Monday, September 27, 2010

Gateway Sucks - No More Gateway PCs for Me!

I used to swear by Gateway PCs. Recently I purchased two Gateway Laptops thinking that I was getting a wonderful deal through HSN. The first Gateway I purchased worked great at first but two weeks later the "O" key popped out all by itself. Two weeks after that the "P" key popped out all by itself.

I called customer support to learn that I would have to send the PC back to their Texas facility to get it repaired (at my cost). I sent it back and two weeks later I got my laptop back. The keyboard, which was originally illuminated and had controls for sound and Media Player was not working. I had no volume nor media control on the keyboard template nor any function keys to serve as sound level or media controls.

I got back on the phone to attempt to call them. I sent the PC to be repaired just under the wire before the warrantee expired. I received the repair receipt telling me that the repairs were under a 90 day warrantee. I got a recording telling me that I could not speak to tech support because "my pc was no longer under warrantee". I could not speak to a real person. I was referred to the web site where I got the same response from a chat conversation. I was referred to emailing tech support! Urgh!

I am still waiting to get a response from tech support.!

The second Gateway Laptop I puchased from HSN was beautiful, but slow as a snail having dinner! have Norton full suite running and I am very careful about opening emails and other programs.

I haven't even tried to speak to tech support because I figure that I will have to send this other laptop to Texas to get it fixed!!! Urgh!

My next laptop or PC will NOT be a Gateway PC. I think that I will go back to Dell or maybe try HP. I never had an issue with my Dell PCs.

I wrote this blog to get your attention and to make sure that you do not get tangled with a Gateway PC or Laptop when you purchase your next one! What has happened to customer service. I can definitely tell you that Gateway does not care about me nor you! Their customer service sucks!

Manny Sarmiento
http://www.nmx2.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mannysarmiento

Saturday, September 18, 2010

8 Steps to Creating Your Social Media Marketing Plan

8 Steps to Creating Your Social Media Marketing Plan

By Kathy Colaiacovo

Creating and online marketing strategy is vital when making the decision to add social media to your marketing campaigns/plans. A plan is needed to assess the viability, know what steps you will need to take and to aid you in staying focused on your goals.

Your plan can also help you save time by ensuring you follow a systematic approach to the tie you will invest in social marketing and network. The social networking part can easily take you off track and eat up your time if you do not pay attention to the overall picture of what you are trying to accomplish.

Here are the basics steps to any social media plan we setup for clients:

Assess

Look at what is available in your market, what competitors are doing and find out if your customers in fact using these social media channels. These answers may help you determine the goals

Purpose

Define your main purpose for using Social Media and identify the various social media channels to use.

Goals

Set at least 3 SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) goals and create an action plan to help you reach these goals. What steps will you take to reach these goals.

Content

Create a plan for what content will be published - blog posts, tweets, facebook page updates, youtube videos. This plan should include the topic of content and also how often and via what channel it will be published

Keywords

Part of the content planning would be finding the keywords your customers use when searching for your service or product online. If your business has some technical jargon that customers rarely pick up on - it is unlikely that is how they will search online for the solution to their problem (your service or product). It is imperative to find keywords they are using and add these targeted key words into your content..

Optimize

Look at all the platforms available and link them together as much as possible to help you save time. ie. Link your blog to twitter and your facebook page so when a blog post is published it will automatically feed an update to the other networks. Be certain to make a flowchart so you understand what automatically goes to what network in order to avoid any cross posting.

Track

As much as you can track your results do it. Keep a record of your contacts/ facebook friends/page likes/twitter followers/linked in contact /newsletter subscribers and results on Google for your name, business and keywords. Check the results every month and see how it changes. Read your analytics on your website and adjust keywords/tactics to fit with what is working well or not form these reports. With social media marketing, businesses may set goals related to brand identity and levels of engagement.

Schedule

Take time to schedule in all the aspects of your plan and work at it to keep on top of it and following the plan. Stay focused and use your time wisely.

Following these steps will help you network much more effectively and in a way that does not find you looking up from your computer wondering where the last hour went. Stay focused!

Kathy Colaiacovo, is a Virtual Assistant whose firm specializes in Social Media Services but also assist their clients with many other business support needs; websites and maintenance, blogs, newsletters, ezines to name a few. Clients value this support in order to create the time needed to grow their own business.
Kathy invites you to learn more about working with a Virtual Assistant by inviting you to sign up for their monthly eNewsletter, you will also receive a complimentary copy of their Social Media Guide.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kathy_Colaiacovo

http://EzineArticles.com/?8-Steps-to-Creating-Your-Social-Media-Marketing-Plan&id=4669918

Posted by Manny Sarmiento - New Media, New Marketing, Inc

http://www.nmx2.com