As a modern entrepreneur, you aren’t limited by office space. After all, why should you be when new technology makes it easy to do business with anyone from anywhere?

Regardless of what line of business you’re in, taking notes, sharing documents, and keeping a tab on social networks are an absolute necessity.

The good news? There are apps for all of that.

And to make sure business couldn’t run smoother, we’ve compiled the four best apps for mobile entrepreneurs. Each is available for download onto any Android-powered smartphone (I personally use the T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S).

Dropbox

This is one of those apps you just can’t do business without. Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your important photos, documents, and videos anywhere by syncing them with all your electronic devices. Save a file to Dropbox from your work computer and open it from the Dropbox app on your smartphone, tablet, home computer, or anywhere else Dropbox is installed or downloaded.

The Dropbox Android app allows you to take everything that matters with you on the go. Read your documents or flip through your albums when you’re out. Share saved photos and videos with coworkers and clients in just a few taps. And because your files are stored with Dropbox, your stuff is always safe and accessible online, even if you accidentally lose your phone.

Evernote

The Evernote app is an indispensable part of the mobile entrepreneur’s productivity toolbox. While it can be initially intimidating, this easy-to-use program allows for everything from typing notes to receiving forwarded emails to storing scanned papers and other images, videos, and documents.

Like Dropbox, these files are available anywhere Evernote is, including any Android smartphone. To get the most out of your Evernote experience, download it on every computer, tablet, and phone you use, making every electronic device as good as home base. Just to give you an idea of Evernote’s practicality, here are some ways the creators suggest this app can be used in your personal and professional life: 


• Research smarter: snap photos of whiteboards and books

• Take meeting and class notes, draft agendas and research notes


• Plan a trip: keep track of travel plans, plane tickets and passports


• Organize and save recipes

• Create a grocery list or task list and check things off as you go


• View web pages saved in Evernote on your desktop


• Capture ideas and inspiration on the go


• Access files and notes you create on your phone from your desktop


• Keep track of products and prices for comparison-shopping purposes


• Keep finances in order: save receipts, bills and contracts


• Reduce paper clutter by taking snapshots of restaurant menus, business cards and labels



Hootsuite

HootSuite for Android is the perfect app for an entrepreneur because it serves as a central hub for social media platforms that need constant monitoring. A mobile adaptation of the full, online Hootsuite experience, the app leaves none of your favorite features out. Not only does it allow you to manage personal Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Foursquare accounts from one place, it also supports multiple accounts on each platform, enabling you to keep track of what’s happening on the interwebs both personally and professionally.

Schedule Twitter posts, check in on Foursquare, view LinkedIn connections, and comment on Facebook posts from one place. The Hootsuite app even allows you to upload photos, receive notifications, and view click stats. Trust us, this is a must-have.

SignMyPad

For mobile entrepreneurs, access to a printer and scanner can be limited. Good thing SignMyPad has a paperless solution for forms and contracts. Open a PDF file on your Android phone or tablet, and SignMyPad lets you sign it, save it, and send it without ever printing it out, all but eliminating the need for scanning, faxing, and wasting paper.

This has to be one of the most useful apps to have on hand, just in case, and it comes in particularly handy for anyone working in real estate, law, finance, or other fields that often require signed documents.

It might be a pain in many ways, but travel is an essential party to many businesses. Whether it’s meeting with clients or attending conferences, odds are you’ll have to make travel arrangements at some point. You might even have to include other employees in the plan, which adds dollars to the equation and complexity to the arrangements.

Thankfully, smartphones can help on both fronts. They can help you book and store your itineraries, making everything that much easier.

Here are a few of our favorite business travel apps for various smartphone platforms.

Booking: Orbitz

Say you have an upcoming conference in Chicago. The Orbitz website gives you great means to get you and your employees there. You can book packages of flights, hotels, and other amenities and save some money when compared to booking them separately. But see, the Orbitz mobile app takes this a step further. You can actually save even more money on things like staying in Chicago hotels through the Orbitz mobile app.

Yes, you can still book your flight and hotel as a package with the app. It’s the same as on your computer. But Orbitz offers mobile-only deals on hotels as well. So while it might seem pointless to book on your smartphone when you can just do it from a computer, Orbitz adds incentive to use your smartphone. It all works the same, but you stand to save a little money when booking from your smartphone.

It works well in last-minute situations, too. If you find out just a couple of days beforehand that you’re traveling, you probably want to get on that ASAP. The price has already risen, and it’ll probably rise again before you get to a computer.

• Orbitz for Android
• Orbitz for iPhone

Organizing: TripIt

Staying organized while flying used to be a pain. Most people would carry around manila folders with all of their information in it. That’s not ideal, of course, but for a time it was the best method available. The last thing you want is to be stuck without the name of the hotel where you’re staying. Our mobile phones have made that a lot easier, and apps such as TripIt mean you’ll never be stuck without vital travel information again.

