Twitter comes down under

Well it finally seems that people down here in Australia are beginning to adopt Twitter as the following article highlights.
 
It appears the heightened awareness has come from people providing Victoria bush fire updates via Twitter as this article says. All of a “sudden” conventional media outlets have “discovered” Twitter and I expect to see them all flocking there shortly.

As I have said before I’m still undecided as to the business value of Twitter, yet I do see the benefits in certain circumstances. Because Twitter has mainly US based it really didn’t have a great deal of local value. However, I expect that start changing very fast as more people get on board. I think that Australians will take to Twitter pretty quickly given their love of SMS.

Any mainstream adoption of Twitter will also raise further questions about filtering in the workplace. Will Twitter be added to the black of sites such as Facebook, Myspace and so on? Or will employers embrace it as a way to do business better? Given the current economic climate I would tend to think most would probably simply block it without considering where it may actually be able to improve business.

Like it or not it seems that Twitter is going to be the next “big” thing on the Internet so if you get in now you’ll look like a star! If you feel so inclined please add me to you follow list via http://twitter.com/directorcia.

Labour vs work

Have you ever taken the time to examine how much time you spend doing tasks? Do you actually plan what you are going to do or do you just ‘do it’? The answer to these questions should be considered in light of whether you do labour or work.

 

Typically labour is low value with little control over the process. I think that most people spend most of their day doing ‘labour’. They get up, come into work and try and simply wade through everything. Conversely, work is about producing high value output by being discerning about what effort is expended to produce a result. The difference comes down to planning.

 

How much time do you take to plan what you actually do? Do you also take time to review what you have achieved and determine whether in fact it can be done more effectively or efficiently? Doing work is about thinking not merely about doing.

 

Once again a good example is the way that most people tackle their emails. It is simply a labour that they go through. They have no system to maximizing their return. They simply plough into their inbox each and everyday in a vain attempt to control the information overload. Rarely would they consider taking the time to learn how to use their email program better. This effectively limits their ability to be productive and can place a significant amount of stress on their workday.

 

We almost all have access to the most powerful technology available today, so why do most continue to struggle? Like everyone else your time is limited by a set number of hours per day. If you want to achieve more you need to stop doing the low value items and do more of the high value items. Technology can certainly assist you but it requires you ‘work’ rather than merely ‘labour’ to understand it.

 

To achieve more out of everyday stop doing labour and start working.

EasyJet video

Here’s a nice short video about how EasyJet are using SharePoint Server 2007 as their intranet.

Networking course

My Networking Basics course starts this Thursday at Macquarie Community College at Carlingford and runs over the next three weeks. This course will give you a understanding of things such as TCP, IP addressing, switches, wireless, routers, firewalls and more. It is aimed at those who little of no networking experience and want to better understand the technology of getting machines to talk to each other.

 

You can find more information, including enrolment details here:

 

http://www.macquarie.nsw.edu.au/index.php?action=course&course_action=detail&code=109M301

The course will also give you hands on experience with the technology in a computer lab and comes with a comprehensive set of course notes.

Recertify

So Microsoft has made some changes to the Small Business Specialist requirements, including the need to recertify. Here’s the details from https://partner.microsoft.com/global/program/40021563

 

Small Business Specialist partners must employ or contract with at least one person by location who has passed one of the five technical exams in the following list. 

70-653: TS: Windows Small Business Server 2008, Configuring

70-654: TS: Windows Essential Business Server 2008, Configuring

70-631: TS: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Configuring

70-236 TS: Exchange Server 2007, Configuring

70-655 TS: Windows Vista and Server operating systems, Pre-Installing for OEMs

Note: If you passed either Exam 70-282: Designing, Deploying, and Managing a Network Solution for Small- and Medium-Sized Business or Exam 74-134: Preinstalling Microsoft Products and Technologies to receive your Small Business Specialist designation, your exam credentials must be updated by October 31, 2010.

