Earn Badges, collect points, be the Mayor, read and leave tips, win prizes, see where your friends are…  These are all a part of Geo-Social Networking.  You access the system from a GPS enabled smart phone (iPhone, Blackberry, Droid… etc.) and it relies on Location Based Services (LBS) to identify exactly where you are.

Foursquare is the latest social-networking “must-have”, where users “check in” to the places they visit.  They attempt to gain more check-ins than other Foursquare users in order to earn badges, collect points and be dubbed “Mayor”.  Your position dictates the local establishments in the area that are displayed on the places screen when you go to check-in.  Don’t see the one you’re looking for?  That’s OK, just add it.  Leave a tip about the place, let everyone know where you are and maybe someone will stop in to say HI.

When you check-in to a Foursquare registered place, your name by default appears on their “Who’s Here” list. That means that anyone who views the information or checks in around the same time you do can see that you’re there.

OK, that being said; what if you don’t want to “broadcast” your location?  What if you don’t want to be surprised by an Ex-wife/husband, Ex-girlfriend/boyfriend or a friend-of-a-friend that you just don’t want to run in to?  You can do what is called “Off-the-Grid” check-in which simply means that you’ve checked in to maintain your points, earn badges, enter contests and the like, but you haven’t sent your location out to the public.  Just visit the Foursquare Settings page and uncheck the box next to “Show me in the ‘Who’s here’ list.  You could also choose to wait until you leave a place to check-in.  This prevents viewers from knowing that you’re there and coming to see you.

Is it safe?  As much fun as Foursquare can be to use, there are naturally some privacy questions. For instance, is it safe to tell everyone exactly where you are, all the time?  If someone was monitoring your profile, how easily could they establish a pattern?  Could they determine when your house was empty?  If you’re using Foursquare all the time, the risk is there.  Here’s the bottom line; the key to using Foursquare is “be smart about it”.  Think about what you’re sharing before you post it. If you oversleep and are late to work because you were bar-hopping till 2am, just remember that your boss might be watching and notice that you checked into five bars last night.  I’m just sayin’.

Foursquare has reached the 3 Million user mark and is growing rapidly.  Facebook has just come out with their new app called “Places” to compete with Foursquare.  These are similar in concept but still very different, with the edge going to Foursquare from a “fun” perspective.  There are other LBS sites vying for recognition including Google Latitude, Brightkite and Gowalla but only time will tell who will garner the top spot.

Mobile computing is becoming prominent in the industry with mobile apps being released at a staggering pace.  All you can do is try the available apps and determine for yourself which you prefer.  Let the numbers speak for themselves.  What the people want, the people get.  That’s the social media business model.  Have fun.

In our next blog, we’ll look at the other side of this trend and see how businesses can leverage LBS apps to their advantage.

Still in the throes of the hard drive crash from last week, I have really learned a few things. Prior to becoming a social media specialist and graphic designer, most of my career has been in legal technology consulting and specifically, for a practice management software called Time Matters®. I know and preached the importance of a backup – and multiple copies at that. I also know the importance of actually keeping paper copies and a land line. Today, it was not only reinforced but also made me realize, these things are STILL inadequate.

Suspecting the imminent demise of the hard drive as detailed in my Microsoft – I’m Not Jumping Yet post of August 19th, I bought a 1TB (yes, that’s TERABYTE) Western Digital External Hard Drive. It was great timing because the drive crashed 2 days later. In addition, I have been running Carbonite‘s online backup service for some time. Naturally, one would assume that all is well with this kind of backup. Hard drive crash? No problem – let’s just restore the files.

The Database – Paramount to a Business

As I mentioned, I used to support Time Matters software. Since I have known it so well for so long, it made perfect sense that I would continue to use it for my own business to track clients and data. It’s a great database system that runs on SQL Express. I do periodically back up those files within the database itself, but generally not that often since using Carbonite. When the drive crashed, I had no fears because – well – I had the files available for restore, right? In 2 places, right? It was just a matter of putting them back in their proper place. I did know that I would not want to tackle the detach and re-attach process of the SQL database because it has been a while since I did that kind of support and it was very limited when I did it. I would need the experience of a master like Wells Anderson of Active Practice or Mark Deal of Document & Data Solutions to help me restore the database, but they are masters at it and once the database is back, I can take it from there.

