What Motivates us? Amazing video from RSA, please check it out!
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Previous News,
New settings for outlook allow Clients and Business Associates to see Facebook updates! If you’re not quite sure about anything here please contact Integral Admin.
A new add-in from Microsoft, called Outlook Social Connector, adds a feature to Outlook so that you can see peoples’ status updates from certain social networking sites. These sites include the following (with more to be added in the future);
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Myspace
• Windows Live Messenger
Here’s the press release from The Australian:
MICROSOFT has added Facebook to Outlook, giving users the ability to view status updates, pictures and wall posts within the popular email program.
Outlook now lets email users view the profile picture and activity of their Facebook friends in a box called the "People Pane."
"You can view your social network as you look through your email to stay connected with your friends, family, and colleagues," Paco Contreras Herrera, a group product manager for Microsoft Office, said in a blog post.
Microsoft integrated two other social networks, MySpace and LinkedIn, into Outlook in February using what it calls the "Outlook Social Connector."
"The Outlook Social Connector doesn't add another social network into the mix; rather it offers busy people the convenience of accessing them in Outlook," he said.
"We expect more partners down the line."
Outlook 2003 and 2007 users can download the latest version of the Outlook Social Connector from the Microsoft Download Centre while Outlook 2010 users can get it through Microsoft Update.
This can be an excellent tool for businesses that know how to use it,
...BUT...
...it can also be dangerous.
Points to check:
Do you have a Facebook page that includes updates on your “wall” that maybe publicly available but that you wouldn’t necessarily want your clients and business associates to see?
Do you use your business email address to log-on to Facebook?
If you answered “Yes” to both of these questions you need to change things immediately. This means YOU!
Log straight on to Facebook and adjust your privacy settings so that only you Friends can see your updates and delete anything from your wall that could be taken out of context.
Change your email address on Facebook to a personal address, one that you won’t use for business. Ever!
Basically, here’s how it works;
If you have some networking sites that are linked to your email address:
...and you send an email from that address to a person with the Outlook Social Connector:
Seems a strange concept to many; “Aren’t our customers meant to pay us?”
Well, they do (for the most part), however, consider the scenario of a small business owner of a one person show. For this example we’ll examine the situation of a private psychologist, Barbara, who operates out of her own office.
Barbara sees clients at her office five days week, has a few regular clients and a decent referral network to keep new business coming in. She has the freedom to set her own hours and is able to take holidays when she likes. Life seems good for Barbara.
So, you may ask, “How does Barbara pay her customers?” The devil, as always, is in the detail. Barbara’s customers are paying her for the time on the couch – the consultation. As soon as the customer leaves her office she begins to pay them. From that moment on she is spending her own time issuing invoices, sending out follow-up emails and letters, drafting reminders requesting referrals and chasing late payments. Sound familiar?
All these extra duties are taking up Barbara’s time. Every lost moment on one of these tasks on a customer effectively reduces the hourly rate that she charged them for the consultation or, to look at it another way; Barbara is paying them to undertake these other duties. Furthermore, if it is time she could be using to see other clients she is effectively paying them her hourly rate plus the time she is wasting.
Even more importantly, Barbara maybe using the time to follow-up her customers instead of the reason she’s working in the first place – to create a better life for her and her family. While Barbara, like yourself, enjoys her job she looks forward to the time when she can retire (don’t we all), put her feet up and spoil her grandchildren.
Okay, so, what’s to be done?
If Barbara were to outsource her administration duties she would pay an admin organisation much less than her hourly rate to handle all these other duties for her. She would be free to use her time to see other clients or spend time with her friends and family. As an added bonus her business would continue to run when she did decide to take time off because the administration company is able to take calls and emails on her behalf.
Integral Admin will do this for you. We can handle these, and many other, duties on your behalf. Our aim is to undertake any task that isn’t directly associated with your core business i.e. what generates your revenue.
So, if you’d like help with any of the following jobs or to discuss an obligation-free quote please give us a call on 07 3257 1801 (it’ll be less than you’re paying at the moment),
of her own office.
Okay, so, what’s to be done?