To the outside world your website is the equivalent of your storefront, and your customers expect it to be eye-catching, well-maintained, and always offering something new. However, when you’re on the inside and are caught up in the day-to-day operations of your business, finding the time to focus on your website is easier said than done. And, like a neglected storefront, it can quickly become out-of-date, unappealing and, at worst, ignored.
Here are some tips to help you keep your website up-to-date, relevant and attracting customers.
1. Does your Site Meet Your Business Objectives?
It’s likely that you know your website intimately. You helped get it started, had a say in the design, content and so on. You might even live and breathe your website. But it’s a good idea every now and again to step back a bit and assess your website in light of where your business is and where you want it to be. Does your site reflect your brand and corporate culture? If not, it should.
For example, when you started your business you may not have had a huge budget to invest online and built a skeleton site that had basic information about your business and its products and services. But does that start-up site still meet your needs?
Do you have things to say about your business that you aren’t doing through your website right now? For example, if you hold special events, offer regular specials or discounts, are you using your website to promote these?
How do you keep your customers “in the know” using your website? Have you considered a blog, or using social media to help engage with and even educate your customers in a “social” way?
Take a look at what your competitors are doing. Do some sites seem to work while others don’t? Where’s does yours fit in the line-up and what do you think you could do differently?
2. What do Your Customers Think?
Don’t forget to ask your customers what they think of your site? Do they visit it? Does it appeal to them? What don’t they like? How can it be made more useful to them?
3. Add some Bells and Whistles
If you determine that your website meets your needs, but just needs a mini shake-up to help you meet your objectives, consider introducing these elements:
- Add Lead Capture Devices – Use your website to get more information about your customers, and offer them something in return – whether it’s a newsletter subscription, a white paper, or just another download. Use the data to establish regular communications and outreach to your customers. But be sure to adhere to SPAM laws and customer privacy laws.
- Start a Blog –A blog isn’t right for every business, but it is a great way of keeping your site fresh and engaging. And because search engines love new content, a well maintained blog can help boost your rankings. Well written and thoughtful blogs can be a great way to introduce the human element of your business as well as position you as a trusted expert in your field. So whether you offer tips, how-tos, or share success stories of how you’ve helped your customers – just about every business owner has expertise and insights to share. To get you started read: “Thinking of Starting a Blog? Tips to Help You Start, Maintain & Grow a Small Business Blog”.
- Embrace Social Media – Another great way to generate traffic back to your website and get the word out about your business (what you offer, what’s new, what’s going on) is to get out there on social networking sites. To help you determine, which social media channel is a good for your business, read “ Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn? Finding the Right Fit for Your Small Business” and get started with this “Ultimate Small Business Guide to Social Media Marketing”. Of course, don’t forget to add links and icons to your website that let people know that you are active on social media.
4. Rearrange Your Site Architecture / Design
Whether you need to improve your site navigation to help people find the information they need, or you have new content (such as a blog) that you want to showcase, make sure your site architecture easily supports this. Many content management systems make it easy for site managers to do this without the help of a web developer. But be sure you have that capability before you start out.
5. Get Outside Help
If you don’t have experts on staff, consider hiring a consultant to do the job. This one-time investment doesn’t have to break the bank and might be worth it. Remember, to make it easier for you to manage and make changes to your site down the line, make sure your designer builds a site that has a robust and easy-to-use content management system (CMS) on the backend. This article provides some basic “need-to- knows” about CMS options: “How to Find the Right Content Management System and get More Out of Your Web Site”.
6. Measure Your Improvements
As you roll any changes out, use free website analytic tools to measure and monitor site traffic and assess ROI. How are people finding your site? What pages are attracting most interest or otherwise? Why? Read more about web analytics from small business professional, Anita Campbell, in her article:”3 Tools that can Help your Small Business Sell More and do so Profitably”.
Related Articles
Reposted from http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/call-phones-from-gmail.html
Gmail voice and video chat makes it easy to stay in touch with friends and family using your computer’s microphone and speakers. But until now, this required both people to be at their computers, signed into Gmail at the same time. Given that most of us don’t spend all day in front of our computers, we thought, “wouldn’t it be nice if you could call people directly on their phones?”
Starting August 2010, you can call any phone right from Gmail.
Calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of the year and calls to other countries will be billed at our very low rates. We worked hard to make these rates really cheap (see comparison table) with calls to the U.K., France, Germany, China, Japan—and many more countries—for as little as $0.02 per minute.
Dialing a phone number works just like a normal phone. Just click “Call phone” at the top of your chat list and dial a number or enter a contact’s name.
