Being creative, knowing when to smile and have fun, and building a team of people who are passionate about what we do is important to us at Vivid Image. That’s why when we were filling our most recent position of graphic designer, we went in search of someone who could appreciate our unique mission.

With a contagious smile and eye for gorgeous design, Margaret Diggins joined our team in May. Margaret is a talented web and graphic designer who will help our team “to experience the joy of helping our clients take small daily steps that make a difference and lead to a brighter future.” Margaret brings significant design expertise and a proven track record, which will allow us to provide superior graphics and designs for our clients.

With a degree in Graphic Design from the University of Minnesota, Margaret has eight years of web and graphic design experience. As a resident of rural Minnesota, Margaret incorporates a Vivid Image tradition of putting clients first in her work, and she will be a great asset to Vivid Image. We are excited to welcome her to the team!

• Chris Prescott – The Prescott Group
• Dave Gilbertson – Constant Contact
• Mary Albright – Can Do Virtual Assisting
• Rich Anderson – Next Level Cafe
• Tena Pettis – Tenacious Edge

So whether you have all the customers you can handle or if you’re looking for new ones, this group can help you.

What’s New?

Watch for new presentations on Engagement Marketing and Social Coupons coming soon!  Plus Jeff may make a special trip out to Hutchinson to present a new program just for you.  Jeff, thank you for your dedication to helping small businesses succeed.

Want to be the first to know?

Join our mailing list to be the first to know about new seminars, workshops and special offers just for our Vivid Image community.  Sign up today for free!

Monitor Your Business Facebook Page on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad

Facebook just released a new app that allows page managers to post and monitor engagement on their Facebook pages.  Let’s face it, you have your mobile phone on you all of the time.  Read more about the app and give it a try to see how it helps you manage your Facebook posts for your company.

GPS for your Golf Game

I am not a good golfer.  But I may golf more with this application.  Swing by Swing uses GPS technology to bring you a FREE GPS Golf Range Finder.  You will always know the distance to the green right from your mobile phone – iPhone, Droid, or Blackberry. No more searching for yardage markers, and no more guessing your distance.  Its database has a surprising number of golf courses included.  Give it a try.

Convert your PDF files to Word Documents

Sometimes you just need to convert your documents back to Word.  PDF to Word does just that – it will help you convert a PDF file to an editable Word document quickly.

Your Thoughts?

What do you think of these tools?  I would love to hear your comments and thoughts on these or other tools you love.

10 Twitter Time Management Tips

1. Learn how to use Twitter effectively – Knowing some of the tricks and tips to get the most out of Twitter will also help you more effectively manage your Twitter time. Learn the basics of Twitter, starting with how to properly setup a Twitter account,  knowing basic Twitter terminology,  and how to Find People on Twitter.
2. Schedule batched Twitter time – Start by logging in to Twitter for just 15 minutes a day and do “batch tweeting” instead of being logged in all day. Whether in the morning, over the noon hour, or the evening. As your schedule allows, bump it up to two 15 minute logins, and so on.
3. Use Twitter Lists – Creating and using  segmented Twitter lists instead of your home feed allows you to focus on the people that are most important to your goals. Keeping you lists updated will make it easy for you to quickly connect with the right people with little effort.
4. Jot down ideas to tweet – If you are not logged into Twitter, but have a great idea for a tweet, have a fluid document or location that you can compile your ideas so great content is at your finger tips when you are on Twitter.
5. Use social media automation tools – Tools like Seesmic, Tweetdeck, and my personal favorite, Hootsuite, allow you to schedule your tweets at various times of the day and offer other benefits that are time-savers.
6. Syndicate – Use tools such as Twitterfeed or Hootsuite to feed your blog into your Twitter account, so that your blog posts are automatically posted to Twitter while they are timely.
7. Figure out where Twitter fits into your routine – Integrate Twitter into your everyday routine. Do you tweet with your first cup of coffee or over lunch? Maybe it is part of routine of checking your email or voice mail a few times a day. See what works for you and build on it.
8. Decide where you stand with notifications - In your Twitter settings, you can indicate if you want Twitter to email you with each direct message, reply/mention, new follower, retweets, etc. You may either find that these notifications help you stay engaged in Twitter or pose an added distraction.
9. Use the mobile apps: Use the Twitter App of your choice to stay connected to Twitter on your smart phone or tablet. The best times to tweet could be while you are in-between actvities or playing the waiting game.
10. Get help when needed – Marketers who wear many hats may find they need help managing all or parts of their social media in order to focus on other marketing goals. Some options include outsourcing your social media or using tools like CoTweet (or Hootsuite) to manage Twitter as a team.

