An integral part of work is project management. Whether big or small, a project cannot be successful if it isn’t well-managed. Every work has its own set of requirements, priorities, deadlines and more. Managing a project becomes a mammoth task, especially when we do not take proper steps to make sure it is managed effectively. Today, when many of us spend a good part of our lives in front of a computer screen, a good way to manage projects is through software.
Software like Microsoft Project can do the job, but then there are people like me who don’t like spending a small fortune on buying software. ApolloHQ (see earlier review) is a great option, but the limiting factor is the online access required. Without the cloud, ApolloHQ cannot take flight.
Another viable option is Collabtive, which is free and open source project management software. It has a very elegant and easy-to-use interface. The user (once logged in) can add projects, which she can then manage. Project management with Collabtive is easy. You can have as many users as you want. The users can also send messages to each other, that may (or may not) contain information on projects. The only disadvantage for some people may be that it does not provide the ability to create Gantt charts.
Collabtive needs PHP in order to work. I installed XAMPP in order to get PHP support (Note: You can also use other softwares like WAMP, etc.). The installation is simple. Just download Collabtive and extract the files into a folder. Place the folder in the XAMPP (or WAMP) directory. In the Collabtive folder, you will find a file named ‘install.php’. Open the file in your browser and fill in the details. Now open ‘index.php’ and you shall see this screen.
Once logged in, you’ll go to your Desktop. Here you can see your projects and a calendar. Simply add a project and enter a few basic details. You can then click the project name to go to the Project Dashboard. You find the Calendar and the Timetracker here. Through the Timetracker, you can specify how much time you took to complete/perform a specific task, and add comments specific to the task. Activity in the bottom of the screen shows any updates made to your work.
In a project, you can also enter Milestones, see Tasklists, send Messages and also upload files up to a maximum of 8 MB. You can also control which group of users see the files and which users are to be notified.
There are four icons in the top right of the screen. They are the backbone of the UI. You can toggle between Desktop, My Account, Settings and the Logout button. On the right pane, you can see how many users are using Collabtive at the moment, and the lifeline is the Search option, which comes to the rescue when there are a lot of things going on Collabtive.
Lets look at a few features in detail.
1. Tasks and Milestones
Tasks and Milestones are the basic building block of project management. You can add a task or a milestone by simply clicking on the date (in the calendar) in which it is to be assigned. You can maintain a Tasklist that can come in handy while categorizing tasks. Milestones measure what has to be achieved. Milestones make the progress of the project tangible.
2. Tasklists
The most important of all the features I’ve used is the Tasklist. Collabtive lets you create many essential tasks and assign them to users (depending on your choice) under a single Tasklist. The Tasklist also shows how many days are left to complete a certain task. A tick on the left means you are done with the task.
3. Messages
Users can send messages to other users and any recieved messages are also shown here. They can specify tags as well, which are associated with messages containing them. This can come in handy should you have a lot of messages and need to find ones relating to a particular project or task.
4. Timetracker
As I mentioned earlier, Timetracker tracks the time used to complete a task Enter the name, the time it started and the time it ended, and comments regarding the task. Messages and Timetracker reports can also be exported as a PDF or RSS feed.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, Collabtive is a project management software that is not only free, but is one you can use when you want to spend more time working on the project and less time on managing it. Give it a try if you’ve yet to find a project management solution that works for you, or you need one that doesn’t break your bank and still gets the job done.
RockMelt is a snazzy browser built on Chromium that’s made for social sharing. It’s also potentially the least productive thing ever. Well, at first glance at least. Turns out that you can use RockMelt to help boost your productivity.
Using RockMelt for Work
Have a job where you have to keep up on social media? Maybe you’re a freelancer and social media is an important part of your marketing strategy? Well, here’s RockMelt to the rescue.
RockMelt Easily Feeds and Follow Your Favorite Sites
Let’s say you’re a blogger and need to keep on top of news in your industry. You can easily add feeds and monitor industry related blogs in real-time, straight from your browser without opening another window.
Adding a feed involves 3 quick steps:
- Open a new tab and go to the site of the feed that you want to add.
