Everything You Need To Know About Facebook Events!

Facebook allows you to post events for pages and groups, and from your personal page as well. Many of the options are going to be the same for all three of these, but not all options – and some options, once set, you cannot change. It’s a good idea to have an overall idea of what you can do and what information you need as you create an event on Facebook.

Creating Events for a Page

You can create public events for a Facebook page. You’ll start by navigating to the Home page for the particular Facebook page involved with the event. Once there, click on Create Event. From there, you can add a picture for the event, and then specify information such as the name of the event, its location, date and time, and any co-hosts (which can involve individuals or other Facebook pages).

If tickets need to be purchased to attend the event, there is a spot to add a URL to take individuals where they need to go to buy a ticket. Next, you can describe your event, select a category, and add tags to make your event easier for people to discover. There is also an option you can check to make sure that only the host and co-hosts can post on the event wall.

Sometimes you may want someone else to take a look at an event before you publish it. If you notice, there is a drop-down arrow beside the word Publish. One of the options is Save as a Draft. You (or someone else) can come back to it later and publish it. Sometimes you may want to schedule the event to be posted at a later time, and for that, you can use the Schedule option.

Once you’ve created your event, don’t forget to invite people, share it with others, or publish it on the Facebook page behind the event. This will help to get the word out about the event. You can also promote an event for a page.

Creating Events for a Group

You can create events directly from a Group page as well. There is a Create Event option that directs you to enter information such as name, location, date, time, and details. The final option controls whether or not posts and stories related to the event must be approved by the admin.

Who will be able to see the event depends on the privacy settings for the group. If it’s a Public group, then anyone on or off Facebook can view it. If the group is Closed, only members can see posts and events. If someone tries to access the event page, they will not be able to see any of its contents. The same is true for Secret groups.

Creating Events from Your Personal Page

For events related to a personal page, you’ll want to navigate to your Facebook homepage, and the easiest way to do that is to click “Home” on the upper right-hand side of your screen. Once there, you’ll notice a list of Favorites in the column of the left-hand side. In that list, click on Events.

That takes you to information about events that are going on. You want to create a new event, so click on Create Event.

Event Privacy Settings

Now, this part is essential: the drop box beneath Create Event gives you the one and only opportunity to decide if your event is going to be public or private.  If you want it to be a public event, then click on Create Public Event. If this is going to be a private event, then click on Create Private Event. Public events are visible to anyone, even people not logged in to Facebook. Private events, on the other hand, are only visible to the people that you invite. If they aren’t invited through Facebook, they’ll never even know the event exists.

Private Events

Once you’ve chosen private events, it’s time to set the attributes for your event. You can start by selecting an image to upload for the event, as well as an option to choose a theme to use. Next, you’ll add the name of the event and the location. Next comes the date and time information. All of this can be edited later on if you wish.

Now, there is a caveat with private events. One of the options you can choose will allow people invited to invite their friends. Do not check that box if you want to retain full control over who can see the event and who is invited via Facebook. This is the last option under private events. Once you’ve entered the information, click on Create. The next task is to encourage your Facebook friends!

If you’d like to add co-hosts, click on Edit Event. This not only allows you to select someone as a co-host, but it will enable you to invite additional friends and change other event details such as time or description.

Public Events

Setting up public events is similar to what we just described for private events. First, however, you’ll need to specify who the host is going to be. You can then add a picture of the event, then the usual event name, location, time, and description. Added to public events, however, are descriptive tags you can use to describe your event and make it easier for interested parties to find out about it. Once you’ve filled in all the information, you can Edit Event and make changes or add a co-host.

Conclusion

Facebook is a great way to get information out about your event. This popular app gives you quite a bit of control over who views it and who can be invited. Knowing what the options are as you go along can help you get it right the first time. Though most details can be edited, some cannot, so it may be a good idea to write down all the details of your event before ever going into the Facebook app to create your next event. Brainstorm with friends. Write down specifics. Locate good photos that will make the event shine. These are just a few ways to ensure that your next Facebook Event is a huge success.

