As a digital well-being coach and trainer, I often get rather blank looks when I say what I do for a living. "Digital well-being? Sounds interesting, but what does it mean?"

To me, digital well-being is the intersection of the things I believe in and that get me out of bed on cold winter days (like today); making the most of digital, work-world balance, and having freedom and flexibility in my business.

I believe that the World Wide Web and internet have given us unprecedented opportunities as business owners, workers, and people, but that we do not always make the most of them. Digital Well-being is about harnessing the awesome power of the internet to fulfil your work and life objectives and to design your business to suit your lifestyle.

Even since I picked up Tim Ferriss' The 4-Hour Workweek, I have been convinced that it is possible to create new business models and new ways of working from digital. Businesses no longer need their staff to be sat behind a desk from 9 to 5 yet this still remains the status quo even through flexible working improves employee productivity and happiness.

With digital we can increasingly choose who we work for and how we create value and meaning in our work. It's never been easier to use the social web to set up your own microbusiness - all the tools are free, you just need a good idea. A digital microbusiness can enable you to work on something you are passionate about rather then having to leave your values at the door when you go to work.

With digital we can choose where and when we work. With faster broadband speeds, cloud computing and communications technologies such as Skype, you can choose to work from any where you like - your front room, your local cafe or another country. After the success of Amsterdam last winter and as someone who tries to practice what she preaches, I am relocating to Lisbon for five weeks in December/January to write, hang out and get a fresh perspective for 2012.

In the UK, we seem to be working longer and longer hours and our digital friends of mobile, laptop and iPad mean that we are never far from our work. When you receive hundreds of emails each day, it's tempting to spend our evenings on the couch head buried in our device instead of being with our family. Digital Well-being is using the web to work better, not longer; making smart digital choices that work for you. It's about taking control of your email inbox, making your social media into a fun habit not a time suck, and using the right digital tools and platforms so you can be super effective.

Digital Well-being is about recognizing that we live in a world full of ‘screen time’ and having the awareness and skills to balance our on and offline worlds. Getting offline is essential, for our health and for our relationships.

If you want to learn more about how you can improve your digital well-being, then do join me and a small group of friends for a cosy morning at The Hub Islington (with it's roaring wood fire) on Thursday 1 December. It will be 100% offline and great coffee is assured!

Early Bird tickets end today at midnight.

This week I was asked to give a talk on digital marketing to a group of entrepreneurial young women in east London. All are participants on the Ladies Who L-Earn project started by social entrepreneur Asma Shah.

Doing the prep for the talk had me thinking about digital marketing and the different avenues and forms it takes. With so many channels to choose from, and some more obvious than others, sometimes we can get stuck in one way of doing things, so I thought I would make this week's blog post into a Digital Marketing Refresher.  

What is Digital Marketing?

Firstly let's define what we're taking about. Digital Marketing is probably best defined by looking at what it is not i.e. radio, television and all types of print. Essentially digital marketing revolves around delivery via the internet whether that's on a PC, a mobile phone or a tablet such as the iPad.

Why use Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing, like traditional marketing, must be tied to a business objective. This is an important point to remind ourselves of now and again. There's no point in writing a blog or maintaining a Facebook Page if it does not fulfil a business objective.

The main aim of digital marketing is to drive people to your website where you have your products and/or services clearly outlined and where there are clear calls to action.

What are the Digital Marketing Channels?

Here is a quick refresher of the major digital marketing channels that are accessible to small businesses:

Website

A website is essential to provide a 'base' to drive potential leads and customers to. Gone are the days of paying thousands of pounds to a web developer when you can get a WordPress website up and running in less than an hour. (If you need a website, do sign up for my free WordPress eCourse).

Blog

A blog can be a great way of demonstrating your expertise in a particular area and increasing your profile on the social web. WordPress can function as a blog as well as a 'static' website or microblogging services such as Posterous (like this blog) or Tumblr can be used to host an external blog. Or do like design and simplicity consultants minimoko and integrate your Posterous blog into your website.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO is the process we use to appear as high as possible in search engine rankings (generally Google) by organic or natural search (as opposed to paid search - see Advertising below). Your WordPress site can be configured with plugins such as All in One SEO Pack that does the hard work for you or premium themes such as DIYThemes' Thesis come already optimised for SEO out of the box.

For advice on SEO and how to improve your rankings, have a read of this blog post on 9 SEO Insights.

Email Marketing

A sometimes overlooked medium in this world of social media, email marketing can be your strongest marketing channel if used correctly. They say 'the fortune's in the list' and I agree that a well cultivated and engaged email list are far more likely to buy from you than your social media followers.

