1. Improves your search engine ranking: Google+ users are likely to get ranked higher than those using only Facebook.

2. A plus for collaboration: Eliminate the need for meetings and teleconferencing.

3. Video chat with customers, colleagues and media — for free: Remove the logistical problem of location and work worldwide.

4. Get your message to the right audience with just a click: Google+ lets you put customers into different groups or “circles” and then easily contact each circle separately, or multiple circles at the same time.

5. Free focus groups: Google+ lets your customers answer questions or give feedback.

6. Good for B2B marketing: Google+ Your Business is designed to help you connect with other businesses.

7. A potentially powerful PR tool: Google+ lets you target your public and media relations.

8. Can help promote brand awareness: Google+ helps companies build their reputation online.

9. Another way to advertise promotions: Since you can target your audience, you can offer promotions that are uniquely valuable to them.

Source: 9 Ways Google+ Can Help Your Business

The Women’s Bar Foundation (WBF) is a 501(c)(3) charity founded in 1993 by its sister organization, the Women’s Bar Association. The WBF advances social and economic justice by providing low-income individuals, primarily women and children, with access to legal representation in matters of domestic abuse, homelessness, incarceration and end-of-life decision making. The Family Law Project for Battered Women (FLP) is the WBF’s most robust program. In 2010, the FLP’s small but dedicated staff (2 full-time employees) responded to 1,662 calls to the FLP “intake” line. The staff helped 228 clients whose cases needed immediate attention by providing in-person meetings where appropriate, assisting with preparation of court documents, preparing victims for court, setting up interpretive services and answering legal questions until the case could be referred to a volunteer attorney. To meet the increasing need for client referrals, the FLP recruited a record number of mentors who are experienced family law practitioners with an understanding of the dynamics of domestic violence. As a result, the FLP’s volunteer attorneys, with guidance from their mentors, successfully represented clients in 130 family law and 209A Abuse and Prevention Order cases. Additionally, the FLP staff and more than a dozen seminal trainers provided family law and domestic violence training for 197 attorneys – the highest in FLP history. The following case summary from 2010 is an example of FLP’s work:

“Mary” had a permanent Abuse Prevention Order against her former husband, “John”, who served two years in jail for committing assault and battery against her. During that time, Mary obtained full legal and physical custody of the children. When John was released from jail, he used his mother’s mailing address to file for a restraining order in Connecticut seeking custody of the children. The Connecticut court, without knowledge of the past history of abuse or the Massachusetts court orders, scheduled a hearing for both parties. Mary was so afraid of her former husband that she shook whenever she saw him and had difficulty speaking. The Suffolk County District Attorney’s office contacted the FLP and we referred Mary to a lawyer who was licensed in both Connecticut and Massachusetts. Mary and her volunteer lawyer travelled to the hearing in Connecticut. After hearing from Mary and the FLP attorney, the judge dismissed John’s restraining order complaint and maintained custody of the children with Mary. When the hearing was over the judge complimented the FLP attorney on her advocacy and her commitment to pro bono work.

The WBF is dedicated to providing pro bono legal services to clients like Mary. The organization is funded exclusively through the generosity of grants, educational institutions, law firms, corporations and private donors. Your tax deductible donation makes a measurable and lasting difference in the lives of our clients. Please click here to donate.

WBF Family Law Project Video

Hadoop is a free, Java-based framework that was designed to analyze large amounts of complex and structured data that doesn’t fit cleanly into tables. It’s used in the financial world for portfolio evaluation and risk analysis as well as in the retail world to deliver tailored search results to customers to increase their purchase of your product. When loaded into Hadoop, data is broken into pieces that are allocated across different servers. Hadoop keeps track of the data and where it’s located. Any data that goes offline can be automatically replicated from a known good copy.

Interfaces for the application development tools for Hadoop are fairly simple, and more vendors are creating applications that can work within the Hadoop timeframe.