When you receive your confirmation email, you forward it to TripIt, which automatically populates your smartphone app. It then syncs up with your calendar, so the information is stored in multiple useful places. So when you’re heading to your flight and need your confirmation number, you can just pull it from the app. Forget your hotel when you land? It’s there, too. TripIt is the ultimate travel organizing tool, and since its on your smartphone it’s always with you.

• TripIt for Android
• TripIt for iPhone
• TripIt for BlackBerry

Tracking: FlightTrack Pro

Having all the information about your flight is great, but what if something changes? What if you’re delayed or cancelled? That’s something you want to know, especially if the information is available before you get to the airport. TripIt does offer a premium service that includes flight tracking and alerts, but it costs $50 per year. If you’re looking for a cheaper option — and an option that integrates with TripIt — look no further than FlightTrack Pro.

Part of FlightTrack’s value is its graphics. You get clear maps that show all relevant flight information. That includes not only the route, but also weather radars and other real-time information. It ensures that you know everything about your flight before you even get to the airport. Gotta love that.

• FlightTrack Pro for iPhone and iPad
• FlightTrack Pro for Android
• FlightTrack Pro for BlackBerry

In-airport amenities: Wi-Fi Finder and GateGuru

Seasoned travelers might not heed the warning, but TSA does recommend people get to the airport two hours before their flight departures. This is to ensure that a long security line doesn’t cause you to miss your flight. Yet even those of us who get to the airport after that two-hour window know what it’s like to wait forever for our flights. If they’re delayed, all the worse. We need something to fill that time. These two apps help fill that.

GateGuru helps you plan ahead. It lets you know what type of services are available at over 120 airports worldwide. You can figure out where to eat, where to get a book to read, and even more. There are few worse situations than being hungry and facing a delayed flight — when there is only a food cart in your terminal. Make sure you’re prepared beforehand by checking GateGuru. It’s free, too.

• GateGuru for Android
• GateGuru for iPhone

WiFi is another amenity that most of us need. Unfortunately, there are many airports that don’t offer it as a free service. If there is a free or otherwise public network near you, Wi-Fi Finder can, well, find it. It’s an absolute must-have for not only airport situations, but any travel situation.

• Wi-Fi Finder for iPhone

Moving a business operation from a room in your house into an office brings plenty of changes. For starters, it means no more working in your underwear. But there are plenty of other little things that an office requires that came standard with your apartment.

A lot of this is pretty standard: a few phone calls will get you set up with utility companies, and you probably have a good idea of what kind of computer equipment you want set up. But one area where you’ll face a choice is with your phone line. There are a few distinct options, and each will change the nature of your office communications.

First step: Get Google Voice

No matter your choice of phone lines, you should sign up for Google Voice. It provides a level of flexibility that any business could use. When you sign up you get a brand new phone number, complete with voicemail. You can then set that number to ring another number. In other words, you can use your Google Voice number for your primary work number.

When you, or others, are in the office, you can have it ring there. If you’re out and there’s no one, or no one you trust, in the office, you can have it ring your cell phone. That’s a great way to communicate via cell phone without giving out your personal number. That kind of flexibility is something that many new small businesses need.

Of course, there’s still the matter of which type of phone Google Voice will ring. The three choices have their own particular advantages and disadvantages.

VoIP

First, for those who don’t recognize the acronym: VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. Quite simply, it means using your internet connection to make normal calls, as you would on a landline. If you have a triple play package from your cable subscriber that includes phone service, you are currently using VoIP from home. More and more homes and businesses are adopting VoIP lines these days.

The advantage is pretty clear. Every business needs an internet connection, and a cable connection is the bare minimum. (DSL will no longer do.) Most, if not all, cable companies can bundle internet service with VoIP. That saves money straight away. In fact, one of VoIP’s biggest advantages is that it’s cheaper than landline service.

The big disadvantage, though, is reliability. If the internet goes out, well, so does your phone line. For ages phone lines were our saviors during power outages. But since VoIP lines run on cable modems, when the power goes out so does your phone line. That’s a risk that each business has to assess individually.

Landlines

Years ago there would have been no choice involved here. When you set up your office you would have called up the local telephone company and requested a line. This is still a possibility, but it’s not the only one. It might not even be the most popular. But it is the most reliable. That remains the No. 1 benefit of traditional landlines.

If the power goes out, you can still use your landline as normal. There are also few, if any, random outages, as there are with the internet. Landline carriers such as Verizon advertise 99.9 percent uptime, emphasizing their superior data center infrastructure. Even better, since so many people have ditched landlines completely, there are far fewer issues with busy switches than there were in the past. Even in typically high-volume calling times, your calls will likely go through due to a lack of traffic.

That said, landlines are more expensive — up to $50 per month for a personal line and more than that for business. You can bundle it with internet, but typically that’s limited to DSL. While a non-tech-oriented household might do fine with DSL, a business really can’t. For businesses looking to limit overhead, a landline might not fit in the budget.