- Open the “Add Feeds” Panel from the App Edge.
- Click on “Start” to add a feed.
From there, the feed shows up with an icon on the right-hand panel. You can click on it whenever you see that the site has updated and get a preview similar to what you would see in a feed reader. There’s also a handy “Share Icon” right next to the preview.
RockMelt Offers Easy Social Sharing
RockMelt makes social sharing a snap. Right next to the address bar is a “Social Share” button that allows you to post the the page you’re viewing to your Facebook Wall, Twitter account or you send it as a Facebook message to someone.
There’s also a “Compose Update” button in the upper left-hand corner than allows you to write an update and send it straight to your Facebook or Twitter account.
RockMelt Offers Integrated Twitter Notifications
Click on the Twitter icon on the right hand side and the live feed pops up. Simple as that. You can also view your Twitter lists by clicking on the icon next to your Twitter avatar. In addition, you can easily update your Twitter status from here.
Rockmelt Offers Integrated Facebook Notifications
Much like with Twitter, you click on the Facebook icon on the right side and the live feed appears. You can also view any Facebook lists you have, along with liking and commenting on people’s statuses — as well as update your own status. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like there was an easy way to update any Facebook Fan Pages you may have.
RockMelt Offers Fast Search Preview
When you use the RockMelt Search Bar, you can search through both your contacts and Google. Also, instead of taking you to the Google Search Page, RockMelt shows a preview of the first 10 search results that you can scroll through in a separate pop-up. While not ideal for heavy research, if you need to look something up quick, it’s definitely faster.
Using RockMelt for Play
Having a seperate browser for work and non-work is a great productivity and focus strategy. RockMelt makes it even easier.
As with using RockMelt for work, you can use the Facebook and Twitter notifications. You can also make it your social/non-work browser, and pull it up whenever you want to take a break (while you’re at the office or during your work day, for example). Doing so allows you to easily catch up reading a few of your favorite sites, chat with some friends over Facebook, and scroll through Twitter — all from the main page.
This leaves your work browser strictly for work and can help remove the temptation to waste time or procrastinate using social media. Not a bad strategy to implement if you are someone who is prone to distraction.
RockMelt still has some kinks to work out, but if you’re looking for a separate browser to streamline your social media — for either work or play — then RockMelt is worth checking out.
For more on RockMelt:
- Web.AppStorm: RockMelt: A Re-Imagined Social Browser
- Mashable: Meet RockMelt, the Social Savvy Browser
- ReadWriteWeb: 3 Days with RockMelt: The Good, the Bad, and the Meh
- WebWorkerDaily: Hands-On with New Social Browser RockMelt
7 Ways to Create a More Tranquil Workspace
A pleasant and elegant workspace can go a long way in making you more productive at work. I really liked this Lifehack blog post on ways to create a calm workspace. I can relate to the “add some noise” suggestion. I myself sometimes find it very hard to work amidst pin-drop silence. A decent article overall.
What Running a Marathon Taught Me About Running a Business
This post by Sullen Hughes over at the FeelGooder blog talks about his experiences as a marathon runner and a business owner, and how the former occupation taught him to excel at the latter. He relates them pretty well; some valuable nuggets for those running a business.
A Simple Guide for a Mindful Digital Life
Bridging the gap between various online identities and focusing on the essential to get meaningful work done is what this post on the Zen Habits blog discusses. It’s a detailed article that also mentions some useful tools to streamline your digital presence and be more productive.
Keep OS X’s Help Viewer from Floating Above Other Windows
If you refer to the Help Viewer in your Mac often, but get frustrated when it floats above all the important windows you’ve been working on, then this post from Lifehacker should help you out. It shows how you can make the Help Viewer window act like a normal window using certain Terminal commands.
The Worst Moments are Your Best Opportunity
Finally, we’ve got none other than Seth Godin talking about the importance of putting yourself up to the task when the conditions aren’t exactly favorable and there are obstacles galore. He’s right…as usual.
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Last month, Google rolled out a change in its ranking algorithm that has come to be known as the “Farmer Update” — a reference to the so-called “content farms” that Google has put in the crosshairs. Not surprisingly, the algorithm change was more than a little controversial. Many observers pointed out collateral damage supposedly done to more legitimate sites, while other critics charged Google with allegedly singling out individual domains.
