TOP 13 PHONE APPS W/ SOCIAL VALUE

Have you been spending more of your mobile time using smartphone apps than browsing the web?  Suffice it to say, you’re not alone.

There are more than a million apps available and users spend, on average, 82% of their mobile minutes with apps and just 18% with web browsers.  Below, I have listed the TOP 13 in alphabetical order of the very coolest that are convenient and provide social value.

Note: For consistency, all screenshots were taken from iTunes app store, but these apps are for iPhone AND Android based phones.

#1: Bump

Do you want to easily share documents with those around you?

With Bump you can share contact information, photos, videos and files by simply bumping two phones together. You can also share contacts, photos and files with others and sync with your computer.

“Send your contact info, photos and music to the people around you who have this app.”

iPhone | Android
Free

#2: CardMunch Business Card Reader

Have you been holding onto a whole bunch of business cards from the last conference you went to? Looking for a solution for the cards you collected at Social Media Marketing World in San Diego?

Convert business cards to address book contacts and add them as connections on LinkedIn. CardMunch provides card-capture functionality for faster card scanning.

“Turns your business cards into contacts, now with LinkedIn integration.”

iPhone | Android *Yulu Card Reader
Free

#3: Easy Note + To Do

To-do lists have a way of growing when you don’t chip away at them little by little. Using an app for note-taking and managing lists can make them feel much more doable.

The Easy Note + To Do app allows you to organize notes in folders, check items as complete, assign a due date and prioritize.

“Good basic functionality with an attractive and clutter-free design.”

iPhone | Android * EasyNote Notepad To Do List
Free

#4: Foursquare

Whether you’re in a familiar location or somewhere new, Foursquare has your back and 30 million others, too.

“Open up the app to discover and learn about great places nearby, search for what you’re craving, and get deals and tips along the way.”

“I really like seeing what my friends are doing. It’s also useful to find places I’ve been before or remember when I was last at a certain place.”

iPhone | Android
Free

#5:  Google+

You don’t need to decide whether to check Google+ or leave your desk.

The Google+ app will help you stay connected via hangouts, photos and updates from what your friends are sharing.

“Sometimes the best things in life are small and simple yet packed with powerful connections!”

iPhone | Android
Free

#6: Instagram

Taking photos on a mobile phone offers users spontaneity plus the ability to visually transform a picture and share it immediately.

Instagram includes filters and borders, blur effects and easy sharing to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr and Foursquare.

“A photo can say more than a status update ever will.”

iPhone | Android
Free

#7: Meetup

Is online time usurping much of your day? There’s still nothing like the face-to-face experience.

The Meetup app will help locate meetups around topics of interest to youincluding social media, tech, business and entrepreneurship—and of course a range of fitness, hobbies, community, parenting and dog meetups, among others.

“It’s nice to see what people are doing in the community and be able to be involved.”

iPhone | Android
Free

Free

#8: Odometer

Do you need to keep track of mileage for a business trip?

Odometer apps will simplify the process and help you store the date and number of miles traveled.

“Export history as .CSV file on Odometer +.”

iPhone * Odometer + $.99
Android* Odometer Free

#9: QR Reader

Whether you want to scan a QR code (Quick Response Code) or create one, there are a number of apps that will add meaning and destinations (websites, special offers, contact information, etc.) to those ubiquitous codes.

Use the QR Reader to check out how other businesses are using QR codes and see if one makes sense for your business.

“Has so many options, is easy to use and distributes my code!

iPhone | Android *Scan
Free

 #10: Square Register

What will your smartphone do next? Take credit cards?

If you’re headed to a tradeshow, conference or a community event where you’re planning to sell your products, the Square Register app makes it possible to swipe credit cards and have payments delivered to your bank account within 1-2 days.

“I love the convenience w/o the contracts and additional fees that are attached to the traditional credit card machine or merchant services contracts.”

iPhone | Android
Free

#11: UberSocial

UberSocial, previously known as Twidroyd, is a mobile app that enables users to post new tweets, monitor and keep up to date on hashtags, lists and people you follow, while also managing other multiple social accounts all in one place.

“It’s always been my most favorite mobile Twitter app because it’s so easy to use and has many features.”

iPhone | Android
Free

#12: WiFi Finder

Need to find WiFi areas while traveling to make a Skype call or save on some of those minutes?

The Wifi Finder app features over 550,000 free and paid locations in 144 countries worldwide.

“Found hot spots I didn’t know were in my town.”

iPhone | Android
Free

#13: Zendesk

It seems fitting that the last app on our list would be focused on customer support.

In this article we’ve run the gamut of the sales process; for example, maintaining and engaging contacts, promoting businesses with photos, QR codes, credit card payments, plus more. Managing customer support via mobile phones has also become a necessity.

