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How to Run Better Meetings with an AI Assistant

A new productivity tool seems to pop up every day, but I recently learned about one that could be a game-changer for my meetings. Otter.ai is a tool backed by artificial intelligence that takes notes at your meetings (whether online or in-person) and helps keep everyone you share with on the same page about what happened in the meeting. The free version is fairly robust, but if you use this tool for business, the paid features and additional transcription allotment may make a subscription worthwhile.

Signing Up

When you start to sign up for an account, it makes it look like you need to subscribe to a paid plan, but you don’t. When prompted, pick a meeting platform. When it states you need a subscription, click skip in the upper-right. This will bring you to your free account dashboard, where you are offered a tutorial.

What Can Otter.ai Do for Me?

The free account includes 300 minutes of recording transcription and only 30 minutes per conversation. After conversation transcription processes, you can:

Edit the transcription, add highlights or comments, create action items, and insert images.
Share the finished product with attendees or other stakeholders using a link with embedded view/edit permissions.
Control whether users you have shared with can export your content.
Create folders to organize your conversations.
Export the conversation.
Send direct messages.
Create a group and invite collaborators.

Unfortunately, the scheduling integrations with Zoom and the creation of a workspace (team) require a paid subscription.

The Interface

The home page is clean and simple, with menus at the top and left. The top menu includes options for starting a transcription.

Options for getting started

The left menu can be expanded by clicking the blue arrow that appears when you hover near your first initial (or avatar).

Access your conversations
See what others have shared with you
Manage groups and folders
Direct messages
Click on your account name to access all of the available settings for the tool.

After selecting a conversation from “My Conversations”, you can see the transcript in the main area, with a menu specific to that conversation at the bottom and additional options in the upper right.

Screenshot of the conversation page, showing the transcript, playback controls, and other options.

Use the edit link in the upper right to correct any transcription errors.
Use the bottom left menu to control recording playback.
Use the bottom right menu to highlight, comment, create an action item, or insert a picture at any point in the conversation.
See additional conversation options, including delete, by clicking the three-dot menu icon next to the blue share button.
Use the blue share button at the top to send view/edit links and control whether the conversation can be exported by others.

Screenshot of the sharing window, showing options to enter email addresses and change view/edit and export permissions

Pro Tips

When you use a meeting URL to record the meeting, it appears as a meeting participant. Depending on your meeting permissions, the Otter.ai user may not be admitted if you don’t have control of the waiting room or if meeting links are bespoke per user (as with some paid registrations).
If there is going to be downtime in your meeting, you may want to end the recording so you don’t waste your minutes. You can always name the individual recordings to connect them as part of a larger meeting.

Summary

Otter.ai could be a valuable tool for any individual or group who doesn’t have an assistant or designee to take notes and follow up. Even if you do have a human who is tasked with keeping a record of meetings, having a transcribed recording leaves less room for interpretation or error.

Generate Eye-Catching Titles for Content Using This Free Tool

The most important component of any written content is the title, whether it’s an ad or an article. If the title doesn’t spark interest, the reader will move on and the content probably won’t be read. For some, writing titles is an innate skill. For the rest of us, there are tools that can help.

The website I am highlighting today is Headline Analyzer from Monster Insights, but it is far from the only free tool on offer. Coschedule has one, as does Sharethrough. If you are creating content for a WordPress blog, some search engine optimization plugins, like All in One SEO, have a similar feature built-in. Keep in mind, though, that they may not all have the criteria for what makes a great headline. I used Monster Insights to create the headline for this article (of “perfect” length), only to have All in One SEO tell me it was too long by a single character.

Another caveat about these tools is that you can create a high-scoring title that makes no sense, just by using desirable keywords and staying within a certain number of characters. You can also accidentally create a title that people think is simply clickbait (named so because it goes overboard on keywords to generate clicks that lead people to unsatisfying, ad-loaded pages). These days, most people just skip clicking on over-the-top titles, so you’ll want to avoid that.

