It’s been a while since we’ve raved about a piece of software, however this one could not go without a post… Our Windows Double Explorer review is below…
Windows users will know that the file manager, windows explorer, file explorer (everyone calls it something different) is never where you want it to be… and when you find it – moving and copying files and scrolling up and down the structure is somehow always harder than it should be.
There are a few paid for solutions out there – however this one is free and works a treat. It’s also incredibly ‘lite’. What I mean by that is that it’s not a huge download and doesn’t chew up system resources. It actually uses the same windows explorer application, but replicates it:
As you can see – it creates two windows for the price of one. I’ve tiled mine horizontally – and the only gripe I’ve got is that it won’t remember your tiling settings – however it’s a small price to pay. Imagine how easy it is to now drag files between windows… Life is simple again.
I don’t know about you, but I seem to be more attuned than ever to watching how advertisers and marketers are getting their messages across to audiences which are more and more discerning. These audiences are bombarded from the moment they wake to the moment their heads hit the pillow. I wouldn’t be surprised if in years to come someone figures out rate cards for dream-advertising and we all go to bed wearing some kind of skull cap attached to the mains.
Anyway, I digress.
My iPhone doesn’t leave my side and I find myself being pointed at a lot, whilst I take photos of random interesting things in order to share them with others.
I love it when advertisers put a smile on my face. Does it really cost anything to think laterally and get people to talk about your advertising? This is such a cool example by a favourite brand of mine. Poking fun at themselves and at the same time delivering a great message about a new product just launching…
When was the last time you thought outside the box and got creative? Go on – you know you want to…
The first couple of months of 2010 have flown by. Being Smarter is delighted to announce five new clients since Xmas, a Spanish organisation, two companies in the FTSE 250, a new content partner here in the UK and one in Australia.
After a successful trip to Sydney and Melbourne last month, our partnership with Ed Dale, one of the world’s most prominent Internet Marketers goes from strength to strength as we launch the second of five courses next week under the Ed-ucationonline.com brand. If you’ve always wanted to know how to ‘Start from scratch’ in the Internet marketing space – watch out for 11 modules of pure delight from next week.
Our partnership with Kaplan Eduneering continues to grow, with another new course addressing local US government going live at the end of April.
Targets to Prospects, a service we developed by popular request, after we used it to target individuals successfully for a year was launched in January, and we’ve successfully delivered five installations in the last month. We’ll let you know the results from these first customers very soon. We’ve also added new functionality which we’re rather proud of…
Innovation continues too as we’ve also successfully delivered a ‘personalised video‘ project for one of the clients above… Imagine a video which appears to be built uniquely for a company or individual? Imagine watching a story unfold and seeing your logo / name / statement appear within it, seamlessly… you’d be impressed wouldn’t you? Well imagine no longer. Next time you want to run a campaign targeting a known group of targets, why not consider Targets to Prospects?
We’re delighted to welcome another guest blogger to the Being Smarter stable. Maria Sadler runs The Small Marketing Company and has set herself up (quite uniquely) as a Social Media manager for people who know they should… but don’t have the time.
Maria’s first thoughts for Being Smarter are below…
You don’t need to throw large sums of money at advertising and PR to get started you just need to be a bit savvy. So here are some tips to get you started.
1) Think about your targets first
This may sound obvious but if you start to really hone in on who your ideal customer is, you can start to identify where they ‘hang out’. For example if your business benefits mothers with school age children you could target PTAs and school newsletters. If your business or service would be of interest to local businesses, check out the local Chamber of Commerce and local networking groups.
Now you know who your targets are and where you might find them, you need to consider how to attract their attention. If you are targeting a busy professional who will no doubt receive countless emails per day you need to grab their attention fast by being brief, different and a little intriguing.
These are probably the ideal people to send an eye catching but short email – Targets to Prospects software is perfect for this – or consider approaching them via Twitter, where you get 140 characters to grab attention.
2) Now think about your message
Once you understand your customer, you can then start to craft your message to make sure you get their attention. Work out what problems and issues they face and then think how your product or service could help resolve them. You may be desperate to tell them about a great new feature of your product but guess what, your potential customer won’t care.
Try the ‘so what’ test. So what benefit does that feature give the customer, focus on the feature that gives the greatest benefits, and think about the problems your customer has that you can alleviate.
3) Differentiate yourself from the competition
Whilst price is always a factor, at the moment is isn’t always the decider. So you need to determine what is different/better about your service above the competition. Here is one of the places that being ‘visible’ and something of an authority on a subject can be of great advantage, and this is where an online presence comes in.
Think about when you are looking for a product or service – what is the first thing you do? If you are like most people, you will go to Google and do a search for the type of product or service you need. If your name or company name keeps appearing on websites, blogs, articles, Twitter and other social media, discussing that very thing – the potential customer will begin to believe in your credibility.
4) Get your customers to blow your trumpet
Once you start to sell your product or service, ask your customers if they could give you feedback – you can then start to use this on your marketing materials as proof that you deliver. This will also become a very useful source of information on how you can improve your product in the future and what new products you could add to expand your offering. Finally it shows your customers that you care about what they think, and want to provide the best customer service.
