Greetings!
Right now what's missing is winter. It was here for a few days and provided 20" of snow and, thankfully, no power outages, but it's gone now. I hear it will be back soon. But for the time being, we're enjoying Indian summer. I was also missing an electronic calendar. This is the 21st century after all. To solve that problem I've moved to the cloud. Like all moves--physical and computer related--it was time consuming and required some heavy lifting. The first article is about that. Personal contact is often missing from our communications these days. The second article talks about some ways to get personal again with generous thumbs up and phone follow up. It chronicles a chain reaction that began with an article in last month's Web Words and leads to an ongoing, online interaction on a completely different Web site. Come follow the trail to find what's missing. I'm on Facebook and Twitter. Follow me.
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Cloud Computing
|  I'm in the cloud, but I went through hell to get here. It was a hell of my own making, as they so often are. But let me back up. I use both Mac and PC, but my main system is Microsoft's Outlook on my Dell computer. I'm pretty used to it. And, true confessions, I still use a paper calendar. I carry it, and a bunch of other stuff I really don't need, in a small but weighty notebook. The mission was to free myself of paper and have access to my calendar on my smart phone. Migrating EmailMore true confessions. I'm a packrat. So I have a lot of old, unprocessed email. Most of it is in the "going to read someday" category. As we all know, someday never comes. On recommendation of my IT department--my dear friend Cody Anderson--I decided to use Google Apps Outlook synch. What I should have done was take a week off from the rest of my life and delete all the email I didn't need. I got rid of a tiny bit before the big migration. But it wasn't nearly enough, and it took forever for all the stuff I didn't need anyway to be migrated to the cloud. I'm still getting my New Outlook set up, and it's a time-consuming process. But there are advantages, and I think, in the end, they will outweigh the costs. Benefits- Instant updates. I add a cell number to a contact in Outlook at my desk and almost instantly that update is on my phone. No synching required; it's automatic.
- Gone everywhere. Before I didn't bother to delete unwanted email on my phone because I would just have to get rid of it again in Outlook. Now delete on my phone--gone from my Outlook inbox. That is a big plus for me which will, I hope, lead to a slimmer inbox.
- Calendar. Enter a new appointment on my desktop computer and presto, it's accessible on the phone, too. And vice versa. Cool. That was why I went through all this in the first place.
There are downsides, too. And they are serious and concerning. Basically, the negative issues have to do with spooky questions like who really has access to the data, how safe it is and who do you talk to if something goes wrong? More about that in the December issue of Web Words. |
Pay It Forward
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 I should "like" more than I do--online that is. It's good 21st century etiquette to be generous with thumbs up. And there are some real benefits, too.
Consider how it turned out for Albany-based Lisa Jordan. As a life coach, she knows how to give electronic pats on the back. She made some encouraging comments on someone else's blog. Then another coach in New Jersey liked Lisa's comments and friended her on Facebook, with a note about getting to know one another better.
Connecting
Lisa picked up on that suggestion, and a few days later the two coaches were having cyber coffee together. Each in their own offices, they were chatting on Skype. Being in the same business, but in different geographies, they could compare notes about their profession without competing for the same clients.
Says Lisa, "Anytime I can promote something and pass it along, I do." That's paying it forward. "When I see something I like, I post it on Facebook and explain why I found it awesome," she continues." I especially appreciate that Lisa explains what she considers commendable about the things she passes on. All too often, I see people raving about something, and I don't get what's so great. The explanation helps.
There's More
Lisa related this story to me at a Consulting Alliance meeting, and I didn't remember the exact details. So, I called her. She suggested that after my newsletter is published, she will blog on the same topic. Then, she continued, I can comment on her blog, and we can keep the conversation going for our collective audiences. So check out Lisa's blog.
Lisa has another suggestion. Join LinkedIn groups of people who need your services. We're all inclined to hook up with others online who do what we do so we can share expertise and professional tips. That's great. But if we get to know the people who need our services--be it accounting or marketing--we can make valuable contributions and maybe some new connections as well.
I don't usually do movie reviews in Web Words, but I can't think of the phrase "pay it forward" without calling to mind the 2000 movie of the same name. The film stars Helen Hunt, Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osment (one of my favorites). It's a very nice evening's entertainment.
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Web Tips
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 That paper-based system I mentioned in the first article also contains my passwords (encrypted of course). So I will need a password manager. These cloud-based systems allow you to store all your passwords securely and generate new, secure passwords for each site. Most of them are free for computers, but charge a nominal sum (typically $12 a year) for use on phones and tablets.
I checked with my friends at Hidden-Tech and did some other research. These are the candidates I found: KeePass, Lastpass, 1Password and RoboForm. It looks to me as if any one of them will do the job. If you have a favorite, please let me know.
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And Finally . . .
Shawenon Communications collaborates with small businesses, solopreneurs, professionals and not-for-profits to get their messages across in the written word.
We specialize in electronic communications, including e-zines and other forms of email marketing, Web sites and social media. We also ghostwrite articles and other business communications. As a solution provider, we resell Constant Contact's email marketing service. Thanks for reading. If you liked this issue, please click on the Forward email button below to share this newsletter with others.
You're also welcome to reprint material in this newsletter as long as it is unaltered and credited to the author. Be sure to send us a copy, too. If being reproduced electronically, the following link must also be included:
www.shawenon.com
Sincerely, 
Susanna Opper
Shawenon Communications413-528-6494
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| Free Design |  |
Once again, Constant Contact is offering a free Web site design match for new customers. You can cash in on this deal (a $99 value), by contacting me before November 30.
Read more about what this opportunity means in the previously published article "It's Back."
If you have been thinking about email marketing, now is the time.
Be in touch to talk about how you can use Constant Contact to boost your business with very little effort.
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