Microsoft Lync is a new product, but it is not Microsoft’s first foray into the world of Instant Messaging. But Lync is more than instant messaging. It has a variety of amazing features that make…Read more
Company Overview
The Web and I is a premium I.T. Services company serving the New York City Metropolitan Area and Long Island since 2007. Our I.T. experience, however, dates back to…Read more
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the best way for users in disparate locations to use the same contacts and lead sheets, and collaborate in real-time sharing a telephone contact log, business notes, opportunities, and an Access…Read more
Social Network Marketing or Web 2.0 Population / Web 3.0 Population is a strategy to allow you to interact with the different online communities on the Internet that offer Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 Services…Read more
We offer support on a telephone basis 24 hours a day. Call (646) 853-0573 for assistance. In addition, we are going to put up tutorials on a number of topics, as they are requested by…Read more
The Web and I is the best place to go for computer repair. Not for Profit and Senior Citizens receive reduced rates at cost, and in some cases can be provided on a pro-bono basis.
The Web and I features the graphic design of artist Daniel Shaw. Mr. Shaw has experience in the graphic design and interior design industries. These overlapped with his graphic design work appearing in Architectural Digest.
Office 365 is now here! Desktop and online and server services will be combined, but you will need a proper consultant in order to implement and make full use of the sophisticated features.
For small businesses and even home users, SharePoint features can be leveraged to share and collaborate on the same documents, and provide the basis for integrating the following vital enterprise program modules:
Contact Management.
Sales Automation.
Document Management…Read more
Most businesses that retain search engine optimization professionals have no idea when they are shopping around what are the most important factors that make a firm good at search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is…Read more
Websites have to fulfill expected functions, and one of the pitfalls to avoid when getting a new website is small businesses not knowing what expectations to have from their website and internet presence. Knowledge of…Read more
The Web and I is a boutique web development company designing websites, web applications, and marketing campaigns on the Microsoft Office Live / Microsoft 365 Platform.
When it comes time to business applications, webs presence, and…Read more
Very often, an inadvertent click results in unexpected results, and so it is with Outlook and the grey “Sort By:” selector bar at the top of the list of messages. Before you know it, you cannot find the messages you received today, because the order has changed to be listed by sender or other unwanted sorting order.
Click for Larger Sizes
This situation can cause endless frustration by users of Microsoft Office 365 who may be new to Outlook or may have been using much older versions before.
Fortunately, there is an easy solution and your Outlook sorting will be back to normal before you know it. You need to right-click the gray Arrange By bar and click on Date in the resulting menu as illustrated below:
Click for Larger Sizes
Once you have clicked on “Date” and changed the sort order, your messages will be back to the normal sort order and the latest ones will again be on top.
There are many times we are asked about Windows Explorer functionality in SharePoint. Users of Office 365 are often using the SharePoint Document Library within Office 365 to replace the servers they were using for years. When they used their servers, they enjoyed the ability of keeping documents in nested files with multi-level hierarchies. SharePoint has a great interface which allows easy viewing, searching for, and changing of document properties, but the interface fails in some critical areas of functionality that businesses still need, including copying files to a backup folder on a local computer and to move documents in and out of folders by dragging and dropping.
In order to avoid losing this functionality, SharePoint gives you the ability to open up the files and folders in Windows Explorer. The way of doing this is easy when you know how but very difficult if you do not, due to the small size of the button that opens your SharePoint library in Windows Explorer.
Open a SharePoint Library in Windows Explorer
The following illustrations show you in a narrow view and a wide view, how to locate the button.
The Narrow View of the Button
The wide view. Click to expand to larger sizes.
Backing Up Files
To back up files, put your cursor in the Windows Explorer window of your SharePoint and then click <Ctrl> and <A>, which is the command to select all files. Then you click <Ctrl> and <C>, which is the command to copy the selected file or files. Navigate your cursor to select the folder on the local machine where you want the backup. In the new window, click <Ctrl> and <V>, which is the command for the paste function, which will then finish copying the file or files to your destination folders.
Moving Files and folders in Windows Explorer
Moving files and folders is the same drag and drop function as it is in Windows Explorer. Because the actual moving of the files and folders can take some time, careful planning and decisive work is more effective than having to spend a great deal of time correcting mistakes.
What is Missing from the Local Server Experience?