With so many free (and paid) options for email marketing software, I don't think there's any excuse for sending email blasts through your Gmail or Outlook contacts. Using an email marketing platform will ensure you keep on the right side of data protection (with many having double opt-in and easy unsubscribe) as well as having a ability to embed a sign up form on your website and send great looking emails.

My top three recommendations are Mailchimp, Madmimi or Aweber.

Social Networks

Social networks can be a great way of getting your marketing message out there but have to be used in subtle way. Think of social media like a cocktail party, no-one wants to speak to the bore in the corner who only talks about himself!

The holy trinity of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have been joined by new kid on the block, Google+. My recommendation to clients is to pick one or two to focus on and do them well rather than trying to be everywhere at once.

And don't forget the power of social sharing. People are more likely to sign up for something or buy if their friends have recommended it, so do make sure your content is easily sharable via social media buttons etc.

Video

Video is an underutilised channel by many small businesses. With YouTube being owned by Google, a keyword optimised video can be a great way of getting to the top of the search results. Video is also a good way of connecting with your audience as they get to see (or hear) the person behind the brand.

Recording video can be as simple as using the inbuilt camera on your laptop or investing £100 in a mini HD recorder such as the Kodak Zi8 or The Flip. Editing can be done for free using Windows Movie Maker or iMovie or, for a more professional finish, use Camtasia. Host and share your videos on sites such as YouTube or Vimeo for free.

Podcasts

Another underutilised area is podcasts. I follow several (all US based) podcast shows on small and online businesses and think it's a really effective marketing channel as the listener can subscribe to the content and it builds trust with the podcast host.

Recording podcasts on Audacity or GarageBand for the Mac is easy and free. Submit your podcasts to the iTunes store and you have yourself a show!

Advertising

The early days of online business were all about advertising especially using banner ads and Pay Per Click through Google Adwords. I think they have been slightly taken over by social sharing (see above).

However, a well targeted Adwords or even LinkedIn or Facebook Ads campaign can be a good way of driving targeted traffic to an event or promotion. Just don't let a campaign run for ever without measuring and tweaking the outcomes. Set yourself a budget and give it a trial. 

Affiliates/Partners/Joint Ventures

Affiliate marketing is well known as a business model for internet business - it works by recommending a product or service in exchange for a percentage of the cost. If you are running an event via Eventbrite, you can set up partners with a referral link who can then promote your event for you. Using the web and the power of your networks can be an inexpensive way of widening your marketing reach.

Mobile/Location-Based

With many of us carrying around a GPS enabled mini-computer in our pocket everyday (it's your mobile), mobile marketing and especially location-based marketing is on the rise. This can be as simple as SMS (text messaging) or using location-based services such as FourSquare or Facebook Places to connect with potential customers.

There are other ways of using mobiles and tablets to connect especially with Apps, however without being a developer, I think much of this is out of reach to small businesses.

What does your digital marketing mix look like at the moment? Are you missing any potential opportunities? What are you currently doing that is not delivering any value?

Do let me know in the comments below.

 

I've just got back from a wonderful two and a half week break in Vietnam (really recommend it as a country to visit - great people, great food, great places to see).

The trip and my return back to my 'normal' digital life had me reflecting this week on my digital use in a broader sense and specifically my digital use when travelling or vacationing.

Things have changed so much in the last decade for the holidaymaker or traveller. 11 years ago, I left Dublin to go travelling around the world for as long as funds permitted. Then, no-one I met on the road had a laptop or smart phone. On our short trip in Vietnam I met many backpackers doing the well worn South-East Asia trail and everyone had a laptop or smart phone. Whether you are travelling for pleasure or for business, it has become incredibly easy to take your digital life with you on the road. As a fan of location independent living, this is a huge benefit - being able to live and work wherever you wish.

However, there is a danger, especially when on holiday, of never really unplugging from the matrix.

So how can we strike a balance? Here are some suggestions based on my recent experience.

Email

On previous trips abroad, I have refused to look at my email while I was away and have come back to an overflowing inbox that takes days to clear. For this trip, especially as it was quite long, I used my iPhone in wifi-enabled cafes or airports every few days to keep on top of things.

Accessing my email while away resulted in something interesting happening. I realised how much non-important email I receive on a daily basis. Subscriptions to newsletters that aren't delivering value, Meetup notifications for events I rarely get to, and Linkedin digests for groups that I don't interact with.

Why not use your time away to reflect on your email usage? Too often as our email grows so does the value we place on how important or busy we are. Travelling to a country like Vietnam where the people have suffered so much at the hands of others gave me a valuable perspective on how I am spending my time, realising that there are better ways I could be spending my day rather than ploughing through hundreds of emails.

