A number of interesting technology oriented talks were given at NAVC.  Here are a few interesting tidbits from these seminars.

3. Paper Yellow Page use is decreasing. Here is a stat for you … 10 years ago, 13% of new veterinary clients came from yellow page advertising; today it is 1-2% (reference Opperman, Grosdidier “Technology Intervention” presentation). Guess what, it is now all about the web and if you haven’t already you need to adjust your marketing budget to allocate resources that were previously dedicated to Yellow Pages to your website, search engine optimization and e-communication strategies.

4. Blogs – fast, fresh, and relevant content. Keep them to around 500 words, and make sure the first 30-50 words are listed on your Blog page with a “read more” link to get to the full blog. This simple tactic will ensure you get statistics (through Google Analytics or other) on how much traffic your blog is getting! Oh and an image (properly tagged) is always helpful … remember “a picture is worth a thousand words”.

5. Facebook – separate business from personal. Make sure you have separate Facebook sites for your business and personal use. This way, when you get that client requesting to be a Facebook friend on your personal page, you can redirect them to “Like” you at your business page!

Thanks to Kelly Baltzell, Brenda Tassava, Mark Opperman and Sheila Grosdidier for sharing their insights.

About the author:
Mark Stephenson is a 1987 graduate of the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph. Dr. Stephenson worked in small animal general and emergency practice in Toronto for 7 years, then as a result of his growing passion for veterinary continuing education and the application of computer technology to learning, he joined LifeLearn as its first veterinary content specialist. Dr. Stephenson served in various roles including Director of Production, Director of Marketing and Sales, and Vice President. In January of 2001, he was appointed President and CEO.
Dr. Stephenson is also a passionate skier, runner and reader, and lives near Toronto with his wife, two children and a very spoiled golden retriever.

When I meet clients for the first time (and they get over their initial surprise that I’m female because with a name like Desmond, I’d probably be expecting a man too!), they are often curious about my education, especially when I’m introduced as a Project Manager with a background in Biomedical Communications.

No, I do not do phone sales for medical equipment companies. (Seriously, I’ve been asked that.)

When I graduated from high school, I had to make a choice: pursue my childhood dream of becoming a veterinarian or follow my artistic interests into fine arts. Scared of becoming a starving artist, I applied into the pre-vet stream in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the University of Manitoba.

With high marks, good references and lots veterinary volunteer opportunities available to me, including some in the university barns, I figured vet school was a sure thing.

My allergies thought otherwise.

Cats, dogs, rats, horses, cows, pigs, chickens, dust, dander, mould and mildew all resulted in sneezing, a runny nose and itchy eyes. Vet school was out…now what? I knew I still wanted to work with animals but how? Finishing my Bachelors degree in animal science and doing a Master’s degree was a start, but it sure wasn’t vet school.

So I did what everyone should do when they are in a rut. I took a two-week vacation to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and did something I hadn’t done in seven years…I picked up a paintbrush.

For the next two weeks, I traveled around the city with my India ink and watercolors, capturing local images, being inspired and smiling more than I had in a very long time. Through my travels, I realized three things:

1. Despite not being visually creative for a VERY long time, I hadn’t lost my talent. (Was I rusty? Absolutely. But could you tell what I was drawing? Definitely!),
2. Life was too short not to do something that you loved every day, and
3. Just because I wanted to focus on art should not mean that I had to throw away a perfectly good science education.

So the big question was, what could I do that would combine science and art into a career?

Enter Biomedical Communications (aka BMC), a graduate program at the University of Toronto that offers self-proclaimed science nerds (like me) a chance to use the other side of their brain and take their artistic skills, whether they be acquired through professional training, self-teaching, or God-given talent, to a new level. Often called medical illustrators, we take complex information, mainly in the areas of science and medicine, and create visualizations that not only hold an audiences’ interest, but help them understand difficult concepts and retain the information.

Two intense years later, I graduated as a “BMCer” and was offered a job as a Project Manager with LifeLearn.