While I think the latter is a conspiracy theory, I do have access to the analytics of a number of large sites (200K to 1.5M pageviews per month), and the rankings drop in the sites that were hit hardest did seem to drop unilaterally, while the sites with minimal damage seemed to lose rankings on a page-by-page basis. How can you protect your site from being flagged as a content farm, regardless of whether or not it is? I don’t pretend to know Google’s algorithm, but I can offer some educated guesses.
What Is a Content Farm?
Not everyone agrees on what a content farm is exactly, but the common denominator is a site filled with low quality articles ostensibly designed to capture search traffic on a particular set of keywords, then monetize them with advertising or lead generation. Some of these sites are “scraper sites” that have no original content, but simply copy and paste articles published elsewhere (often without attribution) and plaster their pages with Google AdSense ads. Personally, I would call these “splogs” rather than content farms.
What I would call a content farm is a site that produces original content—hundreds or thousands of articles per month—with each article expressly commissioned to target a specific keyword. “Original” is relative, since many of these articles are marginal rewordings of more authoritative articles on the web. They’re not low quality by design, but the mandate to produce enormous amounts of content each day pretty much guarantees that most articles will be the equivalent of widgets on a conveyor belt. The poster child for content farms is Demand Media’s eHow. Ironically, eHow escaped making the Top 25 Farmer Update Losers list compiled by Sistrix.
In a content farm, full time keyword researchers create extensive lists of commercially valuable keywords couched in titles (“acne treatment” becomes “Acne Treatment at Home”), and each line item is a content order (article) that gets outsourced to a freelance writer for a few dollars per article, or a full time writer tasked to write dozens of such articles per month. A fairly thorough overview of the workflow of a large scale content farm can be seen in the “AOL Way” document leaked a few weeks ago.
But I Don’t Have a Content Farm!
Unfortunately, I don’t know anyone whose traffic and rankings didn’t go down after Google flipped the switch on the new algorithm. Even people who don’t (or claim to not) use SEO to promote their sites have taken massive hits. I’ve seen the update impact sites with fewer than 10 pages, so for all intents and purposes, a content farm is whatever Google treats as one.
Unless you’re paying for traffic, or getting it from an email list (yours or a joint partner’s), then you need to protect your search traffic. How can you do this when you Google operates in such mysterious ways? Here are a few things you can do.
1. Consolidate content.
If your site has half a dozen articles on running shoes, find the one that’s the top performer, and start migrating content from the other pages to the “tentpole” article; then redirect the old pages. You could look at your analytics for highest pageviews, but since pageviews are often correlated to search rankings, it’s better to look for the highest ranked article in Google by running a site search in the form of “site:mysite.com [keyword]“.
So for the running shoes example, if your site was ShoeWorld.com, you would do a search on “site:shoeworld.com ‘running shoes’”, and pick the page that ranks at the top—as long as it’s a logical tentpole article. In other words, you want a title that’s generic enough to rank for different searches. “5 Features to Quality Running Shoes” is better than “How to Clean Your Running Shoes”.
Regarding the suggestion to redirect the old pages: you’ll need to set up 301 redirects to what will become the tentpole page before you start moving content from the old pages; otherwise those pages risk being flagged as duplicate content—i.e. you have the same material on two pages.
2. Build link nets.
A less labor-intensive alternative to consolidating pages is to build link nets. You still identify the top ranking or top performing page for each keyword you’re targeting; but instead of moving content from other related pages, you edit each of those pages to include a link to the tentpole (top ranking) page. If your rankings took a dive, but you’re confident in the quality of your content, then link nets are a better approach than content consolidation, since they don’t lower your site’s index count (the number of pages the site has in Google’s index).
