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Three tools to quickly analyze a website for free
Alex Pomer
Alex Pomer is a project manager and online media buyer at New Media Campaigns. He received a degree in Advertising from The School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC Chapel Hill. He has successfully launched sites for statewide political campaigns, national organizations and non-profits. Follow him on Twitter.
It's easy to quickly judge a website based on its design and write it off as either 'good' or a 'bad'. But when you're in the web design business, there's a lot more behind-the-scenes information to consider when evaluating a website and how to improve it. The following tools allow anyone to get a good idea of a website's quality with only that website's URL.
Website Grader provides a condensed summary of a site's performance
Hubspot's Website Grader is a great tool for getting a snapshot of a website's effectiveness. After entering the site's URL, the grader generates a report on many performance factors including:
- Content creation
- Page optimization
- Website promotion
- Conversion opportunities
- Comparative competitive analysis.
The tool then spits out an overall grade (1-100) of the website so that you can easily compare it to previous and future sites. A low score from Website Grader is likely a result of poor content creation, connectivity and/or basic meta information, all of which can be improved with a little time and a content management system with SEO control built in.
GTmetrix asseses a site's speed and provides actionable suggestions for improvement
Not only have studies shown that web surfers are impatient, but Google recently announced that website loading time is now a factor in search rankings. GTmetrix is a tool that utilizes Google Page Speed and Yahoo! YSlow to grade a site's performance and presents the almost 50 results in a simple layout that prioritizes scores as either High, Medium or Low and places the most urgent changes at the top.
Because most of these scores are a result of the website's coding, this tool is a great judge of a developer's ability. So next time you're evaluating web design firms, put a few of their most recent sites through GTmetrix to get an idea of how they compare.
Browser Shots let's you check websites for compatibility in different browsers
Browser Shots allows a user to select from a huge range of browsers in various operating systems and see screenshots of any site in those browsers. If anything, Browser Shots offers too many browser options so we suggest sticking to only the following:
Linux:
Chrome 5.0- Firefox 3.6
Windows:
- Chrome 5.0
- Firefox 3.0, 3.5 and 3.6
- MS Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8
- Opera 10.0
- Safari 3.0 and 4.0
Mac
- Safari 5.0
If a website is compatible with every browser version listed above and the site is up-to date, it's likely that there's some good code laying the foundation for that website.
Judging a website accurately based on valuable information
It's amazing how much you can learn about a website with only its URL. With these three tools anyone can evaluate his own site, a competitor's site, and the talent level of those sites' developers. What other tools are you all using to take stock of websites? Any favorites that you prefer to these?
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The Advantages of Placing Content in Different Channels
Megan Winterhalter
Megan Winterhalter is the Marketing Assistant and Copywriter for New Media Campaigns. She assists in marketing communications and launching client websites. A senior in The School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC Chapel Hill, Megan is pursuing a degree in Strategic Communication. Megan interned at New Media in the summer of 2009 and has spent time working in the creative department of McKinney. Find out what she is up to by following her on Twitter.
We've all heard the old adage 'never put all of your eggs in one basket,' and when it comes to developing an online presence for yourself or your brand this saying could not fit more perfectly.
While it's great to develop a strong and comprehensive website to serve as a hub of information, it's just as important to develop a presence in different channels so that your brand can reach as many people as possible. And while almost every brand has a Facebook and Twitter account, many fail to take advantage of other media-specific channels such as YouTube, Flickr and Slideshare.
The great thing about utilizing such websites is that you are placing your name and multimedia in front of an audience of people who are already looking for it. Users will be able to find you in the type of medium they want instead of having to sift through general search results. These websites also make it incredibly easy to redirect traffic to your individual site, creating an easy way to garner a new variety of interested visitors.
The Facts
- People are watching 2 billion videos a day on YouTube and uploading hundreds of thousands of videos daily.
- The user base is broad in age range, 18-55, evenly divided between males and females, and spanning all geographies.
