Have you checked out the latest version of Skype ? It’s pretty slick, the interface on my MacBook is such a huge improvement since the version they had a year ago.

I use Skype to talk to friends and family overseas, in different states, to talk to colleagues and much more. Skype is connecting people all around the world, here’s a story about how Skype allowed a Father in Iraq to experience his son’s birth via Skype and iPhone .

It’s such a fun tool to use for video conferencing. Using Skype reminds me of Blade Runner and how they would talk to each other through video. I have a 5 month old daughter and since my daughter’s grandparents live in different cities, Skype has allowed us to talk to them via web cams easily. It’s a fun way to watch her grow up and change each week and connect with her through voice and games.

I’ve been using Skype as a business tool for many years. I’ve been using it as my main phone line for my business since 2008. I was able to buy a phone number through my account as well as voice mail so if I miss a call, I can catch who called me. One of the best features that I like to use is having the app set up on my iPhone so even if I’m not at my computer, I can catch a Skype call on iPhone. For more business and freelance ideas using Skype, check out this article: http://freelancefolder.com/how-to-use-skype-to-win-clients-and-grow-your-freelancing-business/

Did you know that you can call for free when you call one Skype account to another Skype account? The latest version of Skype works on mobile phones and certain flat screens as well. They even have a feature that lets you do group video calling http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/features/allfeatures/group-video-calls/ On the Skype blog, there’s a section called “User Stories”: http://blogs.skype.com/play/user-stories/ Definitely a nice “pick-me-up” on how technology is helping to improve our lives.

Microsoft is looking to aquire Skype, let’s hope it stays a great tool. How does Skype help you in your business or personal life?

Here’s a low down of some useful articles that can help out your business!

Want to know the pros and cons of using Groupon or its competitors?

http://www.inc.com/guides/201104/10-pros-cons-for-using-groupon.html?partner=newsletter_Goods

A favorite blog of mine, “My Wife Quit Her Job” – has an interesting blog post. I really like Steve’s writing style, check it out.

The Secrets To Being Successful With Any Business You Launch

A nice overview of search engines for online stores, it always good to be aware of what’s out there.

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/2715-11-Shopping-Search-Engines-to-Sell-Your-Products

Does your Facebook Fan Page need a Facelift? Check out these options:

http://www.inc.com/ss/9-tips-help-redesign-your-company-facebook-page?partner=newsletter_Success

Something we can all benefit from, ways to gain more business from existing customers: Some of the ideas include complementary products/services and stay in touch.

http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/08/get-more-sales-from-existing-customers.html?partner=newsletter_Sales

The year and decade are not the only things that have changed. There is literally an explosion of options and opportunities for businesses to grow.

Some of those opportunities will prove invaluable, others might not. A lot will depend on your business, knowledge and sustained activity. Below, I have briefly listed 8 tips that can kick start (or enhance) your business online marketing plan for 2011.

Start with a review of your current marketing activities. It’s interesting the number of businesses that don’t realize how much they are spending on marketing or how much of a return on their investment (ROI) they are getting. Think about it for a bit. Where are you spending your marketing dollars? How much is going to yellow pages, local newspaper, direct mail, website, internet marketing, etc.? Do you know where your new business is coming from? What forms of advertising is paying off? Where are you getting new clients? Are you meeting your revenue goals?

If needed, set aside a few hours to review your current marketing activities and your marketing ROI. Find out what’s working and what’s not working. Reallocate money into what is working, or better yet, start using the money that is not working by expanding your overall marketing options. Get more into the new online marketing opportunities that have fast become mandatory for accelerated business growth.

Is your website performing?

Your website should be an asset that is building your business value on a year to year basis. If it isn’t, you should seriously consider if you have made the right website investments and whether your investment level has been serious enough to compete in today’s business environment.

Give your website stats a hard look. Make sure you are using Google Analytics (it’s free) or some other high quality stats package. Know your number of website visitors, where they are coming from, what pages are ranking on the first page of Google, your visitor to customer conversion ratios, etc. These are critical performance factors of your business.

Your website needs to be fast, it has to be easily navigated and it needs to be functional. This is your new business storefront. Use your website to tie everything together including links to your social media pages, blog, subscription to your email newsletter and more. If your website is not doing what it couldor should, then get help ASAP.

