We’re sure you’ve heard of The Social Network, this new movie about the founders of Facebook. It opened earlier this month and so far, from what we’ve been hearing, it sounds like this 120-minute thriller-docudrama-comedy will be making plenty of noise at next year’s Oscars. You should see The Social Network if you haven’t done so yet. Not only is it a thrilling closer look at what went on behind the creation of today’s biggest social networking site; it’s also a really, really good movie. You don’t even have to be a Facebook fan to enjoy it. Directed by David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club), written by Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, A Few Good Men), and starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Brenda Song, Rooney Mara, and huge pop musician Justin Timberlake, The Social Network – as Rolling Stone describes it – “brilliantly defines the decade”. Of course, if you’re a startup, small business owner, or marketer, you also might want – Read the full article
The process of establishing and enhancing your presence on the Web takes a lot of time – time that you, as a startup or small business owner, may not have. It also requires a full range of skills: content writing, online networking, search marketing, project management, web design, programming, etc. – things that you also might not have a lot of experience with. Sure, it’s convenient to hire dedicated full-time staff members to perform a bunch of Internet marketing jobs for you – but is it really always worth it? Wouldn’t that deplete your resources, as well as the money and the infrastructure you need to run your business? We’re still in the midst of recovering from the recession, after all. Surely, there must be a better and more cost-effective alternative. Like outsourcing. If you think that outsourcing – online – might be a worthwhile option for you, there’s a marketplace where you can find freelancers and hire them on – Read the full article
Online business meetings bring the world to your presentation or discussion. Unfortunately, online business meetings can cost the human element that makes a sales relationship lasting. Let’s discuss the pros and cons of an online business meeting as opposed to booking meeting rooms. Pros of an online business meeting Anywhere, Anytime – Anytime, anywhere, by anyone and to everyone was one of the promises of the Internet. Online business meetings can fulfill that promise. Online presentations can be offered by sales teams around the world, reaching audiences everywhere at once. Economy of Scale – Both the digital broadcasting hardware and receiving hardware in the form of computers have become commonplace, reducing the cost of producing as well as receiving online business meetings. Online meetings also make meetings more affordable to everyone with the hardware to view it. Whether thirty interested experts attend or three thousand potential customers listen in is only a limit of the processing ability of the server. – Read the full article
Critics are quick to point out that the Apple iPad isn’t exactly a replacement for your laptop. More than a mobile business platform, it’s a sleek tablet device for consuming content on the Internet. This doesn’t mean, however, that the iPad can’t increase your productivity while on the go. As the Apple commercial goes, “There’s an app for that.” Below you’ll find a list of essential iPad apps for small business users of the device. GoodReader At 99 cents, GoodReader is an affordable app for viewing PDF files and important business documents in other formats – like Word, Excel, PNG, PPT, TXT, and JPEG. It also supports high-resolution images, and can even do audio and video – perfect for opening and viewing all kinds of files, regardless of size. Need to download a presentation or a report from Google Docs for offline reading? GoodReader can also do that, and can even unzip those files and folders for you. Memeo Connect – Read the full article
As a small business owner, you may find yourself going crazy over the number of things you have to do for work. But don’t worry: if you own an Apple iPhone, you’ll at least have some apps at your disposal – apps which can truly help you stay connected to your business and hang on to a little bit of sanity. While the iPhone is a fun device, it can also make for a great business tool – especially if you’re always on the go. Here are several Apple iPhone apps with which you, as a small business owner, cannot go wrong. Money matters A number of apps let you keep track of your expenses and finances. These include BalanceDo, a productivity app through which you can send customer invoices, track receivables or billings, and manage payments through PayPal. If you want to perform credit card transactions with your iPhone, check out MerchantWare Mobile. (You’ll need a Merchant Warehouse account.) – Read the full article
The social networking / microblogging site, Twitter, is so popular right now that it’s not a bad move to think you should use it for your business – as part of your social media strategy. In fact, you may go so far as to say it’s a necessary move. Sure, it’s cool to be able to follow the tweets of Ashton Kutcher and Stephen Fry on a daily basis and join in on casual conversations. But it’s so much cooler that Twitter offers you, through these conversations, new opportunities to expand your business and your brand. Before you dive in and start twittering, make sure you consider a few important things first. You don’t want to start out on a bad note, after all. Ask yourself how you want to use your Twitter Sure, you can’t use Twitter yet as a direct revenue channel, but you can use it as a way to continue to enhance your brand and image. – Read the full article
It’s great to have your own blog to support your main website: you can keep updating it with new content and engage with a community of readers. But what if that community isn’t growing or responding as you had hoped, no matter how great and fresh your content is? Don’t worry: an increase in engagement is not impossible. Facebook Connect is one of the most popular ways to reach out to members of the social media community through your blog. This Facebook API (or application programming interface) is currently being used by all kinds of third parties: from websites like the Huffington Post and Mashable, to gaming consoles like Xbox Live and Sony PS3, and even mobile applications on the Apple iPhone. Basically, what this tool does is integrate Facebook into your blog, so that you can tap into the social networking site’s 400 million active users worldwide. Facebook Connect also allows you to help your blog readers connect with – Read the full article
Many have said that the business world is a dog-eat-dog one, but at the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center in DePaul University, success is a thing that’s meant to be shared and taught. Founded in 2003 by Dr. Harold Welsch, the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center is a business outreach center and an extension of DePaul’s highly acclaimed academic entrepreneurship program. On campus, the Center helps students and aspiring entrepreneurs launch and grow their own ventures. In the entrepreneurial community of Chicago, it serves business owners with programs and consulting services that support their careers and professional ventures. With an advisory committee composed of DePaul faculty, students, and staff members within various departments and centers throughout the university, the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center is committed to supporting the entrepreneurial spirit at DePaul. Through guidance for young entrepreneurs in their social, non-profit, and business interests, through collaborations with academic and administrative groups, and through peer-to-peer programs designed to refresh business perspectives, the Coleman Center has become – Read the full article
