Save Time Enjoy More Of Your Weekend - Shop Online

I don't usually venture into the supermarket on a Sunday but weather disrupted plans for today so while I was out I popped in to pick up a few things.  More than a few things as it turned out but I was surprised at how full it was for a Sunday morning.

Perhaps like me people were planning something else until the weather changed their plans or more likely the weekend is the only time they get to go shopping, although I can think of other things I'd rather be doing on my day off.

If you'd really rather be doing something else with your weekend, save the two hours you spend shopping - allowing for time spend wandering up and down the aisles, travelling there and back and unpacking and storing said shopping.  Shop online - do your shopping from the comfort of your home, takes minutes, delivered to your door.  Great for the basics and your regular shopping items, not so good if you like to select your fruit and veg but does save the temptation of those 'special offers'.

Brand Awareness on Twitter

Hats off to BT, although I could have done without the problem in the first place, they've been pretty prompt and communicative in fixing the fault with my phone line. My phone started playing up on Tuesday.  I could make outgoing calls and my broadband wasn't affected - or it could have been more serious - imagine being without Twitter for 2 days!

Having reported it to my provider Utility Warehouse - they passed it on to BT and kept me up to date via text message.  Not only did the engineer call me on my mobile before and after he'd worked on and fixed the fault but I've just received a Tweet from @BTCare.  Less than 48hrs after it was reported the problem has been fixed.

Good to see that some companies are monitoring their brand on social media platforms.

What's Your Top Blackberry App?

I've recently upgraded to a Blackberry Curve - primarily so I can have phone, address book and calendar functions all in one device and sync'ed up with my PC.

So far so good.  As with most of these devices it has a wealth of functionality available.  I'm getting the hang of the qwerty keyboard which seems slower after being used to predictive text.  The camera is great - better than my actual digital camera and about a tenth of the size.

So which are the best Blackberry Apps out there? There are hundreds of thousands of apps for everything and anything. Some are just for fun but some might actually be useful.

What are your top Blackberry Apps that have made your life easier?


Google Maps Mobile - get directions,

Twitter Account Hacked?

Always be wary of entering your online account details into websites.  Spammers and hackers are quick to jump on to the latest trends and Twitter seems to be their latest target.

Twitter accounts are regularly getting hacked - judging from the number of my followers sending me direct messages (DMs) to test my IQ or check out my photo with a tempting link to click on.  When you click on the link it asks for your Twitter Account details.  Of course if you do - they've now got your details.

Check the URL - you might spot something's not quite right - misspelling, seeming to emulate a real URL but with added info e.g. http://www.twitter.com.fake.spam.co.uk

If you find you've been hacked - here's what to do.

http://help.twitter.com/forums/10713/entries/31796

Be wary of third party apps that request your Twitter (or Facebook) account details.  If you're not sure - don't. You can probably survive without the latest widget or app rather than risk having your account details hacked.

Spam emails are now enticing you to update your Facebook, Twitter, Myspace account details.  Same thing applies for the URL - it's usually not what it appears.  Don't fall for it.

Making Calls Whilst Driving

Someone asked me yesterday, whether using driving time was a good time to catch up on phone calls. Now I'm all for multi-tasking, when appropriate and making use of slack time but this isn't one of them.

While you might think that sitting in the car is a good time to use technology with all the gadgets and attachments that enable us to be in touch and contactable at all times - hands-free, bluetooth, voice activation etc. but driving standards are bad enough without the added distraction of having a conversation on your mobile whilst driving.

I see enough erratic driving with drivers having a phone clamped to their ear - usually hand held and NOT hands-free. Today I saw drivers on the phone, negotiating roundabouts, turning corners and swerving across their lane.

There's a time and a place and being behind the wheel while you're driving is not a place for a phone conversation.

You're having to listen and respond to the phone conversation, which means your attention isn't where it should be.

According to RoSPA, 85% of drivers observed were using hand-held mobile phones. Not only is this now against the law but drivers on the phone are mentally more challenged are more likely to be involved in an accident. Numerous tests and surveys have shown that drivers are more distracted than they might like to admit by attempting to do other things. A moments lack of concentration can all too easily result in an accident and even fatalities.

Now a lot of people may disagree, especially if they treat their car as their office because they're on the road a lot. If you spend a lot of time in the car as part of your work:

- make calls before you leave or when you arrive
- keep calls short if you have to answer a call and only if you're hands-free
- pull over safely if you need to make or receive a call.
- call them back when you can talk properly.