- Fifty-one percent of users go to YouTube weekly or more often; 52 percent of 18-34 year-olds share videos often with friends and colleagues.
- Flickr hosts more than 4 billion images.
- Flickr allows you to connect with friends and family and allows you to set special viewing privileges.
- Slideshare garners 25 million visitors a month and 70 million monthly pageviews
- Slideshare allows you to share presentations, documents, and pdfs with colleagues and interested users
Building your presence on YouTube
As one of the most visited sites on the Internet, YouTube is a place with unbridled opportunity. By placing your videos on the site, you’re sharing your brand and message with people who will actively seek it out. When you create your YouTube account, you also create a user page that maintains all of your videos in one central location – making it easy for visitors to view videos in succession.
YouTube also allows for tagging – so that you can list keywords that relate to your video and keywords that your visitors may use when searching for similar content. By optimizing the titles of your videos and the key words and phrases you use in your tags, you’ll be able to reach new visitors through search.
Once you upload your videos to YouTube it’s easy to embed those videos on your website – creating a direct link between YouTube’s services and your website.
Other features of YouTube include:
- Public or private videos: Users can elect to broadcast their videos publicly or share them privately with friends and family upon upload.
- Subscriptions: Users are able to keep track of their favorite users' new videos.
- Record from Webcam: Users with a webcam and Flash software are able to instantly record video responses or normal videos onto the site rather than having to prerecord and then upload the video.
- Separate index on Google: When users upload videos to YouTube, these videos are indexed separately on Google searches displaying as ‘video results’ instead of in the general results.
Building your presence on Flickr
Flickr works similarly to YouTube in that you can easily embed photos on your website that draw from the photos on your Flickr account.
Flickr’s clean and organized layout makes adding and searching for photos easy for users and visitors alike. It also allows you to tag photos so that they can be tied to a certain topic. Flickr also allows you to create sets of photos that display as slideshows – a feature that is particularly useful when showcasing photos from a specific event or time period. By including rich descriptions such as titles, tags, location, and people, you give your images context and a life of their own.
Flickr also encourages users to comment on each other’s photos, facilitating a sense of community amongst its users. By using Flickr, you’re reaching out to others through a channel that devotes itself to one type of media. Flickr also offers flexible privacy controls making sharing images simple, secure, and comfortable.
Building your presence on SlideShare
Simply put, SlideShare is the best way to get your presentations and documents out there on the web. It’s a place where you can share your ideas and learn from the ideas of others. Users regularly comment, favorite, and download content. And just like Flickr and YouTube, SlideShare offers an easy way to embed their presentations on your website.
Other features of SlideShare include:
- Embed slideshows into your own blog or website.
- Share slideshows publicly or privately. There are several ways to share privately.
- Synch audio to your slides.
- Market your own event on slideshare.
- Join groups to connect with SlideShare members who share your interests.
- Download the original file.
The result of utilizing different channels
By taking advantage of the services that YouTube and Flickr have to offer you’re not only reaching out to followers in a channel that they are familiar and comfortable with but you’re also creating direct links between these services and your main website, drawing traffic and attention to the place you want people to see.
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Keeping a positive tone in emails
Alex Pomer
Alex Pomer is a project manager and online media buyer at New Media Campaigns. He received a degree in Advertising from The School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC Chapel Hill. He has successfully launched sites for statewide political campaigns, national organizations and non-profits. Follow him on Twitter.
I regularly write over 80 emails a day working as a project manager so it's important to come across clear and polite as often as possible. As a general rule, for emails longer than a sentence or two I try reading them over one last time before sending, only to edit them to be more positive and friendly. A few general rules I try to follow are:
- Begin and end every email on a positive note
- When in doubt, add a little personal touch
- Remember to be as helpful as possible
Below are two examples of a response to the following email:
Alex,
Can you get back to me about the following changes?
1) Is there a way to acknowledge when people sign up on the website?
2) Can we add a Facebook link button?
3) Will you put a link to the Events section of the site in the main navigation?- Liame
The initial email draft:
Hey Liame,
I've responded to your questions below in red.
1) Is there a way to acknowledge when people sign up on the website?
The CMS allows you to redirect users to thank you pages or set up a confirmation message in the 'options' tab of the 'form editor' here: www.thanksforreadingthispostsoclosely.com/link-to-form-editor
2) Can we add a Facebook link button?
Will you send over the link to your Facebook page and let me know where you would like to place the button and we'll get this set up?
3) Will you put a link to the Events section of the site in the main navigation?
This has been fixed.
Let me know if you have any other questions,
- Alex
The final email after editing to make it more positive
Hey Liame,
I hope you had a great weekend! If it's as hot in Ohio as it is in North Carolina, I hope you managed to stay cool. I've responded to your questions below in blue.
1) Is there a way to acknowledge when people sign up on the website?
Sure thing! The CMS allows you to redirect users to thank you pages or set up a confirmation message in the 'options' tab of the 'form editor' here: www.thanksforreadingthispostsoclosely.com/link-to-form-editor
2) Can we add a Facebook link button?
If you'll send over the link to your Facebook page and let me know where you would like to place the button, we'll be sure to get this set up right away! I'd suggest putting the Facebook link in the sidebar, since that will allow you to easily add other social networking links in the future too.
3) Will you put a link to the Events section of the site in the main navigation?
The navigation is now all set.
Be sure to let me know if there's anything else we can do to help out, thanks!
- Alex
The difference between a dull and a positive email:
Both emails get the job done. The difference lies in putting in just a little bit of extra effort to let the client know you're there to both fix their problems and also make that process enjoyable. It takes just a minute or two to check the weather, lighten the tone with an exclamation point and provide some industry insight, but those few minutes can go a long way towards making your client relationships more pleasant.
Responding in red versus blue probably doesn't make a difference. But I've always thought of red as such an angry color so why not go with a color that says "helping you out" instead of "fixing your problems."
Subliminally friendly is friendly none-the-less and it's the little things that give an email the positive tone you're going for.
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Using New Technologies in Politics
Alex Pomer
Alex Pomer is a project manager and online media buyer at New Media Campaigns. He received a degree in Advertising from The School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC Chapel Hill. He has successfully launched sites for statewide political campaigns, national organizations and non-profits. Follow him on Twitter.
As a web design firm that does a lot of political campaign websites, we consistently push our clients to take advantage of new technologies and help them stay on the cutting edge of the web. Part of staying up to date with today's technology though is not just being content with participating in what everyone is doing, but pushing the envelope and looking for what's next.
Facebook and Twitter are old news for politicians
In the last election cycle, using social media tools in politics has gone from being new and innovative to being essentially required because of its ability to bring politicians closer to their consituents. Politicians can update their followers about what they do on a daily basis through Twitter, customize their Facebook page to post campaign or relevant news updates, and show their speeches and announcements on YouTube.
But if candidates and elected officials aren't using these basic tools by now, they're behind and likely aren't even looking to keep up with the changing times. Some candidates however, are both taking advantage of today's social media tools and also looking for tomorrow's.
Mobile updates and geo-location are ripe for government interaction
The latest movement in social media has been the rise of geolocation-specific services like Foursquare and Gowalla, which allow users to post updates that are connected with their geographic location using their cell phones. Natually, because of the success of these geolocation-specific services, other tools have been developed to utilize collective location-based updates, some of which are perfect for politicians.
Bonner Gaylord, a recently elected City Councilor in Raleigh and one of our clients, announced earlier this week that he was incorporating SeeClickFix, a location-based mobile citizen reporting software onto his city council website. SeeClickFix allows users with either an iPhone, Android or BlackBerry to download an app and report non-emergency city issues, like potholes and graffiti, to elected officials.Citizens can see a map of issues in the surrounding area, as well as which of those issues have already been addressed and which are still open. City Councilor Gaylord is one of the first adopters of this type of technology at his level of government but he's still looking to the future.
