Understanding Apps

"What’s a mobile app?

A mobile app is a software program you can download and access directly using your phone or another mobile device, like a tablet or music player.

What do I need to download and use an app?

You need a smart phone or another mobile device with internet access. Not all apps work on all mobile devices. Once you buy a device, you’re committed to using the operating system and the type of apps that go with it. The Android, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and BlackBerry mobile operating systems have app stores online where you can look for, download, and install apps. Some online retailers also offer app stores. You’ll have to use an app store that works with your device’s operating system. To set up an account, you may have to provide a credit card number, especially if you’re going to download an app that isn’t free."

Source: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0018-understanding-mobile-apps

Push for Growth

"Growing a business isn't easy. First, you need a viable idea. From there, you need to discover a profitable niche, define a target demographic and have something of value to sell them. Whether you're peddling products, services or information, getting the word out has become increasingly burdensome. And without the right marketing strategies to fuel your growth, churning a profit and staying afloat is virtually impossible.

However, identifying the right strategies to market your business is often likened to rocket science. How do you get your message to the right audience and do it effectively? How do you boost visibility and increase sales while sustaining a profit with a converting offer? Today, with so much vying for our attention from social media, to search engine optimization, blogging and pay-per-click advertising, it's easy to see why most are ready to pull their hair out.

The truth is that what got you to this point in business is likely not going to get you to the next level. If you're feeling stuck, join the fray. Most entrepreneurs are so busy working "in" their businesses that they fail to work "on" their businesses. As a result of dealing with the day-to-day operations of a company that includes customer hand-holding, supply-chain demands and more, we often neglect to wield the right marketing strategies that will help fuel our business's growth."

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/299335

iPhone App Designs!

Events

Planning a business event, networking event, exhibition or conference? You’ll get an informative, handy and good looking app and only pay for the time you need it.

• Attendee
• Profiles
• Agenda/calendar
• Check-in
• Speaker bio
• Album
• Sponsors
• Livestream
• Live following on social media

Tourism

Mobile tourism apps are the perfect service for any visitor. Your guests will have all tourist information right on their smartphone while visiting your city, region or museum.

• News and information
• Create itinerary to follow
• Book restaurant reservations
• Reserve tickets for a show
• Medical Information
• Find nearby hotels
• Bar finder / night life
• Photos
• Videos

Restaurants

Engage your customers, keep them up to date with the latest menu changes, catch of the day and let them make reservations via the app.

• Browse menus
• Create reservations
• In-App
• Loyalty Card
• Send push notifications
• Create events
• Share your location
• Share the latest news
• Show dish of the day

Non Profit

The smartphone is also a fact of life now for non-profit organizations. Donate money using the app, build an app for your educational institution or draw attention to a specific topic.

• Social Media in one place
• Send donations easily
• Build partnerships
• Build a community with forums
• Sponsor challenges and giveaways
• Overview of employees

Marketing Strategies

Never miss a tweet, comment or message again

Every piece of content a user can send you is filtered to each Facebook, Twitter and Instagram account’s inbox for your review. You’ll never miss a conversation.

Easily Manage Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

• Never miss a tweet, message or comment
• Run Contests, quizzes and promotions
• Stats & Reporting: measure everything
• Learn how you stack up against the competition

All your channels in one dashboard

• No more logging in and out, over and over again.

• Easily switch between all your social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) from a centralized dashboard.

Get to inbox zero (and sanity!)

• Quickly see how many new comments, tweets or messages have popped up. Reply, review, assign or tag and you’re done.
• Enjoy that fresh, clean inbox zero feeling.

