Facebook Fireworks Fizzle Out!
There were a number of conversations being held on Facebook early in January 2011, about whether any fireworks events planned for Australia Day should be cancelled and the money donated to the various flood relief appeals. There is little conversation at all on Twitter or Facebook, in 2012, about the recurring flooding and some poor people on the east coast who have already endured five months of flooding with little respite in view.
Facebook pages were quickly set up to engage the discussion and the overwhelming view was that it was too late to cancel in 2011 and in the light of the flood tragedies on the East Coast and the terrible fires south of Perth, the fireworks shows should go ahead. Mostly for reasons of community support and social well being.
Conversations wandered off topic some times, there was lively
interaction and it is very clear that being able to [Read more...]
Exceptional Quality – Remarkable Company – Great Networking
An Invitation to Breakfast on March 9, 2012.
I was fortunate enough to enjoy the exceptional quality of several of the Proteus Leadership Breakfast series in 2011 and in fact took the time to write one of them up in my blog. ‘Fess It Up and Fix it
Proteus have generously offered the opportunity for me to invite nine friends to their first Leadership Breakfast in Perth as my guests and I would like to extend the invitation to you, to be one of the nine who join me for an inspiring session at the Pan Pacific Hotel (formerly the Sheraton).
Richard Dore’s advice to “Fess It Up and Fix It” was an engaging session on empowering staff to respond to customer’s issues and fix them, rather than escalate them; that good customer service pays off and teaching staff how to provide good service is an investment rather than a cost. Empower them, he said, and then get out of the way while they get on with it.
Proteus certainly endorses learning and networking as key elements in developing Leadership Skills This is a gift – to introduce you to their business and their remarkable leadership workshops. I hope you will join us!
Please send me a SMS to 0417925502 to confirm you are accepting this invitation and we will be in touch closer to the date.
Warmest regards
Lesley Dewar
Media Update – Contact Details for WA Govt MLA and MLC
To assist anyone who wishes to contact various Members of the Western Australian Government regarding issues that concern them, here are some useful links.
When sending emails or written correspondence to Members of Parliament, it is good etiquette to use their correct titles of office and any other suffixes that are appropriate for them individually. There are correct forms of address when contacting your (or any) Member of Parliament, depending on their role in the Government or Opposition and in which house they sit.
How Do I Address A Member Of Parliament?
The Premier and the Cabinet.
Each Member has an email address (to their official office) listed along with a link to their individual websites through which you can send a personal message to The Premier and each Cabinet Minister.
Their Office Telephone Numbers and Fax numbers are also listed.
The Premier of WA and Cabinet Ministers
All Members of Parliament
Members of the MLA (Legislative Assembly) are in the lower house and from which Government is formed. Members of the MLC (Legislative Council) are in the upper house and review of legislative bills put forward. Members of the current Government are drawn from both the lower (MLAs) and upper (MLCs) and the various Shadow Ministers of the Opposition are similarly sourced.
This list has some excellent options, such as being able to collate:
- email addresses
- websites
- office locations
There is a range of search options available as well as the facility to print off mailing labels.
These links provide valuable information about the processes of Government in Western Australia and we request you respect the offices of our Elected Government Members.
List of All Members of Parliament of Western Australia
Why are we providing these links?
Because Stories My Nana Tells is a passionate supporter of conserving our unique native forests and wildlife and this will be a way to help you contact your local Member of Parliament and the Cabinet to express your views.
Channel 10 Perth News Broadcast after interviews at Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Rescue Centre in the Perth Hills on Jan 16, 2012
Channel 10 News Items at Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Rescue Centre Jan 16, 2012
These links to the offices of Elected Politicians have been sourced from the official website of the Western Australian Government, with the expectation that should any changes occur within the Government of the day, the websites will be updated accordingly and the information should remain current. Leaving this website to use any links means you accept that this website has no control over the information provided on external sites.
#FacebookTip – Announcing Winners!
Announcing Your Facebook Competition Winners.
