Thursday, December 15, 2011

Are you getting E-Cards for the Holidays? Is There a Better Way To Stay in Touch | XeeMe.com


I just received my first holiday e-card via email from a business. It made me think of the different ways I can stay in touch with clients and prospects this year within social media sites I am on. The benefit provided with this ecard from SCS | BT Squared - Engineers and Environmental Consultants was the clever list of what to do with it afterwards.

Top 10 Ways to Recycle Greeting Cards
According to the email, I have ten ways to reuse those paper cards.



10. Create gift bags or tags for gifts. You will recycle the greeting card, as well as a bag!

9. Make an origami creation.

8. Cut the backs off and use them as postcards or recipe cards.

7. Design ornaments or coasters by using CDs with pictures from an old greeting card.

6. Send your cards to St. Jude’s Ranch.

5. Shred and use for colorful hamster bedding, so your pet can have a festive cage too.

4. Make confetti for your New Year’s Eve celebration.

3. Use the blank space to perform storm water calculations or to doodle.

2. Explore the many clever craft ideas at allfreecrafts.com

1. Recycle cards to create new cards. The front of a card can be used to decorate plain cards.


I liked the list and I have decided that I like e-cards sent as a html card. I have nothing to throw away, but I still know that I am on "The List."

What I don't like are the e-cards that may come with suspicious links from some of the services since spammers and others use this technique to scam.



Is it Bah Humbug?
I haven't sent out my own mailed holiday cards in a long time. I just can't get it on my schedule.  Neither for myself personally or business.    I have been searching for a better occasion or touchpoints at different times of the year, not just the holidays.  As our contact lists grow, our networks expand with various social channels and our social ecosystems become a swirl of activity with global reach, just how does one keep track?


XeeMee to the rescue






This is where social media tools come in pretty handy. I use XeeMe.com (Disclosure: I like it so much I am an active business partner) to build groups and list of people I want to stay in touch with. It tracks when and where I last made contact with them. Better than the annual holiday card list for sure.

I have recently participated in networking activities surrounding use of this tool and can actively track that using the tool while networking and connecting with people in my ecosystem has a 4 fold growth in activity of new people inviting me to connect. Pretty good numbers I would say.





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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Public education in my world

As a product of public education, as well as my husband and three children, there are visual reminders of the the challenges public education faces due to budget cuts. Where will learners go without access to a free education at the primary and secondary school levels. My family would not have had the money to send me to a private school. There would be one less engineer and entrepreneur today if I had not had access to a public school education.


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