A2Z Computer Services | Henderson, KY Computer Repair, Website Design, Corporate IT Solutions | Page 4 | Corporate I.T. Solutions, Computer Repair and Web Design in Henderson, KY

10 Second PC Boot Up [VIDEO]

September 21, 2011 by Quincy Zikmund Leave a Comment

This is a PC that we recently built for a customer. This is an Intel Core i7 based computer with a Crucial 64 GB Solid State Hard Drive and a Western Digital 1TB drive for storage. The boot up time for this PC is about 10 seconds. I don’t mean just 10 seconds until you see your desktop, but 10 seconds until everything is loaded and ready for use. Most people think that only a Mac can load this fast. While Macs are great, some people are simply a PC.

The customer that we built this system for plans to use it for video editing. Aside from the large storage and fast processor, this computer is loaded with many other features for beautiful video editing.

A2Z Computer Services can build the perfect computer for all of your needs, whether it’s for home or business use. Just give us a call at (270) 830-9590 or come by our store in downtown Henderson.

Facebook Contests: Do’s and Don’ts

September 20, 2011 by Quincy Zikmund Leave a Comment

Facebook contests and giveaways are very popular these days. It’s rare to not see posts from friends who have just entered to win a gift card or an iPad. It’s just as rare to not see posts from company pages that you like promoting their latest sweepstakes and how you can win. Contests are a great way to generate buzz about your brand on the largest social network around. However, there are a few problems that many businesses run into when it comes to making Facebook contests a part of their social media strategy. Below is just the tip of the iceberg that I hope will create some conversation and get you thinking about the use of contests in your social media strategy.

You are not allowed to run contests on the Facebook platform.

According to Facebook’s Promotional Guidelines, companies are not allowed to run contests or giveaways using the Facebook platform. This means that you can’t ask a question in a post and randomly pick a winner from the comment thread. You’re also not allowed to run a contest through voting in your photo albums. Essentially, if a tool or feature is native to Facebook you’re not allowed to use it for running your contest.

So what is the right way to run a contest? Third party applications. These applications integrate with Facebook but they are not part of Facebook, they are not running on Facebook’s servers. These applications allow you to run fan generated contests, sweepstakes and other types of promotions. This is the only way that Facebook allows you to run contests. Unfortunately, many either ignore this rule or simply don’t know it exists. You’re also not allowed to announce contest winners using the Facebook platform. Winners must be contacted in private through email, phone or some other method.

It’s important to run your contests the right way so that you won’t potentially lose all that you’ve worked for in building your Facebook presence.

The contest is over. Now what?

Picture this: Today is the big day. For the past month your company has been running and promoting a sweepstakes on your Facebook page to give away an excellent prize. You check your page insights and see that your interactions, impressions and new likes have skyrocketed over the last few weeks. You’ve managed to gain hundreds, maybe even thousands of new likes on the page. You’re ecstatic. All these new people have seen your logo and shown interest in your company (or at least the contest). You draw the winner, give them their prize and thank all the entrants for participating. You go home for the weekend and relax knowing that you have succeeded on Facebook. Monday morning comes and you sign into Facebook as soon as you sit down at your desk. You pull up your company page, click the text box to begin writing a post when you suddenly stop and think “What now?”

As I said before, running contests through Facebook is an excellent way to generate buzz, gain more likes and to simply show community appreciation. I also believe that these special promotions can be a part of everyone’s social media strategy in some form or fashion. However, contests cannot be your entire social media strategy. If you do nothing but continually run contests how will your business truly benefit? You may have 10,000 likes on your Facebook page or 10,000 followers on Twitter but are those individuals truly relevant to your business? You need to provide true value to your online community or else they will leave. If they don’t care about your products or service then they will probably leave as soon as the contest is over. Give your followers a reason to stick around, give something of value.

Your business needs a social media strategy that makes education and customer service a priority. Yes, you should grow your page as time goes on with various promotions. But the true value lies in the content that you’re putting out there and the conversation that takes place around your brand daily.

Our goal at A2Z is to help businesses use social media in a way that is effective in giving value to the online community, creating awareness about your products and services and bringing you more business. Contests help but they cannot do it all.

Are contests part of your social media strategy? Based on what you read above, are you running them the right way?

First Thoughts on Google Plus

July 13, 2011 by A2Z Computer Services Inc 2 Comments

Last week, all of us at A2Z finally received our invites for Google Plus (Google+). In this post, I’m going to share a few of my initial thoughts, reactions and expectations after a few days of exploring Google’s brand new social networking site.

