I’m really loving the growth of social media – especially the way it can serve as a watercooler and networking environment for those that work in The Anywhere Office.  One of the downsides of being virtual is losing the connections and social element of working in an office.

I have found Twitter to be a great way to connect with people and in many ways it’s even more powerful than the traditional water cooler as I have connected with people from all over the globe!

Being a work at home dad, entrepreneur, and small business owner it’s hard to find the time in my schedule to get out to networking events. This is another area where social media has really been amazing – I’m able to take a more asynchronous approach to finding and starting conversations with other liked minded people I meet.  I think the key, however, is to then take those conversations to the next step and schedule a real-time phone call, Skype chat, or in person meeting when possible.

Still haven’t taken the social media plunge?  I came across a recent article that helps you get up to speed on the big three:

Here’s a quick 101 on how to best leverage the top three social networking sites — Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. via Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn? Finding the Right Fit for Your Small Business | Small Business Matters.

If you haven’t explored any of these services yet I strongly urge you to do so!  You can connect with me on all three here – Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook.

Twitter is by far my favorite – which is yours? Post your thoughts in the comments below.

It’s no surprise that telecommuting, workshifting, or virtual work - whatever you choose to call it - not only makes smart business sense but can also help you run a more environmentally friendly business.

Whether you are a large corporation, small business, or solo professional there is a lot you can do to lighten your ecological footprint. When you reduce the need to travel and take advantage of technology to collaborate from anywhere you keep tons of carbon emissions from polluting the world.  A shift to printing less and using more digital documents saves untold numbers of trees.

By taking The Anywhere Office® approach you’ll save money, be more productive, and be more green. So this Earth Day make a commitment to make even a small adjustment to the way you work to do your part.

You can start by downloading The Anywhere Office Toolbox – our free eBook contains information and links to technology, services, and other resources we find of benefit to mobile workers, virtual teams and supporting virtual offices and distributed work.

You’ll find tools for gaining remote access to your documents or computer, holding web meetings and conferences, sending and receiving digital faxes, sending video email and holding video conferences, dealing with time-zones, and marketing your business online.

These are all free or affordable solutions with free trials – so there is no excuse!  Incorporate some of these tools today and make your business more green.

Unchain yourself from the office; work where and when you want.

Recently while using my Flip camera to shoot some video for this blog I came across a problem. I was shooting the post about “working outside your office” so I wanted to move around and decided to hold the camera so I could be mobile and not be stuck with the static shot I would get from using my tripod (like I normally do).  There were two issues with this approach:

1. My arms are only so long so I couldn’t hold the camera out far enough to get much of me and the background in the shot
2. The camera shook a lot so the video jumped around a bit

As I always do when looking for the solution to a problem I searched Google and found a solution – the XShot 2.0 camera extender.  This amazing device is only 9″ in length and weighs 5 ozs. when closed but folds out (like an antennae) to 37″ long and can hold a camera up to 1.25 lbs.  It includes a standard tripod mount on the end that swivels up to 180 degrees so you can attach your point and shoot digital camera or your pocket camcorder (like the Flip video), simply extend it and get yourself and others in the shot!  I was jonesing on trying it out so I contacted XShot and they were kind enough to send me one so I could give it a try and review it for you.

Watch this video below where I do a quick demo of how it works:

Ever since I’ve had a digital camera I’ve always done the single-arm stretch to take photos of myself and others without having to ask someone else to take the picture.  These have been some of the best (and fun) photos I’ve taken – but the problem was always how close the camera was and you could only get 2 people in the shot.  Not anymore thanks to the XShot!  It’s solid, extremely light, and at full extension can get several people in the shot as well as the background.  The swiveling camera mount on the end allows you to reach high spots in crowds and concerts, take photos from fun angles and in other places difficult to reach. I’m looking forward to trying some of these situations out and will post more photos and videos to the blog when I do.

The XShot makes it easy to take pictures and videos on the go to post on your blog or social networks and it’s great if you want to do video interviews at trade shows or other events where setting up a tripod is difficult.  Best of all it fits in your pocket or camera bag so it’s a prefect tool for your Anywhere Office! It’s a great tool not only for travelers and photographers but also for bloggers, people involved in social media and entrepreneurs. It sells for $25 and along with my Joby Gorillapod and my Flip Video Camera will now be a permanent part of my mobile video setup.

