Technology Made Simple

How To Connect with Far-Away Family

“There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child.” – There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child.” – Henry Ward Beecher… I was a daddy’s girl when I was little. I loved going out fishing with him, although he still complains about all of the fish I let go. I remember that we’d always get those raspberry-filled powdered sugar donuts at 7-11 before we would head to the lake. It’s funny how those little things become such big memories. As I grew into the teen years, my relationship with my dad went through the usual challenges – He thought that as my parent, he was right. But as the teenager, I of course knew that I was right, lol. But now as an adult {ohmyheck, did I just admit that I’m officially an adult? } – and now that I’ve become a parent myself, my relationship with my father is much richer and fuller than ever. That’s why it hit me kind of hard last year when he made the decision to move to Seattle… It’s only a few hours away, but Abby is changing so quickly as she grows, and I hated for him to miss these precious years while she’s little. But – smart momma that I am, I knew there must be some type of solution. Something that would help us stay better connected. Some way for him to be able see Abby as she grows, and a way for Abby to get to know her Papa. I’m happy to announce that I have found the perfect solution to help our family stay close – and it’s so simple, it’ll work perfectly for anyone. Want to know what it is?….

“In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.” – Alex Haley

With Skype video chat, it’s super easy to connect with Papa a couple nights a week. And Abby LOVES it! She’ll come to my desk sometimes when I’m working, look up at the computer screen, and ask for Papa. She says, “Talk? Talk a Papa?? Pease?” Totally warms my heart. Because even though the drive to Seattle is only a few hours, with all of the crazy-business around here, we only get to visit him once every few months. At first, she would forget him in between visits… And it would take her a little while to warm up to him again when she would see him. But now she see’s him every week. She knows him. And I know it makes him just as happy as it makes us.

“To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there.” – Barbara Bush

We can’t always be close enough to put our arms around each other – but thanks to Skype, we can always be there. And it’s not just my dad that we chat with. With the group video calling feature, you can add up to 10 people into one fun chat. Only one of you has to have an upgraded Premium account, and that person simply invites everyone else to the call. And of course, each of you will need a webcam, so you can see each other. We love to get my dad’s sister on our calls – and sometimes my brother and his kids will jump in too! Do not underestimate what a fun party you can have together – even from far away. Moments like birthdays are more special with Skype – we bring Papa right up to the table, so he can help sing Happy Birthday, and watch the kiddos blow out their candles. He can be here to chat when one of the kids has a bad day. Or we can all just get together virtually to laugh and tell stories together – just like we do in real life. I cannot recommend this enough.

It’s time to say more and stay human. It’s time for Skype.

I also use Skype a ton for business. I’m a work from home mom, and the majority of my contacts and partners are in other states – sometimes even other countries. Email works great for connecting with people, phone calls are perfect for clarifying details, but to really brainstorm new projects – talking face to face on Skype is the way to go! I’ll share a few tips on how I make Skype work for my business with you soon. Until then, I want to know…

How do you stay connected to loved ones who are far away? Share in the comments!

{Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Skype via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Skype.}

Posted by Meagan Paullin on June 25, 2012 Filed Under: Busy Mom Solution | 15 Comments

No Budget to Hire a Nerd? Try Smore.com!

In the age of Facebook and Twitter, is the good ol’ flyer a thing of the past?… If you need to get the word out about an event, you may feel inclined to type up something in Helvetica and head to the photocopier, but we have a better idea…

Meet your new event coordinator— Smore

Imagine, you (yes, you!) can create a beautiful web page with no coding experience and no design chops. Whether you’re spreading the word about a book club event, a small business, a networking event or a bake sale fundraiser for your local theatre, Smore is a great way to create a compelling online flyer with all the information, share it through social media and email, and how many people it’s reaching. Creating a flyer is fun, fast and it looks so professional everyone will think you have a design nerd on staff.