I may not be a vet or a stereotypical artist. But I think I’m pretty lucky because on days when I’m trying to figure out the best way to explain the heartworm life cycle to a pet owner, while making sure my illustration of a mosquito actually looks like a mosquito, I feel like a bit of both.

And most importantly, I’m happy.

About the author:
Desmond Ballance is a Project Manager with LifeLearn Inc, whose responsibilities include everything from project organization and content development to scientific illustration, interface design, and video shoot direction.  In her non-working hours (which, as a mother of a toddler, are few and far between), she likes golfing with her husband, swimming at the cottage or curling up on the couch with a ball of yarn and some knitting needles.

Email marketing is still alive and well but 2011 was the year of social marketing and 2012 will almost certainly see this trend continue to skyrocket. Needless to say, if you have not already embraced this revolution, you need to move it up your to-do list. Now!

Consider the facts:

Facebook:

• If Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd largest
• Facebook has more than 800 million active users
• More than 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
• The average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
• More than 350 million active users currently access Facebook through their mobile devices

Twitter:

• As of June 2011, Twitter was ranked 9th in the world’s most trafficked sites with Google.com in 1st position, Facebook 2nd and YouTube 3^rd
• Twitter has over 100 million active users worldwide, half of whom log in daily
• 59% of pet owners are using social media

Without a doubt, incorporating social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter or a blog into your “marketing mix” will increase your reach with clients and potential customers. Social marketing generates conversations and builds relationships with clients or potential clients. And perhaps most importantly, it leads them to your website, and if you have an effective website, traffic equals growth!

Here are some important things to remember in your social marketing efforts:

• Be helpful
  • Offer timely tips and information for pet owners
• Be relevant
  • Tap in to local or regional pet stories, offer seasonal tips
• Start conversations
  • Ask questions or open up a themed discussion
• Engage wisely
  • Make your pages interactive but make it easy for your readers
  • Be sure they can relate to your questions
  • Don’t be afraid to ask them for feedback
  • Don’t spam. Publish content that will help your brand and lead to engagement
• Promote occasionally
  • It’s OK to tie in promotions to topics (ex. dental awareness)

If you’d like to learn more tips about implementing social marketing in your practice please view our recorded webinar:

Grow in 2012 with a Smart Social Strategy: 7 Social Media Dos (and a couple Don’ts)

Another key benefit of using social media is the improvement in search-engine ranking. Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the practice of tweaking your website to be search-engine friendly so that you achieve a higher placement in the results of an online search. More about this subject in our next post.

About the author:
Stewart Wright is the Product Manager for LifeLearn’s Client Communication products including WebDVM4 and ClientEd Online. A graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University, Stewart has extensive experience in managing product development and creating and executing effective marketing programs for a wide range of technology related products.

One of the key productivity challenges we face in the workplace is keeping up with the incoming information and processing it accordingly so that we don’t lose track of important projects and tasks. The web is filled with a variety of tools claiming to be the one-stop solution to our clutter problems, yet I have met few people that have truly mastered their work day. In any one of our typical days at the office, we’re faced with a dizzying combination of emails, phone calls, staff meetings, stop-ins and other sorts of distractions that keep us from making progress on the key strategic components of our jobs. So what now?

I’ve tried a number of “packaged” productivity solutions…mostly to no avail. But in my more recent cerebral typhoons I’ve started to realize that there is no single piece of software, no single self help book, and no single productivity guru that can provide us with the yellow brick road of productivity. Our jobs tend to be too dynamic and we are absolutely and utterly inundated with a constant stream of multi-directional information. However…hope is not yet lost. Here are some tips that seem to be working for me, and hopefully somewhere in here, you may find some pieces of anti-clutter strategy that may work for you.

1. Stop working from your Inbox.

This may seem obvious and not exactly divine intuition, but working from your Inbox is like trying to swim out of a vortex of molten lava. You may not realize it, but your Inbox is one of your major sources of distraction and mental consumption which are arch enemies of productivity. Email is a necessary source of communication in the workplace, but it is unquestionably abused at frightening levels. How many of you receive 50 or more emails per day, and leave work each day with messages still in your Inbox? I’m guilty. So what happens the next day? You re-read half of those emails — and not only have you yet to do anything with them — you’re using more of your valuable time that could be put against an important strategic objective or project.

