LinkedIn - Your Company's New Best Marketing Resource

LinkedIn have just introduced the ability to post updates directly from your Company Page*. Overnight, this has transformed LinkedIn in to an important, highly focussed and free marketing resource for organisations.

You really want to be working on developing this company updates facility into a powerful marketing tool for your business. There are, however, TWO tricks involved.

TRICK ONE

Firstly you have to select "Designated users only" as the option for Company Page Admins. Sounds complicated but it's really not to hard. And it will be worth the effort.

Go to your Company Page via search or the Companies tab. Then enter edit mode via the blue Admin tools tab. Next you select the "Designated users only" button and find your designated users via the "Start typing a name box". (For some reason, finding your designated user or users seems to work much more smoothly if you type in surnames.)

You should end up seeing something similar to the image below (but not with me as your designated user!).

Click the blue "Publish" button and it will take you back to your Company Page. It will now include a "Share an update" box similar to the one shown below. And you can start sending updates in the same way you do from your personal LinkedIn profile.

TRICK TWO

The updates from your Company Page only go to people who are followers of your company. You've probably not worried much about this before, but you had better now start encouraging people to follow your company.

As a minimum, make sure all company employees are followers. Then encourage them to "like" company updates, which will help to propagate the updates throughout their network of connections.

You may also wish to start promoting your LinkedIn Company Page on your website, Facebook page, Twitter account and other marketing collateral.


* Don't yet have a Company Page on LinkedIn? Then log-in to your personal account, go to the Companies Tab, then Search Companies, then Add a Company.

If you need any additional help getting this valuable new marketing resource working for your business, don't hesitate post a comment below or email me.

Still Paying a High Price for SMS Messages?

Is your company paying for SMS Messages sent between staff members? 

You can avoid these costs by having all personnel use a mobile phone application which provides free messaging. Suitable applications include Skype, Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger and What's App.

These mobile applications themselves are also free. Apart from text messaging they often include support for the free transmission of images and videos. Group messaging may also be a handy facility for some businesses.

Skype's Mobile Product Offerings

The major snag is that all personnel need to have the same application loaded on their mobiles phones. But this is pretty simple to organise. The applications can be downloaded directly on to mobile phones from the websites listed below. You may also wish to get other key business contacts, such as, clients, suppliers and business partners in on the act. Saving you all money.

You do need a "smartphone" to run these applications. Smartphones, such as the iPhone, have the computing power to support third party applications, Internet access and email. Not sure if you have a smartphone? The websites listed below will help you there as well. Some personnel don't have smartphones? It may be time to address that, smartphones are going to become increasingly integrated your business environment, like it or not.

How can messaging be free? Your messages are sent over the phone's Internet connection, instead of via a telecommunications carrier service. This does use up some of the data transmission allowance, but as long as you don't overrun the monthly plan, there is no additional cost. Text messages, for instance, only use infinitesimal amounts of data.

You can download free messaging applications, also known as apps, from the following sites:

Skype -  http://www.skype.com/intl/en/get-skype/on-your-mobile/
Windows Live Messenger - http://explore.live.com/windows-live-messenger-mobile
WhatsApp - http://www.whatsapp.com/

For an additional perspective, see this recent article in the The Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/free-texting-could-spell-doom-for-sms-20111011-1lip1.html

To find other great free services for your business, check out the ebook Free Business Resources.

Using Social Media To Build B2B Relationships

In a recent interview, Tom Skotidas was spot on with his assessment of an important difference between the Business-To-Consumer (B2C) and Business-To-Business (B2B) markets.

Do you want to use LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook to help develop B2B opportunities? Then, as Tom says, you must aim towards eventually creating real world business relationships.

You can do this by first establishing visibility through a regular stream of activity associated with your on-line presence. And then by looking for opportunities to engineer face-to-face meetings.

Once you have the required visibility, you'll be in a position to suggest the following to your on-line contacts:

• Attending a meeting of your favourite business group
• Joining a get-together you're organising at an industry conference
• Coming along to a business social event
• Or, maybe even having a one-on-one meeting

But these tactics will only be effective AFTER you have established a reasonable degree of visibility on-line.

You can see the full Sky Business News interview with Tom Skotidas right here:

Firefox Version 7 Released

This latest release of the Firefox Internet browser promises to provide better utilisation of your PC memory. 

Which has to be a good thing.

