Hello, my name is Charly and I’m a geek… and today, it’s time to celebrate.  May 25th is known internationally as Geek Pride Day, and whilst it’s just one of the many days we can celebrate our inner geek, there are three reasons why May 25th is considered the Geekiest day of the year:

1. It’s Towel Day, the day two weeks after Douglas Adams’ passed in 2001 in which fans celebrate by keeping a towel handy a la The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.
2. It’s the anniversary of the very first Star Wars movie, Episode IV: A New Hope, which was released on May 25, 1977.
3. It marks the Glorious 25th of May, on which fans of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books wear lilac and raise awareness of Alzheimer’s, following the author’s 2007 diagnosis.

Historically, Geek Pride Day has been celebrated since 2006, originating as Día del Orgullo Friki in Spain.

In celebration of Geek Pride Day, I thought I would share a little of my inner geek

Just some of my DVD collection – I love my Sci Fi’s and Sci Fantasy….

Display your inner geek with a TShirt

Geek Pride: Learn a new Skill

Want to learn a new Geek Skill?  Code School is offering 48 hours of free learning from May 25th to 26th (not Australian time!).  Choose from over 28 courses, 1000 challenges and 130 educational videos and learn Ruby, Javascript, CSS/HTML or iOS!

Geek Pride:  Wearables and Gadgets

Get into the spirit with Gifts and Clothing from CafePress or Redbubble - and I’m sure there are a dozen’s of other places all sharing the fun (Google is your friend!).  Think Geek has an annual Geek Pride promotion too….

Geek Pride: CosPlay!

Of course, you could always do a CosPlay, or for those who aren’t up with the lingo – a Costume Play.  My daughter, CosPlayed Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony earlier this year and is planning her next costumes for SuperNova at the end of June:

CosPlay to celebrate Geek Pride Day

Of course, whatever you choose to do – let your Inner Geek out and celebrate being uniquely you.

The post Geek Out – Geek Pride Day, Towel Day, Glorious 25th of May appeared first on Ask Charly Leetham.

Delta Goodrem and SEO don’t have much to do with each other – unless you can be creative and link the two to a topic for your website or blog. Waaaaay back in 2007, I attended a workshop about starting your online business and one of the sessions was how to get your site listing well.  In this session, we were told that if you could tie your topic to a current trending news topic, it was a great way to get traffic….

Whilst I’ve seen the technique used over the past years – I’ve even used it myself on a few occasions, I saw it used really well this week with the furore over Delta Goodrem engaging with a group who dressed up as The Voice judges.  Now ….. I’m not going to make any comment on that – but I am going to talk about how savvy site owners can use a news wave to drive traffic.

During the week, I came across a fairly large blog / news site and saw an article that was a comment on the Delta furore. Not so uncommon, but what caught my attention was the fact that they had started the article using  a search phrase that many would be targetting… in this case “Delta  Goodrem racist” …. in the first paragraph of the post.   It’s an effective technique and has resulted in the site ranking incredibly well for the search term.

The art of Search Engine Optimization is to target the terms, or phrases, that a person will enter into the Search Engine to find a solution to their problem.  By being creative, you can certainly benefit from current events to drive traffic to your site.

What thought do you give the terms you target when you write a blog post?  Do you give it any thought at all, or do you just write?  I know that writing content can be challenging (or time consuming) and that the thought of picking which words to target may leave you cold, but if the result is an improvement in your search engine rankings, don’t you think it’s worth the effort?  If you can then piggy back on a wave of ‘current news’ to raise your traffic and rankings, all the better.

Whilst using a current event is a good idea, you do need to take care that your content is relevant to the title and description that is found by the Search Engines.  It’s no use targeting a current event and talking about something completely different (and you may be penalised for it).  If you can make it relevant, then use it and use it effectively.

The Art of Search Engine Optimization

Here are a few ways you can use current events on your blog.

SEO Tip 1: Create a discussion about the topic 

Quote a snippet from another site – make sure you attribute it – and discuss the topic.  Provide your opinion / thoughts and ask your readership for their thoughts. Be prepared for the trolls though – remember everyone has an opinion.

SEO Tip 2: Scam Alerts

I’ve used this method quite successfully when the messages about Facebook becoming chargeable etc abound.  Being timely is the key here – a day could make all the difference to the traffic.  If you know there is an email or social media status doing the rounds in your niche and that it’s a load of rubbish- share it on your blog.