My recommendation is two-fold:

a) Organize your emails into actionable tasks. If an email cannot be dealt with immediately and deleted, create a task by simply dragging the mail item to your task folder. This will open a new Task Item, which you can then categorize and prioritize. The next step…which is more important than you might think…is to establish a reasonable due date and some brief notes on what you specifically need to accomplish. If you simply move your emails to your task list, but never actually act on your task list, you’ll be in the same situation you were in before — except you’ve now wasted a bunch of time just moving content from one folder to another.

Now, for those of you that are managers, you need to realize that you won’t necessarily have the time to be involved in every detail or decision. Therefore to truly drive productivity you must learn to delegate tasks effectively. Assign tasks to team members using the “Assign Task” button at the top of the task window. This will add the task to the assigned staff member’s task list. Again, be sure to give some brief (and polite) notes with a due date and priority. A nice additional feature is that you can establish the following settings:

i) “Keep an updated copy of this task on my task list” and;

ii) “Send me a status report when this task is complete”

b) Set Outlook to start on your task or calendar view. This will help get you into the habit of planning your day before your distractions begin. This is even more effective if you schedule specific time blocks aside each day to deal with your administrative tasks, such as responding to and filing email. To set Outlook to start on your calendar view, click “Tools”, then “Options”. From here, choose the “Other” tab, then “Advanced Options”. This window contains a number of General Settings, the first of which is “Startup in this folder:”. Click “Browse”, choose your Calendar, then click OK. That’s it!

2. If you’re setting up a meeting, establish a clear agenda with objectives!

How many meeting requests do you receive that contain an abstract subject line and no notes? Now…how many of those meeting requests have you sent? Disorganized meetings are ineffective and a complete waste of time. Be sure that all of the attendees know what is requested of them and what the meeting is intended to accomplish. Then set a time and stick to it. If you are a participant, show up on time! If you are the organizer, not only show up on time, but start the meeting on time and end the meeting on time. If the objectives cannot be completed within the allotted time, then schedule another meeting in the near future that fits with everyone’s calendar — again, with a clear agenda and objectives. Make sure that you distribute notes after the meeting, and that follow up activities have been identified and assigned to individuals. (Here’s another opportunity to use Outlook Tasks!)

3. Organize your desk. This may sound ridiculous to some of you.

For me, if my work area is cluttered, so is my mind and my productivity levels decline. I find that I’m either constantly looking for “that thing I was working on” or my eye catches something that I forgot to do. Organize your paper and clear your work space, then keep it that way.

4. Establish written goals. Work with your manager to establish 3-5 measurable goals for your role.

Goals should be “SMART”, meaning Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Timely. Once you’ve established your goals, use them as your compass during your daily routine. When you find yourself absorbed with a particular distraction, check your activity against your goals. If you can’t relate that activity to one of your goals, you’re probably not focused on the right tasks. If you are a manager, distribute your own goals to your team to create alignment and unity. I recommend that you revisit and refine your goals quarterly. Business is dynamic, therefore goals may change.

5. Plan your tomorrow today.

Before leaving work in the evening, take 20-30 minutes to look at your calendar for the next day. Check your task list, and schedule chunks of time into your day that are dedicated to accomplishing specific objectives…each of which should be related to your goals. Be sure to set realistic expectations when planning your day, because more than likely there will still only be 24 hours available to you, and only 8-9 of which you should be allocating to work. The trick is to get the most out of the hours that you have, which means reducing distractions, organizing your content and your desk, establishing goals, and planning your day with actionable tasks and objectives.

About the author:
James (“Jamie”) Carroll is the Chief Operating Officer at LifeLearn, Inc. Throughout his 17 year career in the veterinary industry, his experience has accumulated in the areas of organizational leadership, general management, sales & marketing, customer service and business operations. Prior to LifeLearn, Jamie held various roles at IDEXX Laboratories since 1995, particularly in the companion animal group. His other interests include fly fishing, nature, music and literature. His personal blog on various topics can be read at www.DancesWithTrout.com.  A native of the great state of Maine, Jamie now lives in Ontario, Canada with his wife Jodi and his stepson Logan.

