It has been my experience that more and more people are looking for business or brand information on the fly—I do it all of the time. It annoys me when I land on some business or brand website and I either can’t view it because it has flash all over it (I’m an iPhone user) or there is no simple way to navigate their full site on a smart phone—confusing menus, out dated content, etc..

I spent some time the other day and whipped-up one for myself*. It is all any small business really needs and can be done so inexpensively so there really isn’t any excuse not to have one.

Lets look at the basics:

This is how I set my mobile site up, I look at this as a great introductory mobile layout.

• Logo – identifies your brand or business
• Tag Line – a little something to tell customers what the business is about
• Services – what is offered
• Contact – with a touch of a button we can place a call or open up an email
• Full Site – hey, some people want to see the full Monty, so give it to them

And that’s all folks! A nice simple mobile solution that will keep you in touch with today’s customers!

Still need convincing?

Smartphones and tablets proved that they weren’t just for the geekiest – er, ‘tech savviest’ – among us. These devices are increasingly becoming the norm and they continue to change how people connect with each other, and with businesses, everywhere. According to Google’s research with IPSOS earlier this year:

• 79% of smartphone consumers use their phones to help with shopping, from comparing prices, to finding more product info, to locating a retailer.
• 70% use their smartphones while in a store.
• 77% have contacted a business via mobile, with 61% calling and 59% visiting the local business.

It’s not just that more people are using smartphones and tablets (though the numbers are skyrocketing at an accelerating pace)—it’s that a huge, and fast-growing base of smartphone users, now expect to engage with businesses on mobile. The mainstream consumer got mobilized in 2011.

Continue reading the full article on googlemobileads.blogspot.com.

* Note: since it is a mobile site, it is best viewed on a mobile device.

Get everybody on the same page, when they’re not in the same room, instantly. Review documents and designs. Train staff. Demo products or just show off. join.me is a ridiculously simple screen sharing tool for meetings on the fly.

join.me free allows you to hold an unlimited number of meetings with up to 250 participants per meeting. During a meeting you can chat with participants, share a system-generated conference call number, transfer files, and allow participants to control your computer.

I found this site a couple of years ago while working on a project for Energizer and continue to use it today. My needs only require the free version, but they offer a pro one as well.

Fore more visit join.me.

What’s the difference?

Profiles are meant to represent a single individual. Organizations of any type are not permitted to maintain an account under the name of their organization.

Pages are for organizations, businesses, celebrities, and bands to broadcast great information in an official, public manner to people who choose to connect with them. Similar to profiles (timelines), Pages can be enhanced with applications that help the entity communicate and engage with their audiences, and capture new audiences virally through friend recommendations, News Feed stories, Facebook events, and beyond.

Why it’s Better to Do it Right

Aside from the obvious—free marketing, SEO Optimization, direct interaction with brand/company loyal consumers—Facebook has made is really easy to engage your “fans”.

• Simple integration of the like button and other standard developer tools you allow the customer to engage YOU.
• Pages include tools and options relevant to your business category to make passing important information to your customer base easy.
• New tools specific to Pages let you monitor how effective your posts are, this will keep you informed on how effective your content is.
• Sharing is better. Anyone can share your post, this will only increase your exposure to a greater customer base.

]]> http://joeeible.com/2011/12/facebook-pages-profiles/feed/ 1 http://joeeible.com/2011/12/hello/ http://joeeible.com/2011/12/hello/#comments Thu, 08 Dec 2011 18:50:59 +0000 Joe http://joeeible.com/?p=498 Welcome to my newly designed web site and (drum roll please) blog.

Here I will discuss things that interest me and are related to web design, social networking and productivity. Hopefully you won’t find it that lame—it is times like this that I wish my creative writing skills were better.

That being said, I still think you will find what I have to share interesting, so please stop by again soon.