Smore makes pretty web pages… no coding required

I am seriously in love with this site. I’ve been playing around with it this morning, and it is seriously simple to use – very intuitive. {And if you know me well, you know I’m NOT a techy type. Yes, I run a blog, but what I’m good at is taking pretty pictures, writing stories, and telling jokes. The tech side is more challenging to me. Which is why I LOVE that my girls at Digitwirl teach me these great tips each week. Subscribe to them. Seriously, so smart.} Anyway – the site is very easy to use, and I’m still turning my brain thinking of cool new ways to use it…

It’s got tons of options: Choose Event Invitation, Product to Sell, Personal Flyer for a Person, Flyer for a Business or Shop, Informational Newsletter Style, or just use the “other” if nothing really fits. Coupon or Ad Promotion, and App are coming soon too.
Get Inspired: Check out this sweet gallery of cool ideas and examples of what you can create with their online templates, and find inspiration for new ways to create buzz for your event or new promotion. They all use the same layout, and while they do share a similar feel – they are all able to give a totally custom feel using different photos, fonts, colors, and styles. Love it.

I’m definitely going to be using this a lot – and am SO super grateful to the ladies at Digitwirl for sharing this. The video made it SO easy to jump right in and get started. {For more tech made simple tips, services, and products – browse my board on Pinterest.}

What Ideas do You Have for Fun Ways to Use this Free Service?

Digitwirl is the weekly web show that offers simple solutions to modern day problems. In 3 minutes, Digitwirl brings busy women the very best time, money, and sanity-saving technology, and then teaches them how to use it, step-by-step. Digitwirl was created by technology lifestyle expert Carley Knobloch, who uses lots of technology to manage her busy life as mom of two and entrepreneur. Become a subscriber to get weekly show alerts and exclusive deals at Digitwirl.com, or follow Digitwirl on Twitter at @digitwirl.

Spam Fighting Superhero Gives You a Chance to Win an iPad

It’s like a spam-fighting super hero… Hate all of those spammy, time-consuming, junk emails you get every day? Well, there are a few solutions for that… You can set up a separate email address for things like giveaways and free offers, but that won’t solve the whole problem. You can use a super cool service like OIB to help you organize your inbox – but again, that won’t solve the spam, it just keeps it a little more out of your way. But if you’ve got Gmail, you now have a sweet new option for stopping spam….

Unsubscriber Stops Spam to your Gmail Account Automatically

This is a pretty rad service, and to spread the word about it, and encourage people to check it out, they are giving away free iPads. How much cooler can you get?

Join Unsubscriber for Gmail today!

Giveaway Details from Unsubscriber…

We’re giving away a free, brand-new iPad! If you’ve been wanting a revolutionary new iPad for your very own, now’s your chance. Just sign up for Unsubscriber for Gmail to enter. We’ll announce the winner on August 1st. While you wait for the big announcement, you’ll enjoy the benefits of Unsubscriber, the simplest way to stop emails you don’t want. Sign up today! {See more rules and regulations on their site.}

Posted by Meagan Paullin on June 19, 2012 Filed Under: Contests | No Comments

Is Facebook Really Charging for Status Updates?

No, not exactly. But – if you haven’t noticed it yet – there is a new option available to all business page owners when you write your next status update. It’s called Facebook Promoted Posts – “Promote your page posts so more people see them in their news feed.” Sounds great, right? But there’s a catch – you have to PAY to have those posts promoted. That does not sound so great.

Did you know… only 16 out of every 100 of your “fans” actually see your status updates?

If you haven’t seen the new update about Promotional Posts yet, you should soon. When you use Facebook as your page, and begin to write your status update, it will show you a pop-up bubble with the option to promote that post. If you click for details, it will then let you know that you’ll be paying for that chance to have your post seen by more of your own fans. This feature started as a test option, where personal users could pay to have their status updates shared more widely, but they quickly realized they would have better luck getting businesses to pay. I had a feeling that Facebook would soon start charging business owners more fees, but this was still pretty surprising. And personally, I think it’s a bad move – Here’s why:

First, Facebook said that it wants brands to act more like people – interact with users, not advertise to them. They even have a rule that when you create the large banner image for your Facebook page, you cannot promote sales or deals – because the goal is to have pages to create good content, not ads. So – they will prevent you from using the graphic on your page as an ad, but will now allow you to treat the status updates that you post as ads, by paying to ensure that they are seen? That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.
Why not just show all of my fans my posts anyway? If Facebook is serious about their stated goal of improving the user experience, then why do they hide my posts? When I like a brand or blog page, it’s because I’m interested in following their posts, and learning what they have to say. So why hide things from me that I chose to follow?
Right now, Facebook shows your post to a limited amount of your fans – the average is 16%. How do they decide who to show it to? Well, they look at whether someone has interacted with your page before, whether the status update is popular {lots of likes and shares means Facebook will show it to even more people}, and what the content is {picture, video, links, etc}. They do this with a goal of giving you only updates that will be interesting to you. So why would they do the complete opposite, and allow people to pay to show me status updates that Facebook would not have shown me in the first place?

