How Social Media Changed Communication

Social media has changed our lives in so many ways. Here are 4 things that have changed for me:

1. Instant Access to News

No longer do I watch the 6 o’clock news or the morning news. I get the majority of my news from Twitter or with a quick visit to News1130 or Google News. Over the past year, when many world events broke (world disasters, local news, celebrity news or deaths…to name a few), I read about them on Twitter within minutes of them happening.

2. Play-by-Play Sports

Even if I’m not watching the hockey game I can still get the score and a general idea of what’s happening. I just search for “#canucks” and I’ll see all the fights, bad calls, and goals. Even during the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, I always knew when we won another medal.

3. My Professional Profile

With LinkedIn and Twitter, we build up our online profile. Gone are the days when we walk in to a business and drop off our resume. Now we seek jobs online, submit resumes through the business’s websites, and we are sometimes head-hunted through our online profiles. It’s important to watch what we say and do online because you never know who may be watching.

4. New Procrastination Avenues

We didn’t really need another distraction. It’s really hard not to check our Facebook or Twitter accounts several times during the day. I feel lost if I don’t check these at least few times during the day. Since I get most of my news though social media channels, I feel lost when I can’t check them.

Other than the extra distraction that social media causes some of us, I think it’s changed my life for the better, I’ve met new friends, got jobs and contracts, and had some great conversations with people I’ve never even met!

I wonder what social media will look like in a year.

Outsourcing 101: Save Your Business Money, Time, Stress

Save money, time, and stress by outsourcing business tasks and projects to a contractor or freelancer. This is something I know a lot about because I am a contractor/freelancer. I’m going to give you a few tips to help you find someone to help your business.

Why Outsource?

Outsourcing saves you money. By hiring someone who works from their home office, you save the costs associated with having a regular employee (including medical benefits, providing a physical office space…etc). Especially if you just need the occasional help or help for a special project, outsourcing or bringing in staff on a contract basis makes great sense!

Outsourcing saves time. You probably have a to-do list longer than Santa. Hire a freelancer to get some of your “nice-to-do” list done while you focus on the most important task: running your business. Also, handing over regular daily, weekly, or monthly tasks can be a great time saver for you, and it gives the freelancer regular on-going work (which trust me, they love).

Outsourcing saves stress. When you have less on your plate you have less to stress about. Once you develop a relationship with a great external freelancer, you can turn the work over and trust that it will be done on-budget and on-time.

What to Outsource?

You can outsource anything from administration tasks, to marketing and communications projects, to research. Tasks that don’t require any in-depth knowledge of your business (like formatting reports) are the easiest to outsource.

For outsourcing projects requiring a specialized knowledge (like writing, editing, communications or marketing, or design), look for a freelancer with skills and training in these areas.

Where to Find Freelancers?

First, ask colleagues and other business associates if they recommend anyone? Word of mouth is the best way to find good freelancers. If you are looking for a freelancer with specialized knowledge, talk to local professional associations or post-secondary schools.

You can always try finding help through classifieds (like Craig’s List). It can be hit or miss to find anyone suitable in all the applications you receive, or all the ads you read, but it can’t hurt to try.

Outsource Your Projects Today!

Why pay someone for 40 hours a week, when they are only completing 20 hours of actual work? Freelancers and contractors can be brought in whenever you need them and they will only bill you for the time they actively spend working on your projects.

With today’s advances in internet, email, video conferencing, and online project collaboration tools and communication, we have the means to work from anywhere in the world. We can work from home around a schedule that is mutually beneficial to the contractor and the employer, saving time and stress for business owners.

Outsource some of your work to see the benefits!

Mash-up: Most Useful Gmail Labs

WriterGal Mashup: Gmail Labs

Gmail Labs are plug-ins that you can use in your Gmail account. Here is a mashup of my top 5 Gmail Labs:

1. Navbar Drag & Drop

This plugin allows you to reorganize the widgets in your Gmail sidebars. Just like the plugin name, you just “drag and drop.” It allowed me to put the widgets I most commonly use, near the top of my sidebars, making it faster to access what I need. Very easy to use!

2. Create a document

I haven’t used this one as much as I thought, but I can see how it can be useful. This plugin will create a Google document from an active email message with one click. Great if you want to save important information. Very easy to use!

3. Send & Archive

This plugin allows you automatically archive an email after you send it. You just press the “Send & Archive” button instead of the normal “Send” button. I’ve found this a great way to control the content in my Inbox. Very easy to use!

4. Undo Send

We’ve all regretted pressing the “Send” button at some time or another. This plugin gives you a few seconds to cancel the email if you changed your mind, found a mistake, or forgot to include something in the message (like an attachment). Very easy, extremely handy, to use!

5. Blank Canvas Gmail Signatures

Do you send mail from multiple email addresses? This is not actually a Gmail lab, but a FireFox plugin that works with Gmail. It allows you to have multiple signatures so each email address can have a unique signature. I’ve found this one a bit buggy (I often have to close then re-open my browser window for the signature to appear), but it works more often than not. Easy to use, but a bit buggy sometimes.