We’ve been testing this feature internally and have found it to be useful in a lot of situations, ranging from making a quick call to a restaurant to placing a call when you’re in an area with bad reception.
If you have a Google Voice phone number, calls made from Gmail will display this number as the outbound caller ID. And if you decide to, you can receive calls made to this number right inside Gmail (see instructions).
We’re rolling out this feature to U.S. based Gmail users over the next few days, so you’ll be ready to get started once “Call Phones” shows up in your chat list (you will need to install the voice and video plug-in if you haven’t already). If you’re using Google Apps for your school or business, then you won’t see it quite yet. We’re working on making this available more broadly – so stay tuned!
For more information, visit gmail.com/call.
Update (8/26): This has now been rolled out to everyone in the U.S. If you don’t see the feature yet, try logging out of Gmail and signing back in.
Students at ease with complexity, rely on data analysis
ARMONK, N.Y., June 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Today’s university students are extremely concerned with issues of globalization and sustainability, but only four out of 10 believe their education has prepared them to address these issues, according to a new IBM (NYSE: IBM) study designed to gauge the attitudes and opinions of the next-generation global workforce and business leaders.
This first-of-its-kind survey — which asked university students the same questions posed to global business leaders in IBM’s 2010 Global CEO Study — finds that both students and CEOs believe creativity is the most important emerging competency of future leaders; and reveals clear confidence about the ability of information technologies to address looming issues in business or society.
Conducted through IBM’s Institute for Business Value, the Study, “Inheriting a Complex World: Future Leaders Envision Sharing the Planet,” reflects the consolidated view of more than 3,600 students in more than 40 countries.
The study reveals a discerning and decidedly optimistic new ethos — based on an integrated view of globalization, sustainability and belief in technology as a path to solutions to emerging and existing problems. Almost 50 percent of students said that organizations should optimize their operations by globalizing, rather than localizing, to meet their strategic objectives.
At the same time, these students describe a gap in this generation’s training to cope with issues that will arise in an increasingly interconnected and complex world, but a strong belief that information technologies can bridge the gap.
Within four years, this “Millennial generation” will make up half of the global workforce. Despite the economic environment and the challenges students may face entering the current job market, the findings from this study were characterized by an unmistakably optimistic outlook about what’s ahead – and their capacity to affect change in the world they will inherit.
Students surveyed indicated that they will lean more heavily on data analysis — over gut instinct or existing “best practices” — to reach their strategic and operational goals as business leaders in their own right. And as fact-based decisions begin to prevail, they may need to pioneer an entirely new management style — one that continually enriches personal experience and education with new sources of insight based on a new ability deal with the explosion of real-time information.
The study revealed broad-based confidence that increased access to information, analysis, and the resulting insight can reduce uncertainty about the future.
Clearly, the students’ experience regarding globalization is different. Growing up more connected globally, students see the shocks and threats, but are more prone to view globalization as an opportunity to solve increasingly global problems. They are strongly committed to a global view of shared responsibility for both environmental issues and societal prosperity.
The new IBM survey was conducted as an extension of the 2010 IBM CEO Study, “Capitalizing on Complexity,” which discovered that today’s chief executives are charting new courses of action in response to the increasing complexity of the world’s business and competitive environment.
Students and CEOs
Students, for the most part, shared their views, and even agreed on very specific courses of action: embodying creative leadership, reinventing customer relationships and building more dexterous operating models.
Nevertheless, for all the areas of agreement between students and CEOs, twice as many students selected globalization and environmental issues as one of the top three factors to impact organizations and expected major consequences to business and society from a scarcity of resources. Bold positions like these came about because students clearly saw that globalization provides an opportunity for organizations to create new value.
Compared to all other regions, the views of students and CEOs on sustainability diverged most sharply in North America. Students there were almost three times as likely as CEOs to expect scarcity of natural resources to have a significant impact. They were more than twice as likely to select environmental issues as a top external force. And 60 percent more students than CEOs in this region anticipated that customer expectations for social responsibility will increase significantly.
“What these students are saying is that they understand the complexities inherent in a world that is getting smaller and more interconnected all the time, and the implications of those changes for their careers,” said Ragna Bell, Associate Partner, and Strategy and Change Leader in IBM’s Institute of Business Value. “As a result, they expressed some very different — and powerful — expectations about the responsibilities of business and governments, and by extension, for the paths their careers will take.”
The Digital Deluge
Given that today’s students grew up in a digital age, intuitively understanding that economies, societies, governments and organizations are made up of interconnecting networks, it may not be surprising that seven in 10 students experienced the new economic environment as significantly more complex today, compared to six in 10 CEOs.
