Join us as at  the first ever Medical IT Expo in Naples, Florida on Tuesday, November 29th from 12:00pm to 5:00pm at the Naples Hilton Hotel.

Come see the latest in medical information technology in all OS desktop and mobile platforms, OS X, iOS, Blackberry, Windows & Android. Come visit manufacturers from the industry providing medical solutions for your practice, whether you’re a Doctor, Dentist, Pharmacist, Nurse or Chiropractor. You will find your latest Medical IT solutions here.

BluMoon Solutions is an official IT/Reseller Partner at the Medical IT Expo so make sure to come on down and ask us any questions you may have!

About the Medical IT Expo

The Expo is about computer systems for research and diagnosis (functional and beam diagnostics, laboratory tests, etc.); Computerization of the system mass screening and prevention; Electronic medical records and hospital records; Performance management system of medical institutions and health authorities; Computer systems in Pharmacy; Computer systems of health insurance; Computer systems in dentistry, etc. The Medical IT Expo will provide varied opportunities for the delegates to exchange new ideas and application experiences face to face relevant to the field.

REGISTRATION

Interested in attending the Expo? Just click here

DATE &LOCATION

Tuesday, November 29, 2011
12:00pm – 5:00pm
Hilton – Naples
5111 Tamiami Trail North, Naples, Florida, 34103

AGENDA

11:45 – 12:00pm – Registration
12:00pm – 3:30pm -Keynote & Vendor Presentations
3:30pm – 5:00pm – Loop Business Expo – Technology Fair - Loop Business Expo & iZone – Business Exhibitor Technology Fair – Vendors showcasing their solutions to all registrations (Exhibitors from all over North America)
5:00pm – Closing & Door Prize Raffles

This Expo provides customers & vendors with an opportunity to network with other professionals and converse with experts. Interested in exhibiting at the Medical IT Expo? Download Loop’s PDF for more information.

~ René – BluMoon Solutions of Naples ~

Web Designers vs Web Developers is brought to you by Wix.com.

Sue wins a custom-designed website with all the bells and whistles and we can’t wait to start working with Sue to showcase her beautiful floral artistry. Thanks again and look for contest giveaways after the holidays!

To enter, Like us on our Facebook page right here and follow us on Twitter right here!

• Boca Grande
• Bonita Springs
• Cape Coral
• Captiva
• Estero
• Everglades City
• Fort Myers
• Fort Myers Beach
• Golden Gate
• Immokalee
• Lehigh Acres
• Marco Island
• Naples
• Pine Island
• Port Charlotte
• Punta Gorda
• Sanibel
• Sarasota

In this economy, now more than ever before, it’s important to stand out from the crowd. Customer service, a phenomenal product and a great guarantee aren’t enough. Your business needs a strong online presence. One built around a unique brand and one that looks professional and modern. As a small business ourselves, we understand  that a custom site may not be in most business’ budgets.Or perhaps that facelift to your existing site may be just out of reach. It’s with that in mind that we are happy to offer  to any local Naples business this great service.

And signing up to win couldn’t be any easier! We aren’t going to make you send in a video showing us your best dance, we aren’t going to ask you to send all your friends and family to vote for you and we won’t be asking you to give us a sob story, we only have 3 little bitty requests in order for your business to qualify for a free custom site design:

1. Like us on our Facebook page. Visit us at this link here and hit LIKE!
2. Follow us on Twitter from this link!
3. Your business must have an office here in Naples, Florida. We are BIG on supporting our local Naples businesses so your business must be here in Naples.

That’s it! Pretty easy, right? Once you are selected, we will contact you to get started so make sure that your contact information on both Facebook and Twitter is up to date. Our one lucky Naples business will be picked Halloween day!

Social Media…What is it?

We hear about it all the time. You may already be participating in it or thinking about it. But what is it exactly?

