Social media has changed the way that small businesses connect with customers. Whether on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare or any of the other social media platforms businesses can share news about their products and promotions, seek feedback on their service or product, raise their visibility, address complaints and share compliments. It has allowed small businesses to compete on a level playing field with the largest of organizations–something that would previously be unheard of. But before you jump in some basics on finding your business’s voice:
1. Know your voice. As part of your business’s start-up you probably had a mission statement: a clear statement of your company’s aim and your approach in meeting that goal. Having a confident grasp of your company’s ‘personality’ will help you form your voice on your communication strategy whether through paid advertising or with social media. Really take the time to think about how humorous/ serious you want to be; how formal or casual; how chatty/reserved you want to be. Why did you start this company? Your communication strategy should get that message across with all of the messages you send out.
2. Keep your professional / personal on-line lives separate. While your business should reflect your talents, your values and your personality–remember to keep some separation between your business and your personal lives. Both your customers and your friends/ family will appreciate it!
3. Social media isn’t just marketing. It is about opening up a new line of communication: one that is fast, reactive and informative. Share news and insights but also listen to your customers.
4. Be persistent. Don’t jump in and out of the fast lane of social media. Schedule it into your daily routine. Don’t get discouraged and keep on connecting.
5. Let your old school methods of communicating help you connect in the new school world of social media. Add the magic words “Follow us on Twitter” and “Find us on Facebook” to all of your print advertising, on your website and in your emails.
Be willing to do more of what works and less of what falls flat. Think of what intrigues you when you follow others and learn as you go. Your voice will evolve as you get more confident, and your customers will be glad you spoke up!
Yeah, we have all heard about cloud computing where you can store all your files “in the cloud” to access them anywhere at anytime. But we all know the ONE TIME you forget to sync up or upload that document to your online storage, is the one time you will need to refer to it while on the go.
Traditionally, before the cloud, folks would use the tried and true Remote Desktop function as a last ditch effort to get to that file located up on your computer. Even still, you needed another computer to access your files stored on a computer at home or in the office. We all know that it is all about smartphones now, so wouldn’t it be nice to Remote into your desktop or laptop and get to that one file using your smartphone?
Enter iTap Mobile RDP available for all Apple iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad mobile devices running iOS 2.1 or later that gives Windows users the ability to remote access their PC and tackle many of the remote functions they are used to when logging into their PC using another computer.
Using the same convenient gestures as iTap touchpad, iTap puts you in full control over your desktop. Whether you need to scroll, drag and drop, or just right-click, you can perform all your tasks without having extra buttons or bars cluttering up you screen.
The built-in keyboard features all the keys and modifiers found on a traditional PC keyboard. Additionally it has full support for international languages, including eastern asian input methods.
In other words, with iTap, you know can remotely access your computer via mobile device and without much fuss, browse, navigate, and control your computer using your Apple mobile device. So if you absolutely NEED that document that you forgot to dump into your DropBox folder, you can access the file via iTap, and email it your yourself…or better yet, drop it in your DropBox folder from your computer via iTap for instant access without waiting for an email. Now at 12 bucks, this is pricey for a mobile app, but for accessibility like this, it might be well worth the price tag.
My only issue with the app is that it’s only for Apple mobile devices and only for Windows computers (yes, there are some people who haven’t completely converted). Not sure if iTap has plans for additional mobile devices and Mac Access, But i’m pretty sure there are similar apps that can handle your specific smartphone/computer configuration. Check out Xtralogic Remote Desktop Client for Android phones to name a few.
So if you haven’t quite got a handle on the cloud storage trend, or just need to make sure your can spring that document from its ‘desktop jail’ without too much fuss, you might want to try out iTap RDP
Who thought they would see the day when the US government would have an Appstore? The developers of USA.gov recently launched a one-stop shop for some handy applications available for most mobile phones. The most inclusive of these is the USA.gov mobile directory, giving you access to contact information and websites for all government agencies including local and state governments. They also have Apps for the TSA and the Postal Service which would be handy for small biz entrepreneurs.
Another great resource for small biz-types is the Small Business Administration’s website. Even if you are not seeking SBA financing for your business, they have a wealth of resources. From disaster planning advice, free on-line training and resources on how to plan, start-up, establish and grow your next new idea.