Learn About Customer Relationship Management Software (CRM)

Customer relationship management (CRM) software offers a full suite of solutions together in one program that helps manage data. A great CRM program is able to manage email, create reports, make calls, store information about prospects and customers, manage your pipeline, and a whole lot more.

Today’s comprehensive CRM programs are more than just storage for customer contact information regarding purchases or inquiries. This software has grown from being a digital contact register to a very reliable tool that streamlines the entire customer management process from end-to-end.

Of course, there are multiple CRM programs on the market today. Each one may offer similar capabilities, but you get what you pay for. Those programs that are less expensive will not be able to handle all the tasks you need in order to do the best work. Depending on the type of business, you will need to choose something that includes the programs you need but fits within the budget.

CRM has been enthusiastically adopted across different industries and this has led to software companies competing to become the best and most reliable CRM software on the market. You’ll find many features and functionalities that you may not even need. Though most do require a level of training to use properly, all should be user-friendly. You should not need a degree in computing to use CRM software.

For large businesses with rapid growth, it is best to work with a highly customizable CRM system. The more flexible the programs are, the better you’ll be able to make them work for you. In the end, a good CRM platform should pay for itself in a short time frame.

What should you look for when choosing a CRM System?

The basic features that any customer relationship management software should contain include a dashboard, customer contact management, activity tracker, prospect management, report generation, and also opportunity management. Below are a few considerations to ponder before settling on a CRM platform for your company.

Usability

How easy to use are the solutions offered by the CRM? Your sales team won’t be happy with a complex system that takes months to master. Is there an intensive training required for them to understand how to work with the new system? What does the implementation process entail? It’s a good idea to check feedback from current customers. Users will tell you about their experiences and this can help you decide.

Pricing

Determine your price range for the new CRM program. Depending on the size of your business, there are a number of options to choose from. How many people will be using the new platform? Will you be able to get free training and consistent upgrades? It’s important to take everything into consideration. Training alone could be pricey.

For those big organizations, it’s easier to negotiate the price and the types of services that will be included.  You can work with the software developer to customize the program so it delivers exactly what your company needs. Smaller companies may have to pay extra for a few things. Remember that a good CRM is an investment in making life easier for your sales force. It should deliver on all the services you need today while being able to provide expansion for the future. Be sure to ask about user limits. Some programs have a limit of up to 10 users maximum, as well as storage limits.

The Features

Lightweight solutions are usually meant for small businesses where the customer relationship is immediate, quick, and easy. They have fewer features and functionalities but this could be better because it means that learning to use the program will be easier as well. Start with a good checklist of what you expect from your CRM. Just ensure that when you finally decide on the right one, you do not have to pay extra for features that might never be of any help to your teams.

Do Your Research

Knowledge is power. Perform extensive research before making a decision. Once you check all the programs available in your price range, you can check to see what features they each have. A few websites have all the popular CRM’s listed in a comparison format. You can quickly view pricing and features. This makes choosing a less-complicated process.

Wrap Up

The main goal of purchasing new customer relationship management software is to give your sales teams the best tools you can afford to do their jobs. By selecting a program that automates many tasks, your sales people are free to make more calls or follow up with prospects. They can do more with less work. In the end, this should increase your bottom line. It should help your sales people to improve their numbers and this, in turn, increases your profits.

 The July 2018 Microsoft Teams Updates

Microsoft Teams has quickly become one of the more popular chat-based workspace apps offered and it’s included in Office 365. It’s so handy to use and customizable for every sort of team. It’s perfect for one-on-one conversations, open group discussions, or even public meetings.

Teams offers all the tools necessary to make meetings more fun and productive. Microsoft has added some helpful new features for their July 2018 updates. For instance, there are cool GIFs, stickers, and emojis available so team members can show a little personality. The program integrates well with Outlook email and it’s easy to switch between teams. Add to that the ability to use video calling on Android that includes mobile voice and you’ve got an excellent business resource.

How Microsoft Teams Sets Itself Apart

With so many meeting apps available now, organizations want to know why MS Teams is better. That’s a good question and it does have a good answer. Because this app is included in Office 365, it seamlessly integrates with all the programs that today’s business professionals are already using. Within the Teams app, users can access all files and any Office programs such as PowerPoint, Excel, Word and OneNote. In addition, the app features integration with Power Bl, SharePoint and Planner Intelligence using MS Graph.

