The Virtual Wire

I don't have time ...

Truly, I didn't think I needed to read yet another post about using Twitter, nor did I feel I wanted to take the time.  I'm pleased I took a moment to review this blog post today by Drew McLellan:  How to make time for social media: Twitter, and wanted to share it with you, too.

Drew gives practical reviews of several time-saving Twitter tools, and offers smart tips about how to implement them (which is a great benefit).

A couple of the tools he mentions, I've been using for a while, and they have been great time savers indeed:  HootSuite and Saved Searches. 

I think I'll check out a couple others he mentions ... (ahem) when I have time. 

I am thrilled to be here...

Hello! My name is Sharon Broughton and I am so excited to be the newest blogger here on The Virtual Wire. I felt like I won the lottery when I was told I was accepted as a member of The Virtual Wire team! I wasn't sure what to write for my first post so I thought I would just talk about my love for AssistU (AU) and how I got started on this incredible journey.

I first found out about AU in 2001 while at the bookstore looking for some good reading to take on vacation--I discovered the book by Cheryl Richardson, "Take Time for Your Life." At the time I was working in corporate and about to be laid off. I was telecommuting to Los Angeles a couple of times a month but mostly worked out of my home office in Sacramento. I loved not going to a "real" job and having no commute. My boss was great to work for and my job was very exciting (I even got to travel a little bit). During my vacation I read the book and discovered a whole other world out there full of entrepreneurs. I had heard of them but never thought I would be one! Cheryl discusses in her book how she had hired a virtual assistant and actually listed AU as a resource. I couldn't wait to get home and do more research on this innovative profession. Would I, could I, own my own business? I had so many questions!

Once home I did my due diligence and decided that AU was for me! I signed up and was so excited when I was accepted into the program. The virtual training program consisted of 20 weeks of in depth classes and homework and one massive final exam. I did a great job with the program (even though my dad died right in the middle) and graduated with flying colors in June of 2002.

I currently have a full practice and love every single one of my clients. I am passionate about what they do and really partner with them to achieve greater success. I love to motivate other wanna-be VAs and tell them more about my experience. I specialize in online marketing, ecommerce and any online technology you can think of (chatwise, shopping carts, blogs, ezines, central desktop, basecamp, membergate, Infusionsoft, socialsam--you name it and I have probably heard of it).

So, please feel free to let me know if there is a particular topic that is of interest to you. I will do my best to keep you informed and updated on all things related to virtual assistance. Til the next time, have a great day!

Our changing world

Doug Hudiburg through daily marketing ace posted this video on Visiolo recently about our changing world.  It is great food for thought or confirmation for some people when it comes to the marketing of their business.  It is pretty cool.  I hope you enjoy.

Did I resolve your issue today?

I was asked the above question two weeks ago.

The occasion was a ‘live chat’ (I’ve praised the benefits of these before) with a technical representative of a well-known virus protection company. I was having this particular chat because, being the über nerd that I am, I had earlier decided to test the new version of Windows (Windows 7) before its public release. Just one little hick-up: if I needed to go online for anything [imagine that!] I needed some form of anti-virus, anti-Spyware, and/or firewall protection. So what was my issue? Well, there are very few vendors right now who offer Internet security for an as-yet unreleased operating system!

My response to the question, by the way, was “no”. Even after an hour and a half, and several computer restarts, I was still unclear about my next steps. You know, I wonder if it makes these calls worse, or better, when you say you have some degree of computer literacy or technical know-how? I think it made it worse in this case :(

I spelled out what I needed at the beginning of the session, throughout the session, and again near the session’s end. During my first go ‘round, this particular technician (polite, and certainly tenacious) suggested one wrong product and installed it remotely, had to remove it, and then had to hunt all over to see if his company had a product I could use. (They did). But then he left me hanging, hurriedly. I did not know if he had successfully uninstalled the wrong product, correctly installed the right one, or what I’d do in a week when the trial he just put in would expire! So I said “no” to his question, and he escalated me up the ladder to a more senior technician.

Long and short of it: In an era when we’re increasingly forced to get our (sometimes critical) tech questions answered by e-mail, or alternately goaded into paying for software phone support, we should take advantage of any ‘live chat’ session we can. For the most part, if your issue is not resolved, a case will be opened and the company will get back to you.

When you go to a vendor’s website for support, look for a ‘live chat’ option. It might be your single best, and sometimes only free route toward getting your issue resolved.

