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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.