One of the things that is very important to understand about choosing to promote your business on Facebook with quizzes, competitions and even applications like FAN OF THE WEEK is that Facebook Terms Of Service specifically exclude using your Facebook page to announce the winners!
If you are not familiar with them, you can review the Terms Of Service on Facebook through this link: Facebook Promotion Guidelines
In particular, we are looking at these items:
1. Promotions on Facebook must be administered within Apps on Facebook.com, either on a Canvas Page or an app on a Page Tab. (we are using Fan Of The Week – Facebook App), and
6. You must not notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles (timelines) or Pages.
To ensure that we comply, we will be making announcing our Fan Of The Week through our website – as we have done with this first new post. Fan Of The Week – Jan 10, 2012
Our apologies to early Fans Of The Week – whose winning announcements have been subsequently overwritten, as happens every week when using the application.
Sharing this post:
Lesley Dewar is a well known blogger and workshop facilitator who writes regularly on Social Media, marketing and customer service in the category of Business Tips and she is the principal author at Stories My Nana Tells Her free eBook can be downloaded directly at Networking To a Plan Sharing this article is permitted providing this footnote is not deleted – all rights reserved. (c) Lesley Dewar 2012
Walking and Talking With WIBWA
Networking is an excellent way to meet and get to know new people with whom you can share ideas, offer suggestions and get feedback on your business. It’s always great when you can do some networking in a new and interesting way and hats off to Jennifer Rose Bryant of Women In Business WA for her inspirational group of women – with whom I walked and talked this morning. My TShirt was given to me by The Upbeat Dad (Rodrick Walters) when he and his family took me to my first game of US Baseball in Miami!
Walking And Talking With WIBWA
This is not my first time walking and talking with Jennifer’s group – I managed to complete the 6km walk on my first outing on September 19 last year. The ladies in this group are very inspirational, high achievers and big supporters of each other. One key member is Janette Philp who led a group last year to trek the Kokoda Trail and they raised over $125,000 for Breast Cancer Care WA . It took them ten months to train for the arduous terrain in Papua New Guinea and their book about the trek and the personal stories of the women who participated is both heart warming and challenging at the same time. I urge you to get a copy from Janette’s website and read it. You will look differently at these “ordinary” Perth business women you can meet at breakfast or on a walk.
Fitness – Not Fashion
On my first walk, I wore a pair of Klouds slip-ons – very comfortable and fully supportive of my arches, etc – but the ladies (all fully rigged with ergonomically designed runners) were not convinced, even when I did 6km on my first effort. So, off I went to the Athlete’s Foot, got measured and tested and kitted out with a pair of runners that cost me over $200. Yes, they are very comfortable and probably are doing a better job than the slip-ons. I wore them today for the third time, walking and talking. I am hoping I don’t pull up sore, this time, though.
Now, I know it’s a long time from September until January – but there is a good reason why my runners have had so few outings. They were packed for the trip to Melbourne at the end of September, when I set off to see the King Tut exhibition – something I have wanted to see ever since my friend from Cleveland, Susie Sharp told me about it and shared some of her own photos with me on Facebook. The trip was planned as a triangle – going via Darwin, where I would catch up with Bronwyn Clee who came down from Darwin for the Global Women’s Summit we held in Perth in July after my return from the US. With her help, I arranged to read some of my stories to kids in schools, booked a coffee and cake morning to meet local Mums and then go on to Melbourne. As it happened, the three legged trip had much cheaper airfares, too. The only disappointment was that Bronwyn had to fly out to LA the morning I arrived and I was supported by her network in Darwin.
Dropped Like a Stone, in Darwin
While I was in Darwin a previously unknown and undiagnosed ovarian cyst saw me off to hospital in an ambulance for emergency surgery and a few days stay in the Royal Darwin Hospital. It was the size of two thirds of a box of tissues; I was too ill to risk being flown back to Perth and the admin and medical staff were just fabulous. They got the hotel in which I was staying to pack up my room and deliver my belongings to the Hospital and this large, red crocodile suitcase followed me around from station to station until we knew what was wrong with me and how long I would be staying.