By the way, my issue was fixed shortly after I was transferred to the senior technician!

P.S. Having the beta of Windows 7 Ultimate installed has proven to be useful and rewarding, as I'll soon be helping an educational textbook company with some Windows 7 lessons.

Google Chrome OS

Many readers of The Virtual Wire will probably have an ‘oh yeah, right’ moment when they read the following:

“The operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no Web.”

The quote is attributed to Google, and it appears in a Bloomberg.com article written by Brian Womack. What’s so very significant about the quote is that the article is about Google’s plans to create a web-based operating system (OS) called Google Chrome OS. If you don’t know anything about cloud computing—and this is what the new OS is all about—please have a look at an earlier post I did on that. Alternately, why not Google the term!

This is BIG news, and may put yet another spin on the ways in which we use computers and the Internet.

For years, most of us have used Microsoft as either the OS of choice, or as the default OS. Many computer users embrace the wonderful richness of the Mac’s operating system, and a few have ventured into the world of Linux. In all of these cases, however, the OS itself and the applications have largely resided on the computer’s hard drive. We’ve come to understand clients and servers, and by the same token, local and remote. In both former cases, we are the clients who have local files (or programs). In both latter cases, someone or something else has ‘hosted’ our files or applications. Having an operating system that is very paired down, and one whose applications are largely web-based (rather than living in our computers), isn’t revolutionary—I’ll tell you why in a moment—but it’s a very different model for most. Google already has the edge here, with applications/foundations like Google Docs. So in addition to taking a major shot at Microsoft, it seems to me that Google wants to add one more notch in its bid to have (almost) everything stored online.

An interesting take on widely-used tech buzzwords

An interesting read ... 

The tech industry's most baffling buzzwords: A brief guide | The Industry Standard

Posted using ShareThis

This guide lists eight buzzwords you'll quickly recognize.  And, you may have wondered as I did, exactly what they were intended to convey. 

You'll find included in the list (but not in this order): Web 3.0, cloud computing, disruptive, paradigm shift, seamless, solution, and prosumer (that one was new to me).

If you've ever wondered about the use of any of these buzzwords, this guide might bring you up-to-speed a bit. 

Does that compute?

One sunny, Saturday afternoon--when I should have been out enjoying the weather, but wasn't--E showed me a very dated article from Canadian Living. The title, "Make sure you compute", said it all ... well, it did at the time. I think I can update things a bit, as the article was dated October, 1991!

"Computer skills are now a workplace necessity." Imagine that. The heady 1980's, ushering in the era of personal computers, had just passed. In the early 1990's workplaces were in the throes of furnishing themselves with computers, or upgrading what they had, and investing in the latest and greatest software. The single most in-demand software program was (drum roll please): WordPerfect. In the early 1990's I was making a living from WordPerfect, having mastered many of its intricacies. Microsoft Word was running a close second--and oh, how a lot of marketing would soon change that--as was Excel to the then very popular Lotus 1-2-3. Around that time, I was doing nation-wide seminars on the two programs just mentioned.

Today, in my virtual assistance practice, I rely very heavily indeed on technology. I sometimes take or make telephone calls with a Bluetooth enabled headset. I use collaborative software to help manage my, my client's, and sometimes aspects of my community's files and projects; on that note, I've already said in the past that I love Groove. By the time you read this I will have learned about yet another new collaborative tool: Central Desktop (thanks Kathy). Periodically, I use tools like FileZilla (an excellent, and free, FTP client) or LogMeIn to access my PC remotely.

So I know I "compute", and that ties back into the Canadian Living article.

The question the article ended up on concerned the life cycle of one's computer skills. Though I'd argue the connection they made with WordPerfect when they said "Good programs don't die..." (not that it isn't a good program, but it has petered away to much of the world), I agree with their advice about training. If you don't specialize in one piece of software, or one suite, it's always wise to keep abreast of "future trends". On that note, yes, I'm looking ahead to the new version of Windows and of Office; both of which will be publicly available by this time next year.

Choosing an online e-mail marketing provider

To date, for clients in my virtual assistance practice, I have used three online marketing/list services: 1ShoppingCart, Constant Contact, and iContact. I have also had a passing glance or brief exposure to AWeber and Volusion (shopping cart software). To a certain extent, I know my way around Constant Contact, and iContact (this does not make me an expert), but frankly, admit to struggling a bit with 1ShoppingCart.

