Best Business Deals! » New Media

Some new media tools that I cannot live without

Hamish — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:15:11 +0000

I like to consider myself an early adaptor. I am not opposed to embracing new and online tools to improve my business and improve my life. I want to share with you some of my favourite tools- tools that I use every day. These tools are useful for all business owners that want to embrace the Internet and grow their business effectively. I don’t think that there are any businesses that won’t be able to utilise most of these tools.

TweetDeck- TweetDeck is great. It allows me to access all of my social networking platforms from one great piece of software- at home, at the office and even on my mobile phone. I can immediately update my profiles (across Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) and also conduct market research in real time by following what people are saying about topics of interest on Twitter. I can follow what people are saying about me, an industry I am working in and also what they are saying about their competitors.

Google Alerts- Google Alerts is great for media monitoring across news websites and across blogs. Don’t pay someone else to do it for you when you can get whatever terms you want searched and the results collated and emailed to you without having to spend a cent.

Google Analytics- I love Google Analytics as I love measuring and analysing results. Google Analytics means that you can put a little bit of HTML coding on your website and then Google will track visitors to your website and how they got there. You can easily measure the success of your marketing endeavours with Google Analytics.
Google Docs- Google Docs is like a free VPN. I can work on documents and spreadsheets and share these documents with other people so they can edit and change these documents. I can also access these documents anywhere that I am in the world. Cloud computing is the way of the future. I love my netbook and Google Docs allows me to work wherever I am- at home, at the office or in a cafe whilst travelling overseas. All I need is an Internet connection.
Facebook- Don’t get me wrong. Updates about mafia and farms or whatever give me the shits. I don’t care about your chickens or a lost little sheep. I am glad that I can turn off these updates in my Facebook news feed. Having done that, now I only see benefits from Facebook. It is an organiser, I can see what my friends and associates are up to and I can network with potential alliance partners through groups. I also have some Fan Pages for my business- I like being able to keep in touch with my customers and supporters in a way that is suitable for them. Facebook is also a great way for me to connect with people who I have met at offline networking functions and boost the relationship that we have. There is nothing wrong with sharing a little bit of my personality. I am, after all, a person who has thoughts and feelings.
My iPhone- I couldn’t live without my iPhone. I’ve tried other smart phones but the iPhone is the only one that really works for me. My iPhone means that I no longer have down time. When I am waiting for people anywhere I can check my email, update my social networking statuses and even write articles and blog posts like this one.
The web forums that I am a member of- Networking need not only happen online. I am only a member of a few online networking sites but they are a great way to foster relationships with alliance partners that I may not have normally been able to meet before the Internet was a useful tool.

Other than my iPhone, which I had to throw in there, all of the tools that I have mentioned above are free to download, participate in or sign up for. Even if you decide not to use all of them, check them out and see if they can be useful for your business.

Do yourself a favour today.

Public Relations Advice for Small Business Owners

Hamish — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:43:47 +0000

I love Squidoo. It is a great tool to share information with people about anything that you are interested in. You can make a Squidoo Lens on any topic.

Here is a Squidoo Lens I am currently working on about Strategic Public Relations. (It is still a work in progress and may change over the coming weeks.)

If you are still not 100% convinced, here is another Lens worth checking out:

49 Ideas For Awesome Lenses

Barack Obama utilises online video

Hamish — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:18:43 +0000

Online video marketing is a great PR tool. You get to bypass mainstream media and go straight to your audience.

US President Barack Obama is using Youtube.

Wh aren’t you?

Google tells you how to rank in their Search Engine.

Hamish — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:23:10 +0000

There’s always been a lot of rumour and scuttlebut about how to rank well in the Search Engines and what really needs to be done for SEO.

The team at Google have finally put together a guide as to what they see being important in terms of SEO.

Get your Google SEO Starter Guide here.

Protecting Your Reputation online is vital.

Hamish — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 01:27:48 +0000

In these days of Web 2.0, protecting your reputation is vital if you wish to do business online.

People talk, on blogs and in forums.

Just look at what has happened to this guy here.

Are you working to make sure this doesn’t happen to you?

Must Reads- A new Blog to add to the Feeds and a Must Read Post on Leveraging Pulicity.

Hamish — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 06:45:43 +0000

Pete Williams, a good friend of mine and an entrepreneur (the guy who sold the MCG) has started a new blog here on publicity. Add it to your RSS feeds.

In a recent post he links to a great post by Scott Ginsberg:

35 ways to leverage your next media appearance.

Second Life- The Way of The Future!

Hamish — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:35:07 +0000

Best Business Deals on Forums- The New Networking.

Hamish — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 23:25:07 +0000

Every business person is a salesperson, and every business person could benefit from going to networking functions. The benefit could be through drumming up new sales, finding a partner for your new venture, or even just learning something you didn’t know.

However, the sad fact is that many business people do not have the time or inclination to attend such functions. The internet offers these people a solution. If you did a quick Google Search (go on, use the search function at the top of the page) of your industry, invariably you will come across a related forum where people from all around the world get together and discuss topics of shared interest.

This is the perfect networking opportunity for the savvy businessman. By making informative posts, you can be seen as the expert in that particular area. You can also drive targeted traffic to your own sites, and possibly find partners from all over the world. You can do this all from the comfort of your desk at work, or at home of a night.

If you are new to forums, a god site to check out is forumrating.com. It ranks forums from all around the world so you know whether you are getting involved with a reputable forum. They also have a great post in their blog which gives some good reasons to get involved in blogs. With their kind support I have reproduced it below, (you can see the original post here):

Top reasons why you would participate in internet forums
• Easy access 24hrs available
Forums are available 24hrs 365 days, you can chip in anytime you want and participate along , you can decide the time you wish to spend, no complsion of any sort.
• Ability to view multiple messages from members
Communicate and get noticed by multiple members while you read and write in a community. Every message you write is saved and has a history which you can check anytime , no need to remember much , just make a search and you are done.
• Earn with your forum signature
You can earn with your forum signature, depending on quality of your messages you write in the boards, the more you participate the more you will be paid for your signatures.
• Earn Reputation in the community
You get your repuation counter up as you participate and others start knowing you well, rest of members will start getting used to talking to you, which can add on to your reputation.
• Make new friends , get advices and information to related topics
With lot of people talking, for sure you ought to make few friends in the communities, its not so difficult to make friends, also they mite be of great help to you when you really need.
• Discussions based on specific interest and location.
All the discussions are based on specific interests and topics, forums are also targeted to country specific ones to cater and have a get together for people around a area or the globe.

So go on, get involved in forums, they are a great source of information, and they could help you on your way to internet millions.

For more information, check out:
www.forumrating.com

For a great general business forum check out:
www.businessforum.net
I am a moderator there.