I remember when the technician was doing the ultrasound while we were trying to source the site of my incredible pain and I looked at the screen and said “is that dark patch the mesh from my hernia operation, last year?” He looked at me, slightly askance and said “no, that is your cyst,” to which I replied “cyst, what cyst????” My mind began connecting the dots: ovary, ovarian cyst, ovarian cancer, usually too late when they find it – and I did a mental internal scan and decided NO, I do not have ovarian cancer. The technician was not so sure but I knew it to be the case and subsequent tests showed there were no pre-cancerous cells nor existing cancer.
The fun came when we had to arrange my flight with Qantas back to Perth from Darwin and I needed my credit card. My mobile phone had been with me all this time (three days) and there had been lots of fun on Facebook and Twitter – it saved my sanity, I think. When we retrieved my suitcase and personal belongings, the little brown envelope in which my security receipt was stored gave us lots of fun and the opportunity for many mad comments on Facebook.
Of course, that was the end of my trip to see King Tut and the next eight weeks were spent recovering from a sizable incision down the length of my tummy. If you follow Stories My Nana Tells (Facebook) on Facebook, you will know that during those eight weeks, I spent some time house and cat sitting for Lisa and Warren; did some #ScienceAtWork with a dead, cooked chook and then hatched two little chickens, posted as #DayOldChick.
Back On Track
My brand new, virginal runners were taken out for the final WomenInBusinessWA Walking and Talking event in December, 2011 – but I was only able to walk about 500 meters, before I had to turn around and go back. Since then, especially in the New Year, I have started swimming and walking in water for 30 minutes a day three or four times a week and doing a stint on the treadmill a couple of times a week as well. Building up my core strength and improving my fitness proved itself today: with a 6km walk under my belt with no trouble at all.
While we two may not have been as fast as the other ladies who do this and other walking, I had a great time walking and talking with Ruth Jenkins of Ruth Jenkins (Sina Solutions) . We got on very well, networked like there is no tomorrow and found many interests in common. She absolutely needs to be introduced to my friend Nicole Ashby of Nicole Ashby (FIFO Families)
If you are a business woman in Perth, I strongly recommend not just Walking and Talking, but networking regularly with an extraordinary group of very down to earth women at Women In Business WA By the way – they are having a breakfast next Wednesday January 18. Will we see you there?
How To Get 6,500 Facebook Fans For Free!
Do You Know A Simple Way To Get 6,500 Facebook Fans?
Would you like to get 6,500 Facebook Fans to share your Facebook page with their friends? What do you think that might cost? How about being able to do that for FREE?
Your Facebook Fan page is intended to open a window to your business and make it easy for potential new customers to buy from you.
- Research shows most people need five or six contacts before they feel comfortable enough to buy online.
- Do YOU have the time to keep bringing people back to your Facebook Fan page – to see your latest offer?
- Are you spending a lot of time on Facebook, liking other pages; leaving links to your own page and hoping that you will get return visits from fans.
If you want your Facebook page to be a successful window to your business, you must have a strategic plan to get new fans and return visitors to both your website and your Facebook page
What is the simple strategy?
Here is a very simple strategy to help you and five other businesses on Facebook to build their Facebook fans and Website visitors, every week.
On Your Facebook Page, select FIVE other pages as your Featured Likes for a week.
- agree with each of those page owners to have their page listed as a featured like
- agree you will each share at least two of each other’s links during the week
- help them build their fan base through your Facebook page.
Six Facebook pages (yours and five others) will be getting their posts shared to a widening base of fans and everyone will see their fan base on Facebook grow very quickly.
Who should you choose?
Choose Facebook page businesses that are supportive of your niche market but not in direct competition with you.
For example, Stories My Nana Tells has a niche market for children aged 7 – 12 yo and especially with parents who work either away from home (#FIFO) or long hours that keep them away from home and their growing children.
