The advice I would give to someone who is considering using AscendWorks. If your afraid of work then don't bother. If your looking for a shortcut or a short answer then don't waste their time. They are professional. If you are passionate and you believe you have an answer and you want to share that answer with the rest of the world, you'd' be hard pressed to find anyone better than AscendWorks. I can assure you that." contact="Chad Brooks" position="President - CEO" video_number="806130"] [/video_testimonial]

We don’t want to be sold.  It’s easy to block all the unwelcome old school techniques.  If you continue to interrupt, then your brand will be damaged.  The opportunity is lost.

However, every day, I am buying.  I am looking for solutions to problems I have today.  Are you able to be found?  If I can find you because you connect with my pain, then I’ll click.

Clicks To Sales

After the click, I am not going to buy immediately.  You may want it to happen, but it’s a low probability.  I am going to be looking for knowledge to see if I have my problem framed correctly.

So, the question is whether you can educate me and help me feel empowered.  This will help me to be an intelligible buyer that grows confidence and trust to engage with you.

If your brand and your systems allow me the freedom to self-service while I am buying, then as trust is built, I will take the step to connect for your full-service selling.  It will be on my time, my readiness and my initiative.  I am the buyer.  Sellers beware.

If you could not interrupt people, how would you propose to sell?

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Step 1: Build the Form

Here we are building a very basic form. The fields we are capturing are:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Radio (1,2,3)
• Dropdown (1,2,3)

[sws_button class="" size="sws_btn_small" align="sws_btn_align_left" href="http://chopapp.com/#c63m4w46" target="_blank" label="HERE IS THE FULL CODE FOR OUR FORM" template="sws_btn_azure" textcolor="" bgcolor="" bgcolorhover="" glow="sws_btn_glow_sunset"] [/sws_button]

[sws_divider_line]

[sws_grey_box box_size="670"]This tutorial assumes you know how to properly map First and Last Name. [/sws_grey_box]

First lets tackle the Radio Buttons:

You need to have 3 key ingredients set up for each radio “input”.

• id – The id of each radio choice should represent the label.
• name – The name should be the same for each selection
• value- The value should represent what you want to populate in LF.

Let’s look at the code for our sample form.

As you can see, each radio “input” has an id, name and value that when brought into LF will populate one field based on the customers selection.

Let’s move on to the Dropdown Menus

Dropdowns behave a little differently so we need to adjust our ingredients.

When you build dropdowns you’re actually making a “selection” based on “options” which is different than providing “inputs” like we did in the radio buttons.

We still need id, name, and value just not in the same places as in the radios. Let’s take a look.

That’s about it for the form. Now let’s move into Loopfuse and see what we need to do there.

Step 2: Mapping in Loopfuse

In this step we are assuming you know how to set a form capture up in Loopfuse.  When you’ve set up your form you will be directed to the Mapping page (Administration > CRM Integration > Loopfuse Fields) .

[sws_blue_box box_size="670"] WINNING TIP Loopfuse basically grabs anything it might consider to be a form field and throws it into the mix. This tends to be a little sloppy, so we recommend that you skip this section and go in and remove all the fields and manually re-enter them. This only works well on smaller forms. If you have a lot of fields on your form, this will likely not be worth the time. Entering them manually gives you the opportunity to place the fields in an order you want them to show up when viewing the spreadsheet. [/sws_blue_box]

Let’s say you just want to map them. Here is what that would look like:

[sws_red_box box_size="670"]You should notice that “Constant” is checked on both “radiobuttons” and “dropdowns”. [/sws_red_box]

This is all there is to it. They are now mapped.

Now let’s test the form.

Our Form

Success!

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Now collaborate with your Google Docs on your mobile device.  You can even upload pictures of documents and convert them to OCR.

To achieve a larger view click the “Full Screen View” in the upper right hand corner of video screen.

Contact Sharing

Contact sharing is a feature within Google Apps that enhances sharing and collaboration capabilities within an organization’s domain by utilizing the Google Apps directory – a search-able list of users in your domain that can be shared with everyone in your company.

Contact sharing within your domain gives your team members several abilities with internal contacts:

1. Auto-completes the address for team members within your domain when composing a message.
2. Gives your team members the ability to search for each other in the domain.
3. Allows the Google Apps Directory to catalogue team members’ user names and email addresses.