Is your website ranking for the most important phrase in your industry?

More than 70% of local consumers of your product or services will “Google” you before purchasing. An astounding 98% of searchers will only review the first page of search engine results. That means that only 2% of searchers will find your business if it is not on the first page. Search for your business in the major engines, Google, Yahoo, and Bing to make sure your website is listed, if it comes up then you are fine. Your search should be for the main industry phrases, not your business name. Hint: Consumers that already know your business name are a small percentage of the local consumer you want to do business with. Instead of business name, search for “City + Industry Keywords”, e.g. “Portland Dentist”, “Portland Bookkeepers”, “Portland Accountant”, etc. without the quotes. If your business comes up on the first page, then keep doing whatever you are doing. If not, then make ranking a high business priority for 2011.

Are you getting your share of the Google Places Goldmine?

If you are a small business owner, you can’t go anywhere on the Web without hearing about Google Places. Google is certainly making a hard push toward local search with the back-to-back launches of Place Pages, Place Search, Google Hotpot and a seemingly never-ending list of local announcements. If you’re a small business owner, it’s not always an easy job to keep up, but it’s really important that you do. Google Places is a goldmine of opportunity for those smart enough to get first page positions.

Google has reported that more than a billion searches each month are for local products and services. That number is growing each month. In addition to the local focus, Google Places has the advantage of being faster to rank than traditional SEO and is less expensive than Pay Per Click (PPC).

Here are few pointers to help you rank for less competitive markets. Competitive markets will be covered in an upcoming post or webinar:

• First thing is claim you’re listing, completely.

A big mistake that many small business owners make with Google Places is not claiming their listing or taking the time to accurately fill out all of the fields. You want to make sure your profile is as complete and accurate as it can be. When you claim your listing, you’ll be asked to include basic information about your business, such as business name, address, phone number, website address, e-mail address, categories, service areas and location settings, hours of operation, payment options, photos (up to 10 photos), videos (up to five YouTube links) and any additional details. Every available field should be filled out in order to give your business the best chance for ranking high.

• Smart Keywords.

When you fill out your listing, be smart about your keyword usage – using terms related to what you do and your location. Do your keyword research to know which terms searchers are using to find your business. Make sure those keywords are included in your description, and be sure you are listing your business in the right category. Do not stuff the description with keywords (you only have 200 characters), but do keep search engine optimization in mind when you’re writing it. Keywords are one of the factors Google uses to decide when it’s appropriate to show your site. Be smart, use the right keywords and don’t overdo or under do it.

• Add images.

Why should you bother uploading photos of your business? Well, because the new Place Search is putting those image thumbnails right next to your site URL in the search results. Your site + Places page now shows up in the same package. This gives you another opportunity to grab a searchers eye and get them to click on your listing instead of competitors.

• Encourage Reviews.

It is wonderful how the opinions of friends and online peers are so highly valued. We check reviews before we buy from Ebay, we check Amazon reviews before buying there, and we check reviews before we book an important dinner. There is a massive social trend toward a pervasive use and dependence on reviews. Reviews are already a heavily weighted component of the Google Places ranking algorithm. With Google Hotpot and reviews becoming part of Social Search, it’s clear that reviews could very soon become part of Google’s overall ranking algorithm strategy.

As a small business owner you need to encourage customers to leave reviews about your business. Reach out to them during checkout, after the purchase, in e-mail newsletters, in company mailings and at other touch points. Teach them how to leave reviews and direct them to the appropriate sites. Let customers know how important reviews are to your business. You need to start figuring out how you’re going to positively solicit reviews from customers in a way that won’t turn them off.

Local search has changed. Web search has now become local search, and that means small business owners must compete much differently than they did before. More than ever, it’s all about creating a comprehensive online strategy, showing users and search engines that your business is a relevant and trusted brand. Search engine optimization is about to become more important for local businesses than it ever was before. Make sure you have a smart 2011 online marketing plan to compete and succeed!

Other important areas to consider:

• Mobile Marketing
• Pay Per Click Marketing
• Starting/Expand an eMail Newsletter
• Integrating Online and Offline Promotions
• Getting Really Serious about Social Media Marketing

What is Facebook Connect?

