The first bit of good news: You don’t need to remember another password for Google Drive! You simply sign in using the same one for your Gmail account. Phew.

And installing Google Drive is easy, whether you own a PC or a Mac. You can access Google Drive right through your web browser using your Gmail account (which is the same one for your Google+ and Google Docs).

A Web-Based, Free Alternative to Microsoft Office

Once the download is done, you will see that the “Docs” hyperlink in the top left corner of your inbox now says “Drive.” by clicking on this, you will be able to access all of your Google Docs. The other big difference (for previous Google Doc users) is you will have a “My Drive” section located below “Create.”

Note: Google Docs Collections are now called Folders in Google Drive. “To-may-to, to-mah-to,” I say; just keep it simple.

Below “My Drive” is the “Shared with Me” section, where you will find anything that’s been shared with you. You can drag and drop files from this section into your “My Drive,” as well as any file from your computer. Reduce your document library screen to quickly drag and drop from your computer into your “My Drive,” and then choose whom to share with. The lucky recipient will receive an email alerting them of your Google-generosity.

When you choose to have the document or image shared, you have the option to determine if they can edit, comment, or view. Click on “More,” then “Share,” and you get the “Sharing settings” screen. You can add sharers or change the sharing status here.

Click on the eye icon at the top and get a preview of the item you have highlighted, or do a quick check to see what the sharing status is, in case you need reminded. Click on the trash can icon to delete the highlighted item. Don’t panic if you do this in error – a yellow box opens at the top of screen asking you if you want to undo this.

Not Just a File-Syncing Service

What else can you do in Google Drive? Add any of these 450+ new fonts to keep your presentations noteworthy and eye-catching. While you’re at it, try out one of the five new themes, such as Lesson Plan and Inspiration.

Using Google Chrome (Google’s web browser), download the latest apps designed for use in Google Drive. There are photo editing apps, including PicMonkey and Pixlr Express, 8reader for ebooks, Tottepost for photo and video sharing, Drivetunes for online music, and TwistedWave audio editing.

For web owners, there is DrEdit-ning for better blog building, and for educators, there is Sliderocket, Lucidchart, GeoGebra, and Graphing Calculator. And the list will undoubtedly keep growing.

Try any one of these 450+ new fonts to keep your presentations noteworthy and eye-catching. While you’re at it, try out one of the five new themes, such as Lesson Plan and Inspiration.

The new functions are not without problems and complaints. For instance, in Maps Jedi, many links are not working, Zoho Writer online word processor doesn’t have a page numbering or paste option, and Drive Notepad text editor suffers from saving errors.

On the other hand, certain apps are meeting Google users expectations. HelloFax is deemed a miracle of convenience, Diagramly fans enjoy quick flowchart drawing. etc., while maintaining Google Drive compatibility, and, finally, the Graphing Calculator is being heralded as the TI-89 replacement.

Look out, Texas Instruments. Who wouldn’t agree, when you can graph the Batman symbol for free?

It’s Free Cloud Storage, After All, So Enjoy the Drive

Unfortunately, the Google Drive app for iPad is severely lacking. You can’t create, edit, or share, the trio of Drive appeal. Don’t trouble yourself with a download until they upgrade. Instead, keep working through your iPad browser to enjoy the Drive.

Don’t miss any of the latest news with these updates from key Google Twitter feeds and blogs.

 

To tweet or not to tweet?

Now that you have mastered the art of embedded tweets, here are six basic strategies to follow:

1.  Mention often

By using the @ symbol before the twitter name, you are mentioning an individual or company in your tweet. Include mentions often when you link to someone’s content or attempt to spark a conversation.

Bonus: You can easily tweet-back to your tweetheart this way, should the need arise.

2.  Use those hashtags (these are not your average number signs)

This will allow you to go beyond your own following. When you add a hashtag to a tweet, your updates will be seen by anyone who is following that particular hashtag, not only your twitter followers.