So if you had a well ranking page on “5 Features of Quality Running Shoes”, you would link to it from your “How to Clean Your Running Shoes” page, as well as from every other page that ranks for “running shoes”. If you have more than two or three pages that would work for support articles, consider varying the anchor text with “cousin” keywords—for instance, you could link to the tentpole from two pages using the primary keyword (“running shoes”), another page with one closely related keyword (“best running shoes”), and another page with another closely related keyword (“running shoes online”). All you need to do is put your main keyword in the Google Keyword Tool, which is sorted by relevance by default, and pick some of the keywords near the top of the list. This kind of internal linking tells Google what the main page is about more reliably than hoping other bloggers will link to the page with the most appropriate anchor text (as opposed to something like “this article”).
3. Check for duplicate content.
First, let’s understand what duplicate content is and isn’t. Google only wants to index unique content so that no two listings in search results are completely identical. While they don’t always success at avoiding redundant listings, they try to avoid indexing results with the same text to the fullest extent possible. What people often call a “duplicate content penalty” is less about punishing plagiarism than maintaining unique listings. I once did SEO work on a very large site where one of their subdomains wasn’t being indexed because its XML sitemap was inadvertently copied the one in the top level domain. It’s very easy to run into duplicate content problems, even when you’re fastidious about avoiding plagiarism.
Do a Copyscape check on all of your published articles. If Copyscape flags something as a dupe, compare it with the alleged source and see if you agree. Copyscape tends to be overly agressive in identifying things as duplicate, so you can reasonably assume that anything that passes Copyscape will be kosher with Google; but you can’t assume that what Copyscape identifies as duplicate content in actually duplicate unless you do a human review. You might be able to get the offending article to pass Copyscape after one or two minor edits, but obviously, if the article really is plagiarized, it should be scrapped. I’d recommend using a 301 redirect rather than actually deleting the article, since Google frowns on sites that delete their pages.
Do You Have a Content Farm?
Let’s face it: some of us are actually running content farms, and are simply in denial about it. Be honest with yourself. Don’t assume that a drop in rankings is collateral damage. If you’re hosting a bunch of user generated content (forums, article aggregators) or publishing RSS feeds from external sites, you may want to rethink and future proof your approach. I recently shut down a site whose only content came from user submissions, since it wasn’t worth the management overhead to make sure that everything was above board. It’s better in the long run to only work with content that’s 100% under your control.
This week’s guest on the WorkAwesome podcast is Jesse Jacobs, founder of the Samovar Tea Lounge. Jesse also blogs at RealRitual, a website that discusses the power and joy of maintaining rituals in life.
If you’re looking to hear more of Jesse’s backstory, I highly suggest you check out his interview with Dan Benjamin on The Pipeline — as always, Dan does a great job interviewing Jesse. We don’t go into his backstory too deep in our discussion, but focus more on the present. Specifically, how he stays productive, fosters his passions and his suggestions on how others can do the same.
Jesse was kind enough to provide our listeners (and readers) with a 15% discount on all products at samovarlife.com. Just use coupon code drinktea upon checkout. This coupon is good until April 1st, 2011.
Show Notes
- Jesse discusses how he got into the tea business — from working his office job.
- What tools he uses to stay productive and on task.
- Why tea is fast becoming the drink of choice for those who want to stay productive.
- Jesse also outlines his morning routine, which includes getting up at around 3:30 am.
- What someonenew to the tea experience needs to get started with little to no barriers, including teas that are carried at Samovar. (Note: Here’s where that coupon code can come in handy!)
- …and, among other things, Mike and Jesse discuss their fondness for using old-fashioned shaving tools in their grooming ritual. Jesse’s razor of choice is the Cobra Classic. Mike’s is the Merkur 34C “Hefty Classic”.
If you enjoy the podcast, please let us know. Leave us a rating and review in iTunes; it’ll help people find us and build up our listenership. We’re working hard to bring some great guests on — and we’ve already had some great ones — so if you have any suggestions on guests or what you’d like to hear, let us know in the comments.
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(Image courtesy of RealRitual.com)
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Having a clean, organized email inbox is the Holy Grail for the 21st century. Talk to just about anyone and you’re likely to hear:
“Yeah, it’s a mess. Thank goodness Gmail has a great search function or I’d really have a problem.”
Wouldn’t it be great if you could reach finally achieve that eternal quest?
