How To: Managing your social media with your Mac

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When you first start off you’ll want OS X to be working in favor.  Go to the Apple Menu, that’s the symbol in the upper left corner shaped like an apple.  Under System Preferences, click on Mail, Contacts & Calendars.  From there, you can add various e-mails and social media accounts.  Now every time there’s an update your Mac will make a ding and alert you.

That’s freebie.  However, more advance social media efforts require either a dedicated social media employee or a few products.

If you want to manage your LinkedIn, Google+, more all at once then HootSuite might be for you.   There’s a free version that allows you to do things like auto-publish posts. Basically, the service allows you to interact with all your social media accounts all at once from one screen.  Further, if you want to pay $10 a month you can get tracking statistics, learning tools, and vanity URLs just for you.

Should you crave something a little more exclusive to Macs, then you may want to check out Alfred.  Alfred is a way to launch apps without lifting your hands from the keyboard.  It’s a more comprehensive version of Spotlight.  Theme, codify, and exemplify your work flow.  Alfred is a tool that lets you hit hard, hit quick, and hit often without spending a lot of time.

Social media in a nut shell is the ability for one person to connect to a lot of people in various spheres.  In business it serves a dual purpose of maintaining customers and attracting new ones.  The easier it is for you to do that, the quicker you can return to getting down to business.

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Knowing When To Fold ‘Em: Signs that you should end your IT project

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Though fortitude is a virtue, so is knowing when to quit.  But how do you know when it’s a good time to end a project?  There are three signs that are harbingers of the end.

1.  No one above your pay grade has signed off on it

Even if you’ve got a great idea, it’s difficult to get a project off the ground when upper management hasn’t agreed to it.  Why is this important?  Well, rain comes from on high, funds come from there too.

 2.  Aiming Low

When the time comes to get off the ground, some projects have the barest of minimums.   When you aim low when starting a project the only place to adjust is on the ground.  Projects that aim a little higher tend to the ability to adapt to circumstance.  Morale is better managed if you tried for the stars, but only got to fly in the sky.

 3.  There is no plan B

There should always be a plan in case a project fails.  Not planning for the worst creates a situation in which there is no way to salvage a bad scenario.  Like before, after adjusting expectations and reevaluating what is possible with the resources at hand, you can create a more realistic project.  What would you rather have: 0 for 1 or 1 of 2?  One success or no success?

Small businesses thrive by succeeding, but they stay in business by not faltering.

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Skype’s Manager Tool Is Here For You

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Skype now launched a new business management tool in over 170 countries.  From Brazil to the US, administrators now have the power to allocate and oversee Skype subscriptions.  There are plenty of new features to consider.

Subscriptions can include the ability to make calls to land and mobile lines.  The advantage over other VoIP services is that you can pay based on a fixed location.  For example, unlimited calls between the US and the UK will cost about $7.14 a month.

You can further streamline usage by assigning privileges of who can call and how often.  That way, those who need to can call as much as they want while lower-level employees have restricted or denied access.

This Skype Manager tool has endless uses.  It can help bring a more solid company policy of sale pitch time limits, communications blackouts, or even just to redirect bandwidth to places you need.  The more you know the more effective it will be.  For more information about IT infrastructure management click here.

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What is Windows Blue?

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Hint: It’s not a paint color.  There are a lot of rumors swirling about what Windows Blue is.  Thus far, we can conclude that it’s not a service pack.  Windows Blue will be closer to what Mountain Lion is to Apple’s OS X.  We know this because since XP service pack 2, Microsoft has decided that any update that introduces new features is not a service pack.  As of right now, no one really knows what it is.

What can you expect?

There’s not much that’s official yet.  However, we can speculate on a few things.  One is that it’ll allow Windows to run on tablets that are smaller than 10.1 inches diagonally, Windows 8’s current limitation.  There should new built-in apps.  One that was shown off was a new video editing app called Movie Moments.   Expect new charms, such as one that will let you seamlessly switch between audio and video.

What not to expect.

It probably won’t replace Windows Phone 8 since Microsoft has decided to take the opposite path as Apple.  Apple currently uses the same operating system for its tablets and phones.  It probably won’t replace Windows RT.  RT runs on low power processors in order to increase battery life.  Blue would ruin that aspect.

The rumor mill is saying that Windows Blue will come out sometime this year.  We’ll be keeping an eye out.

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