the sephone blog

Technology and the Web are constantly evolving and changing. It seems like every day there’s something new to learn. We know it can be tough to keep up with, and while we try to make our products easy to use, we know some of you might need a helping hand to step into Geekdom.

Sephone Resource Center - for people who feel like this when editing their website. (Photo from http://lolcatz.wordpress.com)

And so the Sephone Resource Center was born! We often have similar questions about the “how-to’s” for the person that is just learning, or if there is a new person doing the job.

The Resource Center is a collection of tutorials for how to do common (and some uncommon) tasks in services like our content management system, datAvenger and datAvenger pro. This list of tutorials will continue to grow with new text and video tutorials and will continue to cover even more Sephone services.

Here are some examples of tutorials that are currently available:

• Adding links
• Adding images
• Uploading images and documents
• Managing User Accounts
• Reordering navigation

Check it out! Visit sephone.com and click on ‘help’.

Was a comment on one of my report cards in 1st grade.  It was also followed up with something like,  “…but sometimes her concern for others getting along and cooperating interferes with her own work.”

Who’da thunk it?

My friends, family and business partners can attest for it, but what about in Social Media areas?  How do people know that you REALLY CARE?

Or better yet, “How  do you know who doesn’t and is just pretending to care?”  It seems like these days 60-75% of my work time is dedicated to doing something in Social Media and it is increasing every week.

Social Media brings us together and yet distances us all at the same time. Periodic non-visible online interactions take longer to sort out who is real and who isn’t.

I recently attended a conference where Chris Brogan spoke (it was my first time meeting him and I was sooo excited)  Mike Volpe also made a great presentation.  If you don’t know Chris, he is amazing you should follow him.  He is as real as they come and in person, he can make you laugh so hard that your sides split.

Mike Volpe of Hubspot fame was a lot different than I thought he would be.  I watch their podcasts religiously and read their blogs and I would recommend anyone feeling intimidated about social media and applications you can lurk around on any of these sites and learn a ton.

What did I mean when I said Mike Volpe was different than I thought?  I knew he was smart, I knew he knew his stuff.  His podcast partner Karen Rubin, is mega bubbly.   When I met Mike at the conference, what I met was a kind of shy guy.  Not what I expected.  He puts forth so much confidence on his sites and podcasts, I was a bit intimidated at the idea at the face-to-face.

Chris Brogan has this message that he calls “Be Human”, he has a great post here outlining what this means.  In fact, when you Google the term “be human” his blog entry comes up in the first 5 searches.  Rather than to reiterate what these captains of industry have to say, I included several links here so you can easily find them.

Clients will ask me, “Why do I care if someone’s eating high fibre cereal for breakfast?’ or “That their kids soccer game was a blow out?” Truth is YOU may not care, but one of the thousands of other readers may. If you were one of the people in the battle to fight cancer, you could provide support to many in different situations and stages just by seeing these buzz words.

This makes a “human” connection that is important to an often hard to connect with medium.  Some of us don’t use real photos as profile shots all the time.  Some of us are vague about how to find us.  Maybe our user names aren’t exactly intuitive. The internet is full of great people as well as weirdos.  That doesn’t necessarily make you a “Nervous Nellie,” but if someone is trying to learn about you or your business, you may seem a little less “human.”  What you have to deliver and say becomes that much more important.

First impressions can be misleading.  Establish yourself or your business as the someone you ARE.  Stick with it on blog comments, blog posts, other platforms.  Because after all, the keyboard doesn’t type itself. A HUMAN does!

Over the weekend, on Facebook, there was a post from a peer.  I have never done business with this person, but I do know them.  The post was in regard to how to use certain things tools with social media, I gotta say, the post left me shocked. The tone was just wrong to me (and it was not directed toward me.)

Look, social media is changing every second and I am a believer of trying things out – even if you do them WRONG as this person’s post indicated, relax -you can always fix it.