Because SharePoint can open in Windows Explorer, it retains all of the functionality of legacy local servers while adding significant new capability. Some say that the intuitive qualities are lost, but in our experience users eventually find the new experience to be intuitive once they get used to the added features and functionality and gain the comfort of experience.
Granular Security for Windows Explorer and Related Features
In SharePoint on Microsoft Office 365, administrators have the option of shutting down access to large portions of the menu, preventing the opening of the SharePoint Library in Windows Explorer by site members who are not administrators. Administrators still retain all of the original functionality: the dashboard is grayed-out as it is for the site members but the buttons still function as expected.
We would like to paint for our readers a picture of how solutions in Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Office 365 can reduce repetitive effort in the office, increase the speed and accuracy of your efforts, and provide you with critical data for making accurate and decisive decisions. To illustrate this, we want to show you that Microsoft Dynamics CRM is proven as a flexible solution that is perfect for developing the custom solution to suit the needs of your practice. There are no anecdotal examples of Microsoft Dynamics CRM being used by very small law firms yet because Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a server product which also requires other servers. The licensing is expensive to have Dynamics CRM on your servers, and there is much technical work. Now, however, Microsoft offers Dynamics CRM online which works with Office 365. For a low monthly cost smaller practices can now have access to this enterprise software.
Larger law firms with on site Dynamics CRM have been using custom systems like CRM4Legal to manage their practices. The video below shows you some of the capabilities of Dynamics CRM in practice management. We at the Web and I are able to provide the same functionality as customized for your business in just the way you need it. We can implement this for you on Microsoft Dynamics CRM online, making this technology affordable for any size practice.
The Attorney General’s office of Pennsylvania uses Dynamics CRM to manage their caseload along with complex workflows, forms generation and processing, and a heavy load of transactions. The video below shows you how Dynamics CRM handles this complex and demanding environment.
Your firm takes in a lot of data that is lost or disorganized on arrival. Microsoft Dynamics captures it and makes it available for future use. This helps in two ways, entering information only once and re-using it many times saves time, and single event data entry reduces opportunities for errors to be introduced. Right now you have a wonderfully document based business, which is almost paperless, and Dynamics CRM is the fast path to a paperless office.
Your practice has business processes that are time honored. Take for instance a Home Care Application Checklist with Pooled Income Trust. When needed, the current business process requires first finding the checklist on the server. Then, you have to locate the form templates associated with the checklist. After that, you have to locate the contact mechanisms to deliver messages and submit forms as required. You may also in some cases have ancillary case law sources that you may need to check in order to fine-tune your approach to suit the clients’ individual needs. With Dynamics CRM (and also possible on Office 365) this checklist can become an automated workflow. Multiple people can be engaged in a workflow, so you can perform the parts of the work which you do, then a seamless handoff will occur to your assistant(s), and then their completed assignments will be added to the work and returned to you in an approval pipeline for you to review, approve, and release to the next stage. Every form associated with the process is built in to the workflow, and after the data is collected the form is available for immediate print, e-mail, fax, or Adobe *.pdf Acrobat document.
You have mailing lists and mail merges that you will need to do from time to time. Keeping multiple lists involves added complexity when one party is on multiple lists. When that party updates their contact information, you would traditionally need to find them on each and every list you have and update their contact information. With an enterprise system like CRM and Office 365, you can update a contact in one place and have the record propagate to each list. When those mailing lists are related to sales, Dynamics CRM has the campaign management features to help you track the success of each campaign. With two years of data that you can collect, we are able to provide you with predictive modeling for future campaigns with +/- 5% variance for a professional practice of one. This means that eventually your data collection efforts will provide you with enough decision-making data that you can maximize the impact of your marketing budgets.
Sales leads, follow-up, and issuing quotes become something new in CRM: a sales pipeline with graphical views can show you how much money is at stake in each sales stage, and it is dynamically updated automatically based on the quotes you issue. This is what that looks like.
Some firms use answering services and assistants to help answer phones and process some correspondence. With CRM, all communications with your accounts and with individual people will be available in one place, a list called activities, which are associated with mail letters, telephone calls, faxes, e-mails, expenses, subpoenas and process service. More activities can be added easily if they suit your business needs. Since you can send and receive E-Mail and faxes right from CRM, you can automatically track those types of correspondence automatically. With rich communications history that results from proper documentation, you will always know the complete history of any account. With the expense records being recorded in these activities, a perfect dataset exists for auditing of your invoices to make sure that every expense has been billed for, and that each expense is associated with the correct account in a format suitable for your tax accountant and for your own internal analyses. In addition, the work you do is tracked when you record the services of work performed in your office or in the court. That means that you have documentation for everything invoiced, and it is a natural result of the use of your schedule.
