Making technology work for you and how to access what you didn't think you could afford

Editor's Notes

• #2: Making technology work for you: what to do, and how to access what you didn’t think you could afford Ryan will take you through some of the current technology issues that associations can’t ignore, but often do. He will look at emerging technology trends and the impact on data security, including staff using their own devices (BYOD), cloud computing, and mobile. Finally, he will look at free and low cost technology that you can take advantage of.
• #3: What is the cloud Becoming more viable Full cloud, no cloud, or hybrid
• #4: This has seen the emergence of cloud storage Cloud file sharing is the way of the future. You get a pool of online data storage that you can instantly share with anyone who needs it. Need to share large files with your printer? Share a folder instantly. Need to give your designer access to all your assets? Two clicks. Left an important file at home? It’s already synced on your work computer. Access files from your mobile, tablet, laptop, desktops, or any web browser instantly. Some of the major cloud file sharing providers are Microsoft’s SkyDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive and Sugar Sync. As with many of these tools, there are free versions, and then you can pay for more space, version control, and team features. If you’re not using one of these tools yet, this is one tool you will never go back from.
• #5: Online notebooks are a great invention. Using the power of the cloud, you can write notes to meetings up on your laptop, and have them instantly available on your phone, tablet and desktop computer. You can then email your notes directly at the end of a meeting, saving time. Evernote is one of the most popular versions, which is free for the basic version, but they offer a premium version that supports shared notebooks and offline viewing of notebooks. OneNote is Microsoft’s version, which integrates with Microsoft Office and has many of the same features.
• #7: All of this cloud technology, and the ability to have access to your files anywhere, at any time, from any device has lead to an increased use of mobiles and smart phones for this. To the point where a recent study has shown we only use our phones for communication 23% of the time – the rest of us are using our phones for email, music, cat videos on YouTube, Angry Birds, etc What implications does this have on the way you communicate with your audience? If your audience is a high proportion of smart phone users, do you need an app or a mobile website? How do you know?
• #8: Enter Google Analytics. Anyone here already using Analytics? Hands? Google Analytics has become the benchmark online analytics package. It can tell you who visited your web site when. It can then tell you how long that person spent on your web site, where they were, what browser they used, whether they were on their mobile phone, tablet or computer, and a lot more! It also integrates with other Google tools such as Google Adwords to help you track return on investment for online advertising, and track conversions for things like web site signups, donations, etc. It’s completely free and a must have for every web site. So how can it help you with your mobile strategy?
• #9: First, you can access in Analytics, under Audience > Mobile > Overview, and see what percentage of your audience are accessing your website from mobile devices. In this case, 17% of visitors are accessing from a mobile or tablet, but we can see here a higher percentage of new visitors. So these new visitors may be very valuable to you, so you want to make it as easy as possible for them to interact with your organisation. So now that you know that mobile is making up an increasing proportion of visitors to your website, what is your next approach? Do you make your website mobile friendly, or do you develop an app? Easy way to work that out is again using Analytics.
• #11: Apps vs mobile web Recent study – 23% communication – 77% of people using phones for entertainment Mobile, depending on your user base, can be responsible for up to 65% of email opens
• #13: Staff bringing their own devices Impact on data security Mobile Device Management – remote wipe of business partition
• #14: What is the cloud Becoming more viable Full cloud, no cloud, or hybrid