"I would like to see an App adopted by [Raleigh] that allows citizens to weigh in on big issues that are before the council," said Mr. Gaylord. "A one-stop App that provides the details of an issue with the ability for each citizen to comment and even vote... would be a great way to involve more citizens in the decision-making process."
We love having such an early adopter as one of our clients. What kinds of new technologies are your local politicians using? Do you have any suggestions for them?
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Understanding Your Mobile Audience
Jonathan Hungate
Jonathan is responsible for developing new business relationships and leading the launch of select client projects. He has more than 6 years of marketing and communications experience and has managed a wide variety of successful web projects.
As mobile web usage continues to grow rapidly, it’s important to make sure that your site is optimized for mobile devices and the people using them. This involves understanding your audience and what they want from your site while on-the-go.
Examples include:
- The ability to quickly check your balance on a banking website
- The power to check-in to your flight through an airline site
- Finding the daily specials from a local restaurant site when deciding where to eat
In each of these examples, a wise business must prioritize what content is especially relevant to a mobile user and then present that information or functionality in a simple, convenient and accessible way.
Let’s look at 2 specific examples on both ends of the spectrum:
Toyota: A virtual salesperson at your fingertips
Toyota has a great example of a mobile site. The content is highly-optimized, interactive and genuinely helpful. I can see specs, pricing, colors and more—it’s like having a virtual salesperson with me as I walk around the lot—minus the sometimes over-bearing pressure to upgrade my warranty.
Bojangles: A missed opportunity
When you’re out on the road and a “gotta-wanna-needa-hava” moment hits, bojangles.com is of little help. Instead of an optimized site with a store finder or even an 800 number, you’ll only find paragraphs of text outlining the history of the company and descriptions of the delicious food that they’re not helping you find.
Conclusion
Don’t miss your opportunity to reach mobile web users. These are often point-of-purchase interactions that can lead directly to sales, a better customer experience, or both. As we did when designing the mobile version of our own site, seek to understand your mobile audience and then optimize your site for them. And if you need a hand, let me know. We can help!
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Related posts:
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Launched and Live: Our Most Recent Websites Powered by HiFi
Megan Winterhalter
Megan Winterhalter is the Marketing Assistant and Copywriter for New Media Campaigns. She assists in marketing communications and launching client websites. A senior in The School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC Chapel Hill, Megan is pursuing a degree in Strategic Communication. Megan interned at New Media in the summer of 2009 and has spent time working in the creative department of McKinney. Find out what she is up to by following her on Twitter.
Over the past few weeks we've been really pumped to start using our new Content Managment System, HiFi, on a few of our client websites and the results have been great! Our designers and developers have been able to take designs and accurately replicate them online without system restraints standing in their way. Our clients have been able to easily update and add new content without getting lost or overwhelmed. HiFi is supposed to make the job easier for everyone involved, and so far, it's doing just that.
Our recently launched sites include Alice Bordsen for State Rep, Georganna Sinkfield for Secretary of State, Joystick Labs, and Ariana Kelly for Delegate. Be sure to check them out and let us know what you think!
Here are some shots of the CMS in action and the sites they control:
Creating and editing a form:
Page Editor:
Homepage of Sinkfield 2010:
Organize content through the site tree:
Alice Bordsen for State Rep:
Putting these websites on HiFi has allowed us to not only demonstrate to clients the possibilities HiFi offers, but it also lets us know areas that we can make even better. Overall, we're really happy with how HiFi is coming along and excited to hear great feedback from the clients who have began to use it.
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HiFi Website Featured on Design Shack
Clay Schossow
Clay Schossow leads New Media Campaigns' project management and business development efforts. A graduate of UNC Chapel Hill, he has guided more than 200 websites from concept to launch. He is a frequent writer on Internet marketing and online campaigning. You should follow him on Twitter.
