This post is an article I wrote for a golf tournament I am sponsoring today. Keep that in mind when reading. This is for the golfers to read while on the course. They will be enjoying a sunny, beautiful Thursday afternoon, but you get the hyperlinks!

Top FREE Mobile Applications You Can Be Using to Do Business Today

You’ve got a smart phone. It’s not just for turn-by-turn directions, you know.

1.   LinkedIn. The top business networking site has mobile applications for BlackBerry, iPhone and Palm Pre. Use LinkedIn mobile to keep up to date on what’s going on in your network and to contact any of your connections. Access your LinkedIn search, connections, messages and more.

2.    Evernote. Now available for most mobile platforms, desktop and online. Evernote gives you a place to store all your, well, notes: text, a full webpage or webpage excerpt, a photograph, a voice memo, or a file attachment. Notes can sync across platforms, organize into folders and become searchable.

Hot Tip: Take a photo of a business card with Evernote mobile and it automatically recognizes the text so it becomes searchable. No more stacks of business cards creating piles on your desk. Simply snap the ones you want to follow up with. You could even give the card back on the spot.

3.  Google Sync. Having trouble keeping all your calendars synced across devices? Need to see both personal and business appointments? Google Sync allows you to integrate Google Calendars with your native phone calendar. It can also sync your contacts. Google Calendar can be synced with your desktop calendar application and allows the ability to share or make your calendars public. Share a personal calendar with your spouse to keep track of the family. Visit www.laurabcreative.com/speaking to see a Google Calendar made public and formatted into an event listing. Wow!

4.    Ping.fm. You may have heard of Ping.fm but are not sure how to use it. Ping.fm is simply a tool to help you update your status on over 40 social networks. It allows you to access your account via SMS (text message) or a third party mobile application like BlackPing for the BlackBerry. Ping.fm can be useful in updating your status across your social networks but be careful, each social network is different and your updates should not be blanketed across all of them. Ping.fm does allow you to set up different groups to separate your audiences. I highly recommend this. I don’t want to see “RT @dulleschamber @laurabcreative @guykawasaki blah, blah, blah” in your LinkedIn status. And at least 70% of your network doesn’t either. They probably don’t even understand it because they are not Twitter users.

5.    HootSuite. HootSuite bills itself as “the professional Twitter client”, but it’s so much more than that. It is a complete web-based social media dashboard which lets you schedule updates across different social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Facebook pages, MySpace, Foursquare, even Ping.fm). This includes adding photos and updating a WordPress blog. The dashboard also allows you to share the load with your team, giving you the ability to manage access to business profiles. The mobile application is available for iPhone and Android as a free limited version or $1.99 full version. The web-based dashboard is free.

6.    NutShell Mail. This is not a mobile application per se. It is a service that “brings a summary of your social network updates to your inbox in a single email on your schedule”. You decide how often you want to check your social networks, set up your schedule and view everything in a single email. Nutshell Mail was just acquired by email service provider Constant Contact.

7.    Documents To Go. Allows you to view Microsoft Office and PDF files. The full version ranges from $15-$30 depending on the platform, but the viewer is free. If you need to look at files while you are away from your computer, Documents To Go will fill that role. The premium version allows you to create files.

Hot Tip: Keep your latest sales presentation on your handheld and you will always be ready to show it to prospects.

8.    RSS reader. There are so many RSS readers and it’s hard to recommend one without knowing you a little better. RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication and allows you to pull the updated posts from a particular site, usually a news or blog site, but in reality almost anything can be made into an RSS feed like the public calendar mentioned earlier. The best mobile application depends on your phone but almost all of them sync with the free Google Reader which allows you to set up and track your preferred feeds online.

So, with the applications above, you can keep in touch with your business contacts, keep track of all your brilliant ideas, keep your calendars synced with all the appropriate devices and anyone who may need access, update and track your social networks on your schedule, view and share files and keep up-to-date on your industry. And you’re playing golf!

My office is now truly virtual. I have worked for myself from home since 2000. I used to say my office is Starbucks and now after many years of meetings at the coffee shop and working at home in my office, I can truly say that I have a virtual office.