SEO Tip 4: Features Updates

Do you blog about different products?  If a new feature is about to be released, or has just been released – blog about it. Let people know what it is, why it’s good, how it will help (or not, as the case may be).  Some examples of what may work well:

• iOS / Android updates on your phone. What was your experience?  Did it bork your phone, change the layout, did you love it?  Why is this of interest to your readership?
• Plugin / Software updates – not just limited to tech bloggers.  If a piece of software in your niche is updating, what does it give to the users?  What does it add, what’s lost?

SEO Tip 5: Celebrity Power (Delta Goodrem and SEO)

Has a celebrity been seen in the news wearing something you blog about, commenting on the latest movie, using an app… anything that you can spin to match your niche, topics and products?  Write about it and use their name – but be sure the content is relevant to your niche.  This can work particularly well for Fashion, Wellness, Weight Loss and Fitness bloggers. For tech bloggers, keep an eye out for what the celebs are using and share it – tell people why it’s awesome or why it’s not.

This was exactly the technique I saw used this week – never underestimate the power of celebrity!

SEO Tools you can use

There are a heap of tools that are available and ‘sold’ as the next best thing since sliced bread to help you optimize your posts for the Search Engines.  Most are pretty good and to a large degree, whether you choose to use a tool and which one you choose becomes personal preference.

In selecting your keywords, targeting the phrases that are used on social media updates is a good idea.  I also use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool for a double check.  The idea here is to find the words that people are entering in to the search engines – not what you think they are entering.

Other tools that I really like and give me a great result include WordPress SEO by Yoast (the analysis and immediate feedback on the amount of on page optimisation is awesome) and SEOPressor (in addition to WordPress SEO).  Whilst I spend a bit of time tweaking my posts to improve the analysis on both these tools, I don’t get so tied up in it I don’t post.  There is a distinct balance between getting a great score and getting the content out there – and you need to keep that top of mind whenever you post to your site.

Still Confused about SEO and your blog?

Get Ranked: The Art Of Search Engine Optimization

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can optimize your website for Search Engines, check out my Kindle book – Get Ranked The Art of Search Engine Optimization.

The post What does Delta Goodrem and SEO have in common appeared first on Ask Charly Leetham.

Knowing what call to action to put on website will be the difference between a real workhorse or a pretty pony that your business owns.

I do a lot of work with people before we even start creating their website to determine what we need to layout and what elements to include.  It’s no use just building a website if we don’t know the goals the business owner has for it… So we take time to ensure that the objectives for the website are understood by all stakeholders.

There is one question I like to ask when we look at each page on a website – “What’s the one thing you want visitors to do when they come to this page”.  So many times when we build our websites (and yes, I’m including myself here), we fail to put a call to action on our pages.  We imagine (or at least I do) that our words and images on the page will be so compelling, our visitors will know exactly what to do.  Unfortunately, in our zeal to share information with our visitors, we often overwhelm them with the details and it’s not clear what the next logical step to engage with us, is – we don’t put a call to action. We need to make it really easy for our visitors to know what to do….

Ask yourself how many times you’ve been to a site, found lots of great information but just not known what the next step to take is… or it’s not been easy to find a way to actually engage with the business.

Oh, but isn’t a Call To Action ‘hypey’…

A call to action is simply something that lets your website visitor know what to do next.  It’s only “hypey”, if you want it to be. The Call To Action doesn’t have to be Red, Black and Red graphics saying “click here” or include big red arrows that point to the ‘offer’.  The Call To Action on your web page can be elegant and respectful – sometimes maybe it should stand out and use “shock techniques” but it doesn’t have to.

I don’t want to “sell” from my website

I respect that – you don’t want to have a website that is constantly pushing visitors to make a purchase or buy from you but let’s be brutally honest – we’re all selling something in one form or another.  We’re selling ourselves, our capabilities, the stories we tell on our blogs…  and we WANT people to engage with us – in short we want to provide a business call to action.  Whether that engagement is to actually make a purchase, join our marketing lists, signup to get regular updates, or simply to keep visiting and become part of our larger community really becomes immaterial – we want them to engage with us.

If you approach building your website with the mindset that you “aren’t selling anything”, then you’re going to be spending a lot of time, energy and money on an asset that does nothing.

It’s time to get over the fact that you’re selling from your site, embrace it and apply you’re own style to it.

