Taking The Complications Out Of Automating Social Media

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Social media is powerful, no surprise there. Only problem is that it is all encompassing and requires attention at all points in time in order to be effective. If you have a person dedicated specifically to social media marketing, then great that makes things easier, but the vast majority of businesses and individuals are trying to tackle it on top of other duties. Needless to say, things can get complicated, busy and frustrating. Automation is the answer, and there are helpful and effective tools out there that can link social profiles together and remove some stress. 

"This might be news to no one, but if a business isn’t using social media to reach customers and clients, it's missing out on a prime opportunity to create sales. "Great," you might be thinking. “Something else I have to do to keep my business running?” The last thing you want to do is pile on yet another task that has to be consistently monitored throughout the day.

There’s one thing that most business owners can all rally around: they're always looking for a new way to get small tasks done automatically, rather than taking precious time out of a day to do it. On a large scale, we’re talking about robots building cars. On a small scale, this might mean an online form that automatically sends an email to someone after it’s filled out. It’s quick, it’s easy and it requires little to no effort on the part of anyone after it’s set up. Believe it or not, there are ways to automate your social media, as well. Automating social media can free up your time to focus on the other important aspects of running a business. Of course, as with most things, there are wrong and right ways to put social media on cruise control."

The Mobile Business: Pay Through Your Phone

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The development turning cell phones into portable banks and cash registers has altered the small business landscape forever. The perfect example is the recent food truck boom in the United States. Having a mobile business (literally) complicates things on multiple levels, but simply being able to shoot your payments into the cloud via a handheld device allows the focus to remain on customer service. As a result, food trucks have exploded everywhere, even in third tier markets like Indianapolis. Think of all the possibilities this can mean for your business, whether it's in the back of a truck, someone's front yard, or a market? 

"Smartphones have already eased many burdens and helped make life easier for connected users on the go. However, smartphones aren’t done transforming our lives just yet. Mobile application development is constantly pushing the limits of what smartphones are capable of and what they are used for. Smartphones are replacing all sorts of other devices, such as cameras, calculators and compasses, and are now set to fill new roles as cash registers, making it easier than ever before for businesses to collect payment for products and services.

For many small businesses, the cost of using card swipe machines and traditional cash registers can be expensive and isn’t always the greenest way to run a business. With advances in smartphone technologies, however, businesses can use phones as if they were cash registers with card swipe devices that attach to phones and simple applications that are easy to use."

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Your Company Is Still Using All That Paper? C’mon Man.

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Some people will honestly look at this post and think to themselves the same thing; c'mon man, are we really writing / reading about this? And, sadly yes we are. Companies, especially larger ones, can be incredibly slow to adapt and adopt new policy. After working in a law firm I saw this first hand as all the lawyers were still surprisingly doing research in books from the 70's. Um, hello, you have a computer right at your desk right? This sort of thing happens everywhere in companies of all shapes and sizes; memos, flyers, calendars, TPS reports. Don't be a Lumbergh, ditch the old model and go paperless. It's easier than you think.

"Running a business requires an endless stream of internal communication.  Access to copies of reports, memos and other major documents are important for employees, but offices waste countless reams of paper printing off documents. These practices can drive up operating costs for businesses, reduce raises for employees and contribute to deforestation and worldwide environmental damage. Luckily, there are many ways for business owners and office managers like you to reduce paper waste in your office."

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Nasty Competition: iPhone vs. Android

Read the full article on Bill Mullins Tech Thoughts 

Since the latest legal battle between Apple and Samsung, the American tech giant has placed a firm grasp on its future dominance of the industry. That's not to say though that Google is willing to give up. With the backing of the web giant's online platform, Android is still staying in the fight for worldwide smartphone relevance. However, both parties have begun to isolate their own unique attributes and cut off the competitors options on their platforms. Youtube will shortly be removed from Apple, as well as Google maps, among a long list of recent attacks. While on the outside both companies appear to be keeping it above the belt, Apple and Google are starting to fight dirty over smartphone control. 

"iPhone versus Android. The choice between the two smartphone platforms is as contentious as the battle between being a Mac or PC person. However, thanks to the war emerging between Apple and Google, the battle is not just heated — it’s just plain nasty.

It’s no secret Apple was displeased when Google entered the smartphone arena with army of Android phones and an app market, recently rebranded as Google Play. However, it shouldn’t have been a shock either."

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