Most folks will just start going through their messages . . . → Read More: Useful E-Mail Management Tips]]> Have you ever been in this situation?  You sit down at 8:00 and fire up your computer.  Your mail starts up and you realize that it is full of requests (demands) from co-workers, spouses, and friends?  You have a busy day, but you MUST get through this e-mail!

Most folks will just start going through their messages one-by-one and taking action on each one of them immediately.  This is extremely time-consuming and does not contribute to a smooth way of doing business.

Try these tips for more successful e-mail management:

• Instead of creating a hive of millions of folders embedded one within the other, create three to four simple mailboxes.  For example:
  • Inbox (unfortunately can’t get away from this one)
  • Respond (anything that can be responded to quickly – you may find that you can use “inbox” for this and not duplicate your work)
  • Action (containing e-mail that requires anything beyond a quick response)
  • To Review (for informational items that you just want to read some-day but don’t have time today – prune this folder reguarly as items become outdated)
  • Waiting For (for items that you have responded to, but are waiting on a response or action from someone else.
• In the morning, quickly scan all e-mails and file them in their appropriate folders.  As time allows you can perform the tasks needed
• Check your e-mail no more often than every 30 minutes.  Every 1 hour is preferred.  This is still a relatively decent amount of time to respond to someone, and it helps you focus
• Avoid e-mail “discussions” or “chains.”  We all fall in to this trap.  In our daily rush to get as much completed as possible, if someone asks a question of multiple recipients – well – you know the story – it can become a mess quickly.  Keep your opinion to yourself until a relative amount of time has passed since the original email was sent.  You always have time later to rebuttal a decision if you find that it’s not right, but more often than not the problem will either solve itself, or you will be able to put in your two cents – and possibly have the final word since you were so patient
• Ensure that any responses to e-mails you write are well-written and easy to understand, but most importanly – make sure they are concise and accurate.  This will avoid you contributing to the spawn of an e-mail “chain” – when your answers are complete and everyone understands what you are saying, there will be few questions.

The reason for this is simple. . . . → Read More: Windows 7 / Office 2010 – What’s the Difference?]]> Unfortunately you read that correctly.  I have this type of situation arise more often than I would care to admit.  Folks will say something like “I just got a new computer and I went in to Windows 7 to edit a document.  Do I need to save it as Windows 2003?”

The reason for this is simple.  The technology community has never been great about explaining systems in terms that can be understood by non-technical people!  For those of us who have been able to spend a lot of time with computers, we understand the differences of Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista and 7 (whew!) and Office, Office XP, 2003, 2007 and 2010.  We also understand how the interact with one another for a complete computing – well – “experience.”  For the rest of us, sometimes we’re left in the dark – or worse – to the devices of a sales person at Best Buy (a story for another time!)

So I am going to attempt to explain the differences between these two types of systems to “the rest of us.”

To liken these two distinctly different types of systems to real life, I will again turn to my car analogies (thanks George Hernandez!)

In your car you have an engine, and then inside the car perhaps you have a radio, air conditioner, electric seats, windows, etc.

Think of the engine as a computer’s operating system.  It is what makes the car go.

Think of the rest of the devices as usable systems that depend on the engine (i.e., operating system) as the source for power, but perform different functions for you (play music, cool you down, move you around and give your dog a place to hang his head out.)

Now let’s put it together.

Engine is to the car as Windows 7 is to the computer.  Without Windows, the computer itself won’t “go” or allow programs to be run.

The radio, a/c, seats, etc. are to the car as Office 2010 is to Windows.  Without Windows, Office could not run.  But not vice-versa.  You must have some sort of operating system on your computer in order to install programs or application suites into it.

The point of this article is not to insult anyone’s intelligence.  It is purely to educate.  And I will admit there is a selfish part to this.  I would love to hear more questions in the future along the lines of:

“I used to have Windows XP with Office 2003 installed on it.  I have upgraded my computer to Windows 7 with Office 2010.  Are there any compatibility issues I should be concerned with when using Word 2010 instead of Word 2003?”

or

“I love the new Start Menu in Windows 7!  It’s so much easier to find the information I want.  And I love how Windows 7′s searching feature finds anything on my computer and it searches within Office Outlook to find my messages quickly!”