Though you can open these files using other meeting apps, they are seamlessly integrated into the MS Teams app, limiting the additional steps that users must perform. Many of the exciting features are available with just a single tap. Regardless of what type of business you’re in, the MS Team’s app can be customized to work the way you need it to. That’s one of the big reasons why people in so many different industries choose Team. The app works just as well for a few people or a dozen. It works nicely for business pros, teachers, and students. The app is easy to set up and takes very little instruction to get started. With custom memes and tailored channels, most people quickly become expert Teams users.

New Features for July 2018

After using MS Teams for a while, most people start looking around at some of the more advanced features and there are many of these. Do you need to integrate some common cloud services into your meeting? It’s a simple process.

Partner integration is available for Trello and SAP but Microsoft will be adding new partners in the future. The individual channels contain Bots that can be working in the background on important tasks. In addition to those great features, the Teams App is served from the Microsoft global hyper-scale cloud. That makes it available from anywhere in the world, so if you need to meet with people Japan, in Taiwan, someone in Quebec and a group in India, that would doable and even easy. Team players can share their documents, show a PowerPoint, go over an Excel spreadsheet and work on many other tasks like these. There are virtually a limitless number of tasks that can be done and without the help of an IT specialist.

Works Well for Medical Field

Since the Teams app is compliant with HIPAA, ISO27001, and others, it’s perfect for use in a medical facility of any type or size. But the app could also work well in telemedicine. Though live face-to-face meeting software is included in most programs for the telemedicine industry, Teams could be used in numerous instances. Say you were on the go and needed to use the app from your mobile phone. It’s not only quick and easy but remember that it is compliant with most HIPAA guidelines. Talk to a colleague or patient. Sometimes you just need a quick face-to-face with someone and that’s it.

Excellent Security Built In

The Teams app is big on security as well. With so many thousands of cyber-theft events taking place each year around the world, you just can’t be too careful. Sometimes a team might be talking about their favorite flavor of ice cream and sometimes they might be discussing a new hyperdrive for America’s next rocket ship. Multi-factor authentication and built-in data protection are just two ways Microsoft ensures that your meeting will remain confidential.

Use Teams to Enhance Customer Service

Though this is being done in some organizations, in the future there may be a great number of businesses that contact their customers using apps like Teams, to let customers know about some problem with an order. Perhaps you just sold hardwood flooring to a residential customer for their whole house but now you’ve learned that the flooring is back-ordered for six months. Wouldn’t it be better to speak to this customer face-to-face when you break the news to them? Customers may be less upset when they realize that the store cared enough to have a manager call them and speak to them in person about the problem. And this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to retail sales.

Working Together

Microsoft Teams encourages people to work together. You can bring up the new budget from Excel and let everyone go over it, make comments, and suggest changes. You can open the new marketing plan in Word so that a whole room full of execs hear about the latest marketing campaign. They need to become familiar enough with it to pass on the information to employees in their department. The Teams app is used by many private tutors. Since most people have Office 365 already on their computer, there’s nothing new to install.

How to Set Up a Team

Simply go to the Office interface and click on the Teams App. At the bottom left corner of the screen, select “Create Team”, then type a name and short description. Next, add people to your new team. Using MS Outlook, you can add an entire group. Now click “Done” and create a general channel. Other channels may be added later as needed. Name and describe this channel, click “Add” and it’s all set up. Within just a few minutes you can have a specific meeting place set up where you can meet each week with co-workers, students, your doctor, unhappy customers and much more.

Miscellaneous Features For July Updates

Adding and removing team members is simple and only takes a few moments. A tutor who is working with five different students throughout the day could easily change the student’s name quickly in between each lesson. You might start with a private chat, just between the teacher and student. But what if you wanted to add a second teacher or several more students? It’s easy to do that. Just list the name (s) of the people you want to attend, then compose a new message in Outlook to invite them to attend. While in a chat, you can make a video or audio call by selecting the icon for it. Chats can be renamed and this is good for those that get transferred to the different department. You can continue using the same chat room; just add or remove people as needed.