OBJECTIVE is key if you decide to use Facebook, Twitter or if you decide you want to blog (or to pay someone else to do it), on your behalf.  A PLAN is important too and a stash of content, stuff you read, links, etc. for when you are in the mood to write.  Frequency in posts makes you interesting and lets face it, it is like a re-run of Seinfeld.  You may love Seinfeld, but you will find yourself surfing off the channel because you know what is coming up… new posts regularly is always a good thing.

To say that we, (Sephone) haven’t had the challenges you may have, would not be truthful.  We get busy, customers need jobs done and our Sephone Blog may become stale.  My own personal blog has fallen victim of that.  Sometimes, I just don’t feel the urge or sometimes I just don’t feel interesting enough to post anything.

I look to people that I only know online to encourage me.  I call Chris Brogan my online therapist! (We have never met in person.)  Here is a post he wrote two weeks ago that really hits the nail on the head for me. Brogan helps, he doesn’t scold.  You are an adult you don’t need scolding, when you are trying to learn something new. Generally, you are trying to teach yourself – in between work, home, kids, etc. Chris Brogan has a book.  Yeah a hard cover book, an old-fashioned printed on paper BOOK!  It is called “Trust Agents,” VERY easy to read and to understand and not intimidating.

So what is my point?

Learning is GREAT.
Learning about Social Media and how it can work to promote your business is GREATER.

Don’t feel guilty, if you don’t get it right the first time.  Some “EXPERTS“  can be arrogant, generally, they are the same in person and it takes a bit longer to recognize it online.

Reaching out and asking for help from someone that understands that you are finding your way is the GREATEST!

So don’t be discouraged or embarrassed. Don’t feel intimidated enough to turn away.  You can do it and there are so many people to help that don’t “ball you out “ when it isn’t perfect.

Most people aren’t trying to “cheat,” they are just doing something that is familiar to them and within some of the social media platforms-Facebook for example, are rigid.  These aren’t bad, but you need to learn them and sometimes you make mistakes.

NEWS FLASH you are human.

Wireless Sign

We are located in Eastern Maine (Bangor) and have a variety of clients located out of state that have a vacation home in Bar Harbor or have local clients with limited time for meetings. Hence the “lunch meeting.”

Considering the fact that practically EVERYTHING we talk about (after the personal stuff), is something that can be easily explained, viewed or demonstrated on the internet we enjoy going to places with wireless internet.

In fact recently, I went to a restaurant over the weekend and the owner said to me, “Hey where have you been, we haven’t seen you in a while?’

I said, “Well, I need connectivity to the internet during most lunches.”
He said, “Most times you can pick it up from the hotel next store.”
I said, ” Not today and not the last time I was here,” as I glanced down at my iTOUCH.

I love this restaurant and it actually has a location in Bar Harbor also and what a great way to introduce someone to it when they are meeting with their all time favorite web company! Yes we have iPHONES and Blackberries, but how long can you look at a tiny screen at a website that may not be really optimized for a mobile device.

The service at this restaurant is excellent, the atmosphere is perfect and the menu selection is vast. AND it is locally owned.

Call me old fashioned, but I support my customers businesses first and local businesses that may not be my customers (yet), next.
Loyalty is important.

Now some restaurant owners might say, “If I have wireless, then people will come in and drink one cup of coffee and plug up the place.”

True that could happen, but not bloody likely when you handle it right. I know I choose to take a client(s) to a $35-$50 lunch JUST BECAUSE of wireless being available.  And offering wireless is not an expensive proposition.  A few customers coming to your place and spending $50 will pay for your monthly fees in addition to paying for that one time $60 modem.

Wireless is a reality as a business expense, you all ready have a great menu, great staff and you aren’t some loud no name place that lacks the local flavor of the place people are visiting.  Work with it, tell your customers and it will more that pay for itself!

The technology community on the web has been abuzz over the last few weeks over a couple of new hacking cases on well-known sites. What’s this mean to you, the everyday user of the web? Well, it serves as a reminder that security online is just as important as locking your door at home.

