twelveoaksgroup.net » Tech

Making Video Conferencing Work For You

Elizabeth — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 19:19:35 +0000

Video Conferencing has a long history that dates back to the 1960’s when ATT released the first picture phone at the New York World’s Fair. Today video conferencing has asserted its place in business, saving big and small companies time and money. Turning to video chat has become somewhat common place to help cut costs on travel expenses, employee reimbursement expenses, job interviews, and collaboration efforts.

The best part about it? It’s accessible to anyone. Brett Bajcsi an IT Operations Manager is quoted in an InformationWeek article saying, “Start Small”. He says, “Keep your scope small to begin with, understand how it’s implemented and how it’s going to work, and then expand from there”. Charted below are reviews taken from pcmag.com. For a more in depth analysis of these, click here.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth McPhail grew up learning about the trials, tribulations, and perks of small family-owned business. She creates and maintains websites and blogs, and in her spare time can be found on the water boating!

Realizing 3D Potential for Your Business

Elizabeth — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 02:39:27 +0000

When I hear the term 3D animation, the first thing that pops into my head is of course the Pixar movie Toy Story. Until digging a little deeper, it never occurred to me that the same technology that’s used to create Buzz Lightyear, is easily applied to the business world as an effective means of marketing companies and products.

3D design can dramatize boring info and data

~ Chris Blaylock

Chris Blaylock of Chris Blaylock 3D Designs sheds a little insight on how all this technology can positively impact your business. Let us start with the basics…first up, “3D design can dramatize boring info and data”, says Blaylock.

He explains, and it kind of goes without saying, that 3D animation can make anything look cutting edge and state of the art, which in turn will effectively capture the attention of viewers and introduce a novelty that is almost impossible to duplicate with live-shot video. Blaylock’s portfolio displays video intros, company logos, and products –all of which offer his clients an opportunity to convey their message with increased professionalism. 3D animation doesn’t just add to a company’s image, in some cases it offers businesses practical alternatives to explaining product. It can give the viewer a better understanding of how something works without the setup or take down, and can sometimes offer clearer images than live-shot video.

Investing in quality 3D animation does not come cheap, but the payoff can be BIG. Blaylock says “an animator will charge around $50-$75 per second of animation. One second equals roughly one hour of work”. Though, in some cases, the designer will quote a flat price after evaluating the overall scale of the project.

Chris Blaylock is a 3D Designer and Animator in Nashville, Tennessee.

Do the math and you’re looking at a $2,000 investment for 30 seconds of animation. More often than not the investment is well worth it; especially if your business depends on a clear and concise way of explaining product. In addition, the animation may be something you can use in a variety of settings, like your website’s homepage, Youtube, Facebook, tradeshows, meetings, etc.

While the connections between 3D animation and marketing may seem pretty straight forward, they can easily be overlooked. It wasn’t until I starting thinking about 3D design that I noticed exactly how much of it exists in the business world. So let this be a reminder that 3D animation is accessible to all of us, and making it work for your business could be well worth the investment.

Elizabeth

Doodle Takes the Headache Out of Scheduling

Elizabeth — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 12:55:33 +0000

Scheduling a group event while being respectful of people’s prior engagements is a tricky undertaking. It often results in an endless email chain that yields verbosely unclear answers. Well, I’ve got good news; your email skimming and sifting days are over! Meet Doodle.

Doodle helps you figure out the best time to schedule meetings and events by sending participants a number of dates that have been pre-selected by you the organizer. The participant then has an opportunity to approve each date and time. As responses trickle in, Doodle compiles an easy-to-read table showing everyone the logical date and time, which is later confirmed by the organizer. In addition, Doodle is mindful of the “wordier” participant and kindly offers space to write a note to the group.

Next time you’re ready to schedule your staff meeting or networking event, give Doodle a shot. The Twelve Oaks team members are avid supporters!

Elizabeth

Social Media Education: 21st century perks and 21st century risks

Elizabeth — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 12:50:58 +0000

It’s true that more and more private information is being used and shared via the internet, and small businesses are no exception to the trend. Marshable Business offers up four tips to protect your small biz against cyber attacks: smart passwords, mobile devise education, risk management and perhaps the trickiest of them all, social media education

Cyber security expert Rick Doten tells Marshable,

“…companies should allow employees to post online about the company in a positive light, but cautions that employees who use social media too carelessly can give away sensitive details about a firm’s internal business.”

“If I see someone tweeting about a conference in Omaha, I can guess what’s happening there. Social media’s great from a competitive counter-intelligence point of view. I can learn a lot [by] following tweets.”

- 4 Tips to Protect Your Small Business Against Cyberattacks

Twelve Oaks Group realizes that not every company is at extreme risk of sharing counter-intel information via Facebook or Twitter, but it is important to think about what kind of company information is being represented on the internet. Companies that don’t have a Facebook and Twitter account still need to take into consideration how an employee might be representing their business online. In some cases, business that do not have a social media account will find that their business is listed on Facebook and may even have a few “likes”, but the rest of the pages are completely empty. While this does not necessarily pose as a counter-intel threat, it doesn’t help your business put its best foot forward either. Or perhaps you’ve got a product or service on the market that’s loved by customers –loved so much that one of those customers created an unofficial business page for you. Again, not necessarily a counter-intel threat, but it does pose a risk.