Twitter describes hashtags as “themes” for your tweets. Now your tweet will be searched by other users who are interested in the same topic, as well as linked to all other tweets containing the same hashtag.

Think of it – your tweet could be seen by millions of twitter users!

The twitterverse wants your links and pics

3.  Include links

Tweets that have links have a higher retweet value. Be sure that your links work – test them to ensure they are not broken. Extend the valuable content of your tweet with links to industry support, experts’ advice, and professionals’ feedback.

4.  Use pictures

They’re worth a thousand words, which you can certainly use when your tweet limit is 140 characters. With a twitter image sharing service such as Twitpic, you can easily support your image attachments. (Twitter doesn’t yet have a built-in method.)

Check out what some Twitpic users are up to, such as @Astro_Clay, U.S. astronaut and adventuritter, and see the world tweeted from afar. Or help your readers stay abreast of the summer Olympic games via those who have front row street-seats:

Just leapt out of our seats to watch the torch go past down the road. #southwark pic.twitter.com/ChnMJTsf

— The Writer (@TheWriter) July 26, 2012

5.  Get the timing right

The early-bird tweeter gets the worm every time, so tweet during the day, between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Speaking of timing, watch how the Olympian contestants tend to split the second:

This is so fun. Races across time! RT@Slate
How badly would Usain Bolt destroy the best sprinter of 1896? WATCH: http://t.co/U3LQM05b

— Caragh M. O'Brien (@CaraghMOBrien) July 26, 2012

6.  Track your progress

Fine-tune your tweeting strategy through a free service like Hootsuite. You can also get the free app through iTunes, making managing and measuring your social media updates even simpler. If you think the Twitter bird is cute, wait until you check out Hootsuite’s owl.

Stay in tweet-touch

Under no circumstances, however, should you be Twegosearching. Definitely not all day, every day, every five minutes…

Finally, be web-savvy and follow Twitter Tip Tuesday to further your twittastic abilities.

 
Flickr photo credit: Mrsdkrebs

Thanks to the easy embed option Twitter has added, you can now have more fun with interactive and social content on your website.

By copying and pasting just one line, you can post tweets right into your site. Your readers can retweet, reply, or favorite the tweet to join in on the conversation.

And you thought adding social icon buttons to your website was the cat’s meow.

 

Here’s what an embedded tweet looks like:

The Perfect Blog Post: This infographic gives a very succinct description of how to organize your blog posts. Th… http://t.co/6CEMsprN

— Web Savvy Marketers (@websavvymktrs) July 19, 2012

As you hover over the link, you will find that it’s live. You can also click on the author’s name to view their Twitter profile, or click the follow button to begin following them on Twitter. (Be sure and follow Carolyn, by the way, for some super-savvy fun.)

Give Your Readers Some Tweeting Fun

Adding tweets makes for more interesting and entertaining content, increasing the likelihood readers will stick around and play. As for photos, the tweets that have photos uploaded to pic.twitter.com are the only ones that will show up in an embedded tweet. (Note to self: Good idea to start uploading photos to Twitter’s own service for future ease of sharing.)

Let me make this as easy for you as it wasn’t for me, which is why I’m your trial-and-error blogger (not lawyer, thank God).

7 Steps to Embed a Tweet

1.  Be sure you are on your PC or Mac (i.e., don’t attempt this on your iPad.) Once you find a Tweet you want to embed, click on expand at the bottom left.

2.  Click on details on the bottom right.

3.  Now you will see Embed this Tweet on the bottom right. Click on it.

4.  Before copying the information in the dialogue box, click on the link tab in the top right. Now copy the link in the box.

5.  Paste the link where you want it, on its own line – no images inserted next to it, right into your visual (not HTML) screen in your website editor. (By editor, I mean the page where you work from.)

6.  If your pasted link tries to behave like a link – you will know this because it will be underlined – then highlight it and click on the unlink button at the top of your editing box.  (Your embedded tweet won’t appear as a reproduced tweet on the website editor screen.)

