Archive for the ‘Business Skills’ Category

Why Use Twitter?

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

Sometimes I forget that the majority of the people I know in real life don’t really use Twitter. Whenever I teach or consult about social media, and how to employ a social media strategy, I often find myself asked “Why Use Twitter?”

People update with statements of 140 characters or less.  It’s short and to the point, which can be very useful in a busy life! The search feature makes it easy to find out what others are thinking about pretty much any subject! If you’re wondering what people are saying about your company, a quick Twitter search will give you an idea.

One of the best ways a company can use Twitter is to reach out to their customers and solve customer service issues. In the last few weeks, I have used Twitter to reach out to my online back up service, and had a response within hours.  I sent a message to Sony Electronics with a question about their e-readers, and again had a response within hours.

The responses I received were directed to me, and addressed my very specific questions. This is where using Twitter can boost customer service.

Feel free to follow us at @ExecTraining, me personally at @AZMelly, and consider taking a class to learn how to develop your own social media strategy!  I look forward to helping you.

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Time Management: Plot Your 168 Hours

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

In our Time Management class, one of the topics we talk about is “168 Hours.”  You may wonder what that means, but it’s fairly simple.  Every week, you have 168 hours to do whatever it is you need to do. There is no way to add more hours to a day, or a week!  Everyone is given the exact same number of hours, but it sometimes appears that others get much more done in their allotted time!

Are you wasting time? Are you using it to your best advantage? One tool to help you figure out where 168 hours are going is to simply plot it out!  Of course, you have to devote a certain number of hours to sleep each day, but the rest of the hours are there for you to work on fulfilling your dreams and meeting your potential.

Even when you consider blocking out the hours for work and commuting, you are still left with a large chunk of time. How are you using it? You can use Microsoft Excel to create a spreadsheet with the days of the week across the columns, and each hour down the rows. Then, take 10 minutes and fill in the hours for this week.  Where can you find more time? Where are you wasting time? What can you rearrange?

I’ve even created a spreadsheet for you! If you are familiar with Google Docs, you can view and copy this spreadsheet immediately and map your own 168 hours.

This exercise is just one of the tools we look at during our Time Management class.  We’d love to help you develop strategies to help you be more successful.  Check out our website for our class schedules!

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Business Skill Classes

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

At Executive Training Solutions, we love to help people succeed in their careers.  While the majority of classes we offer are computer training classes, did you know that we also offer a variety of business skill classes?

If you’re nervous about making presentations, and not sure how to effectively share your message, attend our next Presentation Skills class!  You’ll learn how to avoid common mistakes, how to warm up an audience, how to deliver a strong message and control your body language.  You’ll leave with more confidence and even excitement about your next presentation.

If you find yourself doing a lot of business writing, consider our Business Writing class. This half day class will give you a comprehensive grammar review and help make your writing clear, concise and effective.

Struggling with how to incorporate social media into your marketing strategy? Attend one of our social media classes and learn how to create a strategy, manage your time and find the sites that will give you the most return for your time.

Browse the Executive Training Solution website for more business skills classes and register for one today! Give your career a boost as the year ends.

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