Cell phones

While most businesses decide between landlines and VoIP, there is a third option. Cell phones are universal communications tools. Today’s smartphones can do plenty more than just make phone calls, and those functions can benefit small businesses. Combined with a central Google Voice number, a fleet of cell phones can be of great benefit to a small business

The advantages are obvious. Having employees use cell phones, and more specifically smartphones, means that calls don’t get missed. You can assign various employees to phone duties, having the Google Voice number forward to their phones at certain hours. Smartphones allow for more mobility and easier communications. Employees can work from outside the office and still maintain simple, easy email communications. Various apps and services for smarpthones can also benefit small businesses.

The downside — and it’s a considerable one — is the cost. Paying for an employee’s smartphone plan can cost between $80 and $120 per month, depending on the voice plan attached. Some businesses offer to pay a portion of employee’s personal cell phone bills so they can use them for business as well, but this can cause issues. Getting a fleet of cell phones strictly for business is the easiest way to handle the situation. But given the cost, many small businesses simply cannot justify the outlay. Cell phones are, however, still a solid option for businesses with, say, five or fewer employees. After that, a landline or VoIP connection is likely required, if for no other reason than the cost savings.

The internet has opened up our world of communications. Previously small businesses had very few options when it came to phone lines. It was a landline for calls and a landline for fax. Cable internet connections and cell phones have changed that, giving small businesses more choices. Each business has different needs and different resources, so their choices will necessarily differ. Still, it’s hard to go wrong with any of these three options.

Google Analytics pulled a fast one on website owners this year.

They removed the very helpful option of exporting reports as a PDF.

In the previous version, when you clicked Export in the upper-left corner of the screen you saw this:

But now you see this:

The benefit of PDF exports is your reports come fully formatted. The disadvantage is, as you get more advanced in handling data in Excel, dealing with PDF files is very limiting. But it’s been my experience that few website owners know how to take a data dump from Google Analytics that looks like this …

… and turn it into something that looks like this:

Users have begged Google to restore the PDF export option and were told the issue had been escalated to engineers. Yeah, that was in March. Don’t hold your breath, folks.

But that’s why I’m going to show you how you can transform ugly data into something beautiful and actionable in a matter of minutes.

Let’s Do This Thing

Step 1: Export your report from GA.

I just use the CSV option. CSV for Excel is messed up in the new version, and no one has fixed it since its release. But it will yield a (literal) comma-separated file. Ick. I downloaded a revenue by medium report. Here is how I got to it in case you’re interested.

Step 2: Replace header info with title.

Get rid of the extra rows at the top and replace them with a title for your sheet. To delete these rows, just click-and-drag the row numbers to select them, right-click, and choose Delete. Conversely, to insert new rows (if you deleted too many) click-and-drag to select as many rows as you want to add, right-click, and choose Insert. I use this trick a lot. Beats having to insert one row at a time as I used to do.

Step 3: Create a formatted table.

If you’re on a PC, click anywhere in your data, then click Format as Table from the Home tab, under Styles (2011 for Mac: it’s under the Tables tab). Formatting for tables wasn’t offered before 2011 for the Mac. Lame, I know. The advantage of formatting as a table is each column gets its own filter that you can use to filter and sort your data. If you’re still getting a bunch of pound signs — which means you need to expand the column width — just double-click on the separator between columns to expand. So now let’s say you want to reorder your table by revenue. All you’d have to do is click the filter and choose Sort Largest to Smallest from the drop-down.

Step 4: Clean up.

Before going further I’m going to clean up my spreadsheet a bit. First, I’ll turn off gridlines. I hate them because they add a lot of clutter to your spreadsheet. You can access this option under View > Show/Hide > Gridlines (Mac: Layout > View > Gridlines). Then I hid the columns I didn’t need by selecting them, right-clicking, and choosing Hide. If you want to unhide them later, select the columns before and after the hidden column(s), right-click, and choose Unhide. I also deleted the summary row at the bottom, cleaned up the table headings and medium list, and added an extra narrow column on the left side of the sheet, leaving me with this:

Step 5: Create a chart.

Now it’s time for the fun to begin. We’re going to chart out the data — first visits and revenue. And then we’ll throw in conversion rate for a really swinging time. First, drag over the columns you want to chart. For me, that will be B3 down and over to D10 (B3:D10 in Excelese). If you want to choose columns that are non-contiguous (geek speak for not touching), just hold down the Ctrl/Cmd key and drag over the other column(s). Then go to Insert > Charts > Column > Clustered Column (Mac: Charts > Insert Chart > Column > Clustered Column). Your chart should look something like this:

Step 6: Design your chart.

With your chart selected, go to Design > Chart Styles (Mac: Charts > Chart Styles) and click the drop-down arrow in the bottom-left corner of the menu to see all of the chart designs you can choose from. I’m partial to Style 26. I also like to drag out the chart a bit to get rid of the tilted category labels. And then, as a matter of personal preference, I don’t like using red for positive things like revenue, so I’ll change those columns to green. To do that, just select one of them (which will select all of them), and go to Home > Font > Paint can icon and choose a new color.

Step 7: Reorder your data (if necessary).