Engagement made easy

• 24/7 syncing collects all new content and shows it as new until reviewed.
• Notifications reveal at-a-glance how many new Items are pending review.
• Filter between ‘new’ content and ‘all’

12 Tip Safety Guide!

"Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, Ning, Digg, MeetUp, blogs, etc.,  -- the number of social networking sites and tools is exploding. Social networking is the killer app of the Internet for everyone – not just the texting teenybopper crowd. Such sites have breached the walls of the corporate firewall, are a part of our most important smartphone apps, are a vital tool for any serious job search, and are the new way to connect with current and new friends. Social networking is about self forming groups, a dynamic author Clay Shirky examines in his book Here Comes Everybody: The Power Of Organizing With Organizations.  But  using social networking tools and sites seems to be in direct conflict with another important principle of using the Internet – protect your identity from identity theft.   Participating  in online social networking sites  leaves a trail of personal information that can make stealing your identity a whole lot easier.  What’s a current-day Internet user to do? Should we go blithely along like a fish protected in a larger school of potential identity theft victims, or maybe we should forego social networking altogether? No and no. Instead each of us should take responsibility for protecting ourselves.  On the following pages, I bring you my top 12 tips to help you  practice safe social networking.

TIP 1 –  Beware of TMI:  the five things you should never share"

To continue reading, please click the link below!

https://www.networkworld.com/article/2346606/microsoft-subnet/microsoft-subnet-12-tips-for-safe-social-networking.html

Stay Safe!

"It’s not new news: Social media marketing has transitioned from being a whimsical hobby to a no-brainer, absolute must for businesses of all sizes that want to remain relevant.

Whether you’re microblogging, posting, liking or updating information about your products and services, there’s one element that must be addressed: safety and security.

If you think this is just an old song repackaged as a Web 2.0 mash-up, think again. When Webroot surveyed 803 IT professionals who worked at small and medium-sized companies, 80 percent replied that Facebook and related Web 2.0-based malware posed serious problems for their companies. Of those same respondents, 73 percent thought web-based threats were more difficult to manage than their email cousins.

Read further to find out how to take control of your social media space by educating yourself on privacy settings, data protection, hacking and human error (i.e., your lovable employees).

Privacy Settings

A recent survey found that 67 percent of respondents were concerned about social networking privacy issues, yet only 31 percent of those asked updated their privacy settings within the last 90 days. This lack of attention to detail can make your fan page an open target for social engineering, data and identity theft and more."

For more information, please click the link below! https://www.webroot.com/us/en/business/resources/articles/social-media/how-businesses-stay-safe-and-secure-using-social-media

Need to Know!

"I realized something the other day: I’ve been designing apps for nine years now! So much has changed since the early days and, it feels like developers and designers have been through a rollercoaster of evolutions and trends. However, while the actual look and functionality of our apps have changed, along with the tools we use to make them, there are some things that have very much stayed the same, such as the process of designing an app and how we go through the many phases that constitute the creation of an app.

Sure, collectively you could argue that we’ve become a lot better at the process. We’ve invented new terminology and even completely new job titles to better facilitate the process of designing mobile applications. But, at its core, the process remains largely unchanged."

To continue reading, please click the link below! 

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2016/11/what-everyone-should-know-about-the-process-behind-app-design/

Social Media & Workplace

"Social media influences and permeates many aspects of daily life for Americans today, and the workforce is no exception. These digital platforms offer the potential to enhance worker productivity by fostering connections with colleagues and resources around the globe. At the same time, employers might worry that employees are using these tools for non-work purposes while on the job or engaging in speech in public venues that might reflect poorly on their organization.

A Pew Research Center survey of 2,003 American adults (including 795 who are currently employed on a full- or part-time basis) conducted Sept. 11-14 and 18-21, 2014, finds that social media plays some role in the lives of many American workers – but that role is not always clear-cut or entirely positive.

Workers turn to social media for a range of reasons while at work, with taking a mental break being among the most common"

To continue reading, please click on the link below! 

http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/06/22/social-media-and-the-workplace/

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Turkey, a Thanksgiving staple so ubiquitous it has become all but synonymous with the holiday, may or may not have been on offer when the Pilgrims hosted the inaugural feast in 1621. Today, however, nearly 90 percent of Americans eat the bird—whether roasted, baked or deep-fried—on Thanksgiving, according to the National Turkey Federation. Other traditional foods include stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Volunteering is a common Thanksgiving Day activity, and communities often hold food drives and host free dinners for the less fortunate.