The Design

Upon entering Google+ for the first time there were a few things that instantly caught my attention. The first of these being the minimalist design and layout. Everywhere you go on the site, you see a lot of white space and the content is given center stage. A clean and minimal design is not only easy on the eyes, but it also makes navigation simple and quick and lets you focus on the content and interaction. Another great feature to the design and integration of Google Plus is the gray toolbar that we recently saw show up at the of the page when you’re logged into your Google account. This not only allows the user to switch from Google Plus to Gmail to your Calendar and more, but it also sports a notification box for your Google Plus, allowing you to receive notifications regardless of which tool you’re using in your Google account.

Your Profile

As with the rest of the social networking site, your profile sticks with the same minimalist look. You have your information page that displays all of the information about yourself that you choose to put out there. With each piece of information that you place on your About page, you also choose the type of people that you want that to be available to (i.e. Friends, Family, Everyone, etc.). Your Posts tab simply shows all of your posts that you’ve sent out. Your profile does not have a wall for people to write on. All interaction is done from the stream, which essentially makes sharing and interacting a hybrid between Facebook and Twitter.

Circles

Circles have been of the most talked about feature in Google Plus. Rather than sending friend requests like on Facebook, Google Plus allows you to add people to various Circles that you have created. Just because you add them to your Circle, doesn’t mean they have to add you. It’s the equivalent to following people on Twitter and adding them to a list. Another plus (no pun intended) to this feature is that allows you to be selective with who you share posts with. Let’s say that your Circles are titled Family, Friends, Co-Workers and Clients. If you’re sharing an update about your vacation, you may not want that seen by clients, but only friends and family. Likewise, not everything you share with clients may be relevant to your cousins. Circles makes online sharing and interaction a little more similar to interacting with your different circles of friends in real life.

Hangouts

Hangouts allows you to do group video chat with your Google Plus connections. This may not be something that everyone will have need of, but I can see this really being used for online business meetings, study groups, etc.

Closing Thoughts

It seems that after a few failed attempts at social networking, Google has finally struck gold. Google Plus is estimated to hit 20 Million users this weekend and admission to the site is still by invitation only. Admission to Google Plus will be available to the public on July 31st. This makes Google Plus the fastest growing social network ever. There’s a lot of talk about how Google Plus could take down Facebook or even knock out Twitter and to be honest, it’s hard to fully agree with that. Will some people leave those sites altogether to put more focus on this new site? Maybe. Most people, though, will not completely leave Facebook, even the ones who have been feeling “Facebook fatigue” lately. I see great success in Google’s social networking future and look forward to seeing more updates and refinements to the site.

15 Year Anniversary & an iPad Giveaway

June 1, 2011 by A2Z Computer Services Inc Leave a Comment

Happy first day of June to everyone. June is a special month for all of us here at A2Z Computer Services. This month we’re celebrating our 15 year anniversary. Time really flies when you’re doing something you love for such a great community. We’re so thankful for all of the continued support that we’ve received from all of you in Henderson, Owensboro, Evansville and the rest of the tri-state area. We couldn’t do this without you and simply cannot thank you enough.

We’re also happy to announce that we are completely settled into our new office located at 19 S Main Street and we already feel right at home. Downtown Henderson is such a beautiful place and is full of some great local businesses that all deserve the wonderful support that our community gives them. We’re lucky and blessed to call them our neighbors.

Because this month marks our 15 year anniversary, we’ve decided to invite you to celebrate with us. Throughout this month we will be showing our appreciation for all of our customers and clients with a variety of specials, a giveaway and even a customer appreciation day with some delicious food. (Yes, this includes Kenny’s famous buffalo wings!) We will posting updates throughout the month so that you won’t miss out on any of the fun and excitement.

Now, onto the giveaway. During the month of June we will be running a sweepstakes from our Facebook page to give one lucky winner a brand new iPad 2. Entering is easy. All you have to do is visit our Facebook page, click the “Sweepstakes” tab under our profile picture and fill out the entry form. We will announce the winner on June 30th. Good luck to everyone!

Stay tuned for more updates about our anniversary celebration month. Until next time!

Used Computers for Sale

May 18, 2011 by A2Z Computer Services Inc Leave a Comment

We’re often asked by customers if we sell used computers. While we don’t always have them in stock, we occasionally do. In this post we are going to show you a few that we currently have. If you have any other questions regarding these systems or would like to purchase one, please give us a call at (270) 830-9590 or contact us here.