You can already see that, for this client, email is definitely their cash cow. I would definitely tell this client to invest in A/B testing and double down their resources on email to squeeze more conversions out of each visit. It just happened to work out that our visit and revenue numbers were very close, so they could both use the same axis. But you’ll see in the next step how you can use a secondary axis if they have completely different types of data shown vis-à-vis on one chart.

Step 8: Add even more data to chart.

Let’s say I want to add conversion rates to this chart. Granted, it will make the chart a little noisier, and I usually only put two metrics on a combination chart, like visits vs. bounce rate, conversions vs. conversion rate, etc. But in this case I don’t want to start from scratch with another chart, and it gives me the opportunity to show you a couple tricks in Excel very few people know about. So, to add conversion rate (or whatever you have in your table that’s preferably a percentage), simply drag your cursor over the data (including the heading) to select it, then copy it to your clipboard (Ctrl/Cmd-C). Next, click anywhere inside the chart and press Ctrl/Cmd-V to paste. You should see Conversion Rate in your legend to the right of the chart, even though you won’t actually see the columns since they’re percentages.

Step 9: Select your new series.

Because I’m showing a percentage, it won’t show up in the chart because the numbers are fraction compared to high visit/revenue numbers. So we’re going to add it to its own axis. But the tricky thing is first selecting it. To do this, click on the chart, then go to Chart Tools > Layout > Current Selection (Mac: Charts > Format > Current Selection). Click the drop-down that displays Chart Area by default and choose the series that you’re trying to select.

Step 10: Add a secondary axis.

With your series still selected, press Ctrl/Cmd-1. Ctrl-1 opens up formatting options for whatever you have selected. If it’s a cell, it opens cell formatting options. If it’s an axis, it opens axis formatting options. Etc., etc. In this case, it will open the Format Data Series dialog. Under Series options, choose Secondary Axis (Mac: under Axis options). For some reason, Excel made my Conversion Rate series another shade of green, so I changed it to orange by selecting Fill in the same dialog box and changing it there. (I could have also changed it by selecting a new color from the paint can on the Home tab.)

Step 11: Change new series to a line chart.

This next step is what will really set your data apart. We’re going to take that last column and change it to a line chart, creating a combination chart. Simply click on one of the new columns, which will select all of them, and go to Chart Tools > Design > Type > Change Chart Type (Mac: Charts > Change Series Chart Type). Then choose the first option under Line (looks like two lines intertwined). When I created mine, it changed my line back to green, and the lines are crazy thick when you choose a chart type with contour. So let’s pull up the Format Data Series dialog again by clicking anywhere on the line and pressing Ctrl-1. I thinned it out by choosing a 3-pt width under Line Style (Mac: Line > Weights & Arrows).

Step 12: Add some final touches.

For charts that have a horizontal orientation like this one, I’m not a fan of having the legend to the right. It cuts into valuable real estate. So I like to move it to the top or bottom, depending on which area has the most white space. As you might imagine, to do this you just select the legend and press Ctrl/Cmd-1 to open the Format Legend dialog. I chose Bottom from Legend Options (Mac: Placement options) and bumped the font size up to 12. I’m also not wild about unnecessary decimals cluttering up my axes. If you’re having the same problem, just select your axis, press Ctrl/Cmd-1 and choose 1 decimal place (or 0 if you have larger numbers) from the Number options. I also add a title to every chart and make sure it’s intuitive. To do this, select the chart again and go to Chart Tools > Layout > Labels > Chart Title (Mac: Charts > Chart Layout > Chart Title). I always choose Above Chart. And finally I like to hide the headings on my spreadsheets to really give them a polished look. The option is the sample place you turned off Gridlines.

These are some pretty unimpressive conversion rates, but you can see once everything is charted out that this client’s best conversion rates are coming from their affiliate traffic, followed by email campaigns. This client may want to consider expanding its affiliate program, which has fallen by the wayside.

So there you have it: much more sexier data than you would have ever gotten from a PDF download! So you can keep your stinkin PDF reports, Google. Even though you’re still an Indian giver for taking them away.

Note

If you want to play around with the chart I created, you can download it here. I included a Practice Sheet, as well as the final finished product. And if you want to learn more about how to make data sexy in Excel, I’ve just started a blog series on it, complete with video tutorials, on the BlueGlass blog.

A group of people that send me business for free? Sign me up!

Well it’s not really free. A great referral network is built upon the collective effort of it’s members. It takes time and effort make and refer connections and to build the trust required to get referrals from others.

For many owners a referral network provides an invaluable stream of customers to their business. For every business owner it should be one of your first tasks. Networking is something you can start doing on day one, you don’t even need business cards to network, though they can be helpful.

Build a Complementary Team

One of the easiest ways to get started with referral networking is finding other individuals in complementary professions to yours. You could each have the same customer/client yet not be taking business from each other.

Some examples include;

A building contractor, concrete layer, plumber and electrician.

A realtor, mortgage broker, building inspector, title agency, and a real estate attorney.

A wedding planner, photographer, limo driver, and florist.

Why is this useful? Every time one of you gets a client it’s an opportunity for all of you to get a client. You can quickly find yourself booked solid if you build the right complementary relationships.

