Have you ever sent photos to someone over email without changing the file size?

Have you ever received an error message from your email program (or the recipient’s email program) because the email you are sending is too big?

Have you ever been impatient while waiting “forever” for photos to upload to Facebook, Kodakgallery, or another program?

Of course you have! We all have!

A client recently emailed several photos to me for a social media post I worked on for their company. They sent me 5-6 separate emails with several large file photos in each email. What they and many other people don’t realize is that emailing photos without resizing them puts a large amount of unnecessary stress not only on your email server but also on the email server of the recipient.

The good news is there is an easy solution to this problem for anyone using a Windows operating system such as Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7:

The Image Resizer Powertoy

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It is incredibly important to maintain your Windows PC by making sure Windows Updates are automatically applied and the software you are running is the current version.  The main reason is that vulnerabilities are exposed all the time in your operating system and the software you run that can lead to a computer that is slow, infected or just won’t work properly.  Then you get to go through the hassle of fixing it or buying a new computer and transferring all your data from the old computer to the new.  And that is if you know what you are doing… you might need to hire someone to help you which is even more expense.

Today, I am going to talk about why you should make sure Windows Updates are turned on, and why you should consider installing Secunia to make sure your programs are up to date.

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As social media coaches, we truly enjoy helping our clients learn how to use social media effectively to increase their online presence, brand awareness, and ultimately their bottom line. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and more…we work with those tools every day.

But one of the things that makes our job that much more rewarding is when we identify other opportunities to help businesses work smarter and more efficiently. One of those opportunities is a simple, but often overlooked, business practice: Creating a Quality Email Signature.

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In business relationships, it’s always beneficial when you can meet face-to-face, however it’s not always possible or practical. Skype is an excellent (and FREE!) solution for this real-world business challenge.

So what is Skype? If you have 60 seconds, check out the video on their web site that quickly explains what it is and how it works. But here’s the gist….

Skype allows you to make FREE voice and video calls over the internet to any other Skype account holder. You can also do conference calls, instant messaging, transfer files and screen sharing.

If you’ve used Skype before, then you know it is an extremely valuable way to keep in touch with both business and personal contacts. Oh, and did we mention it’s FREE?

If you live in Kansas City and your son or daughter is away at college, you can do Skype video calls to keep in touch while avoiding long distance charges. We know families that are spread out all over the country that use Skype to stay in touch with video calling.

Jason and I have virtual offices and we use Skype regularly to catch up on Blue Gurus business or even just to shoot the breeze. The audio and video quality is excellent and we love the fact that we can SEE each others reactions, facial expressions, etc. while we’re talking.

Using Skype is easy. All you need is a broadband internet connection, a PC or Mac, and a web cam if you want to do video calls. You can do audio-only calls if your computer has a microphone.

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