So What Are You Selling

This could be the hardest question you will ever answer in your business – what are you selling?  If you’re in business and building a business website, you’re most likely selling something but do you really know what that is?

The easiest way to work out what “you’re selling” is to ask yourself  ”What’s the one thing you want people to do when they get here…” – do you want them to:

These are just a few examples and the possibilities, whilst being a variation on a theme, are endless.

How to include a Call To Action

As I said above, a call to action doesn’t have be a garish image with bright red arrows that flash – that might help but depending on the niche you’re in, it might not too!  You need to be really aware of what your Target Audience responds to and capitalise on that.  If you don’t know what you’re Target Audience appreciates – do some testing, see what gets great engagement and what doesn’t (testing and tracking are key here!).

Call To Action Examples

Here are some ideas of adding Call To Actions to your website:

That’s just a couple of ideas on adding Call To Actions to your website.  You’ll need to test out what works best for your target audience and your website.

The post Call To Action: The Importance To Small Business appeared first on Ask Charly Leetham.

I get asked a lot about how a business can get their website “found” on Google. What these business owners really mean, is how do they get their websites shown on the first page of the Search Engine Results (you may also think of this as getting on page 1 of Google).  Surprisingly, the answer is relatively simple: provide good quality content, relevant content, regularly as search engine food.

Remember, the Search Engines ‘job’ is to deliver to relevant content to searchers – if they fail to do this, searchers will move on to another search engine.  As business owners, we can help Search Engines do their job by providing relevant content that delivers quality.  The question is, how do you do that?  You could spend a heap of time tweaking the existing content on your website – but that will have little benefit to you as the existing pages are already listed by Google.  For me, the answer is blogging ….. now don’t groan, roll your eyes or freeze up at the thought – bear with me here.

What is Blogging?

To me, blogging is the  process of sharing information and updates with your community.  A blog post is really a short article that is posted to a website and the article could be written, a video, an audio or even a series of photo’s.   The best article presentation depends on your own style and what suits your target audience.

Many people think of blogging as ‘journalling’, but it is so much more…. it’s a great way to connect with and inform your target audience about the solutions your business offers to solve your Target Audiences problems….

Blogging is an excellent way to help prospects get to “Know You, Like You and Trust You” and assist them in becoming loyal customers. In providing regular information to your community, you are also tapping into to some awesome Search Engine Optimization (SEO) benefits which will help raise your website in the Search Results – making it easier for your Target Audience to find you and the solutions you provide.

To start blogging you need to have a blog.   A blog is a piece of software that operates on a Web Server and presents the entries (think of them like a diary or a journal entry) to your website visitors.  There are several options available for creating a blog and what to choose is the topic for another, much longer, article.

Once you have a blog set up, you need to get started and “just do it”… if you’re stuck for what to share, here are some time tested secrets for topics:

Solve Problems!

The thing to keep top of mind is that when people search the Internet, they are generally looking for a solution to a problem… something is causing them pain or friction in their lives and they want it to stop.  Be the solution they are looking for!

Be Human

People connect with other people.  Show that you are a human in how you communicate through your blog.  Does Video suit your style better – then use it.  With today’s technology you can do so much more than just ‘write’ your message…. video doesn’t have to be just a ‘talking head’ either – screen casts & movies are well within your reach.  If you’re a photographer, maybe a photo blog where you share your photo’s will suit….

Let your Target Audience know that they are really connecting a person, or people, not a faceless corporation!

Be Passionate

Let your passion for your topic, products and services shine through in your updates – people want to know that you really believe in what you share.  Remember, you are the sales person for your business, if you’re not passionate about your business why should anyone else be?

What should I blog about?

Perhaps the biggest challenge for a business owner who wants to blog, is what to blog about!  Look within your own business for the motivation:

* What questions are you asked most about your products and services?  How do they help your target audience?  Tell a story… share your knowledge

* Is there something interesting happening in your industry?  Have an opinion on it and share it with your target audience

* Has a celebrity or politician done something noteworthy that relates to your business / industry?

* Commenting on a news article or someone elses blog post on your own blog works well too…

* Do you have seasonal tips to share?

There are just some ideas… When you blog, you can become the ‘go to’ source in your industry for information.

It’s Time To Get Started….

If you’re interested in creating a blog and getting found on Google, you can join me on my webinar series that starts May 14th… Visit www.websitesuccessaccelerator.com

The post Blogging Is Good For Business appeared first on Ask Charly Leetham.