But they saw far less volatility and uncertainty, in part because they were confident that access to more information could be put to better use, analyzed for patterns and predictive insights to solve the hardest problems in business or society.
Students who saw significantly more complexity, or interconnectedness in the environment, were 50 percent more likely to expect significant impact from the information explosion and 22 percent more likely to believe that a focus on analyzing information for insight would be key to organizations’ success in the future.
Views about the impact of the information explosion were fairly uniform across regions, except in China where students were 67 percent more likely to see a large impact than CEOs in China. Students in China were also far more likely to approach decision-making analytically, relying on facts more than instinct, or even experience.
Global Thinking, Local Views
Students’ attitudes toward globalization were reflected in their expectations of leadership as well. Like CEOs, students selected creativity as the top emerging leadership quality for the successful enterprise of the future. But among the nine leadership traits CEOs and students were asked to select, students placed a higher emphasis on only two qualities -– global thinking and a focus on sustainability.
Given students’ concerns about globalization and sustainability, the Study found a gap in educational experiences, as well as business expectations. Asked how well their education has prepared them in a number of areas, only four out of 10 students believe their education has prepared them well to address these issues.
In China, 76 percent of students value global thinking as a top leadership quality, more than students anywhere else. Yet, only 38 percent of students in China believe their education has prepared them for global citizenship, which is lower than students in any other region.
Only 17 percent of students in Japan, less than any other region, believe their education has prepared them well to benefit from the growth of emerging markets.
Understanding these and other sharp differences emerging by geography is increasingly important as economies and societies become more closely linked. Students will confront these differences as they increasingly become the future leaders of business and organizations.
About the IBM Institute for Business Value
The IBM Institute for Business Value, part of IBM Global Business Services, develops fact-based strategic insights for senior business executives around critical industry-specific and cross-industry issues. This Global Student Study is part of our ongoing C-Suite Study Series. For access to the full study findings and case studies, please visit: www.ibm.com/futureleaders.
To join the conversation about smarter leadership, please visit: http://smarterleaders.tumblr.com/.
Contact:
Steve Tomasco
IBM Media Relations
917-687-4588
stomasc@us.ibm.com
Source: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ibm-study–education-lags-in-preparing-students-for-globalization-and-sustainability-96588659.html
SOURCE IBM
http://www.ibm.com
Source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290938
The following is a list of keyboard shortcuts that are available in Microsoft Word 2002, in Microsoft Office Word 2003, and in Microsoft Office Word 2007. This list is a compilation of the individual keyboard shortcut lists available in Word 2002 Help and in Word 2003 Help.