If you call someone and they're in the car and moving - call them back later.

Above all - keep your eyes and mind on the road ahead. Drive safely.

Are You Tweeting Yet?

You may or may not have heard of the latest phenomenon to hit the web. It's called Twitter and it's been popping up all over the place on TV and Radio with the likes of Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross now tweeting.

While the original purpose may have been to let people know "What Are You Doing?", most people aren't really that interested in what you had for breakfast, that you're helping the kids with their homework or that you're just off to do some shopping but they might be interested in your expertise, they could have an answer to your question and you might just find out how to do ... well, just about anything. You only have to ask.

Twitter messages are limited to 140 characters, so it's like sending a text message but via the web. You can send a message to all your Followers (people who have signed up to receive your Tweets - as Twitter messages are called), reply to a Tweet (@) by including the Tweeter's name eg. @clareevans or send a direct message (d) that only that person will receive.

I love the quick and easy way that Twitter works. You can get a whole wealth of information in just 140 characters. For me, it's a great way to keep in touch with my contacts and wider network and to connect with people on a more regular basis than I would if I spent my time emailing or phoning them.

There are several people I recommend you follow if you're new to Twitter. @markshaw has plenty of links to useful info and often Re-Tweets (RT) things he finds. @NikkiPilkington has a whole blog on "Twitter for Business" and @grahamjones also has lots of useful info on Twitter.

On the international side there is @ProBlogger @chrisbrogan and @mashable - are just a few of several, prolific online media marketing people. Dozens more I could mention as well as the Celeb Tweeters and other more obscure people who are fun to follow, if you've got the time.

Connect with your contacts, connect with your customers and clients. Have different Twitter accounts for different, focused tweets (use Twhirl to manage multiple accounts).

BUT - plan your Twitter Time along with your other marketing/business time, so you don't find your day disappearing in a stream of Twitter chat! Use tools like Twitterfeed, Tweetdeck or Twhirl to manage your 'stream' so that you can filter your Tweets into useful groups.

Follow me on Twitter.

Contact Relationship Management Made Easy

I've just had a demo of a great new time management tool E-link, which enables you to link your calendar, tasks, contacts, emails and documents in one easy-to-use front-end. Impressed by the initial demo which does many of the things I've always wanted to do with Outlook, without having to buy into a full blown CRM system, which I don't need or find that either Outlook doesn't quite do what I want in the most intuitive way or that I need to purchase any number of Add-ons to get close.

Now I need to start using it in earnest with real data but I'm already excited by the possibilities of linking emails, contact history and documents. I'll keep you posted and let you know what I think.

Increase In Spam

In the last few days since my website returned to normal (thank goodness), I've been deluged with spam. All the usual stuff which I usually get in small quantities on a regular basis but from the sudden increase it looks as if the spammers have found a new location from which to operate and are spamming in earnest and getting through the filters.

Anyone else seen a significant increase over the last week or so?

Now You See It, Now You Don't

My website appears to be suffering from hiccups at the moment.

Normal service will be resumed once I or my hosting company, work out what's going on but in the meantime, if you need to contact me for anything - you can do so via Linked In, Facebook or Ecademy.

The TechGuys - Radio Interviews

Hot foot from a day of radio interviews up in London with Tim Fairs from The TechGuys. A really early start for me, meaning that I was up at 5.00am, train at 6.00am and sitting in their offices at 7.45 ready for interviews to start at 8.30. Too early for even me to have breakfast at that time.

This is part of a media campaign for The TechGuys with this month's focus being Rage against the machine - how and why people get frustrated and waste time waiting for their machines. It's quite worrying how many people find 2 seconds is too long to wait for a response - 56% get frustrated if it's after 10 seconds. I know everyone's busy these days but really - 2 seconds?! Mind you, when all that waiting time - booting up, opening files, loading websites means 2 out of 5 of us spend over 30 hours a year waiting - that's a fair amount of time. Almost a working week's worth - unless you're working more than a 35 hour week.

We were well looked after by the Markettiers 4DC team, who are running the campaign - we got breakfast ordered for us after the first interview, fruit smoothies and then lunch, with tea and coffee throughout the day, if we wanted it.

Although the interviews were set up pretty much back to back throughout the day they only lasted a few minutes each, so it never got to intense and we had a few minutes between sessions. Tim and I were in the studio, facing each other with Rupert and Jo in the gallery next door behind the glass - pressing buttons and connecting us as each station called in, queuing us in to each interviewer. Questions were geared around the services The TechGuys offer to improve the efficiency of the average computer and my input on reducing frustration and using rather than wasting time.