Without a doubt, meeting people in person is the best way to build connections and covert people from prospects into customers and then into long term customers.  This builds on the Know You, Like You, Trust You principle – when all three align, trust is developed and your target audience will buy from you.

However, when you are selling online or over a distance, meeting in person sometimes isn’t possible, or efficient.  Sure, you can set up Skype meetings, or hang out on Google+ (and I do) but sometimes that just doesn’t make sense.

This is why video is such a great medium!  It allows for you to deliver your message in person, and for people to connect with you… sounds great doesn’t it?

Well, one of the most effective, and surprisingly time efficient ways of using video, is by producing your own personally branded Web TV channel.

Now, if you’re like most people I know – you’re concerned that you could damage your reputation instead of building a powerful brand… valid concerns and you SHOULD be considering this.

The Wonderful Web Woman, Janet Beckers has done and it has revolutionised her business.  For years, Janet created a  successful weekly ezine – it was effective.  However, just over a year ago she ditched the ezine format and replaced it with a short and sweet branded weekly TV show. The results really surprised her. She cracked the code to rank highly in iTunes and has maintained the top 10 position in her category for well over a year.  She has taught others how to do this, and these students are debuting in the Top 5 in iTunes as well.

A WebTV Show Takes Too Much Time & Money

Right about now, you’re probably thinking that creating a WebTV show for your brand takes too much time and money.  It could do, but just like everything else, when you have the right formula and process, it doesn’t have to.  Janet has shared with the Wonderful Web Women community, that she spends the equivalent of 5 days to produce 12 months of  weekly programs and that this is 400% less time than she was spending on her old-fashioned ezine.

Most importantly, Janet has managed to do this with no fancy equipment, no studio and mostly free technology.

Find Out How To Create Your Own WebTV Show For Free…

If you’re ready to take your business to the next level and create a strong personal brand that your target audience can connect with, then Janet Beckers “MeTV” training course is for you.  The best thing – the MeTV course is absolutely free… I’ve seen the people who have been through this training course and been able to help them as well.

Through the MeTV Course, you will learn exactly how Janet created the Wonderful Web TV show, and get the steps and processes to use so you can create your own successful WebTV show – without requiring a heap of time or money to do so…

Interested?  Then click here to register for Janets FREE MeTV webinar (occuring on March 27th – just a few days away) to find out how she did it, and how you can too.

The post Your Own WebTV Show? Podcasting For You… appeared first on Ask Charly Leetham.

Rachel Botsman

Collaborative Consumption – getting things done in the real world.  Just what does that really mean?  I had no idea what the term meant until I had the pleasure of attending a Women In Property and Construction breakfast the other day, thanks to Her Canberra and listening to Rachel Botsman (author of What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption) speak.

All I can say is WOW!  What mind blowing stuff – and I WORK in this industry!  Some great paradigm shifts occured as I listened to Rachel speak, and I’ld love to share my key take away points with you. Now bear with me, I took pages and pages of notes as I listened to Rachel – no, I didn’t record it – I still believe in the hand to brain connection that occurs when you actually write things down.

Colloborative Consumption: Online To Offline (OTO)

The biggest shift we are seeing in the ‘online’ world is that we are using online tools to build face to face connections.  Now, I couldn’t agree more! I have made incredibly valuable face to face connections using online tools and will continue to do so.

A great example of the OTO revolution is Task Rabbit – an iOS app that was created because the developer ran out of dog food one night, and they had to change a heap of commitments so they could buy dog food!  It’s a great story and worth the read – but the upshot is, the developer figured that at the time they needed dog food, there was someone in (or near) the local store that could have grabbed it for them…

Task Rabbit is only US based, but collaboration consumption in Australia is alive and well –  Air Tasker is the Australian based version of it.

Collaborative Consumption – getting things done in the real world, using your online network

Collaborative Consumption: The New World Currency Is Trust

For Online to Offline to work, there must be “trust between strangers” …. trust is quickly becoming the new world currency.  This is such a strong concept and, Rachel shared that reputation could well become a ‘bankable’ asset.  By that she means you will be able to get a mortgage or loan using your ‘reputation capital’ rather than just ‘financial capital’….

What a great thought – that people will be rewarded for the way they behave in business.