Each e-mail marketing/shopping cart product just listed—and there are more than those!—has its own unique feature set, strengths, and weaknesses. As I said, I’m not an expert, but to my knowledge no one product “does it all”.

I’ve done a lot of investigation into 1ShoppingCart, and traded my share of support e-mails with them (which I think they’re very good at). My research and limited experiences tell me, for example, that 1ShoppingCart is more difficult to use, but is perhaps the best product for e-commerce, and is very good with autoresponders and e-mail marketing. If you don’t need the e-commerce component, AWeber probably comes out the winner, and is reportedly easier to use. Constant Contact does not have a ‘native’ shopping cart built into it (they have a shopping cart interface called ShopSite™), but they have recently added online survey capability. I used Constant Contact for a client when I first started my VA practice, to create and distribute newsletters and 'e-vites'. iContact is easy to use, in my opinion, comes with hundreds of templates, and is a less expensive than Constant Contact. Unlike Constant Contact, iContact’s survey feature comes with the base price. AWeber also has autoresponders (something that iContact and 1ShoppingCart have, but that Constant Contact lacks).

Regardless of where you’re approaching this from, I highly suggest that you do two things before you make a decision on which solution or system is right for you.

First, do your “due diligence”. Read through the features of each product offering to find out if they have what you need (or perhaps answer the needs you never knew you had). Second, if possible, get advice from someone who currently uses one or more of these products; I think the VA community is a great starting place for that!

Stand by for Microsoft Office 2010

Did you know that Microsoft’s code name for Office 2007 was [is] Office 12? Now you do. Can you guess the code name for the next version of Microsoft Office? No, sorry, corporations (like Microsoft) continue to avoid the number 13 like the plague: Enter Office 14 (Microsoft Office 2010 as it will be called).

For those of you getting used to the Ribbon interface, well, good news … it will still be there, and based on some early screen captures (this one shows Excel), it looks pretty much the same.

So when the new version of Office is released (the commercial release of their common productivity titles is rumored to be in early 2010), in what ways will it be different than Microsoft Office 2007? For starters, Microsoft is not allowing public beta testing; curious. But besides that, one of the biggest changes has to do with the fact that it will be the first ever Office suite engineered for 64-bit computer systems. Perhaps looking at what’s happening now on the Internet, Microsoft will also release a web-based version of Office. Think of cloud computing and Web 2.0, and that last factoid will make sense.

When Microsoft did a complete redesign on its user interface for their Office 2007 line of products (what we know as the Ribbon), they approached it conceptually, and it was meant to mimic the process you and I follow when creating and editing documents. Their concept for various Office 2010 titles, according to Chris Capossela, senior vice president of Microsoft’s Information Worker Product Management Group, includes a “response to a shift in how people and businesses use technology today. The line between home and work has blurred, so people want more choice and flexibility in how, where and when they work.”

On that note, I’d like to give credit to all savvy virtual assistants, who have been living through and thriving on this “blurred” line. Perhaps the new version of Office will catch up to where we've been, and how we've been working for years!

Confounded Conficker!

So the latest (publicized) virus—a ‘worm’ this time around—has come and gone. Were you affected by it? I know of at least one person who was (via one of my students). Did you take precautions leading up to April 1st?

I took the advice of one of my virtual assistance colleagues and downloaded a free Conficker Removal Tool (thanks to Enigma Software Group USA LLC). After running a full scan in Norton Internet Security, then another full scan with Webroot AntiVirus with AntiSpyware, then checking for and installing new Windows updates from Microsoft Windows Update (there were no critical updates), we ran the Conficker Removal Tool software. Phew! A ton of extra work and baby-sitting; and for what?

I’ve said in other posts that I sometimes spend a lot of time ensuring software updates are done. The most important updates for me are Microsoft Windows Service Packs, and those for anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. There are numerous other updates, and all take valuable time. But seeing as, IMHO, most software vendors are quite generous with updates, I do most of them most of the time.

The “for what” point has to do with computer horror stories of all kinds. In addition to being caught last year with serious virus/spyware issues on our desktop, I’ve seen family  members, friends, colleagues, and my students bite the bullet hard when they neglected to keep their anti-virus or anti-spyware software subscriptions up to date, or when they didn’t bother doing the (sometimes daily) updates to definition files. In all cases, it cost people time, money, and sometimes lost data.

Conficker won’t be the last bit of bad business to skewer computer users. So on that bitter, but realistic note I urge you to be vigilant in keeping up your subscriptions and yes, those daily updates!