One of the great things happening in the digital world these days is the steady parade of helpful applications (apps), Web-based tools and online services for small business. Here’s our shortlist of some of the newest, most interesting or under-the-radar tools, services and apps you should know about:
• Appbistro (www.appbistro.com) is an app for finding apps. It’s an easy-to-use marketplace (just search or browse) of Facebook business applications – some free; some fee – that can help you create a more engaging Facebook page for your local business.
• The ASBDC Loan Center is a new service that aims to connect small-business owners with willing lenders. It’s a partnership between the Association of Small Business Development Centers and BoeFly. Visit: www.boefly.com.
• JitterJam (www.jitterjam.com) is a Web-based social marketing app that combines social media, email and mobile engagement with a contact database and tools to turn social interaction into new revenue opportunities. It helps your business realize measurable return on your social engagement by providing you with a social marketing and customer-development system.
• Sign Up is a simple (yet flexible) app from North Social (www.northsocial.com) that lets you create contact forms and online surveys directly on your Facebook page so you can easily collect helpful marketing data. You can customize the appearance of the app by uploading a header image and choose whether people must “like” the page in order to view it.
• Vimeo PRO (www.vimeo.com/pro) is a new service that makes it easy and affordable for small businesses to host their own high-quality videos. This can help restaurants better showcase their food and atmosphere. Real estate agents will find it helpful to show higher-quality home previews.
• BetterWorks (www.betterworks.com) is a new kind of Web-based employee perks program and management system that helps small businesses provide a range of benefits and product or service discounts to employees.
• Buckaroo (www.buckaroo.com) has a new Web-based tool that lets small businesses run custom email and social media promotions. Merchants can upload an email list and company logo, and send sharable promotions to customers.
• Batchbook (www.batchbook.com) is a handy contact-management app lets you easily keep track of your business, personal, and social networking contacts and share them with others. Create a flexible contact database from scratch, or import contacts from another system. •
Daniel Kehrer can be reached at
editor@bizbest.com.
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