Working From The Basement

We all know the story of the cobblers kids walking around shoeless.  Well, I have been feeling that way for awhile now.  While Diana has had the B-Law LLC Fan Page up, I’ve been negligent and hadn’t done one for either WFTB or 2ndot, so last week I took the plunge.  The experience so far has been interesting in that, while I am used to getting followers on Twitter, a Fan Page can be a one-way street.  Twitter encourages conversation, while Fan Pages are more passive and the only way to talk to people you don’t know is to become their friend – unless they participate, which kind of defeats the purpose.  You can start a discussion, but there is no guarantee that anyone will participate and sending a Facebook email seems too invasive.

So what use are they, you may ask? Well, it does provide you with a fairly low-maintenance way to interact with potential clients and build a referral network without much work.  I have always found it annoying when people update their personal Facebook status from TweetDeck or some other Twitter-related tool because most of the time it is Twitter speak (lots of @ symbols and short talk).  Facebook now provides a link to go the other way, which seems more effective as long as your first 120 characters gets your point across.  (The other 24 characters get turned into a shortened link pointing back to the Facebook post). It is also easier to update than a Blog, which actually takes time to think about, write, add links, and check your spelling and grammar etc., while adding an external link, photo or status update in Facebook with a comment is a fairly quick and easy process.

So the next question is what do you put up there? Do you just rehash the same thing that you put on Twitter?  My answer is no.  Since I started with the 2ndot Fan Page, let me explain a little bit about what I did with it.  Since @2ndot is my primary work-related and personal online personality, I wanted the page to reflect that persona.  So I decided to provide links to information that an everyday computer user would find interesting or useful.  My business normally doesn’t provide home computer support, just business-related services. But I have a wealth of information that can help home users, so a Facebook Fan Page provides a perfect platform for this.  A bonus here is that I don’t need yet another website to maintain, and it’s a totally opt-in relationship.  Also being able to use the discussion feature allows people to ask home computer related questions.  Facebook is also a great product to use for event scheduling, with attendance tracking and just notifying people in general, so having a Fan Page opens up another communications avenue.

While my personal profile on Facebook is very active, I don’t like spammy Fan Pages, so I have decided to limit my posts to only one or two a day maximum.  I think this may even be too much and I will adjust it if I get complaints.  As for the WFTB Fan Page, well, for now I will probably use it to promote the site much in the same way I do in Twitter.  Since WFTB is a blogging website I think you would use it to direct traffic to the blog, but only time will tell.  I am really interested in any feedback about my techniques used here and how other micro-businesses use their Fan Pages, so feel free to comment.

Again thanks for visiting WFTB…

WFTB – Michael Lawson

Error Message's can be so cryptic?

A lot of people just don’t get Twitter and if you’re one of those people I would like to introduce you to the concept of using Twitter as a Search Engine.  Most of us have our favorite Search Engine’s Toolbar and home page somewhere nestled in our Internet Browser, but sometimes it fails us.  Recently I was greeted to the Error message that opens this post when trying to launch Microsoft Outlook, as you can see it wasn’t very informative. So I rebooted the PC and the Error still persisted even after running a repair on Microsoft Office.

I then turned to the Internet and Microsoft’s Bing search engine figuring that since this was a Microsoft program it might have an advantage over Google, but nothing specific came up.  Well that makes some sense since the error wasn’t very specific either.  I then figured out that this happened after one of the dreaded Tuesday Microsoft updates, so on a hunch I fired up TweetDeck (The Application I use to make sense of Twitter) and searched the exact message.  Well I may have been lucky, but I got a few hits and solved the problem fairly quickly.

This is what is known in the Industry as crowdsourcing which is defined as using the general public to do research or other work.  This was a relevant search considering that if my suspicion was correct and this error was caused by a Microsoft update other people would be having the same issue.  Search Engines take time to index lesser known sites, but Twitter is instantaneous, so if it is something common you can find it right away.

You don’t need a Twitter client like TweetDeck to search Twitter, just go to the website and type in your search and it will show results similar to a standard Search Engine. So even if you aren’t interested in Tweeting about your daily life you can still use Twitter to help you find quick answers to an immediate problem.  So when you can’t find the answer with a Search Engine give Twitter a shot and let us know if you were able to find it.

We are always looking for time saving tips so let us know what gets you through your day when Working From the Basement.

WFTB- Michael Lawson

So, I’m dying to attend Dreamforce this year.  A trip to San Francisco, however, is not exactly in the budget.  And even if it were, right before our down season…..?  Not going to happen.

In any case, I thought I’d throw it out there for those of you who can attend.

First, let me tell you why I want to attend:

1.  Cloud computing is the wave of the future (no pun intended).

2.  San Francisco holds so many great minds.

3.  People who are embracing cloud computing are embracing other, cutting-edge things that I haven’t even yet thought of.

4.  It would be so cool.

Second,…I’ve got nothing.

Here’s the link:  http://www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/DF09/site/

What more do you need?

Original post here:  http://www.michaellawson.com/?p=218

by Michael Lawson

Here in the northeast it has seemed like we haven’t had a summer yet so this is probably as close as it gets.  Podcamp this year focused on the use of social media and how it was being used.  Being focused on the business aspects, I learned a few things that I think will help my clients and customers which are reinforced by my own experiences.  The number one lesson is that while companies are recognizing social media as a buzz word they need help utilizing it.   Just twittering the special of the day may work for one business but not another.  A game plan for using Social Media has to be developed for companies based on their individual goals and expectations.   The value and pricing of these services by both parties seem to be all over the map.  Leveraging your existing relationships and skill sets may help you in setting up a model that works for you.

Social Media currently seems to be a generalized area where specialization hasn’t occurred yet, this became obvious in the discussion on the future of work session.  The early adopters are just beginning to get rewarded for their pioneering efforts in educating businesses in the use of a more developed community based online presence.   It is still clear that no experts really exist in this field but a lot of bright people are making different aspects work.  Companies are looking for people with Social Media skills but assuming this to be a single person.

Tracking your social engagements still seems to be in its infancy, much like tracking Internet metrics was 10 years ago.  The difference is that the industry has grown up and a lot of what we learned in the past should be able to be transitioned.

Video is playing an increasingly important role and should not be ignored;  webinars and short information messages are replacing older voice only podcasting.  The Hubspot people did a great presentation on how to produce videos without much editing.  Keeping videos short and less than 2 minutes seems to keep people’s interest longer.

On a latter note I will say that Apple IPhones and Macbooks seemed to be required appendages.  While hyper local got redefined for me when somebody tweeted for toilet paper while in the first stall of the ladies room.

Most of my insight as advertised did come for the interactions in the hallways and impromptu sessions on the lawn.  I’m already missing podcamp and all my new friends…

WFTB – Michael Lawson