Blogging

Come rain or shine, I have been posting on this blog every Friday for almost a year now. Being away for two Fridays posed an interesting dilemma - to post or not to post? Would anyone really notice if I didn’t blog for a couple of weeks?

Maybe not. But perhaps that is the wrong question. It doesn't matter if no-one reads the blog while I am away. I made a commitment to myself and my readers that I would share a blog post every Friday. Having a regular posting schedule is something I always recommend to my clients for two reasons; writing and posting starts to become an ingrained habit, and your readers know when to expect your content.

So how to deal with this while you are away? Well, there are a couple of options. The first one is to ask fellow bloggers or colleagues to guest post for you while you are away. This is the tactic I used, asking simplicity expert Harry Mylonadis from design firm minimoko to write about information overload and creative coach Lucy Kyle for her thoughts on looking inside for what you need in business. I was thrilled with both posts and would definitely employ this strategy again in the future.

Another tactic would be to use the scheduling feature of your blogging platform whether WordPress, Posterous or Tumblr. Write your posts in draft form before you leave and set them to automatically post while you are away. Posterous even has an innovative autopost feature which will send your post out to your selected social services such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. You could also use the Scheduled Updates feature of TweetDeck or Hootsuite to do the same.

Social Networking

I made a conscious decision while I was away to not access any social sites. No Twitter, no LinkedIn and no Facebook. Facebook is actually banned in Vietnam so that one was easy! But staying away from Twitter was more difficult.

There is a fear with Twitter that if you are not tweeting constantly, you will be forgotten. And as someone who gets a lot of her knowledge and news from Twitter, there is the fear that I will be left behind. Being away gave some breathing space for these thoughts. Did it matter if I didn't tweet for two weeks? What information would I really miss? I could have used the scheduling option to set up tweets for while I was away, but what would have been the point? I wouldn't really be present; my tweets would be a ghost.

Feeling the pull towards Twitter everytime I looked at the iPhone also made me realise that I am a little addicted to Twitter and that I need to stay conscious of my usage. A useful lesson again in perspective.

How are you coping with your digital self on vacation this summer?

[image with thanks to brad.coy via CC]

 

Email.

What does the word conjure up in your mind? Best invention in the world? Overflowing inbox? 24/7 connectivity? Great way to communicate? Creator of stress?

At a recent talk I gave about Mindful at Work (video link), the topic of email overload reared its head and totally divided the audience. There were those that felt that their inbox was out of control. Those that didn’t care. And those that happily processed work email on the couch in the evening.

There is no question that email is a significant issue for many knowledge workers. Research shows that the average worker receives 126 emails per day and spends more than 41% of their time managing e-mail. The amount of email also rises 10-20% each year so this is not a problem that is going to go away.

Ray Tomlinson is the chap responsible for all this. In 1971, he developed the code that enabled him to send an e-mail between two computers for the first time. He says about his invention:

"I do feel proud of this accomplishment. In some sense it was such a simple thing to do at the time, but it has had ramifications through many people's lives. What I didn't anticipate is how fast it would grow once it started growing."

Professor Cary Cooper, Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health at Lancaster University advises the government on stress in the workplace. He believes e-mail is a major source of employee stress:

"E-mail inboxes are causing employees concern, because of the number of e-mails and the poorly written e-mails. They really want to find some sort of solutions for these problems. We are 24/7, we are interfaced by the mobile phone, by Blackberrys, by e-mails, by a whole range of technologies, so that we are almost on call all the time. For me, e-mail is one of the most pernicious stressors of our time."

What is Inbox Zero?

Inbox Zero is a term that describes an empty email inbox. Merlin Mann of productivity site 43 Folders (named incidentally after part of David Allen’s GTD system) was the first to coin the phrase. The system views every email as something to be ‘processed’ rather than left festering in your inbox. Emails are deleted, delegated, replied to (if they take under 2 minutes), read and archived, or send to an Action folder (which then gets processed). The idea is to see your inbox as a waiting room for email rather than a final resting place.

Sounds great until you actually try to implement the system which I did a few years ago when I first started learning about and practicing productivity methods. Like GTD (which I have also written about on this blog), I think that Inbox Zero focuses too much time and energy on the system rather than the outcome. Email is a constantly flowing river that we have, to an extent, a limited amount of control over. I like to think of email as being a set of other people’s priorities being pushed towards us when we open our inbox. Clearing your inbox on a Friday might make you feel good but by Monday it’s just going to be full again.

