Category: Uncategorized

Meet Virtually Advantages

In these days of social distancing many people have had experience of attending a ZOOM meeting. There are lots of advantages:

  • No travel time
  • Able to record the meeting
  • Able to record the chat
  • People can attend from all over the world
  • Save money and time

Zoom is available for anyone to setup an account and host a meeting of up to 100 attendees.

If you are the moderator of the meeting and the host you have control over setting up the time and who can attend.

You may prefer to have someone manage the following for your Zoom event:

  • Setup a registration page for people to register in advance. This is a good security practice vs posting the meeting link to the public.
  • Collecting the name and email address of people who have registered to attend.
  • Sending out an email invitation with the zoom link and details of the event
  • Sending out a reminder email shortly before the event with the link
  • Coaching the meeting presenters on audio and video
  • Monitoring the zoom “waiting room” and “chat room” during the event
  • Sending out a follow up email if you plan to record and share with attendees
  • Edit the recording to include title, details, and fine editing on audio and video
  • Posting the final video on your social media and website

Please contact me if you are interested in help with your Zoom event.

Writing and organizing your website content

Steps and tips on organizing and writing your website content.

Here are a few suggestions that I have found to be useful in organizing and writing the content for your website.

These are useful when you are first building your website or if you are doing a redesign.

  1. First – decide on the structure and hierarchy of the website.  What are your top level pages?  Your website navigation will depend on how well you organize the information. Make your top level headings general enough that you will be able to continue using this structure – and add additional pages as you need them as sub pages.
  2. I will be using MS WORD as an example of the word processing program to use as this is most common.  If you are using something else look for similar tools that you can use.
  3. Start a new document in MS Word
  4. Click on VIEW – and put a check mark next to “Document Map”  – this will then show you on the left a view of your document as a map.
  5. Click on FORMAT – STYLES – and this will show a pane on the right side of your document with a list of styles.
  6. Next – type in all the top level pages and sub pages.  Just use normal text and dont bother adding any formatting.
  7. Then click on a top level page – and highlight HEADING 1 on the styles menu and click on it.  This assigns the level 1 style to this and you will see that heading appear on your Document Map.
  8. Continue doing this for all the Level 1 headings (the top level of your structure)
  9. Then do the same thing for all the SUB PAGES – assign them as a Level 2 style.
  10. Now you have a view on the document map on the left pane, and you can easily click and access the specific pages.
  11. You now can easily move through the document and add content on the pages.

A couple of other useful things

  • Add a Table of Contents at the top of the document.  This will be a good view for people who see the print out.
  • Do the editing and draft of your content in MS Word – and then add this to the draft view of your new website.  Read it again to see for any fine tuning needed on the editing.

Remember that it is a good idea to review and update your website on a regular basis.  This helps with your website traffic, and makes sure that your website stays current with your activities.

Please contact me with any suggestions and tips that you have.

Maximize your facebook network – groups

Facebook groups are an excellent way to grow your facebook network

Thank you to Douglas Firebaugh and his excellent article on the “10 Social Media Laws of Facebook”

I think each of the points is valuable but the one that I want to discuss today is his Law number 7 — “Law of Facebook Groups”

Facebook Groups are the best way to grow your network on facebook with people who share common interests.

  • Click on GROUPS – this might be on the bottom of your browser screen on the left – or click on the “f” icon on the bottom left and see it on the full list – and you should see it on the list of applications.  Book mark it so the icon shows up for easy click in the future.
  • You will see 2 columns on the GROUP page.  The left column are the groups that people in your network have joined.  The right column are groups that you have joined.  For each of the groups you will see a brief description and the number of members and any recent activity.
  • Look at the LEFT column (groups recently joined by your network) – click on the “see all” at the top right of the column – and then browse through this list.  You can click on a group, review the overview section, look at the number of members, and see the types of things in their discussion forum and events etc.  If you are interested in the topic – click on the JOIN THIS GROUP on the top right column.
  • Now that you are a member of the group – follow the discussions, post your own comments and questions — all of these activities will show up on your own profile and increase your visibility.
  • The next step is to GROW your own list of friends – click on a person who is a member of the group – and click on the “Add as friend” – You can write a short email e.g. “We are both members of the xxxx group and I would like to invite you to be a facebook friend.”  You can copy and paste this – and personalize it with “Dear FIRSTNAME” –   If the person agrees – you will get  a notice that they have added you as a Facebook friend.   Send them a thank you.  These activities will help you to grow your network with people who share a common interest.
  • Invite other people to join the group – this will also help your visibility and your network – and it will also help your friends to find an interesting group.

In addition to using the “groups recently joined by your network” — you can do a SEARCH in groups on any topic and review the list of groups.  Follow the same steps.

If you have any additional suggestions please feel free to send your comments or questions.