Still using Internet Explorer? You really should give Firefox a try. Heaps of useful features and a wide range of add-on functions. And it's free.

Find more information on Firefox at: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/features/ .

You can download Firefox version 7 from:  http://firefox7.org/

Pricing Rip-Off's For Software

Australian's are being significantly overcharged for software according to an article in today's Sydney Morning Herald. That's even more true for businesses that don't take advantage of the great range of FREE software and services that are now available.

But how do you find free products that are effective, reliable and well-supported? 

Follow this blog for a start. It will provide regular information on the latest free offerings.

 Want to start using the best free products straight away? Then get our sister publication - Free Business Resources. It will provide you with a catelouge of over 130 carefully reviewed free products that are suitable for business use.

Free Business Resources can save your business thousands of dollars. And offer you a host of ways to improve efficiency.

Need To Collect Information?

Create neat, customised forms for your business using Zoho Creator.

Zoho Creator allows you to create an online form by inserting fields using simple drag-and-drop actions. Pre-configured forms are also available. It provides a range of views enabling you to examine the information collected. You can even generate graphical reports.

According to Zoho, the facility is completely non-programmer friendly and allows you to have a customised form available online within minutes. Although more complex, database-style functionality can be added if required.

The free version of Zoho Creator enables you to create three different forms and collect up to 1000 records. Low cost subscription plans are available from $15 per month, if you require greater capacity, more report types or the payment module option.

The video below will give you a snapshot of how Zoho Creator works.

Is Software About To Destroy Your Business?

Is your business about to be decimated by a software application? Is it time to stop worrying about low-cost overseas competition and start preparing for the arrival of software which supersedes your business altogether?

If even part of your business operations involve the supply and/or processing of information, the answer to both of the above questions may well be yes. 

By Patrick Horsley @ flickr

Software eats part of the world, a recent article by John Hempton of Bronte Capital, provides numerous examples of how companies producing physical products are being "appified". By which he means, their business models are being dramatically undermined by newly emerging software applications. This process may be even more disruptive to professional service companies, whose competitive advantages often revolve around their handling of information.

There are already many examples of "software" businesses that have have changed whole industries. Just think of Amazon, Google, Netflix and Apple's iTunes. 

The time has now arrived when many more businesses are under the threat of having, at least, a part of their operations "appified". Three reasons why this impending treat must now be taken seriously by an ever increasing range of businesses are provided in an Essay by Marc Andreessen in the Wall Street Journal. The reasons are:

 By thomcochrane @ flickr

• Over two billion people already use broadband Internet.
• Within the decade over five billion people will own smartphones with Internet access.
• The cost of placing an application on the Internet and making it easily available to a worldwide market has now dropped to just $1,500 per month.

So how do you ensure your business continues to thrive? 

• Watch out for the emergence of software applications which could impact your business model. And don't underestimate which areas of your business may be effected.
• Embrace software which can make your business more effective. (You'll find some of my suggestions covered in this blog from time to time.)
• Focus your business on activities that are hard to replicate with software. These will include, in particular, activities based around personal relationships, collaboration, partnerships, combining skills and creativity.

What other ways are there to evolve a business in order to compete with the inevitable "digitisation" of traditional business processes? Your thoughts will be welcome.

Find Out Who You're Dealing With - Automatically

This neat little application allows Gmail users to instantly find information about people with whom you're exchanging emails. And display that information right alongside the email itself.

Rapportive extracts information from LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and a number of other sources. An overview of this information is then displayed in a panel on the right hand side of your email in-box.You can even request a "connection" with your correspondent right there and then.

If there is more than one email address in a message, simply float your mouse pointer over any alternative address to get information on that person.

Twitter fanatic? You can follow, reply, and retweet all without leaving Gmail!

There are also a number of extensions available - called Raplets -  these allow your Rapportive side bar to pull in information from a number of 3rd Party applications including MailChimp, BatchBook and CruchBase.

  

As from July, you can even use Rapportive when you are composing an email. This allows you to enhance relationships with your correspondents by mentioning items from their latest posts on Twitter and Facebook.

Write Better Emails With Rapportive

For busy Gmail users, this product is a must have. Download Rapportive at http://rapportive.com/install

Easy, Secure Access To All Those Pesky Passwords

KeyPass is secure password storage software with a range of easy-to-use features.

The software and passwords reside on your own PC and are secured by advanced encryption. A master password provides access to the password details. But don't ever forget the master password because even KeyPass themselves can retrieve it for you!