For more info visit the XShot’s website.  Check out their Gallery and Video pages to see some great examples of all the different creative ways people have used it – including video while skiing and paragliding!

I love a creative solution to a problem and XShot has certainly come up with one. Post a comment below and let me know what you think . . .

Let’s face it you can’t read an article anywhere these days without someone mentioning social media, social networking, Twitter, YouTube, or Facebook. These tools not only affect the way we connect to each other as people but also how we share information and communicate.

Businesses of all size have now adopted the use of social media from large corporations and small businesses to solo-preneurs and freelancers.  Much in the way desktop publishing and blogs put the power to spread information in the hands of the masses – social media has provided unprecedented ways for us to connect and network with one another. Check out this eye-opening video I found on YouTube that shares some amazing stats about the social media revolution.

One of the common myths we often dispel with virtual teamwork is that using technology makes relationships less personal and you can’t build trust or get to know people who you rarely or never see.  I don’t agree – using these tools like Twitter and Facebook allows you to connect (or re-connect) with people, stay in touch, and get to know each other.

I’m amazed at some of the amazing people I’ve met through Twitter.  Through a simple series of short message I get insight into their thoughts, views, work, and life.  By the time we talk on the phone, via Skype, or meet in person I feel like I know them already and our conversations are richer for it. Without geographical boundaries I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and collaborating with people from the UK, Finland, India, and all across the US. You can now work and make friends with people all across the globe – what a powerful and freeing experience that is!

If one understands the way social networks can deliver value, they have the opportunity to do more for themselves than ever before. What used to be a fairly linear world, one with ladders to climb rank, and lines to wait in for limited resources, are now built of vast and flexible networks, some loose and some rigid. Our social networks, both the old-fashioned type in real life, as well as the new constructs created by social software, give us the ability to do amazing things for ourselves and for others.

- Chris Brogan, Author of Trust Agents and Social Media Expert

Social networking has changed the playing field of business and you can’t afford to sit on the sidelines. If you haven’t jumped into the social networking fray – what are you waiting for? You don’t have to use them all but pick one and give it a try.  This is no fad – although different services may come and go over time there’s no denying the point this video makes so clearly – it’s a new world and this is the way people meet and connect today. Whether you’re a person with a thirst for community and want to build your tribe or you’re looking to increase brand exposure and connect with potential customers, social networking knows no boundaries!

About once a month follow the links below and submit the URLs for your Websites. Manually submitting your site to the major search engines will cause your site to be re-indexed so that new text and information will be recognized and cataloged. Although most major search engines have ‘robots’ or ‘spiders’ that roam the web cataloging sites, the frequency with which they visit your site is based on many factors: how established it is, how often it is updated, how many pertinent incoming links you have, etc…

It is significant to note that there are many search utilities on the web that are ‘powered’ by one of the major search engines, and are therefore essentially extensions of those engines. This means if you are registered with the main engine, you will likely also be included in the additional directories it is powering.

To learn more than you ever wanted to know about Search Engine Optimization and Search Marketing consult Search Engine Marketing 101 by the good people at Search Engine Watch.

The 7 best FREE Places to Submit your Website for Increased Traffic

1. Google (also powers AOL Search & Netscape Search) – The King of Search Engines, the 600 Lbs. Gorilla, Google has the largest market share of U.S. based web searches at 67% of all searches as of April 2008. Google’s stated mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Google is now widely recognized as the world’s largest search engine — an easy-to-use free service that usually returns relevant results in a fraction of a second.
Free Submit: http://www.google.com/addurl/

2. Yahoo! Search (also powers AltaVista & Alltheweb) – The #2 seed with a market share of 20%. The stated goal of Yahoo! Search is to discover and index all of the content available on the web to provide the best possible search experience to users. The Yahoo! Search index, which contains several billion web pages, is more than 99% populated through the free crawl process.
Free Submit: http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit

3. MSN Live Search –Microsoft Network’s search tool is third with a market share of 7%. Everyone knows Microsoft, and as hosts of msn.com and Hotmail it is understandable that MSN Live Search would place in the top 3 practically by default.
Free Submit: http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx

4. Ask – Powered by Teoma: the first major search technology based upon the clustering concept of subject-specific popularity. The Teoma algorithm, now known as ExpertRank, claims to go beyond mere link popularity to determine popularity among pages considered to be experts on the topic of your search.
FAQs: http://about.ask.com/en/docs/about/webmasters.shtml#18

5. Gigablast – In 2006 Gigablast began to focus on providing search services to businesses. A “re-launch” in 2008 aims to bring high-quality, highly-relevant search engine functionality to individual search users.
Free Submit: http://www.gigablast.com/addurl

6. Exact Seek - ExactSeek is an internet search engine and directory that also powers 6 other web search engines (Aesop.com, OnSeek.com, MaxPromo.com, Best-SearchEngine.com, SitesOnDisplay.com and MetaWebSearch.com).
Free Submit: http://www.exactseek.com/add.html

7. Entire Web - When you submit your site to Entireweb it gets listed throughout their partner network of more than 20 search engines.
Free Submit: http://www.entireweb.com/free_submission/

Also visit Do-It-Yourself SEO: A Beginner’s Checklist for a great introduction to Search Engine Optimitization published in EntireWeb.com’s newsletter in April, 2008.

This episode is a change of pace; rather than a segment from last week’s radio show, this is lesson one of a 6 part eClass that we offer on internet marketing through our smallbizemarketing.com site. We discuss some fundamentals of successful eMarketing. In a few weeks we will be dedicating a number of full radio shows to how small businesses, entrepreneurs, and solo professionals can utilize the concept of The Anywhere Office. Some of the strategies and technologies introduced in this podcast will be examined in detail during those shows.

Visit www.TheAnywhereOffice.com and sign up for updates to learn more about this special series. While you are there be sure to visit our blog and post comments and feedback as well.

TAO Podcast Theme Music – Begin by Andy Simon

eClass Music Bed – Walking Along Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

This episode contains the opening segment from last week’s radio show. We discuss the rise of multimedia and the various ways businesses can use audio and video as a marketing tool, for after sales support, and to create information products for sale.

Visit www.TheAnywhereOffice.com and click archives to listen to the complete show. While you are there be sure to visit our blog and post comments and feedback as well.

TAO Podcast Theme Music – Begin by Andy Simon

This week we took a look at different ways multimedia can be used for entertainment and for marketing your business. Thanks to Israel Hyman for joining us as our guests on the show.

If you missed the show you can listen in below or download the MP3 file.

Show # 5: Beyond Text – The rise of multimedia on the web

With more people accessing the internet on a hi-speed connection websites featuring audio, video, and other multimedia content have begun to gain popularity. Phil & Jason discuss some of the uses and applications for multimedia. They will be joined by guest Israel Hyman, founder of the Glimpster Video Podcast Network and creator of the popular Izzy Video Podcast.

Here’s what we covered:

• The Rise and Uses of Multimedia: We looked at how multimedia on the web has developed over time and its different uses.
  
• Product/Service Spotlight: Audio Generator and Instant Video Generator are easy affordable ways to put audio and video on your site. Visit our DIY page for more information about these services and other internet marketing tools we recommend for small businesses.
• Tech Talk: More people are watching home made video online. Here are some sites where you can check out this latest video explosion and post your own videos.
  • Google Video
  • YouTube
  • Yahoo Video
  • iFilm
• Our Guest: Israel Hyman, Founder of the Glimpster Video Podcast Network and Host of the very popular Izzy Video podcast.

• Other Resources (including some of our favorite online entertainment sites):

• • The Internet Archive – Over 39,000 movies, 37,000 live concerts, and 90,000 audio recordings all for your listening and viewing pleasure – FREE!
  • Ask a Ninja – You got questions, Ninja got answers! Trust me these are like potato chips – you can’t watch just one.
  • Homestar Runner – Our favorite is Strong Bad’s Email
  • What is a podcast you ask? We mentioned Podcasts a lot on this show. This page offers a brief, clear description.

To listen to the show you can use the flash player below or download the MP3 file. Use the PLAY IN POPUP link below if you want to use our flash player and roam the web while listening.

Singer who reached an audience of 70,000 through web casts signs with RCA/Sony BMG

This is a great, crazy story about an artist using technology creatively. Sandi Thom says her band was “too poor to tour,” so they performed a 21-day ‘world tour’ from her basement.