Parades have also become an integral part of the holiday in cities and towns across the United States. Presented by Macy’s department store since 1924, New York City’s Thanksgiving Day parade is the largest and most famous, attracting some 2 to 3 million spectators along its 2.5-mile route and drawing an enormous television audience. It typically features marching bands, performers, elaborate floats conveying various celebrities and giant balloons shaped like cartoon characters."

To continue reading this story, please click the link below!

http://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving/history-of-thanksgiving

Think Like a Designer!

"There’s more to designing mobile apps than meets the eye. The task requires a deep knowledge of devices, and it often means changing the way we think — even if that means leaving behind much of what we’ve learned from designing for the web.

I started my career like many designers: working on print design projects. Shortly thereafter, I discovered the world of websites, which fascinated me and became the focus of my work for some time. Along the way I learned concepts related to interaction design and user experience, which I hardly knew existed until then.

At some point I felt stuck in a kind of repetitive work cycle: I had found a formula, an almost surefire way of designing, that enabled me to deliver each new project more easily and quickly than ever before, but in some way or another, all of the designs looked similar. It was then that the first versions of iOS and Android were released."

To continue reading, please click on the link below!

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2015/04/thinking-like-an-app-designer/

Upcoming Social Media Trends

"In the past year, a number of significant stories involved social media: Facebook lured Snapchat users to Instagram, the president of the United States communicated official policy positions in 140 characters and Apple announced plans to alter the way we interact with our mobile devices.

Next year, social media is poised to create even more disruption as a number of new technological advancements go mainstream, and as social norms related to social media change. Here are the top 10 social media trends to prepare for as 2018 draws near."

To continue reading, please click the link below! 

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/300813#

6 Killer Assumptions - Killing Apps

"User interactions have evolved so rapidly during the last few years that designers can barely keep up—making it tempting to use interaction design techniques from other media (or even legacy app design) when we build mobile applications.

In reality, it’s important to remember that our interaction patterns and interaction design need to change when the medium changes.

The first step toward this kind of thinking was seen during the transition from mouse and keyboard desktops to touchscreens (Apple’s new 3D Touch is a current and more granular example). From entirely new interaction patterns to smaller interaction details and trends, every new device, environment, pattern, and gesture comes with possibilities and pitfalls."

To continue reading, please click the link below!

https://www.uxpin.com/studio/blog/6-assumptions-that-kill-your-mobile-app-design/

Making Videos? Quality.

"Video is a powerful storytelling medium: Not only can it serve as a prime proving ground for your business’ promotional campaigns, influential ideas, and experimental content efforts, video’s emotionally resonant combination of sound, motion, and visuals can also help you drive deeper, more satisfying relationships between your brand and its audience.

Video’s value proposition

Videos are among the most versatile tactics content marketers can leverage. For starters, they can be cooked up, loaded up, cut up, and served up in a wide variety of ways. They can:

• Work well in both long and short formats – from 6-second Vine videos to full-length documentary films, and everywhere in between

• Be timely, standalone statement pieces or ongoing serialized conversations that unfold over time"

To continue reading, please click the link below!

http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2016/04/video-content-examples/

Get Started - 6 Business Types!

"

"If you’re like millions of Americans, you dream of starting your own business. But of course, there are dozens of obstacles that may keep you from actually doing that. You might not have enough motivation, for example, or time to actually see the work through; or you might not even have a solid idea to begin with -- yet.

But where most people get stopped cold is their realization that it takes money to start a business -- money they don’t have.

Still, consider: There are loans, grants, and other fundraising options, like crowdfunding, available to get you what you need; so money is not a good excuse not to start a business. And, beyond that, there are certain types of businesses you can start with almost no cash."

