It works like this: You get an account, then, you connect all the apps and other SaaS tools you already use to Zapier.

Trello, Asana, Gmail, MailChimp, PayPal, Evernote, social media platforms, Slack, Dropbox, and Salesforce are just a few examples of the apps that Zapier can integrate with.

Then, you create ‘zaps’ – basically ‘if this then that’ sort of rules. For example, you might connect your Gmail account to your Trello board so that when a new customer request comes in, it's automatically added to your workstack.

By improving the integration between apps, you can give your team more time to focus on what's important you can help improve your team’s productivity.
 

2. CoSchedule 
 

CoSchedule is a way for you to schedule and manage your digital marketing. From publishing a blog post to promoting something on social media, CoSchedule makes the process far easier and slicker (not to mention a lot more automatic).

It works by sitting within your WordPress CMS and acting as a re-skin of your normal back-end. For companies with many writers or different (non-writer) contributing team members, it’s a brilliant tool. CoSchedule:

And it integrates with the Google suite including analytics, so you can track and optimise your content over time.

 

3. Time Doctor 
 

We thought about excluding Time Doctor, but decided the potential gains outweigh the heebie-jeebies it gives us.

Time Doctor allows you to track what your team does. For example, how much time is spent on email, how much on other apps (e.g. Slack, QuickBooks etc.), how much time is spent in meetings for each individual team member. 
 

Naturally, this can be pretty weird pretty quick – after all, if Joe is delivering, who cares if he works for 1 hour and plays Farmville for the remaining 7?

But if we step back and look at the whole picture, Time Doctor is superb for helping teams figure out as a team where there are inefficiencies – are you meeting too often? Is your administration eating up too much of your team’s time?

These sorts of insights can help you with hiring new staff, keeping your team focused, and distributing workload efficiently.

  

4. iDoneThis
 iDoneThis is like a daily status update of what each member of a team has done. You list all the things you’ve done, then at the end of the day, that list gets sent to your manager (or whoever you want).  

For balancing workload and keeping your team focused and motivated, iDoneThis is a brilliant tool. Plus, if you are the sort of team that would appreciate a bit of healthy competition, it’s an easy way to encourage it.

Proceed with caution though – this sort of micro tracking and progress updating doesn’t work in every environment, so think carefully before you roll it out. Maybe try it first with your own boss before you roll it out to your entire digital team.

 

 

Yammer is a social network that’s entirely focused on your business. In order to join your business’s Yammer network, your team member must have a working email address from your company’s domain.

In order to segregate relevant information to specific team members, you can create groups that will help reduce the noise in the Newsfeed.

Users can share posts with specific groups simply by utilizing the drop down menus below the Update box (which is similar to Facebook’s Status Box).

At its core, Slack operates in channels.  A company can create channels to track and archive conversations around teams and projects in order to get things done. Slack’s search feature ensures that you will never “lose” a conversation about a project.

Skype allows audio and video calls between multiple devices.  In other words, one person could be on a laptop and another can be on their phone. One of the most prominent features we use here at Time Doctor is the group call.  We routinely have 4, 5, and 6 people on a call from time zones all over the world.

And yes, if you’ve ever used Skype, you may have run into reliability issues.  But for the longest time, it was the best bang for your buck. (Now rivaled by Google Hangouts.  See below.)

Technology is used for many purposes:

-entertainment

-information

-communication

Thinking before you search or post is important. Being accountable for your actions is important. Using technology appropriately is important.

Examples of INAPPROPRIATE USE:

-searching inappropriate topics, sending inappropriate information or pictures, using it to bully/intimidate/threaten

Finding a balance between technology use and other activities is important.

Examples of INAPPROPRIATE TIMES TO USE IT:

-when your undivided attention or focus is required (when listening to a teacher, when engaging in a face to face conversation, while walking/crossing the road, while driving (watch YouTube clip), when you should be sleeping)

There are several legal issues to be aware of when using technology:

-copyright

-plagiarism

-illegal downloading

-identity theft

-sending spam

-hacking

-privacy

-cyberbullying

http://www.digizen.org/kids/

http://digitalcitizenship4kids.weebly.com/digital-law.html

Resources