While it is great to support other business pages from a social point of view – remember you are running a Facebook business page to build YOUR business and direct traffic to YOUR website. Do you think that sounds harsh; too tough?
How do you do it?
Every week during the year, edit your Facebook page to select FIVE Fans as Featured Likes on your page. Do this 52 times during the year – once every week. The key to doing more business through your Facebook page is getting more FIRST time visitors to your Facebook page and to your Website in such a way that they are reminded regularly of your business and what you do. How do you do that? By building good, ongoing interactions with the owners of your Featured Pages. If only 25 fans of 260 Featured pages respond to your post about them, you will have 6,500 new fans in a year.
Don’t forget that the five Facebook pages Featured as Likes on your Facebook page will want your posts sharing their links to help them get more fans and do more business, too. The more links that are shared, the higher their pages will rank in the Facebook news feed and more fans will see their posts. What works for them will work for you, too.
Your Facebook Page
Your Facebook landing page should ensure that new visitors “Like” the page when they first arrive – and then get directed to your Website. Take them to a specific page dedicated to Facebook visitors, with a quick exit link back to your Facebook Fan Page. It is important that they know your website is where you do business!
To quote Mike Haydon of SEO Perth “Always remember, though, that the purpose of social media is to build a relationship with people, then continue the conversation on your Base of Operations (aka your website). The last thing you want is to spend years building up a vibrant community on a site, only for it to go the way of Myspace, leaving you scrambling to hold onto them. No-one thought Myspace would fail. Facebook could well go that way if or when something better comes along.”
It takes a degree of commitment, planning and trust to implement this strategy – it offers great rewards for those who are prepared to think of their Facebook page as an integral page of their own website. Stories My Nana Tells would love you to become a Facebook fan at Stories My Nana Tells Facebook Page
Sharing this post:
Lesley Dewar is a well known blogger and workshop facilitator who writes regularly on Social Media, marketing and customer service in the category of Business Tips and she is the principal author at Stories My Nana Tells Her free eBook can be downloaded directly at Networking To a Plan Sharing this article is permitted providing this footnote is not deleted – all rights reserved. (c) Lesley Dewar 2012
Snap! Your Business Card, Sir!
2011 – The Year Of The App
2011 was the year of the app (application) on smart media like iPhone, iPad, Android and others, of that we have no doubt. From some diligent market research and asking the right questions on Twitter, Paul O’Mahony in Cork, Ireland has come up with an excellent list of smart media apps and he certainly makes it clear why we need to be asking who is using what:
How many Apps are there in Apple’s App Store & Google’s Android Market? 500,000+ iPhone + iPad Apps; 300,000+ Android Apps. Many Apps overlap – but it’s impossible for anyone to sample more than a tiny % of the whole field.
There are several on Paul’s list that I definitely will be investigating for my own use. There is one App, however, that does not appear on the list and I have already begun to use it, with great pleasure at the results. It is called Card Munch
Card Munch is the first App I downloaded to my new iPhone 4 as part of my commitment to being more efficient in my business. Card Munch is owned by LinkedIn who bought the business in 2010, it interacts with LinkedIn, is FREE and is very easy to use.
Once you have downloaded the App from the App store, you simply bring a business card into focus and take a photo with your iPhone or iPad camera. When you are happy that the picture is in focus, you upload it via the internet to Card Munch. There, the text and number data from the photograph of the business card is transcribed by people – and if the person whose information is being transcribed is already a member of LinkedIn, their details will be linked to your record of the upload.
The amount of information that is then available on your contact list on your smart media is amazing. Subject to what has been completed on LinkedIn, in addition to the picture of the card you submitted, you can see all of the following:
- · Name,
- · Business Name,
- · Level of connection with you (1st, 2nd etc)
- · Address,
- · Phone,
- · Fax,
- · Email,
- · Website,
- · Mutual connections on LinkedIn,
- · Number of total connections on LinkedIn,
- · Summary of their business expertise as entered into their LinkedIn profile,
- · Specialities
- · Experience
- · Employment
- · Education
- · Recommendations
- · Blog address
- · Twitter address
If the person is not a member of LinkedIn yet, your contact record will provide only whatever is on their business card.