Sound impossible? Well it’s not.  Looking at business models like AirBnB (which I’ll cover in a later article) and Task Rabbit – ‘curation’ can occur to ensure that people providing the services are indeed trustworthy and ‘on the level’.  What it does mean, is that consumers may need a change in mindset about how they do things – and the ‘new’ business models must address that mindset change as well.

So Lo Mo: Sing It For Collaborative Consumption

No, it’s not a line from the “Sound Of Music”… So Lo Mo applies to the ‘new world world’ order and connecting Online to Offline…

So = Social: the trust embedded in your network of connections online

Lo = Local: Customised content so your services are found in the local area

Mo = Mobile: Access to those goods and services whilst on the go.

By aligning those three components, Collaborative Consumption becomes a reality. Consumers gain access to what they want, when they want it…

The most important thing here though, is that this ‘new world order’ is creating a market where a marketplace never existed!

Looking at services like Task Rabbit – the most requested service (believe it or not) is the assembly of IKEA (or perhaps more generally flat pack) furniture.  Some ‘rabbits’ have created a full time income from addressing “simple” requests like this.

Asset Heavy vs Asset Light

20th Century Business Models

Business models of the 20th Century are typically “asset” heavy.  For example, a hotel chain owns property – and has a lot of physical assets.  A retail store front requires a shop fit, pays rent and must have stock on hand.

I can tell you from first hand experience that when we opened our retail business in 2003, each store cost us approximately $250,000 in fit out and we were required to maintain approximately $100,000 in stock…. add on top of that our staffing and rent, and when we opened the doors each day we needed to pull in about $20K a month, before we paid ourselves!

21st Century Business Model

By contrast, 21st Century business models are asset light.  We don’t own store fronts, we hold minimal stock and we outsource / job share work across a distributed work force.

A New Breed of Micro Entrepreneurs

The upshot of this change in approach to business that allows the connection of the Online to Offline to create Face to Face relationships is that a new layer of business is evolving – micro entrepreneurs.

A micro entrepreneur is the person who provides the service to put together flat pack furniture through a Task Rabbit service and use their online network to get things done in the real world….

There are interesting times ahead as more and more micro entrepreneurs evolve and start challenging ‘the norm’ in business…. Rachel calls this ‘disruption’ and I’ll speak more on that in my next article.

What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption

Want to know more?  Rachels book is available from Fishpond in Australia & Amazon (of course)

 What’s Mine Is Yours – from Fishpond

What’s Mine Is Yours – Amazon US

What’s Mine Is Yours – Amazon UK

What’s Mine Is Yours – Kindle

and you catch watch Rachel’s Ted Talk, The Currency Of The New Economy Is Trust:

Thanks To

Women In Property and Construction and National Association of Women In Construction (NAWIC) who sponsored the breakfast.

The post Collaborative Consumption – Getting Things Done In The Real World appeared first on Ask Charly Leetham.

Google Reader will be retired on July 1, 2013.  According to Google News today through the Official Google Blog:

We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.

Throughout the Blogosphere, there is a rumble of discontent and a petition has been started at Change.org to Google: Keep Google Reader Running.  Whether this will have any impact on Googles decision remains to be seen.

I use Google Reader to try to keep up with what’s going on in the world. If you’re asking yourself “what is RSS”, and wondering how it can help you, please see Using RSS To Increase Readers and Backlinks - and so the search for a new RSS reader has begun.

At this point, it should also be noted that you may be using the term News Reader for your RSS Feed Reader – confusing isn’t it?

It’s interesting to see how Feed Readers have evolved over the last few years, particularly with the advent of mobile devices…. I love checking my feeds on phone, it means I can use ‘waiting’ time productively. So what can be used as a Google Reader Alternative? What is the Best RSS Reader? The answer is, it’s depends on your requirements and your personal tastes…

Google Reader Replacement Requirements

When assessing potential applications to use, I had a couple of requirements:

There is an extensive list of RSS Feed Readers in this Google Spreadsheet from the Online Journalism Blog but there doesn’t seem to be many that are ubiquitous across mobile and Web interfaces.

Mobile RSS Feed Readers

Flipboard – Mobile RSS Feed Reader

Flipboard has been gaining a lot of interest and support  - I see a lot of people saying they are going to ‘read their flipboards’ in updates.

With Flipboard, you can link to your other social media accounts including:

and see the updates all on an attractively laid out screen which ‘flips’ between pages.  It takes some getting used to, but I really like the layout and the feel – I don’t feel overwhelmed by having all my feeds in one location and I’ve seen information that I have missed, because of the way the content is delivered.