We're very excited to announce that our new Content Management System, HiFi, has been featured on one of the most popular web design galleries, Design Shack. The gallery boasts over 10,000 RSS subscribers and carries a lot of influence in the web design community. Currently, HiFi is holding down a solid 8.5 rating based on visitor votes -- we encourage you to also go vote for the design.
The Design Shack post says the site is featured for its bright colors, oversized deisng elements, repeated use of small tirangles, and the navigation buttons.
While it's an honor for any of our projects to be featured on galleries, this one is particularly sweet for a couple reasons. First, it's our own product getting recognized, which is a really nice bonus. Second, HiFi is positioned as a CMS for designers and developers -- the specific audience that closely follows Design Shack. When we originally designed the site, we had a goal of getting featured on design galleries, as we knew that would drive targeted and relevant traffic to the product.
The strategy seems to have paid off, as HiFi had 4x the typical daily newsletter signups yesterday when we were first featured. In addition to sheer volume, these registrations are likely more targeted than a typical day's. Designers found us through the gallery, browsed the site, liked what they saw, and converted to our newsletter for updates and announcements.
Thanks for all of your votes and support!
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The Most Popular Content On Political Websites Near Election Day
Clay Schossow
Clay Schossow leads New Media Campaigns' project management and business development efforts. A graduate of UNC Chapel Hill, he has guided more than 200 websites from concept to launch. He is a frequent writer on Internet marketing and online campaigning. You should follow him on Twitter.
Over the past month, we've been involved in building special election campaign websites and primary websites for hotly contested races around the nation. Now that those races are over, but the bulk of races across the country are just heating up, we thought it'd be a great opportunity to take a close look at the content that voters were most interested in around the Election Day.
I chose four races on which we had great data: a US Senate Primary, a Congressional special election, a State Senate special election, and a State Senate primary. The elections were scattered through the country and each one had a lot of media attention and big spends for the respective position.
Next, I looked at the Google Analytics for each campaign from two weeks out through election day. I figured that this was the prime time in which media was covering the candidates, campaigns were sending email blasts, and the heaviest period of online and traditional advertising spending.
Since I wanted to get an idea of the most compelling content, I used total pageviews rather than visitors. The campaigns were all popular enough that I thought the factor of campaign staff and candidate family pageviews would be marginal compared to total views. I then subtracted out pageviews that were for the homepage or splash page -- the goal is to figure out what content voters are seeking out not just what they land on by default.
The content on the four campaigns was rather congruous, but if a campaign was lacking a content section (e.g., Events), I didn't count it against the average and just divided that section's sum by three rather than four.
The most popular five content sections were:
- About
- Issues
- News
- Events
- Multimedia
About and Issues were as I suspected. Those are the general areas that voters are most interested in when they visit the site. We still see candidates who leave their issues section blank for months at a time -- this data demonstrates that Issues content is a vital aspect of any online political campaign.
The News section is a result of individual articles being emailed out and candidate or issue related Google searches that land visitors on a specific news release. This fact reinforces the importance of SEO for political campaigns and of keeping a freshly updated website through a Content Management System.
Are the results surprising to you? Are they consistent with what you've seen on your own campaign site? Look forward to hearing if this limited test group aligns with other campaigns around the country.
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12 tips to customize Gmail to increase productivity and organization at work
Alex Pomer
Alex Pomer is a project manager and online media buyer at New Media Campaigns. He received a degree in Advertising from The School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC Chapel Hill. He has successfully launched sites for statewide political campaigns, national organizations and non-profits. Follow him on Twitter.
