Small Business Tips - Increase Revenue Through Technology

This great article by Sander Biehn of AT&T talks about how your smartphone can now replace your laptop when you travel and are out of the office. He identifies four quick ways that smartphones will benefit your travel more than your laptop.

We may not have jetpacks, but there’s no doubt about it: We live in the future. The smartphones we carry in our pockets today have faster processors and more memory than the most powerful desktop PCs from a decade ago, and the ubiquitous high-speed Internet access provided by AT&T’s 4G and Wi-Fi networks amounts to always-on connectivity to the full sum of humankind’s knowledge. Since the launch of Siri with the iPhone 4S last year, it has become apparent that smartphone manufacturers consider voice control to be the next phase in human/computer interfaces. This post covers developments in two voice control interfaces, Voice Typing and Voice Command:

Here is a great article about the importance of getting off the ground with your mobile marketing strategy from OpenForum.com. In fact, this artcile helped me get the go ahead to create our new mobile website this week!

With smartphone use soaring, mobile marketing offers an almost guaranteed way for small business owners to attract more customers—and more sales.

Recent comScore figures show that some 82.2 million Americans now have smartphones, with that number growing by the day. It's no wonder then that small-business owners are rapidly realizing the importance of adding mobile marketing to their overall marketing strategies. In the Small Business Mobile Survey released earlier this month by Web.com, 69 percent of small businesses say they believe mobile marketing will be critical to their growth over the next five years.

But as every busy business owner will admit, knowing that something is important and actually acting on it are two different things. For example, only 60 percent of small businesses that responded to a Web.com survey say have websites. (What’s up with the other 40 percent of you?) Of that 60 percent, just 26 percent have a mobile-friendly website (which is optimized for a smartphone screen), and a paltry 14 percent have a stand-alone mobile website.

Running a business is hard enough when your there, but without the right set up, running your business outside of the office can be much more difficult. With the use of the tips in this video and implementing the proper technology, you don't have to be afraid to leave the office and still get stuff done.

This week has been dedicated to mobile marketing, so naturally I was able to find a great video to show you the possibilities out there in running mobile marketing campaigns. With AT&T mobile marketing solutions, you can take your business to the next level by connecting with customers on the go! Not only that, but you can get view the statistics of your marketing efforts and find out how effective it really is. Check out the video below for more details.

I have been scouring the internet for the last couple of days looking for content that is different from what I normally post. I certainly found something to share with everyone. One of the hardest things to do in this time is keep up to date with new trends and find affordable ways to market your small business within the trends. Smartphones and tablets are a huge deal right now and consumers are looking for ways to connect with business through this medium. With the help of AT&T, I would like to share with you a great experience to learn more about mobile marketing. Check out more information about this webinar below:

I have posted quite a bit of content that regards to how helpful QR codes can be for small business marketing. With that in mind, I saw this post that talks about how QR codes can be a security threat to your mobile phones and wanted to make all of you aware of the scams that are out there. Please note that this is just a summary of the important points that I got from an article, which can be viewed in full.

By now you should all be aware of the QR codes that keep popping up on anything from business cards to buses. These little black and white boxes can be scanned with a Smartphone, which will then take you to a website that has been associated with that specific QR code. It’s a great way to keep up to date with trends and mobile marketing, but is it turning into more of a threat than an asset? 

Now more than ever, companies are looking for ways to boost performance and productivity. With the expanision of smartphones, your business can now have office mobility. Check out more about how the Android operating system can improve your business with this article written by Mario Armstrong, from AT&T Networking Exchange.

Everyone takes precaution when it comes to his or her computer. Whether you buy security software or encrypt your network, you do these things to prevent an attack so no one can get a hold of your sensitive information. Smartphones are getting more and more advanced, to the point where they are pretty much a computer on the go. As so, they should be treated with the same respect by following some basic safety measures that you already take with your PC or Mac.  Use these six ways to help keep your mobile device safe.

This weeks blog article comes from our good friends at AT&T. Please continue below for the artcile in full.

A recent survey by LEK consulting shows some very interesting trends regarding consumer purchasing habits through their mobile devices.  I was even a bit surprised at just how fast consumers are adapting to purchasing and doing research on the go.

The survey found that 39% of consumers make purchases on their phones at least once a month.  While this statistic in and of itself isn’t particularly surprising, once you take a look at the actual scale of the business being done on mobile devices, the conversation changes.

If 39% are making a purchase once a month, and 40% of Americans have a smartphone, that’s just shy of 575 million purchases made by this group in a year through their mobile phones.  This doesn’t even count people making purchases every couple of months, and the ‘purchases’ don’t include music or video downloads.

Real business is being done every day on mobile devices. Smartphones are dominating U.S. Mobile purchases. Can you afford to not be talking to your customers on this medium?