Adding RSS feeds wasn’t as intuitive as I would have thought – even though there is a post on the Flipboard website telling you it can be done, it took me a while to figure it out – mostly because the “add via RSS” link was at the bottom of the results for the url I had entered and I had to ‘slide’ the screen to find it.

The downside of Flipboard is that it isn’t a web app, it’s only available for iOS, Android, Nook and Kindle.  Upside is your Flipboard account works across all your devices.

Feedly

Feedly is a web and mobile based application (works on iOS, Android and Kindle) for RSS Feeds.

The web interface is clean and easy to use and also provides a number of topics to browse and find feeds of interest.  You can import your feeds directly from Google Reader, as well as link your Twitter and Facebook accounts to see updates in the one interface.  Another nice feature is the ability to choose the layout that best suits your reading style.

On the mobile device, the interface differs slightly (naturally) but it’s still clean and attractive – and you have the choice of viewing layout as well.  For the start of each reading category, a ‘cover’ image is displayed – making it clear you’re in a new category.  I really like look and feel of this app.

When you open this app – either on your phone or the web, it gives you today’s view.  So you can see the updates for the day.

 Newsblur

I was pretty disappointed with Newsblur – the home page states that you can sign up for a free account (Premium Accounts) are available but when you go through the sign up process, you’re told that “due to high demand, free accounts are temporarily suspended”.

Any Other RSS Feed Reader Solutions?

There were quite a lot of solutions in the offering when I looked – I’m interested to see what others have found that work for them… please share your thoughts!

The post Google Reader Retires – Now What Do We Use? appeared first on Ask Charly Leetham.

WooCommerce 2.0 (code name Daring Dassie) has been released. According to WooThemes, Version 2.0 is the start of a new era for Woocommerce….

After experiencing issues with several other Shopping Cart plugins, I ‘re discovered’ WooCommerce about 12 months ago and fell in love with it. This doesn’t mean that it’s the ‘be all and end all’ of shopping carts but it’s pretty good and typically works “right out of the box”. One of the features I like best is that there is documentation on hooks and filters which allow developers (like us) to enhance the look and feel of the cart.

WooCommerce 2.0 see’s some pretty major code changes and some visual ones as well including:

Don’t worry if some that went over you head – some of it is for the techies amongst us.

WooCommerce 2.0 is a major update

Now before you head off and click ‘update’ in wp-admin – make sure you are ready for the update and that you’ve tested it on a development site and know what needs to be done to ensure your production site stays working.

Having a sound backup strategy is imperative before upgrading.  We use and recommend Backup Buddy to create the backup and to replicate your site to a development site for testing purposes.

Once you upgrade WooCommerce to Version 2.0, the data in your database will be converted to the new data structure and there is no going back…. so be very sure before clicking the update button on your production site.

We will be testing thoroughly before doing any updates on our own or client sites.

WooThemes offer some excellent advice about preparing your site for WooCommerce 2.0 and, if you aren’t sure, we are able to help you with the WooCommerce update (request help via our helpdesk)

Celebrate the Release of WooCommerce 2.0

Want to see some WooCommerce Shopping Carts in action?

Here are just some sites where we have installed and configured WooCommerce:

Wishlist Member Plugins

Organize Your Life

Ask Charly Leetham

Dougs Word Clocks

The post ECommerce – WooCommerce 2.0 is released! appeared first on Ask Charly Leetham.

Have you fallen into the trap of  what I call ‘easy communication’?  Do you rely on sending emails, SMS (text) messages, Facebook or Google Plus messages or even Tweets to connect with the people in your life – customers and family alike? Do you sometimes feel like you’re being ignored?

I know that I have – and it’s something that I’m aware I need to review and change my modus operandii and work on my communication skills.

There is a part of me that really dislikes having phone conversations… to me, the phone is often just a distraction to getting things done. I much prefer the flexibility of email and being able to respond in the wee hours of morning, when everything else is done.  However, recently I realised (again) that there is a point where a quick phone call can be far more beneficial than an unending email stream.

Communications via Email Work – but what about Phone Calls?

Email, Text Messaging, Electronic Messaging and Social Media are fantastic inventions – they allow us to keep in touch with our connections and for them to keep in touch with us. However, they also de personalise the nature of that communication to a certain degree and often the communication can be “lost in the noise” of the day to day.

