If you need an excuse to have a chuckle today, go take a look at www.improveverywhere.com - it's a web-site containing videos of organised urban stunts and pranks, such as the Human Mirror, where a dozen twin siblings march onto a Underground Train and sit opposite each other - giving bemused and amused fellow passengers the impression that there is a mirror down the centre of the carriage, or the Camera Flash Experiment - 700 New Yorkers get together on a bridge and all set off their camera flashes at the same time.

Just like Flash Mobs (including this Pillow Fight Flash Mob in Birmingham City Centre) I'm always amazed at how well organised the participants are, and it really brings a smile to the face to see the reactions of passers by seeing something bizarre and out of the ordinary in an every day life setting!

Based on our successful foray into Public Relations earlier in the year (you can read the full story here) and due to the fact, as mentioned in an earlier post, that I was flying off to New York for the InterOp Expo to represent the West Midlands Mobile & Wireless Group last week - we decided to send out another Press Release blowing the Netlink IT trumpet.

Our PR genius, Derek Weekes of PR Weekes, wrote the copy - we then added a previously unused photograph from the collection of photos we had taken for the Texas Press Release (that meant no additional cost for a photographer this time around) - and off it all went into the wild.

We were chuffed to find that both the Birmingham Mail and Birmingham Post picked up our story last Tuesday, both giving us a full half page coverage in their respective business section!

Additionally, the Birmingham Post Web-site (and boy, has that paper embraced the Web 2.0 concept with blogging, Twitter and the like - a genuine well done to the team involved there!) ran our story - which can't hurt either!

All in all, another successful foray into the world of PR for this small business - proving that our initial success wasn't simply a case of the Midlands Press taking a shine to my photogenic nature, Movie Star good looks and let's not be modest here, Herculean physique!

Ok Ok... I hear what you're saying - next time it may be better to just let Kelly and Mick appear in the photos so as not to scare anyone further. Point taken! :-)

I've been meaning for a while to give a plug to Emily Lambert, the new Microsoft SBSC Lead here in the UK. Emily did a tour of the UK User Groups recently, including visiting us at AMITPRO here in the Midlands.

Emily has started regular updates to the UK SBSC Blog, which is most welcome, and has already posted some great links and articles, including details of the new Hard Copies of Microsoft Small Business Collateral that is now available to Partners.

The Literature Folder, which is only subtly Microsoft Branded and includes a cut out place for your business card, is something I've heard more than one fellow Partner mention as something they'd like to see - so this is bound to be a welcome product.

Personally, we don't use a lot of collateral here at Netlink IT - either a client has pain, pain, pain and more pain and is ready to work with us to help them deal with those problems, or they don't have enough pain and they therefore aren't in any rush to do anything about it! Many times a "Have you got some information you can send us?" is just a prospect's polite way of telling you they aren't ready to do business.

However, I can see how collateral may have a place in building up relationships with prospective clients and would be interested to hear how other partners are using such material to their advantage! Bravo to Microsoft for making these products available to Partners.

Inspired by Vijay's Photosynth of the Brighton Seafront, I decided to grab the photographs I took from my trip to the top of the Rockefeller Centre here in New York City and throw them at Microsoft Photosynth to see what it could do.

This is the first time I've used Microsoft Photosynth and it was very easy to use. If you've already got a Windows Live ID, you're half way there - sign up for the service at http://photosynth.net/ then download a small executable to your PC. Once that is installed, you can create a Photosynth by uploading a batch of pictures of the same photographic subject - Photosynth then goes away and does it's mathematical computations and a few minutes later delivers you a Panaromic-esque photograph.

I'm sure there is an art to getting the final Photosynth looking good, but in my case I literally just upload all the shots I took in a random fashion (you can see the originals amongst other photos I've taken in New York here) and you can see the results - a Photosynth of New York City from the top of the Rockefeller building here - not bad!

You can read more about Photosynth and the team behind the technology, but I'd encourage you to grab a few photographs and give it a go, it's free!