The website is using Facebook Connect, created in 2008 by Facebook as a way to connect your identity, friends, and privacy to any site. It allows 3rd party websites, applications, mobile devices and gaming systems to offer different Facebook features. It’s based on the Facebook Platform, that allows 3rd party developers to build rich social applications within Facebook. We are talking close to 1/2 million developers and business owners from all over the world that use this application.

How does Facebook Connect work?

By creating a viral sharing loop, you are allowing Facebook users to come to your site to check out unique content. Facebook users can perform actions such as voting, purchasing, and more and that can then be posted onto their Facebook status (this is always optional) They can share content with their friends which then can spiral into getting their friends excited about the site they are on.

Big sites such as Netflix, Vimeo, and Digg are using Facebook Connect to integrate with their users.

There are some downsides of adopting Facebook connect as a business

1) You aren’t able to gain access to your customer’s email, which means you can only access them through Facebook

2) If you already have a pre-existing authentication system, it’s tough to get Facebook working along side of that. Sometimes giving people a choice of logging in with Facebook or with their email address can be confusing.

3) Facebook Connect changes the code and their servers aren’t always up 100% of the time.

Want more inspirational uses of Facebook Connect, here are some great uses of Facebook Connect

Want to get started, check out this link: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/guides/web

1) collecting credit card #s and processing them over the phone, but taking a risk if the credit cards were expired or bad

2) getting a virtual terminal and paying extra costs to process credit cards in real time

Enter 2010, a new world for Point of Sale with your mobile device. Here’s a just few of the new players that are part of the new wave of virtual POS.

Square is based on a tiny, square-shaped credit card readers — each roughly the size of a quarter that plugs into your iPhone. Along with it,  you use an iPhone application to authorize a credit card, capture a signature, and even email a receipt. They also have a magistripe reader that plugs into your iPhone.

Right now, it looks like Square is looking to target an audience that doesn’t have an establish merchant account or have a permanent place such as a store front. Their typical customer is probably going to trade shows or craft shows on occasion.

Also, Square’s rates are “ok”, if the card is present (swiped), the rate is 1.75% + .15. If the card isn’t present (keyed-in), it’s 3.5% + .15

Payware by Verifone

To use their payment system, you slip the card reader over your phone, which automatically encrypts the swiped cards information before it even reaches the phone. The application allows all of the normal functions of a credit or debit card transaction, including signature capture.

Once the card is swiped, the information can be sent over either a wireless network, or the 3G connection to be verified and authorized by the appropriate credit card processor.

The service is available to existing merchants for the low price of a $15 per month gateway fee, including a one-time $49 sign-up fee. Like other credit card payment services, the service charges the merchant a small fee per transaction, $0.17 in the case of VeriFone.

Mophie, a company who provides rechargable batteries for iPhones, will be providing a magnetic strip reader for the iPhone this summer. It will be interesting what part of the market share they will play into.

What are you excited about? What problems do you see that a mobile POS could solve?

photos by ShashiBellamkonda

Here’s a highlight of what I experienced/learned:

Future of Web: Google had a vendor booth with mini classes, I hopped in and watched an HTML5 presentation. All I can say is that I’m super excited about it.

Future of  Social Media: Saw tons of Twitter analytic tools and social management tools, here’s a few of them: Sobees, Social Toaster, and Reviewd. Hard to say which one will be the winner.

I learned in some of the sessions that corporations are learning the benefits of letting their employees use social media sites at work. They are also investing time and resources in educating their employees on how to represent their brand on Twitter or Facebook. I think the fear of negative backlash is diminishing and social media sites will be seen more as useful tools instead of time-sucks.

Fun New Sharing Tools: Witnessed some exciting demostrations of some tools used to communicate between designer/developer or the client: JING and Glass

Best Message: Checked out the authors of the Trust Agents (Chris Brogan and Julien Smith) and it was one of the most entertaining panels I attended. They were constantly cracking jokes with each other while re-emphazing their message of “Don’t Be Boring”, “Do Good Work” and “Don’t do something hard alone”. Simple messages but I felt like they were well received in the crowd.

Future of Mobile: Mobile is huge, lots of talk about how phones can unlock the barrier between continents and enable anyone to get the information they need. There was a lot of focus on mobile ads and commerce, should be fun to see how that changes over the next year. Paypal and Volusion announced their ability to make shopping on the phone a painless process.