| Command Name |
Shortcut Keys |
| All Caps |
CTRL+SHIFT+A |
| Annotation |
ALT+CTRL+M |
| App Maximize |
ALT+F10 |
| App Restore |
ALT+F5 |
| Apply Heading1 |
ALT+CTRL+1 |
| Apply Heading2 |
ALT+CTRL+2 |
| Apply Heading3 |
ALT+CTRL+3 |
| Apply List Bullet |
CTRL+SHIFT+L |
| Auto Format |
ALT+CTRL+K |
| Auto Text |
F3 or ALT+CTRL+V |
| Bold |
CTRL+B or CTRL+SHIFT+B |
| Bookmark |
CTRL+SHIFT+F5 |
| Browse Next |
CTRL+PAGE DOWN |
| Browse Previous |
CTRL+PAGE UP |
| Browse Sel |
ALT+CTRL+HOME |
| Cancel |
ESC |
| Center Para |
CTRL+E |
| Change Case |
SHIFT+F3 |
| Char Left |
LEFT |
| Char Left Extend |
SHIFT+LEFT |
| Char Right |
RIGHT |
| Char Right Extend |
SHIFT+RIGHT |
| Clear |
DELETE |
| Close or Exit |
ALT+F4 |
| Close Pane |
ALT+SHIFT+C |
| Column Break |
CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER |
| Column Select |
CTRL+SHIFT+F8 |
| Copy |
CTRL+C or CTRL+INSERT |
| Copy Format |
CTRL+SHIFT+C |
| Copy Text |
SHIFT+F2 |
| Create Auto Text |
ALT+F3 |
| Customize Add Menu |
ALT+CTRL+= |
| Customize Keyboard |
ALT+CTRL+NUM + |
| Customize Remove Menu |
ALT+CTRL+- |
| Cut |
CTRL+X or SHIFT+DELETE |
| Date Field |
ALT+SHIFT+D |
| Delete Back Word |
CTRL+BACKSPACE |
| Delete Word |
CTRL+DELETE |
| Dictionary |
ALT+SHIFT+F7 |
| Do Field Click |
ALT+SHIFT+F9 |
| Doc Close |
CTRL+W or CTRL+F4 |
| Doc Maximize |
CTRL+F10 |
| Doc Move |
CTRL+F7 |
| Doc Restore |
CTRL+F5 |
| Doc Size |
CTRL+F8 |
| Doc Split |
ALT+CTRL+S |
| Double Underline |
CTRL+SHIFT+D |
| End of Column |
ALT+PAGE DOWN |
| End of Column |
ALT+SHIFT+PAGE DOWN |
| End of Doc Extend |
CTRL+SHIFT+END |
| End of Document |
CTRL+END |
| End of Line |
END |
| End of Line Extend |
SHIFT+END |
| End of Row |
ALT+END |
| End of Row |
ALT+SHIFT+END |
| End of Window |
ALT+CTRL+PAGE DOWN |
| End of Window Extend |
ALT+CTRL+SHIFT+PAGE DOWN |
| Endnote Now |
ALT+CTRL+D |
| Extend Selection |
F8 |
| Field Chars |
CTRL+F9 |
| Field Codes |
ALT+F9 |
| Find |
CTRL+F |
| Font |
CTRL+D or CTRL+SHIFT+F |
| Font Size Select |
CTRL+SHIFT+P |
| Footnote Now |
ALT+CTRL+F |
| Go Back |
SHIFT+F5 or ALT+CTRL+Z |
| Go To |
CTRL+G or F5 |
| Grow Font |
CTRL+SHIFT+. |
| Grow Font One Point |
CTRL+] |
| Hanging Indent |
CTRL+T |
| Header Footer Link |
ALT+SHIFT+R |
| Help |
F1 |
| Hidden |
CTRL+SHIFT+H |
| Hyperlink |
CTRL+K |
| Indent |
CTRL+M |
| Italic |
CTRL+I or CTRL+SHIFT+I |
| Justify Para |
CTRL+J |
| Left Para |
CTRL+L |
| Line Down |
DOWN |
| Line Down Extend |
SHIFT+DOWN |
| Line Up |
UP |
| Line Up Extend |
SHIFT+UP |
| List Num Field |
ALT+CTRL+L |
| Lock Fields |
CTRL+3 or CTRL+F11 |
| Macro |
ALT+F8 |
| Mail Merge Check |
ALT+SHIFT+K |
| Mail Merge Edit Data Source |
ALT+SHIFT+E |
| Mail Merge to Doc |
ALT+SHIFT+N |
| Mail Merge to Printer |
ALT+SHIFT+M |
| Mark Citation |
ALT+SHIFT+I |
| Mark Index Entry |
ALT+SHIFT+X |
| Mark Table of Contents Entry |
ALT+SHIFT+O |
| Menu Mode |
F10 |
| Merge Field |
ALT+SHIFT+F |
| Microsoft Script Editor |
ALT+SHIFT+F11 |
| Microsoft System Info |
ALT+CTRL+F1 |
| Move Text |
F2 |
| New |
CTRL+N |
| Next Cell |
TAB |
| Next Field |
F11 or ALT+F1 |
| Next Misspelling |
ALT+F7 |
| Next Object |
ALT+DOWN |
| Next Window |
CTRL+F6 or ALT+F6 |
| Normal |
ALT+CTRL+N |
| Normal Style |
CTRL+SHIFT+N or ALT+SHIFT+CLEAR (NUM 5) |