We know online security can be overwhelming, so in this post we’ll provide you with two simple things you can do to add an extra coat of armor online, right now.

1. Strong passwords are the key (or the lock)

What would you think if the combination to the safe at the bank was ‘12345′? Using your first name, your username, or words like ‘password’ as your password is the online equivalent of a bad safe password. The one most effective step you can take to secure your accounts online is to use secure passwords.

At Sephone, we encourage our customers to use passwords that are at least six characters long and have at least one capital letter and one number. I’ll be honest: some of our clients are frustrated at first when we tell them our policy. Believe us, committing a new password to memory is a lot easier than what can happen if your password is discovered.

Bonus tip: Hopefully your house key, your car key, and your office keys are all different. Make sure your online keychain is the same way by using different passwords on different sites. If a hacker discovers the password on one service and feels like searching, using the same password is an open invitation to explore the landscape.

2. Pick a good secret question

Remember back when hackers managed to find their way into former governor Sarah Palin’s email? Yahoo – the service where her mail was hosted – is one of the many sites online that use a “secret” question feature to help you remember your password if you forget it. Her email hackers found the answers to her “secret” questions online. As more information is posted online (birth dates, death dates, and yes, even mother’s maiden names), these password recovery questions become less secure.

What can you do to prevent this? If the service allows you to type your own question, create a question that only you would know how to answer. (This could be anything from “What make of car did Andy’s father buy from Dad when we were kids?” to “What was the code word to our snow fort?”) If it doesn’t give you space to create your own question, lie with an answer you’d remember. If the question is, “What street did you grow up on?” and the answer is Summer Street, answer Winter Street. The service never checks the validity of your answers, so create an answer that only you will remember.

Online security can be a hassle, but with a few short steps you’ll be much more secure than ever before. What else do you do to beef up your online security?

Photo by Steven Tom, released under Creative Commons.

“Hmmmmm, click, click, click, hmmmmmm, click, click, click…” repeat.  That is the sound of an over excited Marketing person in 2009.

Marketers have always had a tendency to jump on the bandwagon of some latest craze and pound it to death.  I can say that because I am one to the core and with the advent of social media the buzz is louder and the clicking sound is that of a smoking keyboard or cell phone with all of “those people” talking to each other agreeing and singing the praises of the ideas that are exchanged between them.

Sound familiar?  But are the Marketing people the only people “getting it?”  Is this all a fad that will fade away like the Cabbage Patch Doll?

Being from Maine, Maine folks are known for not appreciating a lot of “fluff,” also we adapt to things that most need attending to, like shoveling the driveway, taking a friend to a doctor’s appointment, making sure the bills are being paid.  IMPORTANT stuff.

Right now Social Media, just may not seem that important and it is okay to feel like that, but it is July (almost) and the snow shoveling is a few months away, make part of your summer reading articles in periodicals that can give you the quick info you really need to know!

First take a quick 3 minute look at this video.

Then here are 3 quick things to read that may help you make sense of it:

1. Twitter a 140 character exchange between people from the mundane to the very important.  This article is from the periodical “The Week.”
2. Something  from a “traditional” type media about Twitter is an article in Business Week and its effect on recent events in Iran, certainly one type of media did not change life in Iran, but the fact when used along with “the old fashioned way” of doing things it helps support what was all ready happening.
3. Facebook isn’t necessarily only something your kids use to keep track of their friends whereabouts, it is really creating some unique opportunities for businesses to advertise to “specific” demographics at very reasonable costs.  Business Week has an interesting article here.

We know you don’t have time for this.
We hear this all the time.

If you want to promote your business yourself and not pay for yellow page ads (which are becoming dinosaurs) and daily news papers, (depending on which one you read, readership has declined in some cases nearly 75%).  How do you know someone, the RIGHT someone even sees your ad?  Cash a bit tight these days? Think again about Social Media.

