If you needed to ask a question of your supervisor, you dropped a dime or a quarter or two into a payphone and called the office, hoping they would be at their desk. If they weren’t, you made the decision yourself and moved along. If you were good at reading your manager you probably was already sure what the answer would be even before asking the question.

As time passed communications got easier and for the roaming employee more like a leash. First there were the one way pager. You received a message to call a telephone number and off you went to find a phone to return the call.

For a short period of time, the same time as mobile communications, the car phone, was developing there were 2 way pagers. You could receive a message, in 2 way paging it was usually a text question and you could returned an answer with one of the pre-programmed messages. 2 way pagers were much cheaper and more reliable than a mobile cell phone.

Mobile phones first were in the car and then in a portable device that resembled a brick. And as we progress in technology, instant communications became easier.

But it seems to me that at times as communications became more instant, people became less able to decide something without having another opinion. It developed not only in the work arena but also at home. Many times I have heard a husband or a wife call the other partner while in a grocery store asking whether a substitution was acceptable.

Decisions are made as a team or by the supervisor. Original thinking by a lower level employee sometimes was no longer commendable, but became insubordination even in middle and lower upper management.

One would think that with instant communications issues can be resolved quicker and with a better outcome. However, at times I wonder if with instant communications it takes longer and the decision may not be the correct one. The farther the decision maker is from the situation, the less that person considers the personal customer service aspect of the decision.

So I will ask.

Is Instant Communications Good or Bad?

What is your opinion?

As with any type of networking you get what you put into it. Have you ever come out of a Networking Event and felt that you got nothing out of it?

Did it seem that all you did was enjoy the food, beverages and company of those you already knew?

If that was the case you probably did come out with the feeling that nothing had been gained.

In Social Media some are doing something very similar. They have created a Facebook page, a Twitter Account and possibly even a LinkedIn account.

But after creation they have done nothing. This is like going to the Networking function and enjoying the food and beverage. Satisfying at the time, but short lasting.

It’s the interaction with others both at the Networking function and with Social Media where you will enjoy an extended benefit.

In your social media give useful and interesting information not just an advertising blurb. It’s thought that you should keep your advertising conversations in Social Media to around 30% of your interactions.

Don’t ignore or try to remove critical comments. Engage them in a dialogue to discover the reasons. It’s possible that after an exchange both you and the one who gave the criticism may come to a common ground.

Social Media like networking is a conversation and the best gains are made by interactions by both parties and not one.

I firmly believe that Business E-mails should be treated exactly like a business letter, following the same format. Although I will admit that not all emails sent to business associates are business emails. The majority of these Pet Peeves are in these non-business e-mails.

Here are a few of my E-mail Pet Peeves:
• Forwarded e-mail from friends, relatives or business associates passing along jokes and false or misleading information.

• Forwarded e-mails that have been forwarded multiple times showing the email addresses of all of those that it had been forwarded to.

• Receiving an answer to a question either through a new email or by reply without the question.

• Being BCC: on an e-mail without clear indication that the email was sent to someone else.

• Being part of the To: line when in reality the e-mail was CC:ed to you.

Do you …
Use the same password?
Many of us create one password and use it everywhere. Once the password is discovered by a scammer/hacker then it can be used.

Have personal information as part of your password?
Many of us use our children or pet names or other personal information as part of the password. A hacker can and will be able to discover this information and use it to decode the password.

Use a real word?
There are software programs that can go through every word in the dictionary until the the right password is discovered.

Write the password down and keep it close to the computer?
Yes, it’s not a good idea, but we all seem to do it.

Password Best Practices
Since many places allow passwords that are case sensitive, use both upper and lower case letters in the password. such as: PaSSworD – Note never use password, or common sequence of letters (abcdef) or numbers (12345) as a password. Those are the most common ones.

Have special characters and/or numbers as part of the password.

Use initials of a phrase that is easy to remember.

Use different passwords for everything.