I sincerely hope that you found this article informative if not slightly entertaining!

Have you ever been reading a magazine and seen one of those strange-looking box-shaped codes?  They are usually accompanied by a piece of text instructing you to take  a picture of the code with your phone to get more information about the article or item you’re looking at.

This is known as a “QR” or Quick Response . . . → Read More: What is a “QR” Code?]]>

Have you ever been reading a magazine and seen one of those strange-looking box-shaped codes?  They are usually accompanied by a piece of text instructing you to take  a picture of the code with your phone to get more information about the article or item you’re looking at.

This is known as a “QR” or Quick Response code.  They were originally created for use in manufacturing, but recently have been adopted for other uses, particularly publishing and marketing.

QR codes are “matrix barcodes” – or two-dimensional barcodes, in essence.  They can store much more information in them than a traditional barcode – which is mainly numeric in nature.

OK, so now you understand what a QR code is – but why do you care, and how can a QR code help you, strategically?  Well, let’s see – let’s say that you are a not-for-profit organization that has some sort of art gallery for people to visit.  Or perhaps you have artwork hanging in your corporate offices, and you’d like to be able to allow people to learn more about the item.  You could create a QR code and put it on a sign next to the item, with instructions for the viewer or guest to snap a picture of it with his smart phone.

The QR code could potentially have a website URL linked within it – and it would automatically direct the visitor to the page on your website that describes the very item they’re viewing and its history!

How neat is that?  If you’re an art gallery curator, for example, it could save a lot of money in potential re-prints of signs and placards.  You could simply change the information online and leave the QR code the same way in the gallery itself.

All of this is really sort-of futuristic sounding, but it’s in wide use already.  Another application that has been used quite a bit recently is to have a QR code on a coupon or something of that nature, and when the user snaps the QR code with a smartphone, it takes them to the iTunes store where they get a free song, or some other type of item.

It is very interesting how this concept moved from a purely functional, nuts-and-bolts application into pop culture.  If you want to learn more, let us know!  We’ll help you develop a QR strategy and implementation plan for your organization!

One such question is that of Social Media.  More specifically, these questions relate to how to enter this space and what to do with it once you’re set . . . → Read More: How to Enter the Social Media Space]]> Even though we are primarily technostrategists at tamburrino, we receive a large number of questions on topics related to technology – even though they’re not 100% technological in nature.

One such question is that of Social Media.  More specifically, these questions relate to how to enter this space and what to do with it once you’re set up.

I am going to give a few pointers here that I hope will answer your most basic of questions related to social media, and hopefully get you started.

What are Social Media?

Wikipedia defines Social Media in the following manner:  ”Social Media are  media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses web-based technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogues.”  So, in plain English, this means that any particular social medium (i.e., a blog, a Facebook page, a Twitter account) is a web-or-internet-based tool a person or entity uses for social interaction.

What Social Media are NOT…

Social media should be used in conjunction with your other networking tools.  Social media should never be thought of as a REPLACEMENT to “regular” networking, but an enhancement, or a potential “landing place” for your friends or clients.

How do Social Media work?

Well, this can be a rather lengthy answer.  But to put it simply – it works however you set it up, and it is only going to perform as well as you let it.  Take the following example:

Bob owns a small business with about 10 employees.  His business model is very successful, and he spends quite a bit of money each year on traditional advertising, and he also spends a significant amount of his time and his sales team’s time at networking events.  Bob would like to enhance his website with Social Media.

In this example, I would recommend to Bob that he simply employ, at the time of this writing, possibly the most popular Social Medium – Facebook.  Bob can easily set up a personal Facebook account, and then he can create a “Fan Page” for his business, and designate himself as the administrator.  On his fan page, he can put some basic information about his company with a link to his primary website.  He can also create a “badge” that he can insert in to his website, email footer, and other areas online which will allow his potential fans to link up this Facebook page with a simple click.