This product makes it really easy to manage the wide range of passwords we all need today to secure information and resources. There is even random password generator if you can't be bothered to make up your own passwords.

Passwords can be organised into groups to make them easy to locate. You can even cut and paste passwords from the KeyPass display, saving you the hassle of re-typing (or mistyping) them when they're needed.

You can download KeyPass from http://keepass.info/download.html

How safe is your password?

A very pertinent article on passwords is published in today's edition of the UK's Independent newspaper. Some fascinating details and very sage advice.

How safe is your password?

If You Use Lists......You'll Love Remember The Milk

Making up lists of activities is an almost essential part of running your business and personal affairs. 

But what do you do with these lists and how do you keep them up-to-date? There's a neat on-line application called Remember The Milk (RTM), which can really help out. 

When you join RTM, it provides you with four pre-configured lists, including an InBox. The layout looks smart and is pretty easy to use. You can even email or Twitter, tasks directly into you InBox.

The key features of RTM include:

Lists - New lists can be created to suit your personal needs. These might include phone calls, urgent actions, projects, invoicing or whatever else you find useful.

Tasks - You can create tasks within any of your lists (or transfer them from your InBox if originally created by email or Twitter). These tasks can all be allocated with names, priorities, due dates, repeats, notes, URL's etc. They can also be modified at any time.

Reminders - You can send yourself reminders about any particular task via email, SMS or one of several instant messaging services.

Google Integration - Neat integration options are provided with Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Maps.

Microsoft Outlook Integration - Synchronisation is also available with Outlook tasks.

Mobile Phone Support - iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows and Blackberry mobile devices all have support options for RTM.

RTM was launched in 2005 and claims to now have over 2.5 million users. The on-line list management service is provided free of charge. However you will need to upgrade to the $25 per annum "pro" version for the iPhone, iPad and Outlook options.

You can sign up for Remember The Milk at  http://www.rememberthemilk.com/signup/

Hint - Your lists are normally displayed in alphabetical order. If you wish to change this order simply add numbering prior to the list name.

LinkedIn Voted Most Important Networking Site

In a recent survey by ROI Research, 59% of respondents nominated LinkedIn as the most important social networking website. The same survey showed that 20% of LinkedIn users visit the site daily and 50%, at least, once a week.

The importance of personal referrals was also highlighted, with 60% being likely to take action when a friend posts information about a product or company.

The survey was sponsored by Performics, an SEO consultancy, more information can be found on their blog.

The Ultimate Networking Accessory

Coming soon to an optician near you!

Imagine walking into a business event and being able to see each person's written profile projected alongside them. This is NOT science fiction. Right now "smart" contact lenses are in the process of being developed.

The scenario painted above will use facial recognition technology to identify other people in the room. Pull down their profile information from the Internet. Then project it into your eyes. All done via your contact lens. (I always knew I'd find a benefit of being short sighted sooner or later!)

This type of capability may take 20 years to come about, or it may be a lot nearer than you think. Either way you had better get your on-line profiles looking good. You never know who or how somebody might be looking at them.

See the Economist's video about smart contact lenses directly above or for the full article click here.

Cloud Computing in Comparison.

In his recent letter to the Economist entitled Cloudy-sky thinking, Professor Milo Martin makes a great point about the reliability of Cloud Computing.

Anybody who has relied upon an in-house IT infrastructure will surely remember the angst created by system downtime due to faults, upgrades and the like. The occasional unavailability of Cloud Computing resources and the ease with which you can back-up your data compares very favourably. Not to mention the cost savings.

It's just great to log-in to one of your on-line applications and find there is a range of new features available, without anything to organise, no downtime and no additional costs.

Never Lose Those Vital Snippets Of Information Again

I've been using Evernote for more than a year now and it's become an increasingly important part of my work routine.

Evernote software allows you to type notes, copy text, save screen shots and store photos. You can even store voice recordings and "handwritten" notes. It's available as a free, easy-to-install download.

All the information your store with the Evernote software can be backed-up on their servers and accessed via virtually any web browser. Versions of the software are also available for a very wide range of mobile phone operating systems, which again can automatically synchronise with your data storage on the Evernote servers.

But will you use it? 

That was the question I first asked myself. I quickly found out the answer was yes. The primary reason being is that it makes it so quick and easy to save useful items of information. Just those sort of items that in the past you may have written on a sheet of paper or saved in a folder, then never have been able to find again.