One axiomatic truth about law practices worldwide is that the management of common forms that will be used many times is necessary. Some of these forms have version updates, and tracking these versions to make sure that the latest version is used is an additional burden. CRM collects enough information about your clients that you can then automatically create every form your client will need at the touch of a button. When we know the data needs of each type of client you have, we can make sure you have an easy way to collect everything you need from your client once, and then be able to issue any forms instantly. If a new version of a form comes out, we only need to put that form up in one place to update it system-wide for all future uses of that form.
Case Status Organizer templates are a great way to have a document-based tracking system to help you organize the workflow of your practice, giving you the insight you need to prioritize your efforts and turn an overview into easy-to-execute details. Dynamics CRM takes that same philosophy and takes it to the next level with a dynamic system of statuses that come with built-in charts and graphs.
The Web and I is a Microsoft Developer authorized to develop accounting modules for Microsoft Office 365 and Dynamics CRM. We can provide you with as simple or extensive a system as you need. Smaller practices who hire accountants for taxes will still need the following core accounting features:
We are ready and able and now in the process of working with Microsoft in the creation of accounting modules and complete accounting solutions for Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
As users of Microsoft Office Live Small Business already know, services for the popular pioneer cloud productivity service will end on 4/30/2012. Microsoft has a new service with far more capabilities, including every feature wished for by users of Office Live Small Business and many that were never even imagined, like the live video teleconferencing capabilities. Microsoft did provide information for transitioning to Office 365, but the guide is 23 pages and is very technical in some sections. For most small businesses without dedicated technology staff, it makes sense to hire a professional with experience migrating to Office 365 for a smooth and secure experience. There are some pitfalls that good professionals can help you avoid, and the rest of this article will focus on them.
During the planning stages, it is vital to record all of the E-Mail addresses needed both for people and for automated systems. Workflows and ways your users are utilizing their current productivity software need to be documented and planned for in the new software, including implementation, customization, and training plans for employees so they can make a seamless transition to the new system with a minimum of lost productivity.
Avoiding service interruptions during a transition between E-Mail and web hosting services is one of the most important hallmarks of a migration by a seasoned professional. Even experienced computer professionals may not have a lot of experience when it comes to making changes in domain records and scheduling service transitions. When this is done correctly, there is no time in which website visitors are turned away or E-Mail messages are lost. With E-Mail in particular, users have different preferences in the setup of their folders and contacts, which when disrupted will slow user productivity until they adapt to a new system. Only engineers who are regularly performing migrations from different E-Mail clients into Office 365 will be able to follow the nuances of making sure that much of the new environment is familiar to the user in their new system.
After the transition to Office 365, monitoring is needed to make sure that security, training, and adoption by employees is adequate. Employees inevitably respond negatively to technological change, and some of the worst responses will come from the best employees. This surprising fact is overlooked by many managers, but if the concerns of employees are properly addressed a new system can be an opportunity for positive change and happier employees. A good systems engineer will offer a change management component when planning your migration, and to keep up productivity during your transition, it is important not to overlook it.
Backing up data during a transition is very important in case plans do go wrong. Even engineers seasoned and experienced in a particular migration will make complete backups during the process to make sure nothing is lost due to the unexpected. Data loss can be a disaster, because the collection of the data represents many hours of paid labor, and in many cases replacing lost data is not only expensive but also impossible.
With such a short time to go before Office Live Small Business is gone forever, you need professionals you can trust. That’s why it is a great idea to call us for a free consultation today at 646-853-0573.
The Web and I, in collaboration with Microsoft, will start to produce basic accounting modules for Office 365. For small businesses already getting Office 365, their modest accounting needs may be handled far more cheaply with the accounting modules they need in-house. Most very small businesses use accountants for taxes and paper for check ledgers, so having a few modules like Billing with Orders and Invoices, Accounts Receivable Reporting, and Business Expense database designed to prepare data for the outside accountants of some small businesses.
The high security, reliability, and legal compliance for housing financial data will help keep risks down, and most small businesses employing this method will be compliant with the Sarbanes Oxley Act and other regulations on computerized accounting data in business for the first time with this product. Worrying about backups or IT staff will also be a thing of the past.