Analyzing a Headline

When you have a draft headline that you would like to test, type or paste it into the box at https://www.monsterinsights.com/headline-analyzer and click “Analyze.” The score will pop up below the box.

Screenshot showing an overall score of 73, noting a good score is between 40 and 60. — *The score for the current title of this article is 73*

According to their parameters, this title is good to go. But this wasn’t the first title I tried. This tool tracks your tries to help you remember what configurations you have already used.

Screenshot showing previous draft titles and their subpar scores. — *A few earlier draft titles*

As the screenshot demonstrates, even the order of the words in the title can make a big difference in the score.

Improving a Headline

If your first draft isn’t getting the score you hoped for, the tool will give several suggestions on how to improve the title.

First, the “word balance” area will show you how many words you are using from each category, and how many you should shoot for.

Screenshot showing the balance of common words, uncommon words, emotional words, and power words used in the title.

Scrolling farther down, word banks are provided to give you suggestions for words in each category:

Screenshot showing columns of power words, emotion words, and uncommon words. — *Word banks to help you fine-tune your title*

Another area points out the tone and type of your headline and offers suggestions.

Screenshot showing the sentiment is positive and that positive headlines get better engagement. The type is "general", and lists and how-to headlines get more engagement.

I could have added “How to” at the beginning of the title, but then it would have been too long. The word I choose to cut may then affect the word balance negatively. Ultimately, the final title is up to what sounds good to you and what fits in with the writing style of your content.

Summary

Creating a great headline is a balance of several factors, and there is no one perfect title for any piece of content. Hopefully, a headline analyzer can provide you with enough guidance to tweak your titles to improve engagement, regardless of which suggestions you take and which you ignore. Do you have a favorite tool to help you write your headlines? Let us know in the comments.

Learn How to Limit What Facebook Advertisers Know About You

If you have used Facebook, you have seen an ad. There’s no getting around it, and unfortunately, there is no way to completely block ads on the platform. However, you do have some control over your ad settings, including which types of ads you see and what information of yours advertisers can access.

The methods to change your Ad Settings are slightly different based on how you access Facebook.

If you are accessing Facebook via a computer, click on your profile picture in the top right corner and then click on Settings & Privacy, and then Settings. In the app, tap on the three lines in the bottom right corner (iOS) or top right (Android), then swipe down to Settings & Privacy, and then tap on Settings.

Next, on a computer click on Ads on the menu on the left side. On the mobile app, swipe down and tap on Ad preferences. From here, the settings are in similar locations.

Screenshots showing the path of clicks to get to Ad preferences on desktop and mobile

On the Advertisers tab, you will have the option to hide ads from advertisers you have seen recently. You can also see advertisers you have hidden and advertisers whose ads you’ve clicked. On the Ad Topics tab, you can select which types of topics advertisers can use to reach you. If you click or tap on a specific category, you can choose to leave the setting as is or see less of that particular topic.

Screenshot of an ad topic with the option to see less or show no preference.

On the Ad Settings tab, you can manage whether or not you receive personalized ads. “Data about your activity from partners” allows you to choose whether Facebook shows you personalized ads on Facebook and Instagram, if you have an Instagram account. If this option is set to yes, Facebook will allow advertisers to use data from your activity on Meta products, which include Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Facebook Marketplace, and other Meta Apps. With any options with a radio yes/no button, gray signifies don’t allow and blue signifies allow.

Screenshot of the "Data about your activity from partners" page with toggles for personalized ad on Instagram and Facebook turned off.

Under “Categories used to reach you,” you can select whether you would like an advertiser to be able to target you based on the information you have provided in your profile: Employer, Job Title, Education (any schools you have listed), and Relationship Status. You may also have an “Other categories” option depending on how much personal information you have provided in your profile. Each type of profile information (e.g. employer, education) has its own yes or no option.