Thanks to ActiveInbox, you may finally have a tool that will help you achieve just that. ActiveInbox is a browser extension created by Andy Mitchell and Pete Lambert based on the premise that emails are just badly formatted tasks.
ActiveInbox has two parts:
- Turning your emails into tasks and then grouping them into projects.
- Streamlining writing replies.
Turning Your Emails into Tasks,Then Group Them into Projects
ActiveInbox lets you choose whether an email is:
- an action;
- to be dealt with someday;
- or something you’re waiting for a response from someone on.
This has two main benefits. One is that it forces you to make a conscious decision about what to do with the email instead of just letting it sit there. The other is that it makes it easy to tell at a glance what needs to be done when — not to mention allowing you to keep track of when you need to prod someone about a follow-up email.
From there, you can assign each email to a project to keep all relevant emails together in one place. Maybe you have a few different clients (or projects). Either way, this allows you to create a neat, easy to find label and easily access all emails related to one client or project.
You can even create a specific reference lablel for emails you need to frequently refer back to. This is perfect for emails about passwords, emails with re-useable directions, emails with contact information and much more. Plus, you can fly through all of this because there’s a button that lets you finish, skip, or archive the email.
Streamlining Writing Replies
Unlike most extensions and tools along the lines of ActiveInbox, Activeinbox also works to help make writing replies faster and more streamlined.
When you compose an email, a box appears under “Add Attachment” that lets you view previous conversations. No more digging through your email inbox to try to find what you said the last time you talked — it’s all right there with one click. You can even filter by search subject or attachment, making things even easier.
Paid Version
ActiveInbox is a free-to-use extension, but there’s also a paid version with some more advanced features.
One of the more advanced features is the ability to set a specific deadline for when things are due — either a response you’re waiting on or a task you need to complete.
The paid version also gives you additional shortcut options, allowing you to move through your inbox even faster.
Currently, the paid version is in beta and costs $24.95 for a year-long license. Once it’s out of beta, the price will be increased.
Complete Gmail Guide
All of this is helpful in and of itself, but ActiveInbox takes it a step further by offering a Complete Gmail Guide. There’s both a Quick Guide for First Time Users that goes over ActiveInbox’s main features and how to implement them. The Complete Gmail Guide is much longer and covers everything from email organization to daily workflow to speeding up your email reading and writing processes. It’s thorough — and despite being long — well worth the read.
If you’re looking for a way to tackle not just your email inbox, but also writing emails, ActiveInbox is definitely worth installing and giving a look. And even if you don’t want to install it, their helpful guide is well worth the read.
Earlier in the week we let you know about the chance to win a set of 200 gorgeous MOO business cards as part of our Workspace Before + After Competition. To enter, all you need to do is give your workspace a bit of TLC, whether that’s by cleaning it from top to bottom, or making it beautiful. Entries close on the 17th of March so make sure to submit your photos as soon as possible.
Lastly, I’ll let you in on a little secret: if you enter, the odds of winning a set of business cards are very, very good!
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Why am I using this paper notebook for notetaking? It may surprise those of you who have been following my work here, especially since I’m one of the biggest cheerleaders for digital publishing and blogging. Sure enough, my messenger bag carries three digital devices for reading, writing and entertainment. But mixed in with my iPod, Droid cellphone and MacBook Pro is a Moleskine notebook: black cover, ruled sheets, pocket in the back.
Why You Need a Notebook
It’s like collecting puzzle pieces. Use your notebook to store the pieces. Then put them together when you have time. And you’re going to need less time than you think if you keep a good notebook.
Also, the fact you’re taking notes will help you retain the information. You may not need to refer to your notebook as much as you think because your memory for the noted information is better.
What You Need in a Notebook
Here’s what you need to look for:
- Something portable
- Easy for you to use
- Accessible to your workflow
- Convertible into another format or media
Searchable, “tag-able” and sharable are good — but those traits don’t make your notebooks practical. For example, many people love Evernote. It’s a handy online notebook that I find great for research. And it has tools that make it easy to file notes and pieces of web pages.
WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode Four – Brett Kelly (author of Evernote Essentials)
But to be honest, it’s not really part of my workflow. I don’t refer to it very often. Thus, my notes are forgotten once filed. I don’t think of looking through it very often. (What I really want is an app that streamed those notes onto my refrigerator!)
The same can be said about the papers you just scribbled on. If your notebook simply sits in your bag without you going through it, those notes will never do you any good.
Unfortunately, the text on paper isn’t very convertible. You can try to scan it into your computer, but it’s going to be more trouble than it’s worth. Or you can summarize your notes each day in a digital format. This should reinforce your memory of the material and put the highlights in a searchable and organizable format.
Confessions of a Geek
I love my computers and devices. I love storing documents in the cloud. Bookmarklets are the coolest tool for curating content and publishing it. I even figured out how to use a WordPress blog as an online notebook. And I have lousy handwriting.
But after a lot of experimenting, organizing, interviewing and note taking, my Moleskine notebook is the best tool I have for collecting content. It feels good in my hands. The size and rigidity are good for writing so that you don’t need to have a flat surface underneath.
Paper to pen is the fastest, easiest method I have at my disposal. I can easily review and accent my notes with a highlighter, looking out for material that I can use in a column or blog post. Then, I can outline the content in Google Docs. Those outlines can be converted to content quickly when needed.
There’s one more reason I use the Moleskine notebook. Right or wrong, it suggests status. I must be successful if I can afford to spend that kind of money on notebooks. A bit shallow, yes. But is it any more shallow than dressing in a nice suit for an interview or sales presentation? Let’s face it: you’re not going to get the gig unless you project confidence and success.
Conclusion
So, why is this “dead tree” system my preference?
- It’s easier: Sometimes we make things harder than it has to be. There’s a simplicity to pen and paper that no app has replicated. I’ve tried taking notes in word processing documents. But when I want to transcribe the notes into a column or blog post, I rewrite everything anyway.
- Paperless is overrated: As much as I love gadgets, computers and digital publishing, I can’t get away from using paper to conduct business.
- Paper creates a bond: There is an emotional attachment to things we can hold. Especially paper. The words have more impact. And writing reinforces the memory.
- Digital distraction is a huge problem: Your brain doesn’t work as well when you’re in front of a screen all of the time. It really helps my thinking to take my notes offline and reorganize the most important points into an outline or two. There is compelling research into what digital devices are doing to our brains.
Give me a pen and paper every time over all things digital. It has no operating system that needs tweaking, never needs rebooting and requires no upgrading.
Well, maybe the last one counts if you consider my Moleskine an upgrade…
(Image courtesy of ZeRo`SKiLL under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 generic license.)
Have you seen the mega-hit movie The Social Network, (loosely) based upon Facebook and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg? This film is a very vivid reminder of where this phenomenon has taken us in just a few years — and its far reaching impact. There’s no doubt about it: social media has revolutionized the way we work and play. It has enhanced our communications, improved our businesses, allowed us to “win friends and influence people” more easily and expanded our visibility exponentially. I mean, what’s not to love about it?
But before you bask in that warm, fuzzy feeling that social media seems to offer, you might want to take note of a few drawbacks as well. Just like money, the love of it can be either good or evil, depending upon how it is used. For example, folks who are enamored with it and see it as a way to exercise freedom of speech — by spouting off about their “idiot” employers, their “Animal House” partying behavior, illegal acts, and other escapades, have lost jobs, faced criminal prosecution, and have ultimately realized that “all that glitters is not gold”. Remember these social media missteps?
- The woman who shoplifted and posted pictures to Facebook of the stolen goods?
- The teacher who was “schooled” the hard way when he vented about the “ghetto parents” of some of his students through his blog?
- The flight attendant who got her wings clipped when she discussed some of the downsides of her job?
- The politician who wasn’t prudent when he “bared all” online.
Be forewarned: if not approached wisely, the next casualty could be you. With this in mind, here are a few ways to increase your social media savvy, be more productive, and face fewer professional and personal repercussions as a result of a social media misstep.