If used correctly, Facebook is a very effective tool in helping you connect with current and potential customers. Interested in getting your business on Facebook? Contact Twelve Oaks Group! We can help your business master the perks of Facebook –one of the best values in online advertising anywhere.

Elizabeth

Inbox Efficiency: Gmail Tips & Tricks

Elizabeth — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 12:50:33 +0000

You know the feeling: The number next to your inbox has ticked upwards –surely that reply email you’ve been waiting for has finally come in– but alas you’re left to sort through deals of the day, newsletters from a site you visited two years ago, and yet another only mildly-funny email from a relative. Managing your inbox can be a daunting task to say the least, and at the end of the day, most of us resort to the search box. Mashable Tech offers us a glimmer of hope with a very promising title, How to Filter Your Gmail Like a Pro.

The article offers several helpful hints for getting and maintaining control over your inbox, but perhaps one of the most unknown hints lies within “The Power of the Plus Sign”.

“Say you want to sign up for a social network or need to register your email address to receive a coupon, but you don’t want to receive associated emails or notifications from those sites. Add a plus sign to your email and those messages will skip your inbox altogether.”

-How To Filter Your Gmail Like a Pro

Adding the plus sign and a keyword serves as a sorting mechanism once you’ve set up your Gmail filter tool, e.g. “love.12oaks@gmail.com”, becomes “love.12oaks+shipping.confirmation@gmail.com”. The mail will still make it to you, but will be filtered to its designated spot, allowing you to find it easily if necessary and avoid the hassle of manually managing it yourself.

Efficiency is the name of the game! To see other ways Twelve Oaks Group can help you run your business more efficiently, check out our Web Services page.

Elizabeth

Accept Credit Cards Today: Square

Nathan — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 04:51:17 +0000

Until recently, it was almost impossible for small businesses to accept credit cards without paying a monthly fee, setting up a “merchant account”, and investing in an expensive credit card terminal.

A relatively new solution is Square.

Small and home based businesses are crippling themselves without the ability the accept credit cards. I know I don’t carry any cash and keep my check book in a drawer at the house. I pay for almost everything with my check card.

Until recently, it was almost impossible for small businesses to accept credit cards without paying a monthly fee, setting up a “merchant account”, and investing in an expensive credit card terminal.

A relatively new solution is Square.

Square works with iPhones and Android!

So long as you have an iPhone or an Android handset, all you do is create an account, download an app, and you’re on the way to taking on-site payments!

The good folks at Square will send you a card reader that connects to your handset. When you make a sale, simply enter the amount, swipe the card, and ask your customer to sign on the dotted line (with his or her finger!). You receive a payment confirmation, the customer receives a receipt via e-mail or text message. The next day, the funds are deposited in your account. Simple!

Square charges a very competitive transaction fee of 2.75%

Does your small business accept credit card payments? How much business are you turning away by not accepting credit cards?

Nathan

Nathan Reed is a spastic online entrepreneur. Since 1997, Nathan has developed online solutions for non-profits, small business, and local governments. Nathan is the owner and founder of the Twelve Oaks Group.

The Apps We Use

Nathan — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:54:41 +0000

Twelve Oaks is a completely “online” company, so web-enabled tools and apps are absolutely necessary.

Some of the apps and services we use include…

Trello

Project Management

Trello is a super simple project management app that’s absolutely free. I imagine it like a series of index cards on a cork board with the project / task name on the front and details on the back. I can quickly look over the the board and see where projects stand. E-mail notifications, due dates, etc are all included.

Blinksale

Billing

Blinksale is an awesome and easy online billing solution.

It was important to me to choose a billing solution that all of our team members could access (without having to pay for each user), could send e-mail invoices, would accept online payments, and was affordable. Blinksale is absolutely beautiful and amazingly affordable. If you receive an invoice from Twelve Oaks, it came from Blinksale.

It’s great for small businesses that want to bill online, but customers can also print their invoices (a PDF is attached to all invoices) and mail in payments.

Highrise

Customer, Lead, & Deal Management

I didn't want to pay, but Highrise is amazing and I really recommend it!

I resisted actually *paying* for Customer Management, but with our team spread out over a large area, it’s essential to have everyone on the same page while we market and work deals. Highrise is super easy to use, includes all the data about a deal, and allows task assignment, emailing, file management, and a host of other features.

It’s because of Highrise that any of our account managers or customer service team can be up to speed on your account or project almost immediately.

myBalsamiq

Website “Wireframes” and Mockups

You probably won't need this for your business, but it's really handy for online designers!

This isn’t something most small businesses will need, but it’s one of my favorite tools. When you begin the design process with Twelve Oaks, we talk with you about your goals for your website. A designer takes those goals and your vision and creates in myBalsamiq a rough “wire frame” or draft of how we think your website might look. This allows us to work on spacing, placement, and general design. You’ll get a copy of the wire frame to approve.