And lastly, know when to log out and be present with the real moments in front of you.  You don’t need to throw your phone in the ocean, but a smart marketer knows when to turn technology off to avoid burnout, and return back to your social network with dedicated time and focus. Whether you have rules for designated family time, unplugged days, or are going on a vacation – knowing when and how to make the most of your time overall is key to your life balance and overall success.

If you’re reading this and use Twitter, what is one tip you’d like to share with others that undoubtedly has worked for you?

Local Classes & Events:

3 Keys to Email Marketing: 
Tuesday, June 5th, 11:00 – Noon
Walk away with a plan of action to start implementing email marketing or gain new tips and insight you might not be aware of. Email marketing is always changing and improving!  Click here to Register

LinkedIn for Business Class: 
Friday, June 8th 8:00 – 9:30 AM
LinkedIn is a powerful tool for all businesses, big and small. Walk away with a competitive edge and new way of networking or finding new customers. From Business Owners to Marketing and Sales Professionals, you are guaranteed to walk away with practical golden nuggets for your business!  Click here to Register

Other Places We are Speaking:

Celebrate Small Business Week with Constant Contact
Tuesday, May 22nd 8:00AM – 12:30 PM (Bloomington, MN)
Led by the industry’s top experts in email and social media marketing, Steve Gasser has been invited as a key panelist in this ‘Get Down To Business - Help reach your next customer in 2012′ annual event hosted by Constant Contact. Check out event details here.

Using Social Media to Recruit & Hire: Best Practices & Legal Considerations
Tuesday, June 19th 10:00AM - 1:00 PM (Redwood Falls, MN)
In partnership with a rural MN hospital consortium, Michelle Falling is sharing her knowledge, tips, and tricks from 15 years of online recruitment experiences.  Erin Swason, of Swanson Law, PLLC will focus on the legal implications to help you avoid litigation.

End the Distractions Now!

Freedom is a tool that locks you out of the Internet for a specified amount of time – allowing to to eliminate the distractions of browsing, email or your social media sites.  You set how long you want to be locked out of the Internet.  This is a great way to stay committed to getting that project done without the temptations of going online.  Feedom is free to try; but costs only $10 if you want to keep it.

Edit Your Facebook Photos

PicMonkey has always been a great photo editing tool,  Now you can edit your Facebook photos to bring new life to them.  Install the Facebook App:  https://apps.facebook.com/picmonkey/ or take it for a test drive at http://picmonkey.com.

A Must Read Article for Every Employee and Employer

What every employee and employer must know about social media. These must-know truisms can help clear the air and keep everyone out of trouble.  http://www.ragan.com/Main/Articles/44728.aspx

Your Thoughts?

What do you think of these tools?  I would love to hear your comments and thoughts on these or other tools you love.

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

One of the greatest things about having a bunch of people from different industries as friends or connections means you lots of different information. Watch what types of friends you have and if they are all the same type of person.  Look to others completely out of your zone to inspire creativity within your realm of work.

When people challenge the way I think–a lot of it comes from having people of different ages, skill sets and personalities in my “pool” – I become a better marketer.

Follow leaders in other industries and put them on a list, they may be speaking to your problems/solutions. Some of the best marketing comes from reactions to marketing within other industries and services. If you are a service organization, look at product marketing. If you are a B2C marketer, look at B2B.  Small, rural business should consider how corporations and Madison Avenue provoke new campaigns.

New Friends Inspire Creativity

Look at your friends: are radicals, conservatives, software geeks, trendsetters, jocks, wallflowers, up and coming professionals, parents, retirees and passionate advocates represented?  Create mulitple lists on Twitter so you have lots of different types of people in your Twitter Stream.   Listen to the conversations to stimulate some dynamic ideas.  Just like the movie The Breakfast Club, you must consider personal bias, challenge stereotypes and evolve to a new understanding with Twitter followers.  Now go follow some new people and create some unique Twitter lists to fuel creative fire. Feel free to follow the Notables Twitter list on @smmanley to get you started. Variety is the Spice of Life.

The Breakfast Club Ending Scene

In order to answer this, we will first need to understand what they are.

POP, or Post Office Protocol, and IMAP, or Internet Message Access Protocol, are methods used by computer programs, such as Microsoft Office Outlook, Windows Live Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, Apple Mail, etc., to connect to a server, which receives, processes, and distributes your emails over the Internet. These programs are referred to as email clients. The protocol used to connect to the mail server is set on the client side.

POP3 is the most commonly used protocol. It will download messages from the mail server on a scheduled basis. These messages are saved on the device that downloads them, not on the server; however, most email clients do allow the option to have emails saved on the server as well, mostly for the purpose of backing up your messages.

IMAP will basically maintain a working copy of what it sees when connecting to the mail server. Whenever a change is made using your email client on your computer or smartphone, they are sent to the server to have the same changes made, keeping both the client and server sides matching or synced.

The images below illustrate the basic difference between these two protocols.