If you are already a Small Business Specialist then you have plenty of time to recertify but if I were you I go out and do it as soon as you can. Why? because it will provide a definite point of differentiation for your business. And when you have recertified in SBS 2008 make sure that emphasize that fact in all your marketing. Make sure they understand that you have taken the trouble to recertify and that they should have confidence in the fact that you are keeping up to date.

If it were me

The government here in Australia has recently announced:

 

“Small business gets a $2.7 billion package of tax breaks that includes an extra $600 tax deduction for any small business that buys and installs a $2000 computer before the end of June.” – SMH

 

Now if I was in the business of selling computers I would look at combining this with some internal offering. Thus, I would say something like “Did you realize that the government now provides an extra deduction for computer purchases before June? Did you also realize that we’ll also give you a free printer as well?”. Or even perhaps something along the lines of “The government if offering a $600 saving on computers to help the country avoid recession. We’ll give you a free copy of Office as our part in helping to boost the economy”.

 

I use these as examples, obviously you’ll have to work out the numbers for yourself but I think there is opportunity to piggy back off what the government is attempting to do with your own offering. It should appeal to customers in two ways. Most importantly, it should represent some saving or benefit to them. Secondly, it should show that you are trying to do your bit for the local economy as well. Thus, customers should buy from you and support your business.

 

Hopefully this illustrates that developing marketing concepts for your business isn’t that difficult no matter what the economic conditions. All it takes is a little creativity and the ability to look at the situation from the customers point of view. In this case the key is tying an offer to something the mainstream media is focused on and then going that little bit further so you stand out. You have to offer something extra to get people to buy from YOU and not the competition!

Participation

I look at politicians all over the World as they struggle to use the ‘R’ word (which is recession). Everyone else knows we are in a recession and maybe even headed for the ‘D’ word (which is depression). Another group of people that I’ve watching with interest are those who claim, they ‘are not participating in the recession’.

 

I think that is a very noble sentiment but it isn’t realistic. Why? Well if everyone else around you, your customers, peers, suppliers and so on are in the middle of a recession how can you choose not to participate? Unfortunately, in this day and age everything is so intertwined that we depend on those around us heavily. When they sneeze we catch cold.

 

A wise person once said that a smart person can’t control their situation only their reaction to it. Face it, we are in a recession. Face it, we are going to see reduced cashflow. Face it, times are going to be tough. Don’t try and fight something that you can’t change, look at your reaction to the situation facing you.

 

What steps have you taken to solidify your business? What actions have you taken to reassure your customers that you’ll continue to be there to help? What actions are you taking to grow your business? Hang on there. Did I say GROW?

 

Well, yes in fact I did. Again, the key again is how you react to the situation. What we are going through now will not last for ever. However, we may never see opportunities like these again. Consider the opportunities to purchase assets at historically low levels. Look at the opportunity to repay debt at the lowest interest rates seen. Look at the opportunity presented to you because your competitors are wobbling or falling.

 

Participation in the recession is mandatory. Once you understand and accept that you then need to consider how to use the recession to your advantage. I never said that it would be as easy as it was in the good times but there is still opportunity there for those who are prepared.

 

Tell me, where do you stand? Do you have your eyes closed hoping all this mess will disappear? Or do you have your eyes wide open, searching for every opportunity? The choice is yours. The grounds rules have changed. Participate or die.

Do email less

 

I thought that I’d let everyone know that I’ve registered the domain www.doemailless.com as a method of focusing attention on our productivity improvement training. The domain points to our normal email productivity page that includes the free document The problems with emails document as well as links to our Overcoming email frustrations books for Outlook 2003 and 2007. Finally, you’ll also find a brochure on our productivity seminars.

Our productivity seminars can be customized to suit any business environment and include your own internal policies and procedures. However, the main message still remains that most businesses are losing at least 1 hour per day, per employee to inefficient email use. When you start adding up the cost to business we believe our seminars more than pay for themselves.

Email is not the only part of the smarter productivity services we can offer. We can show you how to streamline your existing business practices, integrate low cost technologies such as OneNote and SharePoint to really save money and get things done. We even offer higher level training and mentoring to ensure that the critical components of your business are working most effectively.

For more information about our services simply contact me via director@ciaops.com.