To continue reading, please click on the link below! 

https://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/299616

Free? Online? Help yourself!

"Every small business owner needs tools to get their marketing campaigns off the ground. Frankly, too many of these tools are only for enterprise-level businesses or require a budget that doesn't always justify the ROI.

A personal hobby of mine is testing out tools and finding the best ones for myself and the team to use on our campaigns."

Check out the 10 FREE Online Marketing Tools by clicking the link below!

https://moz.com/blog/10-free-online-marketing-tools-every-small-business-owner-needs

Manage Millennials

"It’s been about two years since millennials surpassed gen Xers to become the largest share of the American workforce. As that gap continues to widen, C-suite executives should start thinking about how this shift might impact their business. Because believe it or not, the new kids won’t be so new in just a few years. Older millennials are moving into leadership positions, while fresh college graduates are chasing similar success. 

The result? Companies are growing into majority millennial teams, and projections show millennials representing nearly 75 percent of the workforce by 2030."

For more information, please click the link below!

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/294935#

It's Healthy!

"Self-medication may be the reason the blogosphere has taken off. Scientists (and writers) have long known about the therapeutic benefits of writing about personal experiences, thoughts and feelings. But besides serving as a stress-coping mechanism, expressive writing produces many physiological benefits. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery. A study in the February issue of the Oncologist reports that cancer patients who engaged in expressive writing just before treatment felt markedly better, mentally and physically, as compared with patients who did not.

Scientists now hope to explore the neurological underpinnings at play, especially considering the explosion of blogs. According to Alice Flaherty, a neuroscientist at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, the placebo theory of suffering is one window through which to view blogging. As social creatures, humans have a range of pain-related behaviors, such as complaining, which acts as a “placebo for getting satisfied,” Flaherty says. Blogging about stressful experiences might work similarly."

To continue reading, please click the link listed below!

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-healthy-type/

Spice up the Wording!

"As an entrepreneur, I hear a lot of things said about good design: Good design is simple. Or it's all about white space. Others say good design is understated or that it's hard to describe.

As a designer, though, I can tell you that while all these things are important, the main difference between well-designed pieces and poorly designed ones is something else entirely: having really good fonts.

Don’t believe me? Take a look at what Squarespace’s website would look like using Impact instead of its fancy, premium font."

To continue reading, please click on the link below!

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/238243

Small Business. Big Reach.

"Have you ever looked at somebody’s amazing travel photos and felt as if you too could enjoy such joy, if only you had the budget, resources, and time? If you’re a small business owner, this can feel similar to the experience of seeing a huge company’s extremely successful viral marketing campaign. As a smaller business, you may feel as if these mammoth successes are out of your reach, but I’m here to tell you that this simply isn’t the case.

Flashy gestures and fancy budgets can of course add a certain pizzazz to any campaign. But there are core strategies that any business—big or small—can apply to their own marketing efforts. To see the ways big brands are using social media, we took a look at past and present nominees for the Shorty Awards, which recognize the best of social media. As a great wealth of examples showing social media done right, the key strategies of the following big brands can be applied to any small business’ campaigns. As the following shows, solid social media principles can be universally applied—regardless of whether your budget is ‘baller’ or smaller."

To continue reading, please click on the link listed below!

https://blog.hootsuite.com/big-brand-social-media-strategies-business/

The Importance of Marketing Advantages - Find Your Fit

"With an increasingly competitive and expanding market, the amount of information needed daily by an organization is profound. Thus they have to establish a Marketing Information system. There are several advantages of Marketing information systems

1) Organized Data collection –  Lots of data can be collected from the market. But the main word here is “Organized”. Organizing data is very important else the data is meaningless. Thus MIS helps you to organize your database thereby improving productivity."

To continue reading, please click on the link below! 

https://www.marketing91.com/customer-profitablity-analysis-2/