In the past year, I have answered important emails while playing with my toddler at a favorite playground, updated a client web site at an internet café and gained emergency access to a difficult client website using a dial up connection at a friend’s house.

I’ve tried a lot of different things over the years including a USB cellular internet connection, using a Palm to display PowerPoint presentations and even a paper (gasp) calendar. Now, I truly feel virtual and organized based on advances in both the technology available and applications to work with that technology.

Here are the most important tools I’ve found in my new virtual office:

My BlackBerry. Without question, the ability to read and respond to emails anywhere, anytime allows me to stay on the grid wherever I am. The BlackBerry Facebook application lets me stay in touch with friends. I would LOVE a Linkedin application ASAP.

Google Calendar. With its Google Sync capabilities, I’ve solved many problems. Keeping calendars on all my devices – BlackBerry, laptops, desktops, Palm – in sync along with the ability to publish 2 different public calendars and keeping most of my appointments on a private calendar. My toddler even has a calendar of important play dates.

Various Social Media Apps. In a future post, I will explain how I have streamlined my social media process for myself and some of my clients. Since we are talking virtual office here, BlackPing has been a lifesaver in allowing me to post from wherever again through my BlackBerry.

Evernote. I think that Evernote was made for me. I am constantly thinking of ideas for my clients, my blog posts, and my other businesses. Evernote lets me keep my random thoughts organized and accessible from any internet connection (including, you guessed it, my BlackBerry).

PassPack. I have a ton of passwords like everyone, but add to that all my client passwords. Since I could be out of the office when a client emergency arises, I need access to all these passwords at all times. PassPack lets me do that and keeps them secure as well.

PayPal. Strange to find on this list? PayPal allows me to bill clients if necessary when I am out of the office, receive payments and transfer to my bank account. This is crucial on long vacations.

Starbucks. The coffee chain stays on my list for not only offering a place to meet with warm, toasty beverages, but the free 2 hours of WIFI a day saves me the $30/month I was paying for cellular internet service.

All of these tools have also allowed me to downsize my laptop, removing applications I am unlikely to use when I’m out and about (read Illustrator and Photoshop), and leave me with a laptop that is super fast.

Honorable Mention goes to my wireless all in one printer which allows me to print from any computer, anywhere in my house.

All that being said, I do have a wish list: a BlackBerry app for Linkedin and Constant Contact. Please, please, please. The playground is calling.

You’ve heard about the sites: Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter. Everyone says “You need to be on there“, but you have no idea what they are or how to leverage them to increase business. You may have even joined one of two of these Social Media sites but you haven’t seen a difference in your business. If any of the above apply, then this seminar series is for you.

Social Media Marketing Seminar Series

Laura presents on integrating social media with email marketing

There’s never been a better time to stay connected with your business network than right now. Business tends to slow down over the holidays and sometimes sooner if you are like me and snowed in a week before Christmas. This is a great time to take advantage of social networking sites to stay in touch and build your network. Over the next few posts we will examine how to do that effectively using some of the top social media sites. Today we start with the #1 business networking site – Linkedin.

5 Ways to Build Your Network on Linkedin

1. Check out your Linkedin Inbox for Requests to Connect.
2. Are you connected to all your current customers and vendors?
3. Peruse the connections of your connections to see who you should be connected to but you aren’t yet – both people you know and people you want to know. Send requests to connect and don’t forget to personalize the message.
4. Are you a member of a lead share group, BNI, committee, board of directors? Are you connected to all of your colleagues from these groups? This extends to charity work as well.
5. Scan the membership of any groups you have joined on Linkedin. Are there people in these groups that you need to connect with?
6. Scan the groups your connections are in. Are there groups you need to join? These can be alumni groups, trade associations, or networking groups. If you find new groups to join, return to 5.

I hope these tips will get you started on building your network while drinking hot cocoa or eggnog or hot cider.

If you want some guidelines on who to connect with, see my post Deciding on Linkedin Invitations.