Evernote allows you to quickly store information in "notebooks" that you can create to suit your particular needs. All this information is also searchable, you can even search for text within images.

How do I use Evernote?

There are four key areas where Evernote has really helped me:

1) Preparing articles like this one. You can quickly "clip" related information from web pages and documents. Start sketching out the structure of your article. Write individual paragraphs. Even complete the whole article. All the information is in one secure, easy to access place. Which is especially useful if you want to develop the article over an extended period of time.

2) Saving key sections from emails and letters. How many times have you rewritten virtually the same paragraph because you couldn't find the place you originally used it? Evernote has allowed me to quickly save and retrieve those those treasured snippets. A massive time saver.

3) Have you every searched through a PC or software user guide to find a vital piece of advice and then have to repeat the process again a couple of months later? With Evernote, I've found it really easy to store and retrieve the particular instructions that are useful to me. 

4) Inspirational thoughts, neat ideas, great quotations. I couldn't begin to count the number I've come across then lost track of. Evernote has helped me to build up a store of little inspirational gems.

I'm sure there must be dozens of other ways in which people use Evernote. If your already an Evernote user, please let us know about your favourite application below.

What Does It Cost?

There is no cost to download the software and the free Evernote subscription allows you to upload up to 60MB of data to their servers every month. The $5 per month Premium version extends that to 1GB per month.

Conclusion

The thing that has really made Evernote important to me, is the speed with which you can save, organise and retrieve, even the smallest items of information.

Evernote have just passed 8 million users. In the next few weeks that could hit 10 million users, I'd strongly recommend that you're one of them.

Do You Offer Rewards For Referrals?

Referral Key is a website which offers to help you simplify the process and reach more referral partners.

This networking resource is aimed primarily at small business operators. It allows you to post a business profile and link with other business people. Membership is free.

Referral Key has been around since 2007 but has expanded dramatically since it started allowing members to offer a “reward” for successful referrals. The value and terms for awarding the reward are entirely up to the member making the offer. It can be in the form of gift vouchers from a selection of companies, or simply cash payments.

Importantly, the website also provides a facility allowing you to automatically track referrals, both given and received.

Whilst some professions have a code of conduct that prevent them from accepting such inducements, in other instances it may prove a nice way to reward people for taking the time and effort to send you referrals.

Referral Key is based in Boston, USA and was featured in this Boston Globe article.

I can't see this facility ever matching the benefits of face-to-face networking or the facilities available on LinkedIn. However, I've decided to give it a go and offer a reward of $100 for successful referrals. I'll let you know how well it works.

You can link with me on Referral Key at http://referralkey.com/richardcarter

Referral Key - Referrals for Small Businesses Video

Three Simple LinkedIn Features You MUST Consider For Your Website

Make it easier for website visitors to promote and connect with your organisation.

LinkedIn have recently made available a new range of facilities that can be integrated with websites. The three features I recommend you implement are:

Member Profiles - Facilitates the display of Profile Summary Cards for selected LinkedIn members e.g. company staff. Your website visitors will also be able see how they're connected to the displayed personnel. Profile Summary Cards will not only encourage prospects to make initial contact with your organisation but will also help to grow stronger relationships with your existing clients.

Company Insider - This feature shows your website visitors which company employees are in their LinkedIn network. Once again, making it easier for people to build stronger ties with your organisation.

Share on LinkedIn - Provides a simple way for individuals to publish favourable comments. The button provided allows visitors to send a LinkedIn Status Update without leaving your website. The update automatically includes a link to your website and space for comments.

For website visitors to experience the personalised aspects of the above features, they will of course need to be logged-in to LinkedIn. However, it is no longer uncommon for businesspeople to remain continuously logged-in to key services, such as, Google and LinkedIn.

The features highlighted are free and relatively simple to implement. They provide an innovative way to grow relationships with both clients and prospects. What are you waiting for?

How do you implement these features?

To access these features go to the LinkedIn Developer Network. This sounds a bit daunting but don't worry, the features I've selected have been made as simple as possible to implement.

The above link will take you to a page showing the various LinkedIn website "plugins" that are available. Select the feature you require via the "Get it" button, enter some basic information, then click "Get Code". You will be provided with the HTML code required for your website.

If you're already doing your own basic website support, entering this HTML code should be plain sailing. Alternatively, it is a simple task for your website development company.