If you have a rainy day (which so far this summer, it seems like all we have had is rainy days), go to YouTube.COM and search for “How To” or use other keywords to learn about things you may have questions about.  YouTube isn’t just a collection of senseless videos, there really are great things there – and if your business wants to produce something that you want the world to know about, here is your free way to promote it.

Also, looking for something to talk about with your nieces and nephews, or grandchildren?  Ask them about their facebook page or about how they text to keep in touch with their friends.  You may be surprised what you can learn and where you can learn it!

What is RSS

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a way for web sites to relay their newly published content to you. It’s often used by blogs or news sites and very widely supported.  Rather than going to a website to view the content, the content is “pushed” to you.

Why would I use RSS

Instead of having to visit several websites to view their content, those same sites can just send their updates to you via RSS. This would enable you to just check one place for new information instead of going to numerous other sites.

It can help cut down on spam as well. With email, the sender decides if the recipient wants the message; with RSS, the recipient decides if they would like the information. Therefore little to no spam comes through RSS feeds.

How do I know if a site has a feed

In most browsers, an orange icon, similar to the one in this post will appear around the address bar.  By clicking on it, you can see the feed.  Sometimes you will see a link on a site called “RSS” or “feeds” as well.

How do I use RSS

You are going to need a feed reader. The feed reader is an application that subscribes you to the updates.  This application wiill pull RSS feed data into one place for you to view.  We can write volumes about the numerous applications, but we are going to stick to the basics.

Web Browser Based

A web browser based feed reader is one that you use with your web browser. Your web browser is what you view the internet with, like internet explorer, firefox or safari.   With your browser you go to the feed reader site, login, and it will show you your feeds’ content.  Here are a list of popular feedreaders.

• Google Reader
• Blog Lines
• My Yahoo!
• News Gator

Most of these are easy to setup and use.  Plus they can be used for any computer that has internet access.  The rest of these need to be linked to a single computer.  If you don’t know which one of the below feed readers to use, try one of these.  I personally use google reader.

Vista Based

Windows Vista has it’s own way of dealing with RSS feeds.  Here are the basic steps.

1. Open Internet Explorer by clicking the Start button and then clicking Internet Explorer.
2. Go to the website that has the feed you want to subscribe to.
3. Click on the feed button
4. Click Subscribe to this Feed.
5. Type a name for the feed and select the folder to create the feed in.
6. Click Subscribe.

Once you are subscribed it will show in your internet explorer.  You can now add the feed to your vista sidebar or to your windows mail program.

Outlook

Inside of Microsoft Office, Outlook provides RSS functionality.  If you have outlook installed, by clicking on the feed icon in the address bar, Outlook will subscribe to automatically.

Thunderbird

If you have Thunderbird installed, it makes a great feed reader.

1. Go to the “File” menu and select “New -> Account”. Alternatively, you can go to the “Tools” menu and select “Account Settings”, and click on the “Add Account” button.
2. In the dialog box that pops up, select “RSS News & Blogs” and press the “Next” button.
3. Enter an account name, press the “Next” button, and finally press the “Finish” button. This new account will now appear in the folders pane in the main Thunderbird window.
4. Right-click on the account name in the folders pane and select “Manage Subscriptions”.
5. Click on the account name in the folders pane, and then click on the “Manage Subscriptions” link in the main Thunderbird window
6. Go to “Tools -> Account Settings”, click on the account name in the left-hand pane, and then click the “Manage Subscriptions” button.
7. click the “Add” button
8. enter the URL for the feed into the box
9. click “OK”

Apple Mail

1. Choose File > Add RSS Feeds or click the Add (+) button at the bottom of the sidebar, and then choose Add RSS Feeds.
2. Browse and select a feed you’ve bookmarked in Safari, or enter or paste the URL of a new feed. To search feeds you’ve bookmarked in Safari, start typing in the search field. To select from a list of bookmarked feeds, Shift-click to select feeds that are next to each other in the list; Command-click to select feeds that are not next to one another.
3. If you want RSS feeds to be included in your Inbox, click “Show in Inbox.”
4. Click Add

What are some feeds I can start with

• Sephone Blog
• Maine.gov has dozens of feeds
• WABI TV-5 Central Maine news

Nearly all blogs and news organizations have RSS feeds as well.