MS Team has so many more features that make life and work much simpler. It is quickly becoming the favorite virtual chat room for business people in every industry. If you’re still feeling you need some help with setting up a chat room, Microsoft offers a great range of informative YouTube videos with step-by-step instructions for how to do just about anything.

Why the big hubbub over HTTPS?…

Because from now on, users who visit HTTP sites will be hit with a BIG WARNING from Google. This will happen to anyone using Google Chrome version 68.

Google warns that you should have been protecting your websites with HTTPS for a while now. And this isn’t just for confidential communications. You need HTTPS on all your sites.

Why?…

HTTPS Prevents Intruders And Security Vulnerabilities

You certainly don’t want people (criminals or otherwise) tampering with the communications between your site and your users’ browsers. These intruders can be hackers or legitimate companies like Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that inject ads into your web pages. Did you know that some of these advertisements can block the user and create security vulnerabilities on your site?

HTTPS Protects Your Users’ Privacy

Every unprotected HTTP request to your website can potentially reveal your visitors’ private information, such as their browsing behaviors and even their identities. Some intruders gather bits of information and compile it into user “profiles” to steal their identities.

HTTPS also keeps intruders from listening to communications between your website and your visitors. This means if you don’t use HTTPS and you have an online help desk service with VoIP, someone else other than your rep and your client may be listening.

Intruders can trick your visitors into providing their confidential information or installing malware into your website.  They can access and exploit unprotected images, cookies, scripts, HTML … and they can do this at any point along the network.

This means that your users’ machines, a clients’ Wi-Fi hotspot, etc., could be exploited and you’ll be to blame.

HTTPS Is Required For Progressive Web Applications (PWAs)

What are PWAs?  They use modern website capabilities to deliver app-like experiences to your users.

Google likes PWAs because they: 

• Load instantly, even when your visitors use uncertain network conditions. This is because they “live” on the user’s home screen. They don’t need to go to an app store for them. PWAs can also re-engage your users with push notifications. You can control how the app is launched and appear on your site.
• Respond fast and smoothly. Did you know that 53% of users leave a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load?
• Are engaging and provide an immersive user experience. You can pre-cache resources so you’re not so dependent upon the network.  It gives your users a more reliable experience when browsing your site.

Google Says That HTTPS Is The Future

In addition to the security benefits of using HTTPS, there are commercial benefits as well.  Browsers and search bots prefer HTTPS sites. Your site will be easier for visitors to find.

Today’s new web platform features allow things like taking pictures, recording audio and new geolocation APIs (Application Program Interfaces). They essentially provide offline app experiences. HTTPS is a key component to the permission workflows for both new features and updating APIs.

And take note! Watch for HTTPS warnings from Microsoft, Apple and Mozilla. They’ll be coming soon.

Keep Google happy and your users safe. It’s not expensive to switch to HTTPS and it’s certainly worth doing!

 

Microsoft Office 2016 is now using artificial intelligence to make your life easier. MS has added AI to their platforms with their new Smart Lookup feature. This makes fact-finding much easier as you can look up what you need right from within the document you’re working on.

Do you know how to use the Smart Lookup Feature Office 2016? You don’t? Well, we’re going to change that right now. And, by the way, feel free to share these “secrets” with your co-workers.

What Is Smart Lookup?

It’s a cool new feature in the Office 2016 Suite that lets you look up information quickly from the document you’re working on using the Bing Search Engine. Smart Lookup automatically finds the information you need.

To get going, open a document in your Office 2016 program of choice (Word, Excel, or PowerPoint).

Then, highlight a term or phrase in the document that you’d like to search for.

Here we’ve selected “turkey.”

 

Leaving the word highlighted, go to the Ribbon at the top of the window and select REVIEW > SMART LOOKUP.

Note: You can only do this once you’ve read through and acknowledged the Privacy Policy.

Microsoft will post the Privacy Policy on the right side of your screen. Read it and click “Got It” and you can proceed. You’ll only need to do this one time to activate Smart Lookup throughout your entire Office Suite of tools.

