What should your e-mail signature look like?

Every single email you send should have a signature.

1. It should be plain text, no pictures, no logos. Why? More than half the corporate world uses BlackBerrys to communicate. Overly ornate signatures will produce highly unexpected, and possibly unreadable, results on a BlackBerry. Many spam filters may kick your email into the corporate trash if there is a logo or picture in the signature.
2. What should you include in your email signature?
3. Personal signature: your name, email and the phone number(s) that are most relevant to your average recipients.
4. Business signature: All of your contact data. Name, title, company, office address, your email, your phone numbers and the company website. It should be all text and neatly stacked flush left. (no more than 6 lines)
5. It is completely OK to leave the line, “Sent from my blackberry” or “Sent from my iPhone” at the bottom of a mobile email. It lets the recipient know that you are answering their email from your mobile device and that may get you a pass on some small typos and spelling errors.

Marsha Marsiglio

www.thesoftwarecoach.com

239-431-5456

How To Remove Your Phone Number From Google

Most people do not realize you can search Google for publicly listed phone numbers and addresses. After entering a phone number, Google search results will return the name, number, street address, city, state and zip code along with a link to map directly to the street location of the searched number.
To remove your number from Google's phone book:

1. Check to see if your number is listed, by searching Google with your phone number.

2. If your number is not listed, the search will return with "Your search did not match any documents."

3. To remove your listing, click on the link that starts with "Phonebook results for…." (above your name) which will bring you to Google's Phone Book site.

4. Click on the bottom link labeled "Request to have your name removed from the list."

5. Fill out the form and submit (removing your phonebook listing will not remove your personal information from other pages on the web or from other reverse phone listing lookup services).

Marsha Marsiglio
239-431-5456
www.thesoftwarecoach.com

Let Me Google That For You

Let Me Google That For You
www.lmgtfy.com

This is for all those people that find it more convenient to bother you with their question rather than Google it for themselves.

Go to www.lmgtfy.com. Type your question (ex: when is Christmas 2011?). Click Google search, then click the button with the link below, copy and send the link to your friend. When your friend clicks on the link, Google will type the question for them and open the link.

Try it.

Marsha Marsiglio

www.thesoftwarecoach.com

239-431-5456

FaceBook: A Great Custom Look For Business Women

by Felice Gerwitz

Connecting and building relationships is what networking is all about. It is not surprising that companies large and small have joined the online networking revolution. "To have friends you must be a friend first," was the advice of my mother years ago, and still rings true today. Give value and you will have many friends flocking to your sites everyday. Using FaceBook to get them there works.

Letting customers know about specials, events or promotions via FaceBook, is an effective way to drive traffic to your site. Yet it is hard to stand out from the crowd when we all look the same. Facebook does not allow for many kinds of customization features...or does it? Women especially, and Business Women networkers in particular, are interested in using Facebook applications.

As with any type of information, make sure that you advertise to the masses. You can use Twitter to post information about your updates on FaceBook. Make sure the topic or title is intriguing. And, make your Facebook site look special with a little known Facebook application, Facebook Markup Language or FBML app. In this application you can customize your Facebook page.

One of the best uses for this application is the ability to paste HTML code from another application, such as a opt-in box for your newsletter or email group. In this way your custom box will show up in your sidebar on Facebook or in a tab at the top. I increased my Newsletter opt-in's by the hundreds with this one little feature.

Even though I am not an expert in web based language, I was able to add this application easily with the directions found on Facebook. For a more detailed tutorial, look at the help tab on the FB website, or hire a web master. If you want a super quick tutorial, (or Information in a Nutshell!)...

• In the search box at the top corner of your FB, page type in FBML. It will take you to another page that has an icon for the FBML...http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=FBML&init=quick
• Once you are on the page (it is a fan page) you will see the icon and under it click, "Add to My Page" You will then see a pop up window with all the fan pages that you Administer and you can select the page to add your FBML.
• Go back to your Fan Page and click the edit page and viola! There is the device ready to be edited. It will show up as a blank box and there is where you add the code.

That is where you can place the HTML code generated from your newsletter provider, in my case I use Aweber as well as Vertical Response. Each of these sites gives the user HTML code to paste on a website and now you know how to add it to your FaceBook page. FaceBook will soon unveil another updated look. Some users already have the new home page. There is always something new to learn, so stay tuned!

FaceBook: Busy Business Women's List

by Felice Gerwitz

I have a love-hate relationship with To-Do lists. I like them because I can easily and quickly see what needs to be completed each day. I hate them because I am reminded of all the things I have not accomplished each day. So, in the spirit of liking and hating, I'm creating a To-Do list for your FaceBook page. See which of these things you have already done, and place the others on your list for sometime in the near future.

