FreeMind is a Free mind mapping application available for Windows and Mac. With FreeMind, you can create foldable trees of plain text notes, images and hyperlinks. Then make it look pretty with colors, icons, cloud-shapes, and other graphics.
FreeMind is needs a little practice, and after reading the instructions, it becomes a very powerful piece of software.
FreeMind, and mind-mapping in general, is useful to organise your mind. It helps to bring structure to a huge variety of problems, such as planning documents, presentations, projects, discussing with people, and keeping track of to-dos. FreeMind is a great planning tool for business owners, managers, entrepreneurs, and writers. But regardless of occupation, it is valuable for anyone who want to manage themselves systematically and take advantage of the write-everything-down approach in their daily lives.
People use FreeMind for note taking, knowledge base creation, brainstorming, collecting information on a given topic, and project management. It is a good workplace for internet research and planning procedures manuals. FreeMind keeps track of projects, including subtasks, state of subtasks.
With the rise of social networking, more people are using it as a platform to obtain exposure as well as a way to broaden professional circle and social impact. With thousands of users visiting social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace on a daily basis, there are opportunities for you to break through to millions of people around the world. Anyone can gain access to your message, product or event all in a single moment.
While belonging to the social networking group does not mean that professionals or organizations will have an easier chance of finding jobs or platforms, it certainly helps promote causes and contacts that might be able to assist with a wide wealth of resources at some point in the future, depending on content, intent and even career paths. Since popular social network websites obtain millions visitors per month, companies, non-profits and charities are beginning to market to a variety of demographic users logging on to these sites.
Not all social network sites have thousands of users. Networks may also consist of smaller, specially designed sites created primarily to help users gain professional connections or contacts. For example, Linkedln is a professional networking site that promotes professional contacts, resumes and skills, as well as employment opportunities. Navigating through social networking sites such as this one allows users who are members to make professional connections. Networking has become important in most professional arenas, since companies now commonly search through these professional sites in order to find potential employees.
Many social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace or Linkedln allow users to search the database of other members in order to find people with similar interests, skills or talents, all by simply using search tools designed by the site. Some social networking websites even allow members to ask or answer career- related questions that help companies become more familiar with them or vice versa. Since these social networks are free, utilizing them is a huge advantage when looking for a job or seeking the perfect professional to join your organisation.
Not every social network has been successful. Fiendster, one of the first large-scale social networking sites, failed to catch on and soon became overrun by other sites such as MySpace and Facebook. While Facebook was primarily intended to attract college students, anyone was able to join the site in 2006. With its user-friendly applications, Facebook now sees millions of new users joining each month.
While certain social networking websites have different features or directions, users are continually putting a more professional twist on content and goals. Whether social networking is used as a career enhancer. To attract attention to a non-profit or charity organization or just make a few new friends, it has certainly allowed for open communication around the world. Finding old friends or staying connected to the ones users already have was a major desire during the beginning of social networking. In the future, sites such as Facebook and MySpace are expected to cater to professionals and the relationships they can build, resulting in important aspects of business and organization tools.
Brendan Byrne (www.receptive.com.au) is an internet marketing consultant. Brendan runs workshops on how to manage your online business and effectively market yourself.
Social networking is great for business for many reasons. Until recently, many site owners forgot one of the main rules for selling – People buy from People. In almost every business, it is all about the relationship the customer has with a shop, a sales assistant or a product that makes me want to buy. The internet and social networks make it easy to find people and information. Understand the relationships and communication patterns and you can experience real world results.
Advantages to Social Networking:
1. Social networks build better customer/company relationships. This comes from the idea that we will listen to a friend-of-a-friend long after we would hang up on a telemarketer. The message still needs to be appropriate, and the tone needs to match the connection.
2. Social networks build a sense of community; Staff morale and camaraderie are valuable commodities; motivated staff may work harder and be more productive. Social networks help bridge any physical gaps between staff in an organisation.
3. Social networks increase opportunities; for example keeping past employees in contact with your business can create new relationships to sell to their new employer.
4. Social networks help to share knowledge; both internal and external information is found more easily with social networks. Finding information, and the people who have it, is one of the primary advantages to social networks.
5. Social networking lowers recruiting costs; Encouraging staff to use their social networks, and link them with your corporate presence can help employee satisfaction levels which in turn may reduce staff turnover, and assist with recruiting.
Considerations before social networking:
1. Social networking is very time intensive: having simple goals and clear boundaries will help to ensure there is value to be gained, with fewer ramifications.
2. Control freaks beware. You will need to carefully consider the current trust levels before giving staff the opportunity to speak on behalf of your company. This may mean a big shift in your corporate culture.
3. Opening the communication within your business may place strains on the usual decision hierarchy within some businesses.
Brendan Byrne is heading to Brisbane with Ian Marsh to present a 2 hour seminar on how to build a business website.
In under 2 hours you will watch as we create a fully functioning business web site. After this event you will be able to walk out and make your own online business. You will need to register as soon as you can, as there are only 40 seats available and over 200 people interested in coming. I look forward to seeing you there.
Tuesday 7th October, Broncos Leagues Club
There is no cost for attending, however a $20- donation will be collected at the door for the Starlight Foundation.
This exciting new top-level domain is available for individuals and companies in the Asia-Pacific Region including Australia and New Zealand. (Full List available here)
Receptive Technologies is ready to accept registrations!
.ASIA is ideal for businesses who have an Asian focus to their business. For example, www.manufacturing.asia might be a great domain.
It seems interest in this new domain extension is higher than ever before. The .ASIA registry has now accepted over 300,000 applications for .ASIA domain names, with over 260,000 applications received on the first day!
Google Maps. have you used them yet? http://maps.google.com.au/ Type in your company name and see what you find. You may be horibbly suprised (like I was) that they are listing a address you left 4 years ago. I read that they are using True local as a start to their business listings, so I guess you can't expect too much in the way of acurate information. But I digress, In my opinion, Google Maps are leaps and bounds ahead of the others available for Sydney. Not only do the do a fast and excellent job of finding your search term, it can give directions, pin-point businesses, and link back to the businesses too. Particulary if you have a retail based business I highly recommend adding your details.
How do I do that! I hear you ask.
Visit the Google "Local business center" log in or create an account, then add your business. The details are fantastic! What's more, you can add details about business like what you do, who you serve, when your open and load images.
You can also display your map on your website. I'll create a couple of quick videos to show you how this is all done, and update this post soon.
Well this could be interesting. Skype.com have just added a service called Skype Prime. This service is detailed on their site as:
"With Skype Prime ™ Beta you can share your skills by setting yourself up as a call provider offering services to other Skype users - and earn money in the process. You can use it to offer all sorts of advice, from teaching others about the rules of football to giving a one-to-one cookery class over a video call.
Alternatively, if there’s something you want to learn about or get advice on, look for users who have set up a service and call them to find out more. " www.skype.com/products/skypeprime
Business Catalyst Advice
Help and suggestions for using and growing your businesscatalyst.com hosted website.
Skype Prime was started in Mid-April, but was only intgrated into the Skype application early May 2007. At the moment there is no directory of services
So being a bit of a geek and full of my own importance, I thought "I know stuff!" People could ask me about lots of web related things. So I signed up and should be able to charge for my knowledge now! so when I make my first sale to a random stranger I'll tell you more then. It can't be much different to the usual consultations...
And another idea, new Business Catalyst resellers and partners can ask me about how they can make the most from Business Catalyst!