Auto Attendant
Many businesses use these. They are without an doubt a cost saver. A business doesn’t have to have a call taking receptionist. Just let the automatic voice answer the telephone and with a short menu of command they are directed to where they need to go.

However many businesses have Auto Attendants that are useless or just confusing to the caller. After listening to the commands was that 1 for John at Sales? Or maybe it was 2. Or I was looking to reach Jane and she’s not mentioned. That’s because she has replaced John, but the Auto Attendant was not changed.

Or after the list of items were given, but none of the options seem to be the one the caller wants.

And then there’s the problem when each and every item takes the caller to another menu or a Voice Mail Box.

Voice Mail
It has become a to common practice for some people to always have Voice Mail answer their calls. Or to give their caller no idea on when they may be receiving the Voice Mail and having their call returned. I’m sure many of us have placed a call to a person, left a message, or two or a dozen only only to discover two weeks later that they had just started their two weeks vacation.

Some of these problems can be resolved simply by using common sense. Answer the telephone with a real person who can make a quick decision on the right place to direct the caller. If an Auto Attendant is necessary, check its options and correctness. Always check after any type of office change.

Change the Voice Mail greeting as often as needed. For some people that may only be a few times during the year. An office worker who is at the desk just about every day and the call only rarely goes to Voice Mail and when it does the call is returned within the hours, may only need to change it when they are on leave.

Others may need to change it a few times during the day.

Then again the business can, and really should have a Telephone Usage Policy that is in place and followed by all.

How recent have you done one of these? Or do one before the end of the year?

Email:
Use Reply All when intending reply only to the sender.

Send a list of email address embedded within the body of the message to someone who may be collecting addresses. Or send a private email address to a person that the address owner would rather not have it known.

Send an email referencing an attachment, without adding the attachment.

Be reminded that the attachment was not attached by a person who you are trying to impress.

Telephone:
Think that the telephone is muted and say something you don’t want the other party to hear. Or say something inappropriate.

Accidentally conference two parties together.

Erase a voice mail message that holds important information, more than likely it’ll be important contact information.

Start leaving a voice mail message to someone only to discover you are actually talking with the person.

Leave a message or adding to the message on someone’s voice mail thinking that you have been disconnected, but not.

Energy:
Turn the lights on in the supply room, forget to turn it off only to find that it was left on for the entire weekend. Worst a long weekend.

Wonder why the office is cold, use a space heater only to find that the thermostat was blocked from getting room air.

Cellphone
Forget to turn the ringer off on the cellphone before entering an important meeting and then have the phone ring. Worst case, heading a meeting and requesting that everyone silent theirs only to have yours ring.

Forget where you are while talking on the phone and talk about important or private information where others can hear.

Stop in mid conversation with someone to answer your cellphone without an apology.

Have a person respond to something you said while talking to the cellphone. Or respond to another person who is on their phone.

While there’s not a way to completely eliminate any of these things from occurring, by taking a second to think and not rushing can help.

A recent conducted research of Co-Tweet and ExactTarget may assist in making that decision. Here are the Top 10 Motivations for Consumers to “Like” and Follow a Brand and on Facebook:

1. 40% want to receive discounts and promotions

2. 37% want to show support for the brand/company

3. 36% hope (want) to get free samples, a coupon (a.k.a. freebies)

4. 34% want to stay informed about the activities of the company

5. 33% want to get updates on future products

6. 30% want to get updates and information on future sales

7. 27% like to get fun and entertainment out of it

8. 25% want to get access to exclusive content

9. 22% mentioned they were referred by someone to follow this brand/company

10. 21% want just to learn more about the company

For example one day I was standing at a graveyard ceremony during a funeral and my cellphone started ringing. Fortunately it was a ring, and not one of those musical ring tones. I had thought I had turned it off before entering the funeral home, which is what I would normally have done. I obviously hadn’t. The phone ringing at that place and time was one of my most embarrassing moments.