So let’s face it, that isn’t exactly what John F. Kennedy said on that cold day in January during his inaugural speech, but it is the season and we couldn’t resist to take advantage of a compelling statement and adapt it to today’s digital age.

More and more when you call companies you get hung up in voice mail someplace only to find if you DO get to a HUMAN, often it is not the HUMAN you were looking for.  When you send an email to a company you get an “auto response”  that reads “Thank you for…” again no HUMAN.

How does that make you feel?  Does it make you feel like anyone cares if you spend your hard earned money to do business with that particular company?

Or if you ARE getting a HUMAN, are THEY telling YOU what the rules are in order to do business with them?

Especially when I am “out of my element” and not in my area of expertise, I feel very uneasy without SOME sort of personal contact.  I like to know I can trust the person and the company I am dealing with. I also like to know that this HUMAN listens to what I need and I am not getting talked down to, because they are smarter than me.  They may be smarter than me, but I have the money, right?

With Sephone being located in Bangor, Maine, we have a clientele of what is categorized as small business.  Even though our market reaches nationally we still work with primarily small to medium-sized businesses. Many of our customers don’t have dedicated IT personnel and even those that do, these folks are stretched thin.  Our customers come to us for our expertise in web design, hosting questions or online applications that allow them to work more efficiently as well as to save money.

This is not a process that can be handled by a website with an “auto-responder”, a voice mail tree, or a form that you fill out that has fields determined by a faceless company that never has actually listened to learn which problems you are trying to solve and what priority they may be in.

We are just like you. HUMANS. And we don’t tell you how it is, we ask you what your goals are and together we work through a process to get there.  Sometimes being a bit on the “geeky” side we don’t always understand things the way you say them. Sometimes we have to ask questions again, we want to make sure we are all on the same page.

That is not to say we don’t use automation, obviously we are in the web business and we use the tools that we build as well as reach out to those services that we don’t build when that makes sense.

Blogging is a way that we try to leverage “community intelligence” to solve a problem, get answers or just plain learn.  And this is a way that the world is going when it comes to Customer Service.  The Sephone Blog (where you are now reading this), is to share information with you, when it is convenient for you to view it.  Have a question about an application, datAvenger or SPAM, you may find it here in the blog.  If you DON’T see it here, please let us know as we are always working to give you the tools you need, when you need them.  (For me I need them at 3am and I am trying to update something!)  Email me personally at kelly.cotaux@sephone.com

Blogging maybe something that may make sense for your company, Blogs are FREE to set up and are very easy to use, let us know if we can help you with one that can help you give more accessible customer service to your customers.  I have a couple I read often that talk about customer service and how to effectively use the tools that are being used.  I liked this one at first because it is called The Church of the Customer!  The amusing title grabbed my attention and the content of the blog keeps me coming back.  Another blogger I like is Guy Kawasaki, his blog title, “How to Change the World” also has some good reading. Here is a post on his views on blogging and Customer Service. I also have a blog called Techno-Trapped In My 40’s that focuses on dealing with today’s technology with a 46 year old brain!

Please never think for one minute that any of the tools that we use are instead of great HUMAN TO HUMAN customer service, or that we think we are smarter than you.  We are in this together.  Thank you for trusting  us, because this IS what we do to support you so you can concentrate on your core competency and together we can help you meet your goals.

If any of these online solutions frustrate you, pick up the phone and we will answer it.

Getting the most bang for your buck is the goal of almost every expenditure that a person or company makes. Web development is no different. One of the keys in working with a development firm is communications. Properly relaying ideas back and forth is very important. Nearly all of the tips below involve some form of communication.