With Zendesk you can view, update and create new help desk tickets, configure support ticket fields and add comments.

“Very simple to use, giving you peace of mind while you’re on the move.”

iPhone | Android

What Social Media Can Do For You

Are you involved with social media marketing in your business? If you’re not, what’s holding you back? There are many reasons you should seriously think about implementing a social media strategy for your business AND you can leverage it in so many profitable ways.  Social media because is marketing done a bit differently, but it IS NOT too difficult for a non-marketing person to maintain.

Just as you cannot be all things to all people in business, you need to be diligent in your approach to this new type of marketing. All you need to know about is getting your market into your marketing funnel, and so there is no time or need to spend it on any other market. The more condensed your efforts are, the more tailor made solutions you’ll be able to give to your audience by being in the right places. Probably the most effective strategy with this is attracting your audience to you rather than you spending too much time hunting for them. Your efforts should be more focused and relevant to what your aim is, rather than being too broad. You will discover there are various strategies with social media, and so it will be relatively easy to see what you need to do. These tips will help you broaden your knowledge on subjects such as Traffic Empires.

It is easy to get knee deep in social media related activities, so be aware of your time and how you spend it. Since you’re required to be active in the social media world to reap the real benefits, the whole activity may eat up a lot of your time. The important point is to manage your time with social media marketing because it can easily consume large amounts of it if you are not watchful. Remember that nothing is difficult with social marketing, but like everything else in business you do need to properly discharge your required business tasks.

Lots of businesses start off with a bang at sites like Facebook, and then in several weeks they grow tired of all the “interaction” and begin to slowly lose interest.

Even though there are specific forms of communicating you will need to perform, still think along the lines of sharing highly relevant and useful content. The kind of content you create ultimately creates a good or a bad impression on your target audience, which is why it needs to be of high quality. Furthermore, still do SEO on that content unless it is being downloaded in PDF form. In the beginning you will be working on establishing your brand and reputation, and then afterward it is maintaining and expanding it. Whenever you compose any piece of content or even a comment somewhere, bear in mind the people you are talking to which is your niche market.

Social media can be used effectively for any business, as long as you know who your target audience is and how you’re going to approach it.

Mistakes to Avoid in 2013

Most businesses still approach social media marketing with lots of caution. A lot of social media influencers thought 2012 was the year most businesses would embrace social media marketing. But higher percentage of businesses are yet to benefit fully from social media.

Effective social media strategies have helped some businesses increase sales and generate more leads.  Other brands just do a poor job of generating revenue directly from social, hence the need to stay away from social platforms. These are some of the biggest mistakes you can avoid in 2013 to increase your chances of social media marketing success.

1.  Starting Without A Plan

You MUST have a plan and not just any plan, but a strategy that works. You should know where you are going, what you hope to achieve, how long you intend to achieve those goals. Have a plan of what to post, what to share, how to share it and where to share your content for maximum exposure.

2.  Inactivity on your social platforms

One of the worst things you can do as a ‘social media manager’ is to set up social accounts without updates or getting your followers informed about what your business and how they can benefit from your product or  service.  If you intend to take advantage of social media, go all out and experiment with what works and stick with it. The important thing here is CONSISTENCY.  If you can’t be consistent, the social media will not help your business – in fact, it MAY hinder it.  You may not be active on all your social platforms, but you can be efficient on platforms that work and generate results. If you are going to launch a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc account, make sure that you have the time and resources to effectively use them.

3. Little or no monitoring

The fact that you are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+, Foursquare or even Pinterest does not guarantee you will be successful at social media marketing. It’s a must to MONITOR your campaign. Identify what works, find out where you attract the most users or leads and double your efforts on your successful strategies. There is no point in scattering your resources when you can concentrate on what works and guarantees success.

4.  Posting irrelevant information

In desperation, so many companies hunting for better engagement begin to share  funny pictures, jokes and other content with their audience which do not have any relation with its products. Stay away from update, picture or information that is not consistent with what you have set out to do or achieve. People follow your or like your page because if what you started sharing or what you stand for. Do not jeopardize your social media campaign with irrelevant information. Do not be all things to all people.

5.  Listening without responding

Perhaps one of the biggest mistake of any social media marketing campaign is listening without responding. Not taking time to provide good response to customer comments. Most followers on your social pages tend to ask questions about your product or service directly on your Facebook page or it could be a tweet in expectation of a response. Monitor these comments, feedback and respond to them on time.

You cannot simply blast a bunch of product information and call it a day. If you want to be successful on social media , you need to engage your fans. When a fan reaches out to you through social media, you need to respond quickly. Don’t just post product updates, but participate and build relationships. Remember your followers are real people like you.