Don’t forget to build this relationship online as well. Take the time to check out each other’s websites and comment where you can, get links where you can. It may even make sense for the group of you to coordinate building similar related resources pages for your websites.

Take Advantage of Resources

Any smart worker will take advantage of the resources or tools available to them. Tools and resources can make us far more efficient with our time and entrepreneurs have plenty available.

SCORE – Free advice, mentoring and counselling for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Best thing about it? You can get help online or find some local mentors, simply put an amazing resource.

Bplans – 500-plus free business plan templates. There’s heaps to be learned from the examples laid out here and in addition you’ll find how to articles and support forums.

Small Biz Trends – News, tips and marketing advice. Small Biz Trends is helpful in a variety of ways and a great regular read for entrepreneurs.

Do Your Research

When it comes to referral networking as in all aspects of your business you’ll find time to be your most valuable resource. You’ll simply never have enough of it for everything, therefore before you waste time building a relationship with a referral do your research. Answer the questions; “Is this person a potential client for my business,” or “Can this person get me in touch with potential clients for my business?” If the answer to both of those is “No,” you might consider passing on making the connection at all. Or it can at the very least allow you to prioritize your time between contacts deemed highly valuable and those deemed not-so-valuable.

Make a Real Connection

Sorry to crash your party but clicking friend doesn’t qualify as a real connection. It’s certainly worth doing don’t get me wrong but in business networking and referrals building trust and confidence is paramount. It’s easy to forget that every time someone refers a contact to you, they’re going out on a branch for you and your services, in at least some small way putting their name on the line next to yours.

Make Your Own Luck

The difference between the lucky networker and the unlucky networker is hard work. Make no mistake that networking is work, though it can at times be a genuine pleasure. Of course there will always be some people lucky enough to simply have the ideal connections from the start but there are plenty of professionals out there that go out of their way to be lucky enough. Hard work, effort, determination and persistence can get you far in networking as in all things.

You’ve likely noticed QR codes popping up in more and more places. Large brands are utilizing them in their marketing campaigns to connect print and online media with measurable results. But QR codes are affordable to create, and a great way for SMBs to integrate their online and offline marketing.

Creating a QR Code

QR codes are quite simple to create; there are several free generators that can be found by searching online. Most generators allow you to create codes that point to a URL, phone number, contact info, or text, although the most common use is URL.

Simply by adding tracking parameters with Google’s URL builder to the URL before you create the code, you can measure the success of your QR code in Google Analytics. Or shorten the URL with bit.ly to track the number of scans.

Ways to Use QR Codes

The number of ways to use QR codes in your marketing is limited only by your imagination. But if you’re unsure where to start, here are a few ways SMBs can use QR codes:

Contact Information – Create a simple, mobile-friendly page on your website listing your basic contact info – name, phone number, email address – that will easily allow users to copy and paste the info into their phone’s address book. If you have multiple locations, you can display them on a map or list them by distance from the user’s GPS location. This is great on business cards, or on name tags at networking events.

Coupons – Users who have bothered to scan your QR code are interested in engaging with your company further. Why not reward them with a special offer or exclusive coupon? To make it easy to redeem, allow users to show the coupon next time they come in to your business, rather than downloading and printing.
Download an App – If your company has a mobile app, QR codes can take the user directly to the app store page for the app without the user having to type in a complicated URL. This is a common way for Android users to download apps, and it’s becoming more common for BlackBerry and iPhone users. The QR code can be placed on print material or your website.

Product Information – Product labels are often limited for space. Keep your most important information on the packaging, and use a QR code to take users to a web page displaying additional specifications, user reviews, etc. On food or drink packaging, take users to recipes they can make with the item, allergy information, or a story of the grower/producer.

Contest Entry – Make it easy for people to enter your contest without having to remember a website address. Take the user directly to an online entry form; just remember to keep the form fields simple, as mobile keyboards and touch screens can be difficult to type on.

Connect to Social Media – Looking to increase your fans? Take users directly to Facebook to Like you, or pre-populate a tweet mentioning your company. Both Facebook and Twitter (and many other social networks) have mobile-formatted sites that are easy to use. Printed on store or restaurant receipts, you can capture users when they feel generous after having a great experience making a purchase.

There are numerous ways QR codes can be integrated into your small business marketing plan. Just make sure that you are providing value to the user, the destination is mobile-friendly, and the code is easy to scan.

With over 800 million users worldwide (50% of which log-in every single day), Facebook has become a powerful marketing environment for many businesses. Facebook is even more than a website, it’s a true social platform that is thriving. Users average 37 minutes per session on the site and there are 350 million users that access Facebook via their mobile devices.

Why You Should Market On Facebook

Alright, so you’ve seen some Facebook usage numbers, but why should you market on the site? The answer is pretty simple, Facebook offers a variety of marketing opportunities and makes it easy to reach your target market. From early on Facebook gave brands and companies a voice on their platforms.