We all love using wi-fi. Around our home on our personal network, in the coffeeshop on their wireless network, in an airport or even community provided networks–it is convenient and with many devices it is the primary method to connect to the internet. Here are a few things to keep in mind when logging on. The first question you should ask is “Do I have permission to use this network?” Many users don’t realize that if they connect to a wi-fi signal without explicit consent that they may be breaking the law. Most states have laws dealing with “unauthorized access to a network”, here is a list of those state laws at the National Conference of State Legislatures. An unsecured network alone cannot be considered permission but people do disagree if the network is labelled “free for all internet” or something similar. But even if network access is allowable to an unknown network provider, should you? Some networks are left open as ‘honeypots’, hoping to entice wi-fi users to log on so that the network host can monitor all of your activity online including passwords and personal information. This McClatchy News article discusses this possibility.
Feeling generous with your network? Unfortunately, almost all service agreements with broadband providers prohibit sharing your signal with others. People have also gotten into trouble with the activities of others on their networks. Imagine that your ‘he seemed like such a nice guy’ living a few houses down decided to download movies via your network. Do you want to deal with the hassle of defending yourself against a lawsuit from the movie studio?
So how can we connect safely and legally? Lifehacker has an excellent guide “How to Stay Safe on Public Wi-Fi”. It may seem to be overly-cautious, but you need to remember how much personal information is exposed when you surf the web.
“Simply put, women-owned small businesses have yet to receive their fair share of federal contracting dollars,” says Sen. Snowe, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. “As the fastest-growing segment of our economy, women-owned small businesses will play a critical role in helping our nation recover from the current recession.” [via SmallBizTrends.com]
Find and create a key marketing story by asking the right questions. {via DuctTapeMarketing]
Do you frequent coffee shops for their wifi? Here’s how to get things done without annoying everyone. [via Lifehacker]
7 Tricks to spot trends before your competitors do. [via ATouchofBusiness]
10 Things customers want from your website [via Entrepreneur]
How a professional mailing list could be good for your business. [via Inc]
Tips from Devo and Mother LA on branding and leveraging the power of the Internet. Here’s a video from SXSW [via ChurchofCustomer]
Uzu bills itself as a “kinetic multitouch particule visualizer” which translates into really fun frickin’ fun interactive light show. By touching it with your hands you can freeze, move, contort, and change an explosion of multicolored lights through up to 10 points of contact. It doesn’t serve any practical purpose, but it’s probably the neatest app in the iTunes store right now that any iPad owner will use to show off the device’s “cool” factor.
From Uzumotion:
Points of light will shoot across the screen and fly to your command, twirling in a vortex of color and motion. Freeze and move Uzu in 3d space while contorting spirographic curves with your fingers. Uzu lets you quickly switch between 10 different modes of real-time animation by simply changing the number of touches you’re using. You can spend countless hours discovering the many unique ways of playing and interacting with Uzu.
Uzu is very happy when multiple people touch it. Uzu loves parties, children, music, cats, and pubs – although not necessarily in that order. Uzu has many plans for the future, but Uzu would like to hang out with you now if that’s cool.
One of the defining characteristics of modern office life is that we divide our work and attention between the big screen (our computers) and the small screen (our mobile phones). Smart application developers have spotted this trend and designed their software to better support this workflow.
The critical feature that you should look for when evaluating these apps is how well they keep your information and configuration in sync between the two screens. Applications that excel at that will allow you to seamlessly switch screens and waste no time getting your work done. You should be able to enter items in the mobile app and see them in the desktop app, check items in the desktop app and have the new state reflected in the mobile app.
Here are 3 fantastic applications that exemplify this new development approach:
Twitter client: Tweetdeck
The TweetDeck Desktop app
TweetDeck is a client for social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Google Buzz. TweetDeck is ultra-configurable and the tool of choice for a lot of social marketing experts, who use it to monitor and engage customers in discussions about products and services.
TweetDeck uses an online account that you can sign up for from the client to save all your configuration, primarily what columns and saved searches you want to see.
Then, you can configure your mobile app with those same views, columns and searches.
TweetDeck for iPhone
It’s easy to turn Twitter into a time-waster and productivity sink, but used with good criteria, it can turn into a powerful marketing tool. The trick is to make Twitter an integral part of your marketing diet… and encourage employees to engage customers online.
To-list management GTD-style: OmniFocus
OmniGroup produces some of the finest Mac software. They have great attention to detail and OmniFocus is a paramount example. Omnifocus is a power tool for well organized people. It allows you to track all your to-dos and projects using the Getting Things Done methodology popularized by David Allen and idolized by geeks worldwide.
The OmniFocus for Mac application allows you to capture to-dos from any of your Mac apps, organize them into projects and lists by dragging and dropping, reviewing them on a regular basis and prioritizing them according to a number of criteria such as how long they take to complete, their dependencies and much more.