Most were being pre-recorded for later broadcasting either some-time that day or later in the week. A few of them we were 'live on air'. A variety of radio stations from commercial to local BBC - including Brighton's Juice 107.2. The day went very quickly and I'm looking forward to hearing how it went and what finally made it on air. If anyone happened to catch one of the interviews - let me know.

Look out for a time saving techie tips article in the next couple of months.

Technology - Slave Or Master

We’re surrounded by technology 24 hours a day. Mobile phones mean that we can be contactable wherever we are day or night. Laptops are great, now they allow us to be able to work anywhere, when we’re not in the office, while travelling and at home.

However, there’s a downside to all this technology and being constantly contactable. Firstly if it goes wrong you’re stuck. How do you carry on if the technology fails? Secondly, being constantly around technology means that we can never get away from it or we feel a reluctance to let it go or switch it off – hence we end up taking it with us … just in case.

How many of you were still working over the Bank Holiday weekend? Did you feel that the technology meant you couldn't really take time out - or did you manage to switch off the phone and shut-down the computer. How many people take their mobile phone, PDA or laptop with them when they go away on holiday? Perhaps your business is so critical that you can’t possibly be out of contact for one minute.

What would happen if you left your mobile phone at home or on your desk or even switched off while you went to a meeting? I recently read that top execs don't have a problem with being unavailable and switching off their phones - it's the one's that are out to impress or want to feel important that feel the need to be permanently contactable.

Would it really matter if you didn’t answer that email as soon as it arrives in your inbox or respond to a phone call. OK, I appreciate that in some instances you need to respond promptly in order not to lose business or to provide your clients with the service they expect but does it mean you're no longer in control of your time?

Technology is great for making lives easier and for saving time but make sure that you’re not totally dependent on it or if you are that you have a process or system in place to handle things if you’re without it for a while. Don't become a slave to technology. Learn to make the most of the tools you have to save you time and money, not to add to your stress and waste your time, when you can't get them to work or things go wrong.

Use technology as a tool, don't become it's slave.

What Am I Twittering On About?

Yes, I've joined the world of twitter. For those who don't know - it can basically be summed up as a one-line blogging application. An easy way to stay in touch, keep people informed and pass on useful or useless information.

I'm not doing much with it - other than to try and keep my Status update on Facebook, Linked In, Ecademy and Plaxo up-to-date in one step rather than several. So far, I've got it down to two and still working on the single, one-hit approach by juggling and 'feeding' into TwitterSync or is it TwitterFeed or some other twitter based app?

I won't be telling you what I had for breakfast and I'm sure you don't really want to know what I'm doing every minute of the day but there will be occasional updates or 'tweets' when I feel I've got something interesting to say.

Follow-me

Email virus hoaxes/chain emails

Do you suffer from well intentioned people who forward you hoax emails? They sound convincing which is what makes people forward them on but 99.99999% of the time it's just another hoax/chain email, there is no such virus, Bill Gates really isn't going to give you thousands of pounds/dollars.

How do I know?

First give away - the bit that says "Forward this email to all your friends, family, everyone you know." Yep - that'll just clog up the mail system. ANY email that says that, is guaranteed to be a hoax or just a classic chain email.

Second give away - the fact that some apparently reputable source (CNN, Microsoft, AOL and McAfee) have 'verified' this as being serious (yeah right). "My friend is a lawyer/works for XYZ and said this was real".

Think about it - I could write an email right now and add in a few verified sources, quote a few press articles and it would mean nothing.

If you think there might 'just' be a grain of truth (there rarely is) check out http://www.breakthechain.org or http://www.snopes.com.

It will tell you all the hoaxes that are out there, how long they've been around and variations. This one's been doing the rounds since 2002.

Or if you're really concerned, then read warning page - http://www.virtualsalt.com/warning.htm

Valid viruses will come as an attachment in an email - usually a zip file. McAfee is constantly updating their data file, so if you've got up-to-date virus software - you have got virus software haven't you? - you're pretty safe.


P.S. By all means forward THIS blog to all your friends, so that less people get taken in by these hoax/chain emails.

What Would You Do If Your Computer Died?

Well, mine just did! It went 'ping' on Monday morning, before I'd even got started on planning out the week.

I'm guessing the hard drive just gave up, as I couldn't get the PC to restart and after several attempts trying different things, realised that this could be serious but hoped that it was recoverable.