Since Microsoft sends your data to Bing, it doesn’t turn Smart Lookup on by default. You may need to contact your IT department for assistance.

If you use a Mac as I do, it’s a bit different. Instead, go to Tools at the top of your screen, and you’ll find Smart Lookup here.

The Bing search results will appear in the panel to the right. (The Insights Task Pane)

Now, take a close look at the Insight Task Pane. You’ll see two options: Explore and Define

Explore contains search results like photos and articles. Define provides a definition of the word.

Easy right? I hope this helped!

Would You Like To Learn More Office 2016 Tips?

Keep reading!

Do You Know How To Customize The Ribbon And Quick Access Toolbar?

Doing this can save you tons of time. You’ll have your favorite tools lined up in your Ribbon for easy access.

To get going, right-click on the ribbon itself and select “Customize the Ribbon.” (You can also do this from your Quick Access Toolbar which you can find in the upper left corner of your computer screen.)

Click the View Menu to open the Ribbon.

Most of the commands you’ll want to add can be found under Insert Menu. Choose the Layout tab and click the command you want for your Page Setup.

Do You Know About The “Tell Me What You Want to Do” Feature?

Actually, Word 2016 will do the work for you. In the past, you had to type in an entire phrase like: “How do I add a hyperlink?” Now, all you have to do is type the word “link” and Word will bring up options for you. Word is much smarter than it used to be!

 

As a matter of fact, this feature works in all of Microsoft’s solutions.

Are You Familiar With Quick Parts?

These are much like miniature macros that save content you use often (like your company’s information).

It’s easy to create a Quick Part.

• Key in the phrase, sentence, or word you want to save. Highlight it and click the Insert tab in the Text group, then click Quick Parts.
• Now save it to the Auto Text Gallery.
• Next, you’ll need to create a New Building Block. The data is stored for you to use in the future.

Create building block names that are unique, or they won’t show up when you type the text. If you create a lot of building blocks, you can organize them in Galleries and Categories.

When you need to use your text, put your cursor where you want to insert the text and go to Quick Part>AutoText. Your text will appear.

The Building Block Organizer stores Quick Parts Auto Texts in alphabetical order. If you want to change this, go to Edit Properties. Here you’ll find pre-designed blocks of text you can insert into your document.

These Building Block galleries can be found throughout Word. They have preformatted:

• Page Numbers
• Text Boxes
• Cover Pages
• Headers
• Footers
• Quick Tables
• Tables of Contents
• Watermarks
• Bibliographies
• Equations

You can customize each Building Block to suit your needs. And, as mentioned, you can create custom Building Blocks and add them to their relevant galleries.

We’ve revealed quite a few Office 2016 secrets now. But there are plenty more that we’ll share in future articles.

 

6 Tips To Better Battery Life In iOS 11.4

Are you frustrated because your iPhone’s battery isn’t lasting as long since you upgraded to iOS 11.4? You’re not the only one. A lot of people are contacting Apple to complain about this. It doesn’t matter if you have an old iPhone 6 or the new iPhone X. It seems that everyone using the newest operating system has discovered that the battery drains more rapidly than it did before.

So, what can you do? We’ve included six easy tips below that should help keep your iPhone battery charged longer.

Tip 1–Enable Low Power Mode

To do this, go to Settings > Battery and activate the “Low Power Mode” slider. The battery indicator in the status bar will be yellow while Low Power Mode is enabled.

This Suspends:

• Hey Siri –This is the intelligent personal assistant that helps you get things done. Siri can send your messages, place calls, check your calendar, and more.
• Background App Refresh –This feature allows any app for your iPhone to appear to be multitasking all the time. What’s really happening is that they’re multitasking “just in time” by updating in the background whenever they have the opportunity, or right before they determine that you’ll be launching them.
• Automatic Downloads – It’s important to note that in order to keep all your devices in sync, you need to keep this on. It automatically downloads any song, app, or book you buy from iTunes to all of your compatible devices that have Automatic Downloads turned on.
• Mail Fetching – If you’re worried about your battery usage, you can limit how often your iPhone checks for new email. By default, the iOS mail application is set to “Push” so it can download new email as soon as it arrives on the server.
• Some Visual Effects

In Addition:

• Auto-Lock defaults to 30 seconds.

