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One of the BEST Things I Love About Conferences...
I have to admit the Michigan Bankers Association came up with a great name for their BEST Conference, which just completed its second year. This year's Bankers Education Summit and Tradeshow was indeed one of the best conference experiences I've had, but not for the reasons you might think.  | My wife and I were able to attend this one together!
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You see, when I attend a conference these days it's usually as a presenter and I'm in front of a room full of people talking about social technology, analytics or some other digital marketing strategy. While I love to present, one of the things I enjoy even more is the before and after time, chatting with attendees and vendors. Many of these folks are old friends, but traveling outside of Michigan, I also get to meet lots of new and interesting people. During this past conference, however, I was able to re-connect with someone that I worked with while I was a banker and he shared with me a story that literally gave me goosebumps (and had nothing to do with banking). I won't spoil the story, one of the things I realized after our conversation is you just never know when your actions will make an impact on someone else in ways you never imagined. Interested in reading more? Stop by my blog and read the full post and let me know what you think. I'd love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to leave a comment on the blog when you're done reading!
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Change the Way You Communicate with Screenshots and Screencast Tutorials
During a recent presentation I mentioned casually a free program called Jing that I've actually mentioned before in past issues of the Internet Minute. But when I shared this program with the audience everyone feverishly took down the URL with interest, so I thought it may be a good idea to mention it again. 
For those of you who may not be familiar with the program, it enables you to capture screenshots off your computer screen (with mark-up text, arrows, boxes, etc.), making it a great tool for creating tutorials and other types of resources. But, one of the best parts of the program is its ability to capture up to five (5) minutes of on-screen video, recording your mouse movements, screens and other actions (even talk viewers through what you are doing with voice recording over your computer). For any business that has a process they want to share, this is a great way to do that without any cost whatsoever. Granted, you are limited on time and there is a "Jing" logo at the end, but heck... it's free! 
I've used Jing for years and it's a great way to share feedback on my website projects with our design team, help show clients how to perform certain functions such as updating content or making changes to images in Photoshop and other types of instructions where it's to everyone's benefit to have a record of what you are doing. To get started, visit www.JingProject.com and download the application and you'll be up and running in no time. It works on a PC or a Mac and if you want to buy the full version, it's less than $20 per year. If you are already using Jing, drop me a note and let me know how you're using it. It's always great to hear how folks are using some of the tools that I share here in my Internet Minute. |
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Take "Ownership" of Your Social Media and Website Efforts with Online Archival and Monitoring
While the banking industry has regulatory reasons to monitor changes to their website and activity in social media, any business that has a site today may very well consider a more pro-active approach to their online strategy. Much like e-mail can be subpoenaed as a form of communication in the event of "legal issues", your website and social networking conversations may also be considered something you will need to reproduce in the event something happens to you online. We all are familiar with the concept of insurance (and by having it we hope we never have to use it), one of the companies that I've had the pleasure of working with has developed an easy way to protect yourself online with a service called Compliance Watch Dog by SiteQuest Technologies. Clients using this service have their website, Facebook and even Twitter accounts automatically monitored and archived, allowing them to have a copy of these valuable resources in the event it's ever needed down the road. 
I'll be hosting James Cella, the president of SiteQuest, for a "walk-through" webinar on Wednesday, May 11th at 3:00 pm EDT and invite you to register and learn more. While a service like Compliance Watch Dog is an obvious fit for the financial services sector, any business with website and "social footprint" can benefit from it's archival and monitoring capabilities. Register today for this free webinar to learn more with the link below. I look forward to "seeing you online"... |
Welcome to this month's issue of the Internet Minute. Hopefully you and your family had a wonderful Easter holiday and with any luck the sun and warmth of Spring is just around the corner. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for the cold weather to be over!