Yesterday, I got the question “why do you blog?” of course I had around a million answers to respond with. Then I realized that the reason the person asked was not to find out why I blogged but to see if there was any reason to why he should blog.
This got me thinking about what [...]
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How To: Use Long Urls to aviod Twitter Scams
Posted By Annelie Näs on December 20th, 2009
Lately, Twitter scams have become a big problem. Twitter scams are for example tweets containing links to sites that have viruses etc. Not only have normal internet users been fooled by these scams but also some of the pro-users have become victims.
This issue has developed along with the increased use of URL shortening services, such as bit.ly and tr.im
A while ago Bit.ly announced that they are making an effort to prevent this, since they are the default link shortening service for twitter.
To you avoid clicking on shorted links or checked, I recommend that you use a web browser add-on/extension that automatically shows the “real” link instead of the shorter version. This way you see the correct Url for the site that the link is taking you to, and it is easier to determine whether it is a site that you trust or not.
For those of you, who just occasionally click on shortened links, I recommend that you check the links at websites who lengthen links, such as LongUrl.com.
Here follow a list of plug-in for Firefox and Chrome, that will help you avoid the scams by using Long Urls:
Chrome
ChromeMUSE – Shorten and expand URLs with different shortening service providers.
Explode – Expand shortened URLs (e.g. TinyURL) with LongURL
Bit.ly – (shorten, share, and track your links (only bit.ly))
Firefox
LongURL Mobile Expander 2.0.0
Long URL Please 0.4.1 (Article about this addon)
Internet Explorer
Since I do not use IE, I have not tried any IE extension that solves this problem. Unfortunately search did not help me either, so my tips to those of you who use internet explorer are to use one of the universal services that does the same thing.
Check your URLs no matter what browser you use
In case you do not want to use any of these plug-ins you could always use LongUrl.com which is a universal way to show were the short links are taking you. It will take more time to check the links this was as you have to enter the website. But that might be time you’re willing to offer as you do not want the links to be leading you to the wrong place.
General Online Safety
Internet gives us a lot of opportunities and makes things easier, you can save both time and money with the internet. But as it develops faster than many out there has time to follow, I encourage you to stay updated on the news threats that emerge for you as internet develops, and hope that you encourage your friends and families to do the same.
How to do group assignments online: 5 tips for online collaboration
Posted By Annelie Näs on December 14th, 2009
A while ago I wrote about the pros and cons of online studies. Now, if you have made the decision to study online there are a few other things that I want to put on your message board. This time I will write about online collaboration, as it is not too obvious for everyone how to be a good team player in an online environment.
Sometimes you might know someone from the online class that you are taking and you might even have the opportunity to collaborate up with this person. However, usually this is not the case. Usually you have never met, never spoken and probably do not have the opportunity to meet offline as there is too many miles between you.
Thus going in to the collaboration you have do not know your teammates and you are working in an environment that is not optimal for sharing correct emotions. So what do you do? Here are some suggestions that will help your online group collaboration.
1. Introduce yourself and get to know your group. It is a lot easier working in the team when you know a little bit about the people you are working with. Their background might be useful for the assignment or the other way around maybe, a person you are working with has limited computer skill and might need some guidance on this. Knowledge about the skills of your team might help you plan your time during the assignment.
2.Take the time to learn about each other’s schedules. Online students tend to have a lot more going on alongside of their studies, such as work, extra classes, a big family etc. Therefore it is extra important to make sure that you understand what times and study methods that your group members have. Some might study mostly on weekends, while others do it during the day on the week. Knowing this is essential to do a group assignment where everyone does their part.
3.Plan your work before you begin. Planning is important for all assignments but when you study online it is even more important that you set dates and divide the tasks. As I mentioned before online students tend to have more commitments. Thus, working with set deadlines and assigned tasks is even more important. Especially important is it to plan time to review each other’s contributions to the assignments. Both because as you do not discuss things as frequently as in IRL group work and thus do not get as much feedback, but also since it is important that you learn all parts of the project as it is part of the class.
4.Consider making one in the group “last checker.” One of the most difficult parts of working online is that s you divide the tasks and write them individually without meeting is that you do not have the same group feeling. Thus there might be a lot of “I think” in the work, depending on the subject. Thus for some assignment is could be good to cut give one group member the last say on this. That is having just one person focusing on keeping the same “voice” during the whole assignment, who checks both grammatical, style, and word choice. Giving you the change to hand in a uniform document.