| Open |
CTRL+O or CTRL+F12 or ALT+CTRL+F2 |
| Open or Close Up Para |
CTRL+0 |
| Other Pane |
F6 or SHIFT+F6 |
| Outline |
ALT+CTRL+O |
| Outline Collapse |
ALT+SHIFT+- or ALT+SHIFT+NUM - |
| Outline Demote |
ALT+SHIFT+RIGHT |
| Outline Expand |
ALT+SHIFT+= |
| Outline Expand |
ALT+SHIFT+NUM + |
| Outline Move Down |
ALT+SHIFT+DOWN |
| Outline Move Up |
ALT+SHIFT+UP |
| Outline Promote |
ALT+SHIFT+LEFT |
| Outline Show First Line |
ALT+SHIFT+L |
| Overtype |
INSERT |
| Page |
ALT+CTRL+P |
| Page Break |
CTRL+ENTER |
| Page Down |
PAGE DOWN |
| Page Down Extend |
SHIFT+PAGE DOWN |
| Page Field |
ALT+SHIFT+P |
| Page Up |
PAGE UP |
| Page Up Extend |
SHIFT+PAGE UP |
| Para Down |
CTRL+DOWN |
| Para Down Extend |
CTRL+SHIFT+DOWN |
| Para Up |
CTRL+UP |
| Para Up Extend |
CTRL+SHIFT+UP |
| Paste |
CTRL+V or SHIFT+INSERT |
| Paste Format |
CTRL+SHIFT+V |
| Prev Cell |
SHIFT+TAB |
| Prev Field |
SHIFT+F11 or ALT+SHIFT+F1 |
| Prev Object |
ALT+UP |
| Prev Window |
CTRL+SHIFT+F6 or ALT+SHIFT+F6 |
| Print |
CTRL+P or CTRL+SHIFT+F12 |
| Print Preview |
CTRL+F2 or ALT+CTRL+I |
| Proofing |
F7 |
| Redo |
ALT+SHIFT+BACKSPACE |
| Redo or Repeat |
CTRL+Y or F4 or ALT+ENTER |
| Repeat Find |
SHIFT+F4 or ALT+CTRL+Y |
| Replace |
CTRL+H |
| Reset Char |
CTRL+SPACE or CTRL+SHIFT+Z |
| Reset Para |
CTRL+Q |
| Revision Marks Toggle |
CTRL+SHIFT+E |
| Right Para |
CTRL+R |
| Save |
CTRL+S or SHIFT+F12 or ALT+SHIFT+F2 |
| Save As |
F12 |
| Select All |
CTRL+A or CTRL+CLEAR (NUM 5) or CTRL+NUM 5 |
| Select Table |
ALT+CLEAR (NUM 5) |
| Show All |
CTRL+SHIFT+8 |
| Show All Headings |
ALT+SHIFT+A |
| Show Heading1 |
ALT+SHIFT+1 |
| Show Heading2 |
ALT+SHIFT+2 |
| Show Heading3 |
ALT+SHIFT+3 |
| Show Heading4 |
ALT+SHIFT+4 |
| Show Heading5 |
ALT+SHIFT+5 |
| Show Heading6 |
ALT+SHIFT+6 |
| Show Heading7 |
ALT+SHIFT+7 |
| Show Heading8 |
ALT+SHIFT+8 |
| Show Heading9 |
ALT+SHIFT+9 |
| Shrink Font |
CTRL+SHIFT+, |
| Shrink Font One Point |
CTRL+[ |
| Small Caps |
CTRL+SHIFT+K |
| Space Para1 |
CTRL+1 |
| Space Para15 |
CTRL+5 |
| Space Para2 |
CTRL+2 |
| Spike |
CTRL+SHIFT+F3 or CTRL+F3 |
| Start of Column |
ALT+PAGE UP |
| Start of Column |
ALT+SHIFT+PAGE UP |
| Start of Doc Extend |
CTRL+SHIFT+HOME |
| Start of Document |
CTRL+HOME |
| Start of Line |
HOME |
| Start of Line Extend |
SHIFT+HOME |
| Start of Row |
ALT+HOME |
| Start of Row |
ALT+SHIFT+HOME |
| Start of Window |
ALT+CTRL+PAGE UP |
| Start of Window Extend |
ALT+CTRL+SHIFT+PAGE UP |
| Style |
CTRL+SHIFT+S |
| Subscript |
CTRL+= |
| Superscript |
CTRL+SHIFT+= |
| Symbol Font |
CTRL+SHIFT+Q |
| Thesaurus |
SHIFT+F7 |
| Time Field |
ALT+SHIFT+T |
| Toggle Field Display |
SHIFT+F9 |
| Toggle Master Subdocs |
CTRL+\ |
| Tool |
SHIFT+F1 |
| Un Hang |
CTRL+SHIFT+T |
| Un Indent |
CTRL+SHIFT+M |
| Underline |
CTRL+U or CTRL+SHIFT+U |
| Undo |
CTRL+Z or ALT+BACKSPACE |
| Unlink Fields |
CTRL+6 or CTRL+SHIFT+F9 |
| Unlock Fields |
CTRL+4 or CTRL+SHIFT+F11 |
| Update Auto Format |
ALT+CTRL+U |
| Update Fields |
F9 or ALT+SHIFT+U |
| Update Source |
CTRL+SHIFT+F7 |
| VBCode |
ALT+F11 |
| Web Go Back |
ALT+LEFT |
| Web Go Forward |
ALT+RIGHT |
| Word Left |
CTRL+LEFT |
| Word Left Extend |
CTRL+SHIFT+LEFT |
| Word Right |
CTRL+RIGHT |
| Word Right Extend |
CTRL+SHIFT+RIGHT |
| Word Underline |
CTRL+SHIFT+W |
|
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Paid add-on, only