Shared Contacts API – Sharing External Contacts

Google Apps APIs allows you to create custom applications that extend Google Apps – these enhancements increase the value of the data that is in each users’ instance of Google Apps and can add specific ways your team members can use internal and external information.

As your company grows, there are likely to be other features that you would like to integrate and adopt – Google Apps APIs extends the functionality of Google Apps and enhances your data. 

The Shared Contacts API allows domain users the ability to retrieve and update external contacts that are shared to all users within the domain.

Implementing a Shared Contacts API increases the value of each external contact as it is shared throughout your organization. Over time, your business encounters multiple contacts and leads – imagine your team collaborating and sharing leads within your Google Apps domain. 

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Finding a Photo

Unless you own the photo that you wish to add to an article, finding a photo to use in an article isn’t as simple as going to Google and downloading anything that looks appealing. Due to copyright laws, acquiring a photo to use is slightly more complicated. In order to avoid any copyright laws, it is best to go to a stock photo site, which allows you to purchase the rights of a photo as well as choose its size and dimensions (istockphoto.com is one example).

Adding Photos

Step 1

Step 1: Click the small grey box next to Upload/Insert.

To add an image into your article simply click the small, grey box that is next to the Upload/Insert text.

This step may be completed either before or after an article is written. However, it is much easier to implement photos once the article is written in order to correctly place the photos in the text.

 Step 2

Step 2: Under the From Computer tab, click Select Files. Once you find your image, select it and click Open.

A box will appear that allows you to upload an image from your computer, a URL, or media library. It is smart to always upload images from your computer because this will allow you to have the most control over your images.

The gallery tab allows you to view and change settings for any previous photo that has been uploaded. Additionally, multiple photos may also be uploaded together.

Click Select Files under the From Computer tab.

Step 3

Step 3: Enter a Title and Alternate Text. If necessary, click Use as featured image, then click insert into post.

Once you select your image, you will be taken to the customization screen. There are two necessary steps that are needed for Google to correctly index an image, the Title and Alternate Text boxes.

The Title box simply allows you to name the photo that you just uploaded; the Alternate Text box, however, is required for the photo to be indexed by Google. If the Alternate Text box is left blank then Google will not index the photo and the article won’t appear as high as it would have in Google.

After the Title and Alternate Text boxes have been completed, you may enter a caption if necessary as well as change the alignment and size of the image. The alignment allows text to flow around your image and the size allows you to scale an image depending on what is necessary.

Once the desired settings have been chosen, you have the choice of clicking Use as featured image. The featured image is what is shown on the home page next to the brief descriptions of your articles. You can choose to skip this step if you only want a photo to appear in the article and not as the featured image.

Once everything is complete, click Insert Into Post.

Over time, your ability to get found as well as the depth of readership from having attractive photos will drive your lead generation.

How are you using photos in your articles to drive visits and readership?

Changing Your Twitter Username

When you set up your account, you can pick your handle and if it is taken, you will be presented with other suggestions.  If you have already set up your account, you can edit your username in your Settings menu:

They will provide feedback whether the username is available or taken.

If Your Twitter Username Is Taken…

If your username is taken, but is inactive, then you can read Twitter’s Inactive Account Policy by clicking here.  If an account has been inactive for a period of six months, they will release this in bulk.  If this is the case, you can reclaim this as well when it is released.

There are also guidelines if your username has a trademark which you can use to appeal for consideration of transfer.

If you want to track the usage of a username, TwitterCounter has a tool to track availability here.  Simply enter your name and email address to be notified if it becomes available.

Twitter Usernames For SEO

There are a few important guidelines and strategies when picking your handle for your branding and marketing strategies:

1. Use keywords.  These can be industry keywords which help you get found on Google search.
2. Use your name.  You want to own your name.  When someone searches for you, your Tweets will be indexed under your name.
3. Use your company name.  Your company name may be a distinct account.  Be sure the bio contains information also of who is doing the Tweeting on your team.  It brands your company and indexes with Google.
4. Use a derivative of your name.  If your name is taken, then use an underscore or adjective to augment your name like @therealdondalrymple to help your followers see your url with the respective name of your company or yourself.

As with all of your social media and online marketing strategies, using strong keywords will have an impact ongoing as you create authority on your handle as well as on your inbound marketing landing sites and blogs.

Are you happy with your username?