Three Free Productivity Tools I Use Everyday

Canva, Evernote, and Dropbox are free business tools that are really free and really great!

Here are three free productivity tools that I use every day and they are really free. These tools don’t have free trials and you pay up in a few day if you want to keep using. They have free versions with enough features that you can get real work done right away.

Free Productivity Tool #1: Canva - Amazingly Simple Graphic Design

As far as free business tools go, Canva is a new discovery for me. It was recommended to me by a follower on Twitter a month ago and I only recently gave it a try and was hooked.

Canva is the easiest web-based design tool that I have run across. It takes two minutes to setup an account, go through the tutorial and start designing your first project. There are tons of free templates and design features, but it is not overwhelming for first time designers. There is also a catalog of free graphics and paid graphics for only $1 each. You can even upload your own pictures. The "3 Free Business Tools" banner at the top of this article and the Scannable sidebar were created in Canva. Start using Canva now.

Read the rest of Three Free Business Tools I Use Everyday on Eagle Strategy Group. 

How Social Media Reshaped Communications

I watched this web cast live on Wednesday October 6, 2011 and think it is worth the 50 or so minutes for you to watch the replay.  The presenter is Chris Bogan, President of Human Business Works.  Here is the teaser for the web cast:

One in eleven humans on the planet have a Facebook account. Social networks are now the #1 most visited site category on the Internet. Not since television in the 1950s has any one shift in the technology landscape driven such a large raft of behavior changes. Businesses are grappling with social media on several fronts: how do companies manage the use of social media internally and externally by employees? How do marketers and sales teams and customer service teams use social media to build relationships of value? Which policies and practices keep everyone operating in a safe-but-smooth zone? And how do we make value for everyone from these tools? Join Chris Brogan for a discussion of how to build a new dialtone in this environment.



View the web cast on the BrightTalk web site: How Social Media Reshaped Communications

Get More Followers on Twitter - Fill Out You Profile

I am in the process of going through the new followers for my Twitter account - @SMBStrategy - as well some accounts that I monitor for clients and still cannot believe that businesses setup a twitter account and do not fill in the profile. 

I am looking at a car wash/detailing business that is following me to see if I should follow back.  To decide if I want to follow back I go to their twitter page to see their profile, location, and tweets.  They have spent the time to setup a background that looks clean and professional, their tweets are almost all about their services, and their profile is not filled in.  Why spend the time to create a background and not the minute it would take to add a profile?

I will not follow... why?
1.  Their tweets are primarily about their services, so they are not providing me with other valuable information that I want to know.  They do have a couple tweets on salt damage, but that's it.
2.  Issue #1 would not be bad if they were near me and I like getting my car washed, but they have not put their location on their background or profile, so I have no clue where they are.  One can make the argument you can follow one of their tweets to their web site and see where they are, but isn't part of the draw of Tweeter getting info without going to other sources...

Other than my rant, there are other reason to fill out your profile completely.  Your Twitter profile is crawled to deliver search results within Twitter and through 3rd party applications.  This is one of the ways for followers and potential customers to find you.  Also, include you full domain in your profile for SEO purposes, not a shortened redirect link. 

Good luck setting up your account and happy tweeting...

Internet and Social Networking Strategy Case Study

Jan 7, 2011 - Bridgewater, NJ - Eagle Strategy Group LLC (Eagle) has release a case study for a completed project that included an Internet and Social Networking Strategy.

Eagle's client was an Airport Parking Operator near a major airport that competed for parking customers with the airport, other off-airport parking operators, and airport hotels. The client was looking for a marketing strategy that utilized their web site and social networking to increase web traffic and sales.  To complete the project Eagle setup accounts for the client on Social Networks: Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and MerchantCircle as well as setup a form for collecting email addresses for a monthly newsletter. Eagle made regular posts to each Social Network and wrote and distributed the monthly newsletter insuring all media was conveying a unified marketing message.  Read the Internet and Social Marketing Case Study and go to the Eagle Strategy Group Management Consulting site to learn more about Eagle.

Apple iOS 4.2 Software is Here, But What Does it Mean for You?

November 23, 2010 - BizPlanHelp.com - The day has finally come, iOS 4.2 is here!  For iPad owners this day has been much anticipated as it brings a much needed feature - Multitasking.  If you bought an Apple iPad prior to today, as I did,  multitasking was one of the most noticeable features missing.

What does multitasking bring to the iPad?  Finally, you can listen to your music and surf the web at the same time,  You want to read your email and listen to a Podcast at the same time?  No problem.  The new iOS 4.2 also brings folders to the iPad, which will allow you to organize you to declutter your home screen.  If you are app hungry like me, your home screen is really 4 to 5 home screen.  I am already picturing a one folder for games to rule over all those game apps.

For those that have an iPod Touch or iPhone, multitasking and folders is not new.  The Touch and iPhone got mutitasking over the summer with iOS 4, which was never made available for the iPad.  But there are other feature upgrades in iOS 4.2 that are for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch owners including AirPrint and AirPlay.  AirPrint is very useful by allowing you to print from your iPhone directly to a printer.  AirPlay, while not as useful as the other upgrades, allows you to stream your video and audio content to Apple TV or AirPlay enabled speakers.  Whereas not many people have Apple TV to take advantage of this feature, it does have a coolness factor.  Also, I see a pair of AirPlay speakers for my office in my future - Santa are you reading this?

For those non-Apple people, there is now even more reason to have Apple envy, but there is a bright side.  The imitators are on their way and they will copy these new features just like they have been following the road map laid by Apple over the last decade.  The tablet and phone software and hardware people are looking up at Apple, but Apple's view down on everyone else is not from the same height that it was 6 months ago.  Droid handsets are hitting the market en mass.  Dell, HP and Samsung have tablets that they are hoping compete with the iPad. For now the iPad is on the top of the market. 

Curious about what apps are on my iPad, go to What is on my iPad?