Connie Bensen

Maybe it’s a result of being a librarian for almost a decade but I have a fairly low tolerance for disorganization. This isn’t to say that I never become disorganized, but I’ve learned that being highly organized is key to working efficiently! I love to multitask & my organization systems allow me to do that happily.

Everyone once in awhile the intense desire to organize strikes me! It’s not a bad thing because I know that after an hour or two of focused effort my work areas will be much greatly improved. Once I’m done it’s like a breath of fresh air for my mind!

I’m curious to hear how you stay organized? Do you have a system? or do you just leave things to fate? I have been working from home & that has affected the high level of organization & routines I had developed at the library. But here’s what I need to do:

Evernote – I absolutely LOVE this free desktop organizer! I can drag URL’s & images into this so fast & it makes them hotlinks for future reference. It’s category structure is the same as ACDSee’s & allows one to tag entries & then just click on a category to pull only those entries. The secret is to periodically go thru & tag. And I put my to-do’s in there also. Now it’s fun to go back & delete the items that are completed.

Copernic – This is fast becoming one of my most valued tools because it’s saving my life (& SO much time!). It’s a free software that catalogs your desktop files & then you can search for an abstract term & it will search all files, images & email. I’m feeding 6 addresses into Thunderbird, so it’s imperative to use this to find things quickly. I don’t have it on my ACDSee laptop yet & I’ve already felt the need!

Outlook (replacing my Palm) – I’m learning to use this. Yes! at 41 I had never used it before. It’s fairly intuitive & I know that once I engage in using the tasks functionality completely I’ll be cruising!

Thunderbird & Firefox – two more essentials! Thunderbird is just my favorite. (did I mention I’m learning Outlook? How did THAT get ahead of these two?! *shock*). I have so many Add-on’s in there (21 – I just counted). And it looks like I need to do some purging there to lighten the load!

New ACDSee laptop with Outlook. It’s pretty blank. So I need to get busy this weekend & add the above items. Evernote is cool because I can transfer the database. I’ve been working on my personal laptop for five weeks so I need to shift some doc’s over too.

Soon I will share a photo of my workspace at home. So how do you stay organized?

• How often do you stop & consciously get organized? or don’t you?
• Does disorganization bother you? a certain level motivates me to action!
• Can you accomplish more if you’re organized? or doesn’t it matter?

Utilizing social media requires a huge paradigm shift for people. In previous posts I’ve talked about people overcoming their fear of ‘talking to strangers’. For a corporation it’s an even bigger step! For an organization to adopt the use of social media tools there are many facets. First the enterprise needs to commit to utilizing social media. I am very fortunate in that ACDSee is ready to expand the ways that they interact with their customers! And as their Community Manager I’m able to provide leadership in that direction.

For staff to become comfortable with utilizing social media I believe there are four tenets of effecting change:

1. Recognize that change happens slowly
2. Build on the strengths & assets of the organization
3. Be committed to face the challenges that will arise
4. Ultimately the change needs to be a result of intrinsic motivation

Over the past year I have watched my sister evolve from a silent lurker to an active blogger. Today she pointed out that she has surpassed me in the number of posts on our forums. I did encourage her early on & she joined at her own comfort rate. Now I’m watching her mentoring others!

Last week when I was at the offices talking about my ACDSee group on Facebook (I tend to do that…), my President asked, ‘there are staff on Facebook?’ So I showed him who my friends were & he disappeared for awhile. When he came back he said he’d made an exec account. He befriended the staff I was friends with & joined the ACDSee group! AND posted on a question on the ACDSee group’s discussion board. Isn’t that a great way of setting an example of interacting with the customers? Tonight I checked & there are 8 ACDSee staff that are members of the group. They joined of their own accord & I really appreciate their participation. My question for them will be if they want to be identified as staff or if they just want to quietly belong. I will respect their choice although I’ve already asked a few of them to blog…

I’m so impressed with this level of voluntary engagement! It makes me realize that the PEOPLE of ACDSee are committed to utilizing social media & we can move ahead far more quickly than I had envisioned! Somehow I have a feeling that this journey is going to be a great adventure because ACDSee staff have the same vision that I do & in a total team effort. Thanks guys!

It challenges me to look further into the future!

Jeremiah Owyang has a video on media snackers on his blog tonight. And he asked some of us to respond if we respect media snackers.

The video provides the definition of people my daughter’s age & how they get bits of info here & there. I noted the point that they utilize free spaces like Flickr & other storage spaces. That probably caught my attention because I’m polling our ACDSee customers as to what services they use so that we can provide uploaders to help them conveniently upload their ‘image snacking’ to their photo storage place of choice.

Since Jeremiah says he’s not concise, I definitely know that I’m not! I tend to enjoy writing. Personally I think Jeremiah does a great job of providing bite sized pieces & I need to work on that because I know that people are really busy. I know that I skim blog posts too.

What does my audience want or expect? Well, I’m hoping they’re looking for more than a snack. I prefer to put more thoughts here (bit more than a snack) and struggle with keeping it under 140 characters on Twitter. I’ve been putting short snack-like posts on our ACDSee blog though. That’s more like an appetizer with a number of entrees to choose from. We have products for home users, professionals and corporate folks.

Ok I quickly adapted this to a food analogy. Thanks Jeremiah for inviting me to add to the conversation! Now to keep the conversation going – I’m going to ask Clay Newton, David Yeo, Stan, & Connie Reece – Do you respect Media Snackers?

and maybe the bigger question is, Does it matter?

On Sunday I read Justin Kownacki’s post where he talks about living in a fly over state in terms of social media. My first thought was how I jokingly refer to myself as being ‘geographically challenged’. But after thinking about it, I realize how thankful I am that the web has created new opportunities for me!

Justin talks about

…why there’s a glass fence around the “social media” hierarchy, and why it’s so tough to scale it.

My experience has been quiet the opposite. In analyzing my networking at Facebook I tend to interact people in groups first, then later find out their occupation. I meet them as people first. So I haven’t been scaling a fence. I’ve been connecting with a lot of people in Facebook & Twitter thru sincere interactions. Isn’t that the point? I firmly believe that if you help people, they will reciprocate in return. What do you have to offer?

…since the web is built upon the democratized promise that physical location no longer matters, I shouldn’t feel hamstrung by living in Pittsburgh as opposed to NYC / LA / SF. However, it’s undeniable that “the action” still takes place in the major media centers — which, if that’s the case, essentially means that the liberating power of the web is a lie.

In a previous post people from Microsoft commented on how the web has leveled the playing field. It truly has because I have a position proving that. Not long ago I was a librarian overseeing a number of branches in rural Minnesota far removed from the social media scene. Did this hinder me from participating? not really. I seem to have found a voice. Why do people know my name? maybe because I’ve contributed to the conversation? In early August I was invited to lunch with a major blogger & now a recognized author wants to join us when I get to SF. In December I’m speaking at an event in Seattle & that’s a great opportunity to meet new people. My home offices are in Victoria BC, so it’s a great fit. Sometimes getting out of your own locale helps you to see a new world & grow. I’m looking forward to that! It’s interesting to me that I’ve had a trend of people from Singapore connecting with me at Facebook.

In my case rather than feeling separated from the “the action” I have felt very warmly included by bloggers, social media experts & others like myself that are learning & I’m thankful for that. This group of people are VERY generous with their time no matter where they’re from. When I travel to their locale, I’ll be able to connect. That’s the true power of the web! (and I can still enjoy rural life because our airports easily connect us)