Online meetings vs. webinars: what small businesses stand to gain

As the old saying goes, “Time waits for no man.”  When it comes to your [and most importantly, your client’s] time, here’s what every small business needs to know about the purpose of online meetings and webinars, as well as some tools:

Online meetings are used typically to exchange ideas and information, as well as share progress on deliverables. Skype, Google Hangout and BigMarker are excellent tools to use for people to come together to do just that.  Some Google Hangout best practices can be found in keyboard short-cuts, tagging users in posts and private messaging.

While webinars allow the dissemination of information, its use is more-so for instructional purposes.  Tools like Slideshare, GoToMeeting, WebEx and BigMarker’s real-time forums provide a space for online instruction followed by Q & A.  Documentation is always provided in webinars in real-time, sometimes as a take-away..  Best practices can be found in providing documentation via limited re-play for people who couldn’t attend during the original “air date.”

Depending on the number of dedicated lines available, these are the most effective ways to train people en masse, in a single setting.

Here’s an article I wrote on BigMarker last year that details how they do double-duty in both hosting online meetings as well as providing online instructional space:  http://www.examiner.com/article/collaboration-is-nice-but-social-media-community-organizer-looks-at-the-heart

Whatever path you choose, always be sure to get the most bang for your brand’s [and clients’!] time… which will lead to the big bucks.

To your success!

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If content is the cornerstone of marketing, Zen is on pretty solid foundation

If content is the cornerstone of marketing, Zen is on pretty solid foundation

Online marketing & PR Examiner Annesa L Lacey reviews entrepreneur & best-selling author Shama Kabani’s Third Edition of The Zen of Social Media Marketing: An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz, and Increase Revenue (Release Date: Jan. 1, 2013)
Related:
Read my April 2012 interview with Shama Kabani on her Second Edition of The Zen of Social Media Marketing!

The eBook: every marketer’s best friend

There’s no denying the very structure of how businesses and brands market themselves has  been totally revamped when social media came on the scene.  Social media is fast and ever-changing, so either keep up or get left in the dust.

A proven reliable means of staying in the game is the e-Book.  It’s short, (should be) packed with vital and relevant information and should always have a slick, yet simple cover that would expertly relay to viewers who happen across it what to expect upon downloading.

What could possibly be said that hasn’t been said already?
Not all of us are Seth Godin nor a HubSpot expert.  But that’s the beauty of it.  Don’t get it twisted: anyone passionate enough about the internet marketing trade surely has something to contribute, if it’s nothing else other than your own spin on it.  Because of that beautiful little thing called individuality, trust that not even Mari Smith nor Amy Porterfield themselves [as bad-ass as they are], could pour out what’s in your heart any better than you.

Good stuff will naturally come to you, either by way of constant good reviews from other internet marketers, word of mouth, buzz from forums or discussion boards and even testimonials

Any information is not necessarily good information
Think of your average Thanksgiving feast.  After all the turkey and stuffing is gone, the only thing left is bones which you toss out immediately, right?  Well, content marketing (which an e-Book is an excellent example) is that turkey.

Prepare your e-Book. (Gather necessary ingredients.  These could be anything that inspires you.)  Then you prepare it with relevant and meaty information.  (Create a cohesive bulleted list for each inspiration. Recent data is always a plus.)  Finally, you organize it all in a relational, cohesive flow, then serve (publish).

Once you get into the flow of this practice, you’ll have a library chock full of tasty and timely information that’s fit for sharing with others to digest.

And you know the best part?  No dishes.

Winning.

5 handy tips to protect children online during winter break

School may be out for winter break, parents, but that doesn’t give kids license to abuse their momentary freedom from academic rule. Now that we’re stuck with – ahem – now that our precious children are back in our care, now is the time for the most important lesson to be imparted in them: online safety.

More than ever our kids need our persistent and consistent monitoring of their online activities.According to a 2010 study by The Pew Internet & American Life Project Research Center – a nonpartisan, nonprofit “fact tank” that produces reports exploring the impact of the internet on families and communities – 32% of teens have experienced at least one or more forms on online abuse by their peers.

Protect your children online with these 5 handy tips:

1. Be the administrator of their e-mail and social media accounts.

Bump privacy. Only people who pay for mortgage/rent, bills, food, etcetera get that privilege. Without trying to be controversial, this isn’t the 50’s, folks. Our kids are in serious times.

2. Lay down the law.

By all means acknowledge the young adults they’re becoming, but it’s our job to inform them with privileges comes responsibility. Either they monitor their connections or they’ll be disconnected. If you catch an onslaught of expletives in your child’s Twitter stream after a series of warnings, it’s time to pull the plug.

3. Know their inner- AND ‘outer-circles’.

Simple: the first group is the “BFF’s,” the second “associates.”

4. Monitor your child’s behavior as well as activity.

Do they seem anxious? Are they nonchalantly slipping away to the escape that only social media provides away from us yappy parents? You really do want the latter. Are they the pitcher or the receiver of any online attack? Teach or remind your children of this golden rule: Don’t start none, won’t be none.

5. TALK to them.

Duh. Let them know that they can always come to us troglodytes with any issues, questions and concerns. Reassure them that we’re here for them and to trust that whatever measures we’ll take to protect them, we will not cause them further embarrassment or harm.

We parents just ‘look stupid’…. all the better to disarm them.