Copywriting is a skill. A skill which can take years to master. A skill which you perhaps will never master, yet if you run any kind of business, the chances are you have a need to be able to write persuasively, clearly and concisely on a daily basis.
Whether it’s an important internal email, an email to a target or a client, a blog post, an advertisement or a script, there’s a big difference between average copy and great copy.
Assuming you don’t have years to master the art, if you need to get a document together quickly, then this application may be for you.
Wordy is a Wordpress plugin and web service which takes your draft copy and provides it to a network of copywriters for proofing and editing as required.
Academic text, corporate literature, blog posts and web content are all among the categories of copy that Wordy’s professional editors can handle, with specialized staff available to work on material focused on specific subjects. The interface to them is simple – you upload your file to Wordy.com, or use a Wordpress plugin for integrated editing.
Wordy then instantly returns a quote along with an approximate delivery time. As an example – EUR 7.68 for 26 minutes of editing on a 440-word document. If you accept, a Wordy copy editor checks the text for grammar, spelling, punctuation and structure—the company can currently accommodate both UK and US English—and returns it in ready-to-publish form. After that, you have two business days to accept the work or request a re-edit.
A great concept and one for the copy-phobic amongst you. We’ve not tried it yet – but if you have – why not leave a comment below.
OK, I admit it, I’m obsessed with ‘taking action’… I’m not great at prevaricating… I perhaps don’t spend enough time thinking. However – it’s the best way to be.
Having worked in and with the corporate world for many years – it’s clear to see paralysis by lack of action is rife and it’s slowly killing these organisations.
A few years ago a good friend and colleague reminded me of Newton’s 3rd Law.
For every action, there’s an equal an opposite reaction.
Now, if you subscribe to this school of thought, you probably won’t get the reaction you were expecting, however you will get a reaction… maybe even not straight away, but you will.
I’m currently sitting in an appartment in Melbourne, working with a great bunch of folks for a few days and the reason I’m here is that I sent an email about 3 months ago. I didn’t think it would get answered, but I sent it anyway. I’ve sent plenty more that haven’t been answered, but this one did.
I’m about to be part of a three day conference in which 100+ people will gather for three days, watch (I know) some fabulous speakers and be given a ton of practical advice. How many of you/them will take action as a result of attending? And by that, I mean pick just 5% of the most relevant things you were taught and implement them the following week? I’m not sure? Some will, some won’t. Some actions maybe fruitful, some maybe not – but if you’re taking action, and gaining momentum, things WILL happen. Eventually.
So there we are then. What are you not going to put off today?
As regular readers to the Being Smarter website will know, we like to feature new ways of doing things. Innovation is so key in business and today, we’re delighted to be participating in an innovation called a blog book tour which fuses social media, brilliant segmenting of a marketplace and win-win for the book authors and promoters.
We’ve been lucky enough to have Dr Karl Kapp, Professor of instructional technology at Bloomsburg University PA, USA as an advocate of The 8.45 Club’s method of training. We were delighted when he asked us if we would like to participate as a guest blog on Day #12 of his blog book tour, to promote the sale of his excellent new book “Learning in 3D” (affiliate link).
We thought that because 30 other people will be talking about the book itself, instead, let’s talk to Karl about this blog book tour concept, find out what such a thing actually is, how it’s being used in this context, and most importantly, how YOU could use it yourselves to promote your next publication. Guess what, it could be applied to any product or service with a bit of thought – so even if you’re not an author – keep watching…
So make a coffee – sit back and watch Dr Karl, live by satellite…
Monday mornings are always good for a pep talk. I’ve been talking to a few people about the concept of not giving up over the last few weeks and wanted to share a few thoughts, being someone who’s tried hard to persevere in a big way over the last couple of years.
I had to have a few words with my 6 year old son the other day about not giving up… teaching him to ride a bike has been quite an achievement for me – trying a few different tacks to keep his morale high, but judging when it was OK to let him fall off safely. My wife suggested I shouldn’t have let him fall off, however in my opinion, it was a great way to teach him the skill of perseverance.
There’s five tips I’d offer below to help with your perseverance efforts:
If you listen to everyone who offers you advice, the chances are you’d be paraylsed by non-action. Take advice, sure, but also have some belief in what it is you are trying to do. This will help you to get through difficult days.
Accept that some days aren’t going to go your way, dust yourself off, find that belief once again and remember that tomorrow is another day. If a trend of bad days starts to kick in – then it’s time to revist where you are heading.
Think outside the box. Always. There’s always a different way to tackle a problem you may be having. Don’t limit yourself to ‘going what you know’. It’s hard to persevere when you don’t do things differently, as you will always get the same result.
Ignore your gut feelings at your peril. Listen to your heart – it will really help you make decisions and decide if something is fundamentally wrong, or you just need to try a different approach.
The most brilliant people have got to where they are today with a good splash of perseverance. You may be shocked at how some of them started out. Watch the video below for inspiration if you need a bit of a lift….
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