Sounds good, right?  Sounds easy, right?  RIGHT!  So how do I use it and make it effective?  Check out the pointers below:

The Tamburrino Rules for Social Media:

• KEEP YOUR CONTENT FRESH AND INTERESTING!
  • If you have ever used a Blog before, you have used a type of Social Medium.  As you may or may not know, a blog is a “rolling” website.  Meaning, in a typical configuration, your most recent updates to your blog are at the top of your page, and the older posts “roll off” the page to an “archive” area.  This is about as simple as I can define a blog.  BUT – one thing that every blog (or website) owner knows is this – if you do not keep the content on your site fresh, people will be less likely to visit it.  Think of it this way – if you visited your favorite news site each day and the content was the same day after day, month after month – well you get the picture.
  • If we apply this rule to a facebook Fan Page, we can simply state that you should put a few updates on your “Wall” (this is like your main Fan Page Site on Facebook) periodically with engaging updates for your fans.  Even if you don’t get many “likes” or “comments” on your posts, your fans are probably at least reading the topic.  This is good.
• DON’T GIVE UP ON TRADITIONAL NETWORKING!
  • It is really important that you still do a lot of traditional networking – in person or via phone call, or whatever “human” methods you currently use.  Although you may have a Facebook page, you still have to have a way to drive fans to it.  Although there are countless other electronic means through which to drive potential fans to your page, my opinion is that a personal touch is always best.

There you have it – a little primer on what social media are, and how to get started – at least in the simplest form.  If you get stuck – you know who to call (or IM, Facebook Post, “Tweet”, MMS, TXT or any other method you might want to use.)

There are two questions that come to mind when I think about these recent developments.

Let’s face it, we all claim to know how to use Word, Excel and Outlook.  Some of us claim to know how to use PowerPoint.  But I am . . . → Read More: training is the key]]> No matter how much smarter our younger workers are with using various computing technologies, one truth remains: employees need to have some sort of structured training in the workplace.

Let’s face it, we all claim to know how to use Word, Excel and Outlook.  Some of us claim to know how to use PowerPoint.  But I am constantly surprised at how many companies have workers that don’t know really how to get the most out of them.  What I find is that employees have a tendency to use Word as a glorified typewriter, but rarely know how to take advantage of some of its automation capabilities.

I have encountered countless people who don’t even know how to perform a simple mail merge.  This is one of the most basic automation tasks that Word provides.

Every time I hear stories like this, I am more certain that every company really needs a customized, structured technology training program.  Sure, you can send your employees off site to a massive computer training center to learn how to use a program, but guess what?  They typically come back with no retained knowledge.

You might ask:

• Why is that?
  • The short answer: your users learn the very basics of the program, but the training center does NOT know YOUR business or how you perform your tasks.  So, when your employees enter the program they learn a bunch of basic information, but they don’t know how to apply it in their work environment.  Poof – the knowledge is gone when they return to the office
• How does custom training make a difference?
  • A company that is willing to spend some time on the front-end understanding how YOUR COMPANY does business will provide your employees with a significant advantage in training.  The trainer can use “Real World” examples of “live” data and take your employees through some of their actual work.  For example, the trainer could show Employee A how to perform a mail merge with information exported from the database rather than typing / editing that same letter over & over again (you’d be surprised how many people still do this)
• How do I know this will work?  I’ve spent thousands of dollars on useless training!
  • tamburrino, inc has a proven track record of creating and delivering customized training solutions to organizations.  After training, we create a method by which to measure positive results.  If we find that knowledge is not being retained or that there are not positive results, we will perform the training again at no cost.  (I must admit that we have not had this happen, but that is our promise to our clients.)
• OK, I like it.  What’s the next step?
  • First, identify which systems your company uses for its critical business, and then identify within each work group how they use the data from those systems.
  • Second, get a company in to speak with your key folks about “curriculum development”.  Don’t let that last term scare you – it can be very simple or as complicated as your company wants it to be