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Facebook Says Email is Dying – It’s True!

Just ask any 20 something young adult or try to correspond with them and you’ll see that it is true email is dying and in fact so are phone calls with this demographic group. For any parent of a young adult in college or one just getting out on their own, we know that we reach our kids through text messages to their mobile phones and send messages to their Facebook profiles. Send an email message and you’ll probably never even receive a response.

Sheryl Sandberg the COO of Facebook recently spoke on this topic. You can check out the video and more information on her chat on this topic through Web Pro News. Although Web Pro News, in this article, clearly does not agree that email is dying, as I read the article, I rapidly have grasped that the writer has missed the meaning of Ms. Sandberg’s comments.

I do agree that in a few years email as we know it today will have morphed into something different. I feel that social networking sites have brought about such big changes in how we interact online that in the not too distant future their advent may be considered as big as the development of the Internet.

Yes for now, you do need an email to set up social network accounts and most business communication is by email, but if we closely watch our young people and how they use technology to communicate, we see that we are in for some very big changes in the not too distant future with most of the big changes being tied to popular social networking platforms like Facebook.

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Google Voice – Why You Must Have It

Google Voice is my new tool that I can now not live without. In fact, I have found it so helpful that I may replace my landline phone number posted on my website with my Google Voice phone number. This last trip, I found my Google Voice account to be an indispensable asset for any business traveler.

There is nothing worse than feeling tethered to your computer when you are a small business owner and there is no faster way to make your family mad at you when you are on vacation and you are stuck doing business on “their” special time. I found that Google Voice put me in the “driver’s seat” when it came to managing my phone calls while on travel.

In the Google Voice settings, I was able to set up groups for my business contacts and then set attributes on who would have immediate access to me by phone. Clients were asked to say their names on dialing, and then Google Voice phoned me and asked if I wanted to answer the call or have it send them directly to my voice mail.

With an additional setting I was able to have all my Google Voice messages transcribed and emailed to my mobile phone. This way I could decide who to call and when. Additionally, when I returned to my office I now had a full archive of all phone calls and transcribed messages. With one click I could listen to the actual phone call to figure out if the transcription was accurate with names. (The transcription was not perfect, but pretty good.)

If you are a business owner on the go, I would highly recommend Google Voice to you for your next trip. For now Google Voice is still by invitation only, but you can sign up to get access when it is opened up for public use from this link.

P.S. Google is not paying me for this post, I just feel they have a great new product and wanted to share it with you.

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Traveling With Your Business – Lessons Learned

I have just returned from a week long vacation with my family to the Grand Canyon and for the first time ran into some real email and communication problems. In this world of global communication we can easily forget that remote locations are still using dial up connections or that hotel Internet connections can be excruciatingly slow when everyone is checking their email at the same time.

On this last vacation I found my Verizon Internet enabled phone and IMAP email account at Live.com indispensable. I found that having and online email account was a life saver and that you can just not count on being able to download your email when you travel.

Although I did intensive technology planning for my trip – making sure my hotel had high speed Internet, I never bargained that my connection speed would be so slow and that it would be incredibly difficult to work online. As I am getting ready to leave for Russia at the end of July, I am now planning again to be out of the office and work globally.

This is my action plan for stateside travel next time:

  1. Get a Verizon wireless card for my laptop. Then I have my own connection.
  2. Make sure all email accounts I use have online access – in case I can’t download my mail.

I did find that this last trip that my Google Voice account was a terrific asset. I was able to receive my messages when I wanted them, could screen callers to answer when it was convenient to me, and received transcriptions of calls via SMS to my mobile email account.

Sometimes even when you have planned in advance being away from your home computer network can be problematic, what I learned was to be self reliant.

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Adding Video to Your Website

As you cruise around the Web, you see videos just about everyplace. Video is an important new way to reach out to customers on your website and in your advertising and one that you should strongly consider.

Not only is a video interesting and adds a dynamic component to your web pages, it can communicate your message in a very compelling way. Yes, video can be overdone, like anything else, but when done tastefully and professionally it can create a compelling call to action that text just can’t do. That being said, not all sites are strong candidates for video integration, but many are.

When you integrate video into your website, it is important to keep in mind the load time. Sometimes a smaller screen and shorter clip are more important than a huge screen with a debilitating download.

Flash is an excellent format for video as most browsers will already have the plug-in in place and typically the download time is snappy. We have also found that using Windows Media Player instead of QuickTime may allow you to show your movie more quickly. Still the best option is sometimes to allow multiple viewer options. Mac users will not have Windows Media Player installed, but they will have QuickTime, and nearly everyone will have Flash already in place. Offer your viewer choices for viewing your video unless you are using Flash.

Other things that you may want to consider before filming and installing a video on your site are:

  • Will you be in your own video? Are you photogenic? Is there someone on your staff who would be better in the role of spokesperson or model than yourself?
  • Will you produce your own video? You can using most digital cameras to create a Quick Time movie.
  • Make sure you have a script and stick to it.
  • Make sure you have good additional lighting. Keep your movie images from being too dark. We’ve seen low lighting as a frequent problem on client movies.
  • Consider using professional video services for the very best results.

Video is definitely a happening Web media and one that you may want to consider adding to your own website.