Have a clear idea with distinguishable goals

This means, more or less, knowing what you what. You don’t have to have everything spelled right out, but you should be able to, in a few sentences, say exactly what your project goals are. When thinking about project goals, always think about the end result.

Think about what you want your site/application to do when it’s done. Try to relay the idea of how this helps your business to your developer as well; this may help them have a better understanding of what you want.

Example goals:

1. ‘Our website should list all of our dealers and be searchable by state,’
2. ‘We need to be able to schedule appointments with our clients and collect this information from them,’ or
3. ‘Our web application should track all of our customer inquiries.’

Feedback goes both ways…

Throughout the course of the project, the development team may have questions for you. Be as responsive, informative, and decisive as you can be. This will help the developers know what you want and will allow them to work as effectively as possible. Continually starting and stopping on a project makes it more difficult for developers to stay focused. Be prepared for their feedback as well. Most projects have several check-ups or milestones along the way with decisions to be made before you can move on to the next step.

Ask questions

Don’t be afraid to ask plenty of questions. You should understand what your developer is doing and why. That way, when a development company has a question, you will better understand why they are asking and the context of what they are asking. If you don’t understand what your development company is asking you, then ask them for more detail, so you can make an informed decision. Asking questions and discussing them also helps ensure that everybody is on the same page.

Let developers develop

A lot of times your web development company might have some ideas you hadn’t thought of.  Just like you have experience doing what your business does, web developers work on a lot of sites and might suggest some things they think will make your project better. Clearly communicate the end goals and anything that is crucial for your site to do, and let your development team work out the nuts and bolts of your site/application.  When you see a development version of the site, again, give feedback and ask any questions you have.

Keep it simple

When in doubt, always err on the side of simple. New ideas or features can always be acted upon later. It’s harder to fix a project that is hard to use, out of scope, over time, and over budget, then it is break up a project into several phases. Almost always, it’s better to have half the features fully implemented, than all of the features half-implemented.

When Sephone started about 8 years ago, a “good” or a “well designed” website was about as subjective as if you got a Christmas gift from your mother-in-law and when you reluctantly wore it, people said, “WOW! That looks great on you – you look great in purple!” After several people mention it throughout the day, you realize, “Why have I hated purple all these years?”

What YOU think works and what YOUR customer thinks works could be vastly different. So take the guess work out of it and learn how people behave on your website. Let the numbers tell you what changes to make, or what promotions/ads make people want to know more about you.

If you do not have a way to measure your traffic on your website, (this is NOT a counter,) but a real tool that helps you understand what folks are doing: How long they are on your site, where they come from, where they go to within your site, what words they use to search for you.

Then get on the phone and ask your web designer, “Hey, can I get Google Analytics?”

Google Analytics by no means is the ONLY web traffic analysis tool, but here at Sephone we LOVE Google Analytics. Click here for an audio/video tour that is very helpful!

Here are 4 reasons why we love it:

1. It is FREE to use and unlike lots of other FREE things, this is worth something! It gives you all kinds of information and explanations to what things mean at a simple mouse-over or click. It is web based and you can access it from anywhere.
2. No software to install on your own computer, just a user name and password to remember.
3. It is very easy to install on a website, web developers can do it easily and if you are their customer, shouldn’t charge you to do it. Many folks can figure out how to do it themselves.
4. HEY! It IS GOOGLE!

Google Analytics, isn’t just pretty charts and cool flash maps, it is about showing trends as well as spikes in traffic. If you have a seasonal business, your traffic numbers may be different from someone else’s. For example a white water rafting company should experience a different monthly trend in traffic than a wreath company.

It helps in planning your web marketing campaign as well as your print campaigns – or what changes you should make to the organization of your site or the keywords people use to find you. The money you spend (especially these days), needs to be measured by results and we say, if you need measurements, then it has to be Google Analytics!