If you must use PowerPoint – then at least make it count. Here are some great resources and suggestions to make your presentations better. Use these tips to be unique in your organisation, challenge the corporate standards and ensure you leave a footprint:
What are you doing to make your presentations awesome?
To make your site absolutely the best it can be, you need to have a great search facility to allow your visitors to drill down to the content they need. Now you can add a Bing search box to your site (just like the one over to the right).
Bing is the search engine from Microsoft, and it just keeps getting better and better, crisp results, cool features and a high pace of development makes it a growing choice amongst web users.
To install a Bing search box is really easy – there are only 4 steps to search perfection:
- Visit Bing Box – part of the services provided by Bing – and click ‘get started’ on the advanced search box option.
- Enter your site details and the URL of the site(s) you want search – it can be up to 10 – then click ‘next’.
- Edit the language and dimensions of the search results – the click ‘next’ – you may need to tinker with the width of the search box, and any colour requirements you have to blend in with the theme of your site.
- Copy the code snippet to where you want the search box to appear – I used a WordPress text widget which allowed me to paste the code internally and edit the title – so the search box now sits in the sidebar of my blog.
A very cool and tidy integration – and lets your readers get the maximum out of your site.
How else should site owners be pimping their web pages?
Everyone is facing into the challenges of the new economy – and we could all use some sage advice. Luckily there is lots to be found in ‘Defiant!’ – a fantastic e-book packed with great strategies and simple suggestions for dealing with tough times.
Written by Rajesh Setty (subscribe now – I’ll wait while you do), and featuring tips from some of the most inspirational writers around, including Seth Godin and Phil Gerbyshak.
I enjoyed every page of this e-book – and found some great suggestions, you can download ‘Defiant!’ for free by clicking here. Add it to your reading list today.
What other great resources have you found?
So, were you entranced by the announcements from Apple? Or you are anticipating the release of the Zune HD? Or maybe you just need to refresh your listening on the morning commute? These 5 sites are my recommendations to find new music to listen to:
- Last.FM – my favourite music recommendation site, you gather up information about what you are listening to (called scrobbling) and then the last.fm site recommends new music that you might like. You can also browse what other people are listening to and recommending and listen to customised radio streams – and much more. If you use last.fm – you can add me to your circle of friends (my profile is here).
- Rcrdlbl.com – completely web based music label, great for finding new music from around the globe. A great source for some cool dance remixes and European oddities.
- The Hype Machine – aggregates reviews from hundres of music blogs across the web, and provides an alternative ‘lens’ on music reviews.
- Stereogum – since 2002, a premier source for indie and alternative music news and MP3’s – new music, video clips and information about concerts and tours.
- DJ Bynar – Indie music blog and podcast, which is amazing source of new music tips, at the very least you should be subscribing to the podcast.
Where do you find new music to listen to?
A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks
I picked this up on the way through Terminal 5 on Monday, to at least kill some time on the 9 hours to Seattle. Little did I know that by the time I landed, I’d be 3/4 of the way through.
Telling the story of 7 main characters over the week before Christmas in 2007, Sebastian Faulks weaves a marvellous tale that exposes the massive differences between people that live close together in West London.
Faulks writes with unerring precision (inspirational), and develops characters into completely plausible and believable people that your can really engage with. The whole thing rattles along very nicely until the inevitable, but still surprising climax.
A great read – why not add it to your next Amazon order – click here.
By: mattr
Category: books
They say that ‘Hell is other People’, and at no time is that more true than when you spend 9 hours on a plane. Here are some of my tips that might make that trip bearable.
- Smile & talk to the people around you – you might make a great contact
- Make sure the Zune or Ipod is fully charged
- Bring a great book – good fiction can eat the hours away (more on that one to come!)
- Be polite to the cabin crew – it will pay dividends
- Charge those batteries – laptop/DVD/MP3 – you want your toys!
- Bring a big bottle of water
- Bring something to take notes – great ideas happen in the air
- Don’t dismiss the movies – there is always something you haven’t seen
- Smile – it will be over soon, and you’ll be in a new exciting place, meeting people that you enjoy being with
What are your tips for making flights more bearable?
Westfield in West London, has everything that might be expected from a modern day shopping centre, some of it good, some of it bad, but if you must go to a giant mall, you may as well make it a good one.
There are 25o plus shops (some of them are even different to the ones in other shopping centres), some decent eateries, and tall ceilings with loads of natural light. This a pretty good place to get your retail muscles going, but there is one great feature that takes a lot of the pain out of shopping at Westfield.
The signalling system in the car park is awesome, each row has electronic signs telling you that it is full, or there are spaces (snapped with my phone camera above). Then, each individual space has a green or red LED so you can find the vacant spot from a distance. It may only be a car park, but for those of us that have trouble with the public transport links from where we are, it takes the stress out of a day trip there.
I’m fairly confident that even when it is busy, you’d be able to find a space amongst the 4500 bays, quickly and with no fuss. It is the little touches that improve the experience, and leave a strong reason to return.
What small touches make your customers loyal?
I’ve invested some time in reading some highly recommended business/excellence books recently, and whilst I don’t suggest that you go away and read all of these, just one of the following 3 in your next Amazon order will reap maximum benefits.
Why not add some of these to your Sunday morning reading list?
In the interests of balance, here is a great example of how customer service should not be done. I recently spent time in PC World trying to buy a computer for my Mum. Due to three thoughtless interactions – they lost the sale, to a rival across the street.
- Firstly – we browsed the aisles looking at laptops, not too expensive, not too small, not too complex. It’s easy to find what you want at PC World, loads of choice. However, not one of the staff came up to try and serve us, and we ended up waving at passing staff trying to get someone to help. 10 minutes passed.
- Secondly – after choosing a laptop and finding a team member, we were told that the laptop was “out of stock, nearest one is 50 miles away”. No apology, no offering to order, no suggestion to order online, no hint of further information. I would even have preferred an ‘Out of Stock’ sign on the information card to help.
- Finally – after being told it was out of stock, our sales rep just stood still and looked at us. No trying to cross-sell or up sell us to a better or alternative model, no hunger, no desire and no service. And no sale.
We left, walked across the street, and found another laptop, lower price and with keen, eager service. They made a double sale, as we walked out with a new HD television in addition to our shiny new PC.
So it comes us very little surprise to see that our chosen retailer has been voted ‘the worst for computer advice’, and their staff are demoralised enough to post attacks on their customers on social networking sites. I feel sorry for the staff really, their management clearly have no idea beyond buying boxes and flogging boxes.
I’ve made my choice now – never again.
How are you enabling your staff to give great customer service?
Don’t just take my word for it, here are 7 albums that you really should be listening to right now:
All the links go to Amazon – you can check out the CD or MP3 release for each.
- 52 great ways to think like a top MBA student, bite size and easily digestible – but full of great thought leadership.
- An oldie but a classic, you can read this in 60 minutes – and it will last a lifetime.
- So much of our time is spent in presentations, why not try and make yourself excellent at them. Helps you break the PowerPoint shackles.
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