2008 July « wendy gauntt’s tech zest

Archive for July, 2008

Six ways Google alerts can help your business

Alert Google has a really handy service called Google Alerts. Using this service, you can have Google automatically email you whenever it indexes new results for whatever search terms you select.

For example, Google tells me any time my name, Wendy Gauntt, shows up online. I’ve even programmed in a common misspelling, Wendy Gaunt, to be sure I don’t miss anything. I’ve done the same with my company name, CIO Services.

So how can you use Google alerts to give your business an informational advantage?

Find out when someone is talking about you or your company
Track information on your vendors and new products you may wish to sell
Watch for important changes at key prospects that might impact their willingness to buy from you
Monitor major customer accounts so that you know what’s going on in their businesses
Keep an eye on your competitors
Catch upcoming industry changes

To get started, go to Google Alerts, type in a search phrase, select type (“comprehensive” will get everything), and pick whether you want updates daily, weekly, or as they happen. It’s that easy.

If the results aren’t what you’d hoped, you may need to refine your search. For example, when I searched on CIO Services, I got a lot of articles about CIOs. By putting quotes around the phrase “CIO Services,” I now get much more precise results. Here’s Google’s Advanced Search Cheat Sheet for more suggestions on how to refine your search.

Eleven tips for printing in a greener world

Published July 28, 2008 General , Green Technology , Productivity 1 Comment
Tags: carbon footprint, green printing, recycled paper, recycling, toner cartridge

Xerox Solid Ink When it comes to the environment, your printers can cause all kinds of waste. If you want to reduce your company’s carbon footprint, start by reviewing what and how you print.

Here are 11 eco-friendly printing tips to save energy and resources:

Buy lightweight (e.g. 20lb) recycled paper to handle the majority of your printing needs; look for high recycled content of up to 100% post-consumer content
Get a spare tray for “better” paper to be used only when needed
Default your printers to print on both sides (front and back)
Don’t print if you can read it at your computer
Scan documents into the computer to create digital copies instead of paper copies
Recycle all “used” paper
Buy and recycle ink and toner cartridges
Better yet, use printers like those from Xerox, that use non-toxic solid ink and have almost no packaging waste
Keep your printers well-maintained so staff don’t send duplicate print jobs by accident
Make sure your printers are Energy-Star certified and set to maximize energy-saving options
Use a tool like GreenPrint to eliminate printing unnecessary pages like that last page of a website that has little more than the copyright notice, or the end of a Word doc where you get a header and footer with nothing in between

Even a few of these tips will make an impact. Start now and make a difference.

Twitter = online pointillism

Published July 25, 2008 General 2 Comments
Tags: blogging, georges seurat, microblog, tweet, twitter

I finally get it, what makes Twitter so popular. Here I was afraid I was just too old. Whew, I feel much cooler now.

Never heard of it? No worries, you too can be cool and in-the-know.

Twitter is a site where you post what you are doing. Right now. In 140 characters or less (about the length of this paragraph).

You can pick people to “follow” so you see what they are doing. You may have people follow you as well. You can tweet from your phone, to make updates from the road. You can even post your tweets on Facebook and other social networking sites, to keep your entire online life organized all in one place for your friends’ convenience.

At first glance, this may seem like some sort of bizarre ADD-inspired site, for those who need an excuse to change focus every few minutes. Individual comments have little to no meaning.

But actually, if all your friends are on it – which is true for the younger generation – they can see, at a glance, who’s busy and who might be free to do something fun. No need to call friends one by one.

That’s not the only use, however. Tweet for business, and suddenly your staff have insight into how you spend your day and what’s important to you. Tweet about specific hobbies or your career, and others who share that interest can see what a day in your life is like.

Twitter has even been used for online games, like Color Wars 2008. Consider it a social experiment, not a game with a traditional start and finish. That one, I admit, I still don’t completely understand.

I’m looking at Twitter now as a micro-blog, where the comments make sense in the context of a bigger picture, whether it’s someone’s hobbies, their life, their perspective. Twitter reminds me of a trend I learned back in art history, called pointillism. It was made famous by Georges-Pierre Seurat’s painting shown above. At right is a close-up where you can see that it’s made up of colored dots. The dots, individually, make no sense, but when viewed collectively, as part of a larger picture, it makes up a gorgeous work of art.

Suddenly Twitter, viewed as part of a larger picture, makes a lot more sense to me.

The latest in backup technology – sexy! (really!)

