When I started in this business, the IBM Selectric typewriter was state-of-the-art.  I could choose from three different typefaces!  The first telecopier (aka fax) machine I used required placing a sheet of paper in a plastic sleeve, clipping it to a large metal drum that rotated while a stylus crept along the page.  But I could send a whole page somewhere else in the world in less than five minutes — over the telephone!  My first cell phone had an external five-pound battery pack with a shoulder strap.  But I could call people from anywhere!  And it was a leather shoulder strap.

We’ve just acquired a vacation home in Arizona, where we hope to become “snowbirds.”  So I’ve been planning the technology I’ll need to do business there as easily and efficiently as I do in my home office. The hardware part is simple: a laptop computer, a wireless all-in-one printer, a cell phone and an Internet connection.  Software is another story, so I’ve been taking inventory of my programs, licenses, and Web-based services.  Of course, I’ll load the laptop with the standard-issue tools of my trade like the Microsoft Office Suite, the Adobe Creative Suite and Quickbooks. 

I’ve been surprised, however, at how dependent I’ve become on a number of specialized applications and online services that make my life easier and my work more efficient.  Some are free, some require a purchase or a subscription.  Here’s a list of my “must haves:”

Microsoft Outlook Add-Ins

YouSendIt
The online service is free.  This paid service adds a set of icons within Outlook that allows you to send large files through this online service without leaving your email.  It automatically recognizes files that are too large to send through normal channels and offers to send them via YouSendIt.

Time Bridge
This free service synchronizes with your Outlook calendar and publishes your available times.  It makes it easy for anyone to schedule a meeting or phone call with you.

Xobni
The basic service is free; an upgrade with key functions is paid.  The program, "Inbox" spelled backwards, does a superior job of searching your emails, keeping track of files and messages you've exchanged with others and bringing social-media information for every email sender right into Outlook.  The latest Outlook (2010) has added some of this functionality but Xobni beats it, hand-dwon.

Google Products and Services

Earth
Free and indispensible for directions, bird's eye views of the world and street-level views for many locations.

Picasa
A free photo-album package, it synchronizes your computer's photos with online albums (or not; you choose).  The most amazing feature is facial recognition.  Just identify each person in your photos one time and the software will identify every other picture of the same person, whether in a group or alone.  It's uncanny and very helpful.

Voice
A free service that lets you use your current phone number or a establish new one to add all sorts of functionality to your life on the phone.  For example, I have a phone number at a remote office that, when called, will chase me down at my other phone numbers, depending on where I am and how I've set it.  It also transcribes voice mails and emails them to me.  It's a great way to have a telephone presence in any area code you choose at no cost and never to miss a call.

Chrome
This free Internet browser is far superior to Internet Explorer in so many ways.  I find the all-in-one address bar to be a big time saver: just type a web address or a search term in the bar.  The only problem I've found is that some online services don't play well with Chrome.  For example, a website I manage through a content management system won't show any content with Chrome.  So keep a standby on hand.

Google+
This free social-networking service is growing like kudzu and will give Facebook a run for its money.  Right now, it's populated by 25 million geeks and early adopters like me.  But as the rest of the world discovers how much it can do that Facebook can't, there's bound to be a mass migration.

Other Online Services

Constant Contact
This paid service allows even tiny businesses like mine to do email marketing with a level of sophistication and tracking that were once only the province of huge corporations.

Survey Monkey
There's a free version with limited functionality of this sophisticated online survey service.  The professional version adds an array of design, logic and analytic features.  For anyone doing opinion research, it's a must have.

Spamarrest
This paid service is worth whatever they charge!  It completely removes spam from your inbox.  (Except for the occasional Nigerian attorney representing an incredibly wealthy widow.) The formula is simple: if you receive an email from someone who is not on your white list, Spamarrest sends the person a "challenge" email that says, basically "If you're a human being with legitimate business, click here and we'll put your email through."  I forward all of my email addresses to Spamarrest.  It scrubs out the junk and I collect the good stuff only.

Pandora
This miraculous music (and now comedy) service, free with periodic commercials, $1 month for no commercials and better sound quality, grew out of the Music Genome Project, an ongoing project through which human beings are methodically tagging the "genomes" of millions of songs from among hundreds of options.  So a given song might be instrumental, with background violins and dominant piano, classical, Baroque, 32 beats per minute and so forth.  Pick a song and the database creates a custom "channel" of music that matches the genomes of the song you selected.

Mikogo
Another free service, this provides just about all of the functionality of expensive screen-sharing/teleconferencing services like GoToMeeting.  Share your screen, or share others', in conference calls, webinars and other gatherings.  The conference call functionality is free, too.

Skype
Free videoconferencing that is nothing short of astounding and earth shattering.  No wonder Microsoft just acquired it.  You know all about it.  Just start using it.

