is your business participating? It better be!  Here is a great slideshow that I found through Tod Maffin that should get you to act quickly if your business isn’t mobile friendly yet. Do you have a Mobile Website?

I think the subject line tells you how I feel about the Android or iPhone debate.  Aside from bigger, better, faster and more megapixels which will always be an up hill battle for all manufacturers of smartphones, here are 4 reasons why I love the Android OS over the Apple iOS.

1. Plug n Play or iTunes
2. Play Store or App Store
3. Screen Size
4. Apps and Widgets

When it comes to smartphones its Android or iPhone in my mind.

Plug n Play

With Apple you NEED to have iTunes downloaded on your computer to manage your music on your phone.  With an Android phone you just need a USB cable.  An Android acts similar to a USB stick and it’s a simple drag n drop to add and remove files from your phone.  BIG win for me.

Play Store or App Store

Really they are the same.  Google’s play store in my mind is as strong as Apple’s app store now and only getting stronger.  The one thing that wins me over though is that I do not have to have a credit card entered into my account to download apps.  iTunes requires a credit card even to download free apps.  When I am ready to buy something I will put my credit card in, don’t make me do it!

Screen Size

Once you have had an Android with a larger screen for any length of time and then you pick up an iPhone it’s hard to wonder how you managed for 3 years using your iPhone.  I absolutely love the larger screen.

Apps and Widgets

iPhone offers Apps, Android offers Apps and Widgets.  For all you iPhone users you don’t know what you are missing.  Widgets are active programs on your screen.  For example I have my email open on one of my screens, I have my calendar open on another. I have a widget that allows me to turn on or off my Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS, Sync and allows me to control screen brightness all from my front screen without having to navigate through settings. I think it was 3 steps just to turn Bluetooth on and off on my iPhone, now it’s one tap.

Yes I Still Love Apple

I’m still a huge Apple fan, I have a ton of Apple products, when it comes to phones I choose Android and the same is true for tablets.  The Android tablet in my mind is better than the iPad and it’s half the price.

Thank You Telus For the HTC ONE

On May 1st I was invited to the Vancouver aquarium by TELUS  to learn about the new HTC ONE.

There is one feature on this phone that I need to talk about.  ZOE is her name and what she does is captures your pictures with a beginning, middle and end.  She takes a 3 second video where you can choose the best frame as your picture.  Ultra cool for taking action shots or group photos.

 My new HTC One activated with a number ready to go.

My good buddy Dai Manuel and the rest of us playing with our new toy.

Some behind the scenes shots on our private tour.

Pictures taken with my new HTC One courteous of  TELUS

Here is a 1 minute video I took with the HTC ONE with horizontal and vertical shots.

Android or iPhone which do you prefer?

Love this infographic and will be trying to apply some of my learnings about the psychology of color to my updated Speed-Sew Fabric Glue Card [Front and Back] and Tube  in order to attract more sales from the retail isles.

Infographic by WebpageFX

I have been using TeamViewer for over a year now regularly.  I have tried a few other computer-to-computer sharing programs and TeamViewer has come out on top for me because of its reliability.

If you use TeamViewer for personal use it’s free, if it’s for business there is a fee.

Here are the 3 reasons I use TeamViewer

1. Do you own a laptop and a desktop?
2. Do you own a Mac and a PC?
3. Do you own a Mac and use QuickBooks for accounting?

When Microsoft came out with Vista is when my current PC/laptop was at the end of its days.  The thought of dealing with all the nightmares that came along with Vista was the best salesman Mac had.  I have never looked back.

However for some reason to this day there still isn’t a compatible version of QuickBooks that can seamlessly go back and forth between a PC and a Mac.  I was forced to buy a PC for my QuickBooks accounting software so I could create packing slips and invoices for Speed-Sew Fabric Glue and send my files to my bookkeeper and accountant from my Mac.

This is where TeamViewer comes in. You have to download TeamViewer on both the computers that you want to connect.  Once downloaded and installed you then connect the 2 to your account that you created. Once TeamViewer was set up I found it to be very reliable.

One tip

• Connect the computer you want to talk to directly to the Internet using a CAT5 cable vs WIFI.  Wifi just adds another element for error.  I never use the PC; in fact my PC is not even hooked up to a monitor.  I always connect to my PC via TeamViewer.

You can even access your computers through the TeamViewer website too which I can see being very handy.  I have never needed to use that option since my laptop seems to always be by my side but it might be a great feature for you?

The best part for me about RebelMouse is that you can embed your profile on any website and you can have multiple profiles e.g. Personal and business. Now friends and family who are not on social platforms can go to your link(s) and see what you are up to without having to log in and check multiple platforms.

I have created 2 profiles and embedded both on the appropriate sites

• Here is my RebelMouse on OwenClark.ca
• Here is my RebelMouse on Speed-Sew.com

As you can see they are very different.  One login, 2 profiles!

