Tech Forward:

It might sound like a dating site, but it’s not. RealMatch.com puts the hiring power back into the hands of the employer. Gosh, I love the internet!

If you’ve ever dealt with (or considered doing business with) a placement firm or online hiring website, you know how costly it can be. There’s a fee to place your opening or there’s a fee if you hire someone or there’s a fee for the fee. It’s nuts.

So it was coolio when I found out about RealMatch.com.

The deal is employers can post a job for free (nationwide or regional) and allow RealMatch’s “matching technology” to line up potential hires that are a good fit for the available position.

Employers can view the qualifications of applicants . . . for free. You read that right–for F-R-double-E!

Once an employer sees an applicant he or she wants to contact/interview, at that point the employer pays a minimal fee–like a paltry $40 to review three resumes.  Schweet!

Gone are the days where employers have to follow a pay-per-post model. RealMatch.com is a stronger and better alternative to Monster.com. And once it becomes even more popular, it’ll be the clear solution for SMBs. Be an early adopter.

It’s a digital slap in the face to productivity gurus everywhere.

It knocks conventional thinking on its rear.

After all, didn’t NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg fire a city employee for playing solitaire at work? Yep, that would be affirmative.

Well, now hear this, Mister Bloomberg . . .

A snazzy employee incentive consulting firm, Snowfly Inc., has the answer to Dilbert’s dreams. They’ve “legalized” playing games on company time–and you might just get a promotion in the process. The games look a tad juvenile, but that’s the whole point, right? My word, I’m in the wrong business!

Here’s how it works:

A web-based software program designed by Snowfly allows your employees (with your approval, of course) to earn playing time on games online during work hours–with the goal of raising productivity and morale in their day. Winnings from game play are immediately posted to a Visa debit “game card,” which every player has.

The flagship product, Capstone (Bourne Identity, anyone? Whoops that’s TREADstone . . .), provides random point-yielding games and real-time results to maximize an employer’s ROI. Games can be played from any browser with internet access, desktop, a kiosk in the break room, lunchroom or from home.

Surprisingly, employees lose very little work time. Keep in mind, they are awarded playing time only if they have performed well first. Ahhh, dangling the old carrot. And they spend fewer than 12 minutes per week playing games, redeeming points and logging goal accomplishments.

Loads of REAL companies are using Snowfly as an employee reward system and, whaddaya know, so far it’s working.

People who are allowed to play games as a reward for performance have higher productivity, higher morale and lower turnover. This is particularly true for Gen X & Y employees who grew up with the constant stimulation and immediate gratification of game playing. And 42 percent of employees who earn game tokens in the workplace take the tokens home and play them online with their children in exchange for chores, exercise and homework.

Play on, player!

When my dear friend and blog strategy client, Harry Allen, sent me this link, I thought, “OK, Harry. . . and?”

But, as ever, Harry does things for a reason, so I decided to stop skimming The New York Times article about a credit card-sized projector and really read it.

The article is about the Optoma Pico Projector (about $400) that literally can fit in your shirt pocket. It connects to your cell phone, iPod and smart phone to project whatever’s on the device’s screen (clear that last text from your hubbie first!)

As someone who had had her share of projector madness while trying to deliver my fabulous presentations across the country, I really must say that this is a sight for sore eyes–pun intended.

David Pogue goes into all the nitty-gritty tech details in his article (like battery life, etc.), but I wanted to share this with you to ask the real question:

Now that many previously sizable machines are small, do women (myself included) still need to carry such huge purses?

On Thursday, October 30 @ 6 p.m., yours truly will be joining my fellow Girls in Tech bloggers, tech gal pros and Kay Koplovitz at the Springboard Winners’ Circle Award Celebration Dinner.

The evening marks a celebration of entrepreneurial women and the community that supports their ventures.

The honorees include Maggie Wilderotter, chairman and CEO, Frontier Communications Corp., and Geraldine B. Laybourne, founder and former Cchairman and CEO, Oxygen Media.

And if that’s not sexy enough, guess who the special guest of the evening is? None other than Project Runway’s own Tim Gunn. Carry on, designers. Make it work.

Grab a ticket and get the deets here.