Greetings from New York City! I'm here for four days the InterOp Expo featuring the Web 2.0 and Mobile Comms shows.

The Expo started yesterday afternoon, which gave me the morning to take a stroll around New York and in particular, Central Park, one of my favourite places to visit. Such a beautiful location, lovely and quiet and yet very busy with hundreds of Cyclists, Runners and walkers, and all in the centre of one of the busiest Cities in the world. For instance, standing in the centre of the "Sheep Meadow" - you can see the nearby Skyscrapers surrounding the park!

As well as the busiest, NYC is also one of the craziest Cities I've ever visited. I've been here before, but I still freak out at how fast everyone drives with apparent abandon for life or limb, how people walk in the roads amongst the insane traffic without getting hurt, how any New York driver still has a working car-horn after they abuse them so often, and how yesterday - within five minutes of sitting down to eat lunch in the street - I'd spotted a Naked Cowboy strumming a Guitar, a Ventriloquist Act abusing passers by, and a fully suited and booted businessman unfurl a push-Scooter and then trundle off down the road to his next meeting like a child heading to school. Major nuttiness!

Oh, and there's the food - the diet will have to wait another week I'm afraid, because being surrounded by Hot-Dogs, Deluxe Cheeseburgers, an abundance of Pasta Dishes, breakfasts that are big enough to feed three (but still consumed by one...) and my favourite, Cheesecake, any chance of burning off some fat based on the miles I've walked as a tourist are long gone.

Full report from the heaving InterOp Expo later - I'm off to find a three course breakfast.

I'm currently in the Airport Lounge at Birmingham International awaiting my flight to New York for this years InterOp Expo in New York. If you're going to InterOp yourself - get in touch, it'd be great to arrange to meet you whilst I'm there!

Now - although Netlink IT is a Microsoft Certified Partner and Small Business Specialist, our goal is to provide our small business clients with the software that best fits their needs - not necessarily Microsoft software, but whomever that software may be made by.

Whilst there are many occasions when Commercially (i.e. Paid for) Licensed software is the best fit, due to superior support, features or functionality - using software packages such as 7Zip (Open Source) instead of WinZIP, Foxit PDF Reader (Freeware) instead of the bloated Adobe Acrobat Reader, CutePDF Writer (mixture of Freeware and Open Source) instead of Adobe Acrobat and even Open Office (Open Source) instead of gasp... Microsoft Office... all examples of free alternatives to commercial software - can all mean the client saving a tidy sum of money without losing any of the functionality they actually need.

However, explaining to the client exactly what Open Source software is and what that type of license means can be a challenge at times - the mentality of "If it's free, there's got to be a catch" or "You don't get a free lunch" can be difficult obstacles to climb.

But if there is one person who the British Public know and trust, it's Writer, Actor, Comedian and possibly the smartest man on Television, Stephen Fry!

Therefore to celebrate the 25th Birthday of GNU - the most famous free software initiative - Stephen Fry has produced a video explaining what GNU and free software is, and why they are a good thing.

Now if we can just get Tom Hanks to record a quick video explaining Intellectual Property, and Dr. Stephen Hawking to explain Microsoft Licensing (which admittedly is a tougher subject to describe than Quantum Physics will ever be) we'll be sorted!

Ever had a stroppy e-mail that really makes you annoyed? Feel like giving the sender a piece of your mind, setting him straight, or telling that arrogant her where to get off?

Yes - we've all been there - but the advice would be... don't ever EVER respond to an e-mail when you are angry - you'll live to regret it! Get up from your desk and go for a walk. Ignore that e-mail. Don't reply for an hour or two, preferably even more! Chances are your response after a cooling off period will be a lot more calculated and considered in nature than an immediate knee jerk emotional response.

Great advice, I'm sure you'll agree, but how many times have you fired off that e-mail response in anger - only to regret it instantly?