There are cloud-based accounting programs available, but the monthly costs add up. With our solution, you will buy just the modules you need at a flat rate, and there will be a modest need for training, and little need for expensive support.
We have seen some attempts at accounting systems for Office 365 already, but many of them are very complex. The SharePoint environment works better with simpler applications. You can program SharePoint as a database and application, but that is not its primary purpose, so those applications may be overreaching.
Granular security is an important feature we will offer. Every type of data will only be seen by the personnel your organization deems eligible for access. This way many employees can have access, but never access to what they don’t need and should be secure and confidential. Most accounting programs offer access to everything if you have a password, so businesses have to avoid clerical help for data entry. We will make it data entry friendly and secure, so you can safely delegate journal entries to clerical staff who will never see reports or important data summaries.
We are excited to have our first client starting by May 1, and we are already programming and testing their modules and writing the manuals and video tutorials. We will post new updates soon to keep you and all of our readers informed.
Each business has different needs, and working with us on an individual basis might be more cost-effective for your business than you think. There is no cost for an initial consultation, and we promise that even if you don’t use the Web and I, our engineers will teach you something new to help your project. Call us at 646-853-0573 today and get started now!
Recently we tried Windows 8 for the first time on a few of our computers to see if it would be usable for us and to try to see advantages, disadvantages, and ultimately ways to move forward. With all of the complicated technical articles, we want to offer a simple executive summary to help you make informed decisions.
Windows XP
Upgrading Windows XP is an excellent idea. Too many computers in the workplace are hampered by this aging operating system. Windows XP will no longer get Microsoft Support or updates after the support end date in two years.
Windows Vista
A problematic operating system, Windows Vista was not successful for many reasons and should be upgraded to Windows 7.
Windows 8
Windows 8 is at the free consumer preview stage. This temporary version has some of the features and shows some promise. Windows 7 Users without touch screens are fine with Windows 7 for years to come. Touchscreens and tablets you purchase should be Windows 8 Compatible because those devices will benefit the most in usability because of the Metro interface, featuring large, finger-friendly tiles linking to programs and features. There is a learning curve which employers will have to deal with more than with an ordinary new Windows version because there are many features now in unfamiliar places.
Other features are better handling of device drivers, more security, and web integration features. Other features may change since the current pre-release is far from the final version, according to many experts.
Upgrading to Windows 8 is not recommended yet. As soon as the final version comes out, you should. There are many Windows 8 Ready tablets you can get now with Windows 7. We are reviewing what’s in the market for 2012 and will report here soon in detail.
Best Recommendations for Businesses for Windows Version Choices Now
Right now, Windows 7 is the best choice for businesses wherever possible. Remember, the desktop life-cycle for your office computers should be two to four years. Longer time periods slow employee productivity, costing companies more than the upgrades over time. This is because old technology is slow, and it is expensive when your employees are waiting for your computer to finish tasks.
The current Windows 8 is not recommended for business until the consumer release. Best practices in business computing dictate that production computers should never run pre-release software or “beta” and “alpha” testing releases.
For help upgrading to Windows 8 Ready computers today, call us at 646-853-0573, and we will help you obtain technology at the best prices which will still be good for years.
The Checklist for Websites that Get New Clients for Small Businesses
GLEN COVE, N.Y., April 2, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ — Often those tasked with looking for a new small business website will place a great deal of importance with very unique designs. There is nothing wrong with a website that is very attractive, but if the goal of your website is to attract new clients and assist existing clients, then an austere design with great content to help guide consumers and businesses with an interest in your market to your website. Businesses on the forefront of ideas in their field and can take the time to document the most useful of the many things they learn can showcase this valuable content on their websites. It is this content that is found by search engines for people seeking answers to specific problems. Finding the answer also makes them find your business.
Use a minimalist design that uses whitespace (the empty space in the page that is generally white) effectively. This will make content more accessible.
Frequent updates of fresh text are necessary for feeding the search engines and increasing online reputation and exposure. The best practice is to keep the length to around five hundred words.
Blogs should be interactive, with links to share on social networks as well as a mechanism to comment on appropriate posts and pages. Moderation of comments can make sure that only legitimate responses are approved as comments.
Businesses need a call to action on all appropriate pages to make it easier for potential clients to contact and hire their businesses.