7.  Save and preview to see your successfully embedded tweet.

More Tweets to Come

Watch this blog for more Tweeting ideas, fun uses, and helpful links.

In the meantime, tweet and be happy.

 

Photo credit: ProductiveDreams

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google Apps and Google Apps for Business allows employees to get email, check their calendar, and retrieve and manage documents, all on their Mac, PC, or mobile devices. Your business will be able to connect instantly, stay organized and on schedule, and create and share work, regardless of where people are.

You will also get Google Drive with 5GB of free online storage, effectively replacing and integrating Google Docs with Gmail and Google Calendar. Oh, and Google Talk and Google Reader and…how many times can you say Google in a conversation?

Or try saying meow, it’s probably easier.

Google Apps as Information Safety Net

Google offers a viable solution for information back-up in the cloud,  and leaves you without the hassle of buying, updating, and maintaining software. In addition, there’s the added security of knowing your data is safe, despite the potential for loss or damage on your hardware.

For any security concerns related to storing information in the cloud through the Google Apps component, Google Drive, Google has Cloudlock, an additional service that comes with a price tag of $12/user/year. (Google insists that users are in control of their data, making you able to pull out or delete it should you decide the cloud is not for you.)

For personal use, I am already thinking of its ideal storage potential for my iPad. MacLife gives some helpful step-by-step advice here.

Get it for Free

Your business can use Google Apps for free if you need ten or fewer email accounts, and you will get email storage space of 10 GB with the basic spam/virus filtering. For larger businesses, Google Apps for Business will give you unlimited email accounts for $5 per user, per month, 25 GB of email inbox storage, 24/7 customer support, increased security, and more.

For non-profits and educational institutions, there are business-service options which are either free or offered at a reduced rate.

Bonus Email Back-up

Besides the obvious cost savings, Google Apps for Business lets you brand your communications tools with your domain name, giving you a first-rate appearance with no effort. With Gmail as part of your overall Google business plan, you will have a built-in email back-up. Multiple email servers will help your business when one server is down due to malfunction, repair, replacement, or update, and communication reroutes to the lower priority server.

Some of you might be aware of the disgruntlement over some changes, namely, Google recently reduced the number of free email accounts to ten from fifty (and prior to that, one hundred). Also, the ease with which you could sign up for the free version has changed. Whereas I included the link above to the form for the free Google Apps, the average user might be steered into signing up for the 30-day free trial for the Google Apps for Business.

Compare the Google Apps free version with the Google Apps for Business here. Either way, improving business productivity as you streamline your communications is a web-savvy move.

Stay tuned for more to follow on Google Drive. In the meantime, let us know if you’ve tried Google Apps or Google Business Apps and any benefits you’ve experienced.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a business owner, you may wonder why anyone would want to buy the cow when the milk is free. Giving away information is going to help your business in the long run. You’re not giving away the cow, after all.

So Why Share the Milk?

1. It helps establish you as the expert.

Have you ever experienced a home-owner problem like a leaky faucet and attempted to fix it after Googling the solution? That little experiment doesn’t mean you would never hire a plumber. We know we can count on the expert to solve the problem because that’s what they do all the time.

Providing your customers with free information they find valuable is the true spirit of content marketing. Whether it be informative, educational, or entertaining, free information engages and attracts your audience, giving you the credibility you work hard to achieve.

2. Your generosity involves reciprocity.

Give first, and you will receive later. Your satisfied customers will come back for more. And better yet, they will spread the word. When they find themselves in need of an expert in the field, guess where they will go?

Sometimes the milk tastes oh-so-much-better when you don’t have to milk the cow yourself.

Gum Tasted Better, Too, When You Got  Something Free

In an earlier, pre-computer age, remember when Bazooka Joe won its audience with this then little-known marketing strategy?