FaceBook for Women:

1. Professional Picture: preferably with make-up, collared shirt and photo-shop touch up
2. Lock Down: all settings are private to friends or friends of friends only with invitations enabled.
3. Organize Friends: Make groups for business, friends, families
4. Profile totally filled out: all information that you want the world to know or at least 400 of your closest friends (and their friends) completed
5. Search: For target clients, co-workers, and possible new customers
6. Check Friends Status: Try to post something personal on different clients walls to stay in touch
7. Post Value Info: at least weekly, daily is best...be personal 20% of the time
8. Connect FaceBook feed and Twitter: if your content is relevant and value driven this is important, make sure to still add new posts to Twitter
9. Add your FaceBook URL to your email address
10. Set your feeds: make sure your receive only the info into your email that is important
11. Join Groups: related to business 
12. Check FaceBook daily, but not too often!
13. Read FaceBook Rules: Beware, contests should be approved first via FaceBook
14. Share: Useful articles, your blog, stats related to business or target market
15. Engage follower: Ask Questions 
16. Post Pictures: Relevant to business
17. Blast News: Events, Promotions, Free Product
18. Join or accept "gifts" sparingly: These pull info from your FaceBook page, they are third party applications and not all are friendly. A warning box pops-up to advise you of the "threat"
19. Look at Apps: Facebook is constantly adding more applications for business, great blog with more info: http://mashable.com/2009/01/22/business-facebook-apps/
20. Add video: at least one time a month, fun to do and keeps the contacts guessing

That's it for today. If you can check all these off your list, great! Let me know what's on your FaceBook To-Do list, and I'll quickly add it to mine!

Simple Pleasures - Great for Reducing Stress

Ah, simple pleasures. You know, those little things that bring a smile to your face and to your heart. They are unique to each of us and when we experience them we subconsciously celebrate. The cliche says "The Best things in life are free!" and that is certainly true with most of life's simple pleasures. Here are a few of mine:

• watching the horses play in the pasture in the mornings
• sipping tea as the sun rises over our barn
• reading a book on my back porch with the pool fountain bubbling in the background
• walking/running with my daughter - always lots of laughter
• sneaking out midday to pet and give the horses a treat
• a moonlight ride with my husband
• window shopping

What are your simple pleasures? List them out for this blog activity. I would love to see your list posted in our comments.

Beyond being free, simple pleasures play an important role in reducing stress. Stress is the result of negative emotions. Negative emotion can result from a variety of circumstances such as a worrisome thought, a unkind comment by a co-worker, or something tangible like a traffic jam. The higher the number of events of negative emotion that occur in a single hour or day the more stressed you will begin to feel. The best thing about simple pleasures are they are not only free, they are also great producers of positive emotions. How how does that relate to reducing stress, you say?

Psychologist report that it takes three positive emotion events to erase any single negative emotion event. In addition, if the negative emotion event was related to a spouse the ratio goes up to five to one. So that's where your simple pleasures come in. When your day is filled with negative emotion events (i.e., stress) it's imperative to your health and well being to offset those negative emotion events with positive ones. Otherwise stress becomes a dangerously unhealthy lifestyle if left unchecked.

So if you haven't already take a moment to make that list of simple pleasures and tuck it into your planner. Then next time you feel the stress building take a time out and spend a few moments indulging in one of your simple pleasures. You'll love it and your co-workers and family will likely appreciate it too.

For more on reducing stress visit my Compass website and try 3 days of the monthly action plans (MAPS) free. A great MAP for reducing stress is Step Into Balance - try your 3 days free. Also consider having Karen bring a stress reducing workshop to your office or women's organization. Click here to request Karen.

Karen Zeigler
Speaker & Life Coach

What do you stand for?

Moral values is generally a personal view of values. And personal morals tend to reflect beliefs which can reflect the influence of religion, culture, family, and friends.
Ethical values embraces Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship.

What is business ethics?
There really is no such thing as business ethics. Terms like “professional ethics”, “work ethics”, and “business ethics” are misnomers. The principles we use in the workplace should be the same principles we use in other areas of our lives – they are just applied to business situations.
Sometimes, due to workplace pressures and a lack of ethical behavior by competing companies, some people feel that ethical principles are open to a relative interpretation. “When they do it differently, we’ll do it differently.”
So “What do you stand for?” You can find no greater satisfaction than achieving success through honest dealings and strict adherence to the view that you for you to gain, those you deal with should gain as well. Human relations – be they personal or professional – should not be zero sum games.
“Trust is at the root of any economic system based on mutually beneficial exchange. In virtually all transactions, we rely on the word of those with whom we do business. Without mutual trust, and market participants abiding by a rule of law,

no economy can prosper.” – Alan Greenspan

If you value your reputation, and would like the trust of both clients and contacts, a strong commitment to ethical values is essential.
Whether the circumstance is business or life, ethical values should be ground rules for behavior. When we live by these values we are demonstrating that we are worthy of trust.

Joann Frazier

President of Empowered Network, Inc.

Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Naples - SWFL

Women's Professional Network

ABC's of Blog Feeds and Submissions

Blog Post Feeds

by Felice Gerwitz 

We will build it and they will come is truly the stuff of movies. You can build it but they won't come unless your blog is syndicated. What is syndication? It is an air-wave or channel that your blog runs on so that others can find it, or "stumble-upon" it. Having a blog go "live" that is on a feed of its own is normally taken care of through your blog platform, whether it is blogger, wordpress or your own website blog. Yet, having an RSS feed and letting other directories know about your blog is a good idea and can increase your readership.

Blog Directories or Search Engines


One way to list your blog is to do a search of the top blog directories and submit your blog. Here are a few that I have used:

Blog Catalog
Technorati
Stumble Upon It
Search Engine Directories Yahoo/ Google
My Blog Log


Blog RSS  Feed Submission

FeedBurner
RSS Network
2RSS
RSS Mad

Of course visiting other blogs, and posting a comment is a good way to get interaction. I have recently tried, using marketing strategy to use social networks to get the word out. This is a very good way, as well. Do you find one directory especially helpful? Have you noticed a jump in your visits after submitting your RSS feed? If so, share the link, or result information with us.