(Spooky) Social Media and Web Services for

BusinessBrian Jackson, Editor of ITBusiness.ca

bjackson@itbusiness.ca - @brianjjackson

www.itbusiness.ca

• 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.

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?

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/

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.

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/0/111858333154525491341” rel=“author”>Brian Jackson</a>

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.

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

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

Facebook Page: KettlebyValley

Focus on community and customer achievement;

demonstrated value of the business.

- 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.

- Place social 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

Grow your Facebook fan base

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

Wave Accounting

- Use same bank account for business and personal - Automatic tracking tied to bank accounts

Kate gets it

- 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

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

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

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

Employee background checks

Patent data base search

Phone numbers

Postal addresses

Track down debt-owing clients

Locate stolen bikes, vehicles

Court records

Bankruptcy filings and unclaimed amounts

http://www.publicrecordcenter.com/canada_public_records.htm

U.S. and International records also available.

Canada Public Record Center