The logo must be soundly designed and look good. The aesthetic appeal of a logo, or any piece of art or design for that matter, is subjective and relative to a person’s mood when they view the logo. However, there are fundamentals of design that must be followed to ensure that a logo will appeal to anyone.

The fundamentals include, but are not limited to space, color, form, consistency, and clarity. It is recommended that a design professional have some influence on your logo, whether it be redesign or touching up, to ensure basic design principles are followed. But these are the basics to get you started or to analyze your own logo and whether or not it is time to invest into rebranding

1. Do not use more than three colors.

Line art is not a logo and do not use clipart under any circumstances…think of it this way, anything that can successfully be turned into an ice sculpture or that can easily be converted into black and white is the direction you want to take.

2. No need to be literal.

If you are a veterinary clinic there is no need to have a dog and cat hugging each other under a heart, clients understand that you love animals. You want to portray to your clientele that you are professional, modern, and educated…you take the care of animals seriously, most of all you want your name remembered and they should rely on you to have the answers. That is the image you want to portray.

3. Type must be easy enough for your grandma to read.

Stay away from scripts, funky serifs, or bubble letters. Make the most important part of your logo stand out the most…Your name. Keep it simple, clean and to the point.

4. Completely ignore what your parents and/or spouse think about the design.

Confirm that the logo looks appealing to more than just three (3) individuals. By individuals I mean people that are not employed by you or related to you, they have to be open to giving an honest opinion. Trust the people that tell you how you really look in a bathing suit and those are the ones to trust how your logo looks.

5. Hire a professional

A graphic designer can translate your needs and brand your practice to your specific market. There is more to logo design then meets the eye and a professional can bring more attention to your practice and initiate the branding that you need.  LifeLearn does provide a custom logo service to its customers.  Contact sales@lifelearn.com to find out more.

About the author:
Tammy Grigat is a highly skilled graphic designer at LifeLearn.  She can take the mundane and add her special flare to it to make it beautiful and visually appealing.  Tammy’s everyday life at LifeLearn involves with making WebDVM4 sites beautiful, creating collateral and media kits, and book layouts.  Tammy also has crazy baking skills and makes a super brown sugar cake.

No matter the size of your business, making a decision on which piece of computer software you should use and/or buy is overwhelming.  Should you get software that installs on your computer, internet service providers, cloud software?  Other questions also arise like which social networks should you be on, how do you update everything in a timely matter, and what is FourSquare?

Software can also be pretty expensive, especially if you are a small business.  You don’t want to outlay a lot of capital for software that doesn’t meet your needs or that falls flat of your expectations.

Fortunately there is a new service being developed that can help you make the right decisions for your business.  Best Vendor (http://www.bestvendor.com/) is an online community designed for business professionals to share software that they use and like for different functions of their business.  It will also recommend software for you based on what you have entered previously.  The sign-up process is easy and free.  You will need to share 3 favorite service, cloud, app, or software that you use and sign-in with your Linked In account.  Once you sign in you can add more applications you use and like to associate with your profile.

The strongest part of this service is that you can go through the various categories of software and see what the top ones are and why people like it.  For example the top content management system (CMS) for web development is WordPress.  LifeLearn’s own WebDVM4 is a modified version of WordPress because it is such a versatile platform.  If you want to learn more about the software you can click on the box and it will give you reviews and you can see who else is using the software.

Best Vendor is currently in beta so the data base is still fairly small but over time it should grow nicely and offer your business a lot of options for different software that you may not have had the opportunity to come across before.

About the author:
Kimberley McKay is the Technology Operations Manager at LifeLearn.  She has a love for computers, technology, and general geekdom.    Her everyday life at LifeLearn revolves around web site development, server management, database management, XML conversions, and just about anything else to do with computers.  She is also a mother of two children and a wife to a fantastic IT professional.  Needless to say, her house is outfitted in the latest technology.