There’s also the fact that these methods of communication, or protocols, are connectionless.  Whilst we can send a message to the recipient, there is no guarantee that it will actually get there – the message is sent into the ether and we assume it will just get there.  How many times have you sent a message and not heard anything back?  Do you think the recipient doesn’t care or that they’re too busy to talk to you?  That could be the case – but I think you may find that sometimes the message just doesn’t get through – it is either lost in the ether or buried in a mound of other messages.

Then there is there the fact that written communications fails because it simply takes too many exchanges to impart (and understand) the required information.  Of course, we also have to consider the communication styles of the parties involved.

We operate a helpdesk that relies on email communications – it’s important to have a documented stream of information for review – but it’s equally as important to be able to find and impart information to all parties quickly.  There are exchanges where our terminology or understanding of the words used differs, or we don’t know the ‘right’ words to use. In these cases written exchanges (and imagine when we’re trying to do these in 140 characters or less!) just let us down.

At these times, why don’t we simply pick up the phone and talk to the other party?  Certainly, organising a convenient time to to talk can be a challenge and language differences are a bigger challenge – but taking time to actually talk to someone is often well worth the effort.

If you are sending emails, text messages or other messages and not receiving a response – why not give the other party a call?  Sometimes, they may not have got your message; sometimes, your message could just be stuck in a heap of incoming messages and just not seen (sure, that may be be a management issue); sometimes your contact may be trying to formulate the appropriate response to your communication…. whichever it is – a follow up phone call will get to the bottom of it, and probably move your agenda forward.

Phone Calls can speed up your process

From my own experience, I know that a 15 minute phone call with a client will often give both of us the information needed to move forward. Just last week, after a few email exchanges with a really good client, we decided that a phone call would be appropriate – by the time we were done, it was over an hour but we had covered a heap of stuff.  I’m not recommending that each call be an hour or more – keep it short if you can – but for this client with this project, the time was well worth spent.

Of course, we need to make sure that I document the main points of the phone call back to the job in my tracking system – but it’s still worth the effort.

This is all part of an effective communication strategy for everyone….

Now, this doesn’t mean you should pick up the phone each time you have a question.  An email, text message, Facebook or GTalk message to:

• ask the question,
• raise the issue,
• frame the problem

and then suggest that a phone (or in person) catch up may be appropriate.

What do you think? Share your thoughts below….

The post Communication, email and phone calls appeared first on Ask Charly Leetham.

I find some networking events annoying and possibly traumatic…. Big statement, and maybe a little overstated – but there is a lot of truth in it.  Often the thought of attending a networking event, meeting new people, juggling nibbles and business cards just really doesn’t appeal to me…. Throughout my career, I’ve found the term ‘business mixers’ are often just a code name for getting ‘sold to’ in a social environment.

Certainly, as a much younger woman, working in an industry which was primarily male dominated, I found business mixers and networking events to be an interesting experience… I often dreaded heading off to business events on my own.

Enter Business Chicks networking events.  Business Chicks is  a community for women whose goal is to be the tool in your career that you’d never consider putting down.  What attracted me to Business Chicks initially wasn’t the name – it was the fact that they actually run events in Canberra!

Business Networking with a twist

Business Chicks introduced their “Networking Evenings” to Canberra in October.  At a Business Chicks networking event,  women can network with other women (and men) but these events have a couple of really unique twists:

1. You don’t hand your business card to everyone you meet… The Business Chick team encourage you to share your passions, things that drive you and not just “business” stuff with the people you meet and only exchange business cards if you find common ground
2. Don’t ask “what do you do”, find out about the person behind the business card
3. “Speed Networking”… you get 6 minutes to talk to a new person and then move on.  6 minutes may not seem very long – but it’s long enough to work out if you would like to connect further with this person – that’s when you exchange business cards
4. “Mystery Connection” – when you sign in for the evening, you get some one’s name.  Your mission is to find that person during the evening and connect with them.

Business Chicks networking rocks…

This was my second networking event with Business Chicks and I enjoyed it a lot. Not having to juggle business cards and actually think about a different approach in your introduction, makes a big difference.

I also take my 16 year old daughter, who is also my office admin, along.  I believe that the experience she receives from meeting new people and talking about her passions, interests and what not is a great way for her to develop her skills.

A big thanks to Bec, Rachel and the people at ServCorp for hosting the event in the offices at Hotel Realm, Barton… an excellent venue.

Networking at a Business Chicks Event

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