The big payoff of having a well structured task management system like GTD is that it relieves you of the stress of worrying about all the things that you have to do and helps you focus on what you can actually do right now, with the time and energy that you have available.
For this system to work, to get todos out of your mind and into your GTD system, you need to be able to enter them whenever they occur to you, and your iPhone is a perfect device to do that, as you probably carry it with you most of the time.
OmniFocus for Mac
OmniFocus can sync your tasks between your Mac and your iPhone in a number of ways, but the two most useful are:
OmniFocus for iPhone
Syncing via your wifi… whenever your iPhone is roaming in the same wifi as your Mac both versions of the program find each other via Bonjour technology and exchange the latest tasks.
Syncing over the Internet… if you sign up for the wonderfully simple and powerful Spootnik service, you can sync via their servers… with the added benefit that you can sync with Basecamp, a project management service. Using Basecamp, Spootnik and OmniFocus you can set up a company wide GTD system… an incredible productivity tool worth a future post
Virtual PBX and Contact Sharing software: Ringio
Let’s say that you want to increase the chances that when somebody calls your business phone number, or the cell phone of one of your employees that you will know who they are, how to greet them, who they’ve talked to before and what they want.
For that to happen you are going to need a call collaboration solution that will help you get those phone calls routed to the right person in the right department, and that will enable each user to share their online address books and call histories.
You’re also going to need some sort of screen pops that allow you to see the information about them in the context of the phone call.
The Ringio Desktop software sits neatly on your Windows, Mac or Linux computer and gives you all this info at your fingertips. When a call comes in, you get a screen pop on your computer and then you can decide to take the call or send it to somebody else. Ringio will then log that phone call.
Ringio Desktop softwareRingio Mobile for Android
Ringio is a great example of a new generation of applications that takes syncing one step further. Not only does it sync between the desktop and the Android mobile app, it syncs between users in the same company and between the Ringio service and online address books such as Google Contacts / Gmail.
In conclusion
Over the next few years we will see an emerging super-class of mobile apps that is very much aware of all your data, whether it sits on your computer, your mobile or the internet, and will be able to help you stay productive and informed.
What can happen when you download software…A Virus right? This idea is (or at least should be) at the forefront of your mind when you download anything to your desktop of laptop computer.
My guess is that for mobile app downloads, most folks throw caution to the wind and download away without even thinking about the possibility of getting a virus that could potentially damage any and all information stored on your device.
Truth of the matter is, smartphone usage has climbed astronomically in recent years. With that growth comes the possibility for lost/corrupt data, or a lost device altogether! So it would make sense for any user that relies on their smartphone for any task to invest in a good data backup/retrieval service.
The company Lookout hopes to aid those who want to make sure their smartphone data is safe from virus, spyware and malware attacks. The trick to Lookout’s web-based, cloud-connected service is that it doesn’t just backup your data in the event that you do get a virus; Lookout acts as a virus protector much like security software downloaded to a computer by identifying and blocking threats on a user’s phone. The Lookout app also includes a service that has helped users retrieve over 130,000 lost or stolen phones.
Currently the app is free to download to all BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Android devices (Sorry iPhone folks!). So do yourself a favor, quickly browse over all the photos, contacts/clients/customers, documents, music, and any other pertinent and important information. My guess is you wouldn’t want to lose any of it to a hacker, virus, malware or spyware. Yes, you now have to protect your smartphone from these threats, so it would behoove you to head on over to Lookout and find out how you can lock down your phone…for free!
As you check out with your new electronics purchase you inevitably get the question “Would you like to purchase the extended warranty/ buyer protection plan or some other-named coverage?” Consumer Reports has told you to skip these come-ons for the most part. You also know that you are a terrible klutz. One spilled soda or case of butterfingers might end up costing you hundreds of dollars and the loss of the use of your essential technology. Do you have any other options? Here are a few:
1. Remember you have a manufacturer’s warranty. Make sure you know the warranty length and coverage and have that be part of your purchase decision.
2. Check to see if you have any coverage affiliated with your credit card–Check with your particular issuer to see if they provide an extended warranty in addition to the manufacturer’s warranty period (for example American Express and Visa have programs).
3. Third party insurers. You can cover your electronics with personal property insurance either through your regular home or renters insurance or with a separate insurance policy. Consider that making a claim on your homeowners/renters policy might lead to future difficulty in obtaining insurance or higher rates in the future. Holding a separate insurance policy for your laptop or smartphone might be a smarter choice. Two popular insurers are SquareTrade and Safeware (though I do not have any particular knowledge of these two companies, both are accredited by the BBB).