Tons o’Fun: Lots of goofy and fun stuff too- FreshBooks was passing out free bacon while I was standing in line to get into a party. The app “Foodspotting” had games to play.  Lots of people were trying to be the mayor of places through FourSquare,  I played a round of a game of “werewolf“, and so much more than is hard to capture without a photo.

Can’t wait to return a year from now and experience the conference all over again!

Ok, so how does Foursquare work?  The idea is that the app helps you explore your own city or a new place you might be checking out, using the internal GPS system.  You can let your friends know where you are by “checking in“. Each time you check in,  you earn points. Ultimately, the idea is if you earn a certain amount of points or checkins, it can add up to badgets or free food/perks and becoming a mayor of certain bars/restaurants. (I’m still not clear on what advantages a mayor has, please email me if you know.)

On the flip side, if you own a bar or restaurant, Foursquare wants to help you to connect with your customers buy rewarding points.  As a restaurant, for example, you could offer a free appetizer or drink after someone’s 3rd checkin and any other kind of promotion you can think of. I’ve only noticed a few places around Portland giving discounts so I’m not sure if it’s a working model.

I’ve noticed how easy it is to check in to any place if you are in the vicinity. When I first used the app to do a “checkin”, it searched for the nearby businesses in the vicnity of around a few miles. There’s nothing preventing me from checking in to all of these businesses except my honesty.  Cheating, to me, seems like it could be a potential issue -  here’s an interesting article about how one guy learned to hack his way through Foursquare http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/16/foursquare-cheating/

What does the future hold for Foursquare – it sounds like they’ve made an interesting deal with Zagat  (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/foursquare-inks-a-deal-with-zagat/) which hopefully will launch into a better situation and could provide some groundwork on taking their business to the next level.

Sadly, I haven’t gotten a chance to check out Google Buzz. I’ll do a follow up post with my overall assessment – but here’s some interesting feedback on the scoop so far this week. Overall, it looks like Google’s doing a good job of turning people’s heads.

PC World asks some big questions:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/189005/google_buzz_ten_pressing_questions.html

Info World ponders how can Google compete?
http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/google-buzz-brings-social-networking-and-sharing-gmail-743

Lifehacker sums up the features through slides and videos
http://lifehacker.com/5467841/google-buzz-explained

What do you think? Is Google trying to copy features of Twitter and Facebook? Is there room for another social networking tool?

Facebook Groups are best used for non-profits, fundraiser groups, and friend gatherings such as a bowling group. The group is very oriented around events and doesn’t possess the same amount of features that the Fan page has. Facebook considers groups to be an extension of your personal actions. When you post something as a group administrator, it looks like it’s coming from you and is attached to your personal profile.

Facebook Fan Pages allow for businesses, organization, and brands to have a place to talk to their customers and clients. Unlike groups, fan pages are visible to people who aren’t logged into Facebook and are thus indexed by search engines. Pages communicate by “updates” which show on the news feed of a fan. Pages can have applications as well. A Fan Page can create content that doesn’t linked to you personally.

You do need a personal profile in order to use either one of these features, but one advantage of a Fan Page is ability to assign other people as admins of the Fan Page, this is especially nice if you are delegating the updates to an employee or an assistant.

Overall, Groups and Fan Pages are powerful and if used properly, can help promote a great cause or a business.

Here’s some good things to keep track of:

1. Track your business – I have Google Alerts running for “Blue Deer Designs” and my name. It seems to pop up tweets, ads, and content associated with them.

2. Want to see who is coming to your blog? You can track incoming links to your site.

3. Track your products – this way you can see if there are reviews or tweets about your products and are able to respond to them, if needed.

4. Advanced Searches are a great way to track topics you want to keep your pulse on.

5. Watch your competition. It’s important to see who is writing about them and what kind of news they are sharing.

The following blogs go into more depth and can be handy for setting up your alerts

http://foodblogalliance.com/2009/04/how-to-use-google-alerts—5-quick-ways-to-get-news-about-you-your-blog.php

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4203/How-to-Use-Google-Alerts-to-Monitor-Your-Company-s-Online-Presence.aspx