Hopefully everyone scored some fantastic deals this weekend online an off. I ran across an article on theTop 10 Google Apps for Small Business that may be of interest. I add my two-cents on the apps as well.
1. Google Analytics – essential for discovering and optimizing your Internet traffic, which is the life blood of your website / blog / business.
2. Gmail – Forget Microsoft exchange and a hosted portal email. Gmail is effective, user-friendly and tons of storage. Did I mention everyone is drinking the Kool-Aid.
3. Google Alerts – Great for monitoring your brand and getting notifications competitors
4. Google Docs – The power of this didn’t really ring true until I was on a public computer away from the office and had to craft a business miracle. Between Gmail and Google Docs the microsoft word doc sent via email was a breeze to edit and return to sender…..life is good in the Airport lounge with no laptop.
5. Google Reader – Once of the best RSS readers on the market probably because it was designed with functionality and simplicity in mind first.
6. Google Calendar – This not only keeps you organized anytime anywhere on the web it syncs with multiple mobile devices like iphone, blackberry, windows mobile. Best of all if your still in love with Microsoft Outlook like me it syncs with that as well. The outlooks sync feature alone is worth it’s salt as a free solution to let your business team know what you are up to (if you want).
7. Google Maps – Beside the obvious uses I need not explain, Google maps can be an effective tools when tapping into the API or using a number of available mashups on the web. To see just how crazy Google map mashups can get check out this blog.
8. Google Translate – This worked very nicely when I doing business in Asia. All websites became legible with the click of a mouse.
9. YouTube – Viral marketing, product demos, product reviews, how tos…..just use it!
10. Google Local – As the the local search market continues to heat up for small business be sure to take advantage by advertising your business to the local traffic users. Be sure to perform healthy keyword research for local searching in your area and then capitalize with your brand