A value proposition should be high up on a business web page. Businesses can express your reputation and / or quality in ten words or less.
Businesses should do some writing about what differentiates them different from other similar firms. This differentiation can be in the form of writing quality content that potential clients would be interested and using terms they might be searching for.
Accessibility for multiple device types to have a quality experience on your Website is important because people will visit websites from a variety of mobile devices and IPads.
Using Google Analytics or other statistical traffic measurement tools for your site is critical to helping you develop your Website over time. The information can include what people are searching for when they find your site, and pages or topics that generate unusual interest.
Engage with existing and potential clients on social networking platforms. Use social networking to syndicate your content and spread as far as possible. Automation can save time and money when implemented as part of your syndication strategy.
The most important work that is done on a website is not done by your website designer but by the author of your content. If you are not going to produce the content yourself, then hire competent writers and give them the best ideas of your business to work with as well as guidance to produce the content which would be most helpful to a business’s potential and existing clients.
Effective use of keywords in the text and in your title tags and URL’s will help search engines identify and catalog website content more effectively.
Pursue legitimate avenues for obtaining quality backlinks to websites in order to increase page rankings of your pages in search engines.
Avoid possible search engine policy violations by reading the guidelines available on Google, Bing, and others.
Avoid being blocked by searchers. Websites blocked from search results are not producing what is considered to be quality content in the market of the business being blocked. Businesses can avoid this with good content as well as reputation management and answering concerns all over the Internet.
Excellent security for your Website against hackers. A business can be ruined with careless handling of information, but well deployed and maintained high-quality security can reflect well upon a business.
Whether you do more research or not, the items listed here are all required hallmarks for a successful website. The success of a website requires all fourteen of these conditions to be fulfilled, and the success of each of these key areas is what will determine the success or failure of a Website.
The Web and I is a cloud computing consultancy specializing in website design and web applications in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York. Their website is http://thewebandi.com.
Small businesses have unique needs when it comes to the maintenance and upkeep of their websites and their reputation with customers and search engines. Larger businesses have in-house marketing departments that can generate plenty of new content which is in-line with corporate philosophy. Small businesses have enough to do without the owners and key workers writing thousands of words of edited fresh content per week, unless business is very slow and the proprietors enjoy writing.
Copy written for your website has to be made for reading. Everything you put forth has to be exciting and engaging so that the reader’s interest is maintained until the sale is made. There is a definite path to publishing material that will keep your readers’ interests. Copy has to take all of the aspects of the market your business engages in and reflects the concerns, excitements, disappointments and techniques employed by existing and potential clients. Businesses can never be certain in advance what topics get the most interest, so it is important to spend time brainstorming a comprehensive set of topics relating to your business and the environment of your industry. Style and variety are other factors that make readers enjoy the entire article.
Beyond being effective for engaging customers, copy written for the Web has special considerations that have to be taken into account if articles are to be found by the people who would be most interested, especially the decision-makers in your client’s family or firm. Keywords related to your industry and the way your clients search for information related to your industry need to be strategically included in all copy. This practice ensures that the copy which is published is properly indexed in search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Very savvy offices will make sure that their content reaches major social networks as well, because some customers are actually searching through facebook and Twitter now, rather than just through the search engines. This can be done most efficiently with websites featuring automatic syndication.
Besides copy written for the business website, small businesses also benefit from the publicity and increase in website traffic that results from regularly issued press releases which are timely and relevant. Unless you are IBM, Ford, Apple or Microsoft, a press release about your business is going to be completely boring to the public at large and will be rejected by most of the possible websites that are picking up press releases for publication. This does not mean that small businesses will not benefit from press releases, rather that the press releases written by small businesses need to be actual articles about the industry or market they are in. Releases have to be part of an overall strategy for search engine optimization (SEO) and publicity, and proper planning as far as topics and release dates is necessary for the best results.
The Web and I has solutions for new content for your website including news aggregation, writing new website content, and writing and distributing press releases. We would love to have the opportunity to discuss with you how our copywriting services can serve you today with a free consultation. Call us now at 646-853-0573.
