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About Patrice

Patrice-Anne Rutledge is a business technology author and consultant who specializes in social media, online collaboration, and presentation technologies.
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Sams Teach Yourself Basecamp in 10 Minutes Now Available

Filed Under Book News, Online Collaboration | Leave a Comment

My latest book, Sams Teach Yourself Basecamp in 10 Minutes, has just been released. This easy-to-ready guide offers straightforward, practical answers when you need fast results.

By working through quick, 10-minute lessons, you’ll learn everything you need to know to manage projects easily, efficiently, and collaboratively with Basecamp, the world’s leading online project management system.

Stay tuned for the latest news, a book excerpt, media links, and tips you can use to make the most of Basecamp as a project management tool.

Build Buzz and Community with Blog Talk Radio

Filed Under Audio & Video, Social Media & Social Networking | Leave a Comment

Video may be generating a lot of buzz on the social web right now, but audio is still a great way to connect with your audience and build community. Podcasting is one good option; a live talk radio show is another. Only a few years ago hosting your own radio show wasn’t exactly an easy thing to do, but services such as Blog Talk Radio have changed all that. Hosting a show is now a fairly simple process, but the quality and content of your show is still what’s most important.

In his entertaining and informative book, Your Show Will Go Live in 5 Seconds: Confessions of a Blog Talk Radio Host (also available as an ebook) show host and author Jon Hansen provides detailed guidance on how to make your show a success. I’ve been a guest on Jon’s Blog Talk Radio show, PI Window on Business, several times and he’s an excellent host with solid advice to share.

Try Out the Microsoft Office 2010 Beta

Filed Under Software | Leave a Comment

If you’re a Microsoft Office user, check out the new Microsoft Office 2010 beta that’s now available for download. I’ve been using Office 2010 since the initial Technical Preview this summer and, overall, like a lot of the new features. In particular, I’m liking the new collaboration, co-authoring, and video features and look forward to trying out the mobile and web apps when they’re available.

Show Off Your Social Media Expertise with Blog-Off II

Filed Under Social Media & Social Networking | Leave a Comment

I was recently invited to be one of the evaluators for the Blog-Off II social media blogging contest, to take place on the Community Marketing blog between December 1st and 12th. Blog-Off II is now offering more than $45,000 worth of prizes, including extensive international media coverage for the winners.

blogoff2

If you’re interested in demonstrating your expertise in social media and blogging, and are interested in competing for some of these cool prizes, check out the details about Blog-Off II.

Save a Tree with an Eco-Save Badge

Filed Under Green Technology | Leave a Comment

Want your readers to retain copies of their favorite posts on your blog without wasteful printing? Place an Eco-Safe badge on your blog to give readers three eco-friendly alternative to printing: emailing HTML, emailing a PDF, or downloading a PDF. If you use WordPress, you can install a plug-in designed specifically for WordPress.

Best of all, the badge takes only a few minutes to install.

Safari Books Online Free Trial

Filed Under Tech Tools & Gadgets | Leave a Comment

safari

Safari Books Online is offering a free 10-day trial. Safari includes more than 8,500 books and videos on technology and business topics, including many of my recent titles!

Link Your LinkedIn and Twitter Accounts

Filed Under LinkedIn | 2 Comments

LinkedIn and Twitter just announced a new partnership that will integrate the two social sites. Essentially, the new integration enables you to share your LinkedIn status updates on Twitter and to send your tweets to your LinkedIn connections. Fortunately, you do have some control over what you share and with whom you share it.

To get started, go to the Edit My Profile page on LinkedIn and click the Add Twitter Account link (you can also access this from the Account & Settings page). Indicate whether you want to display your Twitter account on your profile and whether you want to send all your tweets to LinkedIn or only those you specify with the #in hashtag (#li also works).

LinkedIn Twitter Integration

Now when you post a tweet on Twitter, it appears as a status update on LinkedIn. If you choose to share only selected tweets, you’ll see the hashtag at the end of your update.

If you want to change these settings at any time, just go back to the Edit My Profile page to edit or remove your Twitter integration.

Recommended Reading: Sams Teach Yourself LinkedIn in 10 Minutes

The Truth About Profiting from Social Networking Released in French

Filed Under Book News | Leave a Comment

Socialnet_French

Les Éditions Transcontinental, a well-known publisher in Montréal, just released a French translation of The Truth About Profiting from Social Networking in October 2009. Tirer Profit du Réseautage Social is the book’s title in French.

Stay tuned for more news about media interviews in La Presse and Sympatico.ca.

Favorite LinkedIn Features?

Filed Under LinkedIn | Leave a Comment

I’m doing some research for a new LinkedIn project and I’d like to know about the LinkedIn features you use most. If you’re interested in seeing what others have to say, the live results will appear in my left sidebar for the rest of the year. Thanks for your input!

LinkedIn Introduces Profile Organizer

Filed Under LinkedIn, Social Media & Social Networking | Leave a Comment

LinkedIn just introduced its new Profile Organizer feature, which enables you to save and organize LinkedIn member profiles into folders. This is a great tool for recruiters, entrepreneurs, and job seekers who want to bookmark and track profiles of interest. You can also add notes to profiles you manage in the Profile Organizer.

The only catch? You need to upgrade to one of LinkedIn’s premium plans to take advantage of Profile Organizer. With a Business Account at $24.95 a month, for example, you can create up to five folders for storing profiles. The Business Account also enables you to send InMail, participate in the OpenLink Network, and save multiple search results, among other things.

Few people may upgrade to a premium account just to take advantage of Profile Organizer, but it’s definitely a worthwhile tool if you’re already a premium account holder or have been thinking about upgrading.

Here’s a quick intro to LinkedIn’s Profile Organizer: