I'm a little behind the times with this one, but just enjoyed a morning of 'non-thinking' tasks while listening to this excellent talk on providing an experience that customers love, by Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users fame - A must-listen for all small businesses, so pop on those headphones :)
We all know that email leaves a lot to be desired on the communication front, but it also fails dismally in sending large files. This can cause major frustration when trying to figure out how to get that big file from your computer to that computer a thousand miles away.
That is why we love services like YouSendIt. Not only is the process as simple as they come, you get your files delivered to inboxes faster than it takes to figure out what all that large-file-fuss was even about.
As with all great-yet-simple tools, there are many options. While we use YouSendIt, I also really like the look of DropSend and its exceptionally cool website.
Both tools have a free option that gives you a lot, as well as paid versions for those who send massive files to many people.
I've written before about how Jajah fills a hole in Skype by offering cheap calling from and to landlines and cellphones accross the world. I had an excellent conversation last night using Jajah and even my mother (who still prints off emails and sends them via post instead of clicking the 'forward' button) agrees that services like these are not only cheap, they are excessively non-techie friendly.
So when I found out about Talkety, I was quite stoked. Talkety looks almost like a rebranded clone of Jajah, but they are offering free minutes to all new signups and look like they aim to build their customer base through offering free minutes for every referral - Which means, at the very least, the cost of long distance calling is dropping even further. I love competition in this industry, especially after living in three-phone-company-nz for so long, so reccommend you get stuck into these new services and give the established phone companies a little payback for years of overcharging.
What I love about things like blogging and Word of Mouth Marketing is how you 'win' customers honestly - by being inspirational.
I hate some of those famous marketing campaign successes, like cigarette companies who had women march down the street smoking to mark 'women's liberation' and associate that with the ability to smoke.
I love successful 'marketing campaigns' that involve passionate business owners creating passionate customers by teaching them enough about their business that their customers become just as excited as the owner is:
No, your product/service may not change the world, and it doesn't need to. What it does need to do is make life that little bit better for your customers, and it's up to you to help them understand and love what it does do, until they become your greatest marketing tool - your customer evangalists.
A while back I wrote about Harvest, an excellent web based time tracking tool.
However, after a few weeks of using it, I noticed one small but serious flaw: I use time tracking so that I don't have to think about how much time I spend on various projects because the tool is doing to job for me. However, Harvest requires you to write in your total hours - invariably you end up having to use scraps of paper to write down when you started and finished, then do the calculations yourself and type in the final number. For the tremendously organised or mathematical, this is a none issue, but for the likes of me, it meant giving up on time management.
88 Miles solves that problem. With a 'punch in' 'punch out' system, you simply click a button when you start working on a project, then click another one when you've finished. It does the rest for you.
88 Miles is very, very simple; you add companies, projects and then click the relevent start/finish buttons as you make your way through the workday. And this guy 'eats his own dog food' - 88 Miles was made to sort out his own time management issues, and he's giving it away for free.
I hate spending money on things that are massively overpriced, yet have no alternative - like passport photos. It may only be $10 or $12 but it niggles. When you do find an alternative (like ePassportPhoto) and use it, it's like pulling the finger at those people who have been blissfully ripping you off all these years.
So if you need passport photos, get them done for free at ePassportPhoto - it's simple, free and means on less irritating expense.
"Skypecasts are live, moderated conversations allowing groups of up to 100 people from anywhere in the world to talk to one another." - Skype Blog
What I love about the idea of Skypecasts (having not yet participated in one) is how much easier phone conferencing will be. Because Skypecasts are moderated by a 'host' who can "mute, eject or pass the virtual microphone to participants when they wish to speak" there is no more talking over each other.
Obvious uses are for physical conferences where people who wish to attend by can't can still take part in the action. Also, Skypecasts are structured enough to allow for more convential speech type calls, where one speaker can do the majority of the talking, then open up the floor for questions at the end.
Skypecasts are free to set up and participate in, at the moment there are a range of Skypecasts going on… from "Youth Accommodation in Barcelona" to "Mike Talk". Check out what's currently being Skypecasted here
Screen sharing applications have been around for years, in the past, we have used GoToMeeting for indepth screen sharing sessions. Vyew offers a similar, scaled back and free service - the biggest difference being that you can't share your screen in real-time, this is replaced by an easy screengrab feature, which pulls the screenshot back into Vyew and allows all viewers to use it as the base of a virtual whiteboard. During my quick demo, I took a few screen shots and played with a few features, and it is kind of slow… But it works.
Vyew is a free, web-based collaboration tool that provides a feature-rich meeting room with real-time whiteboard functionality, desktop screen capturing and perpetual meetings. - Vyew.com
Vyew is purely web based, so no need to download anything, it's free and it enables group collaboration (I think of it as an addition to a teleconference really as opposed to a full on screen sharing session). Vyew's comparison chart gives you a better indication of it's functionality - although it does overemphasise the importance of screenshots over real time screen sharing.
Vyew seems to be most useful for those who hold teleconferences that don't revolve around sharing screens, but would be aided by a little visual collaboration.
I've talked before about how useful blogs/wikis are in managing a team or small business because they serve as a central information point to stop endless emails. Publi.sh offers a (faster/easier?) alternative to a blog for sharing information that's only relevant for short periods of time, without the hassle of culling old posts.
Publi.sh helps you create 'disposible feeds for personal and group use' that can be read through any RSS reader (like netvibes, Bloglines etc) and added to by sending in an email, or using a bookmark link.
The major benefit in using Publi.sh over a blog for time-based information sharing is it's disposible nature (if no one accesses a feed for 14 days it's wiped, so you don't end up with mountains of useless information). It's super simple, feature poor (no comments, archives etc) and performs the function of sharing information quickly and easily, without the hassle of having to manage archives and delete out-of-date information (you can only access the last 15 posts, all older ones are deleted).
Publi.sh obviously has a very specific use, but if you have that specific need, it could be just what you're after.
Ever wanted a PA? Now you can have one, without the costs of paying a real person. Pamela is a Skype addon who does nifty things like auto reply to anyone who messages you on Skype while you're away, offers a Skype answering machine service and advises people that you are on another call when you are ('she' even changes your skype status as soon as you connect to a call). The basic version is free, and professional version, with many added features and lifetime upgrades is a one time payment (I think) of $US21.50 - with a 30 day free trial.
The upcoming 2.0 versdion of Pamela includes:
If you're like me; reeling in disgust at the sheer sterotypical nature of a PA system based on a female called Pamela, you can rest easy, because the site assures me Pamela and Skype go a long way back - it's a pure accident we happen to have a history of females in PA/secretary roles :)
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