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Automotive Social Media Reputation Management

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Check Your Email: How Many Times a Day?

The Cost of Continuously Checking Email

Suppose each time you ran low on an item in your kitchen—olive oil, bananas, napkins—your instinctive response was to drop everything and race to the store. How much time would you lose? How much money would you squander on gas? What would happen to your productivity?

We all recognize the inefficiency of this approach. And yet surprisingly, we often work in ways that are equally wasteful.

The reason we keep a shopping list and try to keep supermarket trips to a minimum is that it's easy to see the cost of driving to the store every time we crave a bag of potato chips. What is less obvious to us, however, is the cognitive price we pay each time we drop everything and switch activities to satisfy a mental craving.

Shifting our attention from one task to another, as we do when we're monitoring email while trying to read a report or craft a presentation, disrupts our concentration and saps our focus. Each time we return to our initial task, we use up valuable cognitive resources reorienting ourselves. And all those transitional costs add up. Research shows that when we are deeply engrossed in an activity, even minor distractions can have a profound effect. According to a University of California-Irvine study, regaining our initial momentum following an interruption can take, on average, upwards of 20 minutes.

Multitasking, as many studies have shown, is a mythA more accurate account of what happens when we tell ourselves we're multitasking is that we're rapidly switching between activities, degrading our clarity and depleting our mental energy. And the consequences can be surprisingly serious . An experiment conducted at the University of London found that we lose as many as 10 IQ points when we allow our work to be interrupted by seemingly benign distractions like emails and text messages.

The trouble, of course, is that multitasking is enjoyable. It's fun to indulge your curiosity. Who knows what that next email, tweet or text message holds in store? Finding out provides immediate gratification. In contrast, resisting distraction and staying on-task requires discipline and mental effort.

And yet each time we shift our focus, it's as if we're taking a trip to the store. Creativity expert Todd Henry calls it a "task-shifting penalty." We pay a mental tax that diminishes our ability to produce high-level work.

So what are we to do?

One tactic is to change our environment to move temptation further away: shut down your email program or silence your phone.  It's a lot easier to stay on task when you're not continuously fending off mental cravings. This approach doesn't require going off the grid for a full day. Even as little as 30 minutes can have a major impact on your productivity.

The alternative, which most of us consider the norm, is the cognitive equivalent of dieting in a pastry shop. We can all muster the willpower to resist the temptations, but doing so comes with considerable costs to our limited supply of willpower.

Another worthwhile approach is to cluster similar activities together, keeping ramp-up time to a minimum. Instead of scattering phone calls, meetings, administrative work, and emails throughout your day, try grouping related tasks so that there are fewer transitions. Read reports, memos and articles one after another. Schedule meetings back-to-back. Keep a list of administrative tasks and do them all in a single weekly session. If possible, try limiting email to 2 or 3 predetermined times—for example 8:30, 12:00 and 4:30—instead of responding to them the moment they arrive.

In some jobs, multitasking is unavoidable. Some of us truly do need to stay connected to our clients, colleagues, and managers. Here, it's worth noting that limiting disruptions is not an all or nothing proposition. Even small changes can make a big difference.

Remember: it's up to you to protect your cognitive resources. The more you do to minimize task-switching over the course of the day, the more mental bandwidth you'll have for activities that actually matter.


Ron Friedman, Ph.D. is the founder of ignite80, a consulting firm that helps leaders build thriving organizations, and the author of the forthcoming book, The Best Place to Work: The Art and Science of Creating an Extraordinary Workplace. Connect with him @ronfriedman. To receive an email when he posts, click here.


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Ralph Paglia | President 
ADM Advertising & Consulting, LLC
2701 N. Rainbow Blvd., Suite 2202

Las Vegas, NV 89108

W http://AutomotiveSocial.com 

http://RalphPaglia.com 

http://LinkedIn.com/in/RPaglia

http://Facebook.com/RPaglia 

Twitter and Instagram: @RalphPaglia 

Hire the "Godfather of Digital Marketing" for Your Dealership.


Your dealership can work directly with Ralph Paglia, the auto industry's most experienced and business savvy coach, adviser and consultant on all matters related to Automotive Digital Marketing. 



[Sent from Ralph Paglia's iPhone]

Ralph Paglia | President 
ADM Advertising & Consulting, LLC
2701 N. Rainbow Blvd., Suite 2202

Las Vegas, NV 89108

505-301-6369 (Caller ID Required)

801-340-8918

E RPaglia@gmail.com  

W http://AutomotiveSocial.com 


http://RalphPaglia.com 

http://LinkedIn.com/in/RPaglia

http://Facebook.com/RPaglia 

Twitter and Instagram: @RalphPaglia 

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Hootsuite Launches Social Media Consulting Team


Build a better social media strategy

62% of businesses struggle with social media strategy.* That's why we introduced Hootsuite Social Media Consulting: to provide businesses with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in social from proven industry-experts (that's us.)

If you're finding it difficult to establish yourself in social media, or even take things to the next level, let our expert team of Consultants and Coaches get your social media strategy up to speed and working for your business.

Here's what you can expect:

Social Strategy Consultation 
Learn how to achieve your social media goals during this in-depth, hour-long session with a Hootsuite Social Media Consultant.

Customized social media strategy toolkit 
A valuable resource toolkit that outlines the challenges your business faces and includes specific actions for success.

Hootsuite Product Training & Dashboard Customization 
We'll show you how to set up the Hootsuite Dashboard to streamline your workflow and make the most of your new social media strategy.

Scheduled Check-In 
After you've had the chance to start implementing your new strategy, we'll connect with you to see how you're doing and where you may need extra support.

For a limited time, you save $100 on Hootsuite Social Media Consulting. This special offer is only valid until February 19, so sign up today and make your 2015 social strategy a success.

Connect with us. We'd love to work with you.

Julia Freeman
Online Manager | Hootsuite

*2014 Hootsuite Social Business Benchmark Report conducted by Harris Poll


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Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Speed Dating Prank | 2015 Ford Mustang | Ford.com


Speed Dating Prank In A 2015 Ford Mustang! Chick Can DRIVE!

In the name of Valentine's day, Ford decided to seize the opportunity to do a little bit of speed dating, with an emphasis on "SPEED." The line of men had no idea that this beautiful woman was actually a professional stunt driver.


When the woman hopped in the 2015 Ford Mustang with each of her dates, the dramatic irony grew as the professional driver claimed that she had no idea what she was doing behind the wheel. When getting off of the road to "turn around" she unleashed every last pony under the hood of the Ford! http://youtu.be/3Nyr1Ao7iZA 


Hidden cameras were there to pick up on all of the action as none of these guys quite looked like they knew what to do! http://youtu.be/3Nyr1Ao7iZA 


If we were to recommend that Ford do one thing differently, we would suggest that they throw a Mustang fanatic in the mix next time and see how it turns out!: http://youtu.be/3Nyr1Ao7iZA 



http://youtu.be/3Nyr1Ao7iZA


[Sent from Ralph Paglia's iPhone]

Ralph Paglia | President 
ADM Consulting, LLC
2701 N. Rainbow Blvd.

Las Vegas, NV 89108

http://AutomotiveSocial.com 

http://RalphPaglia.com 

http://LinkedIn.com/in/RPaglia

http://Facebook.com/RPaglia 

Twitter and Instagram: @RalphPaglia