Since Gmail's public release in February of 2007, Google's email service has amassed over 176 million monthly users due to its massive free online storage and search-focused, conversation-view interface. While Gmail is an amazing free service on its own, there are many ways to improve your efficiency at work by taking a little time to give your Gmail some flare. Here are 12 ways to customize your Gmail and get more out of your favorite email service:
Note: some of these features are still in Gmail labs, meaning they are not yet official features and are subject to termination at any time. These features have been labeled with "(L)". To turn on and enable a labs feature, log into your Gmail account, go to Settings, then Labs and then find the desired lab and choose 'Enable'.
- Labels
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Tasks
- Consolidate email accounts
- Email filtering
- Multiple inboxes
- Rapportive
- Canned responses
- Title tweaks
- Send & Archive
- Email double-checking
- Mouse gestures
1) Use labels as folders for your emails
Labels are the basic organizational tool of Gmail, they're like folders except you can assign an email to as many labels as you want. Because Google gives you so much free storage space (more than 7.4 GB and counting), you don't need to delete incoming emails to conserve space. Instead you can file each email away by labeling and archiving it. This will give you an organized, searchable database of every email you've ever sent or received since you made the switch to Gmail. An organized email database is invaluable when you're trying to track down a conversation and pick up right where you left off with an old client, look up a forgotten password, or redownload a previously emailed file.
A few hints when using labels:
- Give a label a color by clicking on the box to its left
- Give labels a hierarchy by using the naming convention 'parent/child'.
- Enable "Nested Labels" (L) for neater organization
2) Use keyboard shortcuts to quickly navigate around Gmail
Heavy computer users know that keyboard shortcuts can save a ton of time when used correctly. Gmail has its own set of keyboard shortcuts that can make going through and organizing a long list of emails as easy as a few keystrokes. To enable keyboard shortcuts, go to "Settings" in your Gmail account and then choose "Keyboard shortcuts on."
A few keyboard shortcuts I personally use the most are:
- "l" for labeling an email
- "v" for labeling and then archiving an email
- "j" and "k" for going between older and newer email conversations
- and <tab> then <enter> for sending an email
New users of Gmail keyboard shortcuts however can simply press "?" in Gmail to see a list of all the keyboard shortcuts. You can also check out a list online or download a PDF of the shortcuts.
3) Tasks: Gmail's to-do list
Tasks, the first of Google Labs' features to graduate and become an official feature of Gmail, is a simple to-do list that displays like an individual chat box in your Gmail. The beauty of Tasks is its integration with so many of Gmail's core functionalities. You can easily:- Add an email to a task (In Gmail: More actions -> add to tasks)
- Turn a task into an email (In Tasks: Actions -> Email task list)
- Print a task (In Tasks: Actions -> Print task list)
- View and update a task from your mobile device (In mobile web browser: go to gmail.com/tasks)
As a project manager for a web design and internet marketing firm, I use tasks most frequently at work for:
- Documenting clients' desired website changes during phone calls
- Brainstorming blog post topics and content
- Grouping emails into a single to-do list.
It is worth noting that Remember The Milk, a popular task and to-do list manager, has both a Gmail browser add-on and a gadget in Gmail labs that replicate many of the functionalities of Tasks.
4) Consolidate multiple email accounts into one Gmail account
If you're like most people, you have more than one email account. Gmail makes it very easy to combine all your email accounts into your Gmail account and still send from each one of them.
Go to 'Settings->Accounts and Import' and choose either 'Send mail from another address' or 'Add POP3 email account.
Follow the instructions and verify the email account. Once the account is verified, all emails to that account will forward to your Gmail inbox and you can choose to send from any of your email accounts on any email you send.
5) Email filtering to automatically organize your inbox
There are 183 billion spam emails sent each day and according to a Microsoft security report, more than 97% of all e-mails sent are unwanted. While those numbers might not specifically apply you, it's likely that you're getting a fair amount of email that you'd rather not be getting at all, or have automatically organized and filed away. That's where email filtering comes in.
Setting up a filter is as easy as going to 'Settings->Filters' or selecting an email and going to 'More actions->Filter messages like these.' For example, all my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Groupon emails are automatically labeled as 'Social Networks' emails.