Which begs the question: What is on YOUR business card?
With the rapid movement of business away from traditional data bases being stored on your own PC or Server and instead being consigned to the “cloud” or created using third party apps like Card Munch, the future for the innovative business cards in strange shapes and sizes looks less promising than it did in the past. Cards that do not have the individual’s name printed on them may not have the information needed to create a personal contact in your mobile media, using the Card Munch data base.
There is likely to be a move back to the more traditional business card that is rich with contact details and in particular, easy to read. Instead of hiring an intern to sit and enter personal and business details into a data base, it takes no more than photographing the card and letting it return to you, fully interpreted.
When the Card Munch information is returned to your mobile media, you have plenty of options for networking further.
If you are not connected on LinkedIn, you can invite them to connect. Because you have their business card and their email address, you comply with one of LinkedIn’s key criteria – that you must have met the person individually. If they are not already a member of LinkedIn, your invitation will help LinkedIn to rapidly expand its member base through your invitations. Along with the option of adding the data for each person to your own contact list, you can email them from your Card Munch records, phone them or forward a copy of their business card to a friend. It is particularly attractive that you can make contact from the Card Munch application without adding all the details to your permanent records immediately. Scanned information can be deleted if necessary.
2011 may well have been the Year Of The App. 2012 will be the Year Of Networking – as more and more businesses integrate their social media activities with face to face meetings. Having access to such a plethora of good information at your fingertips through LinkedIn and Card Munch means it will be much more efficient and profitable to network and make arrangements for “coffee meetings” with those whose relationships you want to strengthen.
Using the networking strategies of Networking To A Plan will be easier than ever and make Face to Face networking more efficient and profitable.
You do not have to be a member of LinkedIn to download and use Card Munch. For those who are members of LinkedIn, keeping your contact data up to date will be a snap. Now is a great time to review your business card data and freshen it up for 2012 – with apps like Card Munch in mind.
About sharing this post:
Lesley Dewar is a well known blogger and workshop facilitator who writes regularly on Social Media, marketing and customer service in the category of Business Tips
Her free eBook can be downloaded directly at Networking To a Plan Sharing this article is permitted providing this footnote is not deleted – all rights reserved. (c) Lesley Dewar 2012
Efficiency = Productivity + Profit
With the second of my three star words for 2012 being Plan, a key part of my planning for 2012 is to make my working life much more efficient. Each day now, I look at something in my working life that is not being done efficiently and deciding how it can be improved.
I have been in the workforce since before EDP was first introduced and when IBM computer cards with their lovely little holes punched in them were the order of the day. After nearly thirty years as a financial planner, during which time we were promised the “paperless office”, I am convinced that there are several key factors that cripple our productivity and prevent us from creating the profits we deserve.
- Lack of organization
- Lack of discipline
- Lack of understanding
The first two – lack of organization and discipline are the left and right hands of loss of productivity. They are the parents of your poverty!
One of the primary culprits for those who work online a lot is the ease with which we sign up to newsletters, new accounts and attractive websites – under the stress of FIMO.
The need to be quick, to create ANOTHER password for the new internet account or blog or newsletter access that we just must have – and not taking the extra 79 secs to WRITE IT DOWN on a card in a master file is one of the most common and regular steps along the road to frustration and time wasting. The greater guilty party is the LACK OF DISCIPINE.
For some obscure reason, we seem to think that being disciplined enough to do something the same way every time restricts our creativity and inhibits our freedom of expression – which in fact nothing could be further from the truth. With good routine discipline, we just do what is necessary to record the essentials for future reference and then let our creative minds have free rein.