5. Consider sharing offline contact details. If someone doesn’t do their part it is important to decide if you can let that person take credit for the work or not. I have experienced cases where people have tried to excuses their lack of participation because they were sick, and the reason why did not contact us was because they did not have the energy to log on to the computer. Since it can be difficult rejecting this excuse, make sure that it cannot happen. Exchange phone numbers so you can call each other in case of sickness, a computer crash or whatever it might be.
I’m sure there are many smaller tips that would also help you a lot, but these basic thing have made online collaboration a lot easier for me.
Have you studied online? Do you have any tips to add to the list?
For further reading I recommend:
9 Great Document Collaboration Tools for Teams
How to give a spontaneous review that becomes valued
Posted By Annelie Näs on November 28th, 2009
I was recently at a small Christmas market arranged by the Swedish Church in Belgium. The market takes place in small house in the city, and they are creative when it comes to how to use the space. During the weekend, around 2000 people visit the market, which truly shows how Swedes like to celebrate Christmas time. They sell glögg, saffron bread and of course have a café where you can fika.
A few days after the event, one of the arrangers asked me what I thought about the event and the marketing of it. My spontaneous response was to mention that I liked that it was so Swedish and then I instantly went to suggesting improvements. The man who asked me was very happy for my suggestions as I presented them in a constructive way, and asked if I would be around to help contributing the planning of next year’s market.
But, even though I had a positive reaction to my suggestions, I really began thinking about the fact that even though I liked the market I had more to say about what could have been done better than what was actually good. As I’m usually a very positive person it took me by surprise that this was my spontaneous answer. Have years of university studies made me so “good” a giving constructive criticism that this now is how I encounter situations and questions like this? Or is it just human nature? Either way, can I change this behavior?
The reason why I am asking is that even though it is good to get constructive criticism, sometimes people really do not want it if they have not asked for it. So, is it actually good to start giving it away?
If you are new at a company you can get a head by sharing your ideas and show that you are creative, but if you do it too much people might begin to feel that you are not a team player since you do not fit in to the routine that the team have built for years. Could it be the same way with a review of an event etc, by focusing too much on different improvements, will the arranger just think that you where not the “target visitor” as the event in general did not appeal to you and therefore not consider you suggestions? I guess you won’t be as directly affected in the second scenario but maybe in the long run.
Let’s say that you attend an event and is later asked about your opinions. If you try first to complement the things, you liked about the event and then only make one or two constructive comments. There is a big change that the arranger will consider your suggestions and event ask you for more. Because the arranger will first consider you as a targeted visitor as you appealed to the event in general, and thus be open for a suggested improvement. He or she might even ask you for more of your opinions.
In the future, the event arranger might even remember your thoughtful suggestion and positive attitude, that he or she, might suggest you to share your ideas with someone else, and all of a sudden your opinion is valued. This would probably not have happened if you had shared all your ideas, even if they were presented in a good way.
Thus, my lesson from this is to try to stay positive when I leave the schoolbooks. There are far too many complaints in the world. What do you think? What is you spontaneous reaction in this scenario? Do you think it pays off to focus on the positive side of things?
How to make customers annoyed before the launch or how to aviod it.
Posted By Annelie Näs on November 9th, 2009
In a city where everything seems to be happening behind closed doors for special invited only. I was excited to find out that a new Music WebTV channel was launching to bloggers, or at least presenting what they are doing. Of course I signed up for the event, looking forward to see what this organization was all about.
However, when I got there earlier today, I did not only find out that the event had been cancelled, or actually postponed, a change that was not public until after I had paid them a visit. But they also told me that the event was not supposed to be public, I wonder where they will find bloggers that is not public?
When I left, my first thought was that I was quite embarrassed; I thought I must have misunderstood something. So after I came home I took another look at the invitation:
“Moodio.TV // Bloggers event // 09/11/09 – 18h30 – Brussels
Moodio.TV, the Belgian music webTV ! Invites you to their launching.
It will be held in our offices on Monday 9 November. During the evening, we will present our project and our new tools to promote artists. Our team will be at your disposal for any question and you will be able to visit our premises. We will conclude with an informal drink and snacks.”
However, after reading this, I think is the new TV channel that have some interesting things to figure out. First of all, do they know what bloggers is, as they invite bloggers but tell me that the event is not supposed to be public? Second, if they do change the date of the event. Why did they not send an email to the people who signed up?
Looking at their website I thought that this company has some interesting things going on, but if they want to get there they really need to start making a better first impression. I mean the man who meet me when I got there did not even introduce himself, and I left feeling embarrassed so clearly he was not keen on making an apologize. Sure maybe it was an honest mistake, but if it is, do not go in and change the date of the event right after I have left.