POP3 Pros:

• Store as many emails as your computer have space for.
• Offline access to old emails.
• Uses less bandwidth (faster)

 POP3 Cons:

• Unable to sync emails with other devices
• Only messages that reach the Inbox folder on the mail server are downloaded

IMAP Pros:

• Able to sync emails with multiple devices
• Inbox, Sent Items, Deleted Items, Junk Mail, and custom folders on the mail server are also available on the client side

IMAP Cons:

• Limited to storage space allowed by the mail server
• IMAP uses more bandwidth (slower)

For users who are receiving a large number of emails everyday and need to save emails for fast and easy access to reference, I would highly recommend using the POP3 protocol with your main computer which would be your primary location to save and manage your email. Other devices connecting to your email should be considered secondary, use the same protocol, and should be used mainly as your mobile option to check and send emails.

Those who are not bombarded by email on a daily basis are great candidates to take advantage of the conveniences IMAP has to offer. With this protocol, I would recommend keeping the protocol type consistent across all devices used to connect to your email. You have to remember that the primary location for your emails is now at the mail server.  All devices are merely showing you a copy of what they see on the server, provided the device is connected to the Internet and can communicate with the server.

Although, it is possible to mix and match protocols on different devices connecting to the same mailbox, in almost any case it defeats the purpose intended for either protocol.

Do you have an email question I can answer? I’d love to hear from you.

Find People by Name:

1. Type the person’s name into the search box at the top of your Twitter homepage.

2. Search Results will show up under the Who To Follow tab on the search results page, under Discover.

Find Accounts by Interest:

1. From the Discover tab, click Browse categories.

2. Click on any interesting category (e.g. Sports). You’ll be shown a list of accounts you may want to follow.

3. Browse by interest using the search box at the top of the Browse categories page. Type in a topic (like “singer” or “basketball”) or a descriptive phrase (such as “flamenco dancer” or “astronaut farmer”) and you’ll see a list of account results for that search term.

To keep things simple and organized, create a list within Twitter to place people.  Categories might be:  Industry Notables, Business Thought-Leaders, Social Marketing Professionals or something else.  If you make your list public, then other people can follow the list, you are curating people for your followers to follow.

HINT:  Twitter has follow limits to help prevent abuse.

• Every account can follow 2,000 users total. Once you’ve followed 2,000 users, there are limits to the number of additional users you can follow. This number is based on your ratio of followers to following; this ratio is not published.
• Every Twitter account is technically unable to follow more than 1,000 users per day; this prevents spammers from abusing the account.
• When you reach the account-based follow limit (2,000 users), you’ll need to wait until you have more followers before you can follow additional users.

Hashtags

Hashtags are simply a way to categorize tweets and expose your posts to new followers.  For example when I tweet about this post I will use the hashtag, #twitter, in the post for new people to find the post.  Hashtags are especially useful for industry subjects (#smm = social media marketing) or associations (#mima=Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association), chats (#leadershipchat; participate in a discussion), tvshows/events (#MadMen) conferences (#sobcon=social business conference) or making up a new one like #cutekittenpics to draw attention to your posts.  Click here for some common hashtag definitions.

Now that you know how to find people on Twitter and follow hashtags, begin engagement by listening.  Then incorporate some of these Twitter Business Ideas that Chris Brogan has suggested.

Twitter Listening Tips:

• Ask a question (who, what, why), listen and respond appropriately.
• Follow your favorite blog authors/industry leaders
• Check out chats and discussions.
• Watch the stream. Notice people and pay attention and respond to what they are saying. Notice when people are absent.
• If someone re-tweets you they are paying attention to you; thank them.
• Use favorites to save tweets you want to remember.
• Look at the person’s profile and recent tweets.

Now that you know how to follow people on Twitter, go out and follow @stevegasser @confessionsmom @jkaufenberg @michellefalling and @smmanley.  Check out the lists we have created, you may find them useful people to follow, too.

Free Online File Storage

Media file is a free online file storage tool.  I use when I need to send a client or my daughter large files.  You can use their simple file uploader and email a link to the document.  As more and more ISP’s limit the email attachment sizes to around 10 or 20mb, tools like MediaFire are going to become more and more important.

Here is a little more from their website:

MediaFire is the easy way to host and share any file type including documents, presentations, videos, and images. More than just a file hosting website, MediaFire has the features you need to easily upload, download, manage, and share your documents, presentations, videos, images and more.

Add Life to Boring PowerPoints

Want to add a little extra flair to presentations?  Try Prezi.  It is an online presentation tool to make engaging presentations.   A friend introduced me to Prezi about two months ago and now I love this tool.  Make your next presentation ZOOM.  There are several sample presentations for you to view here:  http://prezi.com/explore/

Your Thoughts?

What do you think of these tools?  I would love to hear your comments and thoughts on these or other tools you love.