But, this is the way it is now, so I have to adapt. We all do. And, from what I’m hearing around the web, there will be a lot more changes coming soon too. {Isn’t there always a new change coming to Facebook? Ugh.} While they still guarantee that Facebook will never charge people to use it, they WILL be adding quite a few more features that they can charge business owners to use. I hope the next ones are better than this.

If I wanted to pay for an ad, I would. I shouldn’t have to pay to have my status shown to people who have already chosen to like my page.

Well, now that we know what this new Promoted Posts tool is, let’s take a look at how it works, so you can take advantage of it if you choose to. I mean, like it or not, working on the web means constantly adapting to new changes. So – here’s some basic tips on using the new Promoted Posts function on Facebook.

Switch to use Facebook as your page, and click on the status update box, to start a new post. You’ll see a new button at the bottom of the box, labeled “Promote.”
Click the drop down menu arrow, and you’ll see options to set your price, payment method, and other settings.
Now, you can promote your post. You can also go to other previous posts {from the last 3 days only}, and add them to be promoted as well, within the budget amount that you have set up.

When the post appears in people’s newsfeeds, it will be labeled as sponsored. I’m not sure how bold the label will be, or whether it will appear more spammy looking to people. But – I can see the appeal to this option. We’ve all used Facebook for such a long time, that our eyes are trained to kind of ignore that side of the page where the ads are. Think about it – Can you remember any ads that you’ve seen lately? But you DO notice what’s in your newsfeed, so allowing brands to add their sponsored posts right into the stream you’re reading – right in between an announcement about your best friend’s new baby, and an upcoming graduation party for a niece, then the sponsored post is pretty darn likely to be actually looked at and read. This also helps with the mobile user problem – a growing percentage of people visit Facebook primarily from their cell phones, totally bypassing ads altogether. But now, brands have a new way to reach them.

What Facebook says about Promoted Posts

“Nothing has changed about how your posts are shared with the people who like your Page.” – Facebook.com A lot of activity happens on Facebook and most people only see some of it in their news feeds. They may miss things when they’re not on Facebook, or they may have a lot of friends and Pages, which results in too much activity to show all of it in their news feed. If you don’t promote your post, many of the people connected to your Page may still see it. However, by promoting a post, you’re increasing its potential reach so an even larger percentage of your Page audience and the friends of those interacting with your post will see it.

Do you “Like” this new update?

Is this tool something that you’ll use to promote your own posts? As a user, do you think you’ll be bothered by these sponsored updates in your newsfeed? I’d love to hear some comments on all sides of this issue – I’m still trying to figure out what I think about it all. And, if you’d like to learn more, you can visit the Facebook Promoted Posts FAQ page, and a little more about Facebook advertising and it’s always changing form.

Is Facebook Really Charging for Status Updates? Yep, but there’s more to it – sunshineandsippycups.com/2012/05/is-fac… #Facebook

— SunandSipCups (@SunandSipCups) May 23, 2012

{Photo credits: First photo, second photo.}

Posted by Meagan Paullin on May 23, 2012 Filed Under: Tech Tips, Blogging Resources | 50 Comments

The Secret Trick to Using your Smartphone to Stop Junk Mail

“Buy, buy, says the sign in the shop window; Why, why, says the junk in the yard.” – Paul McCartney

Catalogs, phone books, postcards, coupons… when fighting the war on junk mail, one can feel a little outnumbered. Before your mailman gets all bent out of shape, let me introduce you to a deceptively pacifist app that fights the war on junk mail with a powerful punch. Paperkarma puts the power to reduce your paper junk mail in your smartphone— just download the app and in a few steps, you’ll be getting rid of the unwanted paper that inundates your mailbox.