There is one feature of Gmail however, that makes filters far more effective at analyzing and determining who is spamming you.
YourEmail@gmail.com = Your.Email@gmail.com = YourEmail+Anything@gmail.com
Let's say your email address is "HanSolo@gmail.com", anything sent to "Han.Solo@gmail.com", "H.anSolo@gmail.com", or "H.a.n.S.o.l.o@gmail.com" will all get sent to your same "HanSolo@gmail.com" inbox. Additionally, you can use a "+" to add any text to your email address and have it go to the same @gmail account. For example, "HanSolo+MillenniumFalcon@gmail.com" will be sent to HanSolo@gmail.com.
By combining this functionality with filters you can keep your inbox much more organized and track down who is spamming you. Simply establish a few guidelines like giving out the address "Han.Solo@gmail.com" for work, "HanSolo@gmail.com" for friends and family and "HanSolo+PizzaHut@gmail.com" for specials from Pizza Hut (for example).
All these emails will go to the same inbox, but by setting up filters, you'll be able to quickly sort out emails sent from any one source.
6) Multiple inboxes shows more mail at a single glance
Multiple inboxes (L) allows you to have up to five additional inboxes based on different search queries. These different search queries can be anything from a certain label to emails from a certain email address like @whereyouwork.com.
I use multiple inboxes to display emails labeled 'Needs Response' and 'Awaiting Response' to the right of my main inbox so that a single glance at my Gmail tells me exactly what has to be done and what I should be expecting.
7) Rapportive, a social CRM built into GmailRapportive is a simple social CRM built into Gmail for Firefox and Chrome. It replaces the ads in the sidebar of your Gmail with a snapshot of the person you're emailing's presence in major social networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Flickr.
This gives you an extremely easy way to get a better, more real idea of the person you're emailing and allow you to connect with them on a more personal level. You can take a quick peak at their Facebook interests and last few Tweets, for example, and see if you have anything unexpected in common.
The service also lets you leave private notes so that you can keep records and improve your emailing relationship with individual contacts in the future. For example, if someone emails you with her username or account name and password to your service, you can enter in that information so that you won't have to ask for it the next time.
To instal Rapportive, simply go to Rapportive.com and click install. It's a relatively new service so it's always improving it's features.
8) Canned responses
Canned responses (L) are extremely helpful and timesaving for those people who answer the same questions or send the same responses multiple times a day. To create a canned response, simply enable the feature in Gmail's labs and when writing an email, click 'Canned responses' to the right of where you would normally attach a file.
Canned responses can also, if coupled with filters, be used to create custom auto-responses based on the content of the email or who is sending it. For example, if you're out of the office, you can send out one response for emails sent to your home email address, another auto-reply for emails sent to your work address, and a specific response for emails about an important project you're working on indicating another person to contact.
9) Tweak the title of Gmail so the inbox count is visible
Title tweaks (L) may seem like a tiny change but can make a big difference in how often you check your email. It switches the order of elements in the browser's title bar from "Gmail - Inbox (22) - youremail@gmail.com" to "Inbox (22) - youremail@gmail.com - Gmail". By putting the inbox count to the first item in the title bar, you're almost always able to see how many unread emails you have, even when you've got several tabs open or Gmail is minimized.
10) Send & Archive can save several keystrokes on every sent email.