There needs to be some cellphone etiquette. There are places where you really should turn the cellphone off, such as when you are attending a funeral or going to church. Do you really need to have your ringing or vibrating phone while you are trying to woo a prospective client?

And there are those places where you should have the phone on vibrate, which in my mind is almost anytime that you aren’t either in your own home or office.

There are places where you really don’t need to be talking on the phone, such as in a movie theatre or even at a table in a restaurant. There’s usually a lobby area where you can take an important call. Although at times I do wonder how important that call may be. It seems as if no one any more can make a decision and anything without picking up a cell phone and placing a call. “Honey, I’m at the grocery store and would you rather me get beans instead of tomatoes, the tomatoes don’t look very good.”

How many have turned to the fellow next to you, who you thought might have been asking you a question, only to discover he is deep in conversation on his cell phone.

I guess the one good thing is now if you are walking down the street talking to yourself, people will think you are just on the phone.

Let’s look at some of the common terms:

Tweep:
This is a user of the network. As soon as you create an account you are a tweep and those who you follow are also tweeps.

Follow:
When you sign on to receive messages from people, you follow them. You also want tweeps to follow you.

Followers:
These are the people who are following you and want to hear what you have to say. Followers can be picky, since some don’t care what you say, while others are very interested and don’t care about mundane stuff. Followers can and probably will come and go. Followers are one way. You can follow a tweep, but that doesn’t mean they follow you. They have to follow you.

Tweet:
These are the messages you put onto the site for you followers to read, Messages are a maximum of 140 characters.

@(UserName)
This is used in a tweet when referencing another user. By doing this you create a like to that user that is clickable by your followers. Friends and business associates will often do this to help increase traffic to each other.

RT
Let’s say you see something from someone you are following that you think would be of interest to your followers. This is called a retweet, or rt.

DM
Direct Message. Use this to send a message to another user that only that person can see.

FF
Lately I have been seeing this on Fridays and I have just discovered that it means Follow Friday. Followers will post on Fridays and tag their friends and associates. This is used as a way to recommend others as a large referral mechanism. Usage is FF@(UserName).

#(term)
This is called a hashtag and has been used as a way to identify a certain topic and be able to quickly follow associated messages by inserting the # in front of the term or word or phrase (if no spaces are used).

Take a look at twitter and decide whether you want to make it a part of your Social Media Marketing Plan. With this you now have a bit more understanding of the site.

This site can be followed at twitter.com/SMBTechTips and I can be followed at twitter.com/SteveGAtkinson

If you needed to ask a question of your supervisor, you dropped a dime or a quarter or two into a payphone and called the office, hoping they would be at their desk. If they weren’t, you made the decision yourself and moved along. If you were good you already knew the answer even before asking the question.

As time passed communications got easier and for the roaming employee more like a leash. First there were the one way pager. You received a message to call a telephone number and off you went to find a phone to return the call.

For a short period of time, the same time as mobile communications, the car phone, was developing there were 2 way pagers. You could receive a message, in 2 way paging it was usually a text question and you could returned an answer with one of the pre-programmed messages. 2 way pagers were much cheaper and more reliable than a mobile cell phone.

Mobile phones first were in the car and then in a portable device that resembled a brick. And as we progress in technology, instant communications became easier.

But it seems to me that at times as communications became more instant, people became less able to decide something without having another opinion. It developed not only in the work arena but also at home. Many times I have heard a husband or a wife call the other partner while in a grocery store asking whether a substitution was acceptable.

Decisions are made as a team or by the supervisor. Original thinking by a lower level employee was no longer commendable, but became insubordination even in middle and lower upper management.

One would think that with instant communications issues can be resolved quicker and with a better outcome. However, at times I wonder if with instant communications it takes longer and the decision may not be the correct one. The farther the decision maker is from the situation, the less that person considers the personal customer service aspect of the decision.

So I will ask.

Is Instant Communications Good or Bad?

What is your opinion?