I even saw a business that had a landing page with a header and then they had their RebelMouse profile embedded underneath and that was their website (I wish I had the link for you).  I was very impressed and it worked really well.  When doing something like that you would have to be ultra cautious about what you post because it would be on your home page too.

Talk about a living breathing website though…and that’s what Internet marketing is all about.  Anything that is a week old these days is long gone.

There are several ways you can use RebelMouse into your strategy, it’s free and it’s easy to set up so why not play with it a bit?  Do you have a RebelMouse page?  What is the link? Please share

Passwords are everywhere now and they are not going anywhere.  In fact you will be creating accounts that require a password for the rest of your life.  How do you manage all your passwords now?  If you are like me you probably have 3 or 4 passwords of which you use 2 of them for the majority of accounts.  You have a password for your sensitive stuff such as email, bank accounts and credit cards and then you have another password for the fun stuff such as Facebook and Twitter.

What happens in 3 years?

• Your passwords are a big mess, never knowing which goes is with what account.
• You know you should change your passwords more then once a decade.
• With the changing landscape you also know its probably a good idea to have a stronger password

Has this ever happened to you?

You create an account and you are told your password isn’t valid because it’s not 16 characters long, has an exclamation mark a number and a capital.

Google suggests

“Use a unique password for each of your important accounts like email and online banking”

“Use a long password made up of numbers, letters and symbols”

Are you one of the few who are organized?  What is your solution?

I recently found and started using 1Password and have to say, why did it take me so long to implement such a tool.  I absolutely love it!

• It gives me a unique password for each account
• It gives me long passwords made up of number, letters and symbols.
• I can sync it through all my devices using dropbox and there mobile app.

It’s pretty slick once set up.  Cool part is I never have to remember a password and I never have to type my passwords either.

There is one master password to unlock the application

All you do is click the “copy” button to place your password on your clipboard.

Generating passwords for new accounts is a cinch, click the “Generate” button

Save it and you are done

1password was not free but you can try it for 30 days.

From the little bit of research I have done it turns out there are several applications that do this for you, some are free and some not.  I would have certainly tested some of the free applications if I did a little more homework. Do you have a system that works for you or a program that you like?

Hell yes is my answer and here is why Facebook Ads are worth it.  Facebook has over 1 billion subscribers! There is no number 2 when it comes to an audience on the internet.  With Facebook you can reach the exact audience you want with relevant targeted ads.

WAIT! DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON FACEBOOK ADS

Seriously don’t waste your money. It’s way to easy to set up facebook ads and because they are not that expensive you might not take it seriously.

PLAN, PLAN, PLAN

Its easy to set up a campaign on Facebook. The magic happens once people click the ad.

• Where are you going to drive people?
• What is the objective?

You need to be able to test and measure. Use a URL shortener, drive people to a custom landing page just for your Facebook Ads. Eg thanks for clicking the Facebook ad, here is our promise. For more info … the call to action needs to be compelling.

Getting people to click your Facebook ads is the easy part however it’s only the beginning, you need to think multiple steps ahead.  Create a path that you want to lead people down.  The exact same goes for Google Ads.  What’s the point in having great analytics if there is no conversion.  You need to turn your statistics into real people.  Then and only then does the sale process start.

Your target audience is on Facebook and yes I believe Facebook is a great place to advertise.  If you have had lame results I would like to see what your campaign and strategy looked like before I hear you tell me that Facebook advertising sucks.

There is my rant on Facebook Ads, do you want to pipe in?  We haven’t even touched on setting up your Facebook Ads.  Have you created a successful campaign?

In the past the Facebook privacy settings were a tricky thing to find and control.  Facebook has done a good job to make it easier for you to lock down your account the way you like it now.  Have a look at this 1 min video to help you lean about adjusting your Facebook privacy.

I hope the video helped you with your Facebook privacy settings.

What are your thoughts on all the privacy debates?  If you want privacy then don’t post what you want private… seems simple to me?  You?

It was time for me to update my profiles, specifically on my 2 blogs that I manage and all my social platforms.  What a pain in the ass!  However I had embedded my About Me page on this blog and it dawned on me that I could embed it on my other platforms too. I have now embedded my About.Me page where I can and the next time I want to update my platforms all I have to do is update my About.Me page and everywhere else is updated too.

Here is my About Me page embedded

Here is a short video showing you how to embed

Do you have an About.Me page?  Post the link please.

This is not actually all that complicated which is a good thing.  How many unread emails do you have in your Gmail Inbox?  How many have been unread for a month? 2 months, 3?, 4?,  a year? Well if you haven’t got back to them in 30 days if I was a betting man I would bet that you probably are not going to get to them at all.  I saw a friend post that she had over 10 thousand unread emails last week. WHOA!

Here it is, in the search bar in your gmail account type in ‘is:unread’ and then press search.

ALL your unread emails will populate your screen.  You can now skim them quickly to see if there are a few that need your attention.  Otherwise select ALL and ‘Mark as Read’.

Nice and easy!  Everything is easy once you know how right?

Do you have a quick Gmail tip that is easy and beneficial?