Wouldn't
it be great if you did not have to deal with the minutia of everyday
life and instead could delegate repetitive tasks to technology? Well,
you can! While there is not one all encompassing application or
website that can take over your whole digital life, I have been using
a number of services that may be useful for promoting your music and
trying to make a name for yourself.
Here
is a quick introduction to the essentials:
www.ifttt.com
is a web service that connects other web applications to each other.
There are 68 different 'channels' (such as the weather, email,
Facebook, Dropbox, YouTube etc.) that may be used in each 'recipe' as
'triggers' and 'actions'.
While
everyone is probably familiar with Google's Calendar web application
and its capabilities with reminders and scheduling of conflicting
events, I find it an effective hub for all of my events and related
information.
Google's
Gmail is another staple for completing tasks. Two of the most useful
features are canned responses and filters. The best uses of these are
in combination. For example, any email that contains (or does not
contain) certain words can trigger a pre-written email in response.
www.dropbox.com
is a synchronising application in the form of a shared folder that
you install on your computer. It automatically synchronises any
chosen folder or file with the cloud and it very simple to use. The
Dropbox folder will appear on your computer and all you need to do it
drag and drop files or folders into the Dropbox folder. Another user
or computer that has Dropbox has the ability to view or share these
files once access has been granted by the folder administrator. Any
changes made to these shared files is then applied across everyone's
Dropbox.
If
you have ever wanted to schedule an email for later or recurring
multiple times, www.lettermelater.com
is for you. In addition, you can use this service from your email
account.
While
www.mailchimp.com
is commonly used, the advantage of www.campayn.com
is that its free plan has autoresponders, allowing you to
automatically send an email once a user has been added to your list.
Here
is an example of how these services can be utilised together:
As
a gigging musician and teacher, I like to promote the gigs I am
playing but often forget to post anything on Facebook. Enter
www.ifttt.com
as the connection between my event in Google Calendar and the
Facebook page that I would post my event to. While we are on the
subject of Facebook and Dropbox, I have another www.ifttt.com
recipe that 'automagically' downloads any photos,that I am tagged in,
straight to my Dropbox. When a new student is added to my roster, I
add them to a list on my Campayn account. This then triggers an
autoresponder that sends them an email with all of the information
they will need. Presto!
What
about reminding students about their upcoming lesson? While this is a
little more complicated in that it uses four services and a bit more
technical know-how, the time saved is completely worth it. I use a
custom recipe on Yahoo pipes (this requires a little more knowledge
of programming, file types and general technology) to filter and
reorder the Google Calendar rss feed for only tomorrows lesson
entries. www.ifttt.com
then reads the vital information, such as the email address to send
it to and start and finish times, as well as the payment details and
sends the prewritten email with this information inserted more than
24 hours before their lesson.
Setting
Profiles for Android (and there are several similar applications for
iOS) is a handy application that can control your phone's settings
such as wallpaper, wifi/data, bluetooth, sound and more that renders
your so-called 'smart phone' actually smart. I use it to read my
calendar events and set my phone to silent during travel, gigs and
teaching. In addition, if I receive a call that miss during one of
these times, the application will sms the caller to let them know
that I will call them back as soon as possible.
Scheduling
emails is easy with www.lettermelater.com.
After you have set up an account, just send your email (with in your
usual email program) to me@lettermelater.com
with
the subject and body of your email as you would normally, but with
the addition of "to:", the email address of the person you
are sending it to and on the next line "when:" with the day
and time. Press send and it will arrive at your intended recipient at
the right time. Awesome!
Sign
up for these services, explore the premade recipes and if you find
one that makes your life easier please share it with me
at www..facebook.com/sonicedwardsmusic.
Edited by Peter Muldoon - Original article appeared in Mouthzoff Magazine
For more info on how I work, see my previous article:
http://sonicedwards.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/im-sonic-edwards-and-this-is-how-i-work.html
No comments:
Post a Comment