720STRATEGIES

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Acting Your Age (Technologically Speaking)

Thu, December 6th, 2007 by Deborah Owens | 0 comments

Work with me for a moment.  Once upon a time, I began working at a start-up Internet advocacy consulting firm.  I was young and single, hip (at least in my mind), and up to speed on the latest of everything (or so I imagined).  Now today, eight years down the road, I am married with kids, still young (although somewhat older than many of my co-workers now), not really that hip (but mature enough to realize and accept this reality), and somewhat behind the curve when it comes to the latest and greatest.  In short, I am starting to feel both my biological and my technological age.

With our company, 720 Strategies, moving into so many new and exciting product areas, I have decided not to age gracefully and let new technologies pass me by.  Instead, I will fight it and embrace new ways of doing things.  What is my secret, you ask?  My technological equivalent of Retin-A?  Here are my super-secret ingredients for staying technologically young:

1.  Social Networking

I have to admit that initially I was skeptical about social networking sites like Facebook and My Space.  I assumed they were for the younger crowd looking to meet potential dates and find the latest social hotspot.  I also was hesitant about putting it all out there since I'm a pretty private person who likes to keep to myself.  But then I kept hearing about more and more people and their My Space pages.  People who weren't young (forgive me!) and on the prowl (eeeww!) like Barbara Walters and William Shatner were boldly going where no man had gone before.  Well, maybe I could, too.  (See a great video intro to social networking sites here.)

I had already started to use Linked In since I was invited by some co-workers.  And, I'll admit it was kind of interesting.  I received an email from a woman who grew up in my small hometown in Iowa (albeit 20 years before me) looking to Link In with me and share some hometown memories.  I also received an email from a woman who shares my name and just wanted to connect because she thought that was pretty cool.  Plus I must admit, it was kind of neat to see all of the people my colleagues and friends know.  

This led me to Facebook (well, along with the not-so-gentle nudging brought on by a new 720 product offering called iConcur).  Well, within a few days of joining Facebook, I was up late with my laptop searching for old classmates and new causes to support.  And, I was found by an old friend from college who I haven't seen or heard from since graduation.  It was fascinating to click through my friends' profiles.  I felt like I was learning more about the people I've "known" for so long.  Plus, I felt a little more hip than I did before I Facebooked.  Come and be hip with me -- check out my profile.

2. Blogging

OK, I have to admit that this is my first blog post ever, but I have been thinking about starting one for my kids sometime soon.  If I ever do, it will look like one of these (which belong to my friends, Trace Ann and Stephanie):

• Be Strong * Be Calm * Be Grateful
• Five Zees

3. Practicing What You Preach (or Sell)

720 has this great new solution called EnCompass720 which is this awesome content management system (CMS) that lets you update and maintain your website without even a smidge of HTML or programming knowledge.  This system is so easy that even I can use it - and I do!  As many of you know, this year has been a challenging one for me and my family since my one-year-old son Garrett underwent a life-saving double lung transplant in April.  All drama aside (he is doing great!), this experience led me to get up close and personal with EnCompass720 when my 720 family launched a fundraising website for us called GiftforGarrett.org which uses this CMS.  After literally one hour of web- and phone-based training with my colleague Jamie (which I did from a hospital lobby in St. Louis mind you), I was off and running and able to post photos and updates on Garrett's condition, send HTML emails to our growing list of friends and family and track user stats to see what pages people liked viewing.  I'm even planning to use the E-card module soon to help spread the word about Garrett's 2nd birthday.

While biologically my birthday cake is beginning to look like the beginnings of a forest fire, technologically, I am on the road to eternal youth.  Join me for the ride!

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