Snap, Send, and Simplify!

How stinkin’ cool is this, right? If you’re like me, and have a bit of freebie addiction, you probably end up with tons of extra junk that you just don’t want! I mean, I love getting one of those great beauty bags from Target, stuff with make-up samples. But I DON’T like getting a million ads for sales at stores I don’t even shop at. I have never seen an easier way to stop my junk mail than this sweet app!

Tell me – Are you excited to grab this app today too?

Find more Smart Solution tips for busy moms on my Pinterest page!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on May 8, 2012 Filed Under: Busy Mom Solution | 16 Comments

There’s a {Facebook} App for that

So….. I want to know what you guys think of this? First, we went from shopping for birthday cards at a local shop, handwriting a heartfelt message – {or at least our signature!} – buying and attaching stamps, and usually remembering to do this all a week BEFORE the recipients big day, so that it would reach them in time. Then we started using ecards, which can still be really cute and personalized, right? Next, it turned into simply sending out an email that included a few birthday wishes. Now – we don’t know it’s someone’s birthday until we log-in to Facebook in the morning so that it can remind us of our supposed loved ones special days. You write a quick, “Hope your day is as awesome as you are!” birthday post, and call it good.

But now, there’s an app for that.

This free Facebook app will automate your birthday messages, so you don’t even have to be bothered with paying attention to those notifications on your homepage, or taking even 30 seconds of effort to tell someone that you care that they’re celebrating an important day. Does that seem super impersonal?

Or, is this the new normal?

Is it because at over 30, I’m clearly too old to know how things work these days? Or is this something helpful, to make sure you never miss any important days in your favorite people’s lives – by writing out personal messages to all of them, all at once, just once a month – and then letting them automatically post out to Facebook at the right time?

Yes. I signed up for the app.

Lol – I had to! I’m a social media junkie here, remember? So I wanted to check it out and see how it worked. Looks cool, and I do see how it could be helpful – but it seems so lazy. I want to hear YOUR thoughts? Share some comments – awesome, or awful? Will you use this? DO you use it already – if so, is it awesome? Chat with me here ladies….

Posted by Meagan Paullin on May 1, 2012 Filed Under: Busy Mom Solution | 2 Comments

A credit card with training wheels

Helping Guide Your Kids to Financial Independence

Does your daughter ever look at you less like her M.O.M. and more like her A.T.M.? If it seems like every time you turn around you’re reaching into your wallet to give your kid a little cash then the Bill My Parents SpendSmart card is the perfect solution. It’s basically a pre-paid debit card that also works at ATMs and lets you fund it the from your credit card or bank account. You can add money in on a weekly or monthly basis, or just as needed for her desperate quest for the perfect pair of jeans. You get notified when purchases are made and, because it’s a debit card she can’t spend more than she has, which not only teaches her to make better financial decisions, but also doesn’t risk her credit rating.

Easy Peasy for them – Safe for you

It’s taken everywhere Mastercard is accepted and there is a nominal monthly, reload and ATM fee. Best of all, if it ever gets stolen or you see that she’s shopping like a Kardashian you can shut down that card faster than you can say, “OMG!”

So teach your kids how to spend responsibly and keep them out of your wallet.

What do you think?

Ok – Confession time. When I was in high school, I didn’t always spend the money that my parents gave me the way that they had intended it to be used. They’d give me lunch money for the week… I’d eat a granola bar instead, and save it for the weekend to go out with my friends. And I was a GOOD kid, lol. Imagine what the bad kids are saving up their money for, right? That’s what makes this such an awesome tool for parents – it gives you a way to monitor what your kids are up to, and where they’re spending their money – without getting too nosy.

More Great Ways to Use a PrePaid Card for Kids

This would be so helpful for tons of other situations too – Babysitters, the kid who mows your lawn, giving a tip to your paper boy/girl… You’d just give them a card, and auto-load it with payment instead of always trying to remember to have cash on hand. If you’ve used this, leave a comment and let me know what you think, and how it worked for you! And for more great tips – Follow my Smart Solutions and Tech Made Simple boards on Pinterest too!