Today, there are numerous ways you can market your expertise with valuable, free information:

• Blog posts
• Wall posts (Facebook, Google+)
• Articles published on industry websites
• Tweets (a.k.a microblogging)
• E-newsletters
• YouTube Videos
• Podcasts
• Webinars
• White papers
• Ebooks

What information you choose to share is up to you. It’s entirely unrealistic to ask a plumber to install a couple of radiators before deciding whether or not they got the job. Remember, you set the limits, and then feel good about what you decide to give away.

“This revolution, the information revolution, is a revolution of free energy as well, but of another kind: free intellectual energy.” ~ Steve Jobs

Sharing Information the Twitter Way

The World Wide Web is no longer a collection of static pages, akin to a library with its books scattered all over the floor. The internet has become a publishing platform where its users have evolved from content consumers into content creators.

Your customer audience is now your partner and peer, meeting you on Facebook, Twitter, and their own WordPress site. As a business owner, your ability to use these online tools will help you build relationships as you continue to build an audience.

So Tweet away and be happy.

 

Photo credit http://flic.kr/p/4NMan2

 

 

 

 

No amount of social media marketing will overcome any deficiencies in what you provide your customers. It’s quality that counts – not what you say on your Facebook page.

Marketing Lessons in a New Social World

1. Embrace Excellence

Ask the right questions, and your customers will give you the answers you need to:

• make the most innovative, unique, and easy-to-use product.
• go above and beyond their expectations to deliver the best possible customer experience.

Remember, your social media presence is established after you earn it through achieving excellence in your business.

The Net Promoter Score is a handy tool to assess where you stand in your customers’ esteem. Customers rate you on a 0-to-10 scale, “How likely is it that you would recommend [Company X] to a friend or colleague?” and results will show the promoters, passives, and detractors of your business.

As the question “How many thermometers do you need to know the turkey’s done?” asks, Net Promoter reveals the multiple layers behind your customers’ satisfaction levels.

By the time a customer complains on Yelp, it’s too late. Keep a standard of 5 stars, and worry later about your Twitter marketing plan.

2. Keep Your Focus

Get your house in order first, then worry about the social media. Because there are so many new social platforms, so many shiny, new tactics to try, businesses grow confused over where to focus their efforts. Start with these two proven strategies:

• Create great content to increase website traffic
• Work on your email marketing

Hiring a blog writer who will perform these tasks is a far more efficient use of your time, energy and money than anything else done on social media. Don’t abandon social media. Use it to promote your awesome content and enhance your email efforts with someone in-house who is attuned to your business.

Generating first-rate content involves going back to asking the right questions. By knowing your customer’s interests and needs, understanding them as people – thanks to your conversations on social media – you will be able to serve up a savory blog post, even if your industry registers as “boring.”

Your email marketing begins with capturing your website visitor’s contact information. There are free email management solutions available, such as MailChimp, as well as a host of others with reasonable fees, including Constant Contact. Make it easy for them to share their information by placing your request for email sign-up somewhere at the top of your website. Your social media buttons can go below.

3. Have Realistic Expectations

Social media platforms are constantly changing. Not only that, but you don’t own your Facebook page. Why put your money into a system that is potentially unreliable and unpredictable? Whereas it is an integral component to your overall marketing strategy, social media alone will not get loyal suscribers to your website.

In addition, recognizing the value of long-term relationship building in social media is like seeing the forest through the trees. Don’t neglect the details of regular conversations, but be patient for the time-consuming end results.

Concentrate on the Moon

Think of social media as part of the broad spectrum of your marketing plan. As in the scene from Enter the Dragon, when Bruce Lee told his martial arts student, “It’s like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don’t concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all that heavenly glory.”

By trying to market using social media sharing, you’ll miss out on your overall marketing potential (and worse, you’ll chase followers away). Looking beyond traditional marketing is absolutely necessary. Just remember to keep the big picture in mind.