The External Drive

Let’s start here. When I backed up the PC (the entire PC ), I used the software that came with the WD External Drive. It took quite a while, but seemed to have no issues so, great news. Once I got going trying to restore some files, the news was getting gloomier. Simple documents, pictures, no problem. Restoring folders – great, no problem. Executable or program files – ruh roh. There was nary a database file or executable file that could be found. Big problem. Oh well – I have the online backup service, right?

Online Backup Service

So now we go to “Plan B”. Looks like Carbonite will save me. The database file is there. Still no executable that I need, but at least the data file is in one piece. Restore a folder? No. Restore a file, yes. OK good enough. Only need one file. After several attempts to restore, tech support is called. While I will give the techs credit for their desire to help, I can’t say much for the 20-30 minute hold times. And after spending an exhausting couple of hours, the tech could not get the file restored and was going to have to escalate this up to his superiors. When I asked when I could expect a return call (for a database issue that is core to my business), the tech said – “Oh probably a couple of days”. What? What? Did you hear that this is my database that is central to my business? What? But, alas, my whining and threats to take my little red wagon and go home went unheard. It will still be a couple of days.

Moral of the Story

Well, I apologize for the rant. I ranted last week and it’s still going on. But here are a few tips to save you from feeling the need to rant like this:

• Make sure you have a good online backup service and know what their procedure is and what kind of files actually get backed up. Test the service often. A couple that have been recommended to me:Active Online Backup and IBackup (Note: These two were recommended – I have not tried them and am not affiliated in any way although one of them is my next option).
• Make sure you have good backup software for your external or removable drive.This will be research for me. As a side thought, I would have put a good database backup on a jump drive or a CD in a zipped file.
• Back up as often as you change your data.Make sure you keep your business cards that you collect along with printed copies of registration confirmations, serial numbers and software activation keys.
  It’s the paper you know.
• Make sure you have something like Roboform to keep all of your passwords onlineThis has been a lifesaver.
• Don’t use Skype to call technical support.If you have to re-boot, you’ll lose your call and go back into the “forget” queue.

There are probably more tips I could come up with from my techie days, but I got out of that line of work and now am extremely pleased I switched to more “fun” things like graphics . I can say that I’m truly grateful that my graphic files, documents and pictures were all able to be restored. And I can most likely dig around and find something that will bring back part of my client files if Carbonite can’t get them restored. But I’ll just go with an old thought here “Buyer Beware“.

P.S. For those of you that know I’ve been blaming the leprechaun, it’s not his fault. We took him to Irish Fest yesterday and he was very happy. He rewarded us with some very good leads today for new business. Now if I could just put them in that database…

We have been going through a PC nightmare for the past week.  I was on the verge of pitching the ‘puter out the window and jumping ship from Microsoft to Apple.  We had one incident after another, seemingly caused by Windows Updates and ultimately rendering our main PC useless.  Things I wouldn’t want my grandmother to hear started to spew from my mouth. I’ve been a techie for a long time so I have been noticing things for a while that lead me to believe hardware failure or an operating system re-install was imminent.  Thank goodness I bought the external drive and backed up just prior to “the crash”.

My first calls were to Microsoft for support with the perceived Windows Updates issue.  After a battery of testing and no resolutions, it appeared that the OS reinstall would be the first step but the Microsoft technician had me run a procedure to check the disk first.  Called “chkdsk”, this DOS procedure found it necessary to hang and freeze at Stage 5, leading me to change my theory on the OS and realize that the hard drive was most likely doomed.  Next support call please – this time Dell.  I also thought Dell would be great because I had a great dialog going with the @DellCares representative on Twitter and he seemed so engaged and ready to help.

We have an extended warranty on the PC so it seemed pretty simple that Dell would just replace the drive.  Ah, not so much.  And not so fast.  First, let’s have Dell run some of their diagnostics on the system and tell me that it is the operating system and not the drive and, therefore, how about you pay us $129 for this one incident to re-install the operating system.  And, oh, by the way, as long as you’re paying us $129 for just this once, why don’t you think about paying us $250 for the year so we can fix your software issues again?  And, since this is a software issue, we won’t be replacing your hard drive after all.  The hard drive that is covered under your warranty.  Yes, that one.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has been calling as they said they would and repeatedly emailing and asking how they could be of service.  I’m so completely amazed and impressed with Microsoft’s tech support and customer service that I might just leave the Mac on the back burner for a while.  Seriously.  Very impressive.  Dell on the other hand – not so much.  They were more interested in selling us support services than taking responsibility for the hard drive failure.  After quoting research on this issue that I found on the internet and requesting hard drive manufacturer diagnostics from the next tech rep I talked to, it seems Dell has changed their mind.  New hard drive on the way.  And now, the @DellCares representative seems to have gotten the word that they are sending someone to replace the drive so he is now responding to the emails that I sent yesterday and this morning advising him of the situation and asking  him why the need to sell software support services was taking precedence over the obvious need to replace the drive.