All entrepreneurs want to make sure their employees aren’t joy riding on the internet while on the company clock. That’s a given–and it’s a perfectly reasonable and understandable expectation.

But, to paraphrase Joe Clark, “When you treat people like criminals, they’ll act like criminals.”

And while micromanaging what your employees do online is great for productivity in the short term, in the long term you sacrifice trust, and the flexibility and leeway smart people need to do their jobs.

Two things to wit:

1. There’s no such thing as an “employee problem.” In any organization, its people are never the problem–the processes are. The question isn’t, “What’s wrong with him?” but rather, “How did we hire him?”
2. Time wasters will be time wasters whether you’re clocking their every move or not. If they’re not wasting time online, they’ll be taking 90 smoke breaks or living in the break room.

So, what do you do? You can use software that monitors instead of blocks or filters.

Or you can trust that you’ve hired the right people and that employees who waste time will always be outed by employees who are doing the right thing.

Or some combination thereof. Just don’t sacrifice your relationship with employees in the name of productivity.

I tell people over and over that the internet and social media are making it harder and harder for big companies to hide their misdeeds–intentional or not. Companies had better mean what they say–and say what they mean–or risk being outed on the digital red carpet.

You don’t have to be a stay-at-home-mom to recognize the benefits of researching companies before you purchase their products with your hard-earned dollars.

A new website from the folks at Co-Op America is helping that effort.

ResponsibleShopper.org gives people the inside skinny on which brands are helping or hurting our environment and our global citizens.

If you:

• Ever worried that your company dollars are rewarding bad corporations with problem practices;
• Are concerned about corporate greenwashing;
• Wish there was an easy way to get the dirt on America’s biggest companies before you buy something;
• Are looking for a way to pressure companies your business patronizes to get responsible and clean up their acts …

Then responsibleshopper.org is for you.

I checked the website to make sure that continuing to do business with Staples was a good thing. It is.

As business owners, we must do our share in preserving this planet and its people.

Let’s face it, handling the “business” end of small business . . . well . . . stinks.

And, if you’re like me, payroll–along with taxes–is one of the worst “offenders.”

The numbers tell the whole story:

• When it comes to running payroll, making a mistake can be super costly. In fact, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce indicates that one out of three businesses will pay a payroll tax penalty each year (that’s each year, not once).
• The IRS reports that 40 percent of all small businesses pay an average of $845 per year for late or incorrect payroll report filings. Ye-ouch!

So I just heard about this online payroll service that Intuit is offering, and I wasn’t convinced. Don’t get me wrong; the folks at Intuit are a smart group of people–hence the company name–but I didn’t think they’d be able to put a dent in the painful process that masquerades as payroll.

That is, until I looked at Intuit’s online video. Guess I was wrong. (Hey, I can admit it!) So now I’m sharing it with you.

Note: Close the little pop-up window and click the big blue “See How It Works” button (they should re-label that button “Video Guide” or something). Warning . . . there might be another annoying pop-up later. You’d think the Intuit folks would know pop-ups ruin the experience, especially when watching online video. But hey, they can’t be experts in everything, right?

The only way I can describe the new Snap Communicator (watch the quick video on this site), created by the folks at Toucan Global, is to say it’s extraordinary–adorable, even. It truly does take VoIP technology and stands it on its ear. And I’ll say it again: I’m not easily impressed.

The folks at Toucan sent me a pair of Snaps to connect with anyone I choose–eight anyones, to be exact. At first I’ll admit that I didn’t see what the fuss is about. . . . I wasn’t even going to write about the Snap (I don’t care how many samples a company sends me; if I don’t like the product, you’ll never hear a word about it from me). At least, that is, before I became a Snap addict! A Snap-a-holic, even.

I had a chat earlier this week with Toucan’s president, John Willenborg, about the Snap Communicator, what it is exactly and some of its cool features. Listen in and I’ll let him tell you.  . . . (13:25)

I sent the other one to one of our developers who has moved out of the country–and now, time zones aside, it’s much easier to communicate with him. Sorry, folks, the trusty Snap can’t make time zones disappear (that feature is coming in a later version, right John?

That was the subject line of a piece of unwanted e-mail (i.e., spam) that I received recently. Although the subject line was a bit nutty, even I have to admit that it was creative.

