Actual for You - Business

Leadership in Troubled Times
Leadership in Troubled Times The first task of a leader is to keep hope alive. - Joe Batten Leading an organization can be challenging, e

s label it as ‘News Blog’ or plain old ‘News Room’ or ‘Press Room’) and you’re ready to promote your news. Be sure to include full contact details in the blog’s bio section - remember, journalists are always on one deadline or another and they want your input NOW! If you’re worried about spambots gathering your email address, include them as ‘name <-at-> domain dot com’. If a journalist can’t work that out you probably don’t want to hear from them anyway!

Once your blog is up and running, turn it

Implementation the Catalyst of Change for Management to Reach that Next Level of Success
From the personal and professional experiences of other colleagues and myself, one of the more critical success factors for management is implementation. Through my observations, I have discovered that people and organization spend a great deal of resources including time, dollars and the cumulative total of the energy generated from these efforts to create business or strategic plans. Yet, these very same costly plans languish in a manager’s desk drawer or on an executive’s shelf. The incredible inspiration power within these plans lay untouched because few individuals understand how to implement the plan.Implementation is multi-faceted. This action requires a combination of

There’s good news for public relations execs, marketing professionals and even one-man-band entrepreneurs: journalists are surfing your sites looking for news.

It’s true - while some PR people spend months trying to win over cynical reporters in order to wrangle a company profile or CEO interview (and get nowhere), an army of journalists are proactively hunting for facts, figures and interview candidates.

Now the bad news: these same journalists say most online press rooms suck. Big time. If you’re thinking to yourself: ‘Uh-oh, we don’t have a press room,’ chances are you’re missing out on important media opportunities. If you’re thinking: ‘What’s a press room?’ you need to act fast.

In an ideal world, a press room is a vibrant, constantly updated section of your corporate website including company backgrounders, executive profiles, news releases (with a comprehensive, searchable archive), media mailing list and - perhaps most importantly - clear and concise contact information if journalists need to get in touch.

Want to see a great press room? As usual, Google pulls it off by keeping things nice and simple:

http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/index.html

If you haven’t got the time or resources to put together a world-class press room like that, here are a couple of strategies that can help you in the short-term. But keep in mind these are suggested as temporary measures - an accessible, professional press room is no longer a luxury for a company that considers itself professional, it’s an absolute necessity.

• Blog It!

Sign up for a blog at one of the big free providers such as Blogger (http://www.blogger.com). These services are template based and you can have their standard layouts look and feel like your own site in a jiffy. To be honest, even if you use the standard template, change the title and give it the odd tweak here and there you’ve still covered the important bases.

Then place a link on your corporate website to the new blog (perhaps label it as ‘News Blog’ or plain old ‘News Room’ or ‘Press Room’) and you’re ready to promote your news. Be sure to include full contact details in the blog’s bio section - remember, journalists are always on one deadline or another and they want your input NOW! If you’re worried about spambots gathering your email address, include them as ‘name <-at-> domain dot com’. If a journalist can’t work that out you probably don’t want to hear from them anyway!

Once your blog is up and running, turn it o

Telecommuting Job Idea: Legal Document Coder
Legal document coders provide a very specialized service for law firms. They organize the legal documents to make research easier for the lawyers. By using databases to organize things, the information can be found quickly, allowing more time to be dedicated to the case at hand.Where to find a job as a legal document coder: There are many companies that offer document coding that may hire freelance workers. You could contact law firms in your area, especially smaller law firms, who may need occasional help.Skills you need: You need to be able to do Objective Coding (a basic index of each document, including dates, author of the document, recipients, type, title, where s

you’re thinking to yourself: ‘Uh-oh, we don’t have a press room,’ chances are you’re missing out on important media opportunities. If you’re thinking: ‘What’s a press room?’ you need to act fast.

Want to see a great press room? As usual, Google pulls it off by keeping things nice and simple:

http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/index.html

• Blog It!

Once your blog is up and running, turn it

Quit Your Day Job: 10 Steps to Venturing Out on Your Own
If you’re one of the 58% of Americans who have considered starting a business but don’t know how to proceed, help is at hand. The following steps will show you how to transform your dream of business ownership into reality.1. Figure out what you want to do. You’re not alone if you know that you want to work for yourself but aren’t yet sure what exactly you want to do. Start by making a list of your interests, talents, and skills. Talk to your family and friends and begin brainstorming ideas. The sooner you begin your quest, the sooner you will find the answers.2. Start saving now. It is wise to have at least one year’s worth of living expenses in the bank before you qui

urnalists need to get in touch.