Hybrids

Windows Live Skydrive
This free service is similar to GoogleDocs, a service that allows you to share documents and other files with multiple users.  I prefer it to GoogleDocs because it's so well integrated with the Microsoft Office Suite and, well, that's the way of the business world.  If you're weary of endless email exchanges of files with ever-expanding names like "new release with Joe's comments in red," run, do not walk to Skydrive.  (If you need more than the amount of free storage provided, you can purchase more space.)

Carbonite
This paid service is the best off-site backup service I've found and, believe me, I've tried a bunch.  For $5/month, everything I create on my computer is automatically backed up to "the cloud" and I can access it anywhere. Need I say more?  One nifty feature is a system of color-coded dots placed next to every file that lets you know that it's already been backed up or is pending backup.

Roboform
If you use the same password for every site you use, shame on you.  Get Roboform.  I did when I was a one-password-fits-all kind of guy and my PayPal account was hacked.  That led to some major scrambling.  Never again.  Roboform generates unbreakable passwords for you and remembers them for you.  The free version remembers them on one computer.  But the paid version keeps all of your passwords in "the cloud" and synchronizes them with any device on which you'll loaded the Roboform software, including mobile devices. 

Tweetdeck
A free, excellent social media dashboard that allows you to track your social media activity in one place.  It's no wonder Twitter just acquired it.

Software

SnagIt
This paid software supercharges the "print screen" function built into Windows and includes a photo editor.  You can capture a scrolling screen, a section of a screen, onscreen video with audio and many other options.  It has a great editor that allows you to annotate your screen captures with text, arrows and other symbols and to apply a range of photo effects.

TweetAdder
It's paid.  Full disclosure: I use it so much and recommend it so frequently that I became an affiliate.  It's the best all around Twitter manager I've found, with an array of features for following and unfollowing, searching for other Twitter users based on keywords in the their profiles and Tweets, automating Tweets and re-Tweets and a more. 

DVD Fab Decrypter
Simple, uncomplicated DVD copier and converter that works like a charm, better in my experience than some of the high-priced suites like Roxio and Nero.  Make a back-up copy of a precious video in your collection or convert a video you own to an iPad or iPhone version.  Buy annual licenses for just the functions you use.

Share your favorites!

PR Pros must embrace social media. This blog is a supplement to my June 2009 Update newsletter, which is devoted to social media. Since "old fashioned" E-mail newsletters don't allow the space for much storytelling, I'm telling a few here to make the point that even old dogs like me can learn new tricks and to share some insights into how I learned them.

For example, I have been doing some very intensive research on Web-site structures and optimization recently. In the process, I acquired an analytic tool that allowed me to study several of my own Web sites to learn how I could improve their Google search rankings. I was, frankly, surprised to see how highly the Google search algorithm favors incoming links from social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn and to links with sites like YouTube and Google Video. So I made some very minor changes to the sites including improving my links to and from social networks. In the past month, I've increased traffic to my corporate Web site by 15.18% and to one of my other sites by 34.89%.

Another: On Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, we hosted our best friends for a small gathering, which included the 17 year-old son of one couple. He dutifully appeared and had his burgers but was eager to be with his friends. So mom soon took him home and returned. As we were all engaged in rousing games of Croquet and Dominos, mom silently kept in touch as her son asked permission to change locations through text messages. (Why didn't he just pick up the phone and call? Because kids don't want their peers to know that they're talking to "the 'rents.")

And yet another: last week, I had marked my calendar for 1:00 on May 26, 2009, when the California Supreme Court was to announce its ruling on Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that amended the state constitution to take away the right of same-sex couples to marry. It was a much anticipated ruling that, sadly, allowed the constitutional amendment to stand while, happily but incomprehensively, also allowed to stand the marriages of the 18,000 same-sex couples who had married after the Supreme Court initially ruled that the majority does not have the right to deny the rights of a minority.

I was hovering over Google News and, shortly after 1:00, read the first reports in national and international press. But then I went to Twitter I was mesmerized by the feed from one guy who was reporting, minute by minute, how street protests in San Jose were forming, how the police were massing in response, how the crowd was reacting and feeling, what they were chanting, what their signs said and what happened when arrests began. The carefully edited and crafted news reports I read conveyed nothing compared with the raw emotion of a guy protesting in the streets for his civil right. Imagine if, twenty years ago, the students massed in Tiananmen Square had the same technology available to them. We'd be remembering a very different set of events.

In my June newsletter, I promised bonus links to more great items about social media. Here they are:

Like Lambs to the Slaughter: Why the FaceBook "Whopper Sacrifice" Was So Murderously Successful

Social Media Can Boost Trust

Social media optimization (SMO) is gaining momentum in SEO Consulting

Most Web Video Is Unwatchable: Follow These PR Best Practices to Make Sure Yours Gets Seen. Seven questions to ask.

Companies are scrambling to silence errant messages while exploiting social networks.

Attention, K-mart (and Sears) shoppers: Your sites are ready.