You will notice that there are some other "plugins" which are available from LinkedIn. Some of these may also be attractive for your website but just be aware that they require significant HTML expertise to implement.

Share Files The Easy Way

Just select the files you want to share via your browser.

Ge.tt is a recently launched free file sharing service which makes the whole process as simple as possible. Once you have selected the file you wish to share, Ge.tt provides a website address (URL) which you can pass on to people who may wish to download the selected file. 

The stand-out benefits of Ge.tt are:

• Simple drag-and-drop process to load files to the Ge.tt website.
• Immediate access to the service which uses your web browser only, no software to install.
• Supports almost any file type including documents, pictures and videos.
• No file size limitations (although some web browsers may only handle up to 2GB files).
• File downloads can be started immediately, even before your file is fully loaded on to the Ge.tt website.

Your files may be deleted from the Ge.tt website if they have not been accessed for over 30 days. If you want to get some larger items distributed quickly, however, this is a great way to do it.

Hint: If you're on the Ge.tt website and want to get back to the file sharing page, just click the the Ge.tt logo.

Dump That Email Footer

Many, many emails now include a footer imposing conditions, disclaimers and instructions related to the email.

By James Cridland

Do you ever read them? Should we be wary of their contents? Is the footer on your emails valid?

According to The Economist "Many disclaimers are, in effect, seeking to impose a contractual obligation unilaterally, and thus are probably unenforceable". Click here to read their full article "Spare us the e-mail yada-yada".

So, should we discard email footers altogether? Has anybody come across a legal case reliant on the contents of an email footer? Your comments are welcome.

How to use LinkedIn to Boost Search Results for your Business

Having your business well positioned in Internet search results is a great way of improving sales opportunities. So when the chance arrives to easily improve your search results, grab it!

By MarioSundar

Just such an opportunity has arisen because Google are ramping up their use of information that is posted on social media websites. LinkedIn and Twitter are two of the most highly "ranked" social media sites and what's happening on these sites is going to increasingly influence search results. Interestingly, many feel that Facebook may be much less significant because they don't allow Google to view all of their data.

An example of the search power of social media websites is often seen when searching for a specific company. The personal LinkedIn profiles of employees at that company are often right up there alongside the company's own website.

Here are 5 STEPS* that will allow you to take advantage of the rising importance of social media websites:

1) Create a Twitter account at https://twitter.com/. It's pretty straight forward just enter your name and email address, then create a username and password.  

Don't worry! I'm not going to suggest you spend all day tweeting. But as you'll see in the next step, there is a way to use Twitter without any extra work at all.

2) Connect you LinkedIn account to your new Twitter account. On LinkedIn go to "Settings" then "Profile" then add your Twitter username under "Manage your Twitter settings". Once this is done your LinkedIn status updates will automatically go out on Twitter as well. Great web search exposure with no extra work!

3) Establish a Google Account at https://www.google.com/accounts/. This simply needs you to enter an email address and create a password.

4) Then complete your Google Profile at http://www.google.com/profiles/ . A short cut here is to cut and paste the "Summary" section from your LinkedIn profile to the "Introduction" section of your new Google profile.

5) Connect your Linkedin account and your Twitter account to your Google profile. You do this by inserting your "Public Profile Address" for each account into the "Links" section of your Google Profile. Public Profile Addresses are the actual website addresses for your profiles. They will look something like http://au.linkedin.com/in/NAME and http://twitter.com/USERNAME

* You may not even need to take all 5 of the steps if you already some of have the appropriate accounts established.

GOOGLE PROFILE

The above steps will do two things to improve search results for you and your business. Firstly, your status updates will get exposure on both the LinkedIn and Twitter websites. Secondly, Google will better understand your presence on social media and who are your business contacts. Scary? Well yes, slightly. But consider that Google are now giving preference to information associated with you, IF they know your connected to the person doing the search On that basis, it really does pay off if Google are aware who are your business contacts. Google do also commit to not sharing your private information with any other third party.

To further help your web search rankings remember to also do the following: continue to increase your LinkedIn connections; publish regular LinkedIn status updates; make sure all employees have LinkedIn profiles with customised weblinks to the company.

NO TIME? Implementing the above steps yourself really is worthwhile and will cost you nothing. However if you don't have the time or inclination, for $110 we'll carry out the above 5 step process for you. Just email me at richardc@business-connections.com.au to have this done.

Can you suggest other ways to improve search results using social media? Please comment below.