The repair is scheduled for tomorrow or Monday (they do have 72 hours you know).  And they are bringing an imaged hard drive pre-loaded (as we bought it supposedly).  So, we’ll just have to see how that goes.  Stay tuned for the continuing saga…  and.. put a little faith back into Microsoft.  I have.  I am seriously impressed. (And I still want a Mac.. in addition to the PC )

Many businesses today want to leverage social media to grow their business. Making social media a part of an overall business marketing strategy makes good sense, and in today’s “connected” world, is almost a requirement. Some businesses try it and fail, mainly because they don’t know the best way to use the tools and techniques to be successful. Others experience varying levels of success due to knowledge, diligence, perseverance, hard work and sometimes, luck. Done well, it can take your business to the next level.

There is one thing about social media that we must all remember. It makes us transparent. If you are a business owner and want to embark on the social media path, make sure you are 100% confident that your service and your products are up to the test.

There is a saying that “Good news travels fast” and on the internet “Bad news travels even faster”

If your customers have a bad experience with you, they will tell everyone who listens about it. Remember the YouTube video about “United Breaks Guitars”. A story about a musician whose ”pride and joy” guitar was broken in baggage handling and because United did not take responsibility for the incident, he wrote a song about it and made such a negative social media blitz on YouTube that the management of United offered to buy him a new guitar. He politely declined and proceeded to make a second video, driving the stake even further into the proverbial “heart” of United.

The moral of the story

If your products and services are solid, social media is definitely for you. If your customers are satisfied (and they don’t even have to be overwhelmed, just satisfied), then bad press most likely won’t come your way. However, if you do slip up, be prepared for a social media storm that may have a significant adverse impact on your business. Too many of these “bad news” stories about your business can drive potential customers to your competitors.

Let’s face it – nobody is perfect, so you need to be prepared to react to negative comments that may get posted. Reputation management includes monitoring all things being said about you, your business, your products, your service, and IF something negative shows up, handling it quickly and effectively to avoid further backlash. Use the tools available to make sure you know what is being said about your brand and social media can be your best friend.

As many of my friends and followers know, I have been on a quest to acquire the iPhone, the iPad, the iMac and any other Apple product I can get my hands on because I have really started focusing on the graphic design side of our business.

Our current phone plan recently expired for both hubby Chuck and I so he finally caved to my desire and we took a trip to the AT&T store in Brookfield, WI. We were very happy with our sales guy and our decision to purchase 2 iPhones, with a 2-year plan on AT&T, along with a Bluetooth headset, a couple of cases, a car charger and screen protectors – our bill was a bit over $600. I believe our sales guy threw in one of the cases for the nice purchase. So, out the door we went with our new toys, and with me being out of my mind delirious for finally being able to purchase this little goodie that I had drooled over since it came out.

Being thrilled like I was, naturally I got home and performed my sync with iTunes, added in my favorite apps, brought my contacts in from Outlook and set all my passwords to the various social networks. Heaven!! Only an iPad would have brought me closer to Nirvana. We both played around with our phones a bit and then the neighbor rang the bell and invited us to come for Memorial Day festivities at their house, including a good time in the pool and hot tub. We gladly accepted.

Now being the new iPhone owner, I had to bring it to show our friends (plus I am generally never without Tweeting abilities if I can help it). At one point, Chuck was in the hot tub being a goof so I, of course, wanted to snap his picture and I had the means to do it. I grabbed my iPhone, pulled up the camera app, and walked to the edge of the hot tub to snap the “Kodak moment”.

Anyone have any guesses for what came next? Yep – here it comes.

There was a step that I was not paying attention to, I tripped, and the iPhone did a proverbial swan dive right into the hot tub. It was like one of those slow motion “Ohhhhh nooooooo” moments. Chuck immediately grabbed it out of the water – but alas, too late. My long sought after prize was now in ruins. We did the suggested – took it home, dried it out, used a hair dryer, put it in rice.. all to no avail. Couldn’t find the SIM card and couldn’t restore. And I promptly pasted a huge “L” in the middle of my forehead.

OK, so that’s bad, and now I’m crushed. But what happened next was the salt in the wound.

