1. (Spooky) Social Media
and Web Services for
Business
Brian Jackson, Editor of ITBusiness.ca
bjackson@itbusiness.ca - @brianjjackson
www.itbusiness.ca
2. • Meet Anthony Raso, Executive Car Care
• Launch with help from GroupOn.
• 200 sales = great! Booking with pen and paper? Not so great.
• Can’t go digital on one aspect and expect to keep up elsewhere.
• Switch to Web booking system with Groupon Scheduler
• Now customers book themselves! Time saving and better organized.
3. Considering Groupon and other daily
deals
Groupon Scheduler is free; gentle prompts to use daily deals
Wagjag, Team Save, Team Buy, Living Social, etc.
Two situations when it’s a good idea to run a daily deal:
1) You are selling a high margin product and can still profit on discounted
sales (remember the product is discounted and Groupon gets a portion of the
sale)
2) You can accept a loss on the sale and look at it as advertising. Gain
exposure to new clients. Costs come with guaranteed customers.
Think: What will you do when the customers come to you?
4. Office Web Apps
You’ll need a Microsoft Live ID (eg. Hotmail, MSN)
Free, Web access to familiar Microsoft Office Apps
Richer interface than Google Docs
Switch to desktop version when you want
Integrates with Skydrive, to sync local files with Web
Access to Messenger IM
Apps to do electronic Fax, get access to templates
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/web-apps/
5. Google Drive
New version of Google Docs
Edit word documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, etc. online
Sync to your desktop with Drive application and edit with your
installed software, like Microsoft Office
Share files with colleagues. No size limitations and real-time editing
and collaboration capabilities.
6. Google+ - The Web is going social
• Google is using its social information to influence its
search results; big implications for search engine ranking
• Authorship ranking now a factor in search results
• If people in your Circles +1 or share a link, its more likely
you’ll see it in search results
• Claim your authorship status now for your blog.
• Link your name to your Google+ profile like this:
<a
href=“https://plus.google.com/u/0/1118583331545254913
41” rel=“author”>Brian Jackson</a>
7. Google Places for Business
Your store description on Google
Maps is now your social page on
Google+
Will be created by Google – you
have to choose to manage it
If you run a home office, good to
specify a service area instead of
one location.
8. Best Made Company gets it
Key contact details and brief company history up front
Use of photo albums to showcase products
Sharing videos and news from other relevant sites
9. Online collaboration made easy
• Online collaboration for free with
Vyew.com
• Put up with ads while you work
• Share documents, collaborate on
them, video conference, screen
sharing, voice, etc.
• Up to 10 concurrent users for fee
• Work with your team or impress
clients. Use as a teaching and
training tool.
• Also use join.me for easy-as-pie
screen sharing
10. Facebook Page: Kettleby
-
Valley
Fun and engaging tone, but maintain professional
image and maintain customer confidence
- Well moderated by key staff members
- Share blog posts, videos, program
updates, pictures, and more.
Focus on community
and customer
achievement;
demonstrated value of
the business.
11. Grow your Facebook fan base
- Placesocial buttons on your Web site - Add your Facebook Page to your e-mail
signature
- Consider Facebook advertising (it’s low cost) - Offer incentives to ‘Like’ your
Facebook page
- Update consistently with compelling posts - Images most effective on Facebook
12. Peter gets it
- His business might be about the
outdoors, but his process have gone all
digital
- Online marketing, online
registration, online customer
support, online education, online clothing
sales, etc.
- By avoiding bottlenecks in his work
flow, Peter has managed to expand the
number of kids registered at Kettleby Valley
and spend more time improving the camp
13. Wave Accounting
- Use same bank account for business and personal - Automatic tracking tied to bank accounts
14. - Saves 10 hours per month by using
Wave Accounting
- More time to spend on client work
- Can now expand to include other
photographers with confidence
- More “couch time” with hubby
Kate gets it
15. Wave Payroll
Costs $3 per employee per
payroll; integrates with Wave
Accounting
Use it to manage your
nannies, cleaners, kid’s
allowance even
Automatic tax calculations
Employees manage personal
banking information for direct
deposit
Also import into QuickBooks
16. Mail Chimp
• Free for up to 2,000
recipients
• Also a great resource for
tips on e-mail marketing
• Manage every aspect of
your campaign
• Registration forms
• E-mail design with templates
• Analytics reports
• Distribution through social
17. Mark gets it
• Uses newsletter to
demonstrate knowledge of
the field
• Not afraid to link to a lot of
different, external sites
• Avoids communication
bottleneck with clients by
using a consistent e-mail
newsletter that is easy to
register for
18. Canada Public Record Center
Employee background checks http://www.publicrecordcenter.c
Patent data base search om/canada_public_records.htm
Phone numbers
Postal addresses U.S. and International records
also available.
Track down debt-owing clients
Locate stolen bikes, vehicles
Court records
Bankruptcy filings and
unclaimed amounts