Employees in any office, especially many senior staff who have developed business processes which they are very proud of react with fear of change when they are told that they have to start doing their work on a CRM Program. Most of these employees worry that their performance will suffer because they cannot do the work in the manner they are used to. This is a common misconception about CRM and enterprise software that makes people feel that they will lose control of the process. What employees should be told is that the way they work, their data collection needs and the forms and reports they need will become a part of the new system. One-on-one and group training will be offered, and needs of different employees can be discovered. If your company is installing a CRM system with excellent customization capabilities like Microsoft Dynamics CRM, your consultant will be able to take the most important customizations requested by your employees will be easily added. Reports should resemble the original reports so that they can work with the same data. Most of the invoices, faxes, letters, memos and e-mails in any office can be categorized by business purpose and are almost identical in language and intent. One characteristic common to successful implementations of CRM is that there are as many templates as possible to handle at least 90% of your employees’ daily correspondence if you are in a service industry. Your employees already produce these documents using programs such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Publisher. Each time your employees make one of these standardized documents the way they do now, they are creating each one from scratch and spending additional time filing the information in cabinets. In a collaborative CRM environment, the entire organization shares all the necessary data for each of you customers. Because of this, most of the documents they used to make from scratch can be immediately issued at the touch of a button. This is not only an incredible time saver, allowing your customer service staff to spend more time on the phone with your customers now that they do not need to create documents repeatedly from scratch. Your staff will notice the different too. Repeated clerical work not only slows down your staff but it is also distracting and demotivating to many employees. They may not even realize it until they have had some months with the new system and find their jobs more exciting and fulfilling. Another benefit is that having your employees work in one system means that they do not need to spend time trying to get information from other employees and departments about the customer they are speaking to. Every interaction with the customer by any employee is documented: now any good customer service agent can solve any issue your customers have immediately. In an office without CRM, different employees doing different kinds of work related to the same customers, a great deal of information is repeatedly gathered by many people. In a CRM system the information is shared, so the first person to collect information saves the data for everyone to use. Others can correct mistakes or amend records due to change, but the collection of information is not duplicated. Reducing duplication of information collection has been important to sophisticated managers long before there was CRM software. It has been shown in a number of studies (citations to follow soon) that duplication of information collection not only is inefficient because work should be performed only once but also the statistical likelihood of introducing errors. During the process of collecting information by even the best staff, the statistical likelihood of data entry errors can be predicted for tasks of different complexities and amount of data entry the staff performed. Staffs that do more data entry are apparently more accurate. In addition to reading in my field that I do, I noticed an aggregation of statistics from existing studies that I looked at to make these statements came from Professor Raymond Panko of the University of Hawaii. Seeing more than one study come up with error rates that are similar for data entry related jobs and also present studies with error rates in other kinds of work helped me to appreciate that there is always some error. When you duplicate effort repeatedly, the errors that are introduced will be exponential compared to organizations with enterprise CRM systems. Another benefit is that errors in the original data in CRM systems gets corrected because everyone is repeatedly exposed to the same data and can point out errors or correct them on their own and for the benefit of all concerned.
As soon as your employees see that they can work with all of the features and functionalities they are used to and now improved by CRM. Companies that learn about the way their best employees perform business processes best when key employees all can work with an engineer to help them learn to get the most out of the software and to also create the reports and correspondence as system templates. These employees feel more confident because their needs are taken into consideration. It is at this point that, organizations adopting CRM start to enjoy the many benefits of implementation. There is less repetitive work and less repetitive requests to other employees for information. Your employees are happier because they feel empowered to work better and faster. Your managers tell you that the business can now grow without increasing staff. Executive staff are able to see and measure and report on all work being done and immediately spot issues. Customers experiencing growing respect for your company because every representative they speak to delivers a consistent message and accesses the same information. In the short-term there will be some uncertainty and resistance by your employees.
Your resisting employees are not resisting because they are bad employees in any way. Resistance is a sign of pride in workmanship. This is why a good consultant will embrace resistance. Those who resist the change tend to bring up objections that can tell your systems engineer how to make sure that these issues are all addressed either with education, a custom report or form or field, or a security consideration involving allowing different access to different data for different people. The more information your systems engineer has about your needs and the way you do business, the more he or she can tailor the software in the best way for your company.
For very large companies, there is a very lengthy and expensive implementation process for new enterprise software. With small businesses this can be very streamlined and much less expensive. Most of the consulting is done with all employees individually, not only through training but through careful customization so that all employees are saving time. Our advice is that implementing CRM software is like when one first learns to hit a baseball and comes to the realization that one must commit to action wholeheartedly to get the best benefits.