What we can change is our relationship to email. We can examine our use of email and see if it's really serving us or if we are a slave to its ebbs and flows.

Becoming an Email Ninja

An Email Ninja recognises the distracting power of email and uses mindfulness and awareness to avoid wasting time on email busywork.

An Email Ninja uses tools, applications and hacks to process her inbox fast so she can get back to her Important Work.

An Email Ninja knows the power of well crafted emails and subject lines to get her message across.

An Email Ninja has a relaxed and Zen attitude towards her inbox as she knows all the important emails have been dealt with.

An Email Ninja takes advantage of the convenience of mobile email without getting caught up in a 24/7 working culture.

 

If you want to become an Email Ninja, join me for a practical three hour workshop in London on Wednesday 20 July. We will be looking at:

• How a mindful approach to email can give you a new perspective on your email.
• Knowledge of tools and applications that will help you supercharge your email and your productivity.
• Ways to reduce the amount of incoming emails without reducing your effectiveness.
• Strategies, hacks and tips for processing your inbox fast.

If you are anything like me, the Christmas break usually brings its share of pleasure and terror as I anticipate my ever-growing email inbox awaiting me on my return to work in January. In previous years, it has taken a good week to fully deal with its contents and get it back under control.

This Christmas was an exception. Over the past year I have been trialling tactics and tools for a stress-free inbox, five of which I would like to share with you today.

1.Gmail Priority Inbox

One of my favourite finds this year has been the new feature from Gmail - Priority Inbox. Released in beta in August 2010, the application has helped my transformation into an email ninja.

Priority Inbox learns which are you most ‘important’ emails and 'prioritises' them by posting them at the top of your inbox. Next are your 'read' and 'starred' emails i.e. those you have read and designated as actionable/important/stuff I must read etc. Lastly, comes everything else - 'unimportant' messages or important messages that have already been read. I find that Priority Inbox allows me to see at a glance what needs to be responded to first and what can ‘go hang’ for a while.

Here's a video of how it works:

Gmail is fairly intuitive but you can also teach it what is important and what is not by using the ‘important’ and ‘not important’ buttons. This way I can designate any emails directly addressed to me as ‘important’ and any emails I am copied into as ‘unimportant’, along with any newsletters or notifications. Priority Inbox is a great way of ensuring that those important client emails or exciting opportunities do not get buried in your inbox.

2. Filters

Filters are another Gmail feature that I heavily use for processing my inbox quickly (they are similar to Rules in Microsoft Outlook).

Every email I receive is set up with a filter automatically labelling it with the project name so that after reading it or actioning it, it can be archived immediately. Filters can be used to automatically forward emails to team members for action; to send emails to other 'inboxes' such as Action, Reading, Waiting On etc (if you are a fan of the David Allen's GTD method). I use filters heavily to keep unwanted email out of my inbox in the first place such as newsletters that I have tried, unsuccessfully, to unsubscribe from.

Filters are a great way of reducing the amount of email that you have to process in the first place and secondly, increasing your ability to process it speedily allowing you to get on with your important work.

3. Mailinator

Mailinator's tagline is "let them eat Spam" - a playful take on the infamous Marie Antoinette quote. Want to try out a new app or access a free report but know you will be deluged by marketing messages? Try Mailinator instead.

You don’t even need to set up an account. Just use your Mailinator email address (e.g. SineadHatesSpam@mailinator.com) to sign up for those free goodies and keep the autoresponders out of your inbox for good.

Mailinator is a genius little app that can save you the time and hassle of unwanted marketing messages flooding your inbox and drowning out your important email.

4. Canned Responses

Ever find yourself writing the same email response over and over again? Save time with Gmail's Canned Responses. Simply write out your set reply and save it as a Canned Response. Next time you get asked the same question, use this feature to instantly reply either manually or by using it as an autoresponder.

If, like me, you use Gmail for multiple email accounts, you can also use Canned Responses for inserting different email signatures for each email address.

5. AwayFind

AwayFind is one of those apps that you wonder how you ever lived without it. It is one of the best ways I have found of getting out of your email and getting on with your important work without the fear of missing that important request from your boss or client. If my clients are suffering from email overload but feel they cannot neglect their email for more than a few minutes at a time, I always recommend they take a look at AwayFind.

AwayFind works by sending you an update by phone, SMS or Instant Messaging if you have received an email that you have designated as 'important', for example, from your boss, from a particular client, or perhaps marked Urgent.

A great new feature introduced last year was a free iPhone app which sends push notifications direct to your phone with the details of the email so you don't even have to open your inbox to take action.

These are my current favourite 'hacks' for super-charging your email. Do feel free to share yours in the comments.