Published July 22, 2008 Computers , Servers 1 Comment
Tags: backup, disaster recovery, nas, network attached storage, virtual server

Sexy couple I know, I know…computer backups are not exactly sexy. But there are some tremendous new options out there for small business owners, that provide a high level of protection without breaking the bank. That’s gotta be at least a little sexy, right?

Most small businesses back up nightly at best, which means you could easily lose a full day’s data if something serious goes wrong. That can be a lot of work to recreate. Top that off with the hassle of swapping tapes, lugging hard drives, or dealing with slow offsite backups that aren’t done by morning. No wonder backups are so hard to keep running, and such a source of ongoing frustration for business owners.

Now, you can now use a combination solution that keeps risk of data loss to an absolute minimum, with fast recovery in the event of disaster. And while it’s more expensive than basic backup options, it’s affordable. A bargain compared to hours, days, or weeks of downtime.

First, there’s a hardware device onsite at your office, a network attached storage device (NAS). The software takes snapshots as frequently as every 15 minutes. The way the software is written, it only copies what’s changed at a bits and bytes level rather than document by document. It also sends the data changes offsite. That’s usually a little less frequent, to keep from using up your Internet bandwidth. And then all this is monitored round the clock to make sure it’s running smoothly.

If something happens, the recovery options are really impressive, fast and comprehensive. Let’s say your server has a hardware failure, and it’s going to take a couple of days to get replacement parts. Using virtual server technology, we recreate your server on the NAS, on a temporary basis, to keep your business up and running. It can take as little as an hour to rebuild. It might be a little slow compared to your normal server, but it keeps your staff working instead of waiting.

If it’s a worse-case scenario, like fire or flood, have a NAS overnighted and get that up and running the very next day. You’ll have plenty of other problems to deal with, but at least your computer systems won’t be one of them.

Have you stumbled lately?

Published July 20, 2008 General , Personal , Productivity , Websites Leave a Comment
Tags: browser toolbar, stumbleupon, web surfing

I’ve discovered a new favorite website, StumbleUpon. Try it on a rainy day when you’ve got a few hours – you’ll find it quite addictive.

The concept is simple: sign up (free), download the browser toolbar, and check a few boxes to tell it what you like.

Next, press the newly-installed “Stumble!” button on your web browser and see where it takes you. Like it? Give it a thumbs up and browse around. Not so much? Thumbs down, and stumble onto the next site.

The more stumbling you do, the smarter it gets about what you like. It uses community-based ratings to compare your results with people like you so that it can make quality recommendations. After using it off and on the last few weeks, it knows what I like even better than I do.

Where it gets really interesting are the intersections between your interests. I like design, architecture, and green living. It’s been showing me a lot of eco-friendly concept houses which to me are simply fascinating. Since I also marked that I’m interested in web development, business, and marketing, I’m stumbling on web design trends as well as sites that show the absolute best branding I’ve ever seen, really creative stuff.

I just hit the stumble button and stumbled on this intriguing site: http://www.dontclick.it. The entire site is click-less, to illustrate a different take on website interaction. Simply move your mouse around to make things happen on the site. It’s surprisingly easy.

Maybe that site does nothing for you…you can tell I think it’s pretty darn cool, but then again website usability is a personal passion of mine. That’s OK! Tell StumbleUpon what you like, and you’ll find you’re equally enthusiastic about what you stumble upon on the web.

The coolest thing is I never would have found this on Google because I never would have thought to look for it. But StumbleUpon knew I’d like it a lot. Wonder what you’re missing? Start stumbling today!

Get to know your favorite writer

Published July 18, 2008 General , Online Marketing , Personal 1 Comment
Tags: blogging, commentary, connections, purple cow, writers

Seth Godin Purple Cow Does your favorite writer or business icon blog? Because a blog gives you an easy way to connect with your idol. I’ve got many friends who’ve used blogs to do just that.

With people you normally can’t reach, or people you don’t already know, you have to get their attention. You could do something wild, crazy, and desperate. Or you can simply read and comment on their blogs. Regularly.

Your comments must be thoughtful, relevant, and insightful. Something more than “thanks for the great post.” Something that makes them think – a change of perspective, a real-life example, a well-reasoned contrarian argument. Whatever. Bloggers need fresh content several times a week, so if you give them new ideas, they are likely to start noticing.

I will admit, I comment on other blogs, but I haven’t deliberately focused on making this kind of connection. While I can speak in front of hundreds of people, I am oddly shy about this. Go figure. But one of these days there will be someone I want to meet, and now I know how to make this happen.