Social media can be loosely defined as any form of media such as social interaction between people, exchanges of ideas, conversation, video, audio, text, articles etc. In other words, social media is the product of communication (mostly online communication). It may be important to note that social media is not the same thing as social news.

What are the Tools?

Typical vehicles of delivery for social media include social network sites such as Facebook, Ping, LinkedIn and YouTube and through blogs, social news, wikis etc. We’ve compiled a small list of some of the sources from which social media can be delivered through.

Social Networking

• Facebook
• Tumblr (micro-blogging)
• StumbleUpon
• Twitter (micro-blogging)
• List of social networking sites
• Avatars United (gaming)

Social News

• Digg
• Reddit
• Propeller
• FARK
• Slashdot
• List of 50 Social news Websites

Social Bookmarking

• Del.icio.us
• Blinklist
• List of 125 social bookmarking sites

Social Video, Art, Music and Photo Sharing

• YouTube (videos)
• Flickr (photography)
• deviantART (art)
• Last.fm (music)
• Ping (music)

Wikis

• Wikipedia
• List of Wikis

Reaching Audiences and Getting Started

Look, listen, join and start. Before you start reaching people, you need to first decide what you will use to connect with people. Facebook and Twitter? Blogs and Forums? Once you decide, join and set up. Then, start connecting. We’ve included some basic tips below on how to get started.

Message Boards/Forums

Posting comments in forums and message boards are great ways to reach customers

• Make sure you post your name. Don’t sign posts anonymously or as someone else promoting your business. Not only will that not help your cause, but also signing as another person would be dishonest and can create a negative association should you be exposed.
• Pick boards and forums that are relevant to your company’s products and services.
• Read the TOS (terms of service). Some boards do not allow messages that promote other businesses; some require that you label yourself accordingly while others require a sign up.
• Be nice! Remember to mind your manners, post with an open mind and be courteous to other posters.
• Offer real assistance and information, don’t just self-promote. If someone asks for help, and you know the answer, help him or her out. It may not bring anything back to you, but when an online community sees that you help rather than just self-promote, users will be more open to you and your company.

Blogs

• If you are going to write a blog for your business, use your expertise! Write helpful articles that can assist the community and use the same skill set that you use when you work your business. If you are a restaurant owner, write about cooking tips, if you own a retail store, articles on style, how to dress well etc. would work.
• Develop content that has value to your audience.
• It’s ok to show some personality. In fact, it makes a blog much stronger if you post something personal here and there. As with most anything in life, balance is key. Showing your personality will help you connect with other people.

Twitter

• Most important: be a human! Don’t send out random announcements for company sales in predetermined time slots or do anything that seems timed and robot-like. People connect through Twitter building on social connections, not ad blasts and spam.
• Talk. Respond, give advice, laugh, and tell a joke.
• Use hashtags to search what other people are saying about you and your company. Here’s a great link to using hashtags with Twitter http://mashable.com/2009/05/17/twitter-hashtags/
• Follow other local businesses! Make a list of the businesses you patronize and follow them. Check who they follow to find more sources to follow. Use
• Build a fan base by offering specials to your Twitter followers

General Tips on using Social Media

• Relationships: It’s really about relationships not blasting spam. Our advice is to engage your potential customers in conversation, not just selling. You wouldn’t go up to a stranger at a cocktail party and start blasting them with sell-tactics for your business, right? The same concept applies with social media. Start a conversation, offer your assistance and expertise first, connect and then let them know what you and your business can do for them.
• Productivity: Link your Facebook, Twitter and LinkIn accounts so that what you share one can make an impact on all three.
• Make time for social media. As with anything in life and business, solid returns take time.
• Make sure you stick with it. Sending a Tweet once a month or publishing a half-finished Facebook page is not going to cut it. Social media takes time and consistency. If you aren’t in it for the long haul or can’t hire someone to do it for you, you are better served not doing it at all.
• Feel overwhelmed? Hire a professional to manage your online social media presence and brand! That’s our expertise, so if you need help, give us a holler!