Sources: Hadoop: What it is, how it works, and what it can do  and Hadoop

1. Investigate business continuity regulations in your industry and use them as a starting point for your case.

2. Familiarize yourself with your company’s culture so you can determine the most critical functions.

3. Meet individually with the various business units to align corporate, IT and security expectations for business continuity.

4. Remain flexible in your business continuity plans. What works for one application may not work for another.

5. Look for ways that business continuity will add to the bottom line. A company that can continue to operate after a disaster shows its resiliency to future customers.

Source: 5 Ways to Build a Business Case for Business Continuity

Another change Google has made, is the addition of a “Searches related to” section. This updates Google’s model for generating related searches, resulting in more pertinent query refinements.

Source: Google Update Highlights Freshness

How did you come up with your mission statement?
”We wanted to define what success means to us in nonmonetary terms. … we knew that down the road, it would help to have a reminder of why we started Holstee.”

How did it get so big?
”Two bloggers picked it up. … We saw it all over Tumblr and Twitter… I think society is just hungry for genuine values.”

Whose idea was it to turn the manifesto into merchandise?
”Actually, customers started asking for it.”

How has the popularity of the posters influenced your brand?
”That has helped us build trust with customers. People see the manifesto and automatically understand what we stand for.”

There are a lot of great lines in there. What’s your favorite?
“Life is about the people you meet and the things you create with them.”

Do you have any advice for business owners who want to create an inspiring mission statement?
”Write it for yourself. …  It’s going to work only if it’s genuine.”

Source:  A Powerful (Mission) Statement

Tony Schwartz, author of Be Excellent at Anything, offers tips to using appreciation to build a better performing team:

1. Do no harm: Don’t devalue others, the cost is too great.

2. Start with yourself: It’s hard to appreciate others when you find it difficult to appreciate yourself.

3. Notice what’s right: Look for the positive qualities and behaviors of your team.

4. Appreciate: It doesn’t take a lot to write a note to someone, thanking them for their contribution to the team.

Source: Why Appreciation Matters So Much

2. Camera Equipment: Use a camera that shoots 1080p HD, such as a Sony Handycam, Nikon D5100 or Kodak Zi8.

3. Sound Equipment: Use a clip-on collar microphone for the best audio.

4. Atmosphere: Have the camera running before you start the actual interview. Put your interviewee at ease by asking friendly questions about their family and hobbies.

5. Location: Avoid noisy locations outdoors, or if shooting indoors, choose a brightly lit room with either daylight or artificial light.

Source: Using Online Video to Market Your Business

Look and live more broadly. We tend to gravitate towards people just like us, who think like us, like what we like, do what we do. But imagine if you mixed in a few people who were the anti-you? Think of the new ideas you would be exposed to.  

Look at ideas and procedures that are routine in one industry and migrate them to another industry. For example, staff at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children redesigned many of their surgical procedures by looking at the pit stop procedures of Ferrari’s Formula One racing team.

Nobody alone learns as quickly as everybody together. Be humble enough to be willing to learn from everyone at all levels – customers, suppliers, employees. You never know where the next great idea will come from!

Source: Are You Learning as Fast as the World Is Changing?

Do:
Email an agenda to all attendees at least two days prior to the meeting. Include names of those attending, as well as the topics that will be covered.

Specify start/end times and stick to the schedule.

Steer the meeting. Reign in those that try to control the meeting, and ask for input from the less assertive attendees.

Assign someone to take minutes and distribute them within two days to minimize confusion about action items.

Follow up on problems, challenges and goals set forth in the meeting.

Don’t:

Invite the world. Keep attendees to those that are necessary to reach the ultimate goal.

Schedule meetings at peak hours. Try for early morning or late evening rather than during high stress midday times.

Get in a rut. Don’t meet for the sake of meeting. If you don’t need to meet, then don’t!

Source: These do’s, don’ts will help you run effective meetings