I don’t know if those little sensor lights were working or not to show that the iPod had taken in water, but I have a lot of integrity. According to my wet iPhone research, if those little lights don’t show up, sometimes, lucky owners had been given a gratis that “it just wasn’t working” and they got a new phone. I always think honesty is the best policy so I did not want to try and fool anyone. I tucked my tail between my legs, walked in with my head hung low and sheepishly explained that I was a dolt and that I had dropped it into the hot tub. Our same sales guy happened to be working at the store again and promptly explained to us that umm, well… TOO BAD. According to Apple’s policy, he explains, we not only would have to pay again, but we would have to pay triple the initial cost of this phone. $$$TRIPLE$$$. Because now, you see, this NEW phone is not on our plan and when it’s not on a plan, you have to pay $600!

Now pardon me – I am fully aware that this was MY BAD. But, you know what? This kind of customer service by Apple and AT&T really sucks. Our sales guy even suggested that we might put the iPhone on EBay for a couple hundred bucks because some people will buy these water-worn devices and fix them. Hey, here’s a thought AT&T or Apple – why don’t YOU buy this iPhone back from ME for a couple hundred bucks and fix it? Or hey, what about splitting the difference? Or hey, what about just doing something that’s nice and the right thing to do because accidents happen and many don’t have an extra $600 laying around?

I’m not happy. I mean, I’m really not happy. I would have eaten the same cost of the phone, because I know it wasn’t their fault that I dropped it. But to gouge the consumer like that is just plain madness and not very friendly. After all, what’s a few hundred bucks to AT&T or Apple as opposed to the small business owner or the individual? Think about it – will these big companies suffer from doing a really nice thing because of a true accident? Ah, no. But it’s POLICY.

Well Apple & AT&T, I just might re-think that iPad and that iMac. And I hope you re-think your policy.

I’m not a regular blogger like others I know.  I really hope to get better at it and I envy those that are so good.  As I was getting ready for work this morning, I was thinking about all of the things I could blog about.  Should I blog about the puppy again?  Should I blog about my brother’s birthday today and how age doesn’t make us old?  Should I blog about what a graphic designer needs from their clients?  Should I blog about the 3 marvelous speakers that I’ve seen in the last 2 months? Endless thoughts it seems.  But which one?

And then it came to me.. if I wrote down my thoughts about what to blog about, I’m actually writing a blog!  How simple is that?  And really, blogs should be very simple.  Short and to the point.  Isn’t that what we want to read?  In my humble opinion  – if you want to write a long blog – make it an article instead.  It’s about that expectation.  Here’s an article on The Ideal Blog Post that I thought was a great overview – even if it’s a little dated.

And, oh, by the way – K.I.S.S. can also mean Keep It Simple Successes.   And that’s how I think I’ll blog from now on – about sweet, simple successes like actually writing a short little blog today.

So, it’s not that hard – put some thoughts down and share.

To your best life!

Over the last year, we have altered our service offerings to include only those that we really love to deliver.  Someone once said, “Do what you love and you’ll do it better than anything else you try.”  Using that theme, we have slimmed down our service offerings to:

Graphic Design

• Business Logos
• Twitter Backgrounds
• Facebook Pages
• Marketing Material
• Advertisements
• Wedding Invitations
• Anything that requires an artistic approach to online and printed graphics

Blog Development

Template Website Development

Social Media Services

• Planning
• Design
• Implementation
• Training
• Maintenance
• Consulting
• Auditing
• Online Reputation Management

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

• Keyword research and development
• Coordination of keyword utilization across all online channels
• Search Engine Rankings

To this list of offerings we have added the “MVP Social Media Road Map”, which begins with a complimentary one-hour consultation to get an in-depth understanding of a client’s business, and concludes with specific documented objectives for the client’s use of Social Media.  Using the knowledge gained from this session, we provide the client with the “MVP Road Map”.

Similar to using a GPS device in your car to get directly from point A to point B, the “MVP Road Map” report provides a detailed step-by-step process to take the client from their current position to where they need to be in order to achieve their stated social media objectives.  The level of detail in the report gives our clients the option of doing some of the tasks themselves, outsourcing some or all of the tasks to MVP (estimates are included in the report) or using another social media service provider of their choice, or any combination thereof.  This provides the client total control and flexibility in choosing how to implement their plan.

This has been a popular service offering because, for a $250 flat fee, it is an affordable way to provide the client with a comprehensive guide to achieving their desired Social Media objectives.

If your business needs a GPS for Social Media, this could be your solution too.