• The iCloud Photo Library is temporarily paused.

To re-enable each of these manually go to: Settings>Battery

Your iPhone will always automatically disable the Low Power Mode when it’s charged up to 80% or higher. Low Power Mode is temporary and only lasts until the next proper charge. There’s no way to permanently enable it.

Plus, whenever your iPhone reaches the 20 percent battery mark, the “Low Power Mode” prompt will appear. At this point, your iPhone will show you what features are temporarily disabled. You can choose to “Continue” and enable Low Power Mode or “Cancel” and not enable it. However, Low Power Mode can provide anywhere from one to three hours more time before your iPhone loses power.

Tip 2–Turn On Auto Brightness

Increased screen brightness can eat up a lot of battery power. With Auto Brightness your iPhone will automatically set the brightness according to the ambient light around you.

Turn on Auto-Brightness by going to Settings>General>Accessibility>Display Accommodations

Tip 3–Turn Off Background App Refresh

With this on, your iPhone has to use energy to predict when and how often you’ll be using applications, and it aims to re-load information by refreshing the app in the background.

You can save battery life by turning Background App Refresh off globally or for individual apps. You can also limit the refresh to Wi-Fi only.

Go to Settings>General>Background App Refresh to make adjustments.

Tip 4–Turn Off App Location Services

Location Services allow applications to know where you are based on your GPS or Wi-Fi triangulation. This is handy for a number of things but it drains battery power. Some apps request your location information but you get very few benefits from this. They often use App Location Services for targeted ads.

To save your battery, go to Settings>Privacy>Location Services and toggle the switch to off. A better idea is to set individual apps to “While Using,” “Always,” or “Never.”

Tip 5– Disable Raise To Wake

Raise to Wake tells your iPhone to turn on when you raise it. This is helpful, but it also uses up needed battery power each time you pick up your iPhone.

To disable Raise to Wake, go to Settings >Display & Brightness and toggle the switch to the off position.

Tip 6–Disable Motion Effects And Dynamic Wallpapers

The parallax effect is the name given to the slightly moving icons and notifications in iOS when you move your iPhone around. Apple created the parallax effect to give some depth to their icons.

You probably won’t notice when the parallax effect is turned off. As with any process on the iPhone that requires movement, the graphics capabilities needed to run motion effects eat up battery life.

To disable this effect, go to Settings>General>Accessibility>Reduce Motion and toggle the switch to On.

Disable Dynamic Wallpapers

These are wallpapers that include a subtle movement. They look cool, but the movement drains your iPhone battery. For this reason, it’s best to use a still image for your wallpaper.

To get rid of dynamic images, go to Settings>Wallpaper>Choose and select a wallpaper from the Stills selections.

We hope this helped. Keep these tips handy. You’ll need them when the power goes out, or you don’t have access to a place where you can charge your iPhone.

Have you ever used public Wi-Fi in a coffee shop? – In a hotel? – While sitting at an airport waiting for your flight?

We’ve yet to meet a remote worker who can say “no” to all of these questions. Running a business means being a road warrior and using public Wi-Fi from time to time.

However, there are precautions you should take when using public Wi-Fi. Just a single visit online in a coffee shop or airport terminal can put your confidential data at risk. “Free” doesn’t always mean safe. With viruses, malware, and hackers just waiting to infect your laptop, working remotely can be like navigating a minefield.

The following are four tips to help you work securely when using public Wi-Fi.

Tip 1 – Avoid Crowded Cafés

We’re in the midst of a workforce revolution. People no longer want to be tied to their desks. And if you need help finding a space that offers fast Wi-Fi, plentiful workspace, and outlets, there are a number of new sites and applications that rate businesses on these things and more.

Try Google’s Popular Times Feature – Plug in the name and location of your café, and the hours you’d like to visit, and Google will let you know how busy it is. Since introducing the Popular Times feature in Google Search and Maps in 2015, we can now determine how busy a particular site is during different times of the day, and days of the week.