One of the easiest ways to keep your email clean is to enable Send & Archive (L), which adds a button on emails, giving you the option to (not surprisingly) send and archive an email instead of just sending it. For those of you who find yourselves archiving most of your emails after you send them, this simple lab can save you several minutes everyday.11) Let Gmail help make sure an email is ready to be sent
The following three easy customizations set up Gmail to alert you when it thinks an email isn't ready to be sent:
- Don't forget Bob? (L):
The Don't forget Bob feature automatically looks at the groups of people that emails have been sent to most frequently and suggests recipients that you may want to include on an email based on who you've included on previous emails. - Got the wrong Bob? (L):
Similar to Don't forget Bob but arguably more disaster-preventative, this feature automatically looks at a group of email recipients and analyzes it to look for outliers. The feature then suggests that a different email recipient may be preferred (like bob@bestfriend.com instead of bob@meanguyatwork.com) and potentially preventing the sending of an email to the wrong person. - Undo Send (L):
This lab simply delays sending an email for 5, 10, or 20 seconds when 'sent' is clicked and displays a message at the top of the screen that reads, "Your message has been sent. Undo." This gives you a chance to take back an email that you immediately regret sending, like when you've forgotten to attach a file or emailed your boss instead of your coworker.
12) Mouse gestures
Gmail has keyboard shortcuts galore for the heavy keyboard users among you but they don't leave out those of you who prefer the mouse. Mouse gestures (L) allows you to hold right-click on our mouse and move it to the right to go to the next conversation, move it to the left for the previous conversation, and move it up to go back to the main inbox view. This can be very useful when you're quickly skimming through a bunch of emails.
Note: this feature works better on Windows
How else are you all using Gmail to increase efficiency and stay organized at work? What's still missing?
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Why Checking In to Geotagging Services is Most Important for Small Businesses
Megan Winterhalter
Megan Winterhalter is the Marketing Assistant and Copywriter for New Media Campaigns. She assists in marketing communications and launching client websites. A senior in The School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC Chapel Hill, Megan is pursuing a degree in Strategic Communication. Megan interned at New Media in the summer of 2009 and has spent time working in the creative department of McKinney. Find out what she is up to by following her on Twitter.
There's a lot of discussion going ar ound about the potential marketing opportunities involved with geotagging services such as Foursquare and Gowalla. And with Facebook exploring the possibility of integrating geotagging in their mobile applications, the opportunities are becoming more enticing.
While most articles on the topic discuss the opportunities for large national brands, perhaps the greatest opportunity lies in the hands of local businesses. Foursquare invites any business to utilize their Foursquare Specials service – rewarding users who check-in to the business on their phone – no matter the size of the company.
Businesses have control over who they reward and what kind of reward users receive. Some of the options include:
- Mayor Specials: Rewarded to the user who checked in the most in the last 60 days, and is therefore deemed the “mayor” of the establishment.
- Check-in Specials: Rewarded to users who check-in a certain number of times.
- Frequency-based Specials: Rewarded when users check-in X amount of times.
Probably one of the greatest features of geotagging is the ability to reach people who are in the vicinity of your business. For instance, a person who checks into places within two blocks of your business can receive a notification that your business is offering a reward if they check-in. Not only does this entice the user to drop in for their reward, it also encourages them to share the reward opportunity with friends.
By reaching out to people who are in your neighborhood you can detail your rewards so that they are location specific. Are you located near a university? Offer a reward for fans who wear the school’s colors. Is there a big music event coming up? Offer a reward for users who show you their ticket stub.
There are some local businesses in our area already taking advantage of the Foursquare special offers. Tyler's Restaurant and Taproom, with locations in Carrboro, Durham, and Apex, offers users a free order of garlic fries just for checking-in.
These kind of offers also open up possibilities for organizations that don’t necessarily have a business location but want to receive the recognition involved with geotagging rewards.
What if the local university could sponsor a special at a local business for users who check-in? Thanks to State University, every State U student who checks in today receives $1 off their purchase!
Or if a local organization is trying to increase awareness of an upcoming event they could sponsor specials around town rewarding users who participate in the organization’s event.
With geotagging services, the playing field is leveled. Local brands can easily reach out to users through targeted specials and in turn, compete with national brands. So if anyone should be looking to take advantage of geotagging services it should be local businesses.
Does your local business utilize the likes of Foursquare or Gowalla to attract local users? Have you experienced any local businesses using these services? What do you think about them? Do they work?
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