It was not to long ago that people were debating over whether you had to be on the internet, had to
use e-mail or had to use computers. Today the debate is not whether you use technology, it is how do you best use technology.
In other words, if your clients e-mail you, you have no choice you had better learn how to get and respond to that e-mail.
If the vast majority of home buyers first look to the internet to find a home, you had better have an internet presence.
But knowing that you need to use technology and using it effectively are two different animals.
The
Technology Corner is intended to be a resource for small businesses to address their technology needs. What computer,
printer or scanner should you buy? Should you buy a PDA and, if so, which one? How do I get all of my technology
to sync together (i.e., talk to each other)? What software is out there that would make your life easier?
I have asked our "Computer Hero", William (Bill) MacLennan, to provide some practical tips about technology
for the person on their own, for a team or for a company. Bill has been a great resource for Nash & Lodge, keeping
our systems running, trouble-shooting helping us make wise technology purchases at an extremely fair price. Oh yea,
he also can speak every day English for those of use who are not computer savvy. Like you, our business cannot afford
to be shut down because of a hardware failure or because our software isn't compatible with each other.
Cool Software
Gwabbit
This software captures contact information from e-mails that you recieve and with one click you can
create an Outlook contact. For those of you who are building up e-mail lists, this is a great time saver.
Xobni
This software works with Outlook so that when you receive an e-mail it will show you their contact information,
it will show you how often you e-mail with this person, will show you a history of your e-mails with this person and the files
exchanged, will show if they are on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social interent networks and a picture of the person from
your files or their social network sites. When you have over 4000 contacts it is impossible to remember each person
but when an e-mail comes in I can see what company they are with, often a picture of them and I can cliclk
into their social networks to find out more information about them. It's kind of like a
microwave, at first I didn't see the need for it but once I got one I wondered how I lived without it. The price for Xobni is just right -free!
Constant Contact
This software is a simple to use program to sen out group e-mails/newsletters/announcements. Nash
& Lodge uses Constant Contact to send out a monthly e-mail to over 4000 real estate professionals. You can upload
your contacts from Outlook, you can pick, chose who you send the e-mail to and you can link it to your website. We physically
could not send out 4000 e-mails at one time without this program.