There’s no SOCIAL without SHARE

POWERING THE SOCIAL MEDIA REVOLUTION, ONE SHARE AT A TIME

Our mother’s always told us to share.  Share toys, share games, share personal information with them…  Sharing makes you a better person and a more well-known one.  If you’re in the business to be KNOWN, and most of us are, you need to SHARE.  Whether you want the simplest, most robust tools to turn your media social, or to find the right audience for your advertising message, you MUST make sure your efforts are seen.  Besides being polite, it’s just good business.

Here are last week’s top SHARE’s amongst the social media.  Have you shared today??

Dallas Morning News

Actor Larry Hagman, notorious as ‘Dallas’ villain J.R. Ewing, dies
When Larry Hagman, the actor who played J.R. Ewing on the TV show Dallas died late last week, the citizens of the city portrayed in the iconic show mourned. That much was evident in the number of times the Dallas Morning News’ piece on Hagman’s death was shared, more than any other online article. The story details Hagman’s life, focusing special attention to his role in Dallas and the cultural impact of his role.

CNSNews.com

Sandy-Ravaged New Jersey Families Face $6,933 Tax Hike in Fiscal Cliff Stalemate
New Jersey families left in the wake of Superstorm Sandy are generally lower-income families, which means they will see the highest tax increase as a percentage of their income (6.82 percent) if Congress doesn’t find a solution to the so-called “fiscal cliff,” according to analysis by the Tax Foundation. The Bush-era tax cuts are set to expire on December 31, meaning most folks will see an increase in their tax rates. However, writes CNSNews.com, those unfortunate souls in the Garden State that were affected by Sandy will be hit especially hard by the increase, at an average of $6,933 per four-person family.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 Synopsis and Overview
If you’ve got a 14 year-old sister, or happen to just love teenage vampire movies, you’re undoubtedly aware that the new Twilight movie came out recently. The online community expressed its admiration for those pale-faced youths and their blood-sucking ways, as the Fandango synopsis and overview page for the film was a top share this week. Recent reviews of the film, as expressed on the Fandango page, include phrases like, “the best movie ever,” “pretty surprised,” and “an easy…must go!”

Late-Night Gadget Use Damages Your Sleep Cycle
If you’ve got a smartphone, and most of us do, odds are you spend your final waking hours texting, surfing the web or playing games on that phone. Why not, it’s right there next to your bed. According to OnlinePsychologyDegree.net, 95 percent of people browse the web, text or watch TV before going to bed, but doing so can disrupt sleep. An infographic posted on Mashable notes that two-hour exposure to light from electronic displays suppresses melatonin by about 22 percent, making it harder to fall and stay asleep. Advises the infographic, “when you go to bed, say goodnight to your technology, too.”

Inside the Hostess Bankery
No that’s not a typo, “Bankery” is the unflattering moniker skeptical Wonder Bread employees have cast upon the now-defunct company for years, and this tell-all post from one such employee details the recent labor and salary struggles between Wonder Bread and its workers. The author says he’s been with the company for 14 years and loves it, but calls out a list of grievances, which include: “stolen” money from employee’s pensions, insider trading allegations and ludicrous backroom labor deals that benefit the company only.

IF YOU LIKED THIS BLOG….  SHARE IT   Have a great week!

Facebook Facts

The Fascinating Facts About Facebook

The graphic to your right reveals the worldwide usage demographics about the world’s most popular social media. This year, Facebook announced that it hit 700 million users, which meant over 1/7 of the world’s population is logged onto this site. As one of the most active social media sites, Facebook’s users are constantly liking or sharing links via wall posts to spread the word on various issues on their mind.

Facebook possesses a strong viral factor and has fueled many advertising campaigns via friend-to-friend connections. Considering most users comment on
others’ status updates more so than their own, the potential of its influential power is quite intense, especially when the need to check it has overpowered email. As social media is becoming more popular, Facebook is one of the richest sites for market research as well as current trends.

SOCIAL MEDIA EFFECTS ON PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION (just for fun)

President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney’s social-media campaigns are very intriguing to look at. Though Romney has the most new followers per day on Facebook, Obama still laps Romney in the Facebook realm by many the millions.

Furthermore, so far as Twitter stacks up for the two candidates, Romney’s 1.5 million followers falls significantly short of Obama’s 21 million. Comparing the two candidates’ savviness, Obama and his social media team are more active on the social media sites than his challenger. The social media usage in the 2012 Presidential election has been unsurpassed thus far in any other political campaign.

By a landslide, if the election was determined solely on online presence and support, President Obama would be the clear winner.  Does that make you think twice about the power of Facebook in promoting your business?  It should.