Even better – Google updated this “popular” app to add a real-time look at how crowded a café is. This is a great tool if you want to lessen the chance that someone sitting at a table too close to you will eavesdrop on your email messages and browsing.

Tip 2 – Find New Places To Work Online

If your local café is too crowded, you may want to find another place to work. However, you need one with adequate space, power outlets, and Wi-Fi bandwidth. There are a number of new sites and apps you can use to help you find just the right place for you.

WorkFrom.com

WorkFrom’s mission is for work/life betterment in an office-optional economy. They want to help people everywhere find and share trusted spaces to work remotely. It’s the world’s largest recommendation website for trusted spaces to work remotely. Its database spans more than 300 cities and towns. You can download it from the Apple App Store or from Google Play.

WHA by Work Hard Anywhere

This is an iOS app that you can download to your iPhone from the Apple App Store. It uses your iPhone to give you nearby, work-friendly spots where you can use your laptop. You can apply filters to rate Wi-Fi speeds, the number of outlets, workspace size, parking, bathrooms and more.

Tip 3 – Stay Secure

Hackers take advantage of your thirst for Wi-Fi by creating networks that have legitimate-sounding names so you’ll be fooled into logging on. These are called rogue hotspots. They are typically located in airports and other busy locations. Always double check with a manager to determine if the Wi-Fi you choose is a safe hotspot.

Take note: Even official public Wi-Fi’s can be compromised. So, it’s always best not to do any banking, bill paying or shopping over public Wi-Fi.

Always look for websites that have “https” before sending any personal information. Also look for a small lock icon in your web browser that indicates the website is safe. You can use a virtual private network (VPN) to add an encrypted layer of protection for your data to pass through. You can try free ones like CyberGhost VPN, or paid ones which tend to be faster like HotSpot Shield Elite or proXPN.

• CyberGhost VPN is mostly free and totally safe. Some of the aspects are free; others aren’t. It’s also very easy to use. With it, you can surf anonymously, unblock streaming and other websites, and protect your Internet connection from being tampered with while using public Wi-Fi. Although a VPN isn’t appropriate for time-sensitive gaming, it can figure out if and where it can direct you to stream services such as news or movies. Many other VPNs can’t do this.
• HotSpot Shield Elite is a subscription-based service that allows you not only to secure your connection while surfing on public Wi-Fi, but it also lets you access sites not normally available when you’re outside of the U.S. (such as Pandora and Hulu). It’s the paid version of Hotspot Shield with faster and more stable streaming.
• proXPN VPN lets you surf the web securely via public Wi-Fi or when you’re at work or home. They offer a lifetime premium subscription that provides unlimited bandwidth via their ultra-private global server network. You can surf with complete anonymity. proXPN will even unblock geo-locked content so you can browse freely from anywhere in the world with an Internet Wi-Fi connection. And they say it never logs your online movements so others can’t track or steal your confidential data. proXPN VPN got a 4-Star Rating from PC Magazine.

Tip 4 – Stay Private

It can be difficult to remember that when working online in public, your screen and everything you do can be seen within eyeshot of strangers. There’s a term for this – it’s called “Shoulder Surfing.” Always pay attention to where you sit and who’s nearby.

One way to protect yourself is by using a laptop privacy filter. You simply slide it over your screen. It limits the viewing angle to only straight on. Also, be sure to dim your screen’s brightness setting. The lower the brightness, the more effective the privacy filter will be at narrowing the viewing angle.

Do you feel like you can’t win when security risks are coming at you from all directions? We understand, and we can help. We’ll do all we can to protect your confidential data and your business. Partner with our cybersecurity experts for the safeguards you need.

 

Celebrating its one-year anniversary, Microsoft reports that over 200,000 organizations have downloaded the Teams App. This chat-based workspace is part of Office 365 and developers consistently add new features to make the Teams App even more useful to businesses of every size across all industries.

Microsoft Teams is a great solution for meetings of any complexity and it’s available for all mobile devices, PCs and Mac computers.

Over the years, Microsoft has been successful by listening to their users. That means they stay up to date on the corporate culture all over the world. One of their strengths is to incorporate numerous useful tools into one app while integrating all their programs into an easy-to-access platform.

