Internet Business Toolbox» collaboration

Efficiency with Google Docs

sugeng — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 05:00:33 +0000

Most people are familiar with the suite of Microsoft Office that consists of Word, Excel, Powerpoint and many others depending on the package purchased or pre-installed. For those who prefer open-source (free software), Open Office is the other common choice. There is another choice through Google. It is called Google Docs. We can achieve better efficiency with Google Docs.

We can create documents, spreadsheets and presentations in Google Docs. The look and feel are very much like Microsoft Office applications. You can create and edit the files or docs (as Google calls them) as per normal. On top of that, you can edit docs from anywhere and collaborate with others. With collaboration, we can share the document and edit the docs together with others online. It is just like sharing whiteboard where everyone’s changes are updated real time.

Google Docs also provides ideas for teachers in Docs for Teacher. You can find it in Google Docs Help area. There are few suggestions provided on how best to use Google Docs in education. You can also find Google Docs Help Forum in the help area. This forum has all the answers to questions the users have. Of course you can join the Google Docs Help Group that will send emails when there are questions and updates. There are also templates available for the Docs at template gallery.

Since Google Docs is using existing Google account login, if you already have account registered with Google, you don’t have to register again. You just need to activate Google Docs and you are ready to use the features.

There is a new feature of Google Docs that allows it to work offline. This is very convenient when you need to work offline. Google Docs will use the copy stored in local hard drive and synchronize the content when you go online again. You can access Google Docs offline you need to enable it first by installing Gears for Google Docs. It is easy to do. Just click on the Offline link in the upper-right corner of your Docs list. When you see the following dialogue box, click the Get Google Gears now button. To access Google Docs offline, just point your browser to http://docs.google.com.

You can get more information from Google Docs Help area.

Getting Popular with Social Bookmarking

sugeng — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 01:00:43 +0000

Just like my previous post, let’s start this post with a video that explains Social Bookmarking in Plain English by leelefever. The featured social bookmarking site is del.icio.us. It has an Alexa ranking of 2,855 and can be considered quite popular although not the highest for social bookmarking site.

In simple term, social bookmarking is bookmarking sharing. Of course, the other benefit is its use of tagging (a form of metadata) to make bookmark search much easier and faster. It is also called social tagging due to the fact that the bookmarks are available to others through the use of tags as well. Another name for social tagging is folksonomy which means sharing or collaboration of tags or index by the people (creators or consumers) not the experts.

It is actually not a new concept. It started as early as 1996 with online bookmarking service that included public and private bookmarks. There were many online bookmark services that emerged later on based on similar concept with various other added features. It was not until 2003 that del.icio.us (now known as Delicious) was started that it pioneered the use of tagging and coined the term social bookmarking.

Social bookmarking is linked to web 2.0 optimization. It is a powerful tool used in promoting a website by getting the community involvement. The concept is powerful as it is a comprehensive way that gets community involved in making the website popular. This is achieved by bookmarking the site with various social bookmarking services and getting backlinks. As a result, the traffic is increased and the search engines will index the site more quickly.

Here is the list of 20 Largest Social Bookmarking Sites according to eBizMBA. Heading the list is digg followed by Yahoo! Buzz, Technorati, StumbleUpon and del.icio.us.

There are also tools available that help people submit their site to multiple social bookmarking sites. The convenient tools help bloggers by submitting the site with a simple one-click. The most popular ones are SocialMarking, Socialmatic and SocialMarker.

I hope this article has covered enough introduction on Social Bookmarking. If you like this article, I hope you can bookmark it by clicking on bookmark by SocialMarker.

Social Media Marketing

sugeng — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 05:37:46 +0000

Social Media Marketing refers to marketing using social media. And, what is social media? Watch this video that explains social media in plain English.

Social media is a form of interactions among the people. It allows the people to have conversation, to comment, to be involved in community, to have collaboration, to contribute and to share among themselves. The possibility is almost endless. This is the basis of Web 2.0 that makes all those things possible. It is not really something new, but the new technology has made it simpler for people to interact with each other.

Social media marketing is marketing by utilizing social media. How do we do that? Traditional marketing is normally a one-way communication. The marketer provides information for the people to see, look, hear, feel and taste. Social media and social marketing are two or more ways of communication. There is interactivity involved here. It means there must be participation among the parties and when necessary also conversation, collaboration, contribution and sharing.

Community is another very powerful form of social media. It is formed from conversation among people. Communities may span across various social networks. We just need to know where our existing and target markets are located and get ourselves blended into the community by talking and engaging meaningfully with the people. You can even create a community based around your products or services. Example of existing social networks are Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc.

From the outlook, social media looks simple. Anyone can setup a blog, create accounts at the social networking sites and start your activities in the network. However, to be effective you need to have commitment and understanding how the things work. Social media is not only about list building and having many friends. It is about meaningful connections with the people.

I would like to end this post with a video on 7 Secrets of Social Media by Perry Belcher. He talks about being remarkable, fun, helpful, supportive, controversial, resourceful and don’t be an “asshole”. I hope you get a good idea or two of how to utilize social media effectively.Social Media Marketing refers to marketing using social media. And, what is social media? Watch this video that explains social media in plain English.