Unlike simply creating a site for one’s business, creating a blog is an ongoing effort and a serious commitment to do a lot of writing and thinking on a regular basis. Whenever your business undertakes a new project of any kind, proper planning should include an analysis of potential pitfalls that could jeopardize the success of and even the continual existence of your project.
Businesses choose to start blogs as marketing projects, and in order for a blog to succeed it needs to be well designed and run, and new fresh and relevant content needs to be added on a regular basis. Ten conditions that can affect your blog are shown below so that you can plan to avoid them by taking proactive steps at the beginning.
Neglecting Social Media
Blogging goes hand-in-hand with social media, and the best chance of your blog being read by potential clients is to make sure your content and links get to social media sites. In addition, the best way for maintaining and improving your social networking is to regularly participate and update your profiles. Proper planning can also help by setting up syndication of your new blog content to many social network profiles automatically. All plans for new blogs need a good social network strategy or your blog will only get a fraction of the traffic that it could if you did.
Failing to Create a Consistent Writing Style
Whether one or more people write on the blog for your business, the use of language and ways of presenting various kinds of information can be standardized in terms of style. This is most important when blogs have multiple authors. No matter the number of authors, your blog needs one voice.
Blogging for Corporate Vanity
Besides describing your products and services, some bloggers create more articles which are centered around their business. Consumers are more likely to come to your site and search engines will give you higher rankings if your blog concentrates on providing useful information related to your field without turning it into a sales pitch. The writing your team will do will be of a higher quality because they are writing articles and not advertisements. Providing some useful information for free will result in more clients in the long-term because of increased brand confidence and boosted search engine rankings.
Micromanaging Blog Authors
Some companies are far too cautious, putting multiple layers of reviewing staff before new content is published. They may also delay the approval of new topics. This is demotivating to blog authors and puts up barriers to posting good fresh content on the blog. Some creativity should be allowed, and authors must be trusted to choose topics.
Not Allowing Comments
Many businesses starting a blog are cautious and turn off the commenting feature on their blog. Answering client and public positive commentary as well as complaints can be effectively accomplished on your business blog when you open it up for commentary. Your company still has control of which comments can be published, as you can set an option to review all new comments before approving them. Others choose to allow all comment posts and then remove any offensive comments later when monitoring comments. Another added benefit of allowing comments is that it can put new text content on your most popular blog pages on a regular basis. This raises your search engine rankings in Google, Yahoo and Bing.
Badly Written Posts
Grammar and spelling are not only noticed by your customers but also by the search engines. Good writing style, perfect grammar and spelling are crucial for every post, and one bad blog post can hurt your blog’s reputation. Common errors include run-on sentences and forgetting to run a spelling checker before publishing. Sometimes inconsistent performance by new blog authors is an issue, and this will get better with experience.
Poor Blog Design
There are two parts of design: aesthetics and usability. Clean and minimalist design featuring a good logo, use of whitespace to separate different parts of your page and a consistent look for all of your pages is the hallmark of a good blog and website design. Blogs that look cluttered or even too pretty and overdesigned distract people from the original content. The design is merely a path for people to navigate and a way of displaying content. This is where usability comes into the picture of design. A good design looks the same across multiple browsers, and has visible text for search engines and electronic readers for the blind to access all content. Text should always be large enough to read, which means it is important to not give in to the temptation to use small fonts in some areas to free up space on the page. A site map or archive of posts should be easy to find as well.
Lack of Realistic Goals
Companies sometimes act on bad information, and they sometimes over-estimate the amount and rate of new business that their blog will get them based on their budget. Managing expectations can be difficult, but it can help a project be thought of as a success rather than a failure. Your company’s blog can be successful, but if you are in a competitive field, you are going to have to do a great job of writing and also have an advertising budget and strategy that can deliver the new business you need.
Writers Block
Getting stuck when you need to think of new topics that are relevant is a common problem that slows down the posting schedule. Reading as much news about your industry as possible will help your blog authors come up with fresh ideas. The reading of industry news will also keep the topics and tone of your blog consistent with contemporary views in your field.
Lack of Time to Write
Unless your business is very large, you and possibly other employees will be responsible for writing while also having other responsibilities at work. A risk for your blog is to have no fresh content added for long periods of time while you and your staff concentrate on other responsibilities.
We hope that this survey of potential risks to your business blog gives you something to think about concerning your blog or planned future blog. For assistance through a free consultation with us, please call us at any time at 646-853-0573.