From pages, ads, places and apps, there are a handful of different opportunities to reach targeted fans. A detailed list of each opportunity can get found here. Facebook also created their own business guide showcasing specific products for SMBs. This approach shows that unlike some social networks, Facebook is actively cultivating an environment for businesses. You can feel comfortable allocating resources on the platform and can expect sustainable results.

Defining Goals

Before jumping right into Facebook marketing, you should put first things first: What are the goals that you are looking to achieve? No campaign should be without measurable results, and Facebook is no different. Some of the most common goals that Facebook marketers stride towards are:

• Developing audiences
• Increasing sales & conversions
• Generating traffic
• Building brand awareness
• Improving customer service

All of these goals can certainly be accomplished on Facebook, but each may leverage different features. So first layout your goals, then begin putting together a plan for Facebook success.

Facebook Pages

On Facebook, profiles are accounts for individual users, and pages are locations for businesses, organizations, brands and causes. It is important to make sure that when setting up your business’ presence, a page is used instead of a profile, as profiles are for humans only and can be terminated if used incorrectly.

A page should be the heart of your overall Facebook marketing presence. Pages give you direct access into user’s stream, and allow for direct contact with Facebook users. If a user ‘like’s your Facebook page, then a post from your page can show up in a user’s stream, just like that of another profile.

This of course is a very powerful messaging opportunity for businesses as your Facebook page can almost act as a social RSS feed.

Messaging That Works

When posting to your Facebook page, using the proper messaging and frequency is extremely important.

• Offer value – Instead of simply saying “Good Morning” or other empty posts, make sure that your posts have value. Offer up specials, exclusive news, coupon codes or helpful info in posts and people will in-turn share the posts.
• Share amazing content – Much like offering value, sharing great content will be viewed favorably by your audience. This doesn’t mean that you should only share your own content or that you should share everything in sight. If something is entertaining, helpful or informative and it matches your audience, then share it. If not, then don’t dilute your message.
• Start conversations – By covering topics that users have strong opinions on, Facebook pages can see heightened visibility. By getting users to weigh-in on hot topics, current events or new product lines pages will get a boost.
• Interact with other pages – As mentioned earlier, pages can’t quite act like profiles, but they can tie in other Facebook pages using posts or comments. So if you are creating a post that includes another brand, use the @ symbol and include that brand from the dropdown. The post will then show on their page, and they will be notified. This means that you can potentially open the topic up to a broader audience.
• Ask questions – A simple way to start a conversation is to ask a question related to your page that everyone can answer. For example, if an iPhone blog was trying to get users to comment, a broad question like “Will you be buying the iPhone 4s?” can appeal to all, where the question “What do you think about the new faster dual-core iPhone 4s processor?” may alienate users. The engagement that accompanies questions can help to boost visibility and reach on Facebook.

When posting, you should be cognizant of how your messages are being received. Too many posts? You may be annoying fans. Too few posts? People may forget about you or stop following. Many studies say to post once every other day, but use Facebook’s Analytics tool – Facebook Insights – to find what works for you and your audience!

EdgeRank

Through the years, Facebook has continually tried to ensure that the most relevant posts were seen by Facebook profiles. In its quest for continual optimization, Facebook started to stop showing all posts to users. The posts that were displayed to users depended on EdgeRank, an internal ranking factor that Facebook uses to determine the quality of posts for users. Basically EdgeRank uses three factors, Affinity (the most heavily weighted,) Weight of Post (what type of info is shared,) and Time.

The best way to ensure that your page has a strong edge rank is if your engagement is high. Use Facebook Insights to make sure that users are enjoying posts, find what type of information is shared at the highest rate and what users like. If a specific post type isn’t making the grade, abandon it and try different content.

Promotion Of Pages

While creating pertinent posts can help the reach of your message, having a large audience to speak to is equally as important. Your page may have the best posts, but if you don’t have an audience to see the posts, your effort is wasted. Here are a few ways to promote your Facebook page and grow your audience:

• Widgets & Buttons
  Inserting clear buttons & widgets on your site can help to connect your audience with your Facebook page. Use Facebook like buttons, like boxes or badges and widgets to show website visitors about your Facebook presence.
• Offline Promotions
  One trick that I like to utilize when growing fans is to leverage offline assets as much as possible, especially if post-sale. If you have a physical presence utilize your current retail area to promote your Facebook presence. Place signage and pomote in-store, let customers know about Facebook only discounts, put your Facebook link on receipts..etc. Getting current customers to like you on Facebook is much easier (and more cost effective) than selling yourself to an audience that hasn’t heard of you before, so convert the low hanging fruit!
• Social Cross Promotion
  Have a Twitter account? Is your business on LinkedIn? Use any social accounts for cross-promotion of your Facebook page. Users on these networks are already social and already like you, so let them know about your Facebook presence.
• Facebook Ads
  An effective (but potentially pricey) way for users to promote their page on Facebook is to use Facebook Ads. Facebook ads combine an image with a title and description and offer a variety of targeting options so you can reach the most relevant of users. Advertising your Facebook page with Facebook ads will make an ad interactive in that a user can like your page directly from the ad itself! Be careful using Facebook ads as it can get pricey quick. If taking this route, study up, and make sure you have a good understanding as to how the ads work, as you can spend money quickly (and ineffectively) on Facebook.

