34
Tech News/
E-reader Newspaper
Sponsor Post: 10 Killer Tools for Small-Business Success By Admin (ReadWriteWeb)
technologies and platforms that can help your small business succeed in social media and Editor's note: we offer our long- Internet marketing. These experts term sponsors the opportunity to in the field include John Jantsch write 'Sponsor Posts' and tell of Duct Tape Marketing, Becky their story. These posts are McCray of Small Biz Survival, clearly marked as written by M a c k C o l l e r o f T h e V i r a l sponsors, but we also want them Garden, Drew McLellan of to be useful and interesting to our Drew's Marketing Minute and readers. We hope you like the K y l e L a c y , a u t h o r o f t h e posts and we encourage you to u p c o m i n g b o o k " T w i t t e r support our sponsors by trying M a r k e t i n g f o r D u m m i e s . " out their products. Based on their favorites (and If you have discussed social some of my own), here are 10 m e d i a w i t h s m a l l - b u s i n e s s killer tools for small-business owners, you almost always get success. two questions: 1. Jott • How do I manage all these Have you ever called yourself social networks without going and left a voice mail so that you nuts? wouldn't forget something? Jott • Are any tools out there that can takes that idea a step further, help me be more productive and transcribing the voice mail and save time? sending it to your inbox. Instead of sending a quick memo to Sponsor yourself to remember to email The first answer that any good your vendor, you can dictate the social media thinker would offer email and save time. Upgrade to a small-business owner would be Jott Assistant and you can dictate to pick two or three networks to-do lists, automatic Web where you can reach the majority postings to your social networks, of your customers or potential calendar items and more. Jott is a customers and concentrate on subscription-based service, and it those, thus eliminating some of starts at only $3.95 per month for your stress. Fortunately, the a small Assistant account. For second answer is "Yes": tools are small-business owners on the go, out there to help you manage it can be a life-saver. your time and workflow if you 2. Grasshopper plan to spend some time and Grasshopper not only gives your energy on the social Web. business its very own toll-free I polled a few folks who know a 800 number, but it allows your thing or two about social media, customers to reach you even especially for small businesses, when you're on the go. Voice and collected a list of 10 tools, mails are delivered to your inbox, Submitted at 11/10/2009 12:45:03 AM
with ease. The software has a bookmarklet for quick linksharing and offers some cursory stats on your Twitter account as as are faxes (in PDF), so you can well. It's free to use. stay connected everywhere. You 5. Survey Monkey Perhaps the one luxury that can have multiple extensions and many small businesses can't extend the service to your afford is market research. Survey employees as well. The service Monkey enables you to conduct starts at $9.95 per month (plus a your own online surveys to gain $25 activation fee) for 100 insight into your customer base minutes. Other plans are $49 and for free. The tool is easy to use, $199 per month. looks professional and produces 3. Monitter a bevy of charts and graphs to If your small business is on help you understand your results. Twitter, keeping an eye on the conversations related to your If you have trouble with online product or service there makes tools, Survey Monkey has several s e n s e . B u t i f y o u ' r e video tutorials that make it a snap geographically focused like most to tap into customer insights. small businesses, you probably 6. Simple Online Accounting hate having to weed through Solutions similarly named companies and McCray told me about a number mentions of your industry from o f g o o d o n l i n e t o o l s f o r folks 1,000 miles away. Monitter bookkeeping and accounting, two lets you search Twitter for really stand out for her. She keywords, but filters them by recommends Outright.com for specified distances from a zip single-person businesses and code. You get tweets about your WorkingPoint.com for more category, industry and company complex companies. The reason? from within your home territory, S i m p l i c i t y . S p e a k i n g a s a where it matters. Monitter is free business owner who is mathaverse myself, I'll just say, to use. "Amen!" The simpler, the better. 4. HootSuite For anyone who runs a Twitter Both of these are outstanding in account for business, a tool like that category. Outright is free to HootSuite can be a productivity use. WorkingPoint is free for one boon. Not only can you manage user, $10 per month for two and multiple people contributing to only $80 per month for 10 users. the same Twitter account (so that 7. ReQall o n e p e r s o n i s n ' t s o l e l y Never before has a smart phone responsible for tweeting), but you app been so incredibly useful! can manage multiple accounts ReQall is a memory aide that enables you to record voice
memos via a smartphone or regular phone, have those messages transcribed and then sent to you via email (a la Jott). But wait! There's more. The software uses natural-language processing and some additional analysis to determine whether you're dictating a calendar item or to-do list entry. It then adds those items to your calendar or to -do list. If you say, "Pick up milk at Circle K on Belmont Avenue by 4 pm," you'll get a calendar entry, probably with a Google map link, and a reminder beforehand. For the smallbusiness owner on the go, this app is a must-have. 8. Milog (iPhone App) While I hate to recommend an application that is limited to iPhone users, this one is worth mentioning. Milog, from SymplySoft, allows you to track your mileage simply, then email yourself neatly organized reports to print or send to your accountant for tax papers. When my CPA told me, "No one tracks their mileage well," I decided to prove her wrong. Milog helps me do that in literally a few seconds per day. The app stores locations for easy trip entry and allows you to add fields for parking, tolls and more. The full version is just $2.99 at the iPhone app store. 9. Minggl This tool is new (the beta was released two weeks ago) but is very promising. A browser SPONSOR page 37