three ways to quickly compare your site with your competitors’

Easily compare sites’ social media presence, traffic and Google rankings with some great free tools, suggests Ann Smarty (great name!) at Search Engine Journal.

hello, hello – internet phoning for small business

Two new, free phone services announced recently hold heaps of promise (and cost-savings) for small businesses.

Yellow (the Yellow Pages people) has announced free Skype calls to any of its listed businesses.

(If you haven’t tried Skype, it is really dead simple to use and includes inbuilt video calling. Download the free Skype software and then all you need is a web cam and a mic, plus headphones if you don’t want anyone else to hear the person you are talking to. Visit Skype here.)

And, in the U.S (though not yet in N.Z), Google has announced a service that offers dirt cheap calls but best of all its sweet range of fancy high-tech features — such as a single number to ring your home, work, and mobile phones; a central voicemail inbox that accessible on the web; text transcriptions of voice messages; and the ability to screen calls by listening in live as callers leave a voicemail.

A video explaining Google Voice is here:

low-tech fixes for high-tech problems

Forget wi-fi, bluetooth, smartphones, the NewYork Times is talking rice grains, hair dryers, aluminium foil and plastic bags as budget but effective ways to get broken high-tech equipment up and running again!

six ways to make Web 2.0 work for your business

Six ways to effectively use the five main groups of Web 2.0 and social media tools in business have been detailed in a report by McKinsey.

A bit dry and jargon-heavy to read but full of good, informative stuff.

For example: appeal to people’s egos and needs—not just their wallets!

Boost the reputation of participants in relevant communities, reward enthusiasm and acknowledge the quality and usefulness of contributions. Research has found that when prizes for contributions were handed out at prominent company meetings, contributions were far higher than when the awards were given in less-public forums.

how to track yourself on the web

Here’s eight useful tools for tracking mentions online of you and your business. If people are talking about you, your products, your service, whatever, you surely need to know about it. These days, it’s a key tool in your management and PR toolkit.

twitter – how to use it in business

Continuing with our Twitter theme, here’s a great piece from “internet psychologist” Graham Jones on how to use Twitter positively as a business tool, including for:

• Staff in/out status
• News headlines
• Emergency information
• New staff appointments
• Event listings
• Price list announcements
• Stock availability
• Share price index
• Public relations

web-working for businesses

An informative story here on how two businesses are using the web and online tools for internal communications, project and product management, HR and marketing.

three simple ways to send big files across the internet

Some useful tips here (thanks makeuseof.com): free online services that make it easier to upload, share, download and manage large files.

computer security can be a smashing good time

All your confidential business information is stored on your computer and now you need a new machine – what’s the best way to protect your data? The only foolproof way may be to smash the old hard-drive to smithereens with a hammer, according to a consumer group!

A British data back-up firm, though, says the destruction is not environmentally friendly and secure solutions do exist.

free web conferencing product

Need to talk to customers or clients overseas or around the country – here’s a free web conferencing tool (for up to 20 people) that lets you share voice, video, webpages, presentations and whiteboards, live over the internet. It’s called Dimdim, but it looks anything but.