I took it down to the local PC Repair shop - handily, just down the road and they said 'worst case' it would need a reformat but they'd save the data first, so I left them to it.

Several hours later after having heard nothing and hoping that I'd be getting it back at the end of the day, I called. They were just starting work on it and would leave the back-up running overnight.

Next morning and after three hours of effort - they'd given up. It was pretty terminal and the only solution was a new hard drive! :( So, a few more hours later, my laptop was returned with the operating system but not much else.

Fortunately, I have got a backup of the data - unfortunately it's only from mid May, so I've lost a few weeks work ... but better than nothing. I've also got the entire C: drive backed up from the beginning of the year - again not current but better than nothing. I'd set up a weekly data backup but it wasn't working and I hadn't managed to sort out why and of course you never think it's going to happen.

If you lost your computer - what would the impact be to you and your business? How would you function? What would you need to keep going?

• Make sure you backup your data regularly - not just the documents you use but also your mail files, calendar etc.
• Sync up with a PDA/Blackberry/Mobile Phone - for your calendar, contacts and email.
• Have an online mail system - at least you can temporarily access your email. Most local libraries offer free internet access.
  
• Keep a note of userids/pswds somewhere - in coded form obviously.
  

It's an ideal opportunity to declutter the hard disk and get rid of all those programmes you rarely use but I don't recommend it.

The older your computer is - the more likely it is to happen. Of course, we all know we should take regular back-ups but how many of us actually do?

Don't get caught out.

At Last!

... back in the land of the living, or at least back online. I've been without an Internet connection since Tuesday morning when I was switched over to my new ISP, no warning and no indication of the new connection info I'd need as and when it did get connected.

I resorted to the local library on Tuesday afternoon just to check email (useful free service) and managed to check emails yesterday at the Money Marketing Live Event up in London. Finally this morning, after a lengthy call with my new ISPs Support Line (why do they always charge extortionate amounts for this), I was able to establish some sort of connection through a modem. Still can't get my wireless router working.

So, I'm back. I've missed whiling away the hours browsing through blogs but it has at least meant that I've been less distracted by email and the internet and been able to get on with other things! Unfortunately, all those website and blog updates I was going to do this week will now need to be done over the weekend.

Fortunately, my business isn't too email critical although I do like to respond to emails the same day and I've not been able to do that. I certainly haven't missed all the spam though.

So, if you want to get more done - get rid of your internet connection (at least temporarily).

Avoid The Phishers, Scammers and Junk Mailers

Sometime ago I installed McAfee Site Advisor (it's free) and it just sits in my browser checking out the sites I visit or google and advising on the status of the sites.

Out of curiosity this morning, I clicked on a phishing email I'd just received (I normally give them the treatment they deserve and just delete them) - it's for a Halifax Account and of course I don't have one - but I just wanted to see how good and convincing the site would be requesting all my personal financial information.

I didn't even get that far, Site Advisor intervened and told me that this was a phishing site, why and what to do about it. Good for them. It's also advised me when a site I've visited has been a source of spam or unwanted junk mail.

Perhaps if more people had this or similar software installed - less people would get taken in my these emails. I'm assuming that some people still fall for these emails otherwise they'd have switched to something else.

If you ever receive an email requesting personal information - especially from a bank - however convincing it may seem, NEVER click on the link. Your bank will always address you by name. Another way to check is either manually type the web address into your browser or if you hover over the link - it will usually show something that is obviously not the correct link and takes you to a false site.

If in doubt delete it.

Get It Backed Up

My laptop has been playing up for a while. It's four years old so could be considered technologically obsolete - although in reality it's still pretty high spec. Like most people who probably assume or hope it will never happen to them, I back up my data occasionally but I did think - what if the worst happened and I lost everything? One of my readers contacted me after my last newsletter with some advice and suggestions.

Hard disk drives aren't that expensive these days as with most technology, they get bigger and bigger and cheaper and cheaper. Should the worst happen, I now have my data backed up on a regular basis and at the press of a button. Working in the world of technology for many years it all very familiar - full backups, incremental, differential. Most devices are plug and play, so you don't need a science degree to set it up. Plug it in, follow the instructions and it will install itself. It's also possible to sign-up for online backups for a monthly fee.

Think of the impact if you were unable to access any of your data or were without your computer for any length of time. Your client details, documentation, contact information etc. How would your business continue to function? What would you need to keep going?

Western Digital - 250GB External Hard Drive