Image by: bohed
By: Todd Downey

What happened to the good ol’ days where people advertised on the back of milk cartons and passed out flyers? Dead and buried I presume, replaced with the ever increasing advent of modern technology. It still amazes me how far we’ve come. But I’m not here to get into the evolution of man, I’m here to get into the evolution of your business using the power of marketing! A very important power, too–if you have the intention of making any profit.

Just as a man on a deserted island isn’t seen or contacted by the outside world, the same goes for a business if it isn’t being promoted. It needs exposure to flourish. Look at promotion as the blood which circulates throughout your business. Okay maybe that was a bit of a creepy analogy, perhaps I should have said your business is a car which uses marketing as gas. A little better, right?

Whatever the case is I’m 99.9% sure you understand at least an iota of what I’m talking about. So enough of my prattling, lets get into a few apps that can aid you in marketing that pride and joy of yours.

#1) Yelp

With websites like Pinterest, Twitter and other cutting edge social platforms, you may be curious as to why you should be focusing your valuable attention on Yelp. Being established in 2004 it may seem like old news, but with over 60 million registered users and 20 million reviews on the site, yelp is still definitely a force to be reckoned with–despite being a decade old. Yea, in today’s age where new sites are springing up like pumpkins in October, ten years is ancient for a website–just ask MySpace…

While the website can be quite expensive to hold an account on–300 to 1,000–dollars a month, the app is free and allows you to do the following:

-Chat with local users via the “Talk” feature to answer questions and help users find the best products, services and business–which in turn will, of course, lead to more potential customers.

-Check into spots that you frequent and leave good reviews; this creates a domino affect and often times leads to people leaving them for your business. It’s a fundamental tactic to garner exposure, as more people will see your profile.

-Stay on top of notifications that your fellow patriots may leave concerning your business, allowing you to maintain flexibility even on the go.

#2) LinkedIn 

LinkedIn may not be as nearly as popular as social network juggernauts Twitter and Facebook, but is certainly a viable tool for helping market your business online, as it is considered the most “Professional” of major social networking sites. LinkedIn is used by over 135 million business professionals across the world, and can certainly be a viable source when considering marketing strategies. Although most people use LinkedIn as an online resume, you can mold it into a marketing tool with a few simple steps:

-By syndicating your blog posts to your profile, it will be automatically updated with your particular posts’ title–which in turn will link to the full post on your website.

-If you just happen to be speaking in front of a crowd anytime soon or managing an event, then you can post the information through LinkedIn to generate interest, thus gaining notoriety.

-If you have a creative portfolio you want to display, post your portfolio of creative work to the Behance Network (A network of sites specializing in self promotion). Once posted, LinkedIn allows you to showcase your work in your profile.

#3) WordPress

Having a blog or website is a necessary tool for running virtually any type of business, especially if that particular business is looking to find majority of their clients online. Yea, blogging is a lot of work and can be quite time consuming, but if you sacrifice and put enough energy into consistently producing quality content to share with the masses, then you will undoubtedly gain more exposure, which in turn will reward you with much needed notoriety.

Fortunately for all you business owners, there is a WordPress app which allows you to access most of the features available to the actual website. Upon downloading this app you will be able to moderate comments to stay connected with your readers, providing informative responses to pending comments. Adding new posts which are relevant to your business won’t be a problem either; since it’s on your wonderful mobile device you will be able to add any updates in content whenever you choose. Along with this you will also be able to add new static pages to your blog to help readers find useful content easily and to help your blogs search engine visibility.

So, in short, if you don’t have a blog, start one, develop some creative and interesting content and download this app. It’s very important.

 There are thousands of apps that are useful for promoting that business of yours. Have you had any fruitful experiences with any of the particular three mentioned above? If so share below, we’d love to hear all about it!