Introducing Web Forms for Success: SoftPress Systems’ Freeway Pro and BatchBlue’s BatchBook CRM

This detailed set of screencasts demonstrate the incredibly easy power of Softpress Systems’ Freeway Pro and BatchBlue Software’s Batchbook  Social CRM - as they team up to provide a complete web forms system. The ‘casts start out with a humorous look at the challenges facing a new business owner as she begins to put together the perfect website. The tutorial segments show how  Photogenec Design LLC uses both Freeway Pro and BatchBook to design and develop a comprehensive working web form system. The screencasts provide step-by-step, clear instructions for the design, construction, and implementation of a client-centered web forms program.

Any professional considering the development of their first web form system, or comtemplating upgrading their client management tools should watch these screencasts. View all seven segments in one complete screencast.

Photogenec Design LLC presents a more elegant, focused, and enlightened video resume. We call this concept ‘VideoMe’. In this short career documentary, we shy away from footage of our client walking in office buildings, library halls, beachside venues, and green parks. Instead, we get right to the heart of the matter: The Account of Experience. We deploy high quality stills, screencast techniques, actual resume data, and multimedia portfolios to create an emotional, factual drama. In this production concept, we chose backgrounds of light taupe and pinstripe gray. We matched the subject of the material and the tone of narration with an appropriate soundtrack. One of our production goals was to be able to construct a quality VideoMe in the shortest period of time.

How many Gmail messages have you got stored up? 1000? 2000? 74 Gazillion? If you’re drowning in Gmails and want to reach organizational nirvana – help is just a few video frames away. This Gmail screencast tutorial will show you how to get massively organized by implementing and managing Gmail labels and filters. After you’ve set up your labels and filters, Gmail basically will organize itself. And you can worry about more serious things, like Pepperoni or Sausage!

So, what if you were able to create a note on your MacBook Pro and when you closed the file it automatically sync’d with your PC at work, your iPhone in your chinos, and your Blackberry tucked away in your briefcase. That would be special. The Evernote System has got to be seen to be believed. And perhaps the best reason to install Evernote: It’s free. Play this screencast to get a little touch of the thousand and one ways Evernote can be used. You can install the software at www.evernote.com. Nota Bene!

The Onliner for Proto video is designed to be a Proof of Concept for conference and exhibit kiosks. The production moves quickly, has great music, and gets across its message in a few short minutes. But. . .wouldn’t it be nice to have a web-based outliner that’s a project manager, a collaborator, a notebook, a media library, a. . .

Now we’re finding out that the recruiters and corporate HR managers are searching that same social web to source for open jobs. How ’bout that for a twist! In a recent article on Workforce.com: Discriminatory Twist in Networking Sites Puts Recruiters in Peril, issues surface when recruiters and corporate HR staff prowl sites like LinkedIn for perspective job candidates. Why?

According to latest data from Quantcast, only 5 percent of LinkedIn users are black and only 2 percent are Hispanic. Jessica Roe, managing partner at Bernick, Lifson, Greenstein, Greene & Liszt in Minneapolis says this: “Employers don’t want to pay recruiters, so they take the path of least resistance, but they have to look very carefully at the applicant pool and cast a much broader net. Recruiters are often swept up by the latest process. Minor decisions lead to major consequences.”

LinkedIn has – what?, 40,000,000 profiles. 2 percent Hispanic, 2 percent Black. Do the math.

I suspect if a recruiter or an HR staffer uses a balanced approach (multiple postings, multiple access venues, etc.) to find, collect, and review applicants – minorities are generally good to go. But if there is a tipping toward services like LinkedIn? What then?

So, folks. . .what do you think?

[1] Listening [2] Seeing [3] Experiencing

For example, officer worker #1 is told not to use the freight elevator simply because it may be more convenient. He listens, understands, and obeys. That would be an example of a Listening Learning Style. Office worker #2 watches his supervisor catch his buddy use the freight elevator. The buddy has done this several times. The buddy is fired. This would be an example of a Seeing Learning Style. Office worker #3 decides to test his supervisor’s warning and uses the freight elevator himself. Exposed, he is ushered into the supervisor’s office and given a written warning. This then would be considered an example of an Experiencing Learning Style.

You might want to amble to Vark.com and take their Learning Styles questionnaire: What Learning Style Do You Subscribe To?

Okay, so here’s the meat of it: is a learning style deeply entrenched in your DNA or can external forces affect it, change it? I would vote for the latter. I used to be a book learner. I would gobble up product documentation and user manuals like Goobers and Raisinettes. My office walls were lined with 700 page user manuals on HTTP, Adobe Illustrator, Macintosh OS, etc. For me now, those listening, reading days are gone. I’ve metamorphosed into a visual (seeing) learner.

Visual learning is as close to actual doing as education can get. You might opt for Experiencing, but that style is all about trial and error with no coach around to set you straight. Life would be close to perfect if every furniture kit from IKEA came with a step-by-step instructional video. Maybe now you’re starting to get my point.

I’m a big fan of Lynda.com and ScreencastsOnLine.com – two popular hangouts for visual learners. At Lynda.com, I can take a four hour comprehensive class – broken up into 5 – 7 minute technical bites. Thirty minutes into the online session, I’m already productive. At ScreencastsOnLine.com, I can review ‘casts on the latest Macintosh technologies in just minutes.

Why is it that many teens need to listen to music or the television in order to study? It’s generational. Go ahead and complete their trinity by giving them visual training. There’s not one textbook publisher that does not have some type of online visual learning project on the boards. Recently a new product, Screenr (Articulate Global, Inc.) let’s Twitter users send short video bursts to friends and family. Students can now use Jing to record parts of lectures online.

Kids with this type of visual learning background will soon be knocking at your company for jobs and careers. If you don’t have the types of training programs they like, these new workers will either fall behind or leave. And they may eventually become multi-millionaires for some other company.

So what is your learning style? Comment here.