Getting Over Google Reader

Have you heard the news about Google Reader? (In case you hadn't, here's the low down.) The official date to say goodbye is July 1, 2013.

I'm sad to see a tool with such potential shut down, especially considering my affection for most Google products.

Did you know? You can use Google Takeout to download your Google Reader data.

I've been trying to reorganize the blogs that I follow recently, as I tried stepping back from Facebook as my preferred method for updates. So, I went through and relabeled, reorganized, unsubscribed and resubscribed. That's when I heard about the announcement.

I'm looking at this as an opportunity to start fresh... again.

I've taken a look at a few alternatives, like Feedly, Bloglines, Google Currents, Good Noows and Taptu.

I haven't found anything that I like as much as Google Reader. But, I think Feedly is my favorite option so far.

Have you settled on one yet? Let me know in the comments.

Jenna Weiner is a rather geeky girl with average social skills and an affinity for: Google Apps, Salesforce.com, Pinterest, Firefly, dresses, indoor plants and life-hacking. Have a suggestion for a post or a question? Feel free to get in touch. Email: rathergeeky@gmail.com Twitter: @RatherGeeky LinkedIn: View My Profile

Video Tutorial: How To Use a List of Record IDs as a Report Filter in Salesforce

I sometimes have to generate reports based on specific record ids.

I've found a little trick to format these ids (if they are in a list) so that I can pop them in as either a report or list view filter.

View the tutorial by clicking on the screencapture below.

Jenna Weiner is a rather geeky girl with average social skills and an affinity for: Google Apps, Salesforce.com, Pinterest, Firefly, dresses, indoor plants and life-hacking. Have a suggestion for a post or a question? Feel free to get in touch. Email: rathergeeky@gmail.com Twitter: @RatherGeeky LinkedIn: View My Profile

How I Changed My Attitude Toward Internal Tech Support

In the past, I've been inclined to have an 'it'll be quicker if I do it' attitude when it comes to providing tech support.

An important point to keep in mind if you're going to educate vs. enable is this: It's probably not going to save you time right now. You've got to think long term.

I recently realized that I was training my coworkers to be dependent on me. I decided I'd much rather educate than enable.

My new perspective:

• I want to be prompt, polite and helpful.
• I want the person I'm helping to be able to remember what I showed them.
• In-person sessions can be useful but often forgettable and not everyone has the time.

With those points in mind, I've been putting a few handy apps and practices to good use to help me educate more and enable less.

Continue reading to find out why it doesn't always work, the name of my favorite app and how the magic actually happens.

Combining, Segmenting and Managing Salesforce Campaigns with AppExchange Apps

Recently, I faced a rather daunting task to launch a 2-part multi-segment marketing campaign of around 14,000 members.

It is possible to use out-of-the-box tools plus a few free apps to create segmented campaigns and get your sales team involved in campaign planning.

In our org, we've been managing our campaigns for 5+ years using the standard Campaign object, but we're definitely feeling the need for a marketing automation tool that would make this process a whole lot easier.

But for now, we've got Campaigns.

I thought I'd share my process if you too are not in a position to invest in a marketing automation tool.

Step 1: Define criteria to add contacts to campaign. 

We wanted to pull in active contacts (custom picklist field) based on the most recently won Opportunity for the Account that they belong to (custom rollup field on account). So, I created a report with those criteria. Then, I added them all to one big "For Review" campaign using the 'Add to Campaign' button. You'll find out why in Step 3.