Custom Tabs

One area that Facebook allows users to customize is the tab section. Pages can contain custom tabs around specific promotions, sales or simply to drive users to like a page. These tabs can feature dynamic content and tie in directly with Facebook’s Open Graph items. Simple guides can be found showing how to make custom tabs. There is also a variety of apps that can be used to create tabs.

If you want to take your custom tab to the next level look to what’s called a ‘fan-gate’ or ‘reveal-page.’ These pages hide valuable information behind the tab and show only to those Facebook profiles that are already fans. This means that you can persuade users to become fans, by making “fan-only” content. K2 skis did a great job of this in the past, when they released their entire ski line for the season to fans-only. This can help you really ramp up the number of Facebookers who like your page!

Setting Yourself Up For Long Term Success

So there you have it, an overview for getting started on Facebook. If you can take away one thing from this article, make sure that you track the progress towards your goals. Facebook is always-changing and something that may work today, may be old news tomorrow. Tracking is crucial. Make sure to continually monitor your progress and you will be destined for Facebook success!

They might look like they’re all fun, but tablet computers can have plenty of practical uses. More and more small businesses are taking advantage of the burgeoning tablet market and using the devices to their advantages. There are many ways that tablets can help your small business, too. First, though, we have to wade through the market to find out what devices fit your purposes the best.

iPad

There is an unequivocal king of the tablet market, and it is the iPad. A recent report pegs Apple’s market share at 68.3 percent, and while that will undoubtedly fall as the market matures they still figure to remain on top for the foreseeable future. Yet sheer popularity should not color business decisions. There are other factors to consider as well. How does the iPad hold up as a business tablet?

The answer might depend on which smartphones you’ve chosen for your workforce. If iPhones are good enough for them, then so are iPads. They both run on the same platform, iOS, and therefore share many native similarities. That is, if email, contacts, and calendars work fine for your iPhone workers, then the iPad should work just fine. There are also a number of business-specifics apps, including exchange mail interfaces, which can make the iPad even more attractive for your workers.

The iPad’s greatest strength is its media capabilities, so companies that deal in real-time information and media will gain the most. Other businesses can surely find use from the iPad — it is the king for a reason — but there might be better platforms.

BlackBerry PlayBook

We recently covered the BlackBerry PlayBook and the myriad ways it can benefit your business. It’s compactness means greater portability and its compatibility with BlackBerry smartphones makes organization even easier. The BlackBerry integration further benefits PlayBook users, since they can use web functions anywhere even though the device is WiFi only. You can essentially tether your BlackBerry right to the tablet, usually without paying any additional tethering fees.

The PlayBook is the most business-focused tablet on the market. That comes as no surprise, since the BlackBerry has always been a business-focused smartphone. The only catch is that the PlayBook is essentially useless if you’re not already using BlackBerry smartphones. While the PlayBook will receive many updates this month, including native email, the tethering is still important for many things. Remember, there is no 3G version, so the only way to access the internet without a WiFi hotspot is through a BlackBerry smartphone.

Android tablet

Here’s where the tablet market can get confusing. Android is open-source, royalty-free software, so any manufacturer can create an Android tablet. Many manufacturers have therefore created low-quality tablets that will probably do your business no good. Android tablets can still work for you, but it just means doing a little more homework and figuring out which ones work best.

The best options here will come from name brands. The Motorola Xoom came out earlier in the year and despite the little fanfare its received, is still a solid tablet. Samsung has the first go at Android tablets last year and failed, but it is coming back in a big way this holiday season. The new Samsung Galaxy Tab will drop in late October, and it will be Android’s greatest foray into the tablet market yet. While there will be some differences in available apps, on a functional level the Galaxy Tab will compete strongly with the iPad.

Why choose the Galaxy Tab, or other high-end Android tablet, over the iPad? There are a few reasons. PC-based businesses might have a better time with them, since they don’t require iTunes for syncing. Any business that uses Google services will undoubtedly benefit more from the Galaxy Tab than the iPad. The Android tablet software has improved, too, and should continue improving throughout the life of the tablet. There’s also the joy of going with the underdog.

Kindle Fire

This we’ll included as an end note, since it’s not really a business device at all. It’s the darling of the tablet industry right now, but consider that 1) it’s not really an Android tablet, and 2) it’s more of a media consumption tablet than anything. It’s a nice device for watching video, reading books, and listening to music. But for business it’s a nonstarter.

Geo-Social apps are still the new kid on the block. With players like Foursquare and Gowalla leading the way and bigger names (Facebook, Twitter, Google) also experimenting with check-in and location based features, Geo-Social is primed to be a big part of the future.

This series is for small businesses, new restaurants that don’t have the resources to spend thousands on a professional marketing campaign. Every strategy we list and share are things that you can do yourself with a bit of time and effort.