This is Part I, check back later for Part II.

Un-Clutter your Desktop

If you’re like most of us and usually run a bazillion programs and windows simultaneously, your desktop can get extremely cluttered. This can get particularly annoying, especially when you need to get to that one particular program and you have to minimize a bunch of windows just to find it.

Windows 7

Windows 7 has a cool little feature called Flip 3D. It allows you to quickly preview all of your open windows (such as open files, folders, and documents) without having to open them from the task bar. Flip 3D allows you to display all of your open windows in a neat stack. At the top of the stack, you can find one open window. To see other windows, you can flip through the stack.

The easiest way that we find to use Flip3D is by pressing the CTRL+Windows logo key +TAB. (all together). You can then press TAB to cycle through the windows. (You can also press RIGHT ARROW or DOWN ARROW to cycle forward one window, or press LEFT ARROW or UP ARROW to cycle backward one window.) Press ESC to close Flip 3D.

You can also click a window in the stack to display that window, or click outside the stack to close Flip 3D without switching windows. You can also rotate the wheel on your mouse to quickly cycle through the open windows.

On a Mac

Macs take un-cluttering the desktop a little further by dedicating a whole portion of the desktop to the task! It’s called Exposé and it’s a system built into Mac OS X that’s designed to help you find your way around windows and applications more easily. Exposé makes seeing all of your windows easier by momentarily displaying all of them, shrunk down a little so that they will all fit into your desktop view.

These little thumbnail sized windows are just enough to see what’s going on in every window. Usually, you’re able to see the one you want right away.

This is similar to the Windows Flip feature found in Vista or Windows 7, except the Mac alternative displays all your windows simultaneously, rather than putting them in a stack and only showing the frontmost one fully.

Using Exposé fairly is easy, simply hit the F9 button on your keyboard, or F3 on some older Macs. Most importantly, Exposé comes in three different iterations, which do slightly different things. Here’s a short screencast that briefly explains them, check it out:

How to use Exposé from Giles Turnbull on Vimeo.

Stop that crashed program!

Ok, by now we’re pretty used to the old Ctrl+Al+Delete when you want to stop a misbehaving program in Windows. It actually goes way back to the ancient pre-Windows DOS days!

So what about on a Mac?

If you’re used to clicking that well known combination to see your RAM and network usage or see what applications are running, then on the Mac, go to the Applications menu, then Utilities, then Activity Monitor (or simply type and then click Activity Monitor at the Spotlight icon – the magnifying glass icon at the top right of the desktop). If you have a pesky app that needs the boot then just click Option+Command+Esc(the Command Key is the one to the left of the spacebar with an Apple on it) to bring up the Force Quit menu and you can quit any application that isn’t responding. You can also get to the Force Quit Menu by clicking on the Apple icon at the top left of the desktop then clicking Force Quit.

Getting a quick file preview

On a Mac

My favorite feature of Snow Leopard’s Finder, that I find super-useful, is called Quick Look. It allows you to get a quick and easy preview of most common document and file types with a simple tap on the keyboard. Simply select a file then tap the spacebar key and boom, you’re looking right into the contents of the file. This works for most common file types such as Word documents, PDF files, or pictures. Quick Look will even peer into a multiple sheet Excel document almost instantly and it even works on multiple documents that you have selected simultaneously.

And Windows…

In the Windows 7 Explorer you can hit the Alt+P keyboard combination to preview the contents of a file in an embedded panel inside the Explorer interface. I find this to be a  bit too small to be all that useful, but at least it’s there. Also, this preview feature doesn’t support nearly the amount of filetypes that Quick Look does and it also lacks Quick Look’s separate window effect along with resizing and paging capabilities.

Make sure to check back later this week for Part 2!

Make sure to check back, because we’ll be giving away a custom-designed website for one lucky Naples business! Details are coming soon….