Administrative
Assistant's
Professional Development for Canada's Office Support Staff
What's your
number?
You get to the end of a voicemail you need to return, when
the caller blurts out her phone
number or email address so
fast you have no idea what
she said. Replaying it over and
over doesn't help if the person
has mumbled. The best-case
scenario is that you eventually
figure it out, but you've wasted
a ton of time. When you're
leaving someone your phone
number, suggests Marty Clarke
of office Canada magazine,
read it off your business card.
When you just say it from
memory you're more likely to
say it too quickly or pause at
the wrong times. Reading it out
loud forces you to slow down
and say each number clearly,
giving the listener the time they
need to write it down.
Source: www.officecanada.ca
Inside
Organizing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Great tips for your cubicle from a
professional organizer.
Business reading. . . . . . . . . 3
Check out these business blogs.
Cubicle etiquette . . . . . . . . . 5
How to avoid the little habits that
annoy others around you.
SEO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
How you can help your company
move up in Google searches.
UPDATE
September 2013
Keyboards are obsolete
How physical objects are being replaced by digital ones
By Joyce Grant
You haven't seen
anything with respect
to technology like you
will in the next five
years, according to
technology guru Jim
Spellos.
"It's getting faster
and faster. And you've
got to keep up," he
told admins at the
14th Annual Administrative Professionals
Conference this year in
Toronto.
Spellos said that the
new technology can be
summed up in three words: mobile,
social, local.
"We all have mobile devices and
they're changing the way we're doing business," he said. "We live in
a post-PC era. We're in the mobile
era, the era of smartphones."
Many of the biggest organizations, including Google, Amazon,
eBay and Apple, incorporate the
mobile, social, local point of view.
He challenged audience members to think about their own
company's website and whether
it adheres to the "mobile, social,
local" philosophy. Can customers
interact well with the website on
their smartphone or tablet, and are
they able to easily get in touch with
someone who can address their local needs?
Can people easily share informa-
tion from your website on social
media platforms like Facebook?
Gone and (nearly) forgotten
As new technology is embraced,
there are many products that are
all but obsolete, he said. Consider
how no one uses eight-tracks or
cassettes any more. Similarly, CDs
are on their way out. What's next?
"Your wallet is obsolete. Cash and
credit cards? How 1960s." Spellos
said people are using e-transactions
more and storing financial information on their smartphone. Apps like
Key Ring let you scan corporate
loyalty cards and coupons onto
your smartphone so you don't have
to carry them around with you.
He said even keyboards are on
their way out.
Continued on page 7
