1. (Spooky) Social Media
and Web Services for
Business
Brian Jackson, Editor of ITBusiness.ca
bjackson@itbusiness.ca - @brianjjackson
www.itbusiness.ca

2. • Meet Anthony Raso, Executive Car Care
• Launch with help from GroupOn.
• 200 sales = great! Booking with pen and paper? Not so great.
• Can’t go digital on one aspect and expect to keep up elsewhere.
• Switch to Web booking system with Groupon Scheduler
• Now customers book themselves! Time saving and better organized.

3. Considering Groupon and other daily
deals
 Groupon Scheduler is free; gentle prompts to use daily deals
 Wagjag, Team Save, Team Buy, Living Social, etc.
 Two situations when it’s a good idea to run a daily deal:
 1) You are selling a high margin product and can still profit on discounted
sales (remember the product is discounted and Groupon gets a portion of the
sale)
 2) You can accept a loss on the sale and look at it as advertising. Gain
exposure to new clients. Costs come with guaranteed customers.
 Think: What will you do when the customers come to you?

4. Office Web Apps
 You’ll need a Microsoft Live ID (eg. Hotmail, MSN)
 Free, Web access to familiar Microsoft Office Apps
 Richer interface than Google Docs
 Switch to desktop version when you want
 Integrates with Skydrive, to sync local files with Web
 Access to Messenger IM
 Apps to do electronic Fax, get access to templates
 http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/web-apps/

5. Google Drive
 New version of Google Docs
 Edit word documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, etc. online
 Sync to your desktop with Drive application and edit with your
installed software, like Microsoft Office
 Share files with colleagues. No size limitations and real-time editing
and collaboration capabilities.

6. Google+ - The Web is going social
• Google is using its social information to influence its
search results; big implications for search engine ranking
• Authorship ranking now a factor in search results
• If people in your Circles +1 or share a link, its more likely
you’ll see it in search results
• Claim your authorship status now for your blog.
• Link your name to your Google+ profile like this:
<a
href=“https://plus.google.com/u/0/1118583331545254913
41” rel=“author”>Brian Jackson</a>

7. Google Places for Business
 Your store description on Google
Maps is now your social page on
Google+
 Will be created by Google – you
have to choose to manage it
 If you run a home office, good to
specify a service area instead of
one location.

8. Best Made Company gets it
 Key contact details and brief company history up front
 Use of photo albums to showcase products
 Sharing videos and news from other relevant sites

9. Online collaboration made easy
• Online collaboration for free with
Vyew.com
• Put up with ads while you work
• Share documents, collaborate on
them, video conference, screen
sharing, voice, etc.
• Up to 10 concurrent users for fee
• Work with your team or impress
clients. Use as a teaching and
training tool.
• Also use join.me for easy-as-pie
screen sharing

10. Facebook Page: Kettleby
-
Valley
Fun and engaging tone, but maintain professional
image and maintain customer confidence
- Well moderated by key staff members
- Share blog posts, videos, program
updates, pictures, and more.
Focus on community
and customer
achievement;
demonstrated value of
the business.

11. Grow your Facebook fan base
- Placesocial buttons on your Web site - Add your Facebook Page to your e-mail
signature
- Consider Facebook advertising (it’s low cost) - Offer incentives to ‘Like’ your
Facebook page
- Update consistently with compelling posts - Images most effective on Facebook

12. Peter gets it
- His business might be about the
outdoors, but his process have gone all
digital
- Online marketing, online
registration, online customer
support, online education, online clothing
sales, etc.
- By avoiding bottlenecks in his work
flow, Peter has managed to expand the
number of kids registered at Kettleby Valley
and spend more time improving the camp

13. Wave Accounting
- Use same bank account for business and personal - Automatic tracking tied to bank accounts

14. - Saves 10 hours per month by using
Wave Accounting
- More time to spend on client work
- Can now expand to include other
photographers with confidence
- More “couch time” with hubby
Kate gets it

15. Wave Payroll
 Costs $3 per employee per
payroll; integrates with Wave
Accounting
 Use it to manage your
nannies, cleaners, kid’s
allowance even
 Automatic tax calculations
 Employees manage personal
banking information for direct
deposit
 Also import into QuickBooks

16. Mail Chimp
• Free for up to 2,000
recipients
• Also a great resource for
tips on e-mail marketing
• Manage every aspect of
your campaign
• Registration forms
• E-mail design with templates
• Analytics reports
• Distribution through social

17. Mark gets it
• Uses newsletter to
demonstrate knowledge of
the field
• Not afraid to link to a lot of
different, external sites
• Avoids communication
bottleneck with clients by
using a consistent e-mail
newsletter that is easy to
register for

18. Canada Public Record Center
 Employee background checks  http://www.publicrecordcenter.c
 Patent data base search om/canada_public_records.htm
 Phone numbers
 Postal addresses  U.S. and International records
also available.
 Track down debt-owing clients
 Locate stolen bikes, vehicles
 Court records
 Bankruptcy filings and
unclaimed amounts