The painless way to hold a meeting

One of the big changes to the way companies do business these days includes the manner in which their employees meet each week. Whether you run a small business or an enterprise organization, you’ve no doubt got lots of people in different departments with a strong need to get together on a regular basis. In fact, companies in every industry can’t function anymore without the ability to meet up and discuss their work. This has become crucial to a project’s success.

You may be building a new robot that can perform delicate medical procedures or you may be building an incredible concept car. But often, businesses are just involved in ordinary day-to-day activities like selling products and providing good customer service. No matter what your job, your teams will be more productive and more efficient when they can collaborate. And that’s one of the strong points of the Teams App.

New changes in the MS Teams App for 2018

One of the more popular features, Chat Message, has been improved to make communicating simpler. Any team member, including guests, can use the instant message feature. This is a great way to say hello to a new team member or ask someone a quick question. It works much the same as other popular instant messaging apps.

Now teams can have guests, as well as external members. These participants will have access to any features that the team leader permits them to have. And, they only have access to teams that they’ve received an invitation from. Microsoft makes it easy for team leaders to control the guest experience.

SaaS integration

There are a number of SaaS services that can be integrated for use into the Teams App. Go to the “Add a Tab” page and there you’ll find a list of useful apps that can be added at the top of the channel so that all team members can access them.

For instance, click on “Survey Monkey” to add this app and then instruct team members to complete a survey about a current project or other relevant topics. There are dozens of helpful apps that most users are already familiar with including Hootsuite, Jira, Quizlet, and Zendesk.

Another fun feature just added to MS Teams is the Bot. There are all types of bots available in Teams. Growbot lets the team leader give kudos to a team member who has done an exceptional job. This is a unique way to build camaraderie in any team.

Microsoft has made it easier for users to locate the many helpful features in Teams by adding a link called “Store.” Click on Store to view all the available apps. You can also search for an app by name or category. You may want to find an app that deals with analytics, Adobe, or your calendar. Type a word in the search bar and all the apps related to this topic will show up.

The Teams app allows users to view a personalized version of the app so they can see exactly what tasks have been assigned directly to them.  Completed tasks are shown as well.

The instant chat space now has the ability for users to include information from other apps. You may be chatting with a colleague and want to open a project from Visual Studio. Do this by clicking on the “More” dots located on the far right side of the icons at the bottom of the chat box. Once you click on More, this will open up all the apps, tasks, documents, and other items in your customized Teams app. Now you can attach these to your message. This feature is available for the channel or chat space.

Exciting Features

The developers at Microsoft understand the importance of creating a space where team members from all over the world can collaborate.  Though they originally designed Teams for business, this helpful app has found its way into classrooms and colleges, as well as casual get-togethers. Even individuals have discovered how easy it is to plan a birthday party or anniversary celebration using the Teams app. There’s really no limit to its usefulness.

Are virtual meetings the way of the future?

With so many companies now utilizing the power of remote workers, the Teams App can streamline meetings so it feels like everyone is “in the room.”  Whether employees are just down the street or on the other side of the world, they can participate. Virtual meetings have become the preferred way for teams and organizations to get together.

In the past, an organization’s employees would often go to great lengths to attend important meetings. But this is no longer necessary. Most companies have accepted the fact that it’s quicker and less expensive to host virtual meetings. Much research[1] has been completed to learn whether virtual meetings are just as effective as real meetings and the findings show that a virtual meeting can be even more effective than a real one.

Pros and cons of virtual meetings

In real meetings, people often feel uncomfortable. Maybe their chair isn’t set right or they should have dropped by a bathroom on the way to the meeting. When people can meet from their own location, they feel more energized and creative. This results in better meetings where important tasks are accomplished.

Virtual meetings save time and money and they reduce our overall carbon footprint, making them a big plus for the environment. It’s very simple to record a meeting so the contents are saved for later reference. And of course, you don’t have to worry about catching a cold from the guy sitting next to you.

If you need help with any of the new updates for MS Teams 2018, you can find that by searching online or navigating to the Microsoft website.

[1] https://meetingking.com/face-to-face-meetings-vs-virtual-meetings/