Yes, Outlook has the Recall feature - but let's be honest, it simply doesn't work and just alerts the potential sender to the fact that you regret ever sending the e-mail, so they take a greater interest in it's contents...

However, Outlook has a feature that enables you to delay or schedule sending messages. There are full details at the Microsoft Office online web-site, but in a nutshell:-

1. After composing the message, on the Options tab, in the More Options group, click Delay Delivery.
2. Click Message Options.
3. Under Delivery options, select the Do not deliver before check box, and then click the delivery date and time that you want.

After you click Send, the message remains in the Outbox folder until the delivery time you've specified - so if you regret calling the bosses wife a horrible name, you may be relieved to find the e-mail you wrote said expletives in has not yet been delivered.

If you've got a real anger management issue, the article also details a method of delaying all e-mails - so you'll have time to reflect on sending all messages before they are delivered.

Personally, I never reply to e-mails in anger - instead I pick the 'phone up and scream at people, or run round to their offices in a rage and punch them in the nose for their troubles.

Sadly there's no electronic remedy for this erratic behaviour - I'll just have to continue to take my strong medication... :-)

Netlink IT and it's ruggedly handsome and modest owner (that would be me, for those of you already confused) recently had an article about us printed in the Birmingham Mail and the Birmingham Post, the two top local newspapers here in our hometown of Birmingham.

Like most Small Business owners, I've always assumed that PR (Public Relations) is something that the "big boys" do - think Coca Cola, Nike, Barclays, etc. That attitude would change though.

I've been asked by more than one fellow small business owner recently how we went about getting the afore mentioned coverage, and how much it cost us in pounds and pence to do so, so here's the story.

Through attendance at a recent networking event I met a copywriter, Mark Beaumont-Thomas, of Lexicon Marketing. I'd already realised the value of Client testimonials and Case Studies after I threw together some very basic testimonials based around work we'd done for clients and then posted them to the Netlink IT web-site some time ago. However, I wanted a more professional looking set of Case Studies based on our more recent work with clients, so I engaged Mark to do this work for us.

During the course of this work, I happened to mention to Mark how Netlink IT had recently made Microsoft Certified Partner status and how Microsoft Small Business Specialist Partner Area Lead Vijay Riyait had asked me if he could feature us as an example of a SBSC "one man band" who had grown into a bigger business thanks to our involvement in the Community, during a presentation at the forthcoming Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference we were attending in Houston, TX. Mark suggested that this would be an excellent opportunity for some PR, and wrote a Press Release before introducing me to Derek Weekes of PR Weekes who could make sure the Press Release was placed in the proper channels.

Derek, in turn, introduced me to Paul Vokes, a freelance photographer, who agreed to take some shots of me and the team to add some colour to the Press Release. Paul then proceeded to make Mick, Kelly and myself wear Cowboy Hats (for the Texas theme) and publicly humiliate took photographs of us outside our office as the world pointed and sniggered.

Once the photographs were added to the Press Release, Derek did his thing and pretty soon we were famous... well, not really. We had a small article featured in The Manufacturer but very little else. It felt like PR was indeed something for the big boys only.

But then Derek re-issued the Press Release and I received a couple of telephone calls from friends saying how they saw an article on us in the Birmingham Mail - this was news to me! Sure enough, after tracking down a copy of the previous nights Mail I spotted this in the Business Section.

The interesting thing about the above article was that it was also featured on the Birmingham Mail's web-site and within the next 12 hours had been re-produced and linked to by any number of other organisations.

Then, later that week, Derek informed me that the Birmingham Post had picked up the article and produced a half-page spread on us including a photograph.

(Apologies for the standard of the copy - the original was in colour so you could see how beautiful we all were in glorious detail).

Once again, the Post Article was reproduced on-line and was picked up by a lot of other web-sites and a knock on effect was that Netlink IT's web-site suddenly shot up the Google rankings - with not a bit of expensive SEO in site!