1. Err on the side of caution.
Sure you’re grown, and in America we have the right to express how we feel. Right? Still, even Freedom of speech ain’t entirely “free”. Weigh whether or not what you say publicly could be misperceived or cause offense, and potentially be grounds for termination if read by the wrong set of eyes. Consider too that when you are employed by others, you represent their business. So to some extent your online image becomes their business as well.
2. Implement the appropriate privacy settings.
Consider controlling who has the ability to view your information by applying the right privacy settings to your sites and forum pages, or by requiring code access when applicable.
3. Consider an alias.
If you really must voice opinions that are revolutionary and/or contradictory, you might want to have an online name and identity different than the one you use for business affairs. Remember that doing this doesn’t necessarily make it impossible to find out who you really are. which leads to the next point…
4. Keep certain things offline.
Know that revealing confidential info online about your employer or clients to settle a score, vent, or to stimulate conversation, might not only get you fired but sued. As many places require employees to sign confidentiality agreements as a condition of employment.
5. Keep in mind that a “picture is worth a thousand words.”
Even if you don’t say negative things online, photos and images tell a story as well. For instance, snap shots on Facebook where you might be posing in provocative, sheer clothing, flashing a gang sign or the middle finger salute, or video- demonstrating a sexy new dance you just learned, might not be a good idea.
6. Never reveal your real home address in your contact info.
Even if you’re seeking employment through social media, it’s wise to use a P.O. Box. Why? For safety reasons obviously, but also, fair or not, some folks judge us by where we live as well. Things like the type of neighborhood, the income level of the residents, whether it’s integrated, the crime rate, etc. can play a role in how you are perceived. Don’t stack any odds against you.
7. Recognize that your online associations matter.
There is a grain of truth to the expression, “we are judged by the company we keep.” This now applies to your online life just as much as it does in your “offline” life. Choose your associations wisely.
8. Watch your mouth.
Refrain from any war of words with clients and colleagues, and usage of profanity, threats and strong language.
9. Be strategic.
Use social media to announce projects you’re working on, awards won, promotions, or to showcase your creative strengths. If the time you have to devote to social media is limited, learn to work smarter, not harder.
10. Save the majority of “socializing” for after-work hours.
Remember, it’s not just what you do but how you do it. Being too social with your online identities while working can not only cause a severe lack of productivity, but get you in hot water with your superiors. Pick your spots.
11. Pause before you publish.
Always be mindful that what you do online has an indefinite shelf life. While that can work to your advantage if you’ve put some great stuff out there on the web, it can also work against you if you’ve put something questionable up as well.
In Closing…
Social media may seem daunting at first, but it really is just another means of communication. If you’re active in social media, keep these 11 tips in mind and you’ll benefit from all that it has to offer — and you’ll optimize your online image as well.
(Image courtesy of FLEECIRCUS under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 generic license.)
What the Science of Human Nature Can Teach Us
An intriguing article from The New Yorker that talks about the science of human nature and what exactly makes us happy. Turns out that socializing with people is an integral part of the equation.
New in Gmail Labs: Smart Labels
The Gmail team has launched what they call “Smart Labels”, a feature that can automatically organize your incoming emails and put them into appropriate labels. Part of Gmail Labs, this feature could greatly enhance email productivity — if it works as well as it sounds.
Understanding – and Maximizing – Your Brain’s Reward and Planning System
An interesting article over at the Intrinsic Motivation and Magical Unicorns blog at Psychology Today magazine. It gives a deep insight into the brain’s reward system and how you can actually use it to your benefit in order to get motivated and excel at seemingly mundane tasks. Well worth a look.
Get Organized With GTDagenda
The Web Worker Daily blog reviews the productivity software called GTDagenda in this post (as we’ve done before). Some of the features look good to me — though I am yet to give it a shot. The interface isn’t one of the nicest ones, but if you care primarily about function over form then you should check it out.
The Complete Guide to Creating Your First Tumblr Blog
Tumblr is a quick and productive way to get started with blogging. If you’re someone who has been avoiding blogging just because it looks like a lot of work and you don’t have the time for setting it up, you should give Tumblr a shot. This comprehensive step-by-step guide (with screenshots) at the Guiding Tech blog has everything you need to quickly create your first Tumblr blog.
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