Those were my top 5 favourite Gmail Labs and add-ons. What Gmail Labs can you not live without?

Gmail Sidenote: Did you notice that you can now click on the “To” field to bring up your contacts in a “Compose Mail” view? It’s funny to think that this is a new thing because it seems pretty standard.

20 Things You Don’t Know About Me

I see these “lists” all the time on Facebook, but this is my first time doing one myself. I know it’s silly and has no real value for anyone else, unless you’re interested in learning some interesting facts about my life, but it was kinda fun to find 20 misc facts about my life:

1. # of times at Disneyland: so many I lost count (including Anaheim, Paris, and Tokyo)
2. # of countries visited in lifetime: 19
3. # of countries visited in past 2 years: 14
4. # of US States I have visited: 10
5. # of Canadian Provinces Visited: 2
6. Girl Guides of Canada member: 13 years
7. First job after graduating College: Editor of a new lifestyle magazine.
8. First job ever: Receptionist for an engineering company (at age 15).
9. I lived in Australia for 5 months.
10. 5 years ago I didn’t understand why anyone would want to “blog” their lives.
11. The company I worked for in high-school went bankrupt, and forgot to tell me I was laid off (everyone else knew though).
12. I have green eyes.
13. I never got straight-A’s in school (came close a few times though).
14. I love oldies music (50s and 60s).
15. I cried during the last episodes of ER and Friends.
16. In high-school I took extra-curricular Drama, including a part in an abridged Richard III.
17. I love Ikea!
18. When I go to a restaurant, I always edit the menu and cringe at spelling mistakes.
19. A good fart joke will crack me up!
20. I can’t watch “Chicken Run” because their big teeth freak me out!

What interesting facts do you have about yourself?

Establishing your Online Presence: Web vs Print

Vancouver Blogger, WriterGal, Website Planning Tips

The content you have written for print brochures and collateral may not be suited for the web. It needs to be massaged so it’s appropriate for online readers.

For instance, online audiences want to get their information quickly and concisely. In today’s online world of fast communication, readers won’t spend as much time reading a webpage as they would a printed brochure. This means that whatever existing content you have, will need to be shortened or broken up so it fits the web environment.

This doesn’t mean that content will be sacrificed. It just means that you’ll need to work with your web design team to brainstorm how to best present your content online.

The Bottom Line

Weigh what you want in a website with what you can afford then work with your website design team to find a middle ground. If you build a good relationship with your design team, they can help with your future projects or website updates.

Also, if you hire this same team to maintain your site, you’ll probably save money. Bringing a new person on board could prove costly as they will not be familiar with how the site was designed and will take more time to figure it out, billing you for every minute.

If you have any other questions about making your own website, talk to your designer, who will be more than happy to discuss your options with you.

Establishing your Web Presence: Website Budgeting

Vancouver Blogger, WriterGal, Website Planning Tips

Websites can be an expensive venture, but there are ways to cut down the costs:

1. Hire freelancer or small design firm. They’ll probably have less overhead costs. They may also only work on 1 or 2 projects at a time, so they’ll be able to focus on your project more than a larger firm with multiple projects would.
2. Ask the designer to create an interface for you to edit certain areas of the site yourself, without having to go back to the designer for every update your site needs. While this may have a higher initial cost, you will have control over future content changes.
3. Get the whole package from one place. Find a company who can help you with not just the design and programming of your site, but also the content. Find a team that includes a content manager or writer to help you craft your content for the online world. If they can help you market your website, even better!

Website costs vary depending on what you want. The larger the site, or the more you want special programming or interactive content, the more expensive it can get.

Basic website design packages begin around $100-300 for a very simple 1-page design. The more pages and content you add, the higher the price goes. A website with about 5 pages could cost around $1000-2000.

Tomorrow we will wrap up this series with a comparison of your print content and your web content…

Establishing your Web Presence: Starting your Website

Vancouver Blogger, WriterGal, Website Planning Tips

We rely on the internet for so much. We check our email, read the news, research companies and organizations, order food, look for apartments, and just simply browse. Companies that don’t tap into this online marketplace may be missing out on a huge market.

Every company should have website. Whether it’s just one page with some basic information and contact details, or a multi-page site with more detail about your business, a website will you help reach an audience of over 1 billion people from all over the world. This audience has enormous buying power and you can be closer to them with your online presence.

Starting your Website

Once you’ve made the decision to launch your own website, the fun begins. Before you hire a team, think about what you want for your site (size, content, colour schemes…etc).

With a rough idea of what you want, start talking to web design teams. If you find a good team they will probably ask you questions like:

• What goal do you want to achieve with your website?
• How many pages do you need?
• How much content do you already have written and how much needs to be created from scratch?
• Do you already have a domain name and web hosting provider?
• What is your budget for launching and maintaining the site?

Have answers to these questions ready when you first meet your team, and you’ll be well on your way!

Tomorrow I will share a few website budgeting tips…