Want to see a great press room? As usual, Google pulls it off by keeping things nice and simple:

http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/index.html

• Blog It!

Once your blog is up and running, turn it

How To Resign Gracefully
Once a new job has been accepted, you need to consider the timing of your resignation. Since two weeks’ notice is considered the norm, make sure your resignation properly coincides with your start date at the new company.Try to avoid an extended start date. Even if your new job begins in 10 weeks, don’t give 10 weeks’ notice; wait eight weeks and then give two weeks’ notice. This way, you’ll protect yourself from disaster; in the unlikely event your new company announces a hiring freeze a month before you come on board. By staying at your old job for only two weeks after you’ve announced your resignation, you won’t be subjected to the envy, scorn, or feelings of professional i

self professional, it’s an absolute necessity.

• Blog It!

Once your blog is up and running, turn it

What You Need to Know About Business Intelligence
Every business wants to be successful. That success always comes from growth. With most businesses, growth comes from customer retention and gaining new customers. “Business Intelligence” can help a company gain new customers and retain old customers. Business intelligence can be abbreviated BI. A formal definition of business intelligence is that it is a process of collecting information in the area of business. In BI, data collected is enhanced into information and then into knowledge. Business Intelligence can give any business an accurate idea of its customers’ needs. Businesses that have large amounts of information about their customers can act upon that information. Businesse

Once your blog is up and running, turn it over to one or two key members of your staff. Have them post news releases - and shorter news updates - to the blog as often as possible. The beauty of this solution is that you get free XML/RSS feeds thrown in via the Blogger engine. If you don’t go for Blogger, be sure to check on XML/RSS feeds before you select a suitable service.

• The Single-Click Press Room

Even if your corporate website is a few pages of plain HTML a friend knocked together as a favour and you’re unwilling to make any drastic changes to it in order to add a press room, you can still provide visitors with a full list of your press releases with the addition of a single link to your main site.

First of all, ensure you’re making full use of one of the free press release distribution services. For the sake of this example I hope nobody objects if I use our own, ClickPress (http://www.clickpress.com).

Enter your company name in quotes as a search term - for example: "Vegetarian Society". Hit search and you will be presented with the results: press releases about or including references to your company. Click on the link below for a live example using "Vegetarian Society":

http://www.clickpress.com/cgi-bin/releases/search.cgi?query=% 22Vegetarian+Society%22

A search for “Your Company” will look something like this:

http://www.clickpress.com/cgi-bin/releases/search.cgi?query=% 22Your +Company%22

Copy that URL (with your own company’s name, of course) and there you have it. Well, almost, you still need to add it to your site. Add a link to the URL, label the link ‘Recent Press Releases’ and every time you add a new press release to the news distribution site it will be included in the dynamic search - you’ve got an automatic, single-click press room.

• Contacts, Contacts, Contacts

Perhaps the most regular criticism made by web-savvy journalists is a lack of media contact info on most corporate sites. If you do nothing else to your site you should add a few lines explaining w

HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.actual4u.com/article/34110/actual4u-The-Press-Pack-Is-Chasing-You--Give-Them-Room.html">The Press Pack Is Chasing You - Give Them Room</a>

BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.actual4u.com/article/34110/actual4u-The-Press-Pack-Is-Chasing-You--Give-Them-Room.html]The Press Pack Is Chasing You - Give Them Room[/url]

Whether it's your business card, tagline, article title, web site title and description or ad, just the difference of a few words can either pull in prospects and clients or push them away. Getting i...

In many companies the HR department and Accounts love to have the salary of an employee deducted on the pay day based on their on-seat attendance time. This one is too harsh and especially for someone who has to sit facing the monitor continuously is a pain in the neck and eyes.

Microsoft has just released what will likely be its last iteration of Windows as we know it. The software juggernaut is maturing and a few of its grey hairs are showing. So, as Microsoft passes through another phase of maturity one has to stop and ask what lasting lessons have we learned.

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