Use the links below to quickly navigate to the medium you’re interested in;

Part 1 – Facebook
Part 2 – Twitter
Part 3 – SMS/Mobile
Part 4 – Geo-Social

Geo-Social Marketing Tips for Restaurants

1. Understand the two elements of Geo-Social. The first being that it’s all about getting social recommendations, either from people you know via your friends list, or tips from any user that’s left one if your friends haven’t left any. The second, the idea of it being a game drives users to use the program more. Games should have tasks and rewards, not forgetting this will help turn your restaurant into a Geo-Social superstar.

2. Be certain you’ve claimed your business on Foursquare, taken control of your Yelp listing, grabbed your spot on Gowalla. This is always your first step, you should use the networks yourself and get familiar with what they’re capable of.

3. Pimp your pages, use a great logo picture, upload pictures of the interior of your restaurant, fill out your profiles as much as possible while not skipping anything you can fill out.

4. Offer incentives for basic check ins. No one does this, everyone should. Most businesses don’t bother at all with Foursquare, some offer Mayor specials and others offer limited time specials. Make this incentive small but worthwhile. Save 5% when you check in on Foursquare. This offer can be instant savings or an emailed coupon. Remember that every check in will be seen by countless eyeballs.

5. Offer incentives for tips and reviews. Tips and reviews are valuable and can create instant impressions both good and bad. Know, however that most people are more motivated to leave negative reviews and tips, counter balance this with an incentive that will encourage more positive experiences to be posted. Again, like the check in promo, make this one small but let the two offers compound.

6. Streamline this process as much as possible. It’s going to seem like a headache to keep track of these promotions, especially once you start mixing in mayorship deals and other unrelated special promotions. However take the time, think outside the box and develop an easy, efficient and streamlined process for keeping track and issuing rewards.

7. The mayor is a brand ambassador. Get to know the people that check in often, the competitors for mayorship. They want to be known and recognized, they enjoy playing the game and hope for a reward. Reward them and they’ll become a free part time PR player for your place of business. The Mayor reward should not be compoundable with any other special offer but should be impressive as a standalone reward. Get creative here.

8. Other specials should be run when mood strikes. Don’t be afraid to run limited time specials with no warning. Run off hours specials on a regular basis when business would be slow otherwise.

9. Promote as much as you can in the restaurant. Every place will have it’s own style and you might be worried that these Geo-Social networks don’t fit your style or don’t appeal to your patrons. Don’t be ridiculous, everyone loves saving money. There’s always a way to promote things without breaking your style. Or, if your style is truly that high class, then you probably don’t need this to boost your business anyways.

10. Cross promote. A must in internet marketing, internal linking to every area of your presence online is pretty damn useful. Your website should link to your Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp and all of those to each other as well. That’s just good usability.

In part 3 of our Take Your Restaurant Social Series we’re jumping onto the personal devices in your pocket with SMS Marketing.

This series is for small businesses, new restaurants that don’t have the resources to spend thousands on a professional marketing campaign. Every strategy we list and share are things that you can do yourself with a bit of time and effort.

Use the links below to quickly navigate to the medium you’re interested in;

Part 1 – Facebook
Part 2 – Twitter
Part 3 – SMS
Part 4 – Geo-Social

SMS Mobile Marketing Tips for Restaurants

1. First off is understanding that SMS Marketing is one of the most invasive forms of mobile marketing. I mean sure it’s just a text but it’s a text to my most personal number on my most personal of devices. When I’ve subscribed to SMS messages from companies in the past I’ve found that I’m very critical of them and I was quick to unsubscribe when rubbed the wrong way. I can’t imagine that I’m the only one that feels this way so know that this is what you’re up against before you begin.

2. Always make it opt in. This can be done via a web form or by texting a keyword to your short code to become a subscriber. Don’t forget to cover yourself legally by mentioning somewhere that “Standard rates may apply.”

3. On a similar note, make it dead simple to unsubscribe at any time. There are few things more frustrating for a user than having to go to great lengths to stop your messages.

4. Set honest expectations. How often are you going to be messaging and what types of messages will they be? Be as specific as you can and if possible create different subscriber lists based on preferences.

5. Use some helpful SMS marketing software like Mobile Storm, especially if you’re new to SMS marketing. They’ve got a slew of tools and advice that will help you get things started on the right foot.

6. Be relevant. Promote interesting things, be creative and capitalize on unique opportunities. There’s nothing worse than sending out the same text message week after week and seeing your subscriber rate plummet.

7. Personalize. It’s a personal device so try to capture a name when you’re signing up subscribers, SMS marketing software should allow names to be dynamically placed in messages.

8. Drive traffic to your website. Don’t forget that lots of users are on smart phones and more are joining those ranks everyday. Insert a link now and then into your SMS messages that bring users to a page on your website that offers more information.

9. Make sure you’re clearly identifiable. Within one second of seeing your text a user should know who it is from. No excuses on this one.

10. Be timely, mobile marketing perhaps more than any other form of marketing can capture attention in an instant. Remind people of your sale or event an hour before it’s happening as opposed to 3 days before it happens.