As outlined in the excellent book Paper Flow Project one key element in managing your time and paper flow is to document your Internet access information:
- UserName,
- Email address,
- Password
- URL of the site
These are key details that you need to record for efficiency and profitability. A small card box (4”x6” indexed cards with an A-Z setup is all you need).
It is important for many reasons – not the least of which is the need to be able to share your access codes with your trusted advisers and co-workers. My IT support guy (aka Mike Haydon of SEO Perth ) has on more than one occasion had to email me to check for a changed password or indeed one for an account that is new to him. A reply email which says “ah, try xxxxx and let me know if that doesn’t work” is not an efficient way for him to work with me, nor does it respect his professional expertise, of which I avail myself very often.
Lack of understanding is not a case of not knowing how to do this: it is a case of not knowing how important it is to do this. It is a failure to comprehend and value the amount of work time and mental energy wasted; the loss of opportunity to do something worthwhile instead of being frustrated by not being able to remember your password or user name or the email address used to sign up on a site you do not use very often.
If you never have to search for a password or remember the email address you use for every account you access – Congratulations! Your organization and discipline commend you and undoubtedly your bank manager loves you! For the rest of us, this is a great project to set for yourself for the first couple of weeks of January 2012.
The worst that can happen is you will be save yourself much frustration later in the year. The best that can happen is you will free up two or three hours a week (yes, that much time) and you will see your work will be much more productive with the resultant increased profitability in the very near future.
FIMO… I hear you say? The Fear Of Missing Out. We will talk about FIMO another day. For today – it’s enough to get your access information cards set up and watch your profits rise in line with your new efficiency and productivity.
Sharing this blog post:
Lesley Dewar is a well known blogger and workshop facilitator who writes regularly on Social Media, marketing and customer service in the category of Business Tips
Her free eBook can be downloaded directly at Networking To a Plan Sharing this article is permitted providing this footnote is not deleted – all rights reserved. (c) Lesley Dewar 2012
Facebook Tip: How To Increase Your Ranking On Facebook With Links
Here is a little tip to make your Facebook posts look more professional and help improve your Facebook ranking for your page.
When you choose a COPY and PASTE link to add to any Facebook page, (rather than use a Link option) initially it will appear in its URL format. Here is an example:
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/recycle-your-blog/
If you copy and paste this into your Facebook page, two things will happen.
- As Facebook links to the URL, it will display a preview.
- The full URL will appear in the comments section under the preview up until you choose POST to action connection to the link.
If you choose to simply POST, with no comments of your own, Facebook will publish the preview with the full URL displayed above the post as shown in the picture below. In some cases the URL might be very long indeed and its visibility does not enhance your posting.
Creating posts that link to good content can greatly enhance your Facebook interaction and help increase your Edge Ranking, which will improve the display of your posts in the News Stream.
Did you know that once Facebook has made the connection to the URL and displays the preview, you can edit the URL by removing it and adding your own comment? You will not lose the connection on Facebook, once the preview displays, even though you delete the URL text display.
When you enter your own text comments, you will definitely enhance your Facebook post and create a better level of interaction, comments, Likes and shares. This will add to your Edge Rank on Facebook and help lift your posts in the news stream. In addition, Google indexes comments (text comment) on Facebook – do the more you provide short, interesting comments on Facebook, the more likely you are to find yourself appearing on Google.
It is true that not every page will allow you to post a LINK on their page and if you do COPY PASTE a link into a comment, it will only show the URL. Where that is the case, there may be the option to SHARE – depending on how the other page is set up. The joy of Facebook is that there are many opportunities to share good content and ways to do it so that your reputation is also enhanced.
Articles and Blog posts on Stories My Nana Tells are written by Lesley Dewar, who regularly publishes links to them on Twitter @nanastories , on Facebook Stories My Nana Tells on Facebook, Networking To A Plan on Facebook and on LinkedIn Lesley Dewar on LinkedIn Readers are welcome to share all articles and blog posts provided this note of copyright is included. (c) Lesley Dewar