Screenshot of "Categories used to reach you" with toggles for employer, education, job title, and relationship status turned off.

The “Audience Based Advertising” setting allows you to see to which advertisers have accessed lists that contain certain information from your profile. For example, an advertiser may pay for a list containing everyone who is female, aged 25-35, and lives in the United States. The birth date field is required to join Facebook, and gender and location are in the basic info section of your profile. You can see which companies have used these lists.

If you click on the company name and then click on “they uploaded or used a list to reach you,” you can get the option to allow or not allow advertisers to use this particular list on Facebook to show you ads. You may also have the option to contact that particular company. If you would like that company to not be able to use that particular uploaded list to show you ads, click on don’t allow. If you have already chosen that, you will see an allow button.

Screenshot showing how to restrict a particular company from using you a list to reach you

The “Ads shown off of Facebook” setting allows you to decide whether you can be shown ads off of Facebook Company Products, such as on non-Facebook websites and apps that use Facebook advertising services.

Screenshot of "Ads shown off of Facebook" toggle off.

The “social interactions” setting lets you choose whether or not your friends can see if you have liked a certain page that is being advertised. For example, if you have liked the Hannaford Facebook page, and Hannaford runs an ad, if you allow your friends to see, there will be a message next to the page name on their feed saying that you liked that particular page.

Screenshot of the "social interactions" setting that allows or restricts friends from seeing if you have liked a page in an ad.

There are several different ways that you can limit what information advertisers can find out about from your Facebook profile. It’s a good idea to access your ad settings to see what information is being shown to advertisers. With any social media, it’s always a good idea not to share too much information. You may think it’s just your friends and family who are seeing it, but often times that same information is being accessed by advertisers.

Have you had the chance to go over your ad settings on Facebook? Let us know in the comments.

Have You Tried our Technology Help Site Yet?

One of the most common requests we get from patrons, aside from book recommendations, is for technology help. Gone are the days when you could avoid using computers, as technology has crept into every corner of our daily lives. Our librarians are very helpful, but it’s just not possible for them to stay updated on all things about all tech and still have time left over to do the rest of their jobs.

We have created services and acquired resources to get you the help you need, and we have a landing page where we have gathered them all. To get there without a direct link, go to https://eglibrary.org and use the menu to choose: what we offer>services>technology help.

At the top of the page, you will find links to our digital literacy classes. We have recently partnered with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rensselaer County to provide our in-person classes. This area also contains information about our appointment-based individual help service – Book a Librarian. As you scroll down you will see online resources by subject. Click on the subject title to see the resources.

One service we offer, Tech-Talk, is actually several services in one. It is a collection of articles, short videos, and webinars about a wide variety of tech topics. We have featured them in several of our posts. They also offer a subscription newsletter that drops a tech tip in your inbox once a week. We’ve made a video to show you how to use Tech-Talk and embedded it here.

If you have used some of the resources on our technology help site, let us know what you think! Is there any subject or information you would like to see added? Let us know in the comments.

Has Tech-Talk Improved Your Tech Skills Yet?

The East Greenbush Library provides technology help in a variety of formats. We conduct classes, offer one-on-one assistance by appointment, post help videos, and have a page dedicated to online help articles and videos gathered from vetted websites around the internet. Did you know we also have a subscription resource available to our patrons with great articles, videos, and webinars for users of all skill levels? Whether you’re a technology pro or you’re just getting started, Tech-Talk has something for everyone.

While we’ve featured Tech-Talk and some of their articles before, this time we’ve made a quick video to highlight how to find what you are looking for in Tech-Talk. Can’t find what you’re looking for? You can submit requests for future articles and videos on whatever tech topic you need.

If you’d like to receive a weekly quick tip from Tech-Talk in your inbox, along with information about upcoming webinars, sign up for the Tech-Talk newsletter on the main page.

Have you tried Tech-Talk yet? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.