After the Post article, we received a lot of e-mails and telephone calls from suppliers and partners congratulating us and telling us that although they weren't aware of our recent growth, they were now! As for directly generating business, we've had a couple of enquiries from prospective clients, but nothing has materialised - but I never expected this to be the case. The goal of the Press Release was to raise our profile, and I certainly believe it's done that.

Now - the bit you're interested in if you're a Small Business owner - the costs! The photographer, the Copywriter and the PR Agency cost us less than £400 all in. I'm not sure how much a half-page advertisement in the Birmingham Post, or a quarter-page ad in the Birmingham Mail costs, but I'm guessing it's more than £400!

So I now know a bit more about PR and how it works. I'm no expert - but I don't know many people in the small business area who have done much with PR, so we've made a start at least!

Moving forwards we've put aside a budget for similar regular PR work. There may be a doubt over whether it is money well spent - it's not directly generated any new clients (yet?) - but my gut feeling is it has raised our profile as a company immensely. The number of unique visitors to this blog has increased by 25% since the articles, the company web-site has more external links to it than before and thus a higher Google ranking than ever, and we've already been presented with two opportunities to work more closely with a couple of organisations to our mutual benefit - people want to be associated with others they perceive to be ambitious and successful. If that statement sounds a bit like us blowing our own trumpet, just consider what PR ultimately is - it's all about drawing attention to yourself.

Is the above just vanity and a bit of an ego stroke for all concerned, or is it truly valuable to the growth of Netlink IT? If you've any thoughts on the pro's/con's of PR - please get in touch or leave a comment below - I'd be interested to hear from you!

I'd politely ask that you please contact my Agent for any personal appearance or autograph requests though... ;-)

It's funny, 'cos it's true - especially on a Friday!

Image courtesy of Project Sidewalk. Thanks to my good buddy Texas Matt for sharing.

Here's a handy KB article from Microsoft on how to move the CLIENTAPP folder on Windows Small Business Server 2003.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830254/en-us

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been faced with an SBS 2003 C: drive running out of space and frantically looking for folders and files to move to other drives - CLIENTAPP is a prime target for re-location as the default install directory in SBS setup is C:\CLIENTAPP.

A heads-up that Erick Simpson of MSPU releases his latest book "The Best IT Service Delivery Book Ever!" on the 6th October and it is available for pre-ordering now. You can save $50 on the cover price by placing an order now, and get the book shipped to you upon release.

I've already placed my order and with good reason - as someone who owns (and more importantly!) and has read Erick's previous two books, The Guide to a Successful Managed Services Practice and The Best I.T. Sales & Marketing BOOK EVER! I'm confident that his latest book will be every bit as useful, thought provoking and instrumental in generating ideas as the two before it.

Erick's Managed Services Practice book is, in my opinion, an essential read for everyone even considering moving into the Managed Services arena - it certainly had a substantial impact on the way I do business with my own company, Netlink IT.

If the Service Delivery book has anywhere near the same benefits for us in how we demonstrate our value to our clients as the previous books did for us in the areas of Managed Services and Sales, then this book will certainly be worth its cost many times over!

The Manchester Small Business Specialist Community Group has been up and running for a couple of months now, and Simon Belt, a member of the group and owner of Simply Better IT, has drawn my attention to the Web-Site he's created for the group.

I know that Vijay attended the group meeting last month and said that they have a great bunch of folks up there - so if you're an SBSC member in the North-West then I'd urge you to go along to check it out.

The next meeting of the Manchester group is Thursday 18th September - I'm trying to coincide some business I have in the t'North so I can go along to that meeting myself.

Of course, the UK's Premier Drinking Club SBSC User Group <grin> is the one I'm a member of, AMITPRO based here in the Midlands, and our next meeting is set for next Tuesday 9th September at 1730 at the Arden Hotel, Solihull. As well as the usual banter, the good folks from N-Able Technologies will be joining us to talk about their "IT Automation & Managed Services Solutions".

Hope to see you there!