Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Productivity: Tools I Use

With all the mobile devices available today, seems like we all use at least 1 to connect to our businesses on a daily basis.

There are some apps and plugins that I've used to save time so I can work smarter and not harder. See if any of these can help you be more efficient.

WordPress  - if you have a site or blog built with WordPress you can set up a post-by-email feature so you can make updates on the fly. Find it under Settings/Writing/Post by Email.

Facebook app - get the Facebook app for iPhone, iPad or Android to access and update a mobile version of your Facebook or business page. The app also allows sharing of photos or videos. If you use text messaging, you can set up your account so that you can post updates from your smartphone via text message.
GMail - I like this web-based email service better than my old Outlook. It's easier to access no matter where I am. Get GMail using your Google account or sign up here.
Warning: I don't have this automatically sync to my device. I don't want to be that connected! But if I need to access email on-the-go, I have the option.

Evernote - I have this add-on to my Firefox browser as well as an app on my mobile devices. It allows me to save my notes, ideas or a web page. This free service is available for your computer and almost any phone or mobile device. Bonus = the things you save are searchable by keyword even if the text is within an image! Really handy way for me to keep notes since a large part of what I do for a living is consume, distill, write and share information.

LogMeIn - when I go to a meeting or travel, some times I need something from my computer at home. I use this free service to log into my computer and get what I need (your computer at home has to be on in order for you to use it remotely). If that's not practical, try DropBox. You can save any file using this free online file storage service and access it from anywhere.

Woobox - free Facebook app that allowed me to create a custom tab for one of my business pages on Facebook. Use it to personalize your Page with additional tabs. It can be hard to find within Facebook. Go to your business page, choose "edit page", then choose "Apps" from the left-hand menu. Use the search bar to find it. You'll have to walk through some permission steps to install it to your page.

What types of tools do you use to improve your business efficiency? Share them here!

Ciao for now, Paula

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