My Virtual Project

PR 101 – Lesson 56 – Remember That Using Social Media Means Being Social by Jeff Cole. I am referencing this blog post because like Jeff, I believe that meeting someone face-to-face is one of the most effective means to building a relationship.  Eye contact, gestures and body language are all a part of creating the warm and fuzzy feeling around personal relationships.  Using Social Media to actually get a face-to-face meeting so you can “close the deal”, as Jeff puts it, is obviously a great way to operate… if you can.  BUT, there are many people you meet using Social Media that are not local to you.  What about the multitude of companies who conduct business every day with people that they have never met face to face?  Or the Virtual Assistants that help a business run smoothly from their home office?  There are Consultants that provide invaluable business advice and coaching services, sight unseen.  Not to mention the Social Media specialists that help companies from other states or even other countries strengthen their brand and grow their business.   All of this is done remotely.

As Jeff says in his post, “Remember, social media is about having a conversation. That means you have to listen to others, be it at a group’s meeting, or with a client. You need to hear what they are saying. How else are you going to learn what their needs are?”  I can’t argue with that, but you also must include in this scenario the people you meet through Social Media.  The same principles hold true. You need to hear what they are saying in order to learn what their needs are and how you can help them.  Social Media is all about helping people.  Give them a tip, send them to a great article, help them solve their business problems and you’ll get the same warm and fuzzy feeling as you do face-to-face.  It may take a bit longer to be as effective as a face-to-face meeting, but it does work.  It works every day for a lot of people.

This blog title is just a bit of a spin on another commonly used phrase – “A Failure to Plan is a Plan to Fail”.  Ultimately, they are unified.

Recently, we did a complete remodel of our home office space.  It turned out EXACTLY as we planned.  And I mean EXACTLY.  I truly believe that this was due to a long thought process about what we wanted and several iterations of a plan using the office planner available on IKEA’s website.

Susi's Space Before

The process we used in designing our office should be applied to any type of graphic design for success in achieving your desired result.  Here are 5 things to consider:

Elements. We knew the elements we needed for our space.  There may have been things we wanted, but to maximize efficiency, we did our research for the pieces that would serve us well.  Think about what kind of symbol would best represent your business and how that will integrate with your name in your logo or graphic.

Sizing.  Our space is very small.  We had to make sure that the elements we had chosen would work well within the small space. We measured and planned down to a quarter of an inch!  But it worked. Where will you use your graphic?  On your blog header?  Your website?  Your business cards?  An avatar?  Think about how long your business name is.  Decide on whether including your tagline will enhance or detract from your graphic.

My Virtual Project Combined Space - AFTER

Colors.  We incorporated the colors from our logo right into our office space but they all blend and there are not too many.  For a logo, keep your colors to a minimum.  3 is OK, but 2 is better. Remember to stay consistent in your branding.  Other graphics can be colorful, but printing them can then be more costly.

Simplicity.  Our office has very clean lines and is modern but is simple.  Simply stated, clutter doesn’t look good no matter where it is.  Don’t clutter your logo or graphics with too many styles or elements.

Budget.  Because we did our research and took the time to plan, we ended up saving money. The more you plan and do your research, the more information you can give to your designer.  If your designer works on an hourly basis, this can save you a bundle because they won’t have to research for you.

In summary, our office makeover end result was a beautiful, clean, productivity enhancing, affordable solution that was exactly what we wanted.  We planned the design and the design succeeded.

Since this is our business blog, I’ve posted mostly about work and things related to work.  This time I thought I’d throw a bit of my personal side in the mix.

For the last 20 years, I have been teaching myself how to cook.  After being divorced, and not knowing “squat” about cooking (other than how to open a can), I embarked on what would turn out to be a long journey of self-taught cooking; by using tips from a friend who got me started, lots of reading and watching a TON of the Food Network on TV.  Over the years I’ve become quite an accomplished cook.  It’s turned into more than a hobby for me.  My wife, partner and best friend, Susi likes the fact that I do 90% of the cooking and grocery shopping.  She cooks once in a while and has some awesome specialty dishes that I absolutely LOVE, but I enjoy cooking so much, she just lets me (thanks Hon).

I’m in a business networking group called BNI (Business Networking International).  A short while back, a co-member and friend who happens to be in the WildTree Food business and who knows I love to cook asked me if I would consider being a guest blogger on her food blogsite.  She would let me try some of the new WildTree products and then I would use them and blog about my experience.  I thought that would be fun so I said “Sure”.

Since then I’ve posted about 6 times on her blog.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

http://lvtocook.wordpress.com/