In December, I wrote an article titled, “Mobile Marketing Tips for Small Businesses.” In short, it was about simple ways to make your website mobile-friendly in a mobile world. In this article, I thought I would do the reverse and review, as a blogger/business owner, a few of my favorite apps.
I often refer to myself as a geek and yet I’m behind the times in many ways because I can’t bring myself to divorce my Blackberry. It does lack in so many ways, yet there are just some things that make it worth it, mainly the keyboard. That being said, I now have an Android phone that I use as well because it is more app-friendly.
As a full-time blogger, my main concern is constant contact with my visitors as well as monitoring certain channels. The aspect I enjoy most about blogging is flexibility, which means there are days when I’m not at a desk but still need to know what’s going on. It is on those days that I count on my phone(s) to make that possible. Below are a few of my favorite apps that I use daily to make running my small business easier.
Evernote
As a blogger with many niche sites, I am constantly looking for new ideas and watching specific blogs, such as Get Busy Media and news sites.
Evernote helps because it allows you to save any video, post or snippet that you want to later access when you have more time. The absolute beauty of it is you can access it from your smartphone, laptop or iPad.
Wunderlist
I’m a genius with creating to-do lists but not too smart that I don’t misplace them constantly. Oddly enough, my phones don’t get misplaced as often so you can see why this works for me and might work for you as well. One of the features that I also like is “Smart Lists,” which allows you to hide certain things on your list that you might not want others to see. While I do still favor post it notes, a working to-do list has kept me far more organized.
Expensify
This app is brilliant, especially for people like me who greatly dislike anything to do with finances. One of the app’s best features is its ability to snap photos of receipts and categorize or sync them with your tax and accounting software.
By the time tax season rolls around (which is basically now) you can house all of your tax receipts in one easy location.
Dropbox
I can’t be the only one that has worked on a document, only to leave my office and find that I don’t have it with me when I desperately need it. This app helps with that—simply upload it to the program and you can later retrieve it through your tablet, laptop or mobile app. It’s also a good tool if you want to share a file with someone.
It goes without saying for most that social media is a core part of blogging so I also use Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn daily. But this post was about using programs that have corresponding mobile apps that are helpful.
While you are working on making your site mobile friendly, also take the time to realize how essential your smartphone is to you and take note of the things that you like most and least so you can do that with your own sites.
Get Busy Media is a blog and resource center that helps small businesses and entrepreneurs build smarter companies. For more information on how to jump-start your small business marketing, please visit www.getbusymedia.com or connect with us on Twitter, @GetBusyMedia.