And that’s what I’m noticing . . . that spammers and phishers are getting more and more creative in their subject lines and targeting. Thousands of people fall prey to these e-mails every day. They enter their sensitive information on what appears to be a legitimate website–even some confusingly similar to their own banking institutions–and, before you know it, someone either tries to remove money from their bank accounts or, worse yet, assume their identity.

It’s getting bad out there. Really bad.

Here’s how we help stem spam at xynoMedia. I hope it will give you a few ideas:

1. Don’t use filters. Filters give too many false positives. How many times have you sent an e-mail to someone who tells you he or she didn’t receive it, only to have that person find your e-mail crowded among obscene enlargement and international dating offers?

2. Use challenge-response systems instead. You’ve seen this system at work, I’m sure. You send an e-mail to someone and, right away, that person’s system e-mails you back asking you to click a link to confirm that a real person with good intentions sent the e-mail.

The idea is that many of the robots used to send spam out won’t have enough “sense” to open the e-mail and click the link. What’s more, many of the reply e-mail addresses for spam are non-operational anyway, so the challenge e-mail won’t even be received.

Many people think this puts a barrier between you and someone who is trying to communicate with you. Not so. Many people are used to these systems by now, and since you only have to click once, it’s not really a bother. The reality is, people who really want to be in touch with you will take the time to click a link; those who don’t, won’t. Simple.

An example of a good challenge-response e-mail service is Spam Arrest. (BIG Hint: If you’re not a technical person, have someone walk you through the setup. The software is great, but setup is not exactly intuitive and the e-mail support stinks. You can purchase priority support for 10 bucks . . . which puts you at the front of the e-mail queue. Yes, I’m serious.)

3) Use first name-initial, full surname e-mail address conventions. It’s much easier to spot spam that’s addressed to “Dear LWest” than it is to “Dear Lena.” So rather than using lena.west@somecompany.com as your e-mail address convention, use LWest@somecompany.com and whenever you receive e-mail addressed to LWest, you know you can toss it because people who know you–or even people who don’t–would never refer to a real person that way . . . they would use your first name.

4) Never, ever, ever reply to spam. Not even to bail off their list(s). One reason for those seemingly genuine unsubscribe links is to get you to reply or click. The spammers then know that your e-mail address is a “live” e-mail account (meaning actually working, because they really don’t know whether an account is operational when they send the e-mail). They then take your name and e-mail address, move it to a “live” e-mail address list and sell your information to other, more advanced spammers for money. Sick, I know.

And . . .

5) If you’re ever unsure about a link, type it yourself. If you think that your bank has sent you an e-mail, take the time to pick up the phone and call to ask or open a new browser window and type in the website address yourself to log into your account to see if there’s a problem. Never click a link contained in an e-mail you don’t know. Not only can it lead you to a phishing website, but it can also possibly invisibly launch/install viruses and trojans onto your system. Not a good look.

Remember, spam is a business designed to put you out of business. You and your employees are your company’s best defense.

This is a group photo op with the speakers and some of the NEW committee and board members. Shon Gables is the one in the fabulous yellow dress (but you can’t really see it because she’s in the back row).

I was also able to snatch a few quick audio interviews with Gables, host of the Black Enterprise Business Report; Judy Spires of Acme Markets; and a downright shameful interview with Amazon.com’s Tom Furphy — who was absolutely gracious when I made a bit of a complete fool of myself. (I won’t be posting that audio!)

Click here to hear Shon Gables talk about the challenges that leaders have trying to manage people using virtual tools. (4:32)

Click here to learn what leadership in a virtual means to Judy Spires and Acme. (2:24)

Amazon. It doesn’t have a problem with adoption. Part of the reason that people want to work at Amazon.com is technical.

Acme Markets. Judy Spires says that if you’re having a problem with adoption, the technology isn’t as great as you think it is. Adoption isn’t really your problem.

Deloitte. Robin Matza helps those who are comfortable with technology to engage those who aren’t.

And we’re at the end of the event. Post-event follow-up later.

1. Typing the wrong response to the wrong person when using instant messaging.

2. Digitally siloing yourself.

3. Not making the most of face time when you have it.