I am sure this is not the first time a launch gets postponed after the invitation have gone out. So for all of you who might get in this situation, here is are few tips:
- Make sure to inform all people about the change of date.
- If you have set up an event invite make sure to change that at the same time that you send out the emails about the change. Proofread so you have changed the date on all places in the invitation.
- Have someone present at the time and place for cancelled event to greet and explain for people who might not have got the message about the changes. Make sure that they leave wanting to come back.
- Send a special invite to those who signed up for the first date, so that they feel more encouraged to make plans to attend again.
- Only change the event once, in this case third chances!
- Put on a great first event, you only got one chance to make a first impression, and if you have changed the date, this is really your second chance.
I hope that someone will learn from another one’s mistake, and good luck Moodio, I think that your company idea has potential.
How To: Tweet to make an impression and make sure that people recieve it
Posted By Annelie Näs on August 15th, 2009
Ok, so honestly this post was supposed to be about why we tweet but instead it turned into a lesson in making your tweets the most desirable to read.
Jason Pullock asked his followers this question today and I responding saying “To share some of the interesting stuff that I find and to get access information and knowledge that other share with me, you?”Which is true, but how much do we really read other stuff?
I have been going true the stats for the links that I have been sharing over the last couple of days. The results varied a bit depending on the subject and how the tweets was written, but I had only between 3-34 click per link, which is very low considering that I have over 1,800 followers. So why is that?
Well first of all we have to consider that not everyone checks their twitter every day, and most of us see far from all the twitters that the people we follow put up each day. This means that only a small portion of the people following me actually saw the tweets when they came up. Still the number is very small.
If others use twitter in the same way as me, this is how they go about it. You log onto twitter and begin by checking the wall and what people are saying. While scanning trough the current tweets you choose one maybe two tweets with links that you want to follow and click on them. Anything else that might be on that wall you forget instantly and go on to checking replies, DMs and send a tweet yourself.
Knowing this, how do you write tweets that matter? That other people will actually read? There is not only one way, but now when you know what you are trying to do, here are a few tips.
- Tweets with links to lists are always popular “ten ways to..” etc.
- If you are referring to a blog or article with a title that is boring or does not describe the post well, don´t use it in your tweet, come up with something yourself instead.
- Somewhere in the tweet tell people what you are linking to [video] etc.
- Do not only post title and link <- add why they should read it or why you read it!
There are other a lot of other tips on how you increase your followers and stuff, but I didn´t want to share that, instead I hope that you think more about how you can impact your current followers.
That is why I tweet: to make an impression by sharing stuff that can affect people or teach people something and I read tweets in hope to get the same in return.
Remember – Quality before quantity!
What do you think? Any Tips that you want to add to the list?
How To: Stay in while your out!
Posted By Annelie Näs on July 11th, 2009
In May this year I left my job, which I first started as an intern, to go back to school and finish up my degree. During my last few months at my job as a marketing specialist I really put a focus on social media and started this blog, got into the twittering and multiple other social media sites. After I left it feels like the whole social media world has speeded up and I am not following the developments as fast as I used to.
Because of this I know that I need a plan to be able to stay in contact with what I want to do while I’m not doing it. I wanted to share some of the things I do to make sure to stay current.
- Make sure to stay update with the developments. I use google reader and follow a few dozen blog writing about marketing, social media and Internet etc. Many of these might publish the same stories, but that hopefully mean that they will cover what I cannot miss.
Google reader: http://www.google.com/reader/
- Set up an activity plan for yourself. It is so easy to postpone things when you are doing it for yourself and not for someone else, which is why it can be good to have a plan to keep track of your progress. Make sure to put a note of what days you might have to skip some activities to make sure it doesn’t become a habit.
This list from Chris Brogan is a good example: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/19-presence-management-chores-you-could-do-every-day/ - Publish your own view on what is going on. Everyone does not need to have a blog but when I will go to my next job interview after I’m finished with school it will be a lot easier to say that I know social media if I can actually prove it. But especially when you are not currently in the field it can be difficult to find things to write about. Therefore try to read what’s going on and give the news your own angle, if you have trouble finding one, talk to your friends about the news and discuss it, I’m sure multiple angles will turn up.
I hope that this give you an idea to what